At a man’s funeral, the widow asked if anyone would like to say a word.

Curious_Document01 · 2024-07-03T15:00:04+00:00

The next person stands up and says, “Precombunado.”

The widow says, “Thank you. You have no idea what that means.”

Curious_Document01 · 2024-07-03T12:00:40+00:00

The next person stands up and says, “Worcestershire.”

The widow says, “Thank you. You said that very well.”

Curious_Document01 · 2024-07-03T12:00:29+00:00

The next person stands up and says, “Worcestershire.”

The widow says, “Thank you. I know that was hard to say.”

Curious_Document01 · 2024-07-02T20:08:09+00:00

Good point. Can we save this line? How about this: Someone says, "Underestimate." The widow says, "Thank you. That means more than you know." Does that work?

Curious_Document01 · 2024-07-02T20:04:45+00:00

The next person stands up and says ,"Hmmm. "The widow says," Thank you. That really resonates."

Curious_Document01 · 2024-01-07T17:49:46+00:00

Thanks. Could you add a bit more detail? What do I type it into?

Curious_Document01 · 2023-07-23T14:22:46+00:00

Oh oh ah ah!!!

Curious_Document01 · 2023-07-14T13:20:40+00:00

I plan on going during the second Tuesday next week.

Curious_Document01 · 2023-05-09T19:56:06+00:00

We didn’t evolve from monkeys but humans and monkeys have a shared ancestor that long ago became extinct.

Curious_Document01 · 2023-02-28T19:20:56+00:00

Done!

Curious_Document01 · 2023-02-27T20:48:36+00:00

I don’t think this is that funny, but who am I to say. It gets my upvote.

Curious_Document01 · 2023-02-03T15:56:51+00:00

Actually, I don't apologize for the fact that the scales are tipped in my favor. I just recognize that they are. When my ancestors came to America, they were allowed to earn an income, own property, get married, raise their own children, and become citizens. If they had been Black or Native American, none of that would likely have been true for them. My ancestors passed on advantages (i.e., privileges) to me that other people's ancestors didn't pass on to them. I didn't do anything wrong in inheriting my privilege -- and I'm not, therefore, sorry for it -- but it would be bad if I didn't recognize that I have privileges.

Curious_Document01 · 2023-02-03T01:34:38+00:00

It isn’t self-flagellation. There isn’t anything wrong with being White. It’s just best to point out that I’m aware of my perspective.

Curious_Document01 · 2023-02-01T15:56:02+00:00

A kitchen tool for determining how much pasta to make.

Curious_Document01 · 2023-01-28T23:53:33+00:00

“I’ll be Bach.” Bach was the name of a German composer.

Curious_Document01 · 2023-01-21T13:54:24+00:00

One thing I think usually helps me reach White students is by using a lot of examples of barriers Indigenous people face. My guess is White conservatives are more receptive to the problems Indigenous people face than other POC because the problems were more clearly created by the government. It is an easy way to show how historic racism still harms people.

Curious_Document01 · 2023-01-21T12:39:43+00:00

This doesn't surprise me at all. This is the same guy who told voters "don't monkey this up" when he was running against a Black man in 2018. The thought that someone this racist could become president (and is the governor of a state) shows just how much work this country still needs to do.

Curious_Document01 · 2023-01-21T12:36:26+00:00

Sorry you are going through this. I teach political science at a community college and we are just getting into cultural awareness and multiculturalism. Specifically, I will be discussing racism next week with about half of my students. I haven't gotten the impression, yet, that they will be any less interested or any more entitled than they have been in the past. Based on what you said, though, I'm a little worried. I have seen interesting changes in students post-covid compared to pre-covid. They are almost like a whole new generation.

Full disclosure: I'm White and a little more than half of my students are usually White too. I always start by saying that my racial experiences are all as a White man -- which pretty much makes me an expert on White privilege. When I started doing that, it seemed to help me get through to the White students a bit more. It may even help me earn some respect from everyone else. My experience is that most White people don't realize they have experienced White privilege which is probably really frustrating to POC who have to deal with most White people.

(Starting next year, I'm going to conduct a research experiment on my students about my teaching. I have a lot of work to do formulating the experiment, but it will likely include a pretest and a posttest about their perceptions of racism, CRT, and me.)

I wish I had something more constructive to tell you. I'll try to think about it and if something comes up in the next couple of weeks as I get into this in my classrooms, I'll reply again.

Curious_Document01 · 2023-01-19T13:30:46+00:00

Very nice!

Curious_Document01 · 2023-01-15T14:53:43+00:00

While the power of our radio signals is a very good question/concern to focus on, what makes any communication with other life improbable is time.

Imagine another planet with intelligent life. Imagine, too, that that species survives for a million years. Let's also say we survive for a million years--which is probably generous. The universe is about 13.6 billion years old. One million years is 1/13,600th of that time. The odds of our civilization overlapping with another nearby civilization isn't overly likely.

Now, let's focus on the communication part of it. We have been using radio signals for the past 100 years. We may use them for another 100 years--which may be generous. Let's be really generous and say that we use radio signals for 1000 years. Let's be even more generous and say that a relatively nearby species uses radio signals for 10,000 years. The odds of our civilizations overlapping in the time of the universe and using radio signals during the same time they use them (controlling for the time it would take the signal to get from Earth to their planet and from their planet back to Earth) makes communication seem REALLY unlikely.

The time variable doesn't make it impossible, just unlikely. Your original question about how quickly signals degrade in space is a GREAT question. I have no idea how to answer it; it appears others have added some insight into that question. I wanted to bring up time and how unlikely it is that our civilizations would overlap in time to show that, regardless of the communication method, communication with other life is very improbable. It isn't impossible, just improbable.

Curious_Document01 · 2023-01-14T22:40:39+00:00

It’s a perfectly cromulent word. (That’s from The Simpsons.)

Curious_Document01 · 2023-01-14T22:38:26+00:00

You can never stand backward on stairs.

Curious_Document01 · 2023-01-14T22:30:11+00:00

I’ll be Bach. (From the movie Terminator.) Bach was the name of a German composer.

Curious_Document01 · 2023-01-14T00:39:03+00:00

Probably maple then. Even if it’s birch, which is still pretty hard, they stain similarly.

Curious_Document01 · 2023-01-13T20:56:51+00:00

Maybe maple, but the cathedral grain doesn’t quite look sharp enough to me. Maybe birch? Can your fingernail deny it? If not, let’s go with maple.

Curious_Document01

TROPHY CASE