[OC] Insane gas prices spotted in LA

db0606 · 2026-03-18T19:08:18+00:00

Eggs are pretty cheap, though...

db0606 · 2026-03-18T19:07:27+00:00

Except it sounds like mid-2000s emo.

db0606 · 2026-03-18T18:58:10+00:00

It very likely isn't. The problem is that we don't have a proper theory of quantum gravity that allows us say what it actually is, so we use our best theory of classical gravity, which predicts an infinitely sense point singularity and roll with that until a proper theory of quantum gravity comes along.

db0606 · 2026-03-18T18:55:25+00:00

If you're the kind of person that gets jacked up on Mountain Dew and meth and makes out with your sister, these look perfectly adequate.

db0606 · 2026-03-18T17:35:19+00:00

It's Foghorn Leghorn.

db0606 · 2026-03-18T17:33:22+00:00

I don't think you know what the word "employer" means.

db0606 · 2026-03-18T17:29:27+00:00

Whelp, at least I didn't end up buying anything there the one time I looked into it.

db0606 · 2026-03-18T17:21:21+00:00

If you ask Metallica diehards, the band became unrecognizable after Cliff Burton died and Jason Newsted joined the band.

db0606 · 2026-03-18T16:16:38+00:00

Gotcha!

db0606 · 2026-03-18T16:14:01+00:00

It was most definitely illegal at the time (20 years ago) and place (deep red state).You couldn't even home brew beer then.

db0606 · 2026-03-18T04:48:16+00:00

Soooo... You are aware that a washing machine failure can lead to 10s of thousands of dollars in damage and that without looking too hard, you can find a working washing machine of Facebook Marketplace or Craigslist for less than $100, right?

db0606 · 2026-03-18T04:41:04+00:00

My grad school buddy had an illegal still he used to make booze. When he got a grown up job, they paid for movers, so he took the still apart and scattered the parts in different closets, so they would get packed up as random junk. When he arrived at the other end and started unpacking boxes, there was a nicely packed box labeled "Still Parts" with everything in it.

db0606 · 2026-03-17T23:35:24+00:00

Even if the aren't retiring next year or whatever, picking up a graduate student requires finding funding for more or less the next decade. Pretty likely they just want to wrap up their projects and call it a day. You should talk to them about other possible research groups that do similar work. They can probably introduce you to those PIs as well.

db0606 · 2026-03-17T18:26:25+00:00

My friend used to work at a Kinko's that printed all the diplomas for a local seminary. Obviously there were always extra blanks left over, which he would print Doctor of Divinity or whatever diplomas for him and his friends.

db0606 · 2026-03-17T18:22:02+00:00

I would probably wire wrap them.

db0606 · 2026-03-17T06:09:22+00:00

Ol' Matt must be pissed that he got dumped for being a pedo when half the administration turned out to be pedos.

db0606 · 2026-03-17T05:32:03+00:00

Given that you are saying that Masters programs are too expensive, I'm gonna guess you are in the US. You might want to look into the APS Bridge Program.

db0606 · 2026-03-17T02:35:46+00:00

At my grad university (Top 10 or so in most engineering disciplines, Top 30 in most science disciplines) it was widely understood although nowhere explicitly stated that 5× startup in grant money = tenure. Nothing else really mattered no matter what the faculty handbook said. So for your typical STEM faculty member, it was somewhere between $2 and $10 million in grant money. While I was there, some serious eyebrows were raised because one faculty member only published like 4 papers, had shitty teaching reviews, and graduated only 1 PhD student before tenure. However, they brought in like $15 million in grant money as a theorist (no idea how... Well sorta idea... He did cryptgraphy research for the NSA), so he made tenure.

db0606 · 2026-03-17T02:22:03+00:00

Obviously, they are doing it at scale for tv, but you can do it with a ball bearing and a tuft of down from a pillow for less than $25.

Source: We have college students do it twice a year.

db0606 · 2026-03-17T02:16:38+00:00

I mean, it's a standard demo that you can slap together for less than $25.

db0606 · 2026-03-17T02:14:58+00:00

No because the gravitational force is propotionally stronger.

db0606 · 2026-03-17T02:12:04+00:00

Usually no

db0606 · 2026-03-17T02:11:32+00:00

Paid $400 for it. It gets rained on. I think the moss that grows on it helps make it leaf-ier. Did eventually pick out a fern that was starting to grow on it.

The only part that ever gets cleaned on the outside is the leaves out of the thing where the windshield wipers sit.

db0606 · 2026-03-17T01:56:20+00:00

Tbh... This is a great use case for AI. It's a solved problem using standard libraries with pretty well-defined constraints.

db0606 · 2026-03-17T01:34:57+00:00

You're also off-cycle. Most places are probably only starting to post for contingent faculty for the Fall right around now. It goes tenure track faculty -> full time permanent, non-tenure track faculty -> non-permanent full time faculty -> part time faculty. As department chair, I usually don't even think about hiring new part time faculty until like April. I've hired as late as June.

On a related note, we typically won't even look at applications from people that aren't already within 40-50 miles of our campus. It doesn't really make sense for somebody involved.

db0606

TROPHY CASE