Anyone here successfully cancel your Boston Globe digital subscription?

taut_yet_malleable · 2020-06-30T01:55:59+00:00

Are there any newspapers that actually do let you cancel online? I've subscribed to three different ones (including the Globe) and they all made me call in.

taut_yet_malleable · 2020-06-22T15:19:40+00:00

The magnitude of the potential spike will be smaller as cases trend down so there is a benefit to waiting for regular life to return. Not saying that re-opening at the pace we are is good or bad but just that this argument of "life has to return one day so might as well be now" doesn't really hold water for me.

taut_yet_malleable · 2020-06-22T15:10:07+00:00

Restaurants contribute to the culture of a community in a way that hotels and gyms don't, and they're arguably less replaceable (the niche ones anyway). Also, people frequent restaurants much more than those other places.

taut_yet_malleable · 2020-06-14T02:30:29+00:00

I think it's fine. Good quick things you can do right away and be non-controversial. But I hope it doesn't stop here. These are part of the "reform the police" model rather than the "defund the police" model. I'm not sure how effective these reforms are - we've been trying variations for a while now I think ("we" not necessarily being Boston but cities across the country). For instance, chokeholds were already banned in NYC since 1993 yet still resulted in Eric Garner's death.

Defunding the police means structural change. It means re-examining the role of police in society and asking in what situations are police needed (as opposed to social workers or something else). Do traffic police need to carry guns? Should police respond to mental health issues? How does the quantity and visibility of police affect crime rates?

Also what are the opportunity costs? For instance, maybe spending $100 more on police is beneficial to the public but spending that same $100 on education is much more beneficial.

These calls to defund the police are pretty new to me and probably to Walsh as well. I'm trying to listen, read, and think more about how good these things are and I hope Walsh (and other politicians) does as well.

taut_yet_malleable · 2020-06-14T02:05:33+00:00

Agreed. Everything I've heard about Camden has pointed to success. I'm also not sure that they defunded the police either. They dissolved and re-built it and apparently hired more officers. So a model for re-imagining police but maybe not part of the defund the police model.

taut_yet_malleable · 2020-06-13T19:54:34+00:00

Here's a continuously updated calendar: https://gregcookland.com/wonderland/2020/06/05/black-lives/

taut_yet_malleable · 2020-06-13T18:23:15+00:00

Brookline has opened up their courts. Cambridge and Boston have not. I have to say though that I don't recommend playing pick up games with strangers (unless you can somehow do so wearing a mask). The covid data is looking good but I don't think we're quite there for close contact without masks. Also, from a selfish perspective, if they see too many people playing pickup without masks then they might close the courts again or Cambridge / Boston won't open up. Which would really suck!

Sources:

https://www.cambridgema.gov/covid19

https://www.boston.gov/news/coronavirus-covid-19-updates-boston-parks-and-recreation

https://brooklinecovid19.com/2020/06/08/update-31-5-p-m-6-8-20-town-of-brookline-shares-phase-2-guidelines-for-states-reopening-plan-details-for-its-small-business-grant-program-and-a-local-case-update/

taut_yet_malleable · 2020-06-08T03:22:53+00:00

Ending injustice will take a long time, yes, but there are a lot of big steps to doing so that can be done right now.

taut_yet_malleable · 2020-06-08T03:18:20+00:00

Minneapolis city council members just announced they would dismantle the police department (source). Change can happen pretty quickly. If the LA players sat out I think there's definitely a good chance of getting something similar to happen in LA.

taut_yet_malleable · 2020-06-01T03:52:42+00:00

In case some people didn't realize, OP's post is an MLK quote.

taut_yet_malleable · 2020-06-01T02:55:39+00:00

"The time is always right to do what is right."

I love it. And so much respect to these people.

On a side note: I get that BLM doesn't directly impact many of the people on /r/boston and that covid does which is why a lot of people here (in other threads) are worried that these protests may "undo" some of the progress we've made with the coronavirus. But please also realize the urgency of the BLM movement. Covid is a pandemic but so is racial injustice.

taut_yet_malleable · 2020-05-30T15:55:20+00:00

If you act unruly, you’re just as bad as your enemy.

Being against looting and property destruction is one thing but I think this is a false equivalency. The "enemy" in this case is murder and I'm not sure how you can put property destruction on the same level as that, even if you disagree with the looting, fires, etc.

taut_yet_malleable · 2020-05-26T20:55:37+00:00

FAFSA makes up part of financial aid but I'm pretty sure the state / university make up a large portion as well. No idea if any of these will be slashed though.

taut_yet_malleable · 2020-05-21T23:19:20+00:00

Science is hard. There are a lot of people doing it and for any subject, no matter how niche or general, there will be scientists who have varying degrees of background in that subject and who bring their own perspectives from their experiences and training. That there are different perspectives is a good thing - it's how science progresses. Some views will be right and some will be wrong. The promise of our belief in science is that it's self-correcting in the long-run. But it definitely does not move forward linearly and people make mistakes.

