Author: David

Over-educated Curmudgeon, Bit-Bucket Tuner and Budding Brewmeister.
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Deceptive “Memes”–Education

Disclaimer: I strongly dislike the corruption of “meme” to indicate some pithy (and usually plain flat wrong, or at least deceptive) propaganda presented as a graphic-quote.

meme: An element of a culture or system of behavior that may be considered to be passed from one individual to another by nongenetic means, especially imitation.

That’s the primary definition, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, and–mirabile dictu!–Wikipedia even gets it right in its article on Memetics.

Still, here’s a highly deceptive Internet “meme” *gagamaggot*

teacher-meme

Well, the numbers are highly slanted, though the underlying concept is fairly sound. The “time at home vs. time at school” is a false metric. Time under parental instruction/admonition/example vs time under influence by the schools would be a better way to compare things. Time at home/ostensibly under parental influence (admonition/instruction/example) is ~3,000 hours less than depicted, just from time “lost” to normal nightly sleep alone. And time under the influence of school is around 50% more than depicted above (ex: our local school district does NOT have the kids for only 5 hours per day for a state-mandated 180 days/year–or 900 hours; that’s just silly “math”), not even counting school-sponsored extracurricular activities supervised by teaching staff and Summer School (another month-long instructional period that, at least in our local district, is HIGHLY attended) OR the time lost to parental supervision accounted for in busing kids to and from school.

Still, it’s quite obvious to me that parents SHOULD exercise the greatest influence on their children’s upbringing, and when one observes kids in school or other settings, it’s almost always quite easy to tell which parents are really parenting their children.

Just did a lil bit more number crunching, with input from my school librarian Wonder Woman. Yes, not counting extra-curricular school-sponsored activities, bus time, etc., parents do (or should) have a bit more than three times the amount of conscious time influencing their children than schools do, over the course of a year, not nearly nine times, as the quote in the graphic deceptively states. AND, children are (or should be) primarily the parents’ responsibility to raise “in the nurture and admonition” of [parental values]. Unfortunately, parents (and “parents”) DO raise their children to hold their values, pretty much, just by example alone, whether they plan to or not. For many “parents” that means abdicating responsibility. . . for darned near everything.

Of course, I am firmly of the opinion that (conscious) time “under the influence of their own parents” should include a LOT of “free play” for grade/elementary school kids–time when they can explore, invent, and just goof off on their own or with other kids. Many (MANY) young kids (grade/elementary school age and younger) today spend WAY too much time in structured activities, and far, far too little time just being kids. The “influence” exerted by parents who give their kids such time can be that of encouraging responsibility, liberty and creativity, among other virtues (the reader is invited to consider others).

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Respect for Islam’s Faithful

The proper response to any Muslims willing to die to defend the *cough* “honor” *cough* of their favorite mass murderer, rapist, pedophile, slaver and brigand, Mohamed, the Butcher of Medina, is to say, “Let me give you a hand with that, Cupcake.”

As Ted Cruz said of The Garland Two,

“Thankfully, one police officer helped those terrorists meet their virgins.”

Now, that’s showing proper respect for the genuinely faithful members of Islam, Mohamed’s hate cult.

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The Enemy

The enemy is stupidity and evil. NO person has the right to force their stupid or evil ideas off on another. Heck, no one has the right to force ANY ideas on another. Doing so is both stupid and evil. Coercion and manipulation are the tactics of ultimately stupid evil. May all those who feel that forcing their ideas on others is acceptable reap what they sow.

Thatisall.

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FarceBook Funnies

Ran into a kid in a FarceBook thread on musical tastes. He was really offended by my comments delineating how obvious it is that contemporary society has, on the main, NO musical taste, and indeed, more or less, that most folks have no capability to discern music from rhythmic noise.

He went on to list a number of “great” contemporary popular works (I am kind), all of which were boring, derivative, insultingly stupid, etc., including a “fantastic” (his word) popular song that had an annoying (and extremely boring) rhythmic ostinato that did absolutely nothing to support the rest of the piece. Oh, and the vocals were juvenile, quite apart from the stupid lyrics.

