If they were the size of a penis it would just be the male condom with extra steps.

Yeah it’s not really something you export, so I can’t sample it ha ha. Even now that everyone’s telling me it’s still just an imaginary smell to me.

That’s so fascinating. Thanks for the specifics!

Thanks. That was not what I was expecting; for some reason I was basing my imaginary skunk smell on the smell of rotten fish.

Wow that’s quite the bioweapon!

What does it smell like?

2/3 of these animals aren’t in my country so I don’t know about the logistics but this seems really cool!

It’s a stray cat though?

I can’t imagine how, unless you only had 20 of them or something?

Back when I was a TA, I had an average of 120 students per semester and we didn’t necessarily grade our own students’ work (it was usually divided by topic).

So if I’m grading 120 assignments - or worse, 480 pieces of exam assessment- and only 25% of them are from students I regularly interact with, I don’t think my subconscious has any idea 99% of the time.

Even with smaller classes… you’re just seeing too many people with similar thoughts and styles over the course of a year for any of it to imprint on your mind that deeply. Occasionally it’s going to be obvious, but I still think removing a level of bias through anonymizing is best practice.

They both seem equally bad to me.

You don’t have to have either problem though; both can be avoided easily.

I think blind marking is important. I have literally heard people objecting to proposed grades with phrases like “but he’s a bad student” or “but she’s really bright.”

I agree with this. It’s a bit like the first 2 pancakes, you have to go back over the first half a dozen once you’re in the zone.

I used to grade hard copies a lot, after I graded I’d put them in order from best to worst (numerical grades) and then do quick comparisons between an assignment and its neighbours in the pile. It’s an easy way to “quality control”.

As for the comments, that’s a self-discipline issue. If you’re giving, say, 4 positives and 4 negatives per assignment and have standard ways of phrasing, it shouldn’t deteriorate.

That outsourcing can be ropey. You should always get your own line editor if you’re dealing with one of the big academic publishers.

This, surely it’s more usual? The first time I ever reached out the person sent me three recent articles and an invitation to let them know when/where my research was published, even though it wasn’t relevant to their discipline.

I was a lowly grad student and he was a senior academic with his own lab. I’d heard of his research because it was mentioned in a science documentary on tv, and the whole experience really gave me a happy feeling.

I can see why ForgotAboutDre@lemmy.world only did it the one time after the experience they had, though.

Pear and banana. There’s something about brown skinned pears with feijoa that just works.

Feijoa jam time.

It’s not different from nature. Neither are predation, parasites and diseases.

Stationary single point food sources would be rare but if there was one, resource guarding and physical competition would be normal as well, as would behaviours such as marking territory with urine.

Data from the US (where they have predators like coyotes) always give cats in the wild a 2-5 year lifespan.

I think the figures are better here, but cats in their natural state still have much harder lives than most pet cats.

Personally, if I have a pet my aim is to give it a long happy life, but I know mileage varies and everyone draws the line wherever they feel comfortable. I’ve mostly been lucky enough to have windows I can leave open for cats during the day.

The animal psychologist that convinced me put it like this: how would you like it if there was a door into your house you couldn’t lock and violent people could randomly come in, day or night.

Even the ones that are chip controlled, cats themselves don’t know and will engage in catdoor guarding behaviour.

If your cat is young and likes the odd fight it’s probably okay though.

Yes we need a robust system.

I was fretting before about this govt just undoing stuff without any policy direction of their own, but now we’re beginning to see the policy directions I take that back.

Silly conspiracy theory: Big Pseudoephidrine wants sick kids to go to school to spread the cold virus.