just some Alicia
@aliciaaarnio.solar
The un-knit ball of wool is in its highest state of being, and this is why I stash yarn.
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I knit, spin, sew, and teach physics. These are my random thoughts.
(banner image is my handspun yarn, fiber dyed by FatCatKnits in colorway Melody)
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I knit, spin, sew, and teach physics. These are my random thoughts.
(banner image is my handspun yarn, fiber dyed by FatCatKnits in colorway Melody)
Pinned
just some Alicia
@aliciaaarnio.solar
· Jul 18
wanna see a spinning wheel glow-up?
ha ha jk i know you do
ha ha jk i know you do
Reposted by just some Alicia
God damn it I am trying to enjoy the post holiday glow
a man in a suit says what 's wrong with your people
Alt: a man in a suit says what 's wrong with your people
media.tenor.com
December 26, 2025 at 10:19 PM
God damn it I am trying to enjoy the post holiday glow
*awkward chuckle* please tell me i just crafted too much and that's why every muscle in my body aches .. and i have a headache, nausea, and sore throat 🤪 that's all just being hunched over knitting on tiny needles for too long, right?
December 26, 2025 at 10:44 PM
*awkward chuckle* please tell me i just crafted too much and that's why every muscle in my body aches .. and i have a headache, nausea, and sore throat 🤪 that's all just being hunched over knitting on tiny needles for too long, right?
Reposted by just some Alicia
No one says to legit business owners, "hey I see there's an underground market selling toxic knock-offs of your product: how will you incorporate the toxic product AND protect your customers against its harms?" But apparently it's fine to make this suggestion to educators with respect to AI.
December 24, 2025 at 7:56 PM
No one says to legit business owners, "hey I see there's an underground market selling toxic knock-offs of your product: how will you incorporate the toxic product AND protect your customers against its harms?" But apparently it's fine to make this suggestion to educators with respect to AI.
Reposted by just some Alicia
If someone says to you, "what are you doing about students' use of AI?" ask them, "do you think that this should be my problem? How good do you think my response can be? Should it not be up to legislators & administrators to defend against a commercial industry's attack on your child's education?"
December 24, 2025 at 7:47 PM
If someone says to you, "what are you doing about students' use of AI?" ask them, "do you think that this should be my problem? How good do you think my response can be? Should it not be up to legislators & administrators to defend against a commercial industry's attack on your child's education?"
Reposted by just some Alicia
Public discourse on this subject has utterly failed to direct citizens' attention to the actual problem, which is that a commercial industry is assaulting education. So every week we get another thoughtless op-ed on blue books or the death of the college essay, etc etc.
December 24, 2025 at 7:41 PM
Public discourse on this subject has utterly failed to direct citizens' attention to the actual problem, which is that a commercial industry is assaulting education. So every week we get another thoughtless op-ed on blue books or the death of the college essay, etc etc.
Reposted by just some Alicia
Yes, this!: "this isn't a crisis in teaching; it's an attack on learning"
I'm finding that I don't have just to change assignments. I have to **abandon my entire teaching strategy**, which has always been built around scaffolded independent projects across the semester.
I'm finding that I don't have just to change assignments. I have to **abandon my entire teaching strategy**, which has always been built around scaffolded independent projects across the semester.
It is EXHAUSTING not only being made responsible for coming up with new kinds of assignments for our students; it's also tedious reading op-eds that suggest the core problem is a crisis in teaching. But, as Chris and I lay out here, this isn't a crisis in teaching; it's an attack on learning.
"We envision a resistance that is...a repudiation of the efficiencies that automated algorithmic education falsely promises: a resistance comprising the collective force of small acts of friction."
"How to Resist AI in Education" by me & @cnygren.bsky.social
www.publicbooks.org/four-frictio...
"How to Resist AI in Education" by me & @cnygren.bsky.social
www.publicbooks.org/four-frictio...
December 26, 2025 at 2:51 PM
Yes, this!: "this isn't a crisis in teaching; it's an attack on learning"
I'm finding that I don't have just to change assignments. I have to **abandon my entire teaching strategy**, which has always been built around scaffolded independent projects across the semester.
I'm finding that I don't have just to change assignments. I have to **abandon my entire teaching strategy**, which has always been built around scaffolded independent projects across the semester.
