kaitai

114 ms·

1021.
by kaitai 12y ago
My first batch of beer was good. One nice way to start is to buy a kit -- all the ingredients and the recipe come nicely packaged. A friend got my husband a beer-brewing kit for cheap a few years ago; it had two big 6+-gallon plastic bucket
1022.
by kaitai 12y ago
The couple lost their jobs -- that's why they weren't able to pay. I had a friend buying a house in 2004-2005. She was getting first-time homebuyer's assistance from some semi-governmental agency: they assign you a person who
1023.
by kaitai 12y ago
Food :) (everyone loves that!) Beer (great way to meet people -- everyone wants to swap beer). Textiles, beadwork, crappy art. I really am thinking of woodworking -- I would like to make a really nice chair. Or a salad bowl.
1024.
by kaitai 12y ago
Cryptonomicon and The Diamond Age. Newer: Ancillary Justice. Really interesting ideas about the self. Over the years: Octavia Butler. Some very challenging ideas. Honestly, though, I think 14-year-olds should read a lot of random crap from
1025.
by kaitai 12y ago
I have found over the last few years that making things -- preferably making beautiful & functional things -- is what makes me happy, more than just "specific (and ultimately inconsequential) things to do".
1026.
by kaitai 12y ago
No suggestions, but a historical comment: the sort-of ancients described this as "acedia". Monks and other solitaries were worried about this problem and discussed how to deal with the demon of acedia. From the Wikipedia page, the
1027.
by kaitai 12y ago
I've always been a nerd. From birth. From the ugly glasses and the math team and the BBSs on. From dumpster-diving for computers because I couldn't afford them. From emacs vs vi. I'm also female. I don't like being pushe
1028.
by kaitai 12y ago
On a structural perpetuation-of-the-organism level, no: you make a good point. On a personal level, I do find it weird that people take critiques of a system more personally than personal insults. We were all born into a system that we didn
1029.
by kaitai 12y ago
How about the fact, though, that more conservative financial practices often result in better long-term results for established firms? If you're in a startup that you don't mind blowing up or running into the ground, promote the m
1030.
by kaitai 12y ago
The conversation with Lane was when the relationship was over. On-again, off-again may indeed have a terminal date.
1031.
by kaitai 12y ago
How is that not harassment?
1032.
by kaitai 12y ago
I don't necessarily disagree with you, blfr... but: If people like hyperion2010 or others want an abrasive culture, why can't they take what they dish? Why is it so ok for someone to call me a c*&t but I can't say the wor
1033.
by kaitai 12y ago
Re: the dongle incident, the woman involved has been in the community for years. Why this "people who try to join" and "immediately start complaining" business? You're distorting the facts. I'm not quite as soc
1034.
by kaitai 12y ago
Remember, though, that we only absorb a certain proportion of the calories available in our food. Our rules of thumb about estimating caloric needs based on basal metabolic rate are approximate and work for many people, but not all. Digest
1035.
by kaitai 12y ago
This is spot on.
1036.
by kaitai 12y ago
I don't understand this comment: why would a working-class white or Asian-American family not be eligible for state aid? I assume it would be because their income is too high or the kid's GPA is too low. Wouldn't those same r
1037.
by kaitai 12y ago
I was part of a program that changed to graduate admissions based solely on subject GRE score. The first such resulting class was 88% Chinese, 4% Taiwanese, and 8% white American. Did they do that well as a class in graduate studies or in a
1038.
by kaitai 12y ago
I can't argue that the post your are responding to is terribly substantive, but at the same time, guys who tell me, "No one looks at my chest at conferences!" just don't... inspire a lot of confidence in me. Perhaps yo
1039.
by kaitai 12y ago
That's why we don't live in other parts of the country.
1040.
by kaitai 12y ago
As a MSP-ian with a pretty heavy classical & jazz & random stuff habit, I never go to the suburbs unless I'm visiting my grandparents. Ever. Even in quiet and boring downtown St Paul it is easy to rotate through the opera/
1041.
by kaitai 12y ago
But that's the nice thing about Minneapolis: with only a modicum of planning where you'll live, you can bike or take public transit year-round, and it's not that expensive. I can walk/bike to two neighborhood grocery sto
1042.
by kaitai 12y ago
A first-grade teacher provides role models for students, talks to parents, connects kids with social services, talks now and then to child protection, might make sure her students have coats in the winter, etc. An education startup creates
1043.
by kaitai 12y ago
Very nice! I actually used the featured example from Mark Richardson's class notes on Principal Component Analysis ( http://people.maths.ox.ac.uk/richardsonm/SignalProcPCA.pdf ) in teaching. It was astounding how cl
1044.
by kaitai 12y ago
And this is why I, a sort-of confirmed desperate academic (ok, I know how to code so not really!) finally stepped off the hamster wheel of looking for a tenure-track job: my friends who got the golden ring still had sucky jobs that involved
1045.
by kaitai 12y ago
Read some of the Chronicle of Higher Ed forums and then come back to reaffirm that statement. For fun, start here: http://chronicle.com/forums/index.php/topic,168931.0.html You can also go down the rabbithole of l
1046.
by kaitai 12y ago
Some universities have started teaching-track positions: "lecturer" or "teaching professor." These folks teach a lot, are not hired for research in physics, may do research or publish in physics education, take care of t
1047.
by kaitai 12y ago
It's not despicable. As a woman, I'll repeat: paying women less for being women is not despicable. That doesn't mean it's good. It's bad. But it's normal and there are a lot of social forces at work. Good, well
1048.
by kaitai 12y ago
I recently traveled through some rural, non-tourist parts of Mexico and found exactly this attitude. I thought I had some of it -- I know how to make dirt, food, clothing, yarn/rope, soap, candles, beer, wine, etc, and the car has been
1049.
by kaitai 12y ago
I feel like this is one of those instances where someone is responding to a different conversation (not necessarily you, but many of the respondents). Who said Paleo is scientific? A diet along those lines, for me, reduces mood swings, hung
1050.
by kaitai 12y ago
It's interesting to note in particular that these departments graduate many more women by percentage than they then hire. Great article! I think a big problem in math is a certain insularity that suspiciously pushes away people who do

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