NOTHINGBURGER, almost: The limits of spoofing—and other considerations

How the Pentagon learned to start worrying and investigate UFOs 

(National Geographic) 

The government’s UFO report has landed: It concludes that strange aircraft have been haunting U.S. warships for years, marking a new era for “unidentified aerial phenomena.” 

PUBLISHED JUNE 25, 2021

U.S. national security officials today delivered a report to Congress about investigations into a series of unidentified flying object sightings, a landmark sign that this previously fringe topic has gained mainstream acceptance. And while the report, produced by the office of the Director of National Intelligence (DNI), does provide some new information about the inexplicable occurrences, it leaves many of the biggest questions unanswered. 

Yes, Navy pilots and other military personnel have been seeing mysterious flying objects for decades; a Navy task force reviewed 144 sightings by U.S. government personnel that occurred between 2004 and 2021. No, the Pentagon doesn’t know what they are. There’s no evidence that the objects were sent by space aliens, but the report, mandated by Congress as part of the 2021 National Intelligence Authorization Act, confirms that the sightings remain “unidentified.”

. . . 

The report, which includes a classified section available only to lawmakers, details the results of investigations by the Defense Department’s UAP Task Force, established in 2017. Strange flying objects with seemingly bizarre aerodynamic abilities have been spotted by pilots, on radar, and with infrared sensors. 

The report does state that the UAP Task Force was not able to attribute any of the sightings to American military or other advanced U.S. government technology. “Some UAP observations could be attributable to developments and classified programs by U.S. entities,” the report says. “We were unable to confirm, however, that these systems accounted for any of the UAP reports we collected.” 

Dietrich

The most famous UAP encounters in modern aviation history—cases from 2004, 2014, and 2015 that involve pilot sightings, radar tracking, and objects caught on video—remain unsolved. 

. . . 

Even without answers, the report is a welcome validation for those in the military who witnessed unknown objects in the sky. “We were ridiculed and mocked by so many, so now it feels nice to have people ask good questions and to have them really be interested in getting to the bottom of it,” says Alex Dietrich, a former Navy pilot who observed a UAP in 2004. “Then, of course, there’s that underlying sense of urgency that we all have: Is this a threat to national security?” 

A number of U.S. officials are now posing that same question. What Dietrich saw in the sky 16 years ago started a series of events that changed the discussion about unidentified aerial sightings forever.

. . . 

Consensus has gelled around the idea that at least some physical aircraft were flying during the encounters reported by Navy pilots. The DNI report supports this point of view: “Most of the UAP reported probably do represent physical objects, given that a majority of UAP were registered across multiple sensors, to include radar, infrared, electro-optical, weapon seekers, and visual observation.”

. . . 

There is an ongoing, invisible cat-and-mouse game between designers of U.S. weapon systems and those made by Russia and China. In places like Syria, Taiwan, and Ukraine, military specialists, nicknamed crows, vie for dominance over the electromagnetic spectrum. 

“Over time, the sensors on an aircraft or a missile get more and more sophisticated,” says Mike Meaney, Northrop Grumman’s vice president of Land and Maritime Sensors. “On the flip side, usually within short order, they have new and different ways to spoof or fool those sensors to make them think something’s happening that really isn’t.” 

When radar operators receive returns showing things that are impossible—like extremely fast-moving objects and vanishing swarms of aircraft—electronic warfare is the first thing a crow considers. “If I see one enemy plane, and all of a sudden it becomes 20 planes in my display—I’m being spoofed,” Meany says. Such funhouse mirror tricks are useful for avoiding anti-aircraft weapons, which often initially rely on radar to track targets. 

Spoofing sounds a lot like what happened in the Gimbal encounters, and the DNI report addresses the possibility. “UAP reportedly appeared to exhibit unusual flight characteristics,” it states. “These observations could be the result of sensor errors, spoofing, or observer misperception and require additional rigorous analysis.” But if spoofing was involved, it would be very advanced tech for 2015. “That’s really the higher level of electronic warfare,” Meany notes. 

If the Russian spy ship in Cuba was part of an intelligence gathering operation using covert tools of electronic warfare, that would mean the Kremlin unveiled a potentially sensitive system that would be more valuable as a surprise during an actual conflict. There are vast military ranges in Russia and China where sensitive systems can be tested without tipping their hand—just as there are within the United States. 

Meaney says a cardinal rule in electronic warfare is: The less shown, the better. “As far as the cat-and-mouse goes, all sides are very careful in what they show and when they show it,” he says. “We don’t show it until we need it, and it’s been that way for five decades.” 

Even if spoofing can explain some of the strange things seen on radar screens, it can’t explain what pilots saw with their own eyes, or the objects captured on video. Perhaps a combination of physical objects and electronic warfare is responsible for some of the UAP incidents, but no one seems to be able to put all the puzzle pieces together in a way that makes sense…. 

