Typically, this is a question that you'd ask at a Alabama bar-b-q and to be thrown out to several individuals who claim some rural-intellectual status. Some will admit they attended some state university for six months before they discovered the instructor was actually a third-cousin of Einstein (so they claim). Some might even say speak up that they know sixty different math equations that relate to some electrical charge but then admit they don't know much about some Chaucer-guy from English literature or how the Sun radiates the Earth. And a handful through farming will claim enough common sense to make up for four Einstein-guys and their limitations.
There is some basic belief by brilliant people and journalists that we've surged ahead over the past fifty years and have lots of smart people around today.
Generally, ever since the mid 1980s....I've gone with the philosophy that being able to assemble information, determine values from the information, prioritize, and come to a basic summary which explains the best choice.....is the key point where you can grin and admit you are more smart than stupid.
The rest of this book-smart stuff? Worthless.
I've sat through sixty odd university-related classes via University of Maryland, Louisiana Tech, two community colleges, and the Air Force. I came to realize after reading a fairly deep summary of Greek tutors from over two thousand years ago....that education alone doesn't really do much. You need to have some ability take that information and make use of it or rationalize the big picture.
In this way, my answer is that most people probably are more stupid today....than what existed decades ago. Oh, they may have some certificate and claim to have finished such-and-such university....but beyond that....there's no comprehension.
The brighter crowd? The engineer brings in the formulas and relates them to his work. The scientist with an analytical view will be able to gauge what he sees and bring some solution to a problem. The analyst with some respect for questions will ask enough until there's nothing left in front of him except an answer.
We live in a stimulating age....where kids are hauled off from high school to a university....pay down $10,000 to $30,000 a year and get some status in life of being smarter. So far, no one much goes to challenge that behavior and we've developed this to a national stage....where kids graduate from such-and-such school....must be offered $80,000 a year for a master's degree but their measurement in wit or brightness would equal some Chinese seventh-grader. It's bad enough now that we have headhunters, who only specialize in people in this position....helping to find idiots in companies, who will hire new fresh idiots out of graduate school.
The eventuality? We probably will eventually produce enough stupid people to tell us that we need more smart people, but can't really identify the ways from which you'd produce such people. That's when you know we've gotten pretty screwed up.
Tuesday, 10 November 2015
Thursday, 22 October 2015
An Unshockable Nation
This week, the New York subway folks were asked to evaluate and hopefully accept some women's underwear advertisements from Thinx.
Well, the evaluation team looked over the poster and the words....then came back to the company to say that it was 'inappropriate' and 'suggestive'. In other words.....maybe if you tone it down a notch....we might accept it for putting on the interior of subway cars as hundreds of thousands of New York City gals travel each day.
I looked at the ad myself, and maybe ten years ago.....I would have agreed on the 'inappropriate' nature. Today, I don't see a big deal. Some gal in some some cotton underwear leaning back on a handmade Mennonite-made chair? Nothing much to get sweaty about....if you ask me.
Now, I agree....if this were being displayed in Red Bay, Alabama or Monck's Corner, SC....in some local catfish restaurant or in some local newspaper.....well, it might disturb some folks. But we are talking about New York City where you just can't shock folks anymore.
It's a curious trend about society today.....we are becoming unshockable. This Jenner guy flipping over to a lady-status? After about a week, it wasn't much of a shock anymore. This basketball player in Nevada who flipped out and almost died on herbal Viagra while paying $75,000 for a three-day hooker episode and asking for lady-guy hooker? It didn't take more than forty-eight hours for us all to accept the story and say it doesn't freak us out (well, unless you were a die-hard Baptist). Joe Biden saying he won't run for President? That took eight minutes for us to accept.
Some people will say that it's a recent trend. I would disagree. You can go back to the 1920s and look at what happened to society after WW I and find literally hundreds of revolutions going on within the American society and our shock levels were being tested on a weekly basis.
These underwear guys? I'm guessing they will go back and use the same picture but some different wording and get some acceptance to run the ad on the subway. After a week......no one much will say anything because it's just not that much of a shock anymore. Frankly, if you were paying more attention to the attire or lack of attire of the New York passengers....you'd be entertained to a higher level (my humble opinion).
