The Lacking Status?

 I was reading the Brit Guardian paper this AM.....the highlight?  Brit primary schools are to be told to identify children at risk of being unemployed in the future.

Yeah....the 7 or 8 year old kid without much talent/ambition/clever-nature....will have a national record started up.

They don't say how the data will be used....just that if you see dimwitted kids.....ID them.

I pondered over this.  

Based off the last three years of high school....I knew about eight folks (of 75)....who probably would be easily identified as 'lacking'.  They would be the ones working at the lumber-yard, stocking shelves, going to beauty-school, or long-haul trucking

Brightness was not the issue....they were just plain bored by the time they got to the 5th grade, and were just cruising along the final seven years.

To be honest....by the end of the 10th grade....my boredom index was hitting a '7' (1-to-10) and if you had allowed me to test-out....yeah, I would have tested enough to exit.

A lot of this having to do with poor instructors/teachers?  Yeah....I'd say 50-percent of the issue were crappy teachers.

How this Brit record will serve the gov't?  Anyone's guess....but I'd assume it won't be a pleasant experience. 

Cambridge BS

This AM....I was reading over Cambridge University (UK)....being listed with some ridiculous PhD courses currently being offered: 

- Traditional Cultural Norms, Technology and Gender Relations in Ghana (I assume there's 150 countries to be offered later)

- The Political Economy of Female Circumcision

- Unsexed beings: constructing gender, humanness, and agency through the use of the word “unsex” in Late Modern British society and writing

- In Her Own Words: A Study of Women’s Voices in Contemporary White Supremacy and Far-Right Online Hate

- Legal Mobilization by Black Lesbian, Bisexual and Queer (LBQ) Womxn in Kenya and South Africa

- Exploring gendered embodiment in transgender and gender-diverse adolescents at the intersection of exercise and eating behaviors, social inclusion, and mental health:  Towards a desire-centered approach in pediatric gender-affirming healthcare and research

- Codes of Life, Codes of Death: Tracing the (Im)possibility of Trans Lives in Algorithmic Assemblages

- Queer Cultural Memory in Literature, Film and Television since 1999

- The Sexually Sociological: Gay Masculinity, Intimacy and the (Un)queer State

After reviewing the list....I thought back to my days with University of Maryland, Louisiana Tech University, and Pierce Community College.  I felt lucky when they offered up Landscape Photography, Civil War History, Aviation History, and Germany Prior to 1914.

I was offered Intro to Mental Health....but they needed ten students to run it, and it failed with five folks interested in taking the course.

My general take on Cambridge University?  I'd say the intellectual-level is probably at age 11/12....at best.  What these lead to....in terms of skill or decision-making?  Zero.

College BS

 University of Michigan says it has invented a 'way'....to hide first-semester grades on transcripts....for students in the College of Literature, Science, and the Arts.  Reason?  Well....they say a fair number of kids are not doing well in the first semester of college, and this is in some way....creating a mental-health crisis.

I paused over this.

What they hint at....the grades are there and easily seen by the 2nd year and at the end of the degree process....but it can't be seen as you approach the end of the first semester. 

About ten years ago....I was reading a piece by a college administrator....who did the 'count' of 1st year students who quit (never come back after the 1st or 2nd semester.  For their college....it was something near 40-percent who didn't survive the first year.  They didn't get into details....but it made me wonder....financially, did they need the crappy students to attend two semesters....to make the business plan of the college work (at least on paper)?

While working at the Pentagon....I worked with a civilian whose daughter totally crapped out of the first year....roughly $28,000 in total cost (tuition, cost of living, dorm, car, etc).  He came into work one day....total crisis....the daughter more-or-less admitting that college was way over her head (this was a B-average high school student).  I asked....did the high school just pad the grades and inflate her intellectually?  He'd reached the point of believing that.  He had to get her into some mental health BS for three months, and then she ended up at local community college....doing physical-rehab study.  

The system broke?  It makes me wonder about that.

BS Chatter

 On my list of things to 'watch/care-about'....a list of 25,000 things....the Prince-Harry and Meghan saga....it ranks near 24,100.  Over the past month, it bumped up slightly.

Harry lost his UK court case, and owes a fair amount (plus court fees and his legal help).

The exit-door?  By spring of 2027....I think the Harry/Megan crew will sell the California property....pay off as much debt as possible....move to the UK....assume royal duty....get a 'free' home, and 'survive'.

