Tag: THOUSAND

How the Mighty Are Falling-Is our IQ really falling?

Seriously…are we getting dumber? Our kid’s IQ is worse?!

Just thought about something, our IQ’s and education…

The Roman Empire survived well over a thousand years by reinventing themselves as the center of civilization, and in it’s venerable years, the center of control for the Catholic Church, which in its later years was actually for more powerful than the empire itself. I mean we’re talking like 1700 years. that’s 3 times longer than almost every other government in history (that we have real documentation of). They were among the most educated people on the planet for their time. Many many great thinkers were a part of the empire and contributed to it’s success. The idea

Now the U.S., we’re just a little over 200 years in and barely cohesive. UK isn’t much further and isn’t much better off. I see countries that invested heavily in their education system may have lived a little poorer, but are now completely showing us up. What’s worse is I feel like we’re ignoring it. We have these half-assed programs that are supposed to have a huge impact on our educational system when we’re completely ignoring the fact that we haven’t been adequately educating for decades.

What does it take to get people to see the problem here?


The article above is saying that for the first time in our existence, the average IQ of next generation in the US will not be smarter than the previous generation. How the hell does that happen? Is our education system so poor or entrenched that we cant reverse this trend? How is it that people in charge of our education system didn’t see this coming?

TonyTown - Hold No Virtue - IQ - Education in Finland might be getting it rightThis scares me. I mean, what happens in 20 years when it’s our kids in charge? I mean personally I haven’t actually seen examples of this per se, but wow how does this pan out?

By the same token, I’ve been reading about the “Flynn Effect” where our IQ’s are showing an increase, but because the generation gap is statistically affected by relative age this notion is less severe than the media it portraying. The problem in this is that most of the statistics are showing that we are not keeping up with systems in play throughout the rest of the world. However this same idea would also depict our great grandparents as being mentally retarded by today’s standards of intellectualism. So is the beauty of the increase is in the eye of the beholder? Do we have to stay competitive with other nations or continue on our path to creating a huge division in our population intellectually?

On that note, I REALLY love what has been done in Finland. They have made education a positive part of their society rather than a problematic half successful tax on their population. I put some links below if you’re interested in reading them.

/rant over.

LINKS
Great Article on where we are educationally from the ETC blog.
Article about the Flynn Effect and details on this from Smithsonian.com
Why are Finland’s schools so successful?
Heavy Details on why Finland’s education system works so well.
Another article on differences in Finland’s Education System




Yearning for Learning…

We all have those points we reach where we re-evaluate where we are and what we want. I honestly think that it’s part of the process by which we make sure we’re not repeating mistakes and are on the path we want to be on.

As you all know, I started my own consulting business about a year ago, and it’s been a learning experience to say the least. I’ve learned more about the business world and finance and taxes in the last year than I had in decades prior.

It occurred to me that one thing I truly love to do is learn…be it people…trees…the wind…math…okay…maybe not math much anymore, but you know what I mean? My spark is still there…in scenarios where I have to immerse myself into an environments where I have no bearing, and no experience. While I am hardly getting rich by becoming my own boss, but I am enjoying a level of freedom that I didn’t even know when I was a kid. Part of that freedom has been having the time to take on learning TONS of subject matter I didn’t have time for beforehand, and recently, I’ve even started inquiring about tuition costs for school because unfortunately, some of the world I want to know lays buried in the books and lectures of professors I normally wouldn’t have access to otherwise.

The bottom line, I miss learning, I miss that feeling where I’m entering a completely new arena and have to soak in absolutely everything. It keeps my mind from getting too bored, which unfortunately is very easy for me if I don’t have a conversation going on…or a book to read…or the internet to soak in and learn about…well…everything. Well, as I’ve learned recently, an undergraduate degree acquired online costs over $70k. Yup.

That is what I said. HOLY CHRIST ON A POGO STICK…SEVENTY THOUSAND DOLLARS…

…and that is 100% do it yourself computer based training.

Unfortunately, as I stated above, I have time – but money like that – not readily available, especially considering my health problems and trying to buy a house this year…I know it’s simply not an option at rates like that.

So here comes that spark…

I’ve been a TED subscriber for quite some time, and the messages you hear on it are incredible…there are soooooo many people out there trying to broaden our horizons and make this world a far better place, it’s pretty inspiring. So much that I’ve tried to make sure I watch at least a few TED video’s every week or two so that I know what they know, or at the very lest can draw some ideas or inspiration.

And earlier today I saw this article on free courses offered online…

TED Blog – Completely free online classes? Coursera.org now offering courses from 16 top colleges

TED.com - Ideas Worth Spreading

And after that I checked out Coursera.org and found that t wasn’t the degree I longed for…it was the education, thee information, and the opportunity to soak more of the world or turn my brain to jello trying.

I went on to find a number of other organizations that offer free education and courses. I realized that some people and organization were finally trying to improve the world, by allowing the mind to grow. In a society that puts a price on access to virtually any information, there are finally a number of organization that are trying to share that wealth instead of profiteering from it.

Again. Me. Inspired!

So where did all that take me?

I have the time, I am going to take it and learn as much as I can while I still have it. There are already more courses out there than I could finish in the next decade, and I think that within the next few years the amount of curricula available will grow exponentially.

You’re probably reading this and thinking Jeez Tony you could have just said, “I’m going back to school.”

True, I could have, but then I wouldn’t have shared all these nifty links to all these places online that provide free education.

The Khan Academy – TONS of video and stuff…LOADS…I also found these guys from TED.