Government report can't explain UFOs, but offers no evidence of aliens 

(Politico) 

Out of 144 encounters with mysterious aircraft, 143 are literally unidentifiable, according to a newly released report to Congress.

A broken board, district

A ‘Broken Board Culture’ 

(Inside Higher Ed)

The Peralta Community College District Board of Trustees has been roiled by conflict amid ongoing financial problems, according to a recent Alameda County civil grand jury report. 

By Sara Weissman 

     An Alameda County civil grand jury report lambasted the Peralta Community College District Board of Trustees for maintaining poor shared governance practices, interfering in hiring decisions, holding secretive meetings, infighting, showing racial insensitivity and fostering an overall culture of incivility toward each other, administrators and staff. 

     The report, released Monday, said students were poorly served by a “broken board culture” that led to extensive administrative turnover and exacerbated long-standing financial troubles. The Bay Area district, which is part of the California Community College system, consists of the College of Alameda, Berkeley City College, Merritt College and Laney College. 

     The grand jury received eight formal complaints about trustees elected prior to 2020, the report said. 

     “Cohesion, civility, trust, and mutual respect are critical elements of an effective governing board,” the authors of the report wrote. “Tension, poor communication, lack of unified goals, and divisive individual behavior at Peralta have resulted in the board's inability to fulfill its mandate effectively. Interference in the traditional roles of the chancellor, secret meetings, and backroom dealing destroy staff morale and the board’s relationship with the administrative team. Without reform or change in board behavior, Peralta’s students, so in need of this essential institution, will continue to suffer.” 

. . . 

     The report concluded that board members stepped outside the bounds of their roles by encouraging staff who bypassed the chancellor to bring issues directly to them, and by interfering with hiring processes overseen by the chancellor on multiple occasions between 2018 and 2020. 

     Regina Stanback Stroud, the former chancellor, left her position in July 2020, less than a year after she was hired. Her resignation letter accused trustees of undermining her role; interfering with complaints against board members; intervening in labor negotiations; “exhibiting hostility and contempt” toward administrators, especially Black executive staff; and engaging in “collusion with the unions against the interest of the district.” 

     “These issues cast a poor light on the board as a whole and the district -- and place the district and its four colleges in continual fiscal jeopardy thereby undermining the ability of Peralta Community College District to successfully meet the needs of students and the community,” Stroud wrote in the letter. 

     Jennifer Shanoski, president of the Peralta Federation of Teachers, a local affiliate of the faculty union, denied that the board played any inappropriate role in labor negotiations. 

     “The notion that there’s some secret collusion is absolutely absurd,” she said. “We think that one of our roles within the district is to share our perspective on information with board members. I live within the boundaries of the Peralta trustee district. I’m a constituent and many of our members are constituents. There is nothing that says we can’t write to our board members just like you would write to your city council member or your governor or your state representative or any other elected official.” 

     The district has cycled through five chancellors in the last two and a half years and six chief financial officers in the past four and a half years, according to the report….

Still dreaming

 

Post surgery, right leg

I slipped and fell late Sunday while taking Teddy for a walk. The slip-n-fall was nothing remarkable, but I heard a loud and horrible "crack." I couldn't find any wood beneath me but I did find my leg, just above the ankle, badly broken. The end of the tibia was visible through the skin. It was an unpleasant sight.

I sent Teddy inside and then dragged my body about fifty-sixty feet across dirt, rocks, then concrete, oak leaves, etc. to my phone. Called my sis. Then called 911. Paramedics showed up pretty quickly. Teddy watched 'em cart me away.

Monday morning, they performed the surgery. It's called "right tibia nail." It involves inserting a long tubular metal thingy from the ankle down to the break, right above the ankle. You can watch it on YouTube. It's pretty gross.

Evidently, the surgeons were particularly proud of their work. The surgery went well.

I can't put weight on my right leg for a while (months?), which means I can't walk until this thing heals. I can get by with a walker, a process that taxes especially my left arm (moving from sitting to walker/standing), but so far so good. I wouldn't recommend it though.

Sheesh! Frickin' old age!

Everybody—paramedics, nurses, doctors, my sister—all did a great job. Thanks much! 

And thanks for the well wishes! I'm in very little pain and doing well. No need for concern.

Again, thanks.