Meghan in total chaos?  Yeah...whatever mess she designed originally....is destroyed at this point.

Divorcing Harry?  It probably comes up twice a day, but realistically....what can you get for 'pay'?  And who would you marry next?  The 'burn-rate'?  I would imagine they go through a quarter-million every single week.....when you talk of cost-of-living....security....taxes.

Great script or a movie?  Oh, I'd give it high potential.    

The Boris Image

Generally, whenever I hear the term "Russian meddling in the US election"....I have this image in my mind from the Rocky and Bullwinkle cartoons with Boris Badenov.

Boris Badenov was a fictional character of course.

Boris was invented in the late 1950s and was supposed to be the somewhat evil character...that was somewhere between being a German or a Soviet bad-guy.

After you've watched a couple hours of Rocky and Bullwinkle....you'd come to the conclusion that Boris was just a unlucky guy at situations.  He'd walk into a great situation, and minutes later find that he'd been outsmarted or just run into bad luck.

When I sit and watch CNN....I'm really trying hard not to visualize Boris....but typically, it only takes a minute of some dimwit with CNN talking and I've got Russian-meddling and Boris in my mind.

As much as Boris struggled and failed.....time after time....you got use to the Boris scheme and could figure out that American-branded Bullwinkle and Rocky would always walk away safe.

I've come to view the Russian meddling thing in the election as basically the same thing.  Whatever scheme was floated on the original version...it didn't really matter.  We....as Bullwinkle and Rocky....will walk away in a safe fashion.  It's virtually guaranteed.

As for future meddling?  Boris version II will appear in 2020 and 2024.  His sidekick....the slutty Natasha Fatale will probably accompany him.  CNN will interview both.  The arrival of the Russians will be hyped up and widely reported.  Some people will note that they were briefly swayed....mostly by the booze.....to trust CNN and Boris.  Eventually, we'll all have a good laugh.

On the Topic of Escalators

As a kid from the rural landscape of Alabama, I always had this fascination with escalators.  I was probably 12 or 13 years old when I 'rode' my first one.  In the period of 1978/1979 while in Frankfurt, I rode dozens.

For me, this was a mechanical curiosity.  You'd stand and admire the weight on one escalator and what amount of power it took to lift sixteen people to some second floor.  Then you'd admire the dependability and the fact that they rarely broke down.  You'd also reach a point where you wondered about the safety involved and the dangers.

While living in the DC area around 2010 to 2013....we had the episode where the escalator 'broke' and went into maximum turbo on the way down....literally throwing folks off down at the bottom. The escalator mechanics swore up and down....this was supposed to be impossible to occur.

For a long while, the longest escalator that I'd ever ridden was in a subway station in Munich....taking roughly 90 seconds to reach the ground surface.  Then I came to DC and rode the Wheaton Station escalator....which takes roughly two minutes to ride to the top (around 250 feet).  You can figure that that escalator was hauling a minimum of a 150 people in a rush-hour period, so there's a ton of 'power' to make this deliver.

I sat today and was reading up on the North Korean Pyongyang Metro system, and they have a single escalator there...where it can take almost four minutes to ride from the bottom to the top.  Figuring the load there?  Potentially, you might be talking about 500 Koreans riding on it in a rush-hour 'minute'.

If I were eighteen today?  I hate to admit it but out of the ten-thousand odd professions that I'd probably like to get into...would be the escalator technician work.  It's kinda like nursing....you'd be guaranteed work for the rest of your life.

Me and Money Dysmorphia

What is money dysmorphia?  You end up with some type of shame or guilt....that you ain't got enough money.  So you feel hostile when you visit your cousin's trailer, or your wife's brother who is on federal aid, or you go back to dad's house feeling pretty negative about your life.

I was very fortunate in life....I left the farm....went to the Air Force and my life got on track.

They gave me these swell uniforms to wear.

They offered up fine dining (with coffee and free Coke).  

They had nice barracks....sometimes even overly heated.

They had plenty of work to do....to keep your mind off this Dysmorphia stuff.

They offered cheap bowling and free gym services.

You got to meet interesting people....some bright and clever....some with a marginal IQ.

Eventually after 20 years.....you don't have any dysmorphia....you don't feel shame or guilt over money.