... high schools even when they're working as designed cannot teach all our students what they need to know today.
Yes. This was true when I endured high school (during the 1970s), and it's more true today. Schools as we know them were designed by and for the industrial age.
Alvin Toffler has given this a lot of thought:
In a question and answer session, Toffler addressed the crises in education. "What is the model: school systems should follow?
"The easy thing is to say what not to do," he answered. "We did that in Future Shock. We said that basically what we have is schools that operate like a factory. They take kids, measure them going in, subject them to routine processing. You ask the kids to go through rote and repetitive work, like they would do in a factory. And you measure them coming out and dump them into the economy. That made perfectly good sense during the industrial age. But now we're preparing kids to be good factory workers in an economy that is not going to have any factory jobs."
The school system simulated a future in which those students were going to participate. "We are, by continuing this system, simulating a future they will not have. We are preparing them to be good factory workers for an economy that is not going to have any factory jobs. We are cheating them. We're spending a quarter-to-half-a-trillion dollars to do it."
The root of the problem is that it cannot be solved in the classroom, Toffler says. "Kids do not learn in school alone. They learn from the street; they learn from television; they learn from other students; they learn from computers; they learn from all kinds of places, not just the classrooms."
FuturePower: "Soon huge businesses were arguing that the U.S. government should subvert democratically elected leaders, as the government did in Iran in the 70s"
Tarp: "The Iran coup was actually in 1953 with the removal from power of democratically elected Mossadegh and his replacement with the shah."
FuturePower: "Exactly."
"Exactly" isn't the right response. First, acknowledge Tarp's correction. Second, if you've got an additional observation about Iran in the 1970s, make the observation.
I happen to agree with your political observations, FuturePower, but in this case a little clarity (and charity) would go a long way.
yes, that is what it sounds like, but one does not know. Even if they were to be found in the future, unless it happenes to be in a very unusual event, in which they can somehow prove the whereabouts and control of the tapes for the entire time, there will be no way to prove that someone of dubious intention has not had them and already gained what information that they wanted from the tapes.
Quite right -- even if the tapes are recovered, we'll never know (at least, we'll never be sure) who got the information.
Furthermore, if the tapes are recovered... should we worry that the tapes have been altered? Planting moles in the military-intelligence community?
ChoicePoint Inc.'s top two executives made a combined $16.6 million in profit from selling company shares in the months after the data warehouser learned that people's personal information may have been compromised and before the breach was made public, regulatory filings show.... ChoicePoint says the stock trading was pre-arranged under a plan approved by the company's board.
One might easily assume that the executives are profiteering swine, and that the company's board members are colluding at the trough.
Furthermore, ChoicePoint has a... questionable history:
Consider what happened in Florida leading up to the 2000 presidential election. In 1998, the state hired a company called
Database Technologies to scrub its voter rolls of ineligible voters. The scrub list was mandated by Florida legislators after a voting fraud investigation revealed dead people had cast ballots in the 1997 Miami mayoral election.
DBT combed through Florida's rolls and handed over the "ineligible" list to elections officials in May 2000 -- within days of the company's merger with ChoicePoint.
The problem was that DBT'S list purged the voter rolls not just of felons, who are disqualified from voting in Florida, but of eligible voters whose names resembled those of the felons.
While Florida and DBT failed to check a number of criteria that could have distinguished the actual felons from the non-felons, one criterion that DBT did bother cross-referencing was race. BBC reporter Greg Palast and a handful of US journalists reported that the majority of the felons on the list were black, so thousands of legitimate black voters with the same names as black felons were struck from the rolls. Because Florida blacks vote heavily Democratic, a disproportionate number of votes for Al Gore were thrown out.
According to analyses by news organizations, somewhere between 8,000 and 22,000 qualified votes went uncounted. Whatever the number, it towers over 537 -- the margin by which George W. Bush won Florida, and therefore the national election.
