Finally! Some good news about a so-called "bad
food". That would be
coffee, the much maligned drink that so many Americans prefer but have
been told by the media is the cause of a variety of behavioral
disorders of sort, the "He's nervous
and jittery because he drinks too much coffee" routine. Green tea has
been the darling of reports for a number of years, but it has little
taste and appeal for me. I almost always have one cup of coffee
(chicory coffee is my favorite) each morning. It gives me a
psychological, if not physical boost and I doubt the small amount of
caffeine in a cup causes any problems.
The Annals of Internal Medicine has just published two new studies on
the effects of coffee, saying that drinking coffee could be connected
to a reduced risk of dying from a slew of disease including heart
disease and stroke. I sure hope they published a similar health effect
of my favorite coffee accompaniment, the donut. The health benefits
and limitations of coffee have been long studied, and this isn't the
first time we coffee drinkers have seen headlines claiming it may help
lead to a longer life. One of the two studies examined a little over
185,000 Americans, and found that whether people drank caffeinated or
decaffeinated, coffee was associated with a lower risk of death due to
heart disease, cancer, stroke, diabetes and kidney disease in
African Americans, Japanese Americans, Asians, Latinos and Caucasians.
The study indicated that those who reported that they drank two or
three cups of coffee a day had an 18% decrease chance of death compared
to those who did not drink coffee over the 16 year test period,
according to the study. Four cups a day is the maximum recommended
usage. After that amount short term negative effects can result. But
studies in the past show different people have different comfort levels
of amounts of coffee they can drink.
The second of the two studies was conducted in Europe. It surveyed
more than 520,000 people across 10 countries, and also found that those
who drank several cups of coffee a day had a lower risk of death than
those who did not drink coffee. Both studies separated smokers
from nonsmokers and other factors that could have played a part in the
results.
It's great news and I can add another cogent point to this study of
coffee. That is, try all you want but you can't dunk a donut in green
tea. Bring on the coffee and donuts!
Monday, July 17, 2017
Thursday, July 13, 2017
Living Virtually
Are people moving more and more away from reality and the
serious while living more and more in a new reality they create to
please themselves? I think it is so, and the reasons is our
communication technology. As one who doesn't use that technology much
at all, I am able to better notice the alternate universe that more
and more people create about the world and people in it. Black is
white, day is night and the sky is green to more and more of us. Don't
you dare tell them any of that is not true. Sadly, I think that those
of us who have run and hide in their phones and other devices find a
growing comfort zone there.
Why see things as they are if the upset, they reason. The prism where this can be seen most easily is in our political policies. The demonization of President Trump amazes me, with charges made against Trump that are so far from real that one must conclude there is a deluded anti Trump group that believes what they hear, copy and retell. There is plenty of real matters to criticize Trump, but many find solace in bizarre assertions about him instead. No matter that fact is absent in the critique, the idea is that comfort is found in creating and living in an alternative world to soothe the pain of the dislike (Trump). The right did somewhat the same to Barrack Obama, creating an image unsupported by reality but one which allow them to feel "relief" with the reality of his Presidency, even when, as with Trump there were many real reasons that could have been but were not used in criticims of him.
Besides politics our social relations are another way we can see humans are running from reality. Many people today do not want to relate to other humans on a face to face basis. The Tweet, chat, cell message and virtual world seem less threatening than personal relationships. So they wallow in those dark recesses instad. Maybe that's why so many employers report that their workers seem socially inept in even the simplest of human relations. But then, one who lives less in the real world and more in a world they instead create and control will lose social skills like communicating directly with others.
Hmmmm Are we becoming more robotlike and less thinking and feeling humans? Is communication technology taking over our minds and crushing our emotional range? Maybe we are moving toward replacing reality with virtual reality. If so, we lose more than we should want to give away.
Why see things as they are if the upset, they reason. The prism where this can be seen most easily is in our political policies. The demonization of President Trump amazes me, with charges made against Trump that are so far from real that one must conclude there is a deluded anti Trump group that believes what they hear, copy and retell. There is plenty of real matters to criticize Trump, but many find solace in bizarre assertions about him instead. No matter that fact is absent in the critique, the idea is that comfort is found in creating and living in an alternative world to soothe the pain of the dislike (Trump). The right did somewhat the same to Barrack Obama, creating an image unsupported by reality but one which allow them to feel "relief" with the reality of his Presidency, even when, as with Trump there were many real reasons that could have been but were not used in criticims of him.