—Roy

P.s.: Teddy says "hey"

The truth is in there (Mick West explains)

I study UFOs – and I don’t believe the alien hype. Here’s why 

(Mick West, The Guardian, June 11) 

 Excerpt: 

...This is not to say there’s nothing for the military to be concerned about. There are real issues regarding unidentified sightings – drones being a major one. A distant drone, even a domestic one, is difficult to identify, and we know foreign adversaries have a strong interest in developing and using novel stealth drones for espionage and probing our defenses. There are other genuine issues, too – like anomalous radar returns and inexplicable eyewitness sightings – but there’s no evidence of aliens. There isn’t even really any good quality evidence of flying objects displaying amazing technology. There are, however, many people who want UFOs to be “real” and who feel like promoting the story will make it real. They present weak evidence as strong evidence. Don’t be fooled….

Huge enrollment drop in California

California has the largest drop in spring college enrollment numbers in the nation 

(LA Times, COLLEEN SHALBY, JUNE 10, 2021)  

California leads the nation with the largest drop in spring 2021 college enrollment numbers largely due to a steep decline in community college students, who have particularly struggled with pandemic hardships, according to a report released Thursday. 

The state’s overall community college and university headcount dropped by about 123,000 students — the largest numeric decrease of any state. The percentage decline was 5.3% .The numeric downturn reflects California’s stature as the most populous state, but does not account for the entirety of the loss, researchers said. 

College enrollment across the nation dropped by 3.5% — or about 603,000 students — from spring 2020 to spring 2021, marking the biggest decline on record with the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center, which has tracked higher education enrollment and degree data since 2011. The calculation takes into account a decline of undergraduates and an increase in graduate students, the report by the organization says. 

“California is doing worse than the national averages by 1 or 2 percentage points in terms of the declines this spring compared with last,” said Doug Shapiro, executive director of the organization. 

The decline in community college students accounts for a large majority of California’s loss, which is in keeping with a national trend as community college enrollment was hardest hit by the pandemic. About 476,000 students, or 65% of the spring’s total national undergraduate enrollment losses, occurred in the community college sector, the report said. 

The spring losses at California’s community colleges follow a similar trend in fall 2020, when enrollments dropped 12% compared to fall 2019. Additionally, students had to make spring semester registrations as the state experienced its largest and most devastating surge in COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations. 

“The pandemic disrupted students’ lives in a myriad of ways that made it difficult or impossible for many of them to continue with their college educations,” said Paul Feist, spokesperson for the California Community College Chancellor Eloy Ortiz Oakley. Feist described the host of hardships that confronted students. 

According to a state community college student survey, 41% faced a change in employment during the pandemic; about 19% had their work hours reduced and 22% were laid off or furloughed, Feist said. More than half of students reported their income decreased. About 57% faced basic needs insecurity — a group that was disproportionately made up of students of color. 

New Mexico saw the biggest percentage decline in college and university enrollment, at 11.4%; Michigan was among the top five states with a 6.4% drop. When assessing the country by region, the South saw the smallest decline in enrollment at 1.9%. The West was next with a 3.7% decrease, followed by the Northeast with a 4% drop and the Midwest with a 4.1% decline. 

Seven states — New Hampshire, Utah, West Virginia, Nebraska, Virginia, Idaho and Maryland — saw increased enrollment. 

The drop in numbers at the community college level is due to a variety of factors, Shapiro said. Transfers from community colleges to four-year institutions account for a portion of the decline. But the most significant factor was a drop in fall and spring enrollment among high school students from the class of 2020. In addition, while a recession typically draws older students back to community colleges, that wasn’t the case this time. 

“Literally every previous recession meant large increases in the number of older students enrolling in community colleges. This recession has completely broken that mold,” Shapiro said. “There’s no evidence of those millions of unemployed — they’re not going to college.” 

A continued drop in enrollment could lead to decreased community college funding nationally, resulting in fewer classes, support services and further reductions over time, said Thomas Brock, director of the Community College Research Center. 

“I think one of the greatest fears I have, and other leaders have, is that it could quickly become a downward spiral,” said Brock. “That would be the worst-case scenario.”….

Unidentified Flying "Comedy of Errors"

"a lot less ... than first meets the eye"

The longer we wait, the clearer it becomes that the much-anticipated UFO task force report, due at the end of the month, will offer little. —RB

Experts Weigh In on Pentagon UFO Report 

(Scientific American, Leonard David, June 8, 2021) 

The vast majority of examined incidents were not caused by U.S. advanced technology programs, the forthcoming report concludes. So what’s going on? 

…Andrew Fraknoi, an astronomer at the Fromm Institute for Lifelong Learning at the University of San Francisco, echoes the widely held sentiment among scientists that, for decades, the media has lavished too much attention on sensational claims that vague lights in the sky are actually extraterrestrial spacecraft. “Recently, there has been a flurry of misleading publicity about UFOs [based on military reports]. A sober examination of these claims reveals that there is a lot less to them than first meets the eye,” Fraknoi says. Given sufficient evidence (which, arguably, many of the recent reports fail to provide), UFO sightings can essentially always be tied to terrestrial or celestial phenomena, such as lights from human-made vehicles and reentering space junk, he adds. 

