#point being i think it's weird but not unwarranted that french is being used more compared to other languages in everyday use here

[thelostnymphaeum]

A morbid longing for the picturesque.

Entry: 008 // Literature // Title: The Secret History Author: Donna Tartt Year: 1992

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I must say I have never read a book that gave me anxiety from the first page down to the last page like this one. But I loved every minute of it.

This book is so popular among certain communities here in Tumblr, so I decided to read it (even though it was not originally in my schedule) and indulge myself to what the spectacle was all about. 

AESTHETIC & ATMOSPHERE 

“There is no exquisite beauty… without some strangeness.” — Edgar Allan Poe

I guess this is the reason why this book inspired an entire community to form in Tumblr. The book was able to tell a narrative so idyllic and “aesthetic” it makes my heart hurt. It sort of makes you want to be a student in Vermont, inside Hampden College. I fell in love with how incredibly scenic it was even just through words (and despite the looming darkness within the story itself). Tartt was constantly painting the setting in the pages, which of course, I take as an ode to one of the first few lines Richard says in the book. 

I liked how Richard’s room was small but the light from outside can seep through, how a character lounges beautifully  in a window seat, how secretive the Lyceum is, how the skies looked or how the breeze felt. I was charmed and seduced by the appeal of it all.

THE LYCEUM PATRONS

“No excellent soul is exempt from a mixture of madness.'' -  Aristotle

What can I say, they were deluded in Greco-Roman ideals. So much so that they became a bunch of demented cuckoos. Each of them was flawed, even Richard who seemed impartial and innocent, but he was a liar that pretended to be something he is not just so he can fit the “aesthetic” of his friends. Did they even truly know each other? The fatal flaw that he himself admitted in the beginning proved to be true. I mean, who else would freeze in the snow just so he could keep up the image of a man who never begged for money? 

“Does such a thing as 'the fatal flaw,' that showy dark crack running down the middle of a life, exist outside literature? I used to think it didn't. Now I think it does. And I think that mine is this: a morbid longing for the picturesque at all costs.”

Also, the way it was written (by that, I mean Richard’s point of view) had a certain way of downplaying the depth of their misguided acts. They eliminated Bunny because he was the only one who saw through the delusion - he did not like being superficial. As much as Bunny himself was a fraud, he said everything outright and blatant. His unwarranted blabbers of unspoken truth and double entendre probably ruined the sense of perfection they were trying to echo. They were all imperfect anyways, but Bunny’s flaw of never seeing his own flaws was his undoing. 

ELITISM 

The sense of elitism in their group was a point to be taken. They were handpicked by their professor and certainly thought highly of themselves since they were chosen (it reminds me of the Slug Club made by Professor Slughorn in Hogwarts). They were alienated from the rest of the school, and from within it might have felt like a sense of superiority and selectiveness; but from the outside perspective, they were just a bunch of snobbish and weird students who felt too proud to be friends with anyone outside their own.

I also liked how they used foreign language a lot, like Latin, Greek and French. Although it caused me to pause reading and look up whatever they were saying, it served the purpose of creating the gap between the reader and their group. It must be the same way the other students in the school felt about them – a bunch of alien kids who spoke a different language and therefore do not mingle with them.

BEAUTY

One of the reasons why this story charmed me is that I share the same fascination with the Greeks and the Romans. They were so extraordinary and exquisite that they almost feel like mere story characters in our history books and not actual humans who walked this Earth. And the Greeks and the Romans definitely knew and lived whatever the meaning of “beauty” might be.

“There is nothing wrong with the love of Beauty. But Beauty - unless she is wed to something more meaningful - is always superficial.”

Well, these kids did try to emulate the way the Greeks and Roman lived their lives. But what they failed to realize was that it was all superficial. And pointless. They thought that if they lived among themselves and tried to create their own sense of ideal reality, they will be better off and a step closer to their idols. They were not in touch with real life, they did not even know that humans already stepped on the moon (huh?). They are just like the Dreamers: living for the aesthetic without actually making change. They were not in sync with reality, which I find the most disappointing, considering how their love for art and literature could have contributed for something substantial.

Julian was their epitome. They venerated Julian as their teacher and in their eyes he can never do no wrong. He taught them about ideals. Yet when the time came for him to use this knowledge and wisdom for the right reasons, he refused to do it and fled. Like a coward. He could not live up with his words. Words are wind. He was such a traitor in my eyes. A fraud. 

SO WHAT WAS THE POINT?

“Forgive me, for all the things I did but mostly for the ones that I did not.”