Besides politics our social relations are another way we can see humans are running from reality. Many people today do not want to relate to other humans on a face to face basis. The Tweet, chat, cell message and virtual world seem less threatening than personal relationships. So they wallow in those dark recesses instad. Maybe that's why so many employers report that their workers seem socially inept in even the simplest of human relations. But then, one who lives less in the real world and more in a world they instead create and control will lose social skills like communicating directly with others.
Hmmmm Are we becoming more robotlike and less thinking and feeling humans? Is communication technology taking over our minds and crushing our emotional range? Maybe we are moving toward replacing reality with virtual reality. If so, we lose more than we should want to give away.
Tuesday, July 11, 2017
Fried Chicken Day
National Fried Chicken Day was held on July 6th. You say you
didn't
know that, that you were busy eating fried chicken that day? Well,
fried chicken may be the international food favorite. It's done many
ways with many seasonings and with many people claiming there fried
chicken favorite is the best. Fried chicken was an expensive delicacy
up until World War II, but thanks to mass production techniques that
made chicken the people's affordable meat, we're now able to indulge
ourselves on the cheap in almost any city in the world.
Fried chicken is the cook's favorite experimental food. I've seen Ramen covered fried chicken, fried chicken marinated in tea, fried chicken corn dogs, kosher fried chicken, coconut fried chicken, even chicken and waffle cupcakes. You can have them all. What I like is the simple flour battered, slat and pepper seasoned and fried in oil chicken. It makes me an extremist because today fried chicken is hard to define.
In Gainesville, Georgia, a woman was nearly arrested for trying to eat fried chicken with a fork. Apparently because of a very old law still on the books, it is only legal to eat fried chicken with your bare hands there. Any other method is illegal. I think I agree with the old law. People who eat fried chicken with a fork are the same ones who put ketchup in eggs. They should be shot. Oddly enough, that Georgia law is enforced from time to time. The law describes fried chicken as “a culinary delicacy sacred to this municipality, this county, this state, the Southland, and this republic.” Well, donuts are sacred, but chicken is almost that.
I once say in a grocery store that it was selling a canned vegetarian fried chicken. There should be law against that! Yuk! I can't write any more about noble fried chicken after remembering that. I wonder if KFC is still open....
Fried chicken is the cook's favorite experimental food. I've seen Ramen covered fried chicken, fried chicken marinated in tea, fried chicken corn dogs, kosher fried chicken, coconut fried chicken, even chicken and waffle cupcakes. You can have them all. What I like is the simple flour battered, slat and pepper seasoned and fried in oil chicken. It makes me an extremist because today fried chicken is hard to define.
In Gainesville, Georgia, a woman was nearly arrested for trying to eat fried chicken with a fork. Apparently because of a very old law still on the books, it is only legal to eat fried chicken with your bare hands there. Any other method is illegal. I think I agree with the old law. People who eat fried chicken with a fork are the same ones who put ketchup in eggs. They should be shot. Oddly enough, that Georgia law is enforced from time to time. The law describes fried chicken as “a culinary delicacy sacred to this municipality, this county, this state, the Southland, and this republic.” Well, donuts are sacred, but chicken is almost that.
I once say in a grocery store that it was selling a canned vegetarian fried chicken. There should be law against that! Yuk! I can't write any more about noble fried chicken after remembering that. I wonder if KFC is still open....
Thursday, July 6, 2017
Fireworks
Independence Day here is a fireworks shoot day for many.
Most people
who shoot fireworks are kids and normal people who like the the old
style way to celebrate. They shoot them with caution and have fun. But
then there are the mental midgets out there who make simple fireworks
weapons of destruction or death. I have a story of one such overzealous
fireworks bug who reeked havoc on July 4th. Mike Tingley a Michigan
homeowner attempted to use fireworks to remove a bees' nest from his
garage. Maybe he is turned in to ISIS videos too much.
After lighting fireworks shot into the sky from the burning garage and fire trucks raced in futility to save the garage from immolation. "The homeowner was doing something with a smoke bomb trying to get a bees nest out of the garage," said Grand Blanc Fire Chief, Bob Burdette. No one was injured and the fire was contained to the garage and a neighboring fence, sparing the home on the property but not the embarrassment that the homeowner can be destructively stupid. Said firebug Mike, "We really weren't going to celebrate the Fourth of July so much as we just have fun in our backyard, we like to have barbecues, we had a patio back there. It is depressing losing a place where we had a lot of fun, but everyone is safe and that's the main thing."
