I have a lot of stress factors in my life at the moment, not least a late career pivot to become a teacher. At least I feel on most days that I'm doing something useful, though I don't really know what I'm doing yet. The kids can be a real pain but also funny and sweet, and while the pay is middling, it's stable.
My daughter makes me happy everytime I see her, she is extremely bright, funny and kindhearted. I worry about the future our generation will have left her with: rampant capitalism, global warming and a continous deterioration of democracy, the rule of law and basic human decency.
Reading (books, TLS and NYRB) watching French films and TV series and running helps me relax a bit.
Couchie would very much love to be the heir to the Charlie Kirk throne, and judging by the way that he sidesteps the questions, reframes them, gaslights, and performs entirely for the audience while refusing to engage with any of the actual questions being asked of him, I'd say that he's learned the patter needed to try to be the paterfamilias of TPUSA.
I don't think his performance is all that convincing for the people outside the room, but it's probably reassuring for those in attendance who were hoping to be a part of the moment when we all watched the triumph of Couchie's will.
What's funny (not "ha ha") to me is that the notion of immigration undermining organized labor is based on an unstated assumption that Americans are too racist to join a labor union with "those people." But, at the same time, people who think this way will tell you that racism is no longer a problem worthy of addressing through public policy.
Vance is setting himself up to the next Trump by going all in on the hatemongering for the Other. That's probably why he's publicly distancing himself from his wife's religion, saying he's trying to get her to convert to Christianity. I wonder if she regrets the marriage.
So however many years ago some dude told him immigration would weaken organized labor, which means liberals are stupid. Well, sh*t ... I guess that settles it.
There are two weeks between Andrew's statement, and the Palace's. They must have thought the former would do enough - but subsequent public disquiet about Andrew's lies about the timeline, and (if my reaction is anything to go by) disgust at his sanctimonious claim to be acting as always in the interest of the country, in addition to the release of Giuffre's book, clearly made it necessary to cut him loose.
"Relinquishing" as opposed to "being stripped of".
I'm put in mind of the executives who get offered the choice of resign or get fired. Or the occasional enlisted military methodology (for undesirable, but not actually dangerous, tasks): "I want 3 volunteers. You, you, and you."
Colleges and universities have an issue with silos. The mindset is that everything ought to fit into one of them.
They will (depending on the particular college) accept a double major. But the mindset is that, whatever the two majors, they must have some kind of synergy. Thus someone may have an undergraduate double major in chemistry and biology, and the faculty will nod sagely and say "aiming for biochemistry in grad school" (there being no undergraduate program in biochemistry). They can wrap their heads around that.
But I had a double major in Mechanical Engineering (fluid mechanics) and in Cultural Anthropology. Drove the professors in both majors nuts. In their minds, there must be some synergy there somewhere. They were seriously frustrated that, apparently, I could see it but they could not. The idea that I just found two disparate subjects which both interested me? Simply inconceivable, apparently.
I was in the high school band, and we did everything from marching to concerts of all sorts to pep band to classical ensembles to the music when the drama people did a musical. The band director was a retired master sergeant from one of the US Army bands. In addition to teaching us a lot about music, he also instilled things like "excellence is a habit", "if we all succeed, I've succeeded", and an understated "we're just that damned good". When he retired hundreds of former band members from all over the country went to the picnic.
The only insurrection I know about is when I was a senior, and he was out of town so a couple of us were running the pep band for the Friday night basketball game, and the cheerleaders got to do the only performance of their dance/cheer routine for the "Jeremiah Was a Bullfrog Polka". The backstory to that might be worth a post :^)
You can't help wondering how some of the other people who "played" with Epstein are feeling about this. Interestingly, Giuffre's brother and SIL, and the other Epstein victim interviewed on Newsnight, were all very approving of and grateful for the King's behaviour in this. I wonder whether this will to a large extent lance the boil, at least over here and regarding the Royal Fam.
The statement from Buckingham Palace in full: His Majesty has today initiated a formal process to remove the style, titles and honours of Prince Andrew.
