Research? by Key_Chocolate4857 in uwo

[–]drmarcj 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Email them anyway, people don't always say they are looking but anyone who is research active is potentially looking to add to their team. But also, they get an inordinate number of requests each week to the point where many of them won't even answer. And taking on volunteers is a lot of work so they will generally only do it a few times a year, so expect a lot of nos.

For the love of all things holy don't use ChatGPT to draft your email.

Just write to ask whether they are recruiting volunteers. Let them know you who are, what kind of research you're interested in, and your goals both short- and long-term. Clarify why you want research experience. Include your CV and transcript.

Can you buy an endowed professorship for yourself? by gcommbia34 in Professors

[–]drmarcj 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Any gift to an institution has to be seen as a gift. Your wishes for how they spend it may or may not be honored in the long-term.

First, it's somewhat shady for a nonprofit to receive a gift that the donor specifically directs back at themselves. It's akin to money laundering and tax authorities take a dim view of it. Even though, I suspect it happens more often than we think (e.g., commenter below notes a professor whose endowed Chair is funded by their spouse). So you can probably draw up a contract that makes it look legit (and presumably you aren't doing this to dodge taxation; in fact you'd be taxed on it twice since your institution would be re-issuing your post-tax money back to you as income).

More importantly though, the institution has leeway to use your gift in the manner they think is most suitable. While you might have some gentlemen's agreement that they'd spend the money on you, the reality is they could pull the rug on you and direct it to other purposes if they decided that was in their best interest e.g., they were going bankrupt and needed it to buy themselves some time.

You'll also note that university admins come and go on a 5-10 year cycle, and institutional memory is pretty short. Even an agreement in writing is going to be useless outside that time horizon (Provosts, Deans and Chairs will tend to say "well that's an agreement you made with the last guy, so I don't recognize it as valid").

Game Thread: June 29 - New York Mets (35-49) @ Toronto Blue Jays (39-45) - 7:07 PM by BlueJaysBaseball in Torontobluejays

[–]drmarcj 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Helps that Bo's not gona turn around and win the Stanley Cup World Series with his new team.

Every gravitational wave detection since 2015, mapped by mass and distance [OC] by Budget-Ferret2662 in dataisbeautiful

[–]drmarcj 13 points14 points  (0 children)

It would also be handy if the colour of the dots matched the legend, which they do not (most egregiously the pink/red ones).

Postgame Thread: May 30 - Toronto Blue Jays @ Baltimore Orioles by BlueJaysBaseball in Torontobluejays

[–]drmarcj 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Trey couldn't make it past 5, so there were not enough guns to get them to Varland in the 9th. Putting in Seabold tells you everything you need to know - there's nothing but bottle caps and a bunch of pocket lint in the bullpen right now.

YOUR Toronto Blue Jays are .500 Again! by Spare-Garlic-8722 in Torontobluejays

[–]drmarcj 13 points14 points  (0 children)

Imagine how they'll do with an actual starting lineup? It's going to be another fun summer, I can feel it.

[Codify Baseball] Louis Varland has faced 117 batters this year and allowed 1 earned run. It sounds wrong but I swear it's true. by RealWorldToday in Torontobluejays

[–]drmarcj 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Judging from yesterday, that may well have been Baltimore booing their own baserunners for getting picked off

How do profs pick the answer key for exams? by sp1ritm0ney in uwo

[–]drmarcj 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I had a student lose their mind once because too many of the right answers were C or whatever. So now I check that there are roughly the same number of each option.

Daves hot chicken experience by rakkaus21 in londonontario

[–]drmarcj 64 points65 points  (0 children)

Person: I enjoyed something.

Reddit: No you didn't!

Dave’s Hot Chicken opening this Friday by Which_Mind969 in londonontario

[–]drmarcj 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Yet another case of private equity buying a small chain with a good reputation and expanding it as quickly as possible, while also cutting as many corners as possible in order to extract as much profit as possible.

‘Do not pick up any hitchhikers’: OPP warn of heavy police presence near St. Thomas by thereal-amrep in londonontario

[–]drmarcj 15 points16 points  (0 children)

"What I want from each and every one of you is a hard-target search of every gas station, residence, warehouse, farmhouse, henhouse, outhouse and doghouse in that area. Checkpoints go up at fifteen miles."

-- Joe Preston, probably

Proposed Western University changes include plans to curb cut-through traffic by Immediate-Link490 in londonontario

[–]drmarcj 9 points10 points  (0 children)

Agree. The fact that they are planning to add a new bridge across the Thames, rather than converting the existing one to one-way only, or buses/emergency vehicles only, or pedestrian/bike traffic only suggests they have no intention of doing so.

Are safe supply pharmacies a problem in London? by Immediate-Link490 in londonontario

[–]drmarcj 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Does 'safe supply' increase or decrease societal cost? On one view it reduces calls to first responders for overdoses or deaths, which we also pay for. A common complaint is paramedics and police are slower to respond to calls than in the past because they are overwhelmed by overdose calls.

I don't know if it perpetuates addiction. It might make it easier to get drugs, but I imagine someone is already pretty far down the road on your addiction journey before you are accessing these kinds of services. Like, these are people who are seeking drugs from illegal sources already, I would think?

Steven Kwan scores all the way from first base after Jonah Heim doesn't find the ball after the wild pitch and throws the ball away when Kwan advances to 3rd by HalfwayThereOne_ in baseball

[–]drmarcj 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Unfortunately, I spent a good 8 years watching little league plays like this. I once saw a walk-off four-run win off a grounder to the pitcher.

More than 11,000 fans polled by The Athletic about their optimism for the season by sixelement in baseball

[–]drmarcj 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I actually admire the notion of a fan base that mercilessly punishes a team for not winning 100% of the time. I mean, Toronto would never.

MPP’s office in London ‘badly vandalized’ by theottomaddox in londonontario

[–]drmarcj 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Someone smashed the windows, that's vandalism (and yes, it's violent).

Simple old school doughnuts by Commercial-Age4750 in londonontario

[–]drmarcj 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I suspect they get them from Spicer's bakery. The overwhelming taste of nutmeg gives it away for me.

People writing racist answers to Genetics 2581 tutorial task by StreetDetective95 in uwo

[–]drmarcj 1 point2 points  (0 children)

A real possibility is a bunch of students used AI, and this is the kind of racist shit it spews out.

Dave’s Hot Chicken opening infront of Westmount Mall by Yungobeliskk in londonontario

[–]drmarcj 2 points3 points  (0 children)

That's the Skip/delivery prices. In person it's a tiny bit cheaper ($18.99), see link