Cried in frustration over my emails at 7:30 am on a Monday morning about stupid shit that's going to happen in orbit and my inability to do anything about it, and my apparent inability to even organize others to do anything about it. It's going to be great week, I can tell.
25
Replies
4
Boosts
It would be interesting to know how many students drop the course once they find out about the non-AI exams. If none, you've inspired a fine group!
@sundogplanets it has been a hard day, and you've got some hard stuff that you're doing here!
thank you for kind words. Today didn't go *well* exactly, but some small victories.
Big organization that I helped write an FAA comment for won't send it, so a bunch of collaborators are signing it as individuals and sending it anyway.
My college dean is very supportive of making online classes not go well for students who use genAI. So now I have in-person exams added to my online classes that are locked in for next semester, and my classes for next year will likely all be in person.
(I realize there are huge accessibility issues here to adding in-person exams - but I will work with individual students as much as I can to fix those. There's an excellent accommodation centre on campus which I will utilize to its full capacity next semester)
@sundogplanets Cheating is rampant for anything but in-person on paper exams where I work. Even there people try (they always have).
@sundogplanets You've done so much and it's just not right.
But if it helps you get through the day, just think what you'd feel like if you hadn't tried at all.
@sundogplanets You do what you can and that surely is enough. Probably too much if it’s not sustainable in the long run.
@sundogplanets You're the best orbital space organizer I know!
@sundogplanets We are grateful that you are speaking. It's better because you are speaking. YOu are doing something.
We are all looking desperately for things we could do that will *really* change things.
I'm slightly older than igneous rock, a leftover from the 60's been trying to explain what happened to that economy we had and where it could have gone.
I'm still trying to explain how we got here and what could be done. (Just saying)
All you can do is speak your truth, every once in a while someone will understand and those are the ones you are teaching.
Peace
@sundogplanets I know it is of cold comfort, but in solidarity, I was crying in frustration over emails at the same time that were about things right here on earth, that I also feel powerless over.
@trabern Yeah, I focus on the things happening in orbit because that's where my training is, and where I can make the biggest difference (maybe). So many battles to fight.
@sundogplanets Not sure these help, but I thought I'd pass them on:
"You're never wrong to do the right thing." -- Mark Twain
"God grant me the courage not to give up what I think is right even though I think it's hopeless." -- Chester W. Nimitz
Sending you warm fuzzies.
@sundogplanets You’re doing a lot and more than could be asked from any human being. Can we stop the near earth space from clogging? I don’t know, but it won’t be on your head.
Thanks for all you do
— just a space geek grown up in NASA/ESA times who’s horrified by the way commercialisation is going
@sundogplanets
But you do lots of things! So many Interviews and article and teaching your students and you will write a book, too! And all the other work you do in your „farm in the middle of nowhere“ and you care for your family and so on.
Thank you for your fight for a night sky with visible stars 😉
@sundogplanets The orbit ain’t the only thing humans are trying to fuck up irreversibly. Not sure that helps, but I figured I’d offer some broader perspective. 🫥
@sundogplanets Organizing is a skill just as much as astronomy is. Do you have a mentor or someone you look up to who might be able to advise you?
@sundogplanets you can lead a horse to water...
אִם אֵין אֲנִי לִי, מִי לִי. וּכְשֶׁאֲנִי לְעַצְמִי, מָה אֲנִי. וְאִם לֹא עַכְשָׁיו, אֵימָתָי:
If I am not for myself, who is for me? But if I am for my own self [only], what am I? And if not now, when?
- Ethics of the Fathers, Chapter 1, Verse 14
לֹא עָלֶיךָ הַמְּלָאכָה לִגְמֹר, וְלֹא אַתָּה בֶן חוֹרִין לִבָּטֵל מִמֶּנָּה.
It is not your duty to finish the work, but neither are you at liberty to neglect it.
- Ethics of the Fathers, Chapter 2, Verse 16
@sundogplanets And finally and most importantly:
Illegitimi non carborundum.
"Don't let the bastards grind you down."
- Anonymous
@sundogplanets you do a pretty amazing job in spreading the words of good sense and science from 'a goat farm far far away' you know. These issues are huge and your shoulders are only so strong. The frustration is also huge I know (experience in other areas) but we are all 'but one person'. Keep doing what you do but watch out for the bit of frustrated mind that can start to blame yourself for somehow 'not being enough'. For that is, as we say here, "A load of old bollocks" 😁💕
