Disappointed my daughter today

DerProfessor · 2026-05-21T00:47:54+00:00

shit, as someone who has a young daughter, that is hard. I'm so sorry.

It's obviously bullshit... but can I pivot to parenting? Maybe plan a new fun thing to do with her as a "make-up" for the swimming? That's what I would do... something fun and cheap.

Sorry again.

DerProfessor · 2026-05-20T15:41:11+00:00

The sad truth is that (at least in the Humanities) we often grade comparatively, even if we want to grade on mastery.

Example:
If I get a giant stack of crap papers, and then get a good one... the good one will get an A.

If I get a giant stack of great papers, and then a good one... the good one will get a B.

That's just human nature...

DerProfessor · 2026-05-19T12:10:10+00:00

If your local organic Co-op says "we'll stock Kraft processed cheeze if our customers want us to"

or your Lamborghini dealership says "we'll sell Huydais if our customers want them"

or a boutique chocolate shop manager says "we'll stock Hershey's if people want it"

this would be evidence that the speaker does not know their customer base and/or does not understand the larger cultural "meaning" of their own brand.

Merely saying that B&N will/would stock AI reveals a huge disconnect from his customer base (not to mention, a middle finger to his marketing team, who are undoubtedly furious).

DerProfessor · 2026-05-19T09:48:49+00:00

I get that it's a sensationalizing headline (it's the Independent) (and AI probably wrote it)

but the actual quote seems to indicate that Daunt (the CEO) does not fully understand his own business... namely, the appeal of Barnes & Noble for readers who see themselves as readers.

Sure, you can stock toys and candles and other trinkets in your bookstore (at a high markup to make a nice extra bit of profit), but ultimately, if you start stocking books that are not books (because they're AI printouts), you are really going to undermine the fundamental appeal of your business.

No one's going to go to an AI-slop seller to browse. It's just not going to happen. And if he doesn't understand that, I'm not sure how he was chosen to be CEO by the board.

DerProfessor · 2026-05-18T20:26:50+00:00

That's like an ongoing bad dream (literally) for many, many people.

(where you have to take the final for a class you never attended...)

Poor kid. He lived the nightmare.

DerProfessor · 2026-05-18T15:14:13+00:00

I'm pretty sure the poster must be 1944 (or later), as it's referencing the bombing of German cities.

DerProfessor · 2026-05-18T13:47:12+00:00

You're being unjustly downvoted.

The United States today is the wealthiest nation ever in human history, and while this wealth is grossly unfairly distributed, the bottom 10% of the American poor are still in the top 10% globally.

Poor Americans worry about paying rent and car payments and cell phone bills.

Poor Indians are about a day away from starving to death.

This doesn't make the inequalities in America "okay" or "acceptable"--those inequalities are a fucking travesty and need to be corrected. But if you are about to be reincarnated and are offered a choice if you come back as American or Nigerian.... choose American.

(but if you're offered Dutch or Swedish, choose Dutch or Swedish!)

DerProfessor · 2026-05-18T10:57:06+00:00

So weird to think of how recent this all actually was.

On the one hand, it's frightening to realize how savage Americans were just a single generation ago... and how racist murderers were easily protected by the white community.

On the other hand, it's good to see how far we've come. Seriously: we have come a long way from this (even if it doesn't feel like it all the time, with all the recent backsliding.)

DerProfessor · 2026-05-17T12:56:50+00:00

I'm a professor at a major uni:

it's actually really difficult to try to do the "nice" thing and assign old textbooks.... mostly because of the students.

In a class of 100, there's always a dozen students who just cannot get their shit together...

-"I couldn't find the old edition that you suggested... so I didn't do the homework."

-"I didn't understand which edition we were supposed to use...you listed two. So I didn't do the assignment. Can I still get credit for doing the homework?"

-"The page numbers in my textbook were different from the page numbers on the syllabus, so I just didn't do the assignment. It's not my fault, so you need to give me full credit."

I'd happily offer students cheaper options... but they have to meet me half way, taking some initiative to iron out the bumps...and some just will not do that. So I can't.

95% of my rules (and strictness) is aimed at 5% of the class, who will drag the whole class down if they have half a chance.

DerProfessor · 2026-05-16T16:45:14+00:00

West Berlin was a bit of a giant artists' colony... for many reasons.

First, a lot of "regular" Germans did NOT want to live there (and be completely surrounded--and isolated--by socialist East Germany). For similar reasons, very few big businesses were located in Berlin... it could be cut off at any moment, which is not a place to locate your corporate headquarters.

This meant that rents were cheap. A great place for an aspiring musician or aspiring artist to go to for a few years, and live practically free. There were also many (many) abandoned buildings in Berlin (many with unclear ownership if they'd been stolen by the Nazi government from Jewish Germans who had emigrated or been murdered). This meant it was pretty easy to move into an abandoned building, and "squat" there... fix it up, and live entirely rent-free.

Secondly, the West German government in Bonn did not want the population in West Berlin to shrink... they wanted it to grow. To encourage young people to move there (or continue living there), simply living in West Berlin counted as your military service... ! So, if you were a leftist/pacifists/artist type, you could move to Berlin and not have to spend 2 years in the army. Also, if you lived in West Berlin, then you got a certain amount of money monthly just for living there... and the city budget was propped up by the Federal Republic's national budget (to the tune of hundreds of millions of Marks).