Every American ought to pack up a bag and go to New York City once in their life. I'm not talking about a long trip....just five days. After that, your unshockable values will double and nothing will really bother you much.
End of Mythbusters
I came to have this curious interest in 2010....upon arriving in DC and having cable TV.....of the TV show "Mythbusters". It appeared on the Discovery Channel and I came to appreciate the way that the two 'mad-scientists' would take some conceived notion of the public or science, and then explain it in garage-like lab.
Today, it's been announced that after being on the air for fourteen years.....Mythbusters is coming to an end. It'll end in 2016.
The two guys....Savage and Hyneman....impressed me with the way that you could convey a massive amount of science into bit-sized pieces....for a mortal with no real understanding of science....helping us get into the topic and actually enjoy the rich nature of science.
Presently, there are roughly 240-odd episodes and if I were a high-school science teacher....I'd put one of the episodes up each week for entertaining the students.
Around the end of 2011....they did an episode where they discussed the idea of a motorcycle being more environmentally friendly than a car. It's the kind of topic that four guys at a water cooler would chat about for hours and hours....debating the finer science principals of motors. The final conclusion of the team? Car evolution on emissions has progressed faster than motorcycle evolution, and you can't make the motorcycle cleaner, with the present set of mechanical standards. A shocker to most guys, but it ends the water cooler debate....at least until a new round of motorcycle developments occur.
My humble guess is that we will go through a five-year period without Mythbusters, and then be thrilled to discover that a new show will be fielded and we get more science in a nice tidy package for public consumption.
Today, it's been announced that after being on the air for fourteen years.....Mythbusters is coming to an end. It'll end in 2016.
The two guys....Savage and Hyneman....impressed me with the way that you could convey a massive amount of science into bit-sized pieces....for a mortal with no real understanding of science....helping us get into the topic and actually enjoy the rich nature of science.
Presently, there are roughly 240-odd episodes and if I were a high-school science teacher....I'd put one of the episodes up each week for entertaining the students.
Around the end of 2011....they did an episode where they discussed the idea of a motorcycle being more environmentally friendly than a car. It's the kind of topic that four guys at a water cooler would chat about for hours and hours....debating the finer science principals of motors. The final conclusion of the team? Car evolution on emissions has progressed faster than motorcycle evolution, and you can't make the motorcycle cleaner, with the present set of mechanical standards. A shocker to most guys, but it ends the water cooler debate....at least until a new round of motorcycle developments occur.
My humble guess is that we will go through a five-year period without Mythbusters, and then be thrilled to discover that a new show will be fielded and we get more science in a nice tidy package for public consumption.
Wednesday, 14 October 2015
The VW Thirty
There are dozens of things I learned from my twenty-two years in the Air Force. One of those things was.....when something really bad or crappy occurs.....the fewer that know about it....means the lesser chance that some punishment or disciplinary action will come out of the event.
If it's just an event with three people who know what happened, then it's almost a zero-percent chance that trouble will come out of the mess.
Once you get to a dozen people who know what happened, it's almost a fifty-fifty shot that trouble will come out of the screw-up or event.
Once you get past twenty people....well, you might as well prepare yourself for some long campaign where some investigation episode will occur.....statements will be taken.....some base legal guy will be in the mix.....and some idiot will lose a stripe or owe the government for setting some bunk mattress on fire, or getting stupid drunk at the NCO club, or expanding a fire extinguisher in the barracks hallway.
Today, here in Germany, via the news folks.....we kinda learned that thirty-odd managers at Volkswagen were inside of the diesel engine 'fix'.
Thirty guys knew and helped in some fashion to make the software 'fix' work as it did.
No one sat there and asked stupid questions about how this would relate to destroying the company if ever found out. No one suggested ethical boundaries. No one could find any way to do the right thing.
Jail-time for the thirty? No, I have my doubts that they can find any law that works for this case.