I think Mike won't have to worry about that bee nest anymore, but building a new garage will keep his mind off the subject. Maybe Hollywood can make a movie about this and Mike can pay for the new garage that way. Anyway, this reminds me of the danger of fireworks and about my many witnesses to it as a kid. Shooting fireworks was a common thing for kids when I was a little brat (as opposed to my big brat status today). From about age 8 onward we kids in my neighborhood shot them recklessly, unsupervised, and survived the ordeal. In that era kids were not so "protected" by adults. It was a better time for kids, I think.
I remember the night I set off a handful of bottle rockets in my left hand by inadvertently lighting them with the lit "punk' firecracker lighter held in in my right. I was burned quite badly, but ran inside rinsed my hand with cold water and never mentioned it to my parents. In fact after treating the burn, I returned to be with my friends and continued shooting my fireworks. Since we sometimes dared each other to hold the firecrackers until the last second before tossing them, I also had a few discharge in my hand, usually leaving a cut but no scar. I remember one kid in another neighborhood next to mine who lost two fingers when a cherry bomb exploded in his hand. Since we often fired bottle rockets at each other it was amazing no one lost and eye in that game.
Age makes one more inclined to regard shooting fireworks as an act of stupidity. Even fools like me believe that. Since fireworks are not as popular in this country anymore, often being illegal to discharge in many cities and towns, and since many kids live in an electronic world there seems to be fewer fireworks idiots like Mike the garage guy. We no longer have the tradition of kids immolating themselves with fireworks. It is a good thing. those spectacular fireworks shows have taken the place of much of the dangerous individual fireworks activity of the past.
The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission says that on average in the U.S during the month of July 250 people go a hospital emergency room every day with fireworks injuries. The hands, fingers, head, ears and face are the areas of the body most impacted. An estimated 12,000 Americans will seek medical treatment after being injured from fireworks this month. Hmm I think I'll just watch the shows from a distance.
After lighting fireworks shot into the sky from the burning garage and fire trucks raced in futility to save the garage from immolation. "The homeowner was doing something with a smoke bomb trying to get a bees nest out of the garage," said Grand Blanc Fire Chief, Bob Burdette. No one was injured and the fire was contained to the garage and a neighboring fence, sparing the home on the property but not the embarrassment that the homeowner can be destructively stupid. Said firebug Mike, "We really weren't going to celebrate the Fourth of July so much as we just have fun in our backyard, we like to have barbecues, we had a patio back there. It is depressing losing a place where we had a lot of fun, but everyone is safe and that's the main thing."
I think Mike won't have to worry about that bee nest anymore, but building a new garage will keep his mind off the subject. Maybe Hollywood can make a movie about this and Mike can pay for the new garage that way. Anyway, this reminds me of the danger of fireworks and about my many witnesses to it as a kid. Shooting fireworks was a common thing for kids when I was a little brat (as opposed to my big brat status today). From about age 8 onward we kids in my neighborhood shot them recklessly, unsupervised, and survived the ordeal. In that era kids were not so "protected" by adults. It was a better time for kids, I think.
I remember the night I set off a handful of bottle rockets in my left hand by inadvertently lighting them with the lit "punk' firecracker lighter held in in my right. I was burned quite badly, but ran inside rinsed my hand with cold water and never mentioned it to my parents. In fact after treating the burn, I returned to be with my friends and continued shooting my fireworks. Since we sometimes dared each other to hold the firecrackers until the last second before tossing them, I also had a few discharge in my hand, usually leaving a cut but no scar. I remember one kid in another neighborhood next to mine who lost two fingers when a cherry bomb exploded in his hand. Since we often fired bottle rockets at each other it was amazing no one lost and eye in that game.
Age makes one more inclined to regard shooting fireworks as an act of stupidity. Even fools like me believe that. Since fireworks are not as popular in this country anymore, often being illegal to discharge in many cities and towns, and since many kids live in an electronic world there seems to be fewer fireworks idiots like Mike the garage guy. We no longer have the tradition of kids immolating themselves with fireworks. It is a good thing. those spectacular fireworks shows have taken the place of much of the dangerous individual fireworks activity of the past.
The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission says that on average in the U.S during the month of July 250 people go a hospital emergency room every day with fireworks injuries. The hands, fingers, head, ears and face are the areas of the body most impacted. An estimated 12,000 Americans will seek medical treatment after being injured from fireworks this month. Hmm I think I'll just watch the shows from a distance.