Prince Andrew will now be known as Andrew Mountbatten Windsor. His lease on Royal Lodge has, to date, provided him with legal protection to continue in residence.
Formal notice has now been served to surrender the lease and he will move to alternative private accommodation.
These censures are deemed necessary, notwithstanding the fact that he continues to deny the allegations against him . Their Majesties wish to make clear that their thoughts and utmost sympathies have been, and will remain with, the victims and survivors of any and all forms of abuse.
This New Statesman podcast had a detail that I found fascinating (at the 3:50 mark), that Andrew, in his published statement, said that he was relinquishing 'my titles'.
FYI The last person to be de-princed was the Duke of Cumberland, who fought for the Kaiser in WW1, so treason, and the last person to have his KG removed (Knight of the Garter) was Emperor Hirohito in WW2.
My favorite of the projects took a problem from telephony switching, multiple pieces from computer science (a very peculiar virtual machine and a bunch of compiler theory), and some odd math to prove a couple of critical conditions actually held. I did get to publish a paper in a special topics issue of an IEEE journal. And present at a small conference, where one of the computer science demi-gods of that era stopped me and told me it was by far the most interesting paper at the conference. I never did find out why he was there.
A friend said it would take more than a minor miracle to find a school that (a) had a telephony group that would vouch for the difficulty of the problem, (b) a CS department that would accept the odd virtual machine as legitimate, and (c) math and CS departments that were on speaking terms.
By the time I did that work I had come to grips with the fact that I'd never be more than a pseudo-academic.
Well, Andrew is now Mr Andrew Mountbatten Windsor, and is being moved from his huge house on the Windsor estate to a (presumably) smaller house much further from London, on the Sandringham estate. There appears to be no precedent for this, and the interview with Virginia Giuffre's brother and sister-in-law (who are both in tears) is very moving. It's my impression that most people in the UK are perfectly satisfied with this.
Michael Cain - At one of those, one of the people who did have a doctorate made the observation that yes, Mike had done multiple projects that would easily qualify for a PhD in terms of originality and impact, but all cut across multiple disciplines so no department would ever accept them.
I was in a similar situation with my dissertation, which spanned informatics, film and media studies, and rhetoric. I had people from each of those three disciplines on my committee (two of whom had appointments in English, which is what made my project possible).
I earned the degree, but there were no journals that felt my work was in the pocket for what they covered, and no programs or departments that were looking to hire someone with an oddball set of research interests.
So I teach rhetoric and composition, and transmedial rhetoric sits and gathers dust.
Wu, as spoken in Shanghai, has five tones. Standard Mandarin has four. Cantonese has six. In each case there are dialects which differ.
I remember reading once that Vietnamese was a seven-tone language, and the reason French had been quickly adopted and hung on so long was that little kids could use that while they were figuring out Vietnamese. I have no idea if any of that's true.
If we had more cross-disciplinary appointments and more interdisciplinary collaboration, we’d probably have better structures in place for working through these sorts of blind spots and assumptions.... Alas, that is not the model on which academia currently runs.
My last position during my technical career was a research job where everyone just assumed I must have a PhD. Occasionally this came up at lunchtime discussions. At one of those, one of the people who did have a doctorate made the observation that yes, Mike had done multiple projects that would easily qualify for a PhD in terms of originality and impact, but all cut across multiple disciplines so no department would ever accept them.
*Comment archive for non-registered commenters assembled by email address as provided.
On “Horrifying stuff”
Snarki, that's nonsense. No believing Christian fundamentalist accepts that Mormons are real Christians. Farther outside the pale than even Catholics.
On “I got depressed so I bought hydrangeas”
I have a lot of stress factors in my life at the moment, not least a late career pivot to become a teacher. At least I feel on most days that I'm doing something useful, though I don't really know what I'm doing yet. The kids can be a real pain but also funny and sweet, and while the pay is middling, it's stable.
My daughter makes me happy everytime I see her, she is extremely bright, funny and kindhearted. I worry about the future our generation will have left her with: rampant capitalism, global warming and a continous deterioration of democracy, the rule of law and basic human decency.
