Anne Marie C. Desmarais

@johngwirtz @PJSobkowski In December I received an email from a student who took my course in Fall 2022. She wanted to know if I could review and change her B- because she was applying to grad school! Duh…

@PJSobkowski Or “I’d there any extra credit I can do to raise my grade?” Left unsaid: The semester ended the week before the message was sent.

The Canvas hackers probably gave up when they were flooded by “I have an 89.3% is there any way I can get to a 90%?” messages.

Last fall semester I noticed patterns in how students answered questions on the weekly assignments. I had told them that if they attended all the lectures and reviewed my Canvas notes they should be able to get full credit on the assignments. In reviewing their submissions I noted that some students’ answers, although technically correct, did not address many of the points that I stressed in my lectures and notes. I suspected AI was used. I tried an experiment on the final exam which was closed-notes and in class. Before the final I told them to review lectures and notes and also to “review the homework questions because similar questions could show up” on the exam. I asked several questions based on the assignments and the students I suspected had used AI did poorly on the exam. I am convinced. In my undergrad and grad school days I took notes in class and then rewrote my notes every evening. I was convinced that there was a neural connection between my fingers and my brain. I still take hand-writtn notes at meetings and conferences although I no longer rewrite them. I find that I remember more by writing my notes and observations than if I try to take notes on my laptop. I hve observed that close to 100% of my students take notes on their laptops and I have wondered if they are able to synthesize information while typing furiously. I also wonder if using AI to solve problems exclusively completely severs connections between fingers and brain.

Yes — do your own thinking, but use AI to refine it. That is the way.

I keep copies of everything on my Canvas pages on my work computer as well as on my personal computer and on a flash drive. I keep all my grades on an excel spread sheet and I make paper copies. My TA’s grade hw and labs and post the grades on Canvas but I require them to create a spread sheet and send the updated sheet to me weekly.

@DamonLinker I always keep my PowerPoints on the computer and grades are all recorded on an excel sheet also saved on the computer.

So ... Canvas is down. Every reading this semester, as well as every Powerpoint for my lectures (made available to students so they can study for their final on Monday), as well as every grade and submitted assignment, is on Canvas. Dead in the water here in academia right now.

@librarythingtim instructure.com/incident_update It’s back. Tufts IT is advising up to be alert to phishing attempts - some idiots are sending emails with Canvas ‘work around’ login info.

This Canvas hack is BAD. Harvard, Stanford, MIT, Oxford, Princeton, Columbia, Cornell, Berkeley, Georgetown, UCLA, Ohio, Mississippi, Maryland, Wisconsin, Illinois… a jillion high schools. Bad.

@FrankBr05713205 @RelaxedPop Same here.

@RelaxedPop You bet. I still have my old E6B. Haven't used it in a while

This was my calculator in college. On the plus side, it didn't need any batteries. Anybody else ever use one?

@DougSilmann @GGIL1603 @FrankBr05713205 I still think in RPN. I mess up when using someone’s TI.

@GGIL1603 @FrankBr05713205 Reverse Polish Notation

I still use my HP 11C! Occasionally a student would come to me before an exam and say they forgot their calculator. I would say “use mine” then watch them try to figure out RPN. I used a slide rule in high school and as an undergrad and also used four-place logarithms for my first stats course and for p-chem and thermo. I bought my first calculator in grad school in 1974. It was a primitive TI that cost $359! It held a charge for about 2 hours so I had to carry around the power supply that weighed 2 pounds and was the size of a brick. Then I had to get to class early if I wanted to plug into one of the two receptacles in the room. Those were the days! Now I can do logistic regression on my phone with an app that cost less tha $10.

@FrankBr05713205 I had both.

You don’t have to contact the rodent. The virus is excreted in urine and feces that could be present in food storage rooms where rodents could be found on a cruise ship. Dried out excreta can become aerosols that can spread in a ship’s ventilation system. In the American Southwest people have contracted Hanta virus after sweeping walkways or other areas with mouse droppings and inhaling dust and aerosolized virus. This could be a disaster if people can’t get off the ship and if there are aerosols or dust with virus.

This seems sooooo strange!! How many people are going to be in contact with rats on a cruise ship or anywhere unless they were in a vulnerable area where there are rats hanging out. This seems so strange and horrible beyond imagination!! These poor poor people!! Thought they were going to enjoy a cruise and instead contacted something, (who knows what) and died!! Just so alarming!! I will not settle for this answer!!! And now they say that there are different strains of this “rat” disease!!!! What in the world is happening!!!????????? ✝️

Hantavirus on a cruise ship? Crazy! today.rtl.lu/news/world/two…

@JayXSanz @Matt_Pinner I had a 1970 Malibu SS. Robin’s egg blue. Three-on-the-tree. Passed everything but a gas station!

@Matt_Pinner 1971 Chevrolet Malibu SS ! What an awesome machine!

