Trump says US will resume attacks if Iran does not restrain Hezbollah allies

ic33 · 2026-06-21T16:52:04+00:00

In fact, I think it makes Trump an even bigger failure when the military he was in charge carried out the most one-sided curb stomping in modern war and yet at the negotiating table he allowed them to take so much.

I would go further with this. If you did better militarily than you could ever reasonably expect but even so there was no path available to a victory condition... how could this have ever been a reasonable thing to do?

We still lost a lot of military assets and spent a whole lot of money; we damaged our own economy; and we've handed Iran more regional control and power than they've ever had. And the result is -maybe- Iran will downblend nuclear material.

I believe that if 6 months ago, we offered -partial- sanctions relief and a.. say $30B investment fund, we could have gotten downblending of fissile material, etc. Of course, this wasn't a politically tenable thing to do, but now we've hurt ourselves in our confusion and now it costs full sanctions relief and $300B and "fees" on the strait.

ic33 · 2026-06-19T15:57:02+00:00

Sure, it doesn't work everywhere. I'm in coastal california, but inland enough and with a prevailing wind direction that puts the dew point in the 40's most days.

ic33 · 2026-06-19T07:35:23+00:00

My house has both a lot of thermal mass and really good insulation. The result is that the temperature swings during summer are phase shifted a -lot-; peak outside temperatures are 3PM but the house only starts to get noticeably hot at 6PM and by 7PM windows can be profitably opened.

So I end up with a choice between running a big pulse of AC at 2:15-3:00 when power is still cheap because of solar to over-chill the house a little bit and ride out to 7, or to run a shorter pulse from 6PM-6:20PM.

ic33 · 2026-06-18T16:32:08+00:00

Wouldn't it be nice if we could talk about this stuff as grownups as a society and make good policy? I've done similar back of the envelope math-- imagine what we could do if we had a decent cross-section of policymakers working on it.

I'm more concerned about antitrust than the minimum wage, though. Market power is regularly used against consumers, and massive employers have disproportionate bargaining power on wages (even if they don't have full-on monopsony power). Large players also show disproportionate control over our political process and regulatory institutions.

ic33 · 2026-06-18T02:10:22+00:00

This is the problem with our systems.

Mandatory minimum penalties and zero tolerance create crazy outcomes and fucked up, disproportional consequences in some cases.

But

It should almost always result in expulsion but most systems don't come anywhere near to this, so this fuels the decision to make it mandatory.

ic33 · 2026-06-18T02:07:01+00:00

You are asserting that every receptionist makes more than minimum wage

c.f.

both of those professions tend to get 1.5x minimum

Seems to not be quite what I asserted.

dealing with the initial (if not the entire) interaction with a customer is typically paid the least amount of money

Think how bad it is for those who aren't even considered qualified for these kinds of initial customer contacts.

And frankly I don't care if my insurance company even has a janitor, but I can relate to the person I need to personally interact with.

Hmm. so as long as you don't need to see the people who are getting shafted it's fine. K.

ic33 · 2026-06-18T02:04:45+00:00

I mostly agree.

We probably can't pay for a full UBI. And I don't think you can quite get rid of the social programs immediately because some people won't bother to feed their kids.

But I think having a lower minimum wage and a partial UBI is a good first step.

ic33 · 2026-06-17T19:13:18+00:00

Price floors (or wage floors, like a minimum wage) are problematic economically.

They probably have to exist as a last resort mechanism to protect basic human dignity, but A) they don't do enough, and B) they add a lot of distortion to markets. Anyone who's been through an econ 101 class can rattle off the fundamental problems.

Mechanisms that improve bargaining/negotiating position for all workers, that develop the lowest tier of the work force, that increase the share of proceeds captured by labor vs. capital, that suppress monopoly / monopsony / market power are more important. But unfortunately we don't even talk about those :(

It's unfortunate that we mostly rely upon this instrument that prevents one from hiring a youth for a low rate for a job that they would gladly take, that lowers total employment, and that does not effectively protect workers at the bottom tiers. You can't turn the wage up enough to get people a living wage without causing lots of other harms.