Reposted by just some Alicia
my partner trying to talk me through connecting to a new wifi network:
September 19, 2023 at 10:38 PM
my partner trying to talk me through connecting to a new wifi network:
Reposted by just some Alicia
my festive spirit amidst our grimly stupid reality (2025)
December 23, 2025 at 9:34 PM
my festive spirit amidst our grimly stupid reality (2025)
white christmases are overrated but this is pretty funny
December 23, 2025 at 3:15 PM
white christmases are overrated but this is pretty funny
in other, much better news.. art sale last October went crazy well! I still have moments of AAAHHh about selling my stuff, but a bunch of it did, and people were psyched, and I'm still verklempt. I sold way more knit FOs than anything else, which was surprising, but I'm learning this market I guess
more fiber goodies as the art show is a month away 😬 carded batts! sari silk roving has been fun to play with
December 23, 2025 at 1:01 AM
in other, much better news.. art sale last October went crazy well! I still have moments of AAAHHh about selling my stuff, but a bunch of it did, and people were psyched, and I'm still verklempt. I sold way more knit FOs than anything else, which was surprising, but I'm learning this market I guess
so yes i am back.
1. pls don't encourage ppl to apply for jobs because you need to pad the applicant pool. it's cruel & painful. i'm tired of being a token Disabled.
2. fuuuck things have gotten bad here. they're closing us down 2.5 years early so chancellor can claim victory before he retires
1. pls don't encourage ppl to apply for jobs because you need to pad the applicant pool. it's cruel & painful. i'm tired of being a token Disabled.
2. fuuuck things have gotten bad here. they're closing us down 2.5 years early so chancellor can claim victory before he retires
December 23, 2025 at 12:55 AM
so yes i am back.
1. pls don't encourage ppl to apply for jobs because you need to pad the applicant pool. it's cruel & painful. i'm tired of being a token Disabled.
2. fuuuck things have gotten bad here. they're closing us down 2.5 years early so chancellor can claim victory before he retires
1. pls don't encourage ppl to apply for jobs because you need to pad the applicant pool. it's cruel & painful. i'm tired of being a token Disabled.
2. fuuuck things have gotten bad here. they're closing us down 2.5 years early so chancellor can claim victory before he retires
yeah, i'm back early. it's not good news. it's never good news.
December 23, 2025 at 12:49 AM
yeah, i'm back early. it's not good news. it's never good news.
haaa you know, there was a reason all my colleagues told me to not apply for a job in this state www.wunc.org/education/20...
It's official, North Carolina professors will have to publicly post syllabi
UNC System President Peter Hans' decision puts North Carolina in league with other Southern states like Florida and Texas, which legislatively mandate syllabi to be public records.
www.wunc.org
December 23, 2025 at 12:48 AM
haaa you know, there was a reason all my colleagues told me to not apply for a job in this state www.wunc.org/education/20...
my institution has allocated more time and resources to try to name and shame instructors for not submitting midterm grades than they have put toward getting Canvas to sync with Banner.
September 22, 2025 at 8:47 PM
my institution has allocated more time and resources to try to name and shame instructors for not submitting midterm grades than they have put toward getting Canvas to sync with Banner.
every time I don’t feel stressed out, I realize I forgot to do something 😅
September 22, 2025 at 8:02 PM
every time I don’t feel stressed out, I realize I forgot to do something 😅
Reposted by just some Alicia
Sadly the current right-wing coalition government in Finland has cut the funding for the nation’s “Housing First” success story, & homelessness is now on the rise again. That just reinforces the fact that such programs work, if political ideology doesn’t stand in the way.
ysaatio.fi/en/news/home...
ysaatio.fi/en/news/home...