There is not going to be any “big reveal,” says Robert Sheaffer, a leading skeptical investigator of UFOs. “There are no aliens here on Earth, and so the government cannot ‘disclose’ what it does not have. Some people think that the government knows more about UFOs, or UAPs, than the public, but it’s clear that they know less on the subject than our best civilian UFO investigators, not more.” 

The DOD employs some very competent photographic analysts and other technical experts, “none of whom obviously were consulted in this comedy of errors,” Sheaffer says. “The Pentagon has already suffered enough embarrassment from the [apparent] incompetence of its UAP Task Force.” He says it is time to rein in such “rampant foolishness” and ensure that proper experts will shape the task force’s conclusions rather than “clueless, self-important people who don’t even recognize out-of-focus images when they see them.” 

Skeptical science writer Mick West has taken on the chore of analyzing the spate of UAP videos released by the U.S. military, steadfastly investigating how some of the incidents could merely be mirages from flaws in newly deployed radar systems, as well as various sorts of well-understood visual artifacts regularly seen in cameras. Despite his work to debunk the recent claims, West maintains that reports of mysterious aircraft stalking military assets should be taken quite seriously. 

. . . 

“The advocates of alien disclosure are encroaching on these real issues of UAPs,” West says. These believers take mundane videos of incidents that are simply unidentified, he says, then reframe them as evidence of extraordinary technology—which, of course, is intended to mean “aliens,” even if enthusiasts for that hypothesis will not explicitly say so. This cultivates credulous media attention, which in turn creates a feedback loop of public interest, more media and then pressure on politicians to “do something.” 

. . . 

[Of the task force report:] “I expect much discussion and information about the real issues of unidentified flying objects. But I do not anticipate it will have much that will please the UFO enthusiasts,” West says. 

. . . 

Harvard University astrophysicist Avi Loeb says the significance of the UAP Task Force report will depend on the evidence it discloses, which at the moment remains mostly unknown. “But this focus on past reports is misguided,” he says. “It would be prudent to progress forward with our finest instruments rather than examine past reports. Instead of focusing on documents that reflect decades-old technologies used by witnesses with no scientific expertise, it would be far better to deploy state-of-the-art recording devices, such as cameras or audio sensors, at the sites where the reports came from and search for unusual signals.” 

Loeb goes a step further, saying he is willing to sign up to help unravel the UAP/UFO saga. “Personally, I will be glad to lead scientific inquiry into the nature of these reports and advise Congress accordingly,” he says. “This could take the form of a federally designated committee or a privately funded expedition. Its most important purpose would be to inject scientific rigor and credibility into the discussion.”....

College students cheating: "the number of students engaging in academic dishonesty during the coronavirus pandemic is soaring"

✅The real devil behind rise in academic cheating during pandemic isn't online learning: expert 

(National Post, Devika Desai, May 28, 2021) 

Sarah Eaton, a professor at the University of Calgary, said she has seen increases in cheating from about 40 per cent to over 200 per cent, based on reports published by schools across the country. 

It’s not just Canada — other countries around the world have reported similar increases since the beginning of the pandemic. “The pandemic has really affected how we teach and learn,” she said. “It’s impacted all aspects of education.” 

But online learning isn’t to blame, she said, having long researched academic misconduct in Canadian post-secondary institutions. 

“There was about 20 years of research before the pandemic that showed that there was less academic misconduct in online courses compared to face-to-face learning.” 

Rather, she said, it’s the fact that students were “forced into online learning when they didn’t want to be,” coupled with teachers who are inexperienced and “not well trained in how to deliver their classes in online learning.” 

“You can have an awesome online learning experience, and you can have a terrible online experience,” she said. “But I think during the pandemic, students have not generally had awesome online experiences, unless they were working with a teacher who already knew how to teach online.” 

As a result, students become easy prey for a US$15 billion global industry specializing in “contract cheating,” Eaton said. Contract cheating is when a student outsources their assignment to someone else in exchange for a fee — in many cases, underpaid ghostwriters for companies in the business of cheating. 

With little to no legislation policing their actions, these companies are free to advertise their services to students, lure them in and keep them indebted via aggressive marketing tactics and sometimes blackmail, she said. 

. . . 

Going online makes it easier for students to cheat, intentionally or unintentionally, through certain behaviours that dominate digital interactions — the tendency to share for example, Eaton posited. 

People online share everything, ranging from memes and photos to status updates, which could very well translate to sharing academic work and test answers. “Many educators made an assumption that students wouldn’t share online. And yet, all of us share online all the time,” she said. 

It also makes it easier for companies in the business of cheating to percolate within post-secondary groups, on social media, carefully crafting messages to appeal to those struggling with homework under the weight of the pandemic. 

