Caption Image: This is a photograph of the officers and crew on the deck of the Union steam gunboat USS Mendota during the War of Southern Independence. The image was taken on the James River in Virginia in 1864 or 1865. The ship was a Sassacus-class “double-ender” gunboat, built in Brooklyn, New York. It began service on the James River in May 1864, supporting the Union Army’s campaign against the Confederate defenses of Richmond. The photograph was taken by the famous Civil War photographer Mathew Brady. A 100-pounder Parrott rifled gun is visible, mounted on a pivot carriage on the foredeck. The image also shows anti-boarding netting and some of the men wearing white flat hats with the ship’s name on the hat ribbon.
Bullet Points:
** Call centers – how to lose a job in three hours. (ok, you need more)
** UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer has decided to pause or withdraw the parliamentary debate and ratification of a bill that would transfer sovereignty of the Chagos Islands from the UK to Mauritius! This reversal came just days after strong criticism from US President Donald Trump, who called the deal “an act of great stupidity” and a sign of weakness. Trump argued it could jeopardize the strategic US-UK military base on Diego Garcia, the largest island in the chain.
** Sound observation from EdB – more is better.
** The Governor of New York is in full-blown panic mode as Pinnacle Group, one of the state’s largest real estate firms, files for bankruptcy. This shocking move has sent shockwaves through New York’s housing market, leaving thousands of tenants and employees in uncertainty. What led to this massive collapse, and how will it affect the state’s already fragile economy? The fallout from this could be disastrous for New York’s future! With New York City under communist control, I doubt that President Trump will be in any hurry to help.
** President Trump’s Board of Peace has a $1 billion buy-in. Does this mean that it will replace the United Nations? They’ll oversee the reconstruction of Gaza. After that, they’ll mediate peace deals elsewhere.
** Ward of the state? A comparison. Employment – continued
** China’s population is shrinking and aging fast—a shift that could reshape its military future. If China manages to overcome these demographic obstacles and achieve its modernization goals, it will gain confidence. “A People’s Liberation Army that is more confident and more willing to assert itself could become a much bigger problem for the United States.”
** Training video from the NYPD.
** Incumbent Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani has agreed to step aside to allow former Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki to take office.
** In the UK – Health Minister. Did she suffer a bee sting?
** Alberta Independence – Is a new country about to be born? If Alberta becomes independent, the Canadian Dollar will plummet. They will want the US dollar as Alberta’s currency. Many countries use the US Dollar (USD) officially or unofficially, with official users including Ecuador, El Salvador, Panama, and Pacific island nations like the Marshall Islands, Micronesia, and Palau. The Bank of China has its own problems. I doubt that it will move to prop up the Canadian Dollar. Besides, the crashing Canadian will help the Chinese to buy up what’s left of Canada for a percentage of what it’s worth now, with Alberta no longer propping things up. What about the 2035 gas vehicle ban?
** Inbreeding. — Commentary
** A woke labor and delivery nurse threatens the White House Press Secretary (who is pregnant) online. Watch the video. (Dana) What would happen if Big Mike Obama’s urologist threatened him?
** Elvira – which Elvira? This one.
** Kamala Harris has been in the news discussing a potential second run for the presidency. One of her supporters composed a song from her youth that may be the campaign’s centerpiece (warning graphic).
** One can always hope, but the conclusions here are probably wishful thinking at this point, and the Graham-Trump Bill has not passed through Congress nor been signed by the President yet. Even if it does get through, Russia and Russians are far more resilient and inured to suffering than most people think. Nonetheless, the screws need to be put to those who have supported Putin. Who knows; the people revolted, the Russian Army revolted in 1917, and led a revolution that dismantled the Imperial Russian superstructure, so nothing is impossible. Just don’t hold your breath waiting for it to happen.
(Reuters) The most significant development of 2026 isn’t a new missile system; it’s a tariff. The Graham-Trump Bill, greenlit by the White House on January 7, has fundamentally rewritten the rules of economic warfare. By threatening a mandatory 500% tariff on any country—including China and India—that continues to purchase Russian petroleum or uranium, the U.S. has finally weaponized the one thing Russia’s allies value more than cheap crude: access to the American consumer.