Reading (books, TLS and NYRB) watching French films and TV series and running helps me relax a bit.
On “Horrifying stuff”
Since we seem to be in the worst possible timeline, I expect Juicy Divan to convert to Ye Olde Mormonism, and take Erika Kirk as his new 2nd wife.
"
Couchie would very much love to be the heir to the Charlie Kirk throne, and judging by the way that he sidesteps the questions, reframes them, gaslights, and performs entirely for the audience while refusing to engage with any of the actual questions being asked of him, I'd say that he's learned the patter needed to try to be the paterfamilias of TPUSA.
I don't think his performance is all that convincing for the people outside the room, but it's probably reassuring for those in attendance who were hoping to be a part of the moment when we all watched the triumph of Couchie's will.
"
What's funny (not "ha ha") to me is that the notion of immigration undermining organized labor is based on an unstated assumption that Americans are too racist to join a labor union with "those people." But, at the same time, people who think this way will tell you that racism is no longer a problem worthy of addressing through public policy.
"
Sociopaths don't suffer from cognitive dissonance.
"
Vance is setting himself up to the next Trump by going all in on the hatemongering for the Other. That's probably why he's publicly distancing himself from his wife's religion, saying he's trying to get her to convert to Christianity. I wonder if she regrets the marriage.
"
So however many years ago some dude told him immigration would weaken organized labor, which means liberals are stupid. Well, sh*t ... I guess that settles it.
On “Monarchy in the UK”
There are two weeks between Andrew's statement, and the Palace's. They must have thought the former would do enough - but subsequent public disquiet about Andrew's lies about the timeline, and (if my reaction is anything to go by) disgust at his sanctimonious claim to be acting as always in the interest of the country, in addition to the release of Giuffre's book, clearly made it necessary to cut him loose.
On “Horrifying stuff”
Zing!
What more can be said? How he copes with the cognitive dissonance, how his family copes, is a mystery.
On “Monarchy in the UK”
"Relinquishing" as opposed to "being stripped of".
I'm put in mind of the executives who get offered the choice of resign or get fired. Or the occasional enlisted military methodology (for undesirable, but not actually dangerous, tasks): "I want 3 volunteers. You, you, and you."
On “Ramsayer, Korea and me”
Colleges and universities have an issue with silos. The mindset is that everything ought to fit into one of them.
They will (depending on the particular college) accept a double major. But the mindset is that, whatever the two majors, they must have some kind of synergy. Thus someone may have an undergraduate double major in chemistry and biology, and the faculty will nod sagely and say "aiming for biochemistry in grad school" (there being no undergraduate program in biochemistry). They can wrap their heads around that.
But I had a double major in Mechanical Engineering (fluid mechanics) and in Cultural Anthropology. Drove the professors in both majors nuts. In their minds, there must be some synergy there somewhere. They were seriously frustrated that, apparently, I could see it but they could not. The idea that I just found two disparate subjects which both interested me? Simply inconceivable, apparently.
On “Monarchy in the UK”
Interesting stuff. I wonder if anyone vetted Andrew's statement. Clearly damage control mode.
On “Weekend Music Thread #04 John Mackey”
I was in the high school band, and we did everything from marching to concerts of all sorts to pep band to classical ensembles to the music when the drama people did a musical. The band director was a retired master sergeant from one of the US Army bands. In addition to teaching us a lot about music, he also instilled things like "excellence is a habit", "if we all succeed, I've succeeded", and an understated "we're just that damned good". When he retired hundreds of former band members from all over the country went to the picnic.
The only insurrection I know about is when I was a senior, and he was out of town so a couple of us were running the pep band for the Friday night basketball game, and the cheerleaders got to do the only performance of their dance/cheer routine for the "Jeremiah Was a Bullfrog Polka". The backstory to that might be worth a post :^)
On “Monarchy in the UK”
You can't help wondering how some of the other people who "played" with Epstein are feeling about this. Interestingly, Giuffre's brother and SIL, and the other Epstein victim interviewed on Newsnight, were all very approving of and grateful for the King's behaviour in this. I wonder whether this will to a large extent lance the boil, at least over here and regarding the Royal Fam.
