Oldcoach @oldcoach.bsky.social · 3hParents either wanted all in or all out. Nobody wanted a hybrid. It was discouraging to be constantly attacked for it. But in the end most of the kids themselves did a great job adapting and getting through it, those classes will always be some of my favorites. /end 000
Oldcoach @oldcoach.bsky.social · 3hThe kids clearly benefitted from the in-school days. Faculty and admin worked their asses off, I was working 7 days per week I don’t know how many hours per day. I believe the learning loss was relatively minor. But 90% of the community hated it, we got nothing but criticism for all our efforts. /3 100
Oldcoach @oldcoach.bsky.social · 3hIt “sort of” worked. For the most part we got through it, but there were times in Dec 2020 and Jan 2021 when we had to shut down because so many faculty were sick. Also there were some at risk kids who struggled with the home days, although some kids with serious social anxiety did better. /2 100
Oldcoach @oldcoach.bsky.social · 3hLeaving aside the morality for a moment and just talking practicality, I taught in a school that opened in a hybrid model (students in half-time) in Sept 2020 and utilized many of the tactics recommended by the authors: improved ventilation, weekly testing, extra spacing, masks in class, etc. /1 100
Oldcoach @oldcoach.bsky.social · 14hI once was briefly detained by the Czechoslovakian police when I was (accidentally) in attendance at a demonstration in Prague on the 20th anniversary of the Soviet invasion. I didn’t know what the protest was about, they were chanting in Czech after all. Dumb American tourist. 000
Oldcoach @oldcoach.bsky.social · 07/10/2026Modern Republicans have had one goal: power. Everything else is subservient to that goal. Policy positions are simply created to persuade the runes to vote for them. If they need to change, so be it. 021
Oldcoach @oldcoach.bsky.social · 07/10/2026Funny thing is, I could never give turn-by-turn directions but I could always drive to places I’d been before just by recognizing the turns when they came up. I had a visual memory of routes, not a verbal one. 010
Oldcoach @oldcoach.bsky.social · 06/10/2026Someone who is still attending a Trump rally at this point is borderline delusional, or maybe psychopathic. 000
Oldcoach @oldcoach.bsky.social · 05/10/2026I especially like it when they message you some indecipherable results of a test (“significant milohypoactinophila”) and then you google frantically for three days waiting to hear from the doctor. 260
Oldcoach @oldcoach.bsky.social · 05/10/2026All is not yet lost, we still have giant pumpkins at the Topsfield (MA) fair! www.bostonglobe.com/2026/10/02/m...bostonglobe.comA 2,598-pound giant pumpkin sets new record at Topsfield Fair - The Boston GlobeEighty-year-old Woody Lancaster's 2,598 pound pumpkin won Friday night's 42nd All New England Giant Pumpkin Weigh-Off. 010
Oldcoach @oldcoach.bsky.social · 05/10/2026Also related to, “the future is scary so I want to go back to the past.” Denialism is an evergreen idea. 000
Oldcoach @oldcoach.bsky.social · 05/10/2026How about fighting the corporate forces that are burning our planet for corporate profit? Seems to me there are plenty of struggles worth having today. It’s not boredom, it’s just that propaganda has convinced people to only struggle for their own personal advantage, not anything beyond themselves. 010
Oldcoach @oldcoach.bsky.social · 05/10/2026So are the statistics going to be recorded as a transaction? And who is going to be able to view them? Only people with crypto wallets or miners? Do you need a private key to see them? Can they be hacked? Is this a way to hide them from the public? I’d love to hear his answers to those questions. 100
Oldcoach @oldcoach.bsky.social · 05/10/2026I’m in Massachusetts and our own ads plus the NH ones are bad enough. If these out-of-area ones keep up I am going to have to swear off the NFL until after Election Day. 000
Oldcoach @oldcoach.bsky.social · 02/10/2026Thanks! As a longtime HS coach I couldn’t agree more. Especially on my level the most important goals of sports participation are social/emotional. The stakes of winning, while of seeming importance to some, are actually quite low. 011
Oldcoach @oldcoach.bsky.social · 01/10/2026When anyone made a claim about A leading to B in class, my late teacher Rudi Dornbusch (of MIT) would always ask, “ what is the mechanism?” and would insist on a plausible answer before accepting the claim, even if the claim seemed obvious and uncontroversial. 000
Oldcoach @oldcoach.bsky.social · 01/10/2026If he wants to feel better, tell him that I (an old man) attended both the 1978 one game playoff against the Yankees and the 6th game of the 1986 World Series. I still think the 1978 game hurt more. 000
Oldcoach @oldcoach.bsky.social · 30/09/2026The negotiations over wages were way less contentious than those over working conditions. /2 030
Oldcoach @oldcoach.bsky.social · 30/09/2026Exactly. I was on the negotiations team for our teachers union in a town with an elected school committee composed of lawyers, business folk, etc. and their perception of how teachers used their time was completely out of touch with reality. /1 121
