David A. Conrad, Ph.D.
@davidaconrad.bsky.social
Author of AKIRA KUROSAWA AND MODERN JAPAN (2022)
Essayist for RAN 40th anniversary Blu-ray (2025)
New book on postwar Asia in progress
Part-time stay-at-home dad, adjunct, historian, old movie fan
Essayist for RAN 40th anniversary Blu-ray (2025)
New book on postwar Asia in progress
Part-time stay-at-home dad, adjunct, historian, old movie fan
I should have caught that - we had a full bsth 43 in the house I grew up in!
December 2, 2025 at 12:35 AM
I should have caught that - we had a full bsth 43 in the house I grew up in!
I call NOT IT on Bedroom 4 / Full Bath 3
December 1, 2025 at 7:53 PM
I call NOT IT on Bedroom 4 / Full Bath 3
(In addition to the fact that using quantitative data to predict and exploit human behavior is an eternal chimera, there's a wealth of qualitative problems about how "independents" actually caucus and behave. Adding "independents" is not in and of itself a solution to the ills of the 2-party system)
December 1, 2025 at 1:52 PM
(In addition to the fact that using quantitative data to predict and exploit human behavior is an eternal chimera, there's a wealth of qualitative problems about how "independents" actually caucus and behave. Adding "independents" is not in and of itself a solution to the ills of the 2-party system)
This is the point at which UT will quietly approve the compact they've been sitting on, hoping the Northwestern news will draw the fire.
November 29, 2025 at 1:03 PM
This is the point at which UT will quietly approve the compact they've been sitting on, hoping the Northwestern news will draw the fire.
I am inclined to think that admin is a much more insulated space right now than 20 and more years ago. Fewer fields elevate their members to admin roles (it's overwhelmingly STEM, not humanities), and many admins are really not academics at all. Also, the influence of faculty on policy has shrunk.
November 29, 2025 at 5:11 AM
I am inclined to think that admin is a much more insulated space right now than 20 and more years ago. Fewer fields elevate their members to admin roles (it's overwhelmingly STEM, not humanities), and many admins are really not academics at all. Also, the influence of faculty on policy has shrunk.
My experience is that students are generally good - in some ways (e.g. spelling) generally worse than my perception of my own generation (a perception that may be quite wrong), but in more ways (group work skills, public speaking confidence) generally better.
Admin, no question, is worse than ever.
Admin, no question, is worse than ever.
November 29, 2025 at 5:09 AM
My experience is that students are generally good - in some ways (e.g. spelling) generally worse than my perception of my own generation (a perception that may be quite wrong), but in more ways (group work skills, public speaking confidence) generally better.
Admin, no question, is worse than ever.
Admin, no question, is worse than ever.
My experience is that we're entirely on our own when it comes to tools to combat AI-powered cheating, and in fact the administration is ducking behind a bush and raising a white flag and yelling "We love AI, it's your weird teachers who don't, and they're allowed to fight it but not with our help!"
November 29, 2025 at 5:01 AM
My experience is that we're entirely on our own when it comes to tools to combat AI-powered cheating, and in fact the administration is ducking behind a bush and raising a white flag and yelling "We love AI, it's your weird teachers who don't, and they're allowed to fight it but not with our help!"
With no way to integrate the two.
I think bad subtitles are almost always a consequence of that kind of outsourcing. If I see GOOD subtitles that do everything they should do, I feel confident that the creator did it themselves or at least in-house. As well they should.
I think bad subtitles are almost always a consequence of that kind of outsourcing. If I see GOOD subtitles that do everything they should do, I feel confident that the creator did it themselves or at least in-house. As well they should.
November 29, 2025 at 4:22 AM
With no way to integrate the two.
I think bad subtitles are almost always a consequence of that kind of outsourcing. If I see GOOD subtitles that do everything they should do, I feel confident that the creator did it themselves or at least in-house. As well they should.
I think bad subtitles are almost always a consequence of that kind of outsourcing. If I see GOOD subtitles that do everything they should do, I feel confident that the creator did it themselves or at least in-house. As well they should.
The companies that this work is (was? AI surely must be killing these jobs in order to do them equally badly) outsourced to might translate for a much higher fee, but the one I worked for had two tracks - you could do a translation job OR a subtitling job that would do the [foreign language] thing.
