81–90 of 123 posts
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Do these people think that others are impressed by honorary degrees? Are there people who are impressed by honorary degrees??
RMS stans who insist that he be referred to as "Dr. Stallman."
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Disabled I can readily see and I would be surprised if exemptions weren't granted in some form. "Unusual" I'm far less sympathetic towards if it involves simply not getting into the water as a matter of principle or preference.
As I see it, this is a qualification entirely unrelated to the type of academic education being pursued. Even if this case is, subjectively, relatively minor, such arbitrary requirements serve only to exclude otherwise capable students. Furthermore, where is the line between disability, principle and preference? Do religious reasons count? What about cultural ones? A friend of mine who was a Navy officer told me that…
I have zero issue with forcing prospective astrophysics students outside of their comfort zone.
ADDED: There are also phys ed requirements and humanities distribution requirements. If these are such issues, I have no doubt there are plenty of other schools that don't impose them.
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Or why not just hire more faculty and start up more sections? The students are paying huge tuition bills. Why can't they get the courses they want? This is why I often tell everyone, not just high school students, to consider other marketplaces for information like uDemy or Coursera or any of the dozens of upstarts. They're sooo much better than old school universities because they're not designed to enforce artifici…
Because there are limited rooms and times of the day. I have seen the data at the Registrar's office at a couple of universities. Often, room utilization is above 90% with barely any time and space left over for talks and special events. And a university in the middle of a city (where universities should be) often don't have any land to make new buildings. Not to mention, the highest demand courses are always the eas…
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Reportedly the Russian government has issued letters of marque to hacking and cybercrime groups. I can imagine the same has happened in the US.
> Reportedly the Russian government has issued letters of marque to hacking and cybercrime groups. Those would only be metaphorical (and even then not a particular apt metaphor) letters of marque and reprisal; a literal letter of marque and reprisal is to a private vessel to attack and seize property from enemy vessels, converting acts which would otherwise be piracy under international law into lawful armed combat.…
Well obviously the cyberspace and information superhighway metaphor needs to morph into the cybersea, and information ocean gyres, and...you get the idea.
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Or why not just hire more faculty and start up more sections? The students are paying huge tuition bills. Why can't they get the courses they want? This is why I often tell everyone, not just high school students, to consider other marketplaces for information like uDemy or Coursera or any of the dozens of upstarts. They're sooo much better than old school universities because they're not designed to enforce artifici…
Because there are limited rooms and times of the day. I have seen the data at the Registrar's office at a couple of universities. Often, room utilization is above 90% with barely any time and space left over for talks and special events. And a university in the middle of a city (where universities should be) often don't have any land to make new buildings. Not to mention, the highest demand courses are always the eas…
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> Article I of the United States Constitution lists issuing letters of marque and reprisal in Section 8 as one of the enumerated powers of Congress, alongside the power to tax and to declare war. It's still a thing
“It is a power enumerated in the Constitution of 1789” does not mean “It is a practice still relevant in the world of 2023”. The US hasn’t issued any Letters of Marque and Reprisal since 1815, and while it remains a Constitutional power of the US government that a couple Republican members of Congress keep trying to breathe active life into since 9/11, it seems well and truly dead in practice.
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I don't know why universities think the best way to decide enrollment is smashing the register button. My undergrad university had the sense to let everyone pick their first preferences within 24 hours of enrollment starting. Then for over-selected courses, people were enrolled randomly [1]. This was repeated once more, iirc, and then in the third round enrollment was instantaneous. This, thankfully, prevented virtua…
That also has the advantage of allowing the school to potentially open a new another timeslot for the course if they know there's enough serious interest in it.
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Unless you're, y'know, Aaron Swartz.
Not sure why something that happened when they were 8 years old means that current undergrads aren't allowed to have fun, buy okay.
And yes, I would characterize fighting peacefully for open access as trying to have fun in a way that MIT should be trying to protect.