Wednesday, July 5, 2017
July Is The Worst Month
July 4th was Independence Day in the United States.
Therefore I will write about July today. July is my
least favorite month. I endure July, tolerate it and feel my
head has been smacked by a heavyweight boxer when I meet with those
people who love the hot sticky days of the month. I am not alone
though. There is a term called the "July Effect" that describes how
there is an increase by 10 % in medical mistakes because so many
medical students begin their residence practice in July. In England
the July effect is called 'The Killing Season'. I wonder if there is
more to it than that. Nothing ever good happens in July.
My biggest gripe about July is the heat. Even here in temperate climate Portland July and August is often oppressively hot. I hate the heat. maybe I should lock myself in my house for the whole month. I would survive July and society would be safer and more sane at the same time. In my former home, New Orleans, July is so hot and oppressive that it is the off tourist season in one of the most popular tourist cities in the world. Local New Orleanians shut down and the city becomes a sort of boring mini Omaha, Nebraska or something. I that there is little to do in July there.
What I do in July is watch the calendar, smiling with each day crossed out, even elevating not so nice August to celebrity status. At least in August there is hope for the cool fronts that come in September. Those that like July say it is sun and vacation time. But July is also the month when it is most expensive to travel. And what mom in July doesn't pray for the end of summer to send her children back to prison (school)?
July is the worst month for jellyfish bites, lightning strikes, the worst month to buy or sell stock, when your mother in law visits (for the whole month), you have to celebrate Benito Mussolini's birthday, for blowing up oneself with fireworks while celebrating Independence Day (July 4th), supposedly yo act civilly with that cell phone because July is 'National Courtesy Cell phone Month'. Those are just a few reason to hate July. July also is the month for these "celebrations" : National Fry an Egg on the Sidewalk Day, Yellow Pig Day, National Flitch Day, Talk on an Elevator Day, World Hepatitis Day, Bioterrorism/Disaster Education & Awareness Month, National Horseradish Month, Hemochromatosis Screening Awareness Month, and National Wheelchair Beautification Month.
Are you excited about July? I think I''ll go take a nap now, hopefully lasting about a month.
My biggest gripe about July is the heat. Even here in temperate climate Portland July and August is often oppressively hot. I hate the heat. maybe I should lock myself in my house for the whole month. I would survive July and society would be safer and more sane at the same time. In my former home, New Orleans, July is so hot and oppressive that it is the off tourist season in one of the most popular tourist cities in the world. Local New Orleanians shut down and the city becomes a sort of boring mini Omaha, Nebraska or something. I that there is little to do in July there.
What I do in July is watch the calendar, smiling with each day crossed out, even elevating not so nice August to celebrity status. At least in August there is hope for the cool fronts that come in September. Those that like July say it is sun and vacation time. But July is also the month when it is most expensive to travel. And what mom in July doesn't pray for the end of summer to send her children back to prison (school)?
July is the worst month for jellyfish bites, lightning strikes, the worst month to buy or sell stock, when your mother in law visits (for the whole month), you have to celebrate Benito Mussolini's birthday, for blowing up oneself with fireworks while celebrating Independence Day (July 4th), supposedly yo act civilly with that cell phone because July is 'National Courtesy Cell phone Month'. Those are just a few reason to hate July. July also is the month for these "celebrations" : National Fry an Egg on the Sidewalk Day, Yellow Pig Day, National Flitch Day, Talk on an Elevator Day, World Hepatitis Day, Bioterrorism/Disaster Education & Awareness Month, National Horseradish Month, Hemochromatosis Screening Awareness Month, and National Wheelchair Beautification Month.
Are you excited about July? I think I''ll go take a nap now, hopefully lasting about a month.
Tuesday, July 4, 2017
World's Best Airlines
What's the world's best airline, according to World Airline
Awards,
which is published by Skytrax? It's certainly not any U.S. airlines.
They traded quality for cheap price and have achieved the lowest fares,
but at the expense of comfort. In these days only state financed, not
private, airlines can afford the garish extravagance demanded by fliers
who can afford the higher priced fares. And the winner and runner ups
are No. 2 Singapore Airlines and No. 3 All Nippon Airways (ANA), last
year's winner Emirate Air, with Cathay
Pacific rounded out the top five of the ratings. All are loss leader
airlines that are government owned with profit secondary to promoting
their country's tourism.
