Re: Alice's Adventures in Numberland

1

You buried the lede. She used to be at Ohio State, like all good people.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 10- 2-17 7:59 AM
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2

I wish those stories were dated. I mean, they're all bizarre as taking place any time after 1980. but I'd love to know which of them had taken place even more recently than that.


Posted by: LizardBreath | Link to this comment | 10- 2-17 8:02 AM
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3

2: Someday, that will be the epigram for a history of the Trump administration.


Posted by: Mossy Character | Link to this comment | 10- 2-17 8:06 AM
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4

I just read the first couple and they are good and infuriating stories.

The urinal post reminded me of Alyssa Mastromonaco's story about getting a tampon dispenser installed in the White House

Though it's changing, there aren't a ton of women in the West Wing, and many have already gone through menopause. Those of us who still got our periods developed an understanding that it was cool to rifle through someone's bag or drawer for a Tampax while she was out. Still, it wasn't uncommon to find yourself in a code red.

...

That day was extremely busy, and I exhausted my tampon supply. As the dinner approached, I realized I needed to change my tampon--soon. I began to panic. Neither my deputy, Danielle Crutchfield, nor the girls downstairs had anything to help me. The toilet paper wasn't absorbent, so you couldn't do the thing where you roll it around your underwear. I'd have to run to CVS. No luck. A meeting ran long, POTUS had a question to research. I ran out of time and barely made it to dinner. Then someone said something funny, and my "Ha!" turned to "Oh, my God, no no no." I began to bleed through my favorite pants--J. Crew blue-and-white houndstooth capris. Of all the women at the table, probably four of us still got our periods; I knew they didn't have tampons because I'd already asked. I told my friend Kathy Ruemmler, who was White House counsel, what was happening. She escorted me to my car, where I bled on the seat as I made my getaway.

The next day, it became my mission to get a tampon dispenser for the women's restroom. If we were serious about bringing more women into politics, the West Wing should have a basic level of comfort. There was no objection to my proposal--it just seemed like no one had thought of it.

A couple of weeks later, I walked into the senior-staff meeting--populated by 20 or 25 people, including a lot of men--in the Roosevelt Room, a stately space where FDR once kept an aquarium. Today it's decorated in subtle beiges, with a painting of Teddy in Rough Riders gear and a little statue of a buffalo. It was here I announced that the West Wing would be installing a tampon dispenser in the women's room that day. No one said a word, but it felt really good.

Posted by: NickS | Link to this comment | 10- 2-17 9:02 AM
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5

I wish those stories were dated

Well, this happened in 2012.


Posted by: Abraham Lincoln | Link to this comment | 10- 2-17 9:39 AM
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6

So, how did that work out for you?


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 10- 2-17 9:46 AM
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7

I was about to ask 6, hoping that there was a good or at least not-bad outcome.


Posted by: lw | Link to this comment | 10- 2-17 9:48 AM
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8

I'm really nosy.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 10- 2-17 9:49 AM
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9

5

Wow.


Posted by: Buttercup | Link to this comment | 10- 2-17 10:15 AM
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10

Looking back at 5 still amazes me. I've done a lot of employment discrimination defense, and if a client of mine had ever been up against a plaintiff with facts that strong, we would have surrendered abjectly in a heartbeat.


Posted by: LizardBreath | Link to this comment | 10- 2-17 12:01 PM
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11

What happens if (when?) the sexual harassers starts harassing the lawyer defending him or his employer?


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 10- 2-17 12:06 PM
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12

I'm trying to think of a way to create a Matryoshka doll of lawsuits.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 10- 2-17 12:13 PM
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13

5: did it turn out that all of the faculty in that department were aware of that policy, or was it sort of unilaterally enforced by a department chair or DGS who steered students away from the harasser (without everyone else necessarily knowing about it)? I can imagine departments where people quietly like to pretend that problems don't exist, but I'm curious about how they end up with a(n official?) rule that acknowledges the problem but doesn't really solve it.


Posted by: essear | Link to this comment | 10- 2-17 12:29 PM
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14

I'm an expert at pretending problems don't exist. Step 1 of pretending problems don't exist is "Don't tell the people on whom you are imposing the costs of the solution to the problem that they are being hurt because of the problem."


