Things
are true until they're not.
Hot
Enough For You?
Last month was the warmest month ever recorded, all over the world.
Except for North Carolina where global warming is against the law,
and Oklahoma where it is ignored in deference to Sen. Inhofe.
It's
A Snap: Greek
PM Alexis Tsipras has
quit
stepped down
tendered his resignation, triggering a snap election – which he
hopes will reappoint him as Angela's Gauleiter.
Status
Quo: America's
non-existent education in science
and math over the last
few decades has
created a pubic that does not possess the basic tools to participate
competently in a modern
democracy.
Indian
Givers: NASA
is sending scavengers
around to museums that have received retired space shuttles, removing
reusable parts to serve as spares for the International Space
station. The
parts, in plain brown paper wrappers, would be lifted into orbit by
Soviet-era Russian spacecraft.
Motto:
Tax cuts for
the rich are good for you! Overpriced health insurance is good for
you! Social security is for losers!
Leadership:
Mark Gremaud,
a member of the Perryville, MO school board told a fellow board
member, “Kathy, you are just a woman, the only thing you know is
laying on your back with your legs in the air splayed.” The board
voted 4 to 3 to ask Gremaud to resign. Four to three.
Precisely:
According to reports, millions of dead fish have begun mysteriously
washing up on the shore adjacent to Tianjim's gigantic cyanide
explosion. Mysteriously?
Shaken,
Not Stirred:
Over
the weekend,
a
5 square mile slice of ice fell
off Greenland’s
massive Jakobshavn glacier
– the largest chunk ever to break away from a glacier. Climate
scientists, with their usual understatement, noted that this “is
not good news.”
Motivation:
The federal No Child Left Behind project was designed to force
states to establish a set of academic standards and to develop ways
to get students in their states to attain these goals. It was (and
still is) immediately disliked, for no state politicians enjoy being
accountable for anything, especially the poor results achieved by
under-funded schools forced to teach to the tests instead of
educating the children.
Serve
& Protect:
It took 14 of San Francisco's finest to subdue a one-legged man on
crutches. Wear some
flowers in your hair.
Masked
Man:
The good
news is that US
inflation increased only 0.2% in July. The bad news is that this
will be enough to let the Fed begin its new Great Experiment in
killing the economy. Oddly, the Chapwood Index which measures the
actual cost of 500 things we spend our money on is up 10 to 11%. But
that's prices, economists say, not inflation.
Porn
O'Graph:
Animal farm.
5 comments:
Charles: The hyperlink for "Status quo" is bad: it links to an article about Iran
No, that's the right link. The quote is part of the explanation for why the public and its leaders are so easily misled on matters that require a passing familiarity (what used to be a high school graduates knowledge, but that was a lot of seasons ago) with math and science.
There could be a fair debate as to how intentional this dumbing down was/is and whether TPTB view it as a failure or a success.
re dumbing down:
I don't think so man; those lights are off on purpose. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RdR6MN2jKYs
re education:
Oligarch 1. Ok, so we could choose to pay lots of money in property taxes, and develop an educated proactive populace, with great independent critical thinking skills, high expectations, and a solid civic/historical foundation, and led by a strong cadre of well-paid unionized teachers, and community-based school board leadership.
Oligarch 2. Or... we could privatize education to cronies to profiteer off of, use the education system as another front in the America's culture war on itself, and crank out a patchwork of teen criminals, dropout losers, and desperate Pavlovian compliant drones, hocked deeply in debt and fully unable to form an independent or original thought. Taught by desperate insecure inexperienced recent graduates, themselves deeply in debt, and led by a stuffed board of fractious ideological troglodytes.
Oligarch 1. I prefer the first option.
[pause]
Oligarch 1. *giggle* *snort* [wine flies out his nose]
"Status Quo: America's non-existent education in science and math over the last few decades has created a PUBIC that does not possess the basic tools to participate competently in a modern democracy. "
Nope, my pubic is filled with basic tools....
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