All this vanity and for what? All this studying and contemplating and philosophizing, and for what? All the chaos and meltdowns, and in the end, for what? Only one of them graduated and had a career. The rest had flailing routes in life. So all that elitism and love of beauty, what were they for?

[elcorhamletlive]

MCU Rewatch: Iron Man 2

(fair warning: this one got longer and more negative than I thought it would be)

I’m not sure if this is in the original dialogue, but the reproduction of the final scene of IM has Christine pointing out Tony hates bodyguards. That’s a nice info.

Fandom’s hot takes about Tony are always terrible, but looking at a guy who stands in front of a bunch of barely dressed women dancing in his honor and goes “I haven’t met anyone who’s man enough to go toe to toe with me on my best day” and saying “this character is female-coded”/”this character deconstructs toxic masculinity” is one serious “Delusion: Convince Yourself” moment.

That being said, I would be interested in reading a fic that ACTUALLY has Tony confront how much he projects toxic masculinity onto the world as a way to assure respect and how that shapes his relationships. If I go by canon, I can easily see Tony being more proprense to having a sexuality crisis/internalized homophobia than Steve, since the idea of being a “man” is so important to him. I’m not sure such a fic exists, though.

I’M SORRY I KNOW I’M HARPING ON THIS POINT but it just drives me MAD because the Iron Man franchise is by a mile the worst in the MCU when it comes to its treatment of its female characters so I want to bang my head against the wall when people act like, in terms of a gendered reading, Tony is meant to represent anything other than a very clear male fantasy. I mean, come on - the movie just cut through a few scenes from his pov and it actually had a close up on a random woman’s cleavage while Tony says “Oh, I remember you”. Like... COME ON.

This movie is like a walking argument against all my least favorite fanon!Tony tropes: where did people get that the media hates Tony?? It’s very clear that people like Christine are outliers, and the general public ADORES both him and Iron Man.

“I’ve successfullly privatized world peace” might be my least favorite Tony line ever, even more than the “I saw American citizens being killed” cringe-worthy moment in the first IM.

Okay, “if there’s one thing I’ve proven it’s that you can count on me to pleasure myself” is also a strong contender.

Tony going “oh yeah you should totally run the company WHAT AN AMAZING IDEA THAT HAS LITERALLY ONLY CROSSED MY MIND ONE SECOND AGO” and U immadiately showing up with a bottle of champagne and two glasses is absolutely adorable. Tony is totally an undercover romantic, even if his approach to it is terrible lol.

Tony searching for Natasha’s “qualifications” and enlarging a picture of her in lingerie is just... Wow. So many parts of this movie have aged very poorly.

Christine not moving her recorder when Hammer is like “maybe we should put this away” is amazing. lol One thing this rewatch is definitely giving me is a bigger appreciation for Christine in general.

Tony’s hair in this movie is just amazing. One of my favorites hairstyles of his for sure.

The case suit up is very cool, and the first battle with Vanko is pretty awesome, but I feel like the movie kind of sabotages itself because it spends so many scenes just building up Vanko and then when he actually attacks Tony stops him pretty easily, all things considered. I get that there’s a point to it, but it feels anticlimatic.

Oh Tony speaks french! I didn’t know that.

“I’ll send you a bar of soap.” So Tony making rape jokes it not just a Whedon thing. Welp.

Tony taking three hours to make an omelette is such a mood. lol

I kind of love the scene with Tony and Pepper on the plane. So much of this movie is Tony attempting to reach out to Pepper without ACTUALLY reaching out by telling her what’s going on, and it creates an interesting dynamic. He wants her, wants to be with her, but can’t bring himself to actually ask it, and therefore she can’t understand what he’s asking in order to accept it. This says a lot about how Tony handles love and feelings, I think.

I feel like this movie would have vastly improved if Vanko and Hammer had just been in cahoots from the beggining. So much time is wasted in setting up this alliance and it’s not like we learn anything about either character that we couldn’t have gathered otherwise. It’s like watching a version of IM with an extra half-hour of Obie allying himself to the Ten Rings.

Natasha breaking into a fighting stance the second shit gets real is a fantastic “blink-and-you’ll-miss-it” moment.

Ngl I really dislike the fact that Rhodey’s first suit up is all about baby sitting Tony, and not about himself. We barely get to see any of his feelings about taking the role as War Machine. And I feel like the way he takes the suit sends such a confusing message, because Fury and Natasha confirm to us Tony let him take it, and yet in the party scene... he doesn’t? Like, he fights back pretty heavily and it doesn’t seem at all like something he’s planned. I don’t blame people for thinking Rhodey stole the suit, because the entire party scene before Fury shows up frames it as such.