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 10- 2-17 12:33 PM
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15

For that, you need to find an expert in pretending nobody cares about the problem.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 10- 2-17 12:39 PM
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16

||

NMM to Tom Petty.

Somewhat on topic because of that music video.

|>


Posted by: Barry Freed | Link to this comment | 10- 2-17 12:39 PM
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That was what threw me about 5! 14 is excellent advice for dirtbag organizations, but they fucked up and told her what was going on!


Posted by: LizardBreath | Link to this comment | 10- 2-17 12:39 PM
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18

It's actually more like step 2 or 3. But still, it's not an optional step.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 10- 2-17 12:41 PM
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19

||

The title of the OP makes me think of Alice In Puzzleland (sample chapter available here (via)).

|>


Posted by: NickS | Link to this comment | 10- 2-17 1:32 PM
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20

The title of the OP made me think of a Simpsons episode.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 10- 2-17 1:38 PM
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21

16: huh. He's sort of a hometown hero but also supposedly an ass, but who isn't. Younger me would be upset but older me is not in touch with my younger self on Tom Petty.


Posted by: heebie-geebie | Link to this comment | 10- 2-17 1:39 PM
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22

Young heebie was an American girl.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 10- 2-17 1:43 PM
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23

I CAN HEAR THE CARS ON OLD 441 LIKE THE WAVES CRASHING ON THE BEACH FOR BREAKFAST.


Posted by: heebie-geebie | Link to this comment | 10- 2-17 1:46 PM
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24

I don't get it.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 10- 2-17 1:54 PM
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25

It's looking more and more like Bob Dylan will be the only member of the Traveling Wilburys to get a Nobel.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 10- 2-17 2:10 PM
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26

16: It looks like there might be a small window left. LAPD retracted its statement on Petty.


Posted by: Minivet | Link to this comment | 10- 2-17 2:12 PM
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27

Why is LAPD issuing statements on this? Did they shoot him?


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 10- 2-17 2:17 PM
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28

5 etc: For my sins, I get to play a management-side role in dealing with the resident Title IX problem in my current organization. To our collective credit, the people pushing hardest for a lasting solution are (some of the) faculty, and no one pushes back when I point out that being a good researcher and working effectively with male grad students does not mean we can solve the problem by warning away women, but people can get smarter about avoiding sanctionable conduct without becoming any less toxic.


Posted by: Barack Hussein Obama | Link to this comment | 10- 2-17 2:21 PM
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29

How many genocides did you do?


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 10- 2-17 2:25 PM
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30

but people can get smarter about avoiding sanctionable conduct without becoming any less toxic.

Change we can believe in.


Posted by: AcademicLurker | Link to this comment | 10- 2-17 2:28 PM
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31

No formal statement was ever given; they just now tweeted "Initial information was inadvertantly [sic] provided to some media sources". It looks like the sheriff's department, not PD, is the proper source. Not sure the basis, but neither his attack nor hospitalization was in LA City.


Posted by: Minivet | Link to this comment | 10- 2-17 2:28 PM
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32

29: I am a lawyer and a university administrator. That's not quite Hitler, Stalin, and Pol Pot, but apparently I'm getting closer.


Posted by: BHO | Link to this comment | 10- 2-17 2:31 PM
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33

Tom Petty was attacked?


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 10- 2-17 2:33 PM
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34

This is how the Russians are able to take over. It was a heart attack.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 10- 2-17 2:34 PM
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35

Tom Petty and the Broken Heart.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 10- 2-17 2:36 PM
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36

Objectively, somebody had to do that.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 10- 2-17 2:36 PM
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37

19, 20: I thought the title of the OP was referring to how this morning's headlines made me feel compared to yesterday.


Posted by: Todd | Link to this comment | 10- 2-17 2:48 PM
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38

35. So the band finally won.


Posted by: md 20/400 | Link to this comment | 10- 2-17 3:56 PM
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39

It worked out fine. Another professor with oodles of grant money invited me to be his student, I graduated, I got a private sector sellout job and am working on living happily ever after.


Posted by: Abraham Lincoln | Link to this comment | 10- 2-17 4:30 PM
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40

Is Stephan Douglas still free to sexually harass his way out of mentoring half the students?


