luni, 27 august 2018
joi, 23 august 2018
Story of Po's childhood, Kung Fu Panda 2
On the eve of his second anniversary Roman cried for the first time during a movie after watching this story of a baby panda. I can see why he related to the little one crying for his mommy because he also shed some tears this morning because I had to leave him at the crèche to go to work. It's not surprising that this week was more difficult for him because we just got back from holidays and his father is away on a business trip. I had to improvise an alternative ending for the story to make him feel better, so you will be happy to know that momma panda had to put the baby down because he was too heavy and her arms were hurting but she came right back for him after she chased away the wolfs. She gave him lots of hugs, stroke his hair and kissed his forehead and the baby panda got to nurse in her arms for as long as he wanted.
miercuri, 22 august 2018
STEM STEAMS ME, James Paul Gee
Submitted by Jim on Sat, 2013-05-04 10:30
America has a STEM mania.
We want our schools and colleges to focus on science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. This is where all the funding is. A blue-ribbon commission in Texas even suggested we should charge more tuition for courses in the Humanities, since they don’t lead to jobs and should not be subsidized by taxpayers.
All this in country where:
1. The majority of people do not believe in evolution.
2. A good percentage of people think the earth is less than 10,000 years old and that dinosaurs and humans lived on earth at the same time.
3. The media treats the truth of global warming as a 50/50 deal when 35,000 scientific papers argue for it and less than 30 argue against it.
4. We push “evidence-based education” but not “evidence-based going to war”.
5. People are sick and dying from fracking, but it is illegal to expose what chemicals are in fracking water and waste.
6. Congress, politicians, and CEOs distain evidence in the name of greed and short-term profit.
7. We use technology and engineering to make drones to kill even our own citizens, but not to solve the problems of oil and global warming.
8. The 2008 recession was caused by experts in economics (like Alan Greenspan) and by politicians, economists, and CEO’s ignoring “moral hazard” (i.e., ignoring ethics, human nature, and simple rationality).
9. A great many people think a single-celled embryo is a living human being.
10. Businesses disdain government regulation but run to government for handouts, subsidies, and protection from market forces
11. We say we believe in free markets and virtually have none amidst monopolies, price fixing, lobbyists, and government subsidies.
12. We allow hospitals to keep data they collect on surgeries from consumers so these consumers cannot make intelligent choices.
13. States continue to slash universities budgets.
14. We use so many poorly regulated toxic chemicals in our environment that Americans have more toxic waste in their blood than other people on earth.
15. We are the fattest people on earth but lard our stores with processed food that barely counts as food in any nutritional sense and is created by “food scientists”.
16. We have the highest inequality in the world when the evidence shows clearly that such a high level of inequality is bad for the economy and for everyone’s health in the society.
17. We have many rich CEOs who want to balance the budget by cutting food stamps for the poor.
18. We have close to the worst health statistics in the developed world, but keep claiming we have the best health system in the world and spend a good deal more on health than do most other developed countries.
19. We keep saying America is the land of social opportunity when social mobilty is now lower in America than in many countries in Europe ("the old country").,
20 We say anyone can make it in Amerca if they work hard enough,then give poor schools to poor children and ensure our children are not in them
21. We treat our teachers and college faculty with disdain.
Some will say “But this is why we need STEM.”
I will say, “No, this is why we do not have it and why we cannot take the push for STEM at face value”.
Imagine what a society would be like that said it liked science, but disdained it in the name of greed, and thought humanities and ethics were a waste of taxpayer money.
You do not have to imagine that society.
You live in it.
America has a STEM mania.
We want our schools and colleges to focus on science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. This is where all the funding is. A blue-ribbon commission in Texas even suggested we should charge more tuition for courses in the Humanities, since they don’t lead to jobs and should not be subsidized by taxpayers.
All this in country where:
1. The majority of people do not believe in evolution.
2. A good percentage of people think the earth is less than 10,000 years old and that dinosaurs and humans lived on earth at the same time.
3. The media treats the truth of global warming as a 50/50 deal when 35,000 scientific papers argue for it and less than 30 argue against it.
4. We push “evidence-based education” but not “evidence-based going to war”.
5. People are sick and dying from fracking, but it is illegal to expose what chemicals are in fracking water and waste.
6. Congress, politicians, and CEOs distain evidence in the name of greed and short-term profit.
7. We use technology and engineering to make drones to kill even our own citizens, but not to solve the problems of oil and global warming.
8. The 2008 recession was caused by experts in economics (like Alan Greenspan) and by politicians, economists, and CEO’s ignoring “moral hazard” (i.e., ignoring ethics, human nature, and simple rationality).
9. A great many people think a single-celled embryo is a living human being.
10. Businesses disdain government regulation but run to government for handouts, subsidies, and protection from market forces
11. We say we believe in free markets and virtually have none amidst monopolies, price fixing, lobbyists, and government subsidies.
12. We allow hospitals to keep data they collect on surgeries from consumers so these consumers cannot make intelligent choices.
13. States continue to slash universities budgets.
14. We use so many poorly regulated toxic chemicals in our environment that Americans have more toxic waste in their blood than other people on earth.
15. We are the fattest people on earth but lard our stores with processed food that barely counts as food in any nutritional sense and is created by “food scientists”.
16. We have the highest inequality in the world when the evidence shows clearly that such a high level of inequality is bad for the economy and for everyone’s health in the society.
17. We have many rich CEOs who want to balance the budget by cutting food stamps for the poor.
18. We have close to the worst health statistics in the developed world, but keep claiming we have the best health system in the world and spend a good deal more on health than do most other developed countries.
19. We keep saying America is the land of social opportunity when social mobilty is now lower in America than in many countries in Europe ("the old country").,
20 We say anyone can make it in Amerca if they work hard enough,then give poor schools to poor children and ensure our children are not in them
21. We treat our teachers and college faculty with disdain.
Some will say “But this is why we need STEM.”
I will say, “No, this is why we do not have it and why we cannot take the push for STEM at face value”.
Imagine what a society would be like that said it liked science, but disdained it in the name of greed, and thought humanities and ethics were a waste of taxpayer money.
You do not have to imagine that society.
You live in it.
duminică, 5 august 2018
marți, 24 iulie 2018
Over organisation
After living 26 years in Romania and 8 years in Ireland I was never faced with the idea that there might be such a thing as too much organisation. In the Far East of Europe chaos and entropy still seem to make the rule and on a small green island you can keep things flexible enough because people can rely on common sense and it will be grand in the end. After living almost two years in France I understand a bit better that rigid schedules for lunch and holidays come from a sometimes unreasonable love of order and organisation. Regardless if tourists go hungry after 2pm, if families spend full days queueing on highways trying to reach their destination, or if fridges get broken during August. The common belief is that people require more organisation although some amount of randomisation would solve the problem just as well.
Strict rules and schedules are seen to have value in and of themself and religiously adhering to them builds character and cultivates patience and persistence if nothing else. But keeping a full country close to boiling point is not without its perils and it is not a rare occurence to see a lady throwing her shopping bag, running and cursing after a driver refused to stop at the street light.
The greatest loss for a European Union without Great Britain might be not having a small dose of British pragmatism in the mix.
miercuri, 18 iulie 2018
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