Does anyone know what kind of car this is? 😳

Many years ago I spent a weekend in NYC for a former grad student’s wedding. It was a Jewish wedding that would take place after sundown on Saturday. I knew it would be a very late night so I went to a 5 pm Mass at St. Malachy on 49th Street - the Actor’s Chapel. Several cast members from local theaters attended - I learned that the Mass was scheduled so that cast could attend after the matinee got out and then have dinner before the evening show. Many arrived in their costumes, including several young women who were wearing trench coats. While in line for Communion I heard a small child’s voice “Mommy! Those ladies have tails!”. They were in the chorus of Cats! I am sure that God was pleased. And the congregational singing at that Mass was heavenly. Another point - the Boston Marathon is run on a Monday - Patriots’ Day. These runners were attending daily Mass in their “work clothes”. There is no place to change clothes.

I don’t mean this rude at all, truly, but did you read what I wrote? I don’t understand what all you guys are doing at mass that you have time to look at other people’s clothes or how they hold their hands. That was the point of my original post, not hand me downs versus skimpy. It’s how can we claim to be in awe or any kind of reverence when our eyes are on anything but the Eucharist? I would invite you, rather than trying to make another point to respond to that. It’s really important. Today, it’s not an exaggeration at all to say I cried most of the time I was distributing the Eucharist. Just 1 million little kids, 1 million young parents, 1 million old and everything in between, faces lit up like angels as they received the Blessed Sacrament or a blessing. I just wept because it was so beautiful. With all my heart, I haven’t the faintest clue of what they were wearing.

I saw the picture of the marathon runners attending Mass in short shorts and tank tops I just gotta say To me, they went against the first commandment i.e to not put "strange gods" above the one true God If the runners had always intended on going to Mass before the Marathon, they could've planned more church appropriate clothing the night before, or brought a change of clothes and changed in the bathroom But they put the marathon above God and did not give Him the respect He deserves It's really sad and disheartening.

@Nobody_kot @TheCatholicEngr This was not a Sunday Mass. It was on Marathon Monday at 5 am

@jonathansword @TheCatholicEngr The Boston Marathon is held on a Monday. This was a Marathon Day Mass

@StatisticUrban @dylanmatt If you consider the Canal it is effectively an island.

@dylanmatt Panhandle.... smh. It's a peninsula

@VorkMike @nut_history In addition to Fenway, I have seen games at Comiskey Park and old Tiger Stadium, both against the Red Sox. Tiger Stadium and Fenway Park both opened on the same day - April 20, 1912.

@nut_history Been to Fenway and Wrigley. Not sure which is older

What's the oldest ballpark you have attended in person? Fenway Park for me.

@yabudda @kaseymartin854 @KerryHolmekb Indiana is three.

@kaseymartin854 @KerryHolmekb Iowa and Idaho. False premise, because there are at least 2.

What is the only U.S state that starts and ends with different vowels?

@suhail_nasim Fluoride ions bind calcium and magnesium leading to fatal arrhythmia.

A 79 yr old man was exposed to hydrofluoric acid after a workplace accident.He developed extensive chemical burns, low Bp & rapid clinical deterioration despite ttt He died shortly after admission. What is the most likely cause of death & why hydrofluoric acid uniquely lethal?

@AmazingPopPod Still the best tool for setting up ratios.

If you know what this is and how to use it you’re a nerd.

A control will be difficult for a drug that produces a dreamlike state that can last for 72 hours. The results show promise but the study group was small - n=30 - and consisted of mostly healthy white males with no significant co-morbidities. The exclusion criteria for participants was extensive. Participants were all volunteers who were willing to travel on their own to Tijuana for treatment. They had access to other therapies including massage during the study. They were all highly-motivated to try this treatment. nature.com/articles/s4159… Two years ago Massachusetts had a referendum question on the ballot that would have authorized use of certain psychoactive natural products including ibogaine in special centers where people would be monitored by “trained counselors”. It failed, primarily because there was no requirement for medical monitoring - the counselors would be trained in recognizing effects of halucinogens. Ibogaine is a cardiotoxic indole alkaloid. The Stanford study clinic in Tijuana infused magnesium sulfate before giving ibogaine and study participants were monitored continuously with 5-lead ECG during the study.

@JeromeAdamsMD This study had no control group.

Curious about today’s new WH Executive Order on psychedelics? @POTUS signed “Accelerating Medical Treatments for Serious Mental Illness.” It fast-tracks FDA review of psychedelics (eg ibogaine) for treatment-resistant PTSD, depression, and TBI - esp for veterans, commits $50M+ for research + creates a Right to Try pathway...

@Murk441 I do that every morning.

Be honest....

The Dominican Sisters of Haethorne were founded by Rose Hawthorne Lathrop, daughter oh Nathaniel Hawthorne and a convert to Catholicism. She was a writer and social worker who studied nursing and with Alice Huber took care of poor patients in her tenement apartment on the Lower East Side before taking religios vows and moving her congregation to Hawthorne NY. Pope Francis named her Venerable in 2024.

The Dominican Sisters of Hawthorne nursed my father in his final days. As with the Little Sisters of the Poor, another faithful religious community having to defend its religious liberty.