It’s WILD that this movie frames Howard deporting a person back to the Soviet Union as Howard being noble because Anton Vanko was “in it for the money”. Just... Wild.

In fact, the whole framing of the Howard issue is so weird. Tony and Howard’s relationship only comes up when Fury shows up, and that’s halfway through the movie, and then it’s supposed to be the Big Solution even though... It wasn’t really a theme until this point? 

Tony’s FACE when he sees the shield... and then he uses it to make everything “perfectly level”................ MY HEART

Sam Rockwell is a delight lmao. I love his dance.

The way people clap when Tony arrives is a stark contrast with the lukewarm reception Hammer got. Again: the public loves Tony.

I live for Natasha taking down every security guard in the time Happy takes to subdue one guy. Her moves are great (also, her curls are great - this is a great movie for hairstyles).

This Pepperony kiss is like. SO unwarranted?? Pepper has just learned Tony has been dying and keeping it from her?? And we don’t get any sort of emotional reaction about this or resolution about Tony’s inability to express his feelings??? They just... kiss and it’s all right, I guess?

“Get a roof” does make chuckle, though.

Aaand it’s over. That... that was a rough one, if I’m gonna be honest. This was one of my least favorite MCU movies the first time I watched it, and I hoped the rewatch could make me enjoy it more, but... this really wasn’t the case. I feel like this movie could have raised a lot of themes with its elements, but it just... doesn’t? Like, a lot of stuff happens, but very little actually advances the characters or their relationships. So much time is spent on setting up Vanko as this super badass villain, and then not only he’s easily defeated, but the whole “he’s carrying his father’s legacy just as Tony is” thing never goes anywhere. Tony is DYING, and then halfway through he isn’t, and although while he’s dying he pushes away both of the people closest to him, neither of them get to really have a reaction to this? Rhodey never actually finds out??? It just doesn’t work for me. Like, there are fun moments, and I get these characters and cast are enjoyable to watch doing basically anything, but the movie in itself is just... Meh.

[shirlleycoyle]

Students Are Easily Cheating ‘State-of-the-Art’ Test Proctoring Tech

“I’ve taken online exams cheating and not cheating and they are just about as stressful anyways so fuck it, am I right?”

That’s what one French student who had cheated on multiple remote exams administered through the popular digital proctoring software Proctorio told Motherboard in a voice message.

With the COVID-19 pandemic continuing to rage around the globe and no quick end to remote learning in sight, many students have found themselves taking exams under the watch of proctoring software like Proctorio, which surveils students through algorithmic systems that, among other things, detect eye movements, track keyboard strokes, and monitor audio inputs.

Universities sometimes shell out thousands of dollars per exam for Proctorio, which helps at least give the impression that academic integrity is being maintained during remote learning. But for some students  using Proctorio and other online proctoring services is invasive and anxiety-inducing, subjecting them and their surroundings to unwarranted surveillance that is difficult to refuse without their studies being negatively affected.

Yet, despite the fact that popular online proctoring platforms like Proctorio claim that they use “state-of-the-art technology” and “ensure the total learning integrity of every assessment, every time,” students are cheating on their exams anyways.

Motherboard spoke to 10 university students from various countries who claimed to have cheated on exams where Proctorio was in place. While their motivations and techniques varied, there was one common denominator: none of them got caught.

The relative ease with which the students cheated, and the fact that each student could point to multiple peers who had done the same (one American student estimated that 90 percent of her class had cheated), raises the question of how effective online proctoring software like Proctorio actually is—and whether it is worth the hefty price tag or the invasion of privacy.

“With Proctorio obviously you need to show yourself and your room with the computer’s webcam,” one Dutch student who had helped a friend cheat on a multiple choice exam told Motherboard. “My friend put a phone on a stand on his keyboard so it couldn’t be seen during the room and desk sweep.”

“Then we FaceTimed with me at the other end,” she continued. “The phone was at a slant so he could see me and I could see the exam. Then I would just hold up a flashcard with a, b, c, or d.”

Another French student used a 10-meter HDMI cable that ran from his laptop to a TV screen in another room that mirrored his screen. His friend would then look up the exam answers and send it via WhatsApp to his phone, which was also on the keyboard and out of sight of the webcam.

“Worked perfectly and got a good grade,” he said.