The most jarring part, according to Palast, who broke the story, was that DBT knew the list was flawed -- because a Florida official told DBT, in a 1999 e-mail, "Obviously, we want to capture more names that possibly aren't matches and let the county supervisors make a final determination." Palast says the fact that the company would even hand over known mistakes shows that it doesn't always do its best -- contrary to its corporate mantra -- to protect the government against itself.
The U.S. official said a large percentage of the accounts are for the Pentagon but that some 40 federal agencies and other entities are affected. Some of the tapes related to non-federal card-holders, the official added. Trower would not comment on which agencies are affected, referring questions to the General Services Administration. A GSA spokesperson had no immediate response to an inquiry about the matter, including whether any of the Pentagon's billions of dollars in secret "black" programs could be affected. Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said the data loss includes files on 900,000 of the Pentagon's three million or so military and civilian workers. "It is a significant number of the Department's employees," he said, declining to say whether it affected any who are working undercover.
Source
Spooky business. One wonders... were these records stolen by domestic agents? Foreign agents? Freelancers?
So that means no more Hitler...or anything remotely linked to WWII...i feel bad for the German student writing the book report about WWII's causes...that's gonna be pretty odd.
Similarly, in Japan:
"The generation born in the 1950s and early 1960s went through education that taught nothing but the impossibility and absurdity of war. Textbooks described the war as a campaign into Eurasia, whcih ended in a disappointing result, only because the plan was implemented recklessly. We never understood that the military's deeds violated humanity, or that their disgraceful activities tormented many nations... we were not taught to possess an eye to see how things developed, how they worked, and what was the core of the problem. I think this was why we were never made to realize the magnitude of the crime. Something wrong happened in the past. It was an act of some idiots. But it's OK now, and has nothing to do with us. Now that we've got the most pacifist constitution in the world, we are not to brood on the past. Remorse? Why should we feel remorse?"
- Japanese businessman, quoted in The Yamamoto Dynasty by Sterling and Peggy Seagrave
The Seagraves note:
It may seem that the Japanese people are completely uninterested in their recent political and social history, particularly the 1930s and 1940s. However, the truth is that they are simply starved for information about their past. Because the elite control the writing, research and teaching of Japanese history, it is not unusual for today's high school students to ask, "Did we win the war?"
The Yamamoto Dynasty is largely concerned with Japan's massive and systematic looting of gold and other treasures ("Golden Lily") from more than a dozen nations. This loot largely disappeared during the war. Where? Into corrupt LDP coffers... into secret CIA accounts... into the hands of certain high US officials... and God knows where else.
The events of Golden Lily form a core element of Neal Stephenson's novel Cryptonomicon.
From the preface to The Gulag Archipelago by Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn
"In 1949 some friends and I came upon a noteworthy news item in Nature, a magazine of the Academy of Sciences. It reported in tiny type that in the course of excavations on the Kolyma River a subterranean ice lens had been discovered which was actually a frozen stream-and in it were found frozen specimens of prehistoric fauna some tens of thousands of years old. Whether fish or salamander, these were preserved in so fresh a state, the scientific correspondent reported, that those present immediately broke open the ice encasing the specimens and devoured them with relish on the spot."
- Source
The FCC currently overstepped its bounds. The backup plan is to extend those bounds, so that the FCC can regulate the broadcast flag, nice and legally.
While extending bounds of regulatory agencies, maybe the administration can do something about problems with the First Amendment.
People do all kinds of unpleasant things under this so-called First Amendment!
Criticizing the President... exposing corrupt officials... influencing how citizens cast their votes, fer Chrissake...!
I think that's just a clueless reporter saying "morph" when they mean change. These holograms aren't animated; even changing color switched by a biochem state is quite a revolution. So you're looking for a red or blue cop hologram - and hoping your drunk ass can tell the difference between the unsympathetic one with a gun, and the cute one you've been carrying around all night.
Aww, c'mon Doc -- I wasn't being literal -- just karma-whoring for a +Funny mod.
