My Stop-In-The-Middle-Of-Nowhere-Parking-Lot Story

 My German wife hyped up a vacation in Italy....at the Garda Sea (northern quarter of Italy)....where we would drive from central Germany down.  I agreed to this, and had a fine route drawn.  Everything ran according to plan (excepting turning 'left' in Milano).  (Another story I'll tell one day)

After seven days...it's time to return.  I suggested a alternate route.

This would avoid the tunnel-business, and we would literally drive OVER the Alps.  When I say over....it means elevation climbs of 3,000 to 5,000 feet up.

At some peak-point....after a massive climbing experience with the car....we hit the peak area....where the Italians have a gravel parking lot for folks to halt, and get a 'whiff' of fine air.  It's at this point....the last five minutes....I start to notice cows just wandering around....no fencing....just loose.

So we hit the gravel parking area....I stop, and the wife agrees...it's a fine time to exit the car....get pictures, and get a 'whiff' of real fresh air.

She opens the door, and steps out without looking, and I've managed to park the car (with her door)....on a fairly fresh cow-paddy.  Full-step in.

There was about ten minutes of German cursing, and naturally.....I was blamed for the parking location.

This one event....labeled the alternate route....a complete and utter failure.

But this was not the worst part of the trip....about 30 minutes later....I came to discover that the brakepads were finished, and brakes marginally worked for the remainder of the trip home.  Monday morning....came the mechanic's view....roughly $1,500 for a full-complete brake job. 

Whenever trips come up now....where driving is an element....the route there, and back....have to be laid out completely....with no crazy Alps alternate routes possible.  

WNBA: Earth-Shattering Landscape

 There's supposed to be a WNBA 'draft' to occur shortly.  In the past ten days....two former NBA 'guys' have come forward to say....they identify as 'women', and want to participate in the draft. Top-class players?  No....I'd rank both as retired or bottom 200 of NBA players.

So the deal?

All these years....the friendly LGBTQ-WNBA....had no rule about players.  If you asked owners or players....they could NOT explain what a woman was (even with the 'W' in the name).

So the males of the NBA just laughed over this....until this point.  

The league boss?  There's to be an emergency meeting this week....owners and player's association.  Somehow.....they have to define a woman....then spell out a rule that people who identify as a woman (but aren't)...can't play in the WNBA.

Yeah....from the LGTBQ crowd....the 'T' is to be deleted....at least when talking basketball.

Players hyped-up?  I get the impression that around 50-percent aren't happy making such a rule or identifying who can be a woman.

The idea that rule cannot be agreed upon (by the team owners)?  Well....then the draft would be open, and they'd probably just say they won't draft pretender-women...leading to a court episode.

To be honest, we are around 15 years away from having the RNBA....the robot-league, and all this BS won't matter. We will agree....robots play better basketball than the WNBA.

The Boundless 'Limit' of Incompetence

Over the past week....I've reached a level of thinking/pondering....where I see a unlimited amount of people who are simply dangerously incompetent.

I see it in sports, politics, publishing, news, academia, religion, banking, commerce, and medicine.

I'm not saying marginally or lightly incompetent....I'd saying full-blown incompetent....to the level that they are a threat to society.

I noted this week.....there are apparently some University of California professors....who've stood up and asked the college 'bosses'...to reinstate the SAT for admissions.  Reasoning?  They say new students arriving....are unable to do standard high school-level (11th/12th grade) work.

They were quiet on the level they see....but one gets the impression....kids were arriving and prepared (perhaps) for 9th grade level work.

Around 2012....a work-associate brought up his issue with the daughter....who'd been accepted to a highly noted Virginia college.  The college required two tests prior to approval....marginally failing both....math and English.  What the college said....with no alternate route....they'd take her but she'd have to go and register for a 12th grade level high school level math and English course (paying for them), and pass both before getting the second semester approved.  'Dad' in this case....was a bit peeved....it meaning around $1,500 spent for the two high school classes at the college.

In California's case....the school probably won't easily return SAT testing....but they probably will mandate a minimum of two high school classes (maybe even six to eight courses).....before they allow the kid into real college classes.  Yeah, you can figure a minimum of $3,000 wasted here....perhaps even up to $10,000.  The crazy thing?  You can probably figure near 50-percent of California kids....upon graduation.....measure up to the 7th/8th grade in Alabama or Tennessee.

But why stop there?  The incompetence level affects politics, entertainment, banking and finance.

AI being the savior?  I have started to ponder this reality....that by 2035....some AI-robot will be supervising a dozen California employees....who are mature-enough to handle 6th-grade level production/work.  At some point, the AI-robot will begin to ask....shouldn't we just replace humans entirely...because of the incompetence level?

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.