jeffreyfisher

@jeffreyfisher@tldr.nettime.org

I'm a teacher/professor, researcher, and writer. I'm totally a dilettante. I can't stop thinking. Sometimes it's a problem. on Substack at https://jeffreyfisher.substack.com/

This profile is from a federated server and may be incomplete. Browse more on the original instance.

jeffreyfisher, to random

what is the algorithmic logic of Mastodon feeds? how do i get found?

petersuber, (edited ) to academia
@petersuber@fediscience.org avatar

I just declined to take part in the Global Academic Survey. The results "will inform the outcome of THE's World 2025."

If uni rankings are useful at all, it's not on reputation. We could use rankings on (say) % of students on financial aid; % of faculty tenured or tenure-track; % of tenured faculty who are women, minorities; ratio of teachers to administrators; ratio of avg faculty salary to head football coach salary…


@academicchatter

jeffreyfisher,

@petersuber @academicchatter hear! hear!

grammargirl, to random
@grammargirl@zirk.us avatar

I've been feeling overcommitted, stressed, and anxious.

So what did I just do? I listened to a video on 2x speed to try to cram in some info before lunch.

Genius move. Listening to someone talk at 2x speed is a gReAt way to relax.

jeffreyfisher,

@grammargirl I used to do this to pre-view things I was thinking of showing in class. so, yeah. I feel you.

tante, to random
@tante@tldr.nettime.org avatar

Saw a few defenses of Andreessen's fascist creed as "has basically just trolling, if you are offended that's on you and your moral failure" and sure, if nothing matters to you and everything powerful people say is "just words" that's convenient but really shows your position and cynicism.

jeffreyfisher,

@tante maybe "fascist s/creed" covers both elements

arstechnica, to random
@arstechnica@mastodon.social avatar

Google deal may have kept Apple from building search engine, exec says

Apple is contractually obligated to defend Google search deal, DOJ says.

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2023/09/google-deal-may-have-kept-apple-from-building-search-engine-exec-says/?utm_brand=arstechnica&utm_social-type=owned&utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=social

jeffreyfisher,

@arstechnica 🤣 they can all stuff it. lol

grammargirl, to random
@grammargirl@zirk.us avatar

Is anyone still using Post.News? Back in May it stopped recognizing my log-in, but I checked it on a lark this morning and now it works.

If you're there and using it, say hello.

https://post.news/@/grammargirl

jeffreyfisher,

@grammargirl I have a roughly annual pang of missing Del.icio.us. RIP. I was putting together a whole collection that I, of course, forgot about, and by the time I went to get it, there was no getting it. RIP all that, too. :-(

jeffreyfisher,

@grammargirl Yes! but it is also the possibility of tracking our thinking, and keeping track of things we want to be able to go back to as part of that. It's the lack of something like Del.icio.us and other such things that results in the utterly unsustainable browser window+tab load that my students make fun of me for! lol

jeffreyfisher,

@grammargirl I have come to the point where I think Firefox is not going anywhere any time soon, and I really like syncing tabs across devices through them rather than Chrome or Safari. Maybe I should have a device dedicated to being the place where all my tabs are open, all the time. Pretty soon, it would be a Borges story. LOL

stancarey, to folklore

An old folk belief in Ireland held that there are 12 different winds and each has its own colour

Also (from a different source) pigs can see the wind

https://archive.org/details/smallersocialhis00joycuoft/page/528/mode/2up

jeffreyfisher,

@stancarey I want the little star to be a heart.

stancarey, to LearnJapanese

deleted_by_moderator

    •
    jeffreyfisher,

    @stancarey I used to do a whole thing with my students about how Grammarly rigidifies their writing because it can't understand more complex sentence structures. That's leaving aside all this other stuff about using data. And of course if you don't even understand what Grammarly is doing to your history paper, you aren't doing it; Grammarly is doing it. And then you're not learning a f-ing thing about writing.

    jeffreyfisher,

    @stancarey I have a freshman comp class in the fall, and there is active — and to my mind absurd — debate about how to approach ChatGPT. I'm thinking about making it the focus of the class.

    ProPublica, to ukteachers
    @ProPublica@newsie.social avatar

    “We’re Huge in Learning Loss!” Cashing in on the Post-Pandemic Crisis.

    Test scores are plummeting while tens of billions in federal aid flows to . A visit to a recent education convention provides a glimpse of the frenzy to profit from the recovery efforts.

    https://www.propublica.org/article/education-technology-covid-pandemic-crisis-schools?utm_medium=social&utm_source=mastodon&utm_campaign=mastodon-post

    jeffreyfisher,

    @ProPublica welcome to the machine. or is it the jungle? the mungle? the mangle.

    stancarey, to generativeAI

    "It's not lying, it's not telling the truth, because both of those would require some intentionality and some communicative intent, which it doesn't have."

