cleartastemakertheorist

[cleartastemakertheorist]

Additionally: that's absolutely correct. To get the job I have, I had to do one of these stupid assessment centers, including a kind of test of the ability to process information, recognise patterns, estimate results and the like. This test was one of the most important things to be able to do my job. Two university degrees under my belt plus a year of on the job training with additional university level courses, but the most important skills are the ability to learn, to process info fast, think on my feet, strategise and adjust workflows with new info, and often WITHOUT ACCESS TO TECHNOLOGY. If I didn't know my shit because I let ChatGPT write my reports for me, I would have been fucked so many times already. I probably wouldn't even have the job I have right now.

Why are you using chatgpt to get through college. Why are you spending so much time and money on something just to be functionally illiterate and have zero new skills at the end of it all. Literally shooting yourself in the foot. If you want to waste thirty grand you can always just buy a sportscar.

[cleartastemakertheorist]

This is such a dangerous argument, but outlines perfectly what's going wrong with US-american education: "I pay for it, therefore it should be given to me without having to put in further work." Education is a fucking offer that YOU have to make use of. If you don't put in the work, you should fucking fail. (This is why education should be free!) It's not like buying a service, say, where you pay and someone else needs to provide the result (like when you get some to fix you sink or go to a sun studio or whatever). School is YOUR WORK.

But additionally, that's why a good alternative system is needed for people who can't or don't want to go to uni, which nevertheless leaves them with good access to well-paid jobs. (But even in that system, you'll have to fucking learn stuff!!!)

In the end, it doesn't matter how you come by your degree, but you'll have to do the work at some point. AI won't be able to do your job for you (or else they'd use AI, not you, on that job). If you've destroyed your ability to do even the simplest things, your degree will do shit for you.

Why are you using chatgpt to get through college. Why are you spending so much time and money on something just to be functionally illiterate and have zero new skills at the end of it all. Literally shooting yourself in the foot. If you want to waste thirty grand you can always just buy a sportscar.

[cleartastemakertheorist]

THIS. My old floppy disks full of JRock-Fanfics got lost somewhere along the way but oh, the good times.

the first actual computer i wrote fanfic on ran from MS-DOS. it was the early 1990s -- by 1995 we had another computer and AOL, but I'd inherited the old MS-DOS one, cause I wrote on it. There wasn't much else you could do on that guy otherwise.

I wrote in Word Perfect (shut UP) and saved it to floppy disks and shared it through a few fandom-specific websites and a webmail / webring.

Feeling old tonight but genuinely y'all literally have no idea.

[cleartastemakertheorist]

I was once part of a production of Figaro's Wedding as a young aide, and a barely outed lesbian. Cherubino, traditionally a mezzo-soprano, and Susanna had a wonderfully steamy scene together that I got to see about 20 times during rehearsals, and I believe I became gayer every single time.

Happy Opera Pride! 🌈🌈🌈 Der Rosenkavalier (Robert Carsen, 2017) Don Carlo (Emilio Sagi, 2016) L'incoronazione di Poppea (Jan Lauwers, 2018) Adelaide di Borgogna (Arnaud Bernard, 2023) Platée (Jetske Mijnssen, 2023) Alcina (Robert Carsen, 2021) Champion (James Robinson, 2023) Ariodante (Robert Carsen, 2023) Les Pêcheurs de perles (Timothy Nelson, 2015) Der Rosenkavalier (Josef Ernst Köpplinger, 2021)

+ bonus Les Brigands (Barrie Kosky, 2024):

[cleartastemakertheorist]

EVERYONE(!) I’m blazing this post because at this pace we might barely hit 1,000,000 signatures—or just fall short. PLEASE reblog this post, no matter where you are from, so we can reach as many EU citizens as possible and end this horrible practice!

[cleartastemakertheorist]

I think one explanation for this are mathematicians and physicists who like to present their fields as opaque and their knowledge as especially complicated to make themselves seem smarter. Sometimes, this is paired with a not-so-great understanding of the subject. I used to get very bad marks in maths in school, with my teacher saying I just "didn't get it". Then I studied musicology, and suddenly could calculate Fauré transformation and suddenly did higher maths and data science, because I had great profs who told me: "Every formula is just shorthand for a sentence, an effect, something that can be expressed in words." With this knowledge, I studied macroeconomics because formulas didn't scare me anymore. I just had to find out what they were SAYING.

« "Oh, I've always sucked at maths!"

I’m getting a little blasé. This must be at least the tenth time I’ve heard that remark today.

Yet this lady has been here at my stall for a good fifteen minutes, standing with a group of other passersby, listening attentively while I describe various geometrical curiosities. That’s how the conversation started.

"But what do you do for a living?" she asked me.

"I’m a mathematician."

"Oh, I've always sucked at maths myself!"

"Really? But you seemed to be interested in what I was just talking about."

"Yes… but that’s not really maths… that was understandable."

I hadn’t heard that one before. Is mathematics, by definition, a discipline that can’t be understood?