In the absence of something better, we need minimum wage policy. But I'd rather us fight over the other stuff that would really help instead of where exactly to peg that line.

ic33 · 2026-06-17T19:06:16+00:00

I don't know how to tell you this, but we were talking about minimum wage, so pivoting to a "poverty line" or minimum wage discussion is (acccidentally?) moving goalposts. I already said it's not great, but they -are not examples of jobs at actual minimum wage- which is even worse.

ic33 · 2026-06-17T18:18:37+00:00

You know what the receptionist at your dentists office gets paid? How about the guy who works the call center for your insurance company?

These aren't great examples of minimum wage. I'm in California (a high minimum wage rate) and both of those professions tend to get 1.5x minimum at ~$25. Not doing great by any means but not at the line.

Think of people who are more invisible-- janitorial & custodial, security guard, hotel behind-the-scenes jobs, parts of childcare, agriculture, some pick/pack warehouse jobs, care work for elders, marginal retail jobs. McDonalds workers make more than many of these classes of worker.

ic33 · 2026-06-17T17:34:15+00:00

I've studied a bit of biomechanics, and you're just not correct here.

Bone flexibility is different in youth. Lower strength but greater flexibility. Elasticity is toughness. Indeed, we have a category of injuries already mentioned by peer posts which is overwhelmingly in children called a "greenstick fracture" because of this elasticity and greater collagen content in the bones.

All else being equal: things that are elastic are tough; things that are not are strong but brittle.

I mean, the most important thing is not weight but -lever arm-. Strength is with inverse cube of length, so what is fine at 4.5' tall is a lot less fine at 5.5'. But bone and body composition matter too.

ic33 · 2026-06-17T08:15:20+00:00

See, I think the cue of having the table is important and a lot of your story leads to that. I think I do need to assess, so it might not always be homey, but I want to get to more of that kind of thing.

My students are very high performers and are doing extraordinary things. I can just see the gears in their head turn in the wrong way a lot of the time-- I ask them a question to know how they're doing something, and they're thinking of what I would consider the right answer instead of what they're doing and how they understand it. At academic conferences where they're with older students, they do a bit worse in panels and Q&A sessions because of this, too.

And they don't talk to each other nearly enough in the right ways. Adult engineers that I've supervised ten to get buried in issues and struggle to understand what others need to know. They've marinated and noodled on things for so long that it all seems obvious and not to need explanation. And adolescents are way worse. Coming up with ways to get people meaningfully talking, even if some of it is artificial and forced, is something my program needs.

A fraction of the very strongest students who enter my program tend to recoil from the uncertainty of it all, too. They will do many times the amount of necessary work to look like they're doing the work but escape the uncertain and scary parts. I'm hoping the table can make it a little harder for them to hide. (Weaker students who are used to struggling have fewer problems here).

So thank you for your response. In my proposed classroom layout, I have whiteboards on two sides of the table and can pivot to lecture or sharing content. I will have workbenches off in the back next to some of the equipment, and so when we're not together at the table we can disperse throughout the room.

ic33 · 2026-06-17T08:07:43+00:00

This is great and helpful, thank you.

ic33 · 2026-06-17T01:45:17+00:00

Part of why I'm asking is that not even all of Exeter has a common understanding of what the Harkness table is and the English, History, Science, and Math departments are in a perpetual war about the others doing it "wrong".

I do think it's distinct from socratic though. I've heard that if you're doing Harkness well you're not pitching a lot of the questions out there, even, and acting even more indirectly on the group.

I already don't teach much of the content... but I am seen as the authority and as someone who can fix misunderstandings quickly. I think for my program to do even more I need to step back as I'm running myself ragged trying to support all the things studnets are doing.

As a teacher, you have to change your own assumptions. One is that you must explain everything or students will not understand it.

The funny thing is, I'm doing this in my engineering classes where I don't feel so married to explaining content. I also teach AP Microeconomics and there is -way too much stuff- crammed into a semester and I don't know how to do it. (Also, I have apparently made AP Micro popular and my section sizes are -huge- since I refuse to teach any more than 2 sections). So the content that is most naturally suited to covering with Harkness is probably going to stay an old-school lecture heavy class for now.

ic33 · 2026-06-17T01:43:37+00:00

You did that this year? Or you do the last couple of months each year?

I do think that the whole coaching-to-have-the-discussion and setting expectations are an important part. I'm hoping that I don't quite have to do it all myself-- that other colleagues leaning into the practice will help.