Homelessness on the Rise in Finland - Y-Säätiö
Asunnottomien ihmisten määrä on kääntynyt kasvuun. Nyt asunnottomien määrä kasvoi Helsingissä, vaikka asunnottomia asutettiin vuoden aikana vaikuttava määrä.
ysaatio.fi
September 21, 2025 at 6:55 AM
Sadly the current right-wing coalition government in Finland has cut the funding for the nation’s “Housing First” success story, & homelessness is now on the rise again. That just reinforces the fact that such programs work, if political ideology doesn’t stand in the way.
ysaatio.fi/en/news/home...
ysaatio.fi/en/news/home...
wild to me that admins haven't spent enough of a fraction of a minute with our students to realize dogging them like they're children isn't what helps them succeed. my students withdraw because they get sick, they have kids, jobs, they're caretakers. we can't midterm grade report our way out of that
September 18, 2025 at 11:00 PM
wild to me that admins haven't spent enough of a fraction of a minute with our students to realize dogging them like they're children isn't what helps them succeed. my students withdraw because they get sick, they have kids, jobs, they're caretakers. we can't midterm grade report our way out of that
it appears our faculty have been added to the math department service faculty email list, which ... ok, cool. that's the first we've heard of this development, nice that it was on this random email.
September 18, 2025 at 7:46 PM
it appears our faculty have been added to the math department service faculty email list, which ... ok, cool. that's the first we've heard of this development, nice that it was on this random email.
allow existential cookies? absolutely not 😤
September 17, 2025 at 11:59 PM
allow existential cookies? absolutely not 😤
in my 400-level senior physics course this semester, we've been reading and discussing papers. today, we talked about the bullet cluster and constraints on dark matter, whether its self-interaction cross section is nonzero or nah
but i do not understand the updates to cricut's TOS
but i do not understand the updates to cricut's TOS
September 17, 2025 at 11:46 PM
in my 400-level senior physics course this semester, we've been reading and discussing papers. today, we talked about the bullet cluster and constraints on dark matter, whether its self-interaction cross section is nonzero or nah
but i do not understand the updates to cricut's TOS
but i do not understand the updates to cricut's TOS
i could tell even my therapist is going through it this week
September 17, 2025 at 11:43 PM
i could tell even my therapist is going through it this week
Reposted by just some Alicia
None of the most prominent people talking about universities have any real idea what does and doesn’t happen in classrooms.
September 17, 2025 at 4:20 PM
None of the most prominent people talking about universities have any real idea what does and doesn’t happen in classrooms.
Reposted by just some Alicia
For those who don't recall, the closest ship to the Titanic was The Californian. They did not respond to distress signals. The Carpathia did, from much further away. That captain was a hero.
This is so worth your time.
This is so worth your time.
This one's maybe a little on the ling side, but trust me, it's worth it. I've cried reading it multiple times.
(1/3)
(1/3)
September 17, 2025 at 1:25 PM
For those who don't recall, the closest ship to the Titanic was The Californian. They did not respond to distress signals. The Carpathia did, from much further away. That captain was a hero.
This is so worth your time.
This is so worth your time.
Reposted by just some Alicia
So many of the half-baked AI implementations are happening in professional arenas that have been hollowed out by extraction and divestment. No journalist needs a writing aid unless they’re being paid too little to write too much, no teacher needs a commenting tool unless they’re overextended.
September 17, 2025 at 2:09 AM
So many of the half-baked AI implementations are happening in professional arenas that have been hollowed out by extraction and divestment. No journalist needs a writing aid unless they’re being paid too little to write too much, no teacher needs a commenting tool unless they’re overextended.
Reposted by just some Alicia
The Cassini Saturn mission ended with its "Grand Finale" #OTD in 2017.
To avoid the possibility of colliding with and possibly contaminating one of Saturn’s moons, the probe incinerated itself by plunging into the planet's atmosphere. 🧪 🔭
Video: Artist's conception, from a NASA/JPL-Caltech video
To avoid the possibility of colliding with and possibly contaminating one of Saturn’s moons, the probe incinerated itself by plunging into the planet's atmosphere. 🧪 🔭
Video: Artist's conception, from a NASA/JPL-Caltech video
September 15, 2025 at 2:33 PM
The Cassini Saturn mission ended with its "Grand Finale" #OTD in 2017.
To avoid the possibility of colliding with and possibly contaminating one of Saturn’s moons, the probe incinerated itself by plunging into the planet's atmosphere. 🧪 🔭
Video: Artist's conception, from a NASA/JPL-Caltech video
To avoid the possibility of colliding with and possibly contaminating one of Saturn’s moons, the probe incinerated itself by plunging into the planet's atmosphere. 🧪 🔭
Video: Artist's conception, from a NASA/JPL-Caltech video