"
The statement from Buckingham Palace in full:
His Majesty has today initiated a formal process to remove the style, titles and honours of Prince Andrew.
Prince Andrew will now be known as Andrew Mountbatten Windsor.
His lease on Royal Lodge has, to date, provided him with legal protection to continue in residence.
Formal notice has now been served to surrender the lease and he will move to alternative private accommodation.
These censures are deemed necessary, notwithstanding the fact that he continues to deny the allegations against him
.
Their Majesties wish to make clear that their thoughts and utmost sympathies have been, and will remain with, the victims and survivors of any and all forms of abuse.
On “Ramsayer, Korea and me”
Michael, I love the structure of the three reasons. I think this is why we all understand comedy...
On “Monarchy in the UK”
lj: yes, but have you seen Buckingham Palace's statement today? A very different tone....
"
This New Statesman podcast had a detail that I found fascinating (at the 3:50 mark), that Andrew, in his published statement, said that he was relinquishing 'my titles'.
Telling and totally unsurprising.
https://youtu.be/F2Ww_82ifhg?si=2vC0VBGuVb0IbF6l
"
FYI The last person to be de-princed was the Duke of Cumberland, who fought for the Kaiser in WW1, so treason, and the last person to have his KG removed (Knight of the Garter) was Emperor Hirohito in WW2.
On “Ramsayer, Korea and me”
My favorite of the projects took a problem from telephony switching, multiple pieces from computer science (a very peculiar virtual machine and a bunch of compiler theory), and some odd math to prove a couple of critical conditions actually held. I did get to publish a paper in a special topics issue of an IEEE journal. And present at a small conference, where one of the computer science demi-gods of that era stopped me and told me it was by far the most interesting paper at the conference. I never did find out why he was there.
A friend said it would take more than a minor miracle to find a school that (a) had a telephony group that would vouch for the difficulty of the problem, (b) a CS department that would accept the odd virtual machine as legitimate, and (c) math and CS departments that were on speaking terms.
By the time I did that work I had come to grips with the fact that I'd never be more than a pseudo-academic.
On “Monarchy in the UK”
Well, Andrew is now Mr Andrew Mountbatten Windsor, and is being moved from his huge house on the Windsor estate to a (presumably) smaller house much further from London, on the Sandringham estate. There appears to be no precedent for this, and the interview with Virginia Giuffre's brother and sister-in-law (who are both in tears) is very moving. It's my impression that most people in the UK are perfectly satisfied with this.
On “Ramsayer, Korea and me”
Michael Cain - At one of those, one of the people who did have a doctorate made the observation that yes, Mike had done multiple projects that would easily qualify for a PhD in terms of originality and impact, but all cut across multiple disciplines so no department would ever accept them.
I was in a similar situation with my dissertation, which spanned informatics, film and media studies, and rhetoric. I had people from each of those three disciplines on my committee (two of whom had appointments in English, which is what made my project possible).
I earned the degree, but there were no journals that felt my work was in the pocket for what they covered, and no programs or departments that were looking to hire someone with an oddball set of research interests.
So I teach rhetoric and composition, and transmedial rhetoric sits and gathers dust.
"
Wu, as spoken in Shanghai, has five tones. Standard Mandarin has four. Cantonese has six. In each case there are dialects which differ.
I remember reading once that Vietnamese was a seven-tone language, and the reason French had been quickly adopted and hung on so long was that little kids could use that while they were figuring out Vietnamese. I have no idea if any of that's true.
"
If we had more cross-disciplinary appointments and more interdisciplinary collaboration, we’d probably have better structures in place for working through these sorts of blind spots and assumptions.... Alas, that is not the model on which academia currently runs.
My last position during my technical career was a research job where everyone just assumed I must have a PhD. Occasionally this came up at lunchtime discussions. At one of those, one of the people who did have a doctorate made the observation that yes, Mike had done multiple projects that would easily qualify for a PhD in terms of originality and impact, but all cut across multiple disciplines so no department would ever accept them.
*Comment archive for non-registered commenters assembled by email address as provided.