The Zoomie without Railgun Mounts
It’s the ship of dreams for beltway bandits.
STEM
(Julia Kaufman is a senior policy researcher and directs the Education & Employment Program at RAND)
When the International Genetically Engineered Machine (iGEM) competition recently announced its high school winners in Paris, the grand prize went to a Chinese team from Shenzhen. Six of the nine runners-up were also from China. Only one American school—Lambert High in suburban Atlanta—made it into the top 10.
Dominating academic performances by Chinese students has become routine news. In addition to winning science contests like iGEM, they also outscore everyone on international standardized tests like PISA. This often leads to American hand-wringing about how China is leaving American students in the dust, with implications for competitiveness in STEM fields and the global economy.
The reality is more complicated.
China’s Educational Pipeline vs. America’s ‘Islands of Excellence’
China has a highly selective, intensely pressurized educational pipeline that develops a narrow slice of students to an extremely high level. The United States, by contrast, has “islands of excellence” like Lambert that sit atop an educational system that doesn’t always set up students for success in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics—especially in elementary school.
I observed the structure and pressure of China’s system during my dissertation research in Shanghai middle schools. Administrators would not even allow me to speak with eighth graders, explaining that they were far too busy preparing for high-stakes high school entrance exams to be interrupted by a researcher.
Another winnowing happens at the university level. Those who rise to the top are extraordinarily well prepared, but they represent a small, highly filtered slice of China’s youth.
For example, the team that won the iGEM grand prize, GreatBay-SCIE, is drawn from Shenzhen College of International Education, an elite, highly selective international high school that further tracks students into demanding STEM programs. Many Chinese iGEM teams come from similar schools.
Despite all the emphasis on STEM over the past decade or more, the uncomfortable truth is that U.S. schools are not designed to produce excellence at scale.
Likewise, when China has participated in PISA, it does not participate as a whole country. Only students from its most advantaged provinces—Beijing, Shanghai, Jiangsu, and Zhejiang—are tested. These are wealthy, urban school systems that are fiercely competitive. They are not representative of the nation’s whole 200-plus million student body.
But if China’s results are not the whole story, neither are America’s excuses. Despite all the emphasis on STEM over the past decade or more, the uncomfortable truth is that U.S. schools are not designed to produce such excellence at scale.
What My Research of American Schools Found
Look at elementary school instruction in math and science, where long-term trajectories for STEM education are set. In a typical American classroom, one person is expected to teach every subject—reading, writing, math, social studies, science, often art and health as well. That teacher may prepare five or six lessons a day, leaving little time to study any one subject deeply.
Our RAND teacher survey indicates that only 1 in 10 elementary mathematics teachers is certified in math. Instead, most hold a multi-subject teaching credential, and some states don’t require a math- or science-specific test to earn it.
Less than five percent of elementary school science teachers have a STEM undergraduate degree, according to national surveys (PDF) in 2012 and 2018.
Chinese teachers, by contrast, have specialized at the elementary level for decades, as Liping Ma observed in her canonical book on the subject. A math teacher teaches math, moving from class to class. Another teacher handles the Chinese language. Another, English. This lets teachers invest all their planning time in subject-specific lessons. Math teachers can analyze student errors and work with colleagues to improve their instruction techniques. They don’t divide their attention among five subjects.
My U.S. research also underscores what a difference this makes. I studied at three schools as their district was adopting a challenging new math curriculum. In two schools, most classes were self-contained, so one teacher handled all subjects. In the other school, most teachers specialized: They either taught math and science or literature and social studies.
I could see the difference. Teachers at the latter school regularly discussed mathematics instruction with one another. They had time and headspace to understand the material, anticipate where their students would struggle, and refine how they would explain it. Their peers who had to teach every subject simply didn’t have the time to do that work.
If federal and state leaders are serious about competing with countries like China in STEM, they should start by rethinking how mathematics and science are taught, especially at the elementary level. Federal policy cannot dictate local staffing decisions, of course. But it can create incentives that would advance math education on three fronts:
- First, create math and science departments in upper elementary grades. When students are taught by true math specialists, they lay the foundation for STEM excellence.