“These companies are doing direct marketing outreach to students via Instagram, by a TikTok video, via Youtube,” she said, all the while using a rhetoric meant to comfort stressed out students…. 

✅Students Are Cheating More During the Pandemic 

(WSJ, Tawnell D. Hobbs, May 12, 2021)  

With many students at home, and with websites offering services to do their homework, schools have seen a surge in academic dishonesty 

...Students are uploading their test questions on specialized websites where experts answer them for a fee. One professor at North Carolina State University caught students cheating by offering a unique set of questions to each, some of which quickly showed up on a for-profit homework website that helped him to identify who posted them. In all, 200 students, one fourth of his class, was caught cheating. Texas A&M University had a 50% increase in cheating allegations in the fall from a year earlier.

 . . . 

…A new breed of site allows students to put up their own classwork for auction. 

Among the newer ways to cheat are homework auction sites, which give students a say in who does their work and at what price. Students post their assignment on a website, along with a deadline; the website acts as a marketplace for bidders who offer to do the assignment. The bidders, who often refer to themselves as tutors, can tout degrees and other credentials. Some companies allow students to rate their work and post reviews online. While educators can use software to check for plagiarism, such tools aren’t much help against services that produce original work…. 

✅Online Cheating Charges Upend Dartmouth Medical School  

(NYT, Natasha Singer and Aaron Krolik, May 9, 2021) 

The university accused 17 students of cheating on remote exams, raising questions about data mining and sowing mistrust on campus. 

✅As pandemic continues, cheating gains 

(Yale Daily News, MADISON HAHAMY & KEVIN CHAN, April 4, 2021)  

The News conducted a survey of Yale undergraduates that showed approximately 50 percent of those who committed academic dishonesty did so for the first time during the virtual learning semesters. 

At the end of the fall 2020 semester, Timothy Newhouse, associate professor of chemistry and instructor for “Organic Chemistry for First Years I,” sent an email to his students. 

“Amazing job on the final!!! I just finished going through these and I am so pleased and excited,” Newhouse wrote, though he declined to comment for this article. “You did exceptionally well as a class and maybe were the best class year that I’ve seen.” 

But according to one student in Newhouse’s class, the exceptional grades were not the result of an extraordinarily intelligent or hard-working class, but due to acts of academic dishonesty committed by students — acts made much easier by the online format of the course. 

“It’s because you can literally from an iPad, switch over to Google and Google the exact problem … find the answer, write it down, and they wouldn’t be able to tell,” the student said. All of the students who spoke to the News, whether they committed academic dishonesty or not, did so under the condition of anonymity. Newhouse’s class was not the only one where cheating occurred. 

Last month, the News conducted a survey on academic dishonesty at Yale, which was completed by 336 Yale undergraduates. Of that number, 96 students, or 28.57 percent of respondents, reported committing academic dishonesty during their time at Yale. Around half of those 96 students said they committed their first act of academic dishonesty during remote learning. The survey follows a similar one conducted by the News in February 2019, which found that 14 percent of the 1,400 respondents committed academic dishonesty. 

. . . 

Alongside an increase in cheating during the pandemic, the News’ survey also found that 52.58 percent of those who committed academic dishonesty did so in a science course, and 50.52 percent did so in a quantitative reasoning course. Only 19.59 percent committed academic dishonesty in a humanities and arts course.

 . . . 

The anonymous student in Newhouse’s class had never cheated before the pandemic began. But he found the classroom circumstances “so impossibly difficult” that “[he] felt like it was very ethical to cheat.” 

“I always feel like I’ve never unethically cheated because I’ve always tried to honor the spirit of the rule and make sure that I’m learning,” he said…. 

✅How Cheating in College Hurts Students

(US News, Josh Moody, March 31, 2021) . .

Academic dishonesty may undercut career preparation and lead to disciplinary measures, including expulsion in severe cases.

…Cheating is a multibillion-dollar business, with some educational technology companies making money off students who use their products to break or bend academic integrity rules and others earning revenue from colleges trying to prevent academic dishonesty.

Jarrod Morgan, founder and chief strategy officer of ProctorU, an online test proctoring service that observes students taking tests for colleges and other educational organizations, says the number of students engaging in academic dishonesty during the coronavirus pandemic is soaring.

By some estimates, Morgan says, cheating on proctored college exams is up by as much as 700% for some subsets of students.

"I have to stress that we catch people cheating every single day," Morgan says. .The challenges of remote instruction – which many colleges have switched to temporarily because of COVID-19 – have led to an increase in student anxiety, experts say, which in turn has prompted many to cheat when taking exams in online classes.

