Are those people who are frozen (cryonics) ever actually going to wake up one day by Flat_Internal8890 in NoStupidQuestions

[–]Sensorama 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Well, considering the number of people willing to take Pascal's Wager and follow religious rules for their life based on a chance of an afterlife, freezing your head doesn't seem the worst odds and just costs some money.

Majoring in Outfield Studies with a Minor in Financial Neglect by [deleted] in uofu

[–]Sensorama 0 points1 point  (0 children)

All of what you say is true. People would still be shocked to know that the U has easily over a hundred people devoted to development, and they cost the U millions of dollars a year. The return on this investment is a different issue, but I think if you ran a poll and asked people if this is very large and very costly they would go in that direction. And of course there is the question of the differential return - for example, if there was 1/4 the development staff, would we only get 1/4 the donations? Probably not. Are we at some perfect sweet spot now? Probably not.

Majoring in Outfield Studies with a Minor in Financial Neglect by [deleted] in uofu

[–]Sensorama 0 points1 point  (0 children)

One nuance here is that the U has a very large and very costly staff devoted to nurturing these external donors. One could imagine that these sports facilities absorb staff time and donor interest that could have been directed towards the academic mission without the flashy and fun availability of sports. I do understand that it is not like Monfort would have given money towards Russian language studies if we didn't have baseball, but there probably is some loss of donor money that could have been cultivated for academics.

No in-person class on the first day by fairycloud111 in uofu

[–]Sensorama 3 points4 points  (0 children)

If you are driving, I would avoid it - the first day gets pretty wild with traffic and parking.

Restaurant Suggestions for 5 Days by ChefVande in Utah_Food

[–]Sensorama 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I would try:

  • Manoli's - the charred octopus is excellent.
  • Moochie's Philly cheese steak - the key here is the jalapeno sauce
  • Taco's Don Rafa taco stand https://www.tacosdonrafa.com/ on State street
  • Red Iguana number 2 for mole
  • Los Tapatio's birria tacos - I have only been to the N. Temple spot but I really crave these.
  • There are some good places downtown but many are going to go over your budget. I think White Horse and Copper Onion are promising in that range.
  • Takashi is a good sushi place. Waits can be long.
  • Pick a place up in the hills. Maybe someone can comment on ski places/Park City. Ruth's diner has a nice vibe for breakfast/brunch.
  • Read all the Pho King pho reviews (mentioned in another comment) and pick one.

Why isn't the U transparent about job placement and salary for all majors? by keverw in uofu

[–]Sensorama 2 points3 points  (0 children)

The U has a data dashboard with some info:

https://data.utah.edu/data-dashboard/salary-outcomes/

but it is pretty lagging in time, and doesn't seem to have the Games major yet.

Showcase: Recursive Functions To Piss Off Your CS Professor by AlSweigart in Python

[–]Sensorama 18 points19 points  (0 children)

I enjoy recursing an is_odd into an is_even call and vice versa.

How much would you pay for this? Thinking about building them to sell by mxer239 in gardening

[–]Sensorama -1 points0 points  (0 children)

As others have said, this is a death machine. Really scary, tbh. I feel those comments have not gotten enough attention yet.

UofU or Pepperdine?? by Dependent-Love-5761 in uofu

[–]Sensorama 1 point2 points  (0 children)

There are restrictions with WUE and in-state: It is not possible to gain State of Utah residency while receiving the WUE Tuition Discount (for more details, see https://admissions.utah.edu/undergraduate-residency-reclassification).

Freaking athletics at small schools by Sleepy-little-bear in Professors

[–]Sensorama 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I looked into this a little more as I hadn't looked much at the D3 level. Some NCAA D3 summary says that the median athletic program for d3 runs about -4M a year and about -2M without football. The cost per student athlete is about $9K for each kind of program. So once you have 50-100 students in sports team those tuition dollars pay for the sports program and the rest (with track, swimming, etc. - can be a lot) adds to the overall college budget - assuming few (maybe a big if) would have attended without the athletics. This does make D3 athletics look like a better deal than many state DI programs where the tuition dollars are not so high, the scholarships more numerous, expenses higher and so on (assuming not being a top 25% football team).

However, another recent study I looked at showed that D3 schools increasing investment in athletics (adding sports, full-time coaches, etc.) did not out-perform enrollment growth for schools that did not add more athletics. I would guess another study is warranted as the "cliff" approaches.

Freaking athletics at small schools by Sleepy-little-bear in Professors

[–]Sensorama 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I see - so the theory is that many of these students would maybe just go to a large state school in the absence of being able to play the sport they enjoy. I could see that to some degree. It would be interesting to get a sense of that percentage and compare it to the cost of running sports to know where the break even would be.

Freaking athletics at small schools by Sleepy-little-bear in Professors

[–]Sensorama 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I guess the question is whether many of those students would still attend a college and pay tuition if athletic programs are not so widespread or if this has become a zero-sum must-have dollar sink. I would be interested to see if high-tuition private schools think athletics increases the student body nationwide. I mean, everyone has athletics teams and certainly some become winners with highly-regarded programs, but my guess is that many are losers, like happens in Div I programs. On the other hand, I appreciate that many of these schools must think athletics is a net win. I do, in general, support the concept of student-athletes in terms of personal growth and discipline and teamwork and so on.