- Second, require that those who teach math beyond the earliest grades complete substantial, focused coursework in mathematics and its pedagogy—not just generic education requirements.
- And third, build school schedules so that math teachers can work together on lessons, analyze student work, and deepen their own understanding.
If federal and state leaders are serious about competing with countries like China in STEM, they should start by rethinking how math and science are taught, especially at the elementary level.
These ideas will not turn every American school into an iGEM powerhouse like Lambert High School, which had advantages. Its lab, “funded by Forsyth County, Georgia, taxpayers, as well as corporate donors, is college-level. And the school is in one of Georgia’s most affluent, high-achieving school districts,” according to “60 Minutes.”
Nor do we want to replicate China’s narrowly selective schooling system.
But in a world where the role of technology is growing in every occupation, and we are striving to be leaders in STEM innovation, the United States needs to stop relying on accidents of geography and heroic individual teachers.
There are two kinds of people. Trained and untrained.
Peace through superior firepower.
Another Chinese Acquisition
Nathan’s Famous, the Coney Island institution known for its hot dogs, has been sold to meat packaging company Smithfield Foods for $450 million, the company announced Wednesday. Smithfield Foods is owned by China’s WH Group, a major meat processing company that acquired Smithfield in a $4.7 billion deal back in 2013, making it the largest Chinese purchase of a U.S. company at the time.
It’s another company you should consider boycotting.
Smithfield stresses that it has American stooges/puppets running its US operations. Isn’t that special?
8 Years Ago today, at the White Wolf Mine
The hovel is assembled
FBI
The FBI was a weapon against political opponents under Obama and Biden, but since they were righteously seeking to prevent the election of, then dethrone, and then prevent the re-election of the Orange Menace, they don’t consider that unethical or misconduct. But heaven forbid we point that out now. Good riddance to anyone who knowingly participated in that sham.
(NY Times – article link above) When he returned to office last year, President Trump called the F.B.I. a “corrupt” agency in need of overhaul. He had by then been the subject of three F.B.I. investigations: Agents examined his 2016 campaign’s alleged ties to Russia, his retention of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago after leaving office, and his attempts to overturn the 2020 election. Though all three inquiries took place in part or entirely under Christopher Wray, the F.B.I. director Trump appointed, he repeatedly accused the bureau of mounting a partisan attack against him. (VM comment – which they did)
To replace Wray, Trump chose Kash Patel, a former public defender and intelligence official who had never worked for the F.B.I. and had spun conspiracy theories about the bureau. Since Patel’s confirmation last February, the F.B.I. has undergone a transformation that has upended its nonpartisan rules and norms, deeply rattling many of its 38,000 employees.
***
Identify the Aircraft
1
Name the pilot
Identify the Spacecraft
2
3
A model on display in the Frankfurt, Germany Airport
Name the Cosmonaut
End
1 is Viktor Ivanovich Belenko who landed Mig 25 in Japan.
Outstanding RCC!
Here is an interview with Belenko.
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https://web.archive.org/web/20010111004300/http://fullcontext.org/people/belenko.htm
I read the book he wrote, “MiG Pilot”, and it was quite interesting. Had some good technical stuff, and he gave a very frank discussion on the performance and flight characteristics.
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It wasn’t a very good airplane…..imagine that!
Contrary to what the net says, there was a video of the landing at Hakodate airport. It was filmed by a Japanese TV cameraman, because I remember seeing it in Misawa the next day. Yes, we ‘got’ the airplane, took it apart, then put it back together and gave it back. Where that video is today? Who knows???
I saw it when I worked for Hughes. Yes, it exists.
2 is Mercury Capsule probably John Glenn’s
3 is Soviet Vostok 1 – pilot Yuri Gagarin
Call center – took a job that temporarily paid less than the job I was leaving, so I got a temp part-time job to make up the difference; working at an inbound call center handling late night TV ads. Friday and Saturday nights usually had young men, typically college students, who were drinking with their buddies. They liked to call in and try to mess with whoever handled their call. It was mandated that you make three tries to confirm an order, after which you could end the call. One time(probably out of boredom), after the third attempt I told the caller that he was half right. When he asked about what, I replied that his manner of speaking showed he considered himself to be a real wit. I then said ‘Good Night’ and ended the call. Managers didn’t call me to the office for that, so I guess it was okay.