If I were a stock-holder.....I'd be demanding all thirty be fired immediately. If they aren't fired within seven days.....I'd go ahead and suggest the CEO himself needs to be let go.
No one says the age mix, or educational background of the thirty. It might be interesting to know if they are all engineers, or a mix of computer geeks and management guys. Women in the group? Unknown.
Under the Air Force umbrella....the sad thing is that as some event was unfolded.....other people usually got dragged in who had almost no knowledge of the event and given twenty-odd questions over their participation or lack of participation. All of this leads to people being frustrated with the guilty parties and makes a four-star event into a five-star event. It's probably the same that will occur with the VW people.
If it's just an event with three people who know what happened, then it's almost a zero-percent chance that trouble will come out of the mess.
Once you get to a dozen people who know what happened, it's almost a fifty-fifty shot that trouble will come out of the screw-up or event.
Once you get past twenty people....well, you might as well prepare yourself for some long campaign where some investigation episode will occur.....statements will be taken.....some base legal guy will be in the mix.....and some idiot will lose a stripe or owe the government for setting some bunk mattress on fire, or getting stupid drunk at the NCO club, or expanding a fire extinguisher in the barracks hallway.
Today, here in Germany, via the news folks.....we kinda learned that thirty-odd managers at Volkswagen were inside of the diesel engine 'fix'.
Thirty guys knew and helped in some fashion to make the software 'fix' work as it did.
No one sat there and asked stupid questions about how this would relate to destroying the company if ever found out. No one suggested ethical boundaries. No one could find any way to do the right thing.
Jail-time for the thirty? No, I have my doubts that they can find any law that works for this case.
If I were a stock-holder.....I'd be demanding all thirty be fired immediately. If they aren't fired within seven days.....I'd go ahead and suggest the CEO himself needs to be let go.
No one says the age mix, or educational background of the thirty. It might be interesting to know if they are all engineers, or a mix of computer geeks and management guys. Women in the group? Unknown.
Under the Air Force umbrella....the sad thing is that as some event was unfolded.....other people usually got dragged in who had almost no knowledge of the event and given twenty-odd questions over their participation or lack of participation. All of this leads to people being frustrated with the guilty parties and makes a four-star event into a five-star event. It's probably the same that will occur with the VW people.
Tuesday, 13 October 2015
Playboy Change
It was rather shocking news to come out yesterday.....Playboy will end the centerfold and 'natural' displays in the near future.
It's hard to say who still reads Playboy. The last time I looked.....you could get a year's subscription for roughly twenty bucks.
Throughout my Air Force barracks period (78-84), probably five-percent of the guys bought monthly copies of it. What most would say is that they had interesting articles and gave a fair amount of advice on men's fashion and stereo equipment. It was a different crowd of readers when compared to the Hustler folks.
My humble guess is that they finally interviewed some guys and discovered that almost no one said anything much about the centerfold ladies or the pictures in the magazine. These are the guys who wanted to just resemble a playboy himself and dress or act that way.
Oddly, by taking this route.....they might actually attract more attention and become some type of magazine that teenage guys would pick up and read.
Did the centerfold attraction ever attract anyone? I have my doubts. All of the gals who appeared in Playboy were the type that were beyond ninety-percent of the guys out there. They'd always list their hobbies as swimming, walks on the beach, star-gazing, and resort travel. You never had realistic women who noted their hobbies of building fishing lures, mowing lawns, demolition derby, flea market sales, or making homemade jam. If you asked most guys, they always thought the wordy talk in Playboy by each model was all fraudulent in nature.
What does this change really say? Maybe Playboy never needed the models or the centerfolds to sell their magazine. And that would be a real shocker.
It's hard to say who still reads Playboy. The last time I looked.....you could get a year's subscription for roughly twenty bucks.
Throughout my Air Force barracks period (78-84), probably five-percent of the guys bought monthly copies of it. What most would say is that they had interesting articles and gave a fair amount of advice on men's fashion and stereo equipment. It was a different crowd of readers when compared to the Hustler folks.
My humble guess is that they finally interviewed some guys and discovered that almost no one said anything much about the centerfold ladies or the pictures in the magazine. These are the guys who wanted to just resemble a playboy himself and dress or act that way.