    @emilymbender talks to Michael Rosen about chatbots and the synthetic text they produce: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001l97m

    jeffreyfisher,

    @stancarey @emilymbender I hadn't thought about LLMs this way before, but immediately it makes me wonder if we could say that LLM-produced text counts as "bullshit" in the specific way that Harry Frankfurt defines it, as not being concerned with truth or falsity?

    jeffreyfisher,

    @stancarey @emilymbender That's great, Stan. Maybe the programmers are the ones bullshitting. But also, do you know Plato's aporetic Hippias Minor dialogue? The question is whether Achilles, who speaks falsely without lying because he believes what he's saying (even though it's false), is worse than Odysseus, who lies but actually knows what the truth is. Maybe with LLMs we have a third option: speaking truly or falsely with no knowledge of either truth or falsity, never mind having a stake in or commitment to the truth or falsity of anything. Like the argument that "isn't even wrong," output "isn't even bullshit."

    arstechnica, to random
    @arstechnica@mastodon.social avatar

    Caught in the act: Mammal found with teeth sunk in a much larger dinosaur

    New fossil from China captures the last moments of a life-or-death struggle.

    https://arstechnica.com/science/2023/07/caught-in-the-act-mammal-found-with-teeth-sunk-in-a-much-larger-dinosaur/?utm_brand=arstechnica&utm_social-type=owned&utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=social

    jeffreyfisher,

    @arstechnica if y'all haven't read Annie Dillard's short, brilliant essay "Living Like Weasels," you really should. You will understand why I say so when you do!

    grammargirl, to random
    @grammargirl@zirk.us avatar

    If you're wondering how my radio interview went this morning, I got a question about the phrase "quiet quitting" and was able to go off about how stupid it is that we culturally expect people to go "above and beyond" at work ... so I'd say it went well. :)

    jeffreyfisher,

    @grammargirl ❤️

    stancarey, to writing

    "Infinite Jest in particular is like a house party to which he's invited all of his professors. Thomas Pynchon is in the kitchen, opening a can of expired tuna with his teeth."

    Patricia Lockwood on David Foster Wallace 😙 👌 https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v45/n14/patricia-lockwood/where-be-your-jibes-now

    jeffreyfisher,

    @stancarey i admit i like Brief Interviews, and particularly "Church Not Made With Hands," but it is unlike anything else he's ever written, except maybe "Forever Overhead," which she also despises. I think there's a reason that the last time I talked with Wallace people, a number of years ago, no one had any idea what to do with it (no one had published on it nor would they teach it) and I don't think the issue is that the story is bad. but that's for a long post if my own. :)

    grammargirl, to random
    @grammargirl@zirk.us avatar

    I don't get people.

    jeffreyfisher,

    @grammargirl 🥂

    ProPublica, to Health
    @ProPublica@newsie.social avatar

    Inside the Secretive World of Penile Enlargement

    ==

    How a doctor’s two-decade quest to grow the penis is leaving some men desperate and disfigured.

    https://www.propublica.org/article/penis-enlargement-enhancement-procedures-implants?utm_medium=social&utm_source=mastodon&utm_campaign=mastodon-post

    jeffreyfisher,

    @ProPublica masculinity literally toxic.

    ProPublica, to random
    @ProPublica@newsie.social avatar

    Behind the Scenes of Justice Alito’s Unprecedented Wall Street Journal Pre-buttal

    ==

    The Journal editorial page accused ProPublica of misleading readers in a story that hadn’t yet been published.

    https://www.propublica.org/article/behind-scenes-alito-wall-street-journal-prebuttal-editorial?utm_medium=social&utm_source=mastodon&utm_campaign=mastodon-post

    jeffreyfisher,

    @ProPublica congrats. you're getting under the skin. if you all don't get a Pulitzer this year, it will be worth an investigation by ProPublica.

    stancarey, to random

    Who called it mountaineering and not climb-it-ology

    jeffreyfisher,

    @wakame @stancarey is there a way in Mastodon to reblog threads? because these two belong together.

    arstechnica, to random
    @arstechnica@mastodon.social avatar

    Musk-owned Twitter stiffed employees on promised bonuses, class action says

    Lawsuit: Workers relied on promise of bonus when opting to stay after Musk buyout.

    https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2023/06/musk-owned-twitter-stiffed-employees-on-promised-bonuses-class-action-says/?utm_brand=arstechnica&utm_social-type=owned&utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=social

    jeffreyfisher,

    @arstechnica it's almost as if really rich people get really rich by not paying anyone unless and any more than they absolutely have to. because that really is the most important thing.

    stancarey, to hiking

    Met these handsome beasts on my way up a hill in Connemara

    jeffreyfisher,

    @stancarey ❤️

    arstechnica, to random
    @arstechnica@mastodon.social avatar

    Study: Undermining democracy is ok if others do it first

    Merely thinking the other guys wreck democracy raises support for wrecking democracy.

    https://arstechnica.com/science/2023/05/study-undermining-democracy-is-ok-if-others-do-it-first/?utm_brand=arstechnica&utm_social-type=owned&utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=social

    jeffreyfisher,

    @arstechnica this is entirely consistent with, for example, Democratic efforts to suppress GOP turnout in support of Roy Moore. Jack Burkman is pure charlatan, as far as I can tell, but both he and the Alabama project guy say they don't like "fake news" tactics, but they do it because the other guy does it. cf "After Truth."

    arstechnica, to random
    @arstechnica@mastodon.social avatar

    Built-in ChatGPT-driven Copilot will transform Windows 11 starting in June

    Copilot is coming alongside another batch of new Windows 11 features this year.

    https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2023/05/built-in-chatgpt-driven-copilot-will-transform-windows-11-starting-in-june/?utm_brand=arstechnica&utm_social-type=owned&utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=social

    jeffreyfisher,

    @arstechnica because what we really need is a new, "better" Clippy.

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