@XanderHenderson I don't try to enforce subjective opinions. See above.

@MichaelHardy Those posts were not years old (as you mentioned, the users were newbies). Even in those cases, it might be better to make suggestions in comments than to edit the posts. People learn better by doing than by being shown.

In any case, we are talking about bumping old posts, not educating newbies.

@robjohn We're only a few weeks away from enjoying the MEAN Pumpkin, or the MEAN Gourd. You could also try being a MEAN Ghost! :-)

Hi, @Slate ! You were listed previously (has it been two months!) in an SE Community "Welcome!" post as a new team member(staff)/Community Manager. Greetings!

Of interest: meta.stackexchange.com/questions/370442/…

@XanderHenderson Indeed. Thanks for sharing!

@XanderHenderson There's a moderator's private chatroom you have access to. I wanted to ask privately, about the status of suspensions for low quality contributions, compared to other suspensions. It is based on length of suspensions two of has have tracked. Would you mind taking a peek there? You can also comment to me from there.

But if your time is limited, @Xander, no problem. I'd just like to get feedback back at some point, not necessarily today or tomorrow.

@amWhy I think that quid has made motions toward publishing some of those data on meta. I don't have the technical skills (or time and motivation to learn them ) to dig up the relevant data. Any lack of transparency regarding action taken vis-a-vis the EoQS is more out of lack of time than a positive desire to hide information.

@XanderHenderson Thanks for commenting. That makes sense. I did not mean to suggest there is any hiding of information. That has not been my perspective vis-a-vis the EoQS.

How's the semester going, @Xander?

@amWhy It is draining.

(Take solace, tomorrow is FRIDAY!)

I am teaching over 18 load (if all of my classes had minimal enrollment, it would be over 20, but two of my classes are rather small).

And my weekend essentially begins this evening. I teach until 9, but then don't have to teach tomorrow.

I have some meetings tomorrow, bu those are far less draining.

@XanderHenderson Wow.

@XanderHenderson Is that due to office hours, course prep or grading, and/or Project Next?

I have four sections of precalc, and two sections of calculus.

Those 18 load are just my teaching.

@XanderHenderson Yikes!!!

I am also sitting in on an English class (on Native American lit), and a physics seminar at UCR.

However, I did have a couple of really good teaching moments today:

1) While talking about the derivative of $\sin$, it is generally necessary to deal with $\lim_{h\to 0} \frac{\cos(h)-1}{h}$. Most books handle this by hitting it over the head with the half-angle formula. This has always felt kind of unmotivated to me.

@XanderHenderson Oops I thought you said your weekend is essentially evenings, Sat/Sun, hence I was guessing what work you had on weekends until the evenings. :/

While teaching yesterday, I had a thought---we have already dealt with $\frac{\sqrt{x+h}-\sqrt{x}}{h}$ by "rationalizing the numerator". We should be able to play a similar game here: "rationalize" the numerator and hit it with the one thing we are supposed to know (they Pythagorean identity).

It turns out that $\lim_{h\to 0} \frac{\cos(h)-1}{h}\frac{\cos(h)+1}{\cos(h)+1}$ is a breeze.

@XanderHenderson aha! Nice!

I am a little disappointed that (a) I had never stumbled across that before, and (b) no book with which I am familiar uses that particular computation.

It just feels so natural. :\

Light-bulb!!! @Xander begins work on a text-book, and/or enriching the teaching of mathematics!

@amWhy I actually had a long conversation with a colleague about this last night, and he had the same light-bulb moment over the summer, and put this particular approach into the book that he spent all summer writing (which is part of a massive grant to revamp the calculus program in the UC system).

So it already exists in a book.

Did you notice the two back to back questions on meta, from the same user?

I think so?

@XanderHenderson Wow! Awesome!

Oh, good teaching moment number 2:

In class this morning, I said "so, s'pose we have a line and a point not on the line. construct a parallel line. if the first line is $y=mx+b$, what do you wonder about the picture? what do you know? what don't you know?"

The ultimate goal is to show that they have the same slope, but I try to get students to arrive at that question naturally (and my class yesterday came up with a bunch of interesting questions before getting to slope, including "how far apart are the lines?").

A student today suggested that if the lines had different slopes, then they would intersect, so we ended up proving the theorem (that parallel lines have the same slope) via contraposition.

Which was just delightful, and not at all what I had planned.

@XanderHenderson They've asked three-some questions, and answered three, period (unless deletions exist). I find it difficult to believe a user with such little interaction on the site to carry so much hostility toward certain high-rep users. (He overgeneralizes), but to the extent I suspect they've had a previous account, perhaps suspended; I don't know. Probably not possible to learn yeah or nay unless a pattern develops.

@amWhy Yeah, I think I know who you are talking about. We are aware of the meta posts.

@XanderHenderson Awesome! I love assisted discovery! awesome.

I may have already asked you if you were familiar with the Moore Method. I found a book released through the MAA: math.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/33508/…

@amWhy I took several classes as an undergraduate which were in the style of Moore. Not quite pure Moore method, but definitely influenced by it.

@XanderHenderson I gather that the book I linked discusses the style of Moore, more than endorsing pure Moore.

You didn't link to a book...

You linked to the EoQS announcement.

The book

Sorry about that, @Xander

Oooo!! It is free!

@XanderHenderson Yes!! Nice!!

Another: meta post: why all the downvotes?; and "I wish to be upvoted"!! And if history repeats itself, a bunch of pity voters will come to the rescue, upvote their post, meta and main.... @Xander :( It seems too many users are misusing/abusing meta.

