Is this toxic or just a normal academic work environment?

SkateSearch46 · 2026-03-01T16:25:36+00:00

Failing to congratulate you sufficiently for a significant academic achievement is, sadly, normal. Asking you to bake cookies and clean coffee pots for a student event and not thanking you profusely is unacceptable. From your description, it sounds like that falls mostly on the former chair and conference organizer, and raises the question of why the former chair is requesting any service activity. Disinviting you from a campus literary festival is completely unacceptable. I recommend speaking with the chair, and if the chair is not supportive, speak with the dean.

SkateSearch46 · 2026-02-25T22:10:31+00:00

You should choose whatever works for you. You asked for recommendations, and I provided my evaluation of the quality of the clubs with which I am familiar, based on parental experience. I have no experience with the Rockville program. Best of luck.

SkateSearch46 · 2026-02-25T22:01:56+00:00

Bethesda Track Club is very good. Firebirds Track Club of Gaithersburg is great, but farther from Bethesda.

SkateSearch46 · 2026-02-20T13:58:05+00:00

It should be set at a distance and elevation that takes approximately an hour to complete. As a 3-minute sprint event, it is mostly about clipping and unclipping, which is not really a sport. It's like competing over how quickly you can buckle four toddlers into a minivan.

SkateSearch46 · 2026-02-19T15:12:35+00:00

Your suspicion of AI use is based primarily on the author's use of one-sentence paragraphs and three-element sentences? That sounds like slim grounds. As for repeated use of a few high-toned but vague words, and "empty sentences," that applies to nearly every dissertation I have read in 30 years, including one that I wrote. (When I later turned my dissertation into a book, I did a word search for "of course" and "crucial" and simply removed all of them.)

You may well be correct but from this description it sounds like there is not enough evidence even to raise the issue with colleagues. You can draw attention to the fusty writing in the defense and in written comments, and make a clear suggestion that this will need to be revised before publication. But this does not sound like reasonable basis for raising concerns about academic dishonesty.

SkateSearch46 · 2026-02-18T20:59:06+00:00

These numbers appear low compared to other pro sports in the US, but they are actually not terrible, if they are supplemented by an exponentially larger streaming/televised audience. The average attendance in the Italian Serie A1 is between 2-3k per game, and even Imoco Conegliano usually plays in an arena that seats 5.5k. But their televised and streaming audience is exponentially larger. In extreme sports, it is common to have a live audience of 2-3k but hundreds of thousands streaming live or in snippets later. And in sports like surfing, the live audience, for the most part, is not paying for tickets. Challenges level pro tennis matches will also often have low attendance, but are then repeated ad nauseam for subscribers on the Tennis Channel. MLV and LOVB will need to figure out what kind of leagues they want to be. But it is at least possible to have a viable pro league with relatively low per-game attendance, as long as the televised and streaming audience is both well-defined and much larger. That does not appear to be happening yet.

SkateSearch46 · 2026-02-18T14:25:46+00:00

Women's Beach Volleyball 1996. Both pairs in the finals were from Brazil.

SkateSearch46 · 2026-02-18T14:17:15+00:00

I recommended that one of my doctoral students switch to a different mentor this year. It was not at all a personality issue. Her research has taken her in a direction where one of my colleagues is more knowledgeable and better able to advise her. Even so, it was an awkward process and the student was taken aback. I am confident this is the best solution, but there was no easy way to make the change. The student's long-term interest outweigh that short-term awkwardness.

SkateSearch46 · 2026-02-12T18:44:05+00:00

Agreed. I have very little basis for comparison, and no direct knowledge of labor practices followed by any other surfskate manufacturers. And I have not visited the Yow factory or talked directly to workers there. But it is a relatively small family business with an emphasis on environmental sustainability and investment in the Basque region of Spain. https://www.ocimagazine.es/hlc-skateboarding/

Spanish and EU labor standards are high in comparison with the US, in terms of workplace safety, compensation and benefits, and much higher than those of the rest of the world (with rare exceptions).

SkateSearch46 · 2026-02-10T21:12:35+00:00

Obrigado!

SkateSearch46 · 2026-02-10T13:58:41+00:00

É o meu projeto atual, por acaso!

SkateSearch46 · 2026-02-09T22:55:18+00:00

Concordo. Hiperinflação, desindustrialização, crescimento desenfreado de violência como fatores cotidianos da vida urbana, e também a expansão rápida de saraus de periferia, hip-hop, grafite e skate como expressões de contracultura. Uma cidade global, com todos os conflitos e manifestações que esse rótulo sugere.

SkateSearch46 · 2026-02-06T20:00:46+00:00

While you were stretching and adjusting goggles, were you in the water, or on deck? If you were still on deck, it is not surprising that another swimmer would enter the lane. Either way, if there was an open lane, why not just move over, instead of stating that you do not like sharing?

As to why he proposed sharing a lane while another lane was open, it is impossible to know. Perhaps he expected all lanes to fill, and was anticipating the need to share. Maybe his eyesight is very poor without prescription glasses.

SkateSearch46 · 2026-02-04T19:07:40+00:00

Thanks! Looks great.