"One of the predominant reasons for cheating is stress," says Camilla J. Roberts, president of the International Center for Academic Integrity. "Students are stressed to perform; they're stressed to maintain a grade. They feel like cheating is their only option."

While the numbers of cheaters are reportedly spiking, most instructors underestimate just how rampant the issue is, says Eric Anderman, a professor at Ohio State University—Columbus who studies academic integrity. "We think we're underestimating it because people don't want to admit to it."….

✅How college students learned new ways to cheat during pandemic remote schooling 

(CNBC, Samantha Subin, March 21, 2021) 

Flying drones, sticky notes on dogs, and virtual group chats. 

Amid the pandemic shift to remote school, age-old copying is out, and these are some of the tricks students are using to cheat their way to “As” at colleges across the globe. The rise in cheating is forcing colleges and universities to adapt to the unintended consequence of students living and learning from the comfort of their homes. 

A recent study led by Thomas Lancaster, a senior teaching fellow at the Imperial College London, found that the number of questions and answers posted on Chegg’s homework help section for five STEM subjects between April and August 2020 was up over 196% from the same time period in 2019. The study ruled that the increase correlated with the shift to online school and indicates students are using the tool in ways “not considered permissible by universities.” 

While websites like Chegg and Course Hero aren’t designed for cheating — they’re marketed as a place for students to get help — they do offer a platform for it, experts say. 

Texas A&M reportedly found more than 800 cases of academic fraud after a faculty member noticed students were finishing complex exams in less than a minute, with some of the information coming from Chegg, a university official told the NBC News Stay Tuned Snapchat channel. Boston University also reportedly investigated students inappropriately using the site, among other resources, to cheat, several news sites reported. A spokesperson from BU confirmed in an email that they investigated a misconduct case last spring. 

 . . . 

Occasionally professors take action or acknowledge the cheating. In one of Simeon Charles’ courses, a professor openly acknowledged that many students used similar wording on a short answer question. Given the sheer number of students involved, he was reluctant to take action. Many students like Charles readily use Chegg to source answers. On the off chance the website is wrong, they notify the class through group chats and messaging apps. 

“So, I do feel morally conflicted,” Charles, a Canada-based student told Stay Tuned. “However, I am at the point where I’m like, if I’m paying you thousands of dollars for an education and you’re not doing your job, then I don’t have to do mine either.” 

. . . 

Many professors recycle exams semester to semester, offering a lucrative business opportunity for some teaching assistants and students to sell answer keys for a price. This is not a new phenomenon but an issue further exacerbated by remote learning. One student at McGill University in Montreal, Canada, encountered another student during a summer course in 2020 offering to help with exams over the phone. While the student declined the offer, they said in an interview they were “closer to cheating than they normally would be.” 

. . . 

Students who cheat are worried about the effects of their actions, including how they will connect the dots when future classes build on unlearned material. But they stand by their choices. 

″In my honest opinion, I do not think cheating is bad,” Charles said. “I think if you’re provided the opportunity to cheat, go for it. The only, the only time it is wrong is if you get caught.” 

✅A Spike in Cheating Since the Move to Remote? 

(Inside Higher Ed, Elizabeth Redden, February 5, 2021)  

New research finds jump in number of questions submitted to "homework help" website Chegg after start of pandemic, an increase the authors say is very likely linked to rise in cheating. 

The number of questions asked and answered on the “homework help” website Chegg has skyrocketed since classes migrated online due to the pandemic, an increase that authors of a new study published in the International Journal for Educational Integrity link to a likely increase in cheating. 

Chegg, which has an honor code prohibiting cheating and which promotes itself as a site where students can get help on their homework, allows users to post a question to the site and receive an answer from a Chegg-identified expert “in as little as 30 minutes.” (The site’s posted average response time is 46 minutes.) The authors of the new study found that the number of questions posted on the site in five different science, technology, engineering and mathematics disciplines increased by 196.25 percent in April to August of 2020 compared to the same period in 2019. 

“Given the number of exam style questions, it appears highly likely that students are using this site as an easy way to breach academic integrity by obtaining outside help,” the authors write in the article titled “Contract cheating by STEM students through a file sharing website: a COVID-19 pandemic perspective.” 

“From my experience as somebody who has set exams, marked exams, read exams, seen too many exams, these things look like exam questions,” said Thomas Lancaster, the lead author of the study and senior teaching fellow in computing at Imperial College London, where he researches issues related to academic integrity and contract cheating. “From the point of view of Chegg, they are not promoting themselves as a service designed to help students to cheat, but they do offer a facility where you can get your answers completed quickly by a tutor, and the answers are delivered within the short time frame which matches an exam.” 

“At the same time, these questions have started to increase in volume with the timing being exactly alongside the move to online teaching, the move to online exams and assessments, often in a completely unsupervised environment,” Lancaster continued. “It would seem to be quite a heavy coincidence if this was just purely a lot more students wanting to get assistance for unassessed work. I does seem to me like there are people using Chegg to cheat.”