Qatar Air is terrorism affected by a U.S. ban on large carry-on electronics that was put into effect after the latest rash of terrorist murders. This puts it at a passenger experience disadvantage against competitors unaffected by the ban, but the government a can add more luxury perks on board to make up for some of the loss due to the ban. Still, Qatar and nearby Middle East nations are feuding over terrorism. This has forced Qatar Air to no longer offer flights to Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, among others. Also those other Mid East nations have closed off their air spaces to flights from Qatar.
Air Canada took the title for “Best Airline in North America.” That's great for a privately owned airline, but don't cheer for Canada. Overall, Air Canada finished 29th in the ratings. Delta was the top ranked U.S. carrier in the World Airline Awards, placing three spots behind Air Canada at 32nd overall. The Skytrax awards are one of several annual consumer rated rankings for air travel. Travel + Leisure magazine's ratings, perhaps even more valued by the airline industry released it's ratings late in the summer. Singapore Airlines was last year's world's top carrier in that list. Emirates was the runner-up in those ratings while Qatar Airways place third.
But the question that has to be asked is whether those winners are really the favorites. More people fly the low fare airlines than any other, and those who answered the surveys rating the world's best tend to be full fare, high fare fliers. That is a subjective question with now correct answer. Still, I am sure those of us who love the cheap fares and hate the lousy service on those airlines, would like to see improvement in the latter, even if it meat a modest fare increase.
Skytrax's annual airline passenger satisfaction survey produced 19.87 million eligible survey entries for this year's results. The survey period stretched from August 2016 through May 2017 and included participation from travelers of 105 nationalities. More than 325 airlines were included in the survey. So it was a survey that included many fliers. The top 25 of the Skytrax rankings were:
1. Qatar Airways
2. Singapore Airlines
3. All Nippon Airways
4. Emirates
5. Cathay Pacific
6. Eva Air
7. Lufthansa
8, Eitihad Airways
9. Hainan Airlines
10. Garuda Indonesia
11. Thai Airways
12. Turkish Airlines
13. Virgin Australia
14. Swiss International Air Lines
15. Qantas Airways
16. Japan Airlines (JAL)
17. Austrian Airlines
18. Air France
19. Air New Zealand
20. Asiana Airlines
21. Bangkok Airways
22. KLM
23. China Southern
24. Hong Kong Airlines
25. Finnair
Qatar Air is terrorism affected by a U.S. ban on large carry-on electronics that was put into effect after the latest rash of terrorist murders. This puts it at a passenger experience disadvantage against competitors unaffected by the ban, but the government a can add more luxury perks on board to make up for some of the loss due to the ban. Still, Qatar and nearby Middle East nations are feuding over terrorism. This has forced Qatar Air to no longer offer flights to Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, among others. Also those other Mid East nations have closed off their air spaces to flights from Qatar.
Air Canada took the title for “Best Airline in North America.” That's great for a privately owned airline, but don't cheer for Canada. Overall, Air Canada finished 29th in the ratings. Delta was the top ranked U.S. carrier in the World Airline Awards, placing three spots behind Air Canada at 32nd overall. The Skytrax awards are one of several annual consumer rated rankings for air travel. Travel + Leisure magazine's ratings, perhaps even more valued by the airline industry released it's ratings late in the summer. Singapore Airlines was last year's world's top carrier in that list. Emirates was the runner-up in those ratings while Qatar Airways place third.
But the question that has to be asked is whether those winners are really the favorites. More people fly the low fare airlines than any other, and those who answered the surveys rating the world's best tend to be full fare, high fare fliers. That is a subjective question with now correct answer. Still, I am sure those of us who love the cheap fares and hate the lousy service on those airlines, would like to see improvement in the latter, even if it meat a modest fare increase.
Skytrax's annual airline passenger satisfaction survey produced 19.87 million eligible survey entries for this year's results. The survey period stretched from August 2016 through May 2017 and included participation from travelers of 105 nationalities. More than 325 airlines were included in the survey. So it was a survey that included many fliers. The top 25 of the Skytrax rankings were:
1. Qatar Airways
2. Singapore Airlines
3. All Nippon Airways
4. Emirates
5. Cathay Pacific
6. Eva Air
7. Lufthansa
8, Eitihad Airways
9. Hainan Airlines
10. Garuda Indonesia
11. Thai Airways
12. Turkish Airlines
13. Virgin Australia
14. Swiss International Air Lines
15. Qantas Airways
16. Japan Airlines (JAL)
17. Austrian Airlines
18. Air France
19. Air New Zealand
20. Asiana Airlines
21. Bangkok Airways
22. KLM
23. China Southern
24. Hong Kong Airlines
25. Finnair
Saturday, July 1, 2017
He Loves The Uneducated
One funny moment from the most recent presidential election
was when,
in response to a poll of voters that showed Donald Trump was the
favorite of the least educated among them, Trump declared in a
campaign, "I love the uneducated.". Yes, who wouldn't if running for
office, because most Americans seem to fall in that category. They not
only know very little, they seem almost pleased to be that way. Their
world is an insulated one, usually centered around their cell phones
and TV shows. What's outside of that seems to matter little to them.