Oldcoach @oldcoach.bsky.social · 27/09/2026Same thing I said while tailoring a suit for Jack Reacher and wondering why it doesn’t fit anybody else. 000
Oldcoach @oldcoach.bsky.social · 27/09/2026“This answer is so bad I wish I could take points off the rest of the test,” that’s a quote from one of my grad school profs on an exam book of mine. That’ll keep you in line. 040
Oldcoach @oldcoach.bsky.social · 26/09/2026The Falklands are actually the only place on Earth where the English are the indigenous population. 130
Oldcoach @oldcoach.bsky.social · 26/09/2026I’ve owned golden retrievers. Why is anyone surprised by this story? That dog is the quintessential golden. 020
Oldcoach @oldcoach.bsky.social · 24/09/2026Can’t make a lot of money off of that model, now, can we? Just a cost sink. Where’s the disruption? 010
Oldcoach @oldcoach.bsky.social · 24/09/2026Wonder if they’ll include my favorite Smith quote: "People of the same trade seldom meet together, even for merriment and diversion, but the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the public, or in some contrivance to raise prices." 020
Oldcoach @oldcoach.bsky.social · 23/09/2026Lots of South Asians where I grew up, brought new businesses and vibrant shopping areas to the neighborhood. 010
Oldcoach @oldcoach.bsky.social · 23/09/2026Slide rules! Lovely devices, great for teaching logarithms. I used to have a giant one (about 5 feet long) in my classroom to teach about logs. Kids were bemused. Told them it was a challenge to bring to and from school. 010
Oldcoach @oldcoach.bsky.social · 22/09/2026Yes, indeed, true in many states. And to be fair there are not any real issues now either, just made up ones. If you think I don’t know what I’m talking about, I’ve coached HS sports for 48 years now, and am still doing it. 020
Oldcoach @oldcoach.bsky.social · 22/09/2026Hmmm…the exchanges aren’t free, some get subsidies for a policy but still pay something. So the theory of the fraud is that people paid a price to never get a benefit? Or that the insurance companies were creating imaginary people to get more subsidies than they had policies? Makes zero sense. 030
Oldcoach @oldcoach.bsky.social · 22/09/2026Yes, this is it, the reputation and trust certain politicians have built up with the public. Do you think this guy will sell you out? If so, you are looking for evidence that confirms your belief. It doesn’t mean you aren’t right, of course, it just means we like to confirm our beliefs. 010
Oldcoach @oldcoach.bsky.social · 22/09/2026The biggest issue is a smaller working age group supporting a larger elderly population, but it can be managed. Japan has been dealing with it for a while. This is true virtually everywhere in the advanced economies: Europe, Japan, Korea, etc. Racism is holding back immigration as a solution. 000
Oldcoach @oldcoach.bsky.social · 22/09/2026Napster follows in the grand tradition of companies that failed in the general marketplace targeting the education market. And all too often administrators fall for it. 040
Oldcoach @oldcoach.bsky.social · 21/09/2026As someone who lived in Queens in the 70’s, most everywhere in the borough is better off now, including the areas (like mine) that were predominantly white back then. The immigration of the 1990-2010 period, of diverse folks of all kinds, has upgraded most neighborhoods. 1180
Oldcoach @oldcoach.bsky.social · 21/09/2026Income effects v substitution effects! Who said EC 101 was useless? 000
Oldcoach @oldcoach.bsky.social · 21/09/2026There’s a lot of blame to go around. Who radicalized that guy? Promoted antisemitism? Prevented realistic gun control? You could go crazy assigning blame. But until all of us accept responsibility for stopping this instead of denying & assigning blame it will go on happening. 000
Oldcoach @oldcoach.bsky.social · 21/09/2026Texas? Climate change? Farmer? How was the heat this summer? Hmmm…. 000
Oldcoach @oldcoach.bsky.social · 20/09/2026No, I don’t think they are conscious. One doesn’t need consciousness to solve complex problems. See emergent behavior in insects, slime molds, etc. But I’m curious as to how our mental processes work by contrast to understand the type of things they will be good or bad at. 030
Oldcoach @oldcoach.bsky.social · 20/09/2026I have a pretty good grasp on what LLM’s do, but I don’t understand what our brains do. 100
Oldcoach @oldcoach.bsky.social · 20/09/2026Nothing like a Fractured Fairy Tale to get the weekend rolling. 030
Oldcoach @oldcoach.bsky.social · 20/09/2026It has been a steady decline since Rocky & Bullwinkle. I will die on this hill. 140
Oldcoach @oldcoach.bsky.social · 20/09/2026I think we have defined panic down over the years to now mean something like “concerned and frightened.” But that’s not actually what panic means. True panic is debilitating. As a parent of a young woman who had panic attacks as a child, believe me, I know. 010
Oldcoach @oldcoach.bsky.social · 19/09/2026Hmmm, why aren’t they promoting a male AI-generated actor? The question answers itself. 0191
Oldcoach @oldcoach.bsky.social · 19/09/2026Negligence is not strong enough. Legally, it’s recklessness. 030