It’s the beginning of August, in [...] La Flotte-en-Ré, France. In [the] small summer market, I have a pop-up – there is henna tattooing and afro braids to my right, a mobile-phone accessory stall to my left, and a display of jewels and trinkets of all kinds opposite me. I’ve set up my maths stand in the middle of all this. Holidaymakers stroll peacefully by in the cool of the evening. I particularly like doing maths in unusual places. Where people aren’t expecting it. Where they are not on their guard…

"Can’t wait to tell my parents I did some maths during the holidays!" a high school kid says to me, after stopping by my stall on his way back from the beach.

I do have to catch them unawares. But you’ve got to do what you’ve got to do. This is one of my favourite moments: observing the expression on the faces of people who thought that they had fallen out with maths for good at the instant when I tell them that they have just been doing maths for fifteen minutes. And my stall is always crowded! [...]

No matter how much this amuses me, on balance I find it upsetting. How has it come about that we need to hide from people the fact that they are doing maths before they can take some pleasure in it? Why is the word so frightening? One thing is certain: had I put up a sign above my table proclaiming ‘Mathematics’ as visibly as ‘Jewels and necklaces’, ‘Phones’ or ‘Tattooing’ on the stalls around me, I would not have had a quarter of the same success. People would not have stopped. Perhaps they would even have turned away and averted their gaze.

And yet, the curiosity is there. I observe this every day. Mathematics may scare people, but it also fascinates. Many, who don't like it, would like to like it—or at least to be able to peep at will into its murky mysteries. Many think it is inaccessible. But this is not true. It is perfectly possible to love music without being a musician, or to like to share a nice meal without being a great cook. Then why should you have to be a mathematician, or someone exceptionally clever, in order to be open to hearing about mathematics and to enjoy having your imagination tickled by algebra or geometry? It is not necessary to delve into the technical details in order to understand the great ideas and to be able to marvel at them. »

— Mickaël Launay, It All Adds Up: Humans and Mathematics From Prehistory to Modern Day

[cleartastemakertheorist]

Especially in the wake of basically everything that's going on in the US, but most especially re: police, policing and mental health "registers" that are currently being discussed, this reaction to the incident at Vancouver's LapuLapu festival is so telling.

[cleartastemakertheorist]

You can currently adopt Tamasha, the successor to the rat this post talks about!

for the past two years i have been sponsoring a tuberculosis detection rat in tanzania, her name is carolina. she sniffs sputum samples & alerts her handlers when she detects TB. recently she turned 8 & aged out of the program, so they held a retirement party for her & sent me photos.

while carolina moves on to live a life of rest & luxury in the retirement kennels, her role is being passed on to her successor, tamasha. she is 2 years old & was named after the grandmother of one of her handlers.

(with her handler priscus)

here is a description of tamasha:

"Tamasha is also quite playful! She enjoys jumping, climbing, and sometimes does a joyful little dance when placed in the TB evaluation enclosure – as if celebrating her enthusiasm for the work ahead. She’s also a big fan of avocado, her favorite treat for a job well done."

im not afraid to admit that this email made me cry like a stupid baby. you can sponsor your own big beautiful TB- or landmine-detecting rat through APOPO HeroRATS. they send you an update on how your rat is doing each month, including photos.

[cleartastemakertheorist]

@staff our identities aren’t nsfw and we will not stand for them to be treated as such

[cleartastemakertheorist]

important question: what sauce is the best for pasta

be as nuanced or vague as you see fit

anything counts as a sauce

Alfredo

[cleartastemakertheorist]

This is also true for other guardian dogs. We had a Shar Pei and she was ridiculously intelligent (she even learned conjugation at some point); she just never saw the point in doing what we wanted her to do. So working with her was all about building a relationship with her and nothing about "training".

Anatolian shepherd dog puppy in training

[cleartastemakertheorist]

Do any of u have decent recipes that are like 5 ingredients (not including spices) and take 45 mins or less to prepare i gotta stop eating sandwiches for dinner

[cleartastemakertheorist]

Back then, sometimes your computer display needed a good smack to function properly.

they used to make smackable technology. you used to be able to hit your tv when it didn't work good.

[cleartastemakertheorist]

VERY IMPORTANT a dam in the Netherlands, the weerdsluis lock, is directly on a migratory path for spawning fish. They have a worker stationed there to open the door for the fish, but they can take a while to open it. So to keep the fish from getting preyed on by birds they installed a doorbell. Only, the fish don't have hands to ring the doorbell. If you go to their website, they have a LIVE CAMERA AND A DOORBELL that YOU RING FOR THE FISH when they're waiting, and then the dam worker opens the door for them! I can't express how obsessed I am with this. look at this shit. oh my god.

Please check on the fish doorbell once in a while :)

[cleartastemakertheorist]

What if you make it your whole job, but every now and then you need to go away and lie in a hammock for three days and not talk to anyone.

[cleartastemakertheorist]

I made a poll like this last year, but there were some options I left out then, so I'm doing it again.

I remember the first time I watched The Easter Bunny is Comin' to Town and It's the Easter Beagle, Charlie Brown when I was little, and how dumbfounded I was when they talked about eating Easter eggs. In my house, Easter eggs were just for decoration, not for eating, unless they were made of chocolate. But of course different families have different traditions. And maybe my parents ate them when I wasn't looking – maybe the only reason I didn't eat them was because I was a picky kid who didn't like hard-boiled eggs.

[cleartastemakertheorist]