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 10- 2-17 4:48 PM
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41

But I'm not dead yet!


Posted by: Opinionated Tom Petty | Link to this comment | 10- 2-17 4:54 PM
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42

Can I just say, if we can't ban guns, can we ban white men?


Posted by: Buttercup | Link to this comment | 10- 2-17 4:56 PM
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43

There's a big difference between mostly dead and all dead.


Posted by: Opinionated Miracle Max | Link to this comment | 10- 2-17 4:57 PM
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44

She was an assistant prof from 1984-1990, so that puts a date range on some of the stories.


Posted by: Unfoggetarian: "Pause endlessly, then go in." (9) | Link to this comment | 10- 2-17 5:16 PM
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45

She was working as an assistant professor in a land-grant school,
when he met her.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 10- 2-17 5:32 PM
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46

42: The only thing that can stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy who can make a head-shot with a pistol at 400 yards firing into a dark room with a gun.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 10- 2-17 5:37 PM
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47

The only thing that can stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy who can make a head-shot with a pistol at 400 yards firing into a dark room with a gun.

Apparently one of the members of the band wrote about the limitations of trying to use a firearm in self-defense in that case.

I've been a proponent of the 2nd amendment my entire life.

Until the events of last night. I cannot express how wrong I was. We actually have members of our crew with CHL licenses and legal firearms on the bus.

They were useless.

We couldn't touch them for fear police might think that we were part of the massacre and shoot us. A small group (or one man) laid waste to a city with dedicated, fearless police officers, desperately trying to help, because of access to an insane amount of fire power.

Enough is enough. . . .


Posted by: NickS | Link to this comment | 10- 2-17 6:00 PM
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48

47: Kind of amazing that it took actually getting shot at to figure that out.


Posted by: DaveLHI | Link to this comment | 10- 2-17 7:25 PM
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49

45: What could be a better place than a land-grant school?


Posted by: LizardBreath | Link to this comment | 10- 2-17 7:28 PM
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50

UC-Irvine, apparently.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 10- 2-17 7:31 PM
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51

Shit. Also a land-grant school. Who knew California had that?


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 10- 2-17 7:40 PM
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52

I'm surprised that anyone is surprised that these stories are recent. I got my PhD in 2015. It's only last year that a long-time sexual harasser was forced to retire. There had been an official university policy that he was not allowed to have students over to his house or to have drinks with students, but this had not been enforced at all. None of the students of my generation knew that this was even a policy, because a lot of us had done that and put up with creepy behavior. The faculty knew of the policy but did nothing to enforce it. The only reason he was finally forced to retire is that for independent reasons, none of the current students are working with him, so when they got fed up with him, there was no internal opposition in the student community to mobilize to get rid of him. Plus, a few exceptional individuals worked really hard to make a good case against him. A lot of his former students were really pissed when they learned about his being forced out, because they felt it would reflect badly on them. The old boys' club aspect of academia makes it really hard to shit on people who are terrible people but whom you rely on for your career.

Also, I suspect I suffered retaliation from reporting some other professor for sexual harassment, but I can't prove it.

And yeah, just look up any of the recent incidents of sexual harassment in philosophy. A lot of these people still have jobs after doing much worse things than related in the article.

I've also experienced that anecdote about people who think they are really pro-diversity but only make offers to white men. A certain institution is advertising for the same job, in my field, for the third year in a row. I went to this department's events on a semi-regular basis and they liked to present as super self-aware about implicit bias and so on. Last year, they interviewed only white men who had inferior CVs to mine. Like, strictly fewer publications and fewer (and less prestigious) awards. Then, the white men all rejected them. The same thing had happened the year before, and they'd complained with a total lack of self-awareness about how unfortunate they have been in their searches. The only non-white male philosopher in their dept is never on the hiring committees for reasons out of her control, and she apologized to my woman friend for how the search went.


Posted by: Ponder Stibbons | Link to this comment | 10- 2-17 7:58 PM
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53

52.4 Jesus that's bad.


Posted by: Barry Freed | Link to this comment | 10- 2-17 8:17 PM
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54

Then, the white men all rejected them.