A problem with an uneducated voter is that he or she is unlikely to ever be educated about reality. You can't change their minds on an issue because they have the uneducated smugness that they already have found truth in their position. A politicians merely re enforces that voters ignorance and he will win the vote every time. Trump is a master of it, but all politicians love uneducated voters. Hillary Clinton, for example, won over quite a few with her "War on Women" narrative that told the uneducated that women are virtual slaves to males. And Obama, for example, pushed the uneducated narrative that police were hunting black citizens. Voters who are uneducated about an issue need to be told their lack of education is a blessing. Hence, Trump's "I love the uneducated" remark.
I suspect the uneducated voter is also the uneducated citizen, in general. The man or woman who pays no income taxes but swears he or she is overtaxed, the doomsday global warming advocate who hasn't the slightest idea about climate beyond what Leonardo Di Caprio says about it, the uneducated who declares that birth control is murder and on and on. We have such views today because the society rewards the fringe, even the uneducated fringe, by tolerating the ignorance rather than trying to change it with facts.
This is not just a phenomenon in the United States. The uneducated are loved just about everywhere. Western Europe, in particular, is a basket case of misinformation and misconception because of it. I suspect the triviality of culture today contributes ot the uneducated boom. Why know things, for instance, when one can live in a bubble on a cell phone? Society does not reward knowledge anymore as it used to. Our lives are so lived in insignificance that knowledge becomes secondary to amusement. Few read the classics anymore. Actually, few even red newspapers anymore. Better, they feel to get information form a social media post.
Maybe schools today should push aside all the technological educational aids and instead issue those old textbooks. Then it should require reading of them and discussion of content, followed by written analysis. Maybe calculators should be banned in schools for all but higher order math, in which they are supplements, not primary sources to solutions. Maybe schools should require proper usage of the language, the old "I deducted 5 points from your test score because you made an error in usage" standard.
Sigh....or maybe I am also one of the uneducated for even suggesting such a possibility today.
A problem with an uneducated voter is that he or she is unlikely to ever be educated about reality. You can't change their minds on an issue because they have the uneducated smugness that they already have found truth in their position. A politicians merely re enforces that voters ignorance and he will win the vote every time. Trump is a master of it, but all politicians love uneducated voters. Hillary Clinton, for example, won over quite a few with her "War on Women" narrative that told the uneducated that women are virtual slaves to males. And Obama, for example, pushed the uneducated narrative that police were hunting black citizens. Voters who are uneducated about an issue need to be told their lack of education is a blessing. Hence, Trump's "I love the uneducated" remark.
I suspect the uneducated voter is also the uneducated citizen, in general. The man or woman who pays no income taxes but swears he or she is overtaxed, the doomsday global warming advocate who hasn't the slightest idea about climate beyond what Leonardo Di Caprio says about it, the uneducated who declares that birth control is murder and on and on. We have such views today because the society rewards the fringe, even the uneducated fringe, by tolerating the ignorance rather than trying to change it with facts.
This is not just a phenomenon in the United States. The uneducated are loved just about everywhere. Western Europe, in particular, is a basket case of misinformation and misconception because of it. I suspect the triviality of culture today contributes ot the uneducated boom. Why know things, for instance, when one can live in a bubble on a cell phone? Society does not reward knowledge anymore as it used to. Our lives are so lived in insignificance that knowledge becomes secondary to amusement. Few read the classics anymore. Actually, few even red newspapers anymore. Better, they feel to get information form a social media post.
Maybe schools today should push aside all the technological educational aids and instead issue those old textbooks. Then it should require reading of them and discussion of content, followed by written analysis. Maybe calculators should be banned in schools for all but higher order math, in which they are supplements, not primary sources to solutions. Maybe schools should require proper usage of the language, the old "I deducted 5 points from your test score because you made an error in usage" standard.
Sigh....or maybe I am also one of the uneducated for even suggesting such a possibility today.
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