I think that there is art to fielding problems that others encounter. Grace, humor and tolerance toward finding a solution is a rare gift. Rather than rewarding that, many companies outsource to other nations where people may “Spreek Engrish” but lack the cultural nuances and actual English skills to do that job.
At a different job a coworker managed to incur the wrath of one individual who COULD walk and chew gum at the same time…as long as he concentrated real hard. As things got more heated up said individual yelled ‘You SOB’. Coworker then said ‘That may be, but I bet your mother barks louder than mine.’ Mr. Mad gets a puzzled look on his face and asked what that meant. His buddies were too busy laughing to explain it. With all the laughter things cooled down without incident. That line still makes me chuckle when I think of it.
Eastern Oregon had 2 call centers. They are providing ” tech support” for equipment / software purchased. Meeting some of operators personally, the minimum wage or barely above staff, were nationality diverse and relocating there for the job. The locals I met were “challenged” and didn’t hold the job long.
One day MrsPaulM says when hanging up with customer service, “Just spoke with ‘My name Peggy’…told her I’ll call back for someone who speaks English.”
‘My name Peggy’ has been our inside joke for two decades.
“It’s only inbreeding if it doesn’t work, otherwise it’s called line breeding.” Walt Smith.
My genetics instructor when I was in cow college in the early 80’s. That seems like a long time ago! In the Somali community it appears to not be working.
Identify the Aircraft:
1. MiG-25 Foxbat flown by Viktor Belenko to Japan in 1976.
Identify the Spacecraft:
2. Mercury
3. Vostok 1 flown by Yuri Gagarin in 1961.
Exactly
I read somewhere that they recovered Grissom’s capsule from the bottom – a few years ago? Liberty Bell 7. Maybe they just located and photographed it.
Speaking of discoveries, are there still shipwreck/ treasures to be found?
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The jetty is being rebuilt for the port of Astoria OR. Looking into the history, multitudes of ships didn’t make it over the bar back in the day.
There are some treasures out there that are somewhat known. The question is whether it’s worth the cost of recovery and “who owns them” when you find them? Invoking salvage rights doesn’t seem to apply as far as the tin pot nations where they rest.
Yes, they recovered the Liberty 7. And analysis afterwards, thanks to the capsule being so deep, showed that Grissom did absolutely nothing wrong and there were major issues with the capsule door, which, of course, NASA knew all along as they did some fast redesigning to the following Mercury capsules after Grissom’s launch. But NASA still, even knowing the truth, refused to shut down speculation that Grissom, the consummate pilot and engineer and had expressed some issues with Mercury (though a lot less than those he raised about Apollo.)
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That bullscat in “The Right Stuff” pissed my father off to no end. Dad actually knew all three Apollo 1 astronauts, along with lots of others from Gemini onward.
They brought it up.
1 – Viktor Belenko
2 – Mercury-Redstone 1A
3 – Soviet Vostok & Yuri Gagarin
Well Done!!
American elementary Ed.; A former employee took 3 yrs to complete A.A. degree but went on to complete teacher certification and is still loving on kids. Another example of the less than 5 % STEM and one out of ten educators out there. Great heart and sincere worker. I cannot redact the skin color being a factor in the successful career path.
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iGEM and CRISPR research; I’ve had friends with Lyme’s and treated poorly. Met others that were not treated early on and were suffering long term effects of the tick bite. Great to hear of the model STEM charter or otherwise formed ed for the teens that can follow a track early on. So many followed the grant$ with just general ed. and ending up with arts degrees and / or a MRS or a burger flipping position. Can the same be done with the 4 R’s covered but an emphasis on trades, where on their 18th B-day to alleviate the famine for welders and electricians? The 4th being Rucksack or any kind of applicable P.E.
I really enjoy the “Identify the aircraft” segment of your blog. The pictures of the Mig 25 shows one plane will a single tail while the other picture shows a plane with a double tail. Were there 2 versions of the Mig 25?
x2 I hope dialog beyond i.d. is acceptable. I look up specs and history ect. Another recent Russkie pilot flew a Mi-8 into Ukraine in 2023. Sad story in the end, imho.