Off limits to the public

U.S. Finds No Evidence of Alien Technology in Flying Objects, but Can’t Rule It Out, Either  (NYT)

A new report concedes that much about the observed phenomena remains difficult to explain, including their acceleration, as well as ability to change direction and submerge. 

WASHINGTON — American intelligence officials have found no evidence that aerial phenomena witnessed by Navy pilots in recent years are alien spacecraft, but they still cannot explain the unusual movements that have mystified scientists and the military, according to senior administration officials briefed on the findings of a highly anticipated government report. 

     The report determines that a vast majority of more than 120 incidents over the past two decades did not originate from any American military or other advanced U.S. government technology, the officials said. That determination would appear to eliminate the possibility that Navy pilots who reported seeing unexplained aircraft might have encountered programs the government meant to keep secret…. 

. . . 

     The final report will also include a classified annex, the officials said. While the annex will not contain any evidence concluding that the phenomena are alien spacecraft, the officials acknowledged that the fact that it would remain off limits to the public was likely to continue to fuel speculation that the government had secret data about alien visitations to Earth….

Many CSU students see big upsides to online learning. Now, there is a push to expand it 

(LA Times) 

     In early December, California State University leaders made a bold announcement: All 23 campuses would reopen for in-person classes in fall 2021. But with registration underway for the new academic year, the return is looking anything but normal — and it has become clear the pandemic has altered the future of the nation’s largest four-year university system. 

     Online options are here to stay. .Throughout the system, in spring surveys, campus discussions and early registration trends, a new realization has emerged among students and staff. At CSU’s largely commuter campuses, many found valuable upsides to virtual learning: greater flexibility in their college-work-life balance, fewer expenses, the power to keep students in college. 

     “What we learned during the pandemic is that virtual learning provides the opportunity for students to get an education while they’re trying to balance a number of different things in their lives, whether they’re parents or taking care of an elderly parent or working or living in a rural area,” CSU Chancellor Joseph Castro said this week. “What I believe, based on what I’ve heard from students and faculty and staff throughout the CSU, is that we will have more virtual offerings after the pandemic is over than we did before the pandemic.” 

     The changing environment at CSU reflects post-pandemic higher education trends nationally in which students are demanding more online options. And many CSU students bring distinct California challenges to their education, grappling with high housing costs and traffic-clogged commutes to campus while juggling multiple jobs….

Free beer with vaccine

BJ Thomas (1942-2021)

• Biden announces 'National Month of Action' — that could include free beer — to get more Americans vaccinated by July 4 (CNN) 
• American actor [Steven Seagal] joins pro-Kremlin Russian political party (CNN)

Buena Park High School; Fullerton College

"UFO": loose talk and sloppy thought

     Everybody’s abuzz about the Pentagon’s UFO report, to be released some time this month. 

     Natch, I’ve long been a skeptic about the notion that something extraordinary is going on with these sightings of apparently impossible craft. The Pentagon, however, given a series of remarkable recordings and observations by jet pilots going back to at least 2004, is beginning to take some UFO sightings seriously. 

     Their report promises to be great fun. 

     No doubt you’ve noticed that the term “UAP”—for “unidentified aerial phenomenon”—is replacing “UFO.” I suspect that this terminological switcheroo is an effort by the task force to distance themselves from earlier UFO discussions and opiners. They’re saying: “Forget about that nasty old UFO debate; let’s start afresh, focusing on this remarkable new info!” 

     Perhaps someone has offered a more substantive rationale for the "UFO/UAP" switcheroo, but I am as yet unfamiliar with it.

     Meanwhile, I offer these reflections.

* * * 

     A. Aren't the terms "UFO" and "UAP" pretty much the same?

     A case can be made for supposing that the two terms—UFO and UAP—are essentially equivalent. After all, a “phenomenon” can be an object. 

     The OED’s first definition of “phenomenon” is as follows: 

1. A thing which appears, or which is perceived or observed; a particular (kind of) fact, occurrence, or change as perceived through the senses or known intellectually; esp. a fact or occurrence, the cause or explanation of which is in question. 

     Since the 16th Century, “phenomenon” has been used (among speakers of English) to refer to an observed thing, but also to a perceived “fact or occurrence” —in need of explanation.

     The OED also notes a philosophical usage that appeared in the 17th Century: 

3. An immediate object of sensation or perception (often as distinguished from a real thing or substance); a phenomenal or empirical object (as opposed to a thing in itself). 