November 29, 2025 at 4:19 AM
The companies that this work is (was? AI surely must be killing these jobs in order to do them equally badly) outsourced to might translate for a much higher fee, but the one I worked for had two tracks - you could do a translation job OR a subtitling job that would do the [foreign language] thing.
I used to subtitle videos as a side gig. The style guides that companies use insist on [foreign language] even when it's obvious that it's, say, Spanish. I think it's to avoid showing favoritism to the big languages and also to avoid embarrassing errors by captioners who could mistake, say, 🇵🇹 for 🇪🇸.
November 29, 2025 at 4:08 AM
I used to subtitle videos as a side gig. The style guides that companies use insist on [foreign language] even when it's obvious that it's, say, Spanish. I think it's to avoid showing favoritism to the big languages and also to avoid embarrassing errors by captioners who could mistake, say, 🇵🇹 for 🇪🇸.
I'm imagining someone making him watch the new American Revolution docuseries, and he just gets increasingly, violently frustrated that he can't understand a single sentence coming out of these 18th-century diarists.
November 28, 2025 at 3:53 AM
I'm imagining someone making him watch the new American Revolution docuseries, and he just gets increasingly, violently frustrated that he can't understand a single sentence coming out of these 18th-century diarists.
Have you gotten to visit Shiroishi-jō (a reconstruction, but still)?
November 27, 2025 at 3:50 PM
Have you gotten to visit Shiroishi-jō (a reconstruction, but still)?
In the educational PC game Connections, starring James Burke and based on his acclaimed, same-named British TV docuseries, you've really got to do the Morse code quickly. Don't wait for the sound feedback, and don't worry that the sound doesn't match what you're doing. Just type the dang word.
Connections (1995 video game) - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org
November 27, 2025 at 6:05 AM
In the educational PC game Connections, starring James Burke and based on his acclaimed, same-named British TV docuseries, you've really got to do the Morse code quickly. Don't wait for the sound feedback, and don't worry that the sound doesn't match what you're doing. Just type the dang word.
Blink of an Eye is one of my favorite Trek episodes full stop, and I love all of the Troi and Barclay appearances.
I'm hard pressed to give anything else on that show a second thought. The Barge of the Dead episode is almost good.
Like all "classic" Trek, though, I enjoy seeing people discuss it!
I'm hard pressed to give anything else on that show a second thought. The Barge of the Dead episode is almost good.
Like all "classic" Trek, though, I enjoy seeing people discuss it!
November 27, 2025 at 5:56 AM
Blink of an Eye is one of my favorite Trek episodes full stop, and I love all of the Troi and Barclay appearances.
I'm hard pressed to give anything else on that show a second thought. The Barge of the Dead episode is almost good.
Like all "classic" Trek, though, I enjoy seeing people discuss it!
I'm hard pressed to give anything else on that show a second thought. The Barge of the Dead episode is almost good.
Like all "classic" Trek, though, I enjoy seeing people discuss it!
I watched it on Criterion a few weeks ago!
November 27, 2025 at 5:52 AM
I watched it on Criterion a few weeks ago!
The generally-forgotten live-action Jungle Book from 1994 starring Jason Scott Lee, Cary Elwes, Lena Headey, Sam Neill, John Cleese. My mom very patiently took young me to see it about 7 times in the theater. Sometimes we were the only ones there. I was enthralled. My first experience of cinephilia.
November 27, 2025 at 5:40 AM
The generally-forgotten live-action Jungle Book from 1994 starring Jason Scott Lee, Cary Elwes, Lena Headey, Sam Neill, John Cleese. My mom very patiently took young me to see it about 7 times in the theater. Sometimes we were the only ones there. I was enthralled. My first experience of cinephilia.
Thanks Anna!
Akira Kurosawa and Modern Japan (2022) explains what was going on in Japan during the 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s, and 90s that just may have snuck into Akira Kurosawa's 30 films. Politics, economics, gender, sexuality, religion, the environment, crime, youth culture, tech, it's all here!
Akira Kurosawa and Modern Japan (2022) explains what was going on in Japan during the 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s, and 90s that just may have snuck into Akira Kurosawa's 30 films. Politics, economics, gender, sexuality, religion, the environment, crime, youth culture, tech, it's all here!