I want a hologram that shows me whether I have bad breath, and another that shows my blood-alcohol content - privately.
I want a hologram with programmable morphing feature. From the original post:
... these holograms can be designed to show results graphically, such as morphing into an image of a green car if someone subjected to breath analysis is sober and can drive.
A better morph would be a cute chick icon if I'm drunk enough to think the cop is a cute chick. If I'm not drunk, the cop icon is just a cop.
If you consider Europe as a country like entity then i am not sure the U.S. are so superior.
Common Europe is a formidable economic powerhouse, comparable to the United States:
"The euro area's GDP was only 60% the size of America's in 2001. If current exchange rates are sustained [circa December 2003], it swells to around 80%. If the economies of Britain, Sweden and Denmark are added to the euro area, the European Union now has a slightly larger economy than that of the United States."
Source
Further evidence of global economic conflict between Common Europe and the United States: Iraq switched from US dollars to the euro in 2000:
"On November 6th of 2000 Iraq became the first country to receive all of its oil export payments in euros instead of American dollars. This switch was estimated to cost Iraq $270 million dollars, but Iraq had since actually come out on top due to the rise in the value of the euro, which was actually probably influenced by Iraq's decision to use the euro as its foreign exchange currency."
Source
However, following the US invasion of Iraq,
"the US... installed its own authority to rule the country and as soon as Iraqi oil became available to sell on the world market, it was announced that payment would be in dollars only."
Source
Oy! Hasn't someone revoked her author's license yet?
Yeah, I should have mentioned that Sterling has her critics -- she may have been a CIA mouthpiece, or some such front, either knowingly or unwittingly.
Nonetheless, she did rake up a lot of muck, and is worth reading (with a critical eye, of course). Whatever her faults regarding the "plot to kill the pope", Thieves' World is a hell of a read. And there's no doubting her passionate conviction that organized crime is a global menace to nation-states (which, I think, is substantially true).
As to revokation of her license, she died several years ago.
You know, the terrorist leaders are all wealthy men. Arafat was a billionaire, ditto bin Laden. Why aren't people like you demanding they share THEIR wealth and improve the condition of THEIR people?
Here in America, we use the democratic process to reform our own government, not to impose our will on other governments.
When we want to impose our will on other governments, we use spooks and armies.
With the help of Google, anything is possible! How to build a nuclear bomb [google.com] Complete with book search!
It takes some brains to build a bomb. But --
Nuclear weapons and nuclear-grade materials became available to wealthy criminals, with the collapse of the Soviet Union:
"A U.S. House of Representatives Republican Task Force reported at the end of 1992 that three tactical nuclear warheads had vanished. Priced at $14 million a throw, and with a range of sixty kilometres, warheads were being stolen to order from army installations in Irkutsk. Master-minded by two former intelligence operatives - one ex KGB and the other ex GRU, the intelligence arm of the Soviet military - they were smuggled into Yugoslavia and then were trucked to Bulgaria, through Turkey and onwards, it is claimed, to clients in Iraq and Libya. The same network filled an order for 32 kilo bars of plutonium that was ripped-off from Ukranian storage depots, but were seized by Italian police before reaching their destination, again in Iraq. Other seizures in Europe have included quantities of Plutonium-239, Strontium-90, Cesium-137 and highly enriched weapons grade Uranium. Despite these police successes it is believed that large quantities of nuclear materials are reaching their ultimate destinations - those countries committed to making nuclear weapons. "
Source
Around the same time, parties unknown stole the entire supply of gold from the Soviet central bank:
The piece de resistance of the western-sponsored crime wave which pushed the USSR over the brink was, of course, the theft of the entire Soviet gold reserve of more than 2,000 tonnes of bullion from the Soviet gosbank vaults, a crime announced by Geraschenko to an astonished Russian parliament. This crime remains 'unsolved' to this day despite extraordinary efforts made to solve it, including the highly- publicised hiring by Boris Yeltsin of a crack team of US private investigators, who came up with nothing. In the chaotic circumstances of the time, it proved impossible to completely conceal gold shipments on such a scale, and the British Guardian newspaper reported in March 1991 that 500 tonnes of gold had been exported from Russia by the Soviet government, destination unknown, buyer unknown, purpose unknown. For some reason, this sensational affair was not reported on again....