     This sense of “phenomenon” no longer regards the referent as an actual thing but rather a subjective sense datum or image that may or may not correspond to, and caused by, an actual thing in objective reality. To the extent that this sense of “phenomenon” has infected/influenced the original “object or occurrence” sense, replacement of UFO with UAP might suggest a move to a less naïve concept: the phenomenon as an apparent object, i.e., one that might not correspond with any actual thing. An impression or sense datum. 

     But there’s an obvious problem with keeping the “unidentified flying X” motif but replacing “object” with “sense datum” or “impression.” Sense data don’t fly. A UFO or a UAP is a flying or aerial entity. As such, it is a concrete thing in the air, not some subjective image or impression in someone’s consciousness.      

 * * * 

     B. Whence "UFO"? 

    Evidently, the term “UFO” was coined by the U.S. Air Force in the early 50s: 

The term "UFO" (or "UFOB") was coined in 1953 by the United States Air Force (USAF) to serve as a catch-all for all such reports. In its initial definition, the USAF stated that a "UFOB" was "any airborne object which by performance, aerodynamic characteristics, or unusual features, does not conform to any presently known aircraft or missile type, or which cannot be positively identified as a familiar object". Accordingly, the term was initially restricted to that fraction of cases which remained unidentified after investigation, as the USAF was interested in potential national security reasons and "technical aspects"…. (Wikipedia) 

     The term “UFO” has always struck me as sensible. There are, of course, numerous “identified” flying objects: ordinary birds, planes, helicopters, balloons, etc. And there are occasional flying objects the nature of which one is ignorant (imagine being among the first to see a roaring propeller-less aircraft!). Those objects require identification. So we speak of “unidentified flying objects.” Good. 

     The only problem with the original term “UFO” is its assumption or implication that all “such reports” are reports of actual flying objects. As we know, at least some UFO sightings/reports have turned out to be optical illusions, such as those caused by the autokinetic effect (—you know: a stationary point of light begins to seem to move). A UFO report (of a flying object in the night sky) caused by the autokinetic effect involves no actual flying or even aerial object. 

     But it’s still a UFO, right?

     This fault strikes me as minor, no reason to abandon an otherwise sensible term. 

 * * * 

     C. The case against “UFO” 

     The real issue with the term UFO is that it has gradually developed a new meaning, and that new meaning makes it problematical, a source of confusion.

     How often have we heard someone ask, “Do you believe in UFOs?”? The questioner assumes that a UFO isn’t simply an unidentified flying object, for it is clear that plenty of those exist. He or she assumes that a UFO is something extraordinary, such as a vehicle piloted by extraterrestrials. Do we believe in THAT sort of thing? That's their question.

     Some dictionaries now recognize this meaning of “UFO.” The 2nd definition of “UFO” in the Collins Dictionary (American English) is the following: 

a spacecraft from another planet; flying saucer 

     In my experience, for a great many speakers of American English, a UFO is indeed a flying saucer (i.e., a technology beyond human capability) or “a spacecraft from another planet”—or solar system or galaxy.

     Even educated speakers embrace this usage. I did a quick Google search (for “UFO”) and noticed that, today, someone wrote an article entitled, “The government says UFOs are real. What's next?” If UFOs are simply flying objects that are unidentified, then their reality is largely a non-issue. Their reality is an issue (to this author) because he assumes that UFOs are craft that do things that, as far as we know, can’t be done, not by us. They are extraordinary craft, not just unidentified things. 

     (Alternatively, I suppose that the author might be asking this question: are UFOs really what they appear to be—i.e., extraordinarily fast and nimble craft? Accordingly, a UFO is an apparent extraordinarily-advanced flying craft. See below.)

     For these reasons, I agree that we should abandon the term “UFO,” such as it now is. We need a term for flying objects that require identification—the term that the Air Force provided more than 60 years ago—and, owing to the loose talk and sloppy thought of many a knucklehead, "UFO" is no longer that term!

 * * * 

"Flying saucer" in Orange County, 1965

     D. The case against "UAP"

     But there is an obvious reason not to replace UFO with UAP. It is the widespread failure—at least among Americans—to understand the singular and plural forms of the noun “phenomenon.” 

• one phenomenon
• two phenomena

I just watched a dozen or so video news reports concerning the awaited Pentagon UAP document. Many of these reporters speak of Navy flyers experiencing “an unidentified aerial phenomena.” 

     “A phenomena." —Good grief. 

 * * * 

     E. A recommendation

     How about “apparent, unidentified flying objects” (AUFOs)? Sounds good to me, plus it repairs the minor defect of the original “UFO.”

     I do kinda hope that these weird apparent objects that those Navy fliers have observed turn out to be real and awesome, and not just figments perpetrated by nasty foreigners hacking our equipment — or something even more prosaic.

     I don't think that that will happen, but I can hope!

     Klaatu barada nikto.

I want to believe. But I don't. Not yet.