Other students used less elaborate techniques, such as one Italian student who wrote notes in pencil on her laptop and a Brazilian student who simply spread sheets of notes on the floor.

“For one exam I just printed out my notes using a large font and stuck them to the wall in front of me out of view,” one German student who had successfully cheated on multiple exams said, laughing. “I would just look around the room as if I was thinking about an answer and then glance at it.”

In a statistics exam that allowed calculators, that same student stuck a small piece of paper behind the calculator so it would be hidden from view during the desk sweep.

There are other more technical cheating options as well. A test taker could feed faked audio or video through a virtual device, which can simply be renamed to avoid Proctorio’s blacklist. This same renaming trick can also be used to run Proctorio within a virtual machine.

While Proctorio claimed in an email to Motherboard that it offers a native application offering more sophisticated techniques for detecting these types of tricks, it also said that its native application is usually not an option for universities because of privacy regulations.

It’s important to note that in the case of Proctorio, there are a number of settings that instructors can turn on or off for exams, including whether the software will check for extended screens and whether a desk sweep is required. Furthermore, instructors can also set ‘sensitivity values’ for a range of activities when reviewing an exam, including audio levels, video manipulation, and eye movement.

But whether higher sensitivity values actually catch more cheating or just create a flood of false positives remains an open question.

Maximilian Seiderer is a Master’s student studying computer science at the Technical University of Munich in Southern Germany. Skeptical of the effectiveness of Proctorio and finding the software “creepy,” he decided to file a subject access request under Europe’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) to see the recording of his exam—something easy to do for any student residing in the European Union. A university staff member later walked Seiderer through the Proctorio interface and his exam recording. He also received a PDF report containing frames and timestamps where Proctorio had flagged ‘abnormal’ behavior.

Flagged timestamp and frame from a post-exam report generated by Proctorio. This moment was apparently flagged because the “audio level in the room was above threshold” and “the test taker looked away from the exam page.” 

“I wanted to see how Proctorio functioned from the instructor’s perspective and I was also curious to see if it had captured the moment I had put in a snus [tobacco pouch],” Seiderer told Motherboard. “I got to see what was flagged, which was mostly audio level violations. When the staff member turned up the sensitivity settings it was a literal sea of red flags, which were of course false positives. I can’t imagine anyone seriously using that interface.”

“Throughout the process, I kind of got the impression that everybody feels like they have to do something to ensure the integrity of the exams but they don’t really believe in it,” he continued. “I’m disappointed that my university pays for that type of snake oil.”

In an email and later a phone call in response to a set of questions sent by Motherboard, a Proctorio spokesperson emphasized that their software is an integral means to maintaining academic integrity and that they welcome a robust conversation regarding privacy.

“Proctorio is designed to prevent fraud through a variety of different proctoring options,” a spokesperson wrote. “The combination of available proctoring methods (e.g. video, audio, device lock-down options) are currently the best possible protection. In the area of exam proctoring, there is competition from professional ‘cheating service’ providers (e.g., payforexams.com, chegg.com).”

“Currently, online exams are the only option when it comes to giving students access to testing, which ultimately prevent negative career effects due to missed deadlines,” the spokesperson continued. “Exam results demonstrate the competencies and achievements required for academic advancement and further employment. An exam process that is aligned with the requirements of the pandemic is a basic requirement for degree programs.”

Some students who spoke to Motherboard said that the fact that they were forced to use this software actually made them more likely to cheat as an act of rebellion. Others said that the COVID-19 pandemic had left them feeling isolated and unmotivated when it came to their studies, but still felt the pressure to pass courses to avoid delays.

“Corona wasn't hitting me very well and I lost track,” the same student who had used the HDMI cable trick said. “I had zero motivation to actually work and life was so fucked up and weird. And then of course there was the fact that it was sort of a ‘fuck you’ to Proctorio. I’m not going to say that was the main reason, but it certainly was part of it.”

While Proctorio and other proctoring companies often present their software as a necessary evil in the context of a pandemic, instructors have argued there are other, (more effective ways of preventing academic fraud. This can be through designing test environments which prevent cheating without using surveillance, or through adjusting course structures to base final grades on other forms of assessment, such as an average of a few interim assignments or an open-book exam. Online proctoring software is certainly the easy way, but that doesn’t mean it is always the right way.

As for students who have seen how easy it is to actually cheat on exams with online proctoring software, the ones that Motherboard spoke to didn’t think too highly of the universities that are using them.

“They can’t admit to having bought a useless piece of crap,” Seiderer said.

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