spontaneous symmetry breakdance
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t8erboi.bsky.social
spontaneous symmetry breakdance
@t8erboi.bsky.social
a.k.a. Matt. Physicist, conformal bootstrapper, and #1 Leonid Kantorovich respecter. Idaho → Colorado → Connecticut → Italy. he/him.

Unionize the radiation lab!
> monkey's paw curls
> humanists start publishing decolonial readings of the T_PAAMAYIM_NEKUDOTAYIM thing
December 3, 2025 at 5:09 AM
Next big breakpoint is 29-31 (SD,TN,AL,KY,AR), at which point we're talking possible removal from office once Republican senators smell blood in the water. Won't happen, but nice to think about.
December 3, 2025 at 5:02 AM
Tipping point states are Florida/Alaska/Iowa at 13.1, followed by Texas at 13.7.
December 3, 2025 at 4:53 AM
(Assumes all states' 2026 senate margins are the same monotonic function of their 2024 presidential margins, no accounting for candidate quality or varying elasticity, etc etc. "Margin" refers to (D vote) - (R vote), so a 60/40 race has a margin of 20.)
December 3, 2025 at 4:49 AM
Anyway, I think it's moot because plenty of students *do* need these accommodations, and the cost of an undeserving student getting extra time is very minor.

If time pressure is the thing preventing most of the class from getting an A on a physics test, it's a bad test.
December 2, 2025 at 11:23 PM
Could be. Could also be that I was also teaching required-for-major classes where the exams were a big chunk of the final grade, and students are more likely to fill out the accommodation paperwork for those.
December 2, 2025 at 11:19 PM
E.g., if I'd gotten my Very Obvious ADHD diagnosed a decade earlier, I could've gotten extra time on exams, and it would've had a very minor benefit in 1 or 2 classes. But I've never had trouble focusing on exams, even *before* I got on meds.
December 2, 2025 at 11:12 PM
Might be an elite private school vs everywhere else thing. The Harvard # of 20% sounds about right for the physics classes I TAed at Yale.

Definitely know ppl who've used it as a crutch, but they're rare, and IMO it's less an issue of misdiagnosis than unneeded accommodations for legit diagnoses.
December 2, 2025 at 11:07 PM
Really threw me for a loop after knocking doors in the Northeast.
December 2, 2025 at 2:46 PM
Yeah, AZ politics is kinda fucked wrt labor. Back when I was canvassing out there "I'm here with my union" usually got me weird looks, at least with English-speaking voters.
December 2, 2025 at 2:45 PM
Same. Though I wouldn't put it past these freaks to pull a "my TA is grading my problem sets harshly because they don't like my politics"
December 2, 2025 at 12:55 AM
anyway, here are two articles from our contract that I'm very proud of:
December 1, 2025 at 7:22 PM
(especially at private unis where the trustees are more, er, appeasement-curious)
December 1, 2025 at 7:18 PM
Even when most workers in a unit have clearly-articulated left-of-center politics, it's a struggle to get 10% of them knocking doors for a tightly contested city council race.

And a longshot third-party bid for ID-Gov is a different proposition.
December 1, 2025 at 12:08 AM
Reposted by spontaneous symmetry breakdance
I am a pretty STEM-brained person, I can acknowledge that. but it is always frustrating to me to see people react to biases in STEM communities by reacting against STEM rather than correcting those imbalances
November 30, 2025 at 9:16 PM