New Gaza; The graphic of the 15 minute city, if successful, is being announced as a model to follow. With the pinnacle’s collapsing is there a possible future for the Big Apple? Any explanations for the slow progress to fill all the tunnels and get past the demo stage and be rebuilding?
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With the NYPD allowing a CHAZ style self governing body for a mostly peaceful religious culture of .8 million; A body wouldn’t wanna be riding a train on those tracks! What a contrast to the buggy’s I passed going down the road in rural Ohio back in 99′.
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One can only imagine that the demo party would run a mathematics magician to make the other candidates look sane. 2020 started with actors at that party. Would Bloomberg defer his campaign funds on a dark HOrse?
I know that this is a perspective dated to the 1980s, but when I was in grad school and teaching signal processing lab courses (mainly programming of algorithms), we had several foreign students from China and elsewhere who could do the math like wizards, but had a really difficult time with putting the math into a program that performed the proper algorithms. I am certain that it’s different now, but it was a great puzzle to me at the time.
The Zoomie without Railgun Mounts reminds me of CSS Virginia steam-powered ironclad warship built by the Confederate States Navy during the first year of the American Civil War.
-STA Lethal
👍
At least the Zoomie has decent engines. The USS Merrimac was known for her troubled engines, which, of course, why she was at the dock when the Confederates captured her. Though at least the Union crew managed to set fire to her and burn her down to the waterline, whereupon the remaining hull sank and then was recovered by the Confederates.
Zoomie: Looks like this was done by the same committee that designed Obama’s Library. But what do I know…maybe, as PDJT says, it’s 100x more lethal, and maybe that’s all that matters. Me? Yes, form follows function…but designers can do better to showcase American superiority. Then again, you did point out STEM is lacking because schools have gone off the rails since the 70’s, focusing on boys in girls bathrooms instead of proper academics to advance society.
***
The Pinnacle Group: This is rich: “What led to this massive collapse, and how will it affect the state’s already fragile economy?” Gee, I dunno, maybe it has to do with Democrats and Socialists peeing in their own nest until those actually making the economy in those cities and states decide the stink is too much. Those ruining these places will appear clueless to cause and effect of their destructive actions, then repeat the quoted test.
***
Nice capstan in the opening picture, those are quite the piece of cast machinery…and when aesthetic was as much part of function (Zoomie could take a hint).
***
WWW, 8 years ago: Did you ever think you’d get under roof at that beginning stage? (as I prep to pour half a dozen piers in crisp Wintry weather).
I like your ideas about reforming American primary school education. We need to make the American student more interested in STEM, not just better test-takers. I earned a PhD in biophysics somewhat later in life and had some very interesting observations about fellow graduate students and later my own students. The Chinese kids were all spectacular test takers. But they had clearly been taught to be obedient. When I got them in the lab, they would freeze and look at me, dumbstruck. I would tour them through the lab and then tell them to go invent something, try something, mess around. If you wanted a student who would do exactly as instructed, these were your kids. But since graduate students come up with almost all of the novel ideas in any lab, the occidental student always took the day.
There are places (I can cite them if anyone cares), meaning schools and school districts in the US, that are doing it right. Two of my daughters teach junior high in districts that are not, and much of that has to do with the distractions and needs that foreign (illegal alien) and non-English speaking children create in many places. There are also not enough STEM-qualified teachers. Even qualified teachers are not necessarily good teachers. I reflect back on my own experiences with qualified PhDs who were worthless instructors. Tenure may be the friend of the teacher but it’s rarely the friend of the student.
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Don’t beat me up on the tenure thing. As with labor unions, it’s a two-edged sword.
One day my kid came home with a math assignment concerning linear equations.
I looked at the presentation in the textbook and convinced myself that it was out of sequence.
When I took the second lesson and showed it to him he understood it and then when I took him back to the first lesson it all made sense to him.
A few years later a guy brought his kids homework assignment to me to help him explain it to his kid and it was the same stupid issue. I explained it to his dad the way I did to my son and then the dad explained it to his son. They both got it almost immediately.