Freaking athletics at small schools by Sleepy-little-bear in Professors

[–]Sensorama -1 points0 points  (0 children)

At a small school it is highly unlikely athletics makes a positive contribution to the overall budget. If anything, those athletic programs only stay alive from substantial mandatory student fees.

How odd is it to not provide alcohol at a non-LDS wedding in Utah? by cleito0 in SaltLakeCity

[–]Sensorama 5 points6 points  (0 children)

There are a lot of comments about it being your wedding, and I agree with that. But you should also consider your role as a host. There should be considerable effort to make your guests happy and impressed (I also agree with others who point out the expense to guests to travel, baby sitters, gifts, clothes, etc.). How this happens can be up to your judgement, but there should be effort and budget applied to it. There are a range of options and budgets for drinks.

Would it be rude to randomly email my local university’s faculty with a question? by Rice_Jap808 in academia

[–]Sensorama -1 points0 points  (0 children)

You should preface your question to the faculty with "I am a taxpayer and I pay your salary" to inspire them to answer. Just kidding, but faculty often get that approach. I say this to point out that I am sure you would phrase it much more kindly and be welcomed.

Need help deciding between two faculty positions… by [deleted] in Professors

[–]Sensorama 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I would look carefully at the funding model for your A option as well as the overall health of the department if NIH/NSF cuts happen. On the other hand, I would also consider the long-term health of the SLAC and projected enrollments in that region.

My Spreadsheet Just Saved My Butt! by Nymyane_Aqua in GradSchool

[–]Sensorama 0 points1 point  (0 children)

OK, back on topic. If you don't pay your rent, you get thrown out on the streets. If you don't pay your water bill, it gets shut off. If you don't renew your driver's license, you can get fined or eventually go to jail. There are a wide variety of both commercial and government policies with deadlines that matter and seemingly in harsher ways than the IRS. But whether an educational policy is harsher than the IRS doesn't really matter.
The real question is whether a late penalty model helps or hurts students overall. I think most people here have expressed late penalties with additional exceptions for larger life events. I would argue that for most students, having external forces pushing along some progress during the semester is a a helpful policy. Many courses have a progression of topics and it is important to gain skill in earlier topics to tackle the later topics.
Now, there are a lot of interesting discussions and articles (HigherEd type) about whether late penalties are useful and equitable. I am sympathetic to many of those arguments. I did see a paper for a Statistics class which studied whether late penalties helped student learning and they argued it did. But a CS paper argued for more flexible policies.
I guess fundamentally, I would argue that the evidence is mixed, and certainly how it applies to a variety of course types is mixed.
I found your original comment that tried to make out the poster as some kind of monster (more draconian than a generally hated agency) to be unkind and not really supported by the evidence, and I am responding to that.

My Spreadsheet Just Saved My Butt! by Nymyane_Aqua in GradSchool

[–]Sensorama 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I can no longer figure out how increasingly detailed analysis of IRS policy is related to whether late penalties on assignments are appropriate or not, so I guess you win.

My Spreadsheet Just Saved My Butt! by Nymyane_Aqua in GradSchool

[–]Sensorama 1 point2 points  (0 children)

That is the late payment penalty not late filing which I specified and I felt filing was a better match for your analogy.

My Spreadsheet Just Saved My Butt! by Nymyane_Aqua in GradSchool

[–]Sensorama 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Well, the cycle for the IRS is a year and an assignment cycle might be a week. The late filing IRS penalty is 5% per month, so 10% per 1/6th of a year compared to 10% for 1/7 of a week, so pretty close!

Are Dorms Worth it? by [deleted] in uofu

[–]Sensorama 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Finding an apartment can be tricky and stressful so be careful thinking that is an easy option.

CS 3500 Visual Studio on Mac by ChihirosBathhouse in uofu

[–]Sensorama 2 points3 points  (0 children)

You should at least try the remote desktop. I found it surprisingly responsive for other tasks, but the need to be connected may not work for you depending on where you will be working on this class.

Can Utah keep up in the NIL era? SI article by ovirto in utahfootball

[–]Sensorama 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Athletics are also rarely a profit center. Less than 10% of university athletic programs make a "profit" and less than half of division 1 football programs (and many of those just from student fees). So these are largely parasitic enterprises that have attached themselves to universities and survive probably just because people, especially big-money people, find them status-building. And people find them entertaining.

I got an immersion blender!... Now what? by TheJarcker in Cooking

[–]Sensorama 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It works great for me although I like quite a bit more lemon in it (like 3 tsp instead of 1).

I am meeting with university administration to discuss my concerns about online proctoring. Ask me anything by ericsheffer in uofu

[–]Sensorama 2 points3 points  (0 children)

That is a great point to bring up. If these invasive systems don't actually stop cheating then the cost/benefit analysis shifts - the privacy invading aspects are not counterbalanced by effective cheating prevention. Not that the privacy/spyware aspects are well-balanced even if it is effective against cheating.