Humor Random Comments Thread

[tl8]

How could I have missed this:

Delta Glider | LEGO® Ideas

The Delta Glider is a multipurpose winged space vehicle. It is one of the most popular vehicles in the Orbiter Space Simulator.

ideas.lego.com

?

I made that years ago? Oh how much has changed.

 

[n72.75]

I feel it is my duty to come to this thread and :

 

[jedidia]

I just realised that geosynchronous orbits are solidly within the outer van allen belt. Would we actually ever want to build a manned space station there? Not that I know of any plans, it's just such a common trope in science fiction.

 

[Notebook]

It probably hasn't got outside the UK, we have had problems with an algorithm.

No A-Levels (University entry exams) were held this year because of the pandemic. A decision was made to use an algorithm to predict each students grades.

All went wrong, distressed students and politicians.

Uproar, politicians gave in. Can't have student and parent voters upset.

A-levels: Ofqual's 'cheating' algorithm under review

Those implementing it "did not understand what the maths they had typed in meant", one expert says.

www.bbc.co.uk

"And some things should never be left to an algorithm to determine, he said."

"No other country did what we did with exams. They either figured out how to run exams or had essays that they took averages for. Ultimately the point of exams is for students to determine their future and you can't achieve that with an algorithm.

"Some problems just need a human being."

You have to laugh.

 

[tl8]

Back in the day, my high school grade was based off of 2 years worth of results and how you did compared to your peers. There was then 1 state wide general exam which allowed you to compare schools. I think it was actually pretty clever and means that missing an exam didn't matter so much.

 

[Notebook]

Its been pretty shambolic, with little sympathy for any of the responsible parties. They knew there would be no exams nearly six months ago.

 

[jedidia]

Why on earth would you try to make an algorithm to predict exam scores rather than just taking the average of all grades that year? Who had this crazy idea??

 

[Notebook]

Education is a political hot potato. The current Secretary of State for Education is blaming OFQUAL. The body responsible for maintaining standards and avoiding "grade inflation" everybody gets better every year.

As you can imagine the politicians have won that one, though they did a u-turn, threw out the algorithm results and went with teachers assesment.

They are also holding up the GCSE(16 year old exams) and B-TEC(vocational exams) results till they get their stories straight.

 

[Evil_Onyx]

I have great sympathy for all the students that have had there education effected by the pandemic. This and next years graduating students have fundamentally had a worse level of tuition, even with the best efforts of educators. And this will follow them for a long time to come. There is a valid argument that teachers are more forgiving (up marking) to their students than an examiner would be, and as such I think that all the results of this year should be provisional for the time being (until students take the exams, assessments or another solution is found).

 

[Thunder Chicken]

I have great sympathy for all the students that have had there education effected by the pandemic. This and next years graduating students have fundamentally had a worse level of tuition, even with the best efforts of educators. And this will follow them for a long time to come. There is a valid argument that teachers are more forgiving (up marking) to their students than an examiner would be, and as such I think that all the results of this year should be provisional for the time being (until students take the exams, assessments or another solution is found).

My semester starts in a week. Initial plans for me to hold lecture in-person simply didn't make sense yet even though my state is doing well with COVID control measures. I will be teaching three lectures online and one in-person laboratory with a reduced number of students, masks, face shields, social distancing protocols. The student's schedules will be updated tomorrow, and I expect that a good many will withdraw for the semester, and I can't say I blame them. This has been heartbreaking for me as I left my industry job and got into teaching to get away from computers and interact with people face-to-face. There is a certain amount of rapport and entertainment needed in the delivery of a good lecture that I find very hard to replicate online. Everyone is really burned out and tired of online interactions like this.

 

[mojoey]

looks around

What did I miss?

 

[jedidia]

Only the rapture, so to speak... ?

 

[Tycho]

I had just realized today that Skylab 2, Skylab 3, and Skylab 4 have "Skylab I", "Skylab II", and "Skylab 3" in their insignia, respectively. Makes good sense because the numbering of the insignia tracks the human flights to Skylab (i.e. all but the launch, Skylab 1). Apparently the confusion didn't end there, nor within the Astronaut Office at the time, Bill Pogue later remarking that "this has to be the most exasperating bit of space trivia ever." Interesting and quick read: http://www.collectspace.com/resources/naming_spacecraft.html

Also, RIP "Jerry" Carr.

 

[Linguofreak]

You know you're an astronomy geek when you've figured out how many yocto-L☉ your car has under the hood. 80 in my case (I think). The hard part is actually figuring out the exact make of the vehicle and which engine comes with that make. After that, if you're working to two significant digits, the yocto-L☉ is 2.0 horsepower, and dividing by two is easy, so maybe you get more auto geek cred than astronomy geek cred, given how much engine power can vary in a single model of vehicle.

 

[Evil_Onyx]

Soo, Yesterday I made the decision to take a change of direction in my life. Tomorrow I start the process to get myself a C+E (Class 1) driving licence. Which means I may be driving HGV's as a Job in 8 weeks. And it only took a week of research and an agreement with my relations that I could couch serf for free, if i don't get a job immediately. As I will be homeless in November as it stands. This has been driven by the demoralizing process of job searching during a pandemic. Over the last 3 months, I have applied for at least 100 jobs and only heard back from 6 and got 1 interview.

 

[Urwumpe]

Over the last 3 months, I have applied for at least 100 jobs and only heard back from 6 and got 1 interview.

That is why I still endure the lack of new projects in my current job. A lot of my "freetime" goes away for making project plans and estimates for bids that are cancelled by the customer then. Would things be different in other industries, fine. But right now, everyone is saving money for the worst case scenario. Sadly this means that some expensive hobbies (studying Business Administration) will keep on costing me money for a few months more. As it looks now, I will be out of liquidity by the end of the year, unless I really start cutting costs.

 

[n72.75]

I, after a few years of searching for a better job and one in aerospace, accepted a job offer....on March 9.

They called me the next day to rescind it.

 

[asbjos]

Then I have a "merrier" story: after graduating from the University in the summer of 2019, I've been searching/applying for a job since. June 2020 I finally got a job offer.
I'm moving to Germany in two weeks.

 

[Urwumpe]

Then I have a "merrier" story: after graduating with a master's degree in the summer of 2019, I've been searching/applying for a job since. June 2020 I finally got a job offer.
I'm moving to Germany in two weeks.

May I ask, which state of Germany? We have a few other old Orbiter veterans around here.

 

[asbjos]

May I ask, which state of Germany? We have a few other old Orbiter veterans around here.

Nordrhein-Westfalen.
It's exciting! Don't know much of what to expect, of course, so I'm trying not to expect too much, and instead be pleasantly surprised by the experience.

New country, culture, norms, workplace, and (hopefully) friends.