When my oldest son was in middle school the math class, near the end of the school year, touched on summation calculus. The teaching at school didn’t quite give the picture, so I explained to him how to handle and solve the equations in the assignment. He came back the next day saying he was the only one to answer all the questions correctly. On the other hand, I can’t see trying to teach a room full of less-than-motivated students. Not sure I’d have the stamina and patience to tackle that.
It seems that the problem is in the textbook and the teacher following that textbook, ignorant of the subject matter.
The second-easiest degree program at any college is an Education Degree. Not putting down on the (few) good teachers who have the degree yet are able to actually teach. Most can’t and/or won’t teach.
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The easiest to get degree is always social work.
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Jock programs are actually harder to pass as they have actual objective measures to meet (like, carry the ball, throw the ball, run, stop…)
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Florida passed a law saying that 4 years in the military (and meeting minimum rank) qualifies one for K-12 education. I totally agree. If you can teach some of the recruits anything, then you are a better teacher than most teachers.
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Want to break the stupidity of the education system? Break the power of the teachers’ unions. And destroy and salt the earth of the Department of Education, of course.
I wouldn’t last two days as a social worker or working at a call center. I lack the patience required and the bleeding heart.
Best part about Alberta secession is I will legally be allowed to pack as I cross the border from Idaho. From time to time Albertan Canucks visit our area and they all express the desire to separate from the Ottawa sink hole. When those Frenchies visit our area the smug bastards refuse to speak English.
I have occasionally encountered that. I speak real French to belittle their Québécois (Canadian French). In France, they are openly mocked. I’ve traveled to France with RCMP guys (to Interpol in Lyon), and they try out their French to the locals’ derision. Once you reply in French to the Québécois, they switch to English. It’s predictable.
My dad, being Cajun, was going to F-84 training and there were a bunch of Frog Air Force pilots also learning the F-84 at the time. Dad made the mistake of speaking his 16-17th Century French (Cajun French) to said Frog Force members and the snub was so bad that dad’s co-American pilots basically shunned the Frogs for the rest of their time on-base.
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The insufferable Quebecois are some of the most entitled pieces of carp you’d ever meet. So bad even Parisian French think they’re entitled asshats.
The French are interesting. I get along with them. I get along with almost everyone, but they’re okay once you get to know them and they know you.
Education is all in how it’s actually taught. Trigonometry, for example. All this side opposite/side adjacent business was only so much B.S. to me until a teacher took the time to explain what it could be used for. BINGO! Right then it all fell into place. I should also mention that said instructor only provided the practical explanation of his theoretical mumbo-jumbo when goaded into it by a Navy veteran who wondered out loud, one of those utterances not meant to be overheard but just so happened to occur during a moment of silence, “what the hell good is it”. He had been a deck ape in a former life, whatever those are. Anyway. Said instructor clearly thought a response was beneath him but provided it anyway. Thanks, asshole, but unfortunately whilst I learned something about trig that day, you didn’t learn a damn thing about how to teach it.
Elvira. More mau-mau.
—
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JN94_h7RWZI
Call centers. Never worked in one. Back in the days before iphones and spam filters, if an offer was POLITELY offered, I would politely decline. Anything beyond that, game on.
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Them (spreeking Engrish): “Herro, we have detected a probrem with your Windows 7 computer”.
Me: “Windows? Our new windows are ready? That’s great!”.
Them: “Yes sir, your Windows 7 computer”.
Me: “WHAT? SEVEN window? Bull—t! We ordered 12 windows! Don’t tell me you morons effed up the order again!”
Aaaand, we’re off. Actually got one of them to cuss me out once, In Engrish.
hahaha
Border Patrol Agent smoked a rioter in Minneapolis. Dead dude had no ID, and he had what looks like an expensive handgun with extra mags.
Mayor Frey, “how many more Americans need to die or get injured?” None. Stay out of the way. Illegal wanted for violent assault was the DHS assignment. Don’t approach them with a firearm, while justice is being served and no ” constituents” will be harmed. Even legal, no prior’s, CCL, IF they are not obstructing operations will not suffer injury Mr Mayor, if they also don’t violently resist arrest.