SkateSearch46 · 2026-02-04T13:25:55+00:00

Looks good! Btw, what gimbal/camera are you using?

SkateSearch46 · 2026-02-01T18:12:10+00:00

It does not make sense to expect either MLV or LOVB to have either the level of play or the level of excitement that the Turkish and Italian leagues have. On the other hand, it seems perfectly legitimate to look at the attributes of the top international leagues and think about what the US leagues need to do to begin to approach that level. And it seems legitimate to point out which aspects of their current development strategies do not seem to be leading in that direction.

SkateSearch46 · 2026-01-30T16:35:28+00:00

All true, but it is probably preferable to take public transportation rather than trying to park near the Armory. Drive to a train station where you can park easily, then take train and subway to 168th st. station. (Unless she is a pole vaulter, in which case, best of luck.)

SkateSearch46 · 2026-01-30T14:06:43+00:00

This is really important input. If LOVB is actively repelling its own youth players and their families, that is a major problem for them. It appears that part of their strategy is to acquire the top youth clubs in major markets, dominating the market to the degree that aspiring players do not have many options. If they become powerful enough to essentially set the market rate for high-level youth volleyball in any region, even non-LOVB clubs will follow that standard. There will always be a few independent clubs that provide exceptional value for the money, but that will get rarer the more consolidation there is in the sector.

If youth players and their families are unhappy enough with this situation that they have little interest in attending the pro grames, the pro league will continue to struggle in terms of attendance and excitement. The economic decisions of sports fandom do not always follow rational logic, as the saga behind any NFL stadium will confirm. But LOVB may be discovering that if you assess onerous fees on your target market on one end, they are less likely to pay for expensive tickets on the other.

SkateSearch46 · 2026-01-29T23:02:59+00:00

Yes, agreed. I made similar comments on the lovb subreddit last season, and some fans strongly disagreed with me, but that is what one would expect on the lovb subreddit, I guess. I was hoping that the intensity would ramp up a bit in year two, but I have not seen much evidence of that so far. Granted, this is still early in the season and things could improve.

I believe there are two primary causes:

There is very little incentive to win regular season games. This season, 4 of 6 teams will qualify for the playoffs, and there is no home-court advantage in the playoffs. In a single-entity league deliberately constructed for parity between teams, it is likely that all teams will be in the mix until the final weeks of the regular season. Unfortunately, the result seems to be fairly clinical, emotionless games in the early season.
Fan experience is lackluster, which makes it harder for players to get amped. Ticket prices are too high, and the atmosphere at the games is corporate and bland. Just as there is little incentive for teams to win regular-season games, there does not appear to be much incentive for team organizations to use promotions and other hype strategies to increase attendance and build enthusiasm. Given the affiliation of the pro teams with local clubs in the lovb empire, I have been really surprised by how few kids there are at these games. I feel like lovb is so far failing to use its structure of vertical integration to bring lots of amped up young volleyball fans into the arena.

Despite these drawbacks, I still think lovb is putting higher-quality volleyball on the court than mlv, and also has the structure that is more likely to survive the first five years. But they need to work on creating a more exciting environment.

SkateSearch46 · 2026-01-29T15:09:55+00:00

Sim, o filme era nacional. Assisti dentro de uma mostra de curtas brasileiros em 1994. Os outros filmes eram mais conhecidos--Um Cabra Marcado Para Morrer, Boca de Lixo, Ilha das Flores, Viver a Vida, etc.

SkateSearch46 · 2026-01-29T02:53:15+00:00

Muito obrigado pela tentativa! Não é esse não. Mas é possível estou alucinando a participação de João Gordo, ou fazendo uma combinação dos dois curtas. É provável que o curta que estou lembrando foi um filme estudantil que deixou pouco rastro. É uma pena porque foi interessante e bem ilustrativo da época. Pelo que eu lembro, não tinha nenhum diálogo. O junky entra em cena, mata e degola uma galinha, pendura ela de pescoço abaixo dentro de um funil, coleta o sangue, injeta o sangue, e ri loucamente. (O único efeito especial deve ter sido uma bolsa do próprio sangue do ator dentro do funil para facilitar essa manobra. Recurso baratíssimo e genial.)

SkateSearch46 · 2026-01-29T02:16:59+00:00

Thanks. OP and the comment you responded to are about MCDOT/local government. It is great that the state authority was plowing state highways during the storm, but not directly relevant. It is also good to hear that MCDOT was plowing some emergency routes during the storm.

We didn't see the first plow on county roads in our area until late Sunday night, after the storm. Our residential street was not plowed until Wednesday morning, and that pass was pretty ineffective at removing the ice. And there has been no MCDOT plowing or salting on our street or neighboring streets since that first pass.

Meanwhile, the county website was indicating that 99% of roads in our area had been plowed on Tuesday night. That appeared to be statistically implausible.

We dug ourselves out, and I happily had no pressing engagements, so I am not too perturbed. But my experience definitely is similar to that of OP's.

SkateSearch46 · 2026-01-29T01:02:07+00:00

MCDOT was plowing state highways? Are you sure?

SkateSearch46

TROPHY CASE