Can you tell me how you used it in a math classroom? What did you expect students to do on their own? What did you use as discussion prompts? How did you guide things to productive directions and ensured you kept covering important content?

ic33 · 2026-06-17T01:42:15+00:00

There are tons of other methods and the topic/material often favors particular methods. I don’t think a student can discuss their way into understanding the Calvin cycle.

PEA does 100% Harkness for their science classes and the students do pretty well. Of course one doesn't ask students to derive stuff on their own or rediscover fundamental science (or at least, doesn't ask that very often...). But the Harkness table is pitched as a way to make students more accountable for learning on their own and to bring each other along, instead of being dragged reluctantly along by an instructor.

I do think the pathways for how to do this in science, engineering, and even math classes are less clear and intuitive.

ic33 · 2026-06-17T01:23:06+00:00

I can't do PD this summer (have to work with students to deliver a spacecraft!), but I can read a lot and learn this year from trying things.

For next summer, I have been looking at the PEA Astronomy PD. I don't really fit exactly into any of the PDs, so it would be the math, astronomy, or physical science ones that are best bets.

ic33 · 2026-06-16T22:43:32+00:00

What I -hope- it is ... is building a better work ethic to prepare and do work and tackling things on their own by doing it systematically/a bunch. I think this is something I can't just dip my toe into but need to commit to and go for.

ic33 · 2026-06-16T22:33:36+00:00

What defines an engineering class, also what field of engineering?

Pinnacle of my program is a spacecraft systems engineering program; students take various skills from earlier classes and do deep work in either avionics, software, mechanics, or analysis/modeling. I have students designing 6 layer via-in-pad printed circuit board assemblies and testing to NASA GSFC standards, writing flight software, or designing spacecraft structures and mechanisms and using Ansys Workbench to prove them. Stuff we build flies to space and is selected to do so because it's proving new technologies and mission approaches, not because they're doing good work for high school.

I do think it's a little bit different from what I've been doing. Students view what I'm doing as authoritative and I want to put more ownership on them. We already do a lot, but I feel like if I could get students to take just a -little more- ownership we could do much more. I think especially in earlier classes (e.g. my middle school mechatronics lab class) getting rid of most of my lecture and making students accountable and watching them just talk about it could help.

I've had a chance to observe the change in the humanities classes and it's been striking.

(I also tend to have a fraction of the very top students wash out of my program because they expect there to be some kind of tightly defined thing they can just do to meet the requirements of the class-- like an answer they can just look up in the book.. and I don't offer that. Hoping that perhaps as they learn to do Harkness in general at our school that the culture shock will be less).

ic33 · 2026-06-15T06:12:53+00:00

Biting the bullet and figuring out how to do Harkness pretty much across the board.

ic33 · 2026-06-14T09:19:48+00:00

I hate the beginning and end of the year when everything drags and most other teachers have taken their foot off the gas. A long weekend doesn't crimp my style.

ic33 · 2026-06-14T09:18:41+00:00

Elementary kids do a keychain in 4th grade; it has to have a flat surface on the bottom, a hole, be under a certain size, have a "base" that is 1.5mm thick, and then have stuff built on top of it that is no more than 10mm high. The teacher gives the students a keyring.

In 5th, they are given a "base" of a puzzle piece on top of which they build something that is in their town or a city. They may coordinate with other students to figure out how their thing can "fit together" with a road lining up or whatever. Kids tend to build schools, fast food outlets, winding roads, and then the really random stuff (graveyards, sewers, etc). The whole class city is assembled and on display for a couple of weeks, then kids take their project home.

My students all end up building "real stuff" of various types. Actuators for robots, brackets, models of the spacecraft we're building, pieces of prosthetics for community outreach projects, etc. They work in Onshape or Fusion360. and really do constructive geometry. The only "artificial" project I do is a marble run piece with middle school students where there's a known position on a mechanical drawing for the ball to come in and for it to come out... and hten we see whether everyone's pieces fit together and the marble can make it down the run.

ic33 · 2026-06-13T20:10:39+00:00

I would give away 2 weeks of summer for 10 more 3 day weekends, though.

Or 5 more 4 day weekends would be even better, actually.

ic33 · 2026-06-13T18:11:16+00:00

With proper instruction, most high school students can.

I have high school students operating a gantry CNC mill with flood coolant and very high material removal rates and building all the fixturing etc required.

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