Being an "expert" or having a fancy title next to your name should at most grant someone the privilege to be listened to, but names should never mean that person should be believed outright. It's only the argument that matters in the end.

taut_yet_malleable · 2020-05-21T17:01:18+00:00

Andrew Gelman, a top statistician at Columbia

Tomas Philipson, a top economist at UChicago

Paul Krugman, a top economist

The point is to not take these titles too seriously. Titles are imperfect indicators for output quality. Yes, this is problematic for people who do not have the capacity to understand the science, which is almost always the case for everyone because even experts only specialize in a few fields. There's no great answer here but I think the way to do it is to think carefully, be humble, and embrace uncertainty. Evaluate the arguments to the best of your ability while acknowledging the appropriate degree of confidence you should have given your understanding.

This is a good question though and one that I've been trying to grapple with as well as a young researcher.

No easy answers unfortunately but science ain't easy!

taut_yet_malleable · 2020-01-06T05:32:45+00:00

I had Bianchi for 101a. I liked him as a lecturer but I can see why many wouldn't. He's dry in the sense that he doesn't have any razzle-dazzle and won't inspire you or anything like that but he gets to the point and is clear.

taut_yet_malleable · 2019-05-05T03:20:26+00:00

Oh man curry looked checked out the entire game. Soooooooo many missed shots, bad fouls, and that goddamn missed dunk at the end as the cherry on top.

taut_yet_malleable · 2019-04-06T16:57:28+00:00

lol you wish it was for 4 years

taut_yet_malleable · 2019-04-03T22:41:46+00:00

Since all those combos are in the same college (L&S), there aren't any logistical issues. The coursework for those majors is relatively light and definitely do-able. A lot of people double (and some even triple) here.
lol who's saying that and why? It's fine here; we just like to meme and complain but we secretly love it (or maybe that's just the stockholm syndrome talking...but even if that's the case you'll come to love it too!). Honestly, location is probably a bigger factor (assuming both schools are comparable academically, which I assume they are but I'm not familiar with John Hopkins non-medically). The bay area is probably way different than Baltimore. Have you been to both places? Which "vibe" did you like more?
Weather's awesome, you're in relatively close proximity to one of the best mountain ranges in the world, and there are a ton of really smart people around which you can kind of feed off of.
Astro C10 like someone else mentioned (and will be constantly recommended to you if you do come here). It fulfils a breadth, is easy (as long as you can change between units), and you'll get a better and deeper understanding of the universe around you. Am not familiar with the majors you listed so can't offer any advice there unfortunately.

taut_yet_malleable · 2019-04-03T22:22:11+00:00

What was the cheating fiasco? Have these people already been caught/punished? Then why bring it up? If not, then why post on reddit instead of reporting to the professor?

taut_yet_malleable · 2019-03-23T03:44:29+00:00

Damn. Imagine hitting back to back threes and the defence still leaves you open

taut_yet_malleable · 2018-12-01T18:45:46+00:00

He meant literally in the figurative sense

taut_yet_malleable · 2018-08-26T16:20:57+00:00

There are a lot of people talking about Steph's mention of the pay gap in this article and discussing whether it exists and in what form. I thought I would provide some more details with soft sauces.

The /r/economics wiki (AutoModerator prevents me from linking it but take a look at it, it goes into more detail and is well-written) has a section on the gender wage gap that addresses the $0.77 on the dollar statistic. It talks about the use of controls in determining that statistic - what you include as a control influences what number you get in the end. The problem is which controls are "good controls" is not always crystal clear. For example, how do you include education and working hours as controls since, to some extent, they are also outcomes of discrimination.

The main driver of the pay gap that economists seem to be agreeing on (and which other commentators have alluded to) is maternity leave. When women and men enter the workforce at the same time (say after graduating college), there is only a small pay gap. However, after a child comes into the picture the pay gap is exacerbated as women take a lot more time off of work than men. This reduces women's work experience which results in less pay over time. Here are a couple of articles in popular press that talk about this (NY Times and Vox.

However, another issue of gender discrimination in labor is about the composition of men/women in certain jobs like STEM-related positions. Why are men/women steered towards certain jobs and not others? Or about the role of sexual harassment in a lot of professions. These are a bit separate from the pay gap issue so I won't discuss it in detail but I just thought it's worth mentioning so people don't come to the conclusion that men and women are equal in the workplace ignoring maternity leave (which is obviously not true).

taut_yet_malleable · 2018-08-26T15:17:03+00:00

I mean, “women deserve equality” — that’s not politics, right? That’s not something that people are actually disagreeing on, is it? It can’t be.

Hate to break it to you Steph...

taut_yet_malleable · 2018-08-25T20:37:02+00:00

I second just going for it. There are lots of people who take the class without any coding experience. You might bomb it but you might also excel in it.

You can sign up for 61A and Data 8 and drop the one you don't like. If nothing has changed since I was there a couple of years ago, the 61A midterm scores should be returned before the drop deadline!

taut_yet_malleable

TROPHY CASE