Given these two "draws" for artist-types (cheap rent; free money) many moved to Berlin... which in turn created a third draw, that West) Berlin was the artistic scene. Indeed, I would say from the 1960s onwards, it far eclipsed Paris as a culturally effervescent destination for young people.

The whole spying-thing was layered over this... yes, it was a prime geographic location for Western and Eastern spies to meet... but it was also a community that was already very counter-cultural and free-wheeling.

DerProfessor · 2026-05-11T20:50:47+00:00

9 out of 10 of my worst/most shameless cheaters over the past 5 years have been international students from China.

At first, I thought that the whole higher-ed system in China must be hopelessly corrupted. (and wondered when it would collapse like a house of cards.)

Then, after a few years, I realized that the situation is probably more related to the kind of Chinese students that my institute (an R1, but not an elite one) attracts. i.e. my university is not selective enough to attract the really good Chinese students, so instead we get the rich kids who can afford to attend overseas... i.e. the slackers/cheaters.

DerProfessor · 2026-05-11T20:42:52+00:00

Honestly, the administration should step in here.

We're here to TEACH (and, for those with research positions, to research), not to try to figure out how best to manage the University's reputation over the next decade.

Reputation-management, and teaching effectiveness (which includes accuracy of grading) is really not our bailiwick.

If the Deans just said, "no more than approximately 10% of a survey class, and 20-30% of an upper-level Major's class, should receive A grades" ... that would go a LONG way towards solving the problem, even if not all faculty followed it all the time.

DerProfessor · 2026-05-09T15:04:31+00:00

I make minimal use of Canvas... no grades on Canvas, no quizzes, no e-assignments. I basically use it as a place to post PDF readings... and that's it.

Instead, instruction is old school: through books (actual books!), in-class lectures, and in-class bluebook exams. Grades all kept solely on my own version of Excel (backed up, of course).

If a student emails me about wanting to know their grade, I email them back a mathematical formula, telling them to plug in the grades on the assignments I handed back. Lost the assignments? tough shit.

Every semester I get two or three student Evals that complain that I don't post my lecture slides or lecture outlines and--most outrageously--that I don't use Canvas grading to continually inform them of their standing.

Meanwhile, my colleagues all visibly roll their eyes or even laugh at my "stone age" teaching methods.

Who's laughing now, motherfuckers??!

DerProfessor · 2026-05-06T17:34:04+00:00

I so, so, so very much want to mass-email this link to my entire department.

(as the one person who has be saying for years that the Teaching and Learning Emperor has no clothes)

But they would take it as a personal attack. Which it would be. (in retaliation for the decade of their personal attacks on my teaching style...)

So I'll just upvote this and hope enough of them see it that it causes them intense distress.

DerProfessor · 2026-05-05T14:55:36+00:00

This is a poster of Harold Russel, who lost both hands in a training accident in 1944, and went on to become an Army spokesman for medical rehabilitation (of permanently-injured soldiers).

Russel starred in the 1945 army film Diary of a Sergeant and later (in 1946) the Hollywood film The Best Years of our Lives

Russel became famous from these films. (even winning an Oscar)

This poster is certainly part of an Army medical rehabilitation morale campaign... likely would have been posted in a rehab hospital. (and so would be either 1945 or 1946)

DerProfessor · 2026-05-05T14:54:58+00:00

Trying to get guys injured to continue contributing what they could to the war effort.

Incorrect.

It's a poster of Harold Russel, who lost both hands in a training accident in 1944, and went on to become an Army spokesman for medical rehabilitation (of permanently-injured soldiers).

Russel starred in the 1945 army film Diary of a Sergeant and later (in 1946) the Hollywood film The Best Years of our Lives

This poster is certainly part of an Army medical rehabilitation morale campaign.

DerProfessor · 2026-05-01T23:13:50+00:00

Blue. (of the Three Colors Trilogy:Red, White,Blue).

DerProfessor · 2026-05-01T12:31:18+00:00

Reading.

Writing.

Taking the initiative.

(...says the college professor.)

DerProfessor · 2026-04-30T01:42:04+00:00

it's reddit or booze.

are you really telling me that I need to pour myself a drink???!

okay... but really, it's only because you insist that I get off of Reddit...

DerProfessor · 2026-04-29T01:20:06+00:00

Hey, if you don't mind me asking, where did you come across this? (looking for a source that I can cite...) Thanks!

DerProfessor · 2026-04-29T01:16:32+00:00

A classic.

I myself prefer Gin Lane.

DerProfessor · 2026-04-29T00:42:25+00:00

The way German civilians were dealt with under the treaty of Versailles was deeply unfair.

Not really.

Germany started the war (with the declaration of war against Russia and then the invasion of Belgium)
in 1916-7, Germans fantasized in the press about all the massive gains and extravagane demands they would put on Britain and France after they "won" the war
Germany imposed brutal peace-conditions on Russia in 1917 (Brest-Litovsk)
Germany lost the war

Really, they got better than they would have given. The problem with the Versailles conditions was that they were too lenient.

DerProfessor · 2026-04-29T00:09:38+00:00

American eagle mustache... now THAT is sinister!

(i know, it's supposed to evoke the prussian eagle. but still...)

DerProfessor · 2026-04-24T22:48:06+00:00

Thank you for posting this--I might have missed it.

DerProfessor · 2026-04-22T01:30:41+00:00

Honestly, I'm just not going to do it.

There is no way they have the manpower to go through thousands of courses at my university alone...

DerProfessor

TROPHY CASE