^^^meta post

Not asking for intervention, @Xander. Just sort of feeling "Oh no, not again." Is your class tonight on-line, or in person?

I have seen it.

With respect to the native american literature course you're sitting in on, as an undergrad senior, all humanity majors (philosophy was one of my majors, as well as math), took a seminar, in which we read three books, one of which was a novel by Linda Hogan. I also presented on Native American Mathematics in a history of math class, after attending a philosophy convention featuring, in one session, Tom Norton, presenting...

...on the subject.

I thought I asked, @Xander but I don't see it here; when you teach tonight, are you teaching in person, or online, from home?

Online, from my office in Snowflake.

I have no in-person classes this semester.

Since we don't hold labs or other activities which require us to be in person, the math department has opted to remain virtual.

@XanderHenderson That's right; I think you mentioned that at the start of your semester. Is "Snowflake" a city/town? Close enough to your home, more or less?.

Snowflake is a town.

goo.gl/maps/5qYRBzmfSCEvgqSv6

It is about 30 miles from my home, which is in Holbrook.

My office is here: goo.gl/maps/9aY53Z99pjMbdwJE8

@XanderHenderson Yes, I remember Holbrook. I imagine you find it easier to teach from your office, than from home, generally speaking.

Honestly, I find it easier to teach from home (less travel, and I can raise my desk to a standing position).

But, from a mental health perspective, having a real division between "work" and "home" was becoming necessary.

Since moving my work to my actual office, I am getting a minimum of five hours of sleep every night!

(which is still woefully inadequate, but is an improvement)

Also, MAA's website is sucking right now... I can't seem to log in.

And these stupid travel request forms are stupid.

>:(

Ugh... I should probably focus on this silly GAO manual to figure out how to get my meals reimbursed. :'(

Though maybe it would be easier if I just chose not to eat for a couple of days.

@XanderHenderson Yes it is! But glad it's getting better.

@XanderHenderson No, that would not be good. No hunger strike needed!

@XanderHenderson I think that has been a widespread issue for many folks working from home during the pandemic. I notice that Holbrook is associated with the Holbrook Basin; and you've got reasonable access to the Petrified Forest to the East? and to Flag Staff (which you've mentioned. What is the distance to the Grand Canyon, where the Colorado River flows through?

PFo is an easy 25-30 minute drive. I get out there about once a month.

@XanderHenderson Nice!

Flagstaff is 90 minutes away, and I almost never go. Depending on what part of the Grand Canyon you want to see, it is anywhere from 3+ hours (to Page) to 5+ hours (five hours to Vegas, then on to other North Rim locations; or go through Page, but the timing is similar).

@XanderHenderson Okay. That makes sense. States out west tend to be larger than in the east, so what may appear on a map as "fairly close", is not necessarily close.

Indeed.

I might also try to go to Show Low for a thing tomorrow evening, though I am not entirely sure. The socialization and outdoor live music would be nice, but it is 45 minutes each way, and there are elk on the road at night.

Also, I would not feel comfortable having a beer.

But maybe I will come into the office tomorrow for the ATF meeting, and hang out until the evening. Then it is only a 15 minute drive to Show Low, and 45 minutes home. :/

@XanderHenderson That sounds like a plan! (You can always head back to Show Low, and camp out in your office, if you need to) ;)

@XanderHenderson Friends? Colleagues? That'd really be nice for you enjoy.

Colleagues.

Next week, one of the arts faculty is playing. I am more or less committed to heading to Show Low for that one.

@XanderHenderson Nice!

Does Navajo County relate in any way to the Navajo Reservation?

I mean, the northern half of Navajo County is part of the Navajo Nation, but the same is true of Apache County.

And a Coconino County.

@XanderHenderson Ahh, I see. I just found a map of the region of the Navajo Nation.

I like the name Navajo Nation (I slipped); I see also three other reservation included in parts of Arizona, if not entirely in Arizona.

Off the top of my head, there are two or three Apache reservations (we serve the White Mountain Apache on the Fort Apache Reservation; I believe that the San Carlos Reservation is also Apache), the Hopi Reservation (we also serve them), the Gila and Salt River Reservations (which are both, I think, Tohono O'odham, or, at least, related).

There are others to the south, I think, and I want to say that there is a Mojave Reservation near Vegas, and another reservation out on the North Rim, near the Kaibab National Forest.

Oh, and there must be a Yavapai reservation somewhere to the west...

And I think that much of the South Rim is sovereign land---Hualapai, maybe?

Hualapai Indian Reservation in the Northwest (Near Vegas)

Yeah, that sounds right. And I think that the Tohono O'odham have a big reservation in the south.

Near Tucson.

The map I get doesn't enlarge easily.

Oh, I found a nice map: statemuseum.arizona.edu/programs/american-indian-relations/…

Huh... I didn't realize that there were Zuni in Arizona. Zuni Pueblo is in NM.

@XanderHenderson Sort of makes sense. But yes, it's a great map!

There are little blocks of land near Winslow and Holbrook which are owned by the Hopi and Navajo tribes. I really want for our institution to talk to the tribes about building dorms on that land. :\

Yes, I see them.

Man, conferences are expensive when you aren't a graduate student. :(

@XanderHenderson Yes, and dues in AMS and MAA, etc.

Have fun teaching this evening, @Xander! Sleep well!

Yar. And now I really need to focus on other stuff. :\

@XanderHenderson Yar. Me 2!