Purely anecdotal, but I was recently reflecting at the current trend of people posting really extensive morning routines. Waking up, meditation, yoga, gym, shower, eating breakfast, meal-prepping,....having a whole day before your day starts. While they should impress you with their healthiness and discipline, I just thought how utterly lonely and sterile most of them look like. And you're completely done after work if this is your morning, you can just go to bed and repeat the same the next day. I found it quite sad, actually.
Readit NewsLeanderK commented on The death of partying in the USA derekthompson.org/p/the-d... · Posted by u/tysone
I'm a prof. The easy solution is to give very little weight to homework. The assignments should be designed to teach concepts. Concepts that are then tested in a controlled environment, where cheating is not possible.
Remove the incentive to cheat, and save yourself the time trying to catch it (and punish it, despite an uncooperative administration).
I really enjoyed how they did it in Tübingen, where I did my masters. You usually had to achieve a certain score on the homework (usually 50-75% of the overall points) in order to be qualified to take the exam. Additionally, if you did really well you got a few bonus points on the exam (something around 80/90%+). This incentivised you to take the homework seriously, especially if you want to get the bonus points. But you still have the written exam at the end as the "controlled environment" and something you have to prepare for, so you can not just listen to the slides once and then forget it after doing the single exercise
The really amazing architecture of Coruscant is from the City of Arts and Sciences in Valencia:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/City_of_Arts_and_Sciences
In particular, the Museo de las Ciencias Príncipe Felipe.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/City_of_Arts_and_Sciences#/med...
I didn't enjoy the city of arts and sciences tbh, it felt disconnected, artificial, maybe almost totalitarian in its will to show off. I also thought that, if you look past the immediate effect, it just didn't feel that good looking. A bit similar to how I often feel about Zaha Hadids work.
In comparison, in the barbican I felt like I could sit there for hours and enjoy the architecture. It has so many interesting details and aesthetically pleasing corners.
I recently found out that this is not a thing everyone does. This is essentially how I survived my studies, I was never able to concentrate at home except under intense stress. Quiet uni libraries were my safe space to get work done.
LeanderK commented on ‘Bloody Saturday’ at Voice of America and other U.S.-funded networks npr.org/2025/03/15/nx-s1-... · Posted by u/thm
Article II of the Constitution exists and you can read it anytime:
https://constitution.congress.gov/constitution/article-2/
In short: Job protection for executive employees defeats the entire point of an executive that is accountable to the people. Major magistrate positions are subject to Senate approval before being vested authority, but they are appointed and serve at the behest of the president, who literally embodies the executive.
I am having trouble understanding the document. Where is it stated? I can not exactly follow your argument. I am not sure why being accountable to the people necessitates having not any job protection?
I would have expected this to be codified (What is accountability for a federal employee). I mean regulatory bodies should also be accountable but also shielded from political influence, right?
LeanderK commented on ‘Bloody Saturday’ at Voice of America and other U.S.-funded networks npr.org/2025/03/15/nx-s1-... · Posted by u/thm
There are protections, but not for 'probationary' employees (anyone who's been hired or transferred within the past X months).
As for the rest, they're not 'being fired', they're 'being placed on administrative leave', which is a paper-thin excuse but one that will have to wind its way through the court system like all the other bullshit the administration is pulling.
ah ok, thanks for the clarification! But there shouldn't be too many probationary employees, right?
So what's administrate leave exactly? Just relieved from your responsibilities? I guess you still get paid.
LeanderK commented on ‘Bloody Saturday’ at Voice of America and other U.S.-funded networks npr.org/2025/03/15/nx-s1-... · Posted by u/thm
As someone from europe, I am baffled by the ability to just fire everyone on the spot. Are there no job-protections for federal employees? This makes agencies really dependent on the political climate, right? Can he really just fire everyone? Isn't there even a 3 months notice or something?
A separate, connected thought is that I wonder why you would choose being a federal employee then. Here, the government promises job security but it usually means less pay and slower processes compared to industry. If you don't have job security, is then the government forced to be more competitive with industry positions in pay/processes?
MTA runs express trains. They don't get up to 100mph, but they skip many local stops along the way. Raising their speed to 100mph would likely not meaningfully increase transit time - you'd maybe shave off a few minutes.
it boggles my mind that a place like new york doesn't have the money to just do that. Raising the speed limit gets more important the longer you travel and connects distant parts your city better. It's a recent trend to build high-speed lines to complement an existing, dense subway network (e.g. Paris goes up to 75 mph).
I mean when were these built, a 100 years ago? Surely there's room for improvement.
That is still the case and no where else is even close.
https://www.statista.com/chart/30815/top-destination-countri...
https://news.gallup.com/poll/468218/nearly-900-million-world...
I just want to point out that germany and US have a similar number when adjusted to it's respected population size (I think it's even a little bit higher).
I am kinda surprised to see it so far on the top
LeanderK commented on How good are American roads? construction-physics.com/... · Posted by u/chmaynard
It happens in Germany as well though, not even that infrequently. It’s particularly common with the recent push for FTTH connections.
At my parents place, they resurfaced to road a few years ago. Only for Deutsche Telekom to swoop in a year later and dig in their FTTC gear. Street was patched after, but reasonably well. At least we got faster internet back then
ah no, what i meant that I see these really low-quality, disregarding patches. It seems like, if for example there's some cobblestone-like road, they are not really required to redo it using the cobblestones but can just patch it up? Also some tar just seems way worse quality in these patches, very quickly disintegrating.