StillPaisleyCat

joined 2 years ago

I do know about the latter. Knew some folks that taught there.

Few courses are taught by tenured faculty at the Ivies. Junior faculty have to justify final grades, PhD students and sessional have to justify any grades lower than B- on any assignment.

Coupling that with the ‘legacy admissions’ where children of alumni have a lower bar to admission, anyone with a B- average has a questionable degree.

No matter how good their programs are, for the lowers tier of students, they’re just institutions of transmitted privilege. Which is why the complaints about DEI mechanisms to balance that are so suspect.

I wasn’t aware whether UPenn was on the same system but it’s a huge thing for private universities reliant on tuition fees and big alumni donations.

It’s interesting how California is shutting down the practice of legacy admissions, and Stanford and USC are feeling the sting.

[–] StillPaisleyCat@startrek.website 5 points 1 month ago (2 children)

But Trump was able to graduate?

Is Wharton one of those US schools (like Harvard) where anyone lower than a tenured professor has to write justifications to file anytime they give a student less than a B-?

[–] StillPaisleyCat@startrek.website 26 points 1 month ago (5 children)

Both Trump and Musk have degrees from the supposedly reputable Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania.

If these two are evidence of their quality of graduates, it really raises questions about whether it was another US institution where ‘legacy’ and money buy admissions and it’s impossible not to graduate.

There is a science fiction novel by Lois McMaster Bujold ‘Falling Free’ about a population of genetically engineered ‘quaddies’ and their situation once artificial gravity technology becomes available.

You can join communities on other instances too if you have specific interests.

[–] StillPaisleyCat@startrek.website 6 points 1 month ago (1 children)

There’s currently an Redexit of Canadians who are looking to get off US-controlled social media.

Lemmy.ca has had a huge spike in enrolment as it’s the one that was most prominently promoted in r/BuyCanadian. Apparently, it’s had over 9k signups in the past day.

She was on the D at one point, it was name dropped.

And on DS9 when some of the Dominion War stuff went down.

[–] StillPaisleyCat@startrek.website 3 points 2 months ago (2 children)

So basically Beckett Mariner’s story.

[–] StillPaisleyCat@startrek.website 10 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Thanks for bringing this here VS.

Saw Tatosky’s thread on Mastodon. It really gives a much better sense of how ‘real’ the preproduction was under Fuller.

Lots of expenditure clearly but badly managed.

Tamara Deverell talked about having little to spend when she took over after the pilot because the initial sets were built on the designs Fuller signed off on.

No engineering but a bay to hand load missiles! Which she repurposed to Stamets’ spore lab.

[–] StillPaisleyCat@startrek.website 6 points 2 months ago (1 children)

TIL that the Voyager app doesn’t support custom emojis🤯

 

This is a major revelation from the trial.

The writer is a principal from Duck Duck Go.

Thought folks here might be interested.

 

This one is well done, and seems worthy of capturing as documentation in the Daystrom Institute.

Those charming two forward-facing eyes were instant indicators that Moopsy is a predator…but how dangerous?

It’s a tubby jumping spider without all those extra eyes and legs.

 

This NPR coverage is interesting.

"A lot of people don't understand how different our demands are from the WGA's demands," Bond said.

Bond said unlike the WGA, the actors union represents many types of performers — actors, dancers, stunt people — each with specific needs that need to be addressed.

Artificial intelligence, for example, is an especially existential threat for background actors, some of whom say they've already had their bodies scanned for reuse.

So Bond said negotiations with the studios' trade association, the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) could take a while.

"The AMPTP is just going to use every union busting trick that they have," Bond said.

 

Many fediverse fans are exasperated that Paramount has (once again) missed the opportunity to take our money with official tie-in merchandise and left us to our own creations, or non-licensed creators.

While it says a lot that fans on a nonmonetizing platform are literally demanding that Paramount get its profit-taking act together, all this Moopsy fan-entitlement is currently being redirected into crafting energy.

So MakeYourOwnMoopsyMonth it is.

First out of the gate is a charming ceramic Moopsy demonstrating appropriate predatory behaviour on a blue crochet duck. Enjoy.

 

Simon & Schuster had a larger than usual array of ebook deals for September 2023.

October 1st is the last day for this group, a new set (likely fewer books) will come on line Sunday the 2nd.

If you haven’t given Treklit a try, these ebook deals are a great low cost way to get into it.

 

A solid round up of some of the broader industry issues as the WGA contract moves towards potential endorsement by WGA East and West leadership Tuesday in preparation for a vote by the members.

 

Amid some speculation about the questionable neutrality of major Hollywood media sources, owned by AMPTP members, CNN reports from “a source familiar” that WGA has been sent a ‘best & final’ offer.

So, stay tuned for the WGA leadership’s assessment.

 

Missed this report from earlier in the week…Paramount+ will be joining major streamer J:COM with a launch date for Japan of December 1, 2023.

For the many fans who’ve been waiting for a legal way to get new Trek in Japan, this is hopefully great news.

 

Many WGA veterans urged caution at getting hopes too high for what may come out of the AMPTP negotiating room later today, after a third day of talks between labor and management that involved four CEOs.

Notably, Paramount Global’s Bob Baklish is not among the CEO’s sitting in.

 

This ScienceOf.org interview with Professor of Genetics/Evolution (& Star Trek biological science advisor) Mohammed Noor on the biology, especially the r-selection reproduction, of the Gorn in SNW is marvellous.

Just the kind of uncomfortable but great biological thinking I was hoping we’d get into here at Daystrom Institute.

e.g. Can we think of the Gorn in viral terms?

Treating Gorn like this, each infected person could infect four more people, so the R0 for Gorn would be 4. Not wildly big, but large enough to do the job. Of course, the hatchlings would also be going after one another, so the analogy’s not perfect.

But if you want to think of the Gorn as intelligent, viral space dinosaurs, that does get the idea across.

 

It seems that with long hiatuses in new onscreen Trek ahead, genre coverage is starting to profile Trek novels again.

This set of ten weird but readable books isn’t necessarily the trippiest, but it does put the first of the Shatnerverse books at the top.

(Perhaps @ValueSubtracted@startrek.website there’s yet hope for Shatner’s wild imaginings to make it into S&S monthly Star Trek ebook deals promotional rotation.)

 

Bleeding Cool previews behind the scenes commentary from Hageman Brothers from prerelease of DVD-BlueRay bonus content.

CBS Entertainment is keeping the profile up on Prodigy merchandising. A bright spot amidst Paramount’s erasure of Prodigy in Star Trek Day content.

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