Source
For more about nukes, gold, and global organized crime, see Thieves World by Claire Sterling.
"It also was unclear how much the effort might cost."
And the cost will remain unclear -- to the public, anyway, and to most of the rest of government outside the spy agencies themselves -- because of black budgets.
What they claim: When lots of people think the same thing it makes "random event generators" give "less random" output.
When pressed about evidence working against his theories (e.g. assigning meaning to some data spies, but not others), global conciousness proponent Dan Radin replied: "I don't know what happened there."
This is the scientific thing to say -- if you don't know, say you don't know.
However, assigning meaning to some spikes, but not others, tends to erode one's confidence in the assignment of causality.
The roomba managed to hit a door in such a way that it closed itself in. Somehow you managed to jump to the conclusion that it's going to start plotting against you or something?
It's the old "Nothing Can Possibly Go Worng" routine. But if only it were that easy... : )
Seriously, all the tinfoil-hat posts are for amusement purposes only. Obviously this robot is as dumb as ever, and won't get any more... conspiratorial than it is right now.
Nonetheless, we might find interesting unanticipated states, as robots bump up against the real world. Roomba operates within the operating environment of one's house -- environments rich in untested state possibilities.
As home robots become more complex, expect more and richer unintended experiences.
Slashdot Mirror
Yes. This was true when I endured high school (during the 1970s), and it's more true today. Schools as we know them were designed by and for the industrial age.
Alvin Toffler has given this a lot of thought: -kgj
The Iran coup was actually in 1953 with the removal from power of democratically elected Mossadegh and his replacement with the shah.
Correct.
See my further comments here.
I happen to agree with your political observations, FuturePower, but in this case a little clarity (and charity) would go a long way.
-kgj
yes, that is what it sounds like, but one does not know. Even if they were to be found in the future, unless it happenes to be in a very unusual event, in which they can somehow prove the whereabouts and control of the tapes for the entire time, there will be no way to prove that someone of dubious intention has not had them and already gained what information that they wanted from the tapes.
... should we worry that the tapes have been altered? Planting moles in the military-intelligence community?
Quite right -- even if the tapes are recovered, we'll never know (at least, we'll never be sure) who got the information.
Furthermore, if the tapes are recovered
-kgj
One might easily assume that the executives are profiteering swine, and that the company's board members are colluding at the trough.
Furthermore, ChoicePoint has a
-kgj
Similarly, in Japan: The Seagraves note: The Yamamoto Dynasty is largely concerned with Japan's massive and systematic looting of gold and other treasures ("Golden Lily") from more than a dozen nations. This loot largely disappeared during the war. Where? Into corrupt LDP coffers
The events of Golden Lily form a core element of Neal Stephenson's novel Cryptonomicon.
-kgj
No government is without corruption. Is there anyone truly immune to an offer of a sufficiently large amount of money?
Satan.
-kgj
The FCC currently overstepped its bounds. The backup plan is to extend those bounds, so that the FCC can regulate the broadcast flag, nice and legally.
... exposing corrupt officials ... influencing how citizens cast their votes, fer Chrissake ...!
While extending bounds of regulatory agencies, maybe the administration can do something about problems with the First Amendment.
People do all kinds of unpleasant things under this so-called First Amendment!
Criticizing the President
-kgj
Too bad canadian law only applies in Canada...
... um, everywhere.
As opposed to US law which applies
I think Monty Python put it well: "I favor a tax on all foreigners living abroad."