But the pieces were definitely the kind of thing that would appeal to a musically illiterate junior high school student.

So, he was offended. Mentioned one was “great” in the class of greatness of a “great book”–Plato’s Republic (which isn’t really a book at all but a collection of dialogs of varying lengths and importance that together might make up a novella-length “book,” although it has been compiled and presented as a “bookette” *heh* It’s easier for academic bookstores to charge more for the collection that way. In my collection, every book with an edition of “The Republic” is part of a much longer collection of works. ADHD folks’ opinions may vary.).

It further devolved into his assertion that it was too, and just as great a “book” as King Lear. . . which isn’t a book but a play.

*head-desk*

Kicker: He’s apparently a grad of a “rigorous” liberal arts program (that uses the Great Books of the Western World as a curriculum/curriculum resource/guide), and can’t discern that King Lear is a play, not a book, and he is a writer for The Puffington Host. Naturally. Mass MEdia Podpeople Hivemind unit.

*sigh*

It was fun playing until I ran out of popcorn.

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Where Angels Fear to Tread

A recent FarceBook discussion included this comment from an acquaintance:

In the world of Leninist-style Socialism, the “secret police” would abduct or “arrest” anyone who they are even remotely suspicious of being “enemies of the state” & interrogate or torture them in Russian Prisons known as Gulags. Lubyanka Square Building is a very large, imposing structure & was the central Russian/Soviet KGB operating facility for interrogating prisoners.

Many people who entered that building never came out of it alive.

Moved me to ponder the possible fate of “secret police” attempting such things here in America’s Third World County™ where the populace is better-armed, per capita, than the local National Guard unit.

I’d want to run the popcorn and beer concession.

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Computer Security: the Value of Resident Anti-Malware

So, how important is having a resident, up-to-date anti-malware product for Windows users?

Middlin’. No, seriously.

Here’s a wee experiment I recently did:

  • Windows 7 box, mostly updated (I did not accept some problematic M$Office 2010 updates, but then I rarely fire up M$Office).
  • Removed all resident anti-malware products.
  • Surfed normally for a month.
  • Scanned with offline standalone scanners and online scanners from reputable anti-malware companies.

Result? No malware.

A properly-configured modern(ish) browser (Opera 12.17), decent firewalling and simple safe computing practices were all that was needed for me to avoid infections/infestations with malware.

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The Reality-Based Fantasies of Anti-GMO

Anti-GMOers have this fantasy that some plant foods are “pure,” unmodified genetically. They are are to be pitied for their illiteracy. Almost ALL plants consumed by humans as food today have been genetically modified from their original forms, most of which ranged from mildly toxic to only marginally nutritious. Without a history (and prehistory) of human genetic modification of plants, we’d all still be carnivores.

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Good Lines. . .

If one is prone to collecting good lines from fiction–or other lit–“Asylum,” (excellent milfic space opera by Jordan Leah Hunter and Owen R. O’Neill) has a few. For example, referring to the chewing-out given by an admiral to a marine officer who had poohed the scrooch most royally,

“He just yanked out that little prick’s immortal soul, wiped his ass with it and threw it away.”

And rightly so.

Almost 600 pages of excellent milfic space opera. Number 3 in the series. (A separate glossary is available for download from the authors’ website–links in each volume of the series.)

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20/20 Hindsight

Looking back on last Saturday, I almost wish we had bid more on the items we acquired in a school-sponsored (PTO) silent auction. Oh, we “won” everything we bid on, anyway, but only because I didn’t want to bid much under what the (donated) items were worth, since I knew the PTO’s normal record of spending the funds–and approve. In fact, the PTO’s spending seems to meto be more productive, dollar-for-dollar, than the regular school budget. . . Maybe it’s because administrators, politicians and remore educrats are out of the loop, eh?

Still, I do almost wish we had bid more. *meh* Maybe we can just make a straight donation.