Oddly, by taking this route.....they might actually attract more attention and become some type of magazine that teenage guys would pick up and read.
Did the centerfold attraction ever attract anyone? I have my doubts. All of the gals who appeared in Playboy were the type that were beyond ninety-percent of the guys out there. They'd always list their hobbies as swimming, walks on the beach, star-gazing, and resort travel. You never had realistic women who noted their hobbies of building fishing lures, mowing lawns, demolition derby, flea market sales, or making homemade jam. If you asked most guys, they always thought the wordy talk in Playboy by each model was all fraudulent in nature.
What does this change really say? Maybe Playboy never needed the models or the centerfolds to sell their magazine. And that would be a real shocker.
Sunday, 11 October 2015
Why US Businesses Can't Deal With Iran
Back around 2012....while the President still had some leverage with Congress (a Democratic Senate)....they pursued the Iran Threat Reduction and Syria Human Rights Act.
It's not something that people generally remember or read....but the significance of the congressionally passed act is that Iran can only removed from the State Department’s list of terror sponsors, if the President certifies they've permanently ceased the pursuit of weapons of mass destruction.
Oddly, in public....Iran has said that it just won't stop supporting terror operations and they won't really stop their effort to build nuclear weapons. You can't certify much without looking awful stupid.
Naturally, you'd stand there and ask.....how exactly does this President's recent treaty with Iran now work? The answer? It won't work.
If the President had done what was a true-treaty and the Senate voted upon it the normal way to approve it.....then no one would say much. But it was not developed as a treaty, and since they didn't approve it.....it's not a treaty.
How things move ahead?
Unless the House and Senate go and undo this law passed in 2012....it stands. No American business can do business with Iran because of the 2012 law. Now that the President has done everything to take down the US and EU-supported episode.....businesses could start up trade and make money off Iran. Well....all businesses other than US businesses.
I'm guessing that the French, the Germans, and the British all knew about the 2012 law and were grinning as the President hyped up his great treaty. They can walk in and sign business agreements and make billions. The US? If a single company signs a contract....any idiot could drag them into court....even a state court, and sue them for violation of the 2012 law.
Fixing this? Well....you could executive-action this by Presidential authority but Congress made the law and typically a President can't toss such a law out. He might pretend the law doesn't exist and order the Attorney General not to prosecute anyone, but that won't work in a civil court if someone chose to punish a company for violation of the 2012 law.
So in some ways....as much as the President and his team thought they were really on top of things.....they really screwed up badly. Other than getting Congress to dump the 2012 law....there's no way out. And that won't happen with this President, this House, and this Senate.
It's not something that people generally remember or read....but the significance of the congressionally passed act is that Iran can only removed from the State Department’s list of terror sponsors, if the President certifies they've permanently ceased the pursuit of weapons of mass destruction.
Oddly, in public....Iran has said that it just won't stop supporting terror operations and they won't really stop their effort to build nuclear weapons. You can't certify much without looking awful stupid.
Naturally, you'd stand there and ask.....how exactly does this President's recent treaty with Iran now work? The answer? It won't work.
If the President had done what was a true-treaty and the Senate voted upon it the normal way to approve it.....then no one would say much. But it was not developed as a treaty, and since they didn't approve it.....it's not a treaty.
How things move ahead?
Unless the House and Senate go and undo this law passed in 2012....it stands. No American business can do business with Iran because of the 2012 law. Now that the President has done everything to take down the US and EU-supported episode.....businesses could start up trade and make money off Iran. Well....all businesses other than US businesses.
I'm guessing that the French, the Germans, and the British all knew about the 2012 law and were grinning as the President hyped up his great treaty. They can walk in and sign business agreements and make billions. The US? If a single company signs a contract....any idiot could drag them into court....even a state court, and sue them for violation of the 2012 law.
Fixing this? Well....you could executive-action this by Presidential authority but Congress made the law and typically a President can't toss such a law out. He might pretend the law doesn't exist and order the Attorney General not to prosecute anyone, but that won't work in a civil court if someone chose to punish a company for violation of the 2012 law.