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If the goody 2 s hoes would not have parked in the road, not have put it in gear while mouthing off, but got out as told, anyone would have any more to say about it?
FAFO – track the handgun’s pedigree.
LL, if the grape vine ever speaks of how the pistol was acquired and who the owners were, please let us know.
In bound call “quality control” was a feature at a lot I briefly worked at. Incoming sales calls were to be handled per a rigid script. The call that I took one day immediately tripped my bulls**t detector so, time to amuse myself. The next sales meeting the GM gleefully played it for the group saying, it was the worst sales call he had ever heard. My response, that it was on par with the selection of used cars he bought at auction, accelerated my relocation to Down the Road Motors.
—————-
Wishing all the best to Alberta residents in their quest for freedom. Grim days ahead for the Canadian communists when they don’t have other people’s money to spend.
Training indeed.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friedrich_Wilhelm_von_Steuben
I note the researcher failed to apply skepticism to being told “You may not communicate with the subjects of your research; you must trust us that they are the creme de la creme at everything.”Thus, she was unable to discern any flaws in the propaganda… and also failed to note that in her report. I wonder how much grant money and fear of losing access was riding on that decision?
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Too much time with Chinese students has taught me that they are, en masse, masters at rote memorization, and abysmal failures at critical thinking. If you give them a checklist, they will spend stupid amounts of mental energy trying to cheat their way around the steps, but never stop to ask themselves why the system was set up the way it was in the first place… or what the steps in the process were *supposed* to accomplish.
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I though American students hated scenario problems (and they do, because their reading comprehension on anything longer than a bumper sticker *sucks*, and whole-word learning has destroyed their ability to break down and analyze unfamiliar words) – but they’re nothing compared to the desperation of the Chinese students, who want to find three keywords to identify this problem and memorize the answer, because it takes critical thinking to come up with the most-right answer. The only way you can yank their tail harder is to hand them “when to override the captain’s judgement call in the cockpit” questions.
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You get brilliant ones, but the more I work with the ones who didn’t make it to the tip of the peak, the more I figure they’re succeeding *despite* the system, not because of it. You know, just like here, only different damage.
I had to work with T-Mobile tech support last Summer. I was very impressed. I was passed from department to department when people realized that they had hit the ceiling of their level of competence. It was all resolved within an hour.
There was a follow-up call the next day just to make sure it still worked.
It’s one of the reasons I really love USAA insurance. Their call centers are staffed by Americans, usually southern ladies, and there’s nothing more comforting to hear, in a southern drawl, after a bad accident or issues with the house, “Aw, honey, that’s pretty bad, but we’ll get you fixed up right away (followed by a whole string of what they’re going to do right now and then over the next couple days…)” It’s the verbal equivalent of when you, as a kid, were feeling unwell and your mom served cream of tomato soup and wrapped you up in blankets in the sick room (and I just told everyone how old I am, as ‘sick rooms’ seem to have gone away in these modern times.)
I’ve been a USAA member for about 45 years. I have never regretted it.
During the Deepwater Horizon spill, I was working in and out of China. The Chinese have a large number of off shore rigs and the Chinese news reported that government inspectors were using the checklists shown in the US news to inspect the Chinese rigs. Some of the off shore managers were jailed and others were relieved of duty. The news didn’t say what really happened to those who were relieved.
My wife likes to teach. She has two Master’s degrees, physics and mathematics, and a PhD in physics. She wanted to teach high school kids math and physics but the union wouldn’t allow it – she’s not qualified. So she teaches at a university – one of those classes being remedial mathematics for high school graduates that couldn’t pass the college math prep exam. (Makes more money and doesn’t have to deal with the union either: win, win)
Funny, one can have handfuls of upper-level degrees but one can’t teach K-12 unless one gets a degree in education or a teaching certificate.
Systems broke, and been broke for at least as long as Carter was president. Florida, in the late 70s, passed a law requiring K-12 teachers to take proficiency tests that they had to pass to teach at what grade-level they were teaching. Makes sense, right? The teachers’ unions got it shut down (had nothing to do with about 40% of the teachers not passing proficiency tests, nope…)
Chagos. That cheap trick leftist house of cards fell apart right quick.