We found a manic pixie dream university who taught us how to life to the fullest.


Posted by: Opinionated White Man | Link to this comment | 10- 2-17 8:25 PM
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55

God, that Vegas cluster. Vegas is similar what this guy was trying to pull. Our guy was trying to get up to high ground in the Grand America Hotel but fortunately one of the ladies at the front that day was one of our retired secretaries who recognized he was acting off and basically pushed him out the door and locked it. Our suspect also had a long gun and several hundred rounds on him. I was very close to that call and helped swarm that scene. If he'd gotten high ground like he wanted there's a pretty good chance I'd be dead.


Posted by: gswift | Link to this comment | 10- 2-17 8:36 PM
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56

This guy was practically a whale. I bet a hotel in Vegas isn't going to be as eager to notice that as a hotel in SLC.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 10- 2-17 8:44 PM
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57

Anyway, it's good they stopped him so quickly. I don't know what you can do about a place like Vegas. When I was there this spring, I was at a different hotel, but it was easy to check in and out without talking to a single human hotel employee.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 10- 2-17 8:47 PM
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58

OK, NMM to Tom Petty, for real this time.


Posted by: Minivet | Link to this comment | 10- 2-17 9:22 PM
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59

Are you sure?


Posted by: Opinionated Abe Vigoda | Link to this comment | 10- 2-17 9:26 PM
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60

|| So, it's snowing. |>


Posted by: CharleyCarp | Link to this comment | 10- 2-17 11:20 PM
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61

I stayed in that hotel last year, for a wedding in the suite that, based on photos, was three floors right above the shooter's room. I remember looking out the windows, with their excellent view, and being surprised that there were empty lots so close to the strip.


Posted by: dalriata | Link to this comment | 10- 3-17 7:01 AM
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62

Some fucks are going to ask to stay in the mass murder room because people are horrible. I suppose the hotel might refuse to rent it out again.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 10- 3-17 7:05 AM
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63

Or charge extra. I mean, Vegas, right?


Posted by: Mossy Character | Link to this comment | 10- 3-17 7:07 AM
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64

|| So, it's snowing. |>

I killed four mosquitoes inside my car while driving to work this morning, no joke.


Posted by: heebie-geebie | Link to this comment | 10- 3-17 7:19 AM
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65

How many people did you run down while so engaged?


Posted by: Mossy Character | Link to this comment | 10- 3-17 7:38 AM
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66

It's no joke. That's how I will die, in a car crash because there are mosquitoes in the car.


Posted by: heebie-geebie | Link to this comment | 10- 3-17 8:00 AM
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67

Do you roll up the windows at night?


Posted by: Mossy Character | Link to this comment | 10- 3-17 8:01 AM
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68

OT: Why does the internet think I should smell like Jon Snow talking to a bunch of working class Italians?


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 10- 3-17 9:10 AM
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69

Why do you think the internet thinks you should smell like Jon Snow talking to a bunch of working class Italians?


Posted by: LizardBreath | Link to this comment | 10- 3-17 9:12 AM
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70

Sheer repetition.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 10- 3-17 9:12 AM
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71

Do Italians even exist in Westeros?


Posted by: Mossy Character | Link to this comment | 10- 3-17 9:15 AM
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72

Maybe they are Russians? It's a Dolce and Gabbana ad. I think I might be the least Dolce and Gabbana person around.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 10- 3-17 9:16 AM
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73

Definitely Italian. Has anyone ever spent so much money making such a terrible ad?


Posted by: Mossy Character | Link to this comment | 10- 3-17 9:29 AM
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74

Pepsi?


Posted by: Opinionated Kendall Jenner | Link to this comment | 10- 3-17 9:31 AM
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75

In seven series of that programme, Jon Snow has been conscripted, ridden about five hundred miles, climbed a two hundred foot cliff, been stabbed, stabbed loads of other people, punched some people, had a lot of sex, fallen in the mud a lot, been in a fire and wrestled with a zombie. Throughout these events, which cover a period of (I would guess) at least eighteen months, he has changed his clothes twice and taken one (1) bath. I don't think you should want to smell like him, whatever the internet says.