-kgj
I think Chewie lives on Endor because Ewok females are easy.
....
Or -- Ewok males are small, furry, and helpless.
It's spelled "Chewbacca", but pronounced "Chew Backside"
-kgj
I think that's just a clueless reporter saying "morph" when they mean change. These holograms aren't animated; even changing color switched by a biochem state is quite a revolution. So you're looking for a red or blue cop hologram - and hoping your drunk ass can tell the difference between the unsympathetic one with a gun, and the cute one you've been carrying around all night.
Aww, c'mon Doc -- I wasn't being literal -- just karma-whoring for a +Funny mod.
-kgj
I want a hologram with programmable morphing feature. From the original post: A better morph would be a cute chick icon if I'm drunk enough to think the cop is a cute chick. If I'm not drunk, the cop icon is just a cop.
-kgj
Quite craven and self-serving if you ask me.
Spoken like an Anonymous Coward.
-kgj
Common Europe is a formidable economic powerhouse, comparable to the United States: Further evidence of global economic conflict between Common Europe and the United States: Iraq switched from US dollars to the euro in 2000: However, following the US invasion of Iraq,
-kgj
Oy! Hasn't someone revoked her author's license yet?
Yeah, I should have mentioned that Sterling has her critics -- she may have been a CIA mouthpiece, or some such front, either knowingly or unwittingly.
Nonetheless, she did rake up a lot of muck, and is worth reading (with a critical eye, of course). Whatever her faults regarding the "plot to kill the pope", Thieves' World is a hell of a read. And there's no doubting her passionate conviction that organized crime is a global menace to nation-states (which, I think, is substantially true).
As to revokation of her license, she died several years ago.
-kgj
You know, the terrorist leaders are all wealthy men. Arafat was a billionaire, ditto bin Laden. Why aren't people like you demanding they share THEIR wealth and improve the condition of THEIR people?
Here in America, we use the democratic process to reform our own government, not to impose our will on other governments.
When we want to impose our will on other governments, we use spooks and armies.
-kgj
It takes some brains to build a bomb. But --
Nuclear weapons and nuclear-grade materials became available to wealthy criminals, with the collapse of the Soviet Union:
Around the same time, parties unknown stole the entire supply of gold from the Soviet central bank: For more about nukes, gold, and global organized crime, see Thieves World by Claire Sterling.
-kgj
"It also was unclear how much the effort might cost."
And the cost will remain unclear -- to the public, anyway, and to most of the rest of government outside the spy agencies themselves -- because of black budgets.
-kgj
What they claim: When lots of people think the same thing it makes "random event generators" give "less random" output.
When pressed about evidence working against his theories (e.g. assigning meaning to some data spies, but not others), global conciousness proponent Dan Radin replied: "I don't know what happened there."
This is the scientific thing to say -- if you don't know, say you don't know.
However, assigning meaning to some spikes, but not others, tends to erode one's confidence in the assignment of causality.
See Skeptic Report for critical analysis.
-kgj
no you're thinking of the previous one with a certain cigar fetish :-)
...
A different typographical error -- should read immoral turds
-kgj
Great story! Thanks, worth the OT.
-kgj
Let's not get carried away here. I voted for him over the other guy, but I don't think I would describe anything he's ever said as "immortal."
....
Typographical error -- should read "immoral words"
-kgj
The roomba managed to hit a door in such a way that it closed itself in. Somehow you managed to jump to the conclusion that it's going to start plotting against you or something?
... : )
... conspiratorial than it is right now.
It's the old "Nothing Can Possibly Go Worng" routine. But if only it were that easy
Seriously, all the tinfoil-hat posts are for amusement purposes only. Obviously this robot is as dumb as ever, and won't get any more
Nonetheless, we might find interesting unanticipated states, as robots bump up against the real world. Roomba operates within the operating environment of one's house -- environments rich in untested state possibilities.
As home robots become more complex, expect more and richer unintended experiences.
-kgj