So in some ways....as much as the President and his team thought they were really on top of things.....they really screwed up badly. Other than getting Congress to dump the 2012 law....there's no way out. And that won't happen with this President, this House, and this Senate.
Saturday, 10 October 2015
The Bogus Nazi Story
After this community college shooting in Oregon.....I watched for the hundredth time.....another big mention over the Nazi effort for gun control and how they disarmed the general public in Germany. Frankly, I'm tired of the bogus story and how no historians ever stand up to correct the story. The pro-gun guys always like to slam down the anti-gun guys by linking the Nazis to controlling guns. It's all bogus.
At the closure of WW I.....defeat occurred and German troops in mass droves...packed and went home. They went by rail, by horse and wagon, or just walked home. There was no real thought to the soldier and his weapons. So, virtually all of the German army participants walked home with their guns.
As the defeat had transformed the nation into a very weak democratic structure (no Kaiser).....over the next two or three years, there's one continual worry or threat. Everyone views Russia and they now sit in Germany to worry about communist revolution coming to the fatherland. Naturally, all these troops sitting back in their hometown.....with guns....is a big issue.
So, there's one massive push to establish gun control in Germany in the early 1920s (a dozen years before Hitler and the Nazis).
Basically, while no numbers or real statistics exist.....the general belief by those who've reviewed the period....is that this first original effort to control guns in Germany was a failure.
Roughly six years go by and the same democratic structure....still unaffected by Hitler or the Nazis....come back for a second chance to try more gun control because there's still massive fear of a communist revolution. This episode might have been considered mildly effective at best.
So as 1932 rolls around and there's still this massive fear from the general public and the political apparatus of Germany.....the Nationalist Socialists are brought into power (37-percent of the vote, if you were curious.....meaning that almost 63-percent voted against the party).
The Nazis did enact one or two measures that are gun-control situations....mostly to require gunsmiths to keep records of repair and serial numbers of the guns inspected or fixed. They didn't have to do much because the Democratic apparatus had already put major measures into effect.
If you stood back and looked at matters.....Germans feared the most out of the communist revolution coming and how guns might play a role in a successful revolution. Americans might agree.....runs do add to the success rate of a revolution.....if in the hands of the 'good'. This might bring up a totally separate topic for discussion.....but it's the simple truth of the matter.
At the closure of WW I.....defeat occurred and German troops in mass droves...packed and went home. They went by rail, by horse and wagon, or just walked home. There was no real thought to the soldier and his weapons. So, virtually all of the German army participants walked home with their guns.
As the defeat had transformed the nation into a very weak democratic structure (no Kaiser).....over the next two or three years, there's one continual worry or threat. Everyone views Russia and they now sit in Germany to worry about communist revolution coming to the fatherland. Naturally, all these troops sitting back in their hometown.....with guns....is a big issue.
So, there's one massive push to establish gun control in Germany in the early 1920s (a dozen years before Hitler and the Nazis).
Basically, while no numbers or real statistics exist.....the general belief by those who've reviewed the period....is that this first original effort to control guns in Germany was a failure.
Roughly six years go by and the same democratic structure....still unaffected by Hitler or the Nazis....come back for a second chance to try more gun control because there's still massive fear of a communist revolution. This episode might have been considered mildly effective at best.
So as 1932 rolls around and there's still this massive fear from the general public and the political apparatus of Germany.....the Nationalist Socialists are brought into power (37-percent of the vote, if you were curious.....meaning that almost 63-percent voted against the party).
The Nazis did enact one or two measures that are gun-control situations....mostly to require gunsmiths to keep records of repair and serial numbers of the guns inspected or fixed. They didn't have to do much because the Democratic apparatus had already put major measures into effect.
If you stood back and looked at matters.....Germans feared the most out of the communist revolution coming and how guns might play a role in a successful revolution. Americans might agree.....runs do add to the success rate of a revolution.....if in the hands of the 'good'. This might bring up a totally separate topic for discussion.....but it's the simple truth of the matter.
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