Akira Kurosawa and Modern Japan
Akira Kurosawa and Modern Japan [Conrad, David A.] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. Akira Kurosawa and Modern Japan
www.amazon.com
November 27, 2025 at 4:55 AM
Thanks Anna!
Akira Kurosawa and Modern Japan (2022) explains what was going on in Japan during the 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s, and 90s that just may have snuck into Akira Kurosawa's 30 films. Politics, economics, gender, sexuality, religion, the environment, crime, youth culture, tech, it's all here!
Akira Kurosawa and Modern Japan (2022) explains what was going on in Japan during the 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s, and 90s that just may have snuck into Akira Kurosawa's 30 films. Politics, economics, gender, sexuality, religion, the environment, crime, youth culture, tech, it's all here!
I read this with my 6-year-old a few months ago and we loved it - he was calling himself "Jett" for a while afterward. I've read several Minecraft books in the last year or two, but yours will stick with me.
November 27, 2025 at 3:01 AM
I read this with my 6-year-old a few months ago and we loved it - he was calling himself "Jett" for a while afterward. I've read several Minecraft books in the last year or two, but yours will stick with me.
This is EVERY DAY in my inbox right now, and my book is pretty obscure (which may be the point)! I block them immediately, but they seem endless. :(
November 27, 2025 at 3:00 AM
This is EVERY DAY in my inbox right now, and my book is pretty obscure (which may be the point)! I block them immediately, but they seem endless. :(
Parties try to reverse-engineer charisma, repackage it as a generic brand, and yoke their down-balloters to it (local candidates who are "proudly endorsed by" national leaders who haven't heard of them). But parties lag far behind the pace set by the stars, and voters are way ahead of the Carvilles.
November 25, 2025 at 2:02 PM
Parties try to reverse-engineer charisma, repackage it as a generic brand, and yoke their down-balloters to it (local candidates who are "proudly endorsed by" national leaders who haven't heard of them). But parties lag far behind the pace set by the stars, and voters are way ahead of the Carvilles.
People everywhere are granular, individual people, not taxonomic types. They respond to energetic, charismatic politicians. Individual NYC voters, like voters in Arizona and Wisconsin, shift from Obamas to Trumps to Mamdanis depending on the election. From their perspective, it's not even a shift.
November 25, 2025 at 1:53 PM
People everywhere are granular, individual people, not taxonomic types. They respond to energetic, charismatic politicians. Individual NYC voters, like voters in Arizona and Wisconsin, shift from Obamas to Trumps to Mamdanis depending on the election. From their perspective, it's not even a shift.
The idea that there's some mysterious difference between NYC voters and voters in less urbanized parts of the country - an idea that might have been true at some point in history, but I seriously doubt it - uses the same strained logic as defenses of electoral college disenfranchisement.
November 25, 2025 at 1:47 PM
The idea that there's some mysterious difference between NYC voters and voters in less urbanized parts of the country - an idea that might have been true at some point in history, but I seriously doubt it - uses the same strained logic as defenses of electoral college disenfranchisement.
No, and the US explains why.
Churchill's vision was to hold out against impossible odds until by some stroke of fortune the United States entered the war. After Pearl Harbor, he "slept the sleep of the saved and thankful."
Tusk and Merz, Europe's likeliest Churchills, have no US ally to await.
Churchill's vision was to hold out against impossible odds until by some stroke of fortune the United States entered the war. After Pearl Harbor, he "slept the sleep of the saved and thankful."
Tusk and Merz, Europe's likeliest Churchills, have no US ally to await.
November 22, 2025 at 2:59 PM
No, and the US explains why.
Churchill's vision was to hold out against impossible odds until by some stroke of fortune the United States entered the war. After Pearl Harbor, he "slept the sleep of the saved and thankful."
Tusk and Merz, Europe's likeliest Churchills, have no US ally to await.
Churchill's vision was to hold out against impossible odds until by some stroke of fortune the United States entered the war. After Pearl Harbor, he "slept the sleep of the saved and thankful."
Tusk and Merz, Europe's likeliest Churchills, have no US ally to await.