Posted by: ajay | Link to this comment | 10- 3-17 9:59 AM
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76

And now he's marrying a dead woman with whom he had a lot of sex while she was alive- dude just can't let go.


Posted by: SP | Link to this comment | 10- 3-17 10:02 AM
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77

I'm glad it worked out for you, AL, but I take it there were no changes to the department policy? Or were there?

That thread brings back memories. My first impulse was to wish it were 2012 again -- but I don't think I really want the personal-life questions that are settled now to be unsettled again. The real question is: five years from now, how would I want to have spent the last five years? That's the "do-over" you actually get to do. Oh, it's so much less fun when it's not fantasy.


Posted by: lurid keyaki | Link to this comment | 10- 3-17 10:15 AM
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78

52 et al: I've recently designated myself as the official pain in the ass about our local organization that just can't see why they shouldn't continue to employ known harassers. I'm tenured, I'm sick of it, and I'll make time for this.
The demoralizing thing - well, beyond that they're pulling this shit in public view, that they're making wholly insufficient attempts to make up for it in other ways (as though that even makes sense?), and that I don't have a lot of company in this new position - is that I probably won't get anywhere, but I can't let it go.


Posted by: antipodestrian | Link to this comment | 10- 3-17 10:23 AM
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79

77.2: I know. With the recent sale of my Cleveland place, I feel like the disruption to my life caused by moving to a different university in 2012 has only just finally been settled.

OT: do we need a Nobel thread? LIGO wasn't much of a surprise. Any bets on CRISPR for Chemistry tomorrow? I'm guessing there won't be a CRISPR prize awarded until the patent fight is settled.


Posted by: AcademicLurker | Link to this comment | 10- 3-17 10:34 AM
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80

Will they still award the Nobel in this, the After Time?


Posted by: Barry Freed | Link to this comment | 10- 3-17 10:52 AM
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81

For you, Academic Lurker, I don't think you do the twitter thing but recently recall you mentioning a penchant for things Austrian-Hungarian and WWI

https://twitter.com/PikeGrey1418


Posted by: Barry Freed | Link to this comment | 10- 3-17 10:55 AM
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82

78: I hope you have an impact.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 10- 3-17 10:59 AM
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83

I would have said with utter confidence that was from WWII. Dunning-Kruger.


Posted by: Mossy Character | Link to this comment | 10- 3-17 10:59 AM
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84

80: IKR? Merkel and Macron will share the Peace prize. The lit prize will go to George R. R. Martin. The Economics prize money will be paid in Bitcoin.


Posted by: lurid keyaki | Link to this comment | 10- 3-17 11:00 AM
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85

81: Cool. Thanks.

84: Surely the Nobel committee should require that George R. R. Martin finish the damn series before they give him the prize.


Posted by: AcademicLurker | Link to this comment | 10- 3-17 11:06 AM
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86

Martin is clearly not going to finish before he dies and you can't give the Nobel to dead people.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 10- 3-17 11:07 AM
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87

They gave one to BHO before he even finished the first volume. Even granting that the series ended up twice the length initially planned, that was just ridiculous.


Posted by: Mossy Character | Link to this comment | 10- 3-17 11:11 AM
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88

I don't think they should have done that. Foreigners try too hard to encourage our better instincts.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 10- 3-17 11:13 AM
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89

And he went over and gave a lecture defending war. That'll teach 'em.


Posted by: Mossy Character | Link to this comment | 10- 3-17 11:18 AM
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90

I doubt CRISPR yet. Smart money is on John Goodenough for Li ion batteries, if only so people will stop making the joke every year that he wasn't Good Enough. Potentially they'll go chemistry as medicine for immuno oncology.


Posted by: SP | Link to this comment | 10- 3-17 11:27 AM
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Any bets on CRISPR for Chemistry tomorrow?

God, the thought of someone my age (slightly younger, even) being a serious Nobel contender is terrifying. Why do I even bother to show up at work?


Posted by: essear | Link to this comment | 10- 3-17 12:13 PM
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92

I hope it's not because you can sexually harass there.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 10- 3-17 12:18 PM
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93

If I win the lottery, it goes on my vita as "Statistically Exceptional Performance Award, State of Pennsylvania."


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 10- 3-17 12:20 PM
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