OpenLearn– I haven’t tried these guys yet but they have a huge course selection.

Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health – Open Coursework from a great Medical School. Prize material for med students!

Tufts University – More Med school offerings


Stanford University
– That’s right, Stanford has buku lectures free via iTunes!!!!

UC Berkeley – More from UC Berkeley, available via iTunes!

OpenCulture – Has a FEKTON of courses listed available online.

Education Portal – Good information regarding online coursework.

What did I find for myself? A sustainability class, some newer Philosophy classes, loads of history classes I might actually like learning from…bottom line…enough for me to really enjoy regardless of where I learn it.

😉

-Tony




No. More. Stupid. – Wikileaks and Dead Animals

NOTE: Somehow this never got published and I found it while traipsing the jungle of unfinished entries in my journal. While it is dated I don’t liek the idea that I didn’t put this on the site. So enjoy! -Tony 8/16/2012

WikiLeaks isn’t the problem.

Assange isn’t the problem.

The government classifies far too much information, and the information that is actually extremely sensitive isn’t guarded well enough. But that doesn’t matter, because Assange is a scapegoat. Let me ask you something.

If your HOA was deliberately turning a blind eye to its largest contributor because of the money they contribute by constantly ignoring disturbingly illegal activities in the neighborhood, would you hang your next door neighbor, who is in the exact same situation you are, when that neighbor gives all the incriminating information about those activities to the media?

I don’t bloody think so…although you may want to spank them for the inconvenience.

It’s simply astounding. Julian Assange is being sensationalized by the media. The media has made the Wikileaks agenda so much more successful than any one man could have. I daresay he’s also being completely misrepresented by the governments he’s blowing the whistle on. Another point I’d like to make is that the Wikileaks organization is not being treated properly, due process is only being followed where there is direct public scrutiny.

Coming full circle, the media isn’t giving much info on the actual leaks…its just focusing on how evil Wikileaks is and hype. At first it really seemed like the news organizations were in it to go through the documents and out everyone who’d been playing dirty. This is entertainment at its best people…what are we doing about it? The governments…specifically big banking, stopped giving Wikileaks to accept payments via Visa, MasterCard, etc. Governments tried to actually freeze Wikileaks accounts, even though there was no government action ordering that it happen (and there still isn’t).

Let me throw you a curve ball. Wikileaks isn’t anywhere near as “rogue” as you think. Before releasing the information, they consulted with a large number of the worlds largest news organizations to recruit help in making sure the wrong information wasn’t released…you know…the stuff that will get people killed kind of stuff. NOW EVERYONE FORGET YOU JUST READ THAT, so you can go on about your wonderful day thinking that Wikileaks is criminally negligent in allowing this information to be released.

Instead of addressing the very large number of examples of poor candor and decidedly unprofessional monologues…our tax dollars are going into focusing on the owner of WikiLeaks…like he wrote all these things about all these countries.

Please don’t get me wrong. I understand the need for national security…but Mr. Assange didn’t steal the documents, and he’s not bound by US law. He’s just the front-man for Wiki-Leaks.

Assange didn’t leak the information. The US military did. Wikileaks is just another media outlet, the only difference is that people pay more attention to Wikileaks than the hundreds of thousands of blogging and conspiracy theory sites that publish the same ideas and data.

And by the way, the sensationalism has caused some of the WikiLeaks crew to start OpenLeaks. Another venue for people to submit leaks to the media anonymously. Don’t be mad at them, the media allowed them to get the backing for it. The same media putting Assange on the boxtop instead of all that juicy material that was leaked.

Wikileaks Til Ya Puke via Google News Feed

The Sky Is Not Falling!

I just have to get this out there.
I know there were tons of mass animal deaths. I don’t even buy into the whole “fireworks” theory that the birds were frightened by fireworks and flew off head first into the ground.
Maybe in an instance or two, but not all of those instances in three different areas.
But I cant stress this enough. The sky isn’t falling.

Our awareness of world events and is getting more and more…well…acute. As with any experience, as we become accustomed to those experiences I am sure we’ll remain a tidbit more calm about them even though the severity of the situation may be critical. If you truly feel the sky is falling, do something about it. I am not talking about any radical action that would endanger anything, but look for a viable answer, and run with it. There are some REALLY smart people out the that need your help in solving these crises.

That said, I’ve been watching the news, and been reading a FEKTON of documentation on this stuff. Mass animal deaths have been occurring for a long time, with documented events going back more than a hundred years. The USGS has actually been tracking mass animal death for decades, and so does the CDC. Between the two, they apply a body of knowledge incredibly more suited to sift fact from fiction in these matters, and thankfully, unlike the media, they aren’t in the habit of scaring the shit out of us civilians without some credence.

What I think we should all do is what we’ve already been doing. Be more aware. Know where to report news when you see it, and be more responsible when discussing these things so that you don’t start a scare. There is NOTHING wrong about feeling something is important or and there certainly isn’t anything wrong in helping resolve these events, but causing panic and unrest is the media’s forte, not yours. As individuals please try to exhibit some sense when you decide to talk about this.

If you look at the really cool Google Map of animal deaths (linked below), you will notice that there have been a bunch, and if you research them you’ll see a number of them have already been explained. As a species, we ourselves are doing so many things to contribute to this that the numbers are just heartbreaking. For every new method we find to live without destroying our planet, there are a hundred poor choices made for us that hurt the environment. Awareness in a huge factor. As in being aware we can expect at least some people will change their course.

Here is the Google News link for the animal deaths in the news.