Fringe*

I have been spending quite a bit of time (queue the laughter) online.  I have always done searches and so forth. Right now, I am playing games (notably “Fallout 76”) and watching Amazon Prime’s 5 seasons of “Fringe”.  Now, Fringe is a good show.  In my opinion, very good.  It is rated something like “M” for TV, it was a cable TV show (don’t remember which one) from early 2000-2012.

Basically, a division of the FBI is created.  It is called the “Fringe” division and handles the weird stuff (like “X-files”).  The 4 main members of the team are:

1. Olivia – Blonde, FBI agent, very committed and determined.  Mostly, practical.
2. Peter Bishop – Young genius, around Olivia’s age, pragmatic and practical, similar.
3. Walter Bishop – Peter’s estranged father, an old genius, responsible for many inventions, loves drugs and “fringe” events.
4.  Astid Farnsworth – youngest on team, FBI intern, helps Walter, puts up with a lot.

It is a romance-adventure-drama-suspense show.  The violence is somewhat less than “The Living Dead” (TLD) and has a lot more humor and human interaction.

It is far-fetched at points and there are spots of “yeah, right”, but all-in-all, a good show that has kept me watching through 3 seasons now.

*No animals were harmed in the making of this summary.

Namaste,

Scott

Alien Life – What Might It be Like?

This is a great video (1.5-2hrs) from Youtube.  I showed this to one of my classes (several, actually) and showed it again the next year because it was so much fun to watch.  I invite you to join me and watch this combination of science and speculative fiction as we travel to an alien world and learn about it.

Namaste,

Scott

Oh Mario, Mario – Where for Art Thou?

Romeo? No, Sweetie, tis Mario!

I get email from Diggs.  Usually, it is a few articles they believe I would enjoy reading.  Also usually, I don’t.  However, this morning I was given a chance to read about the Mario Brothers movie that came out in 1993.  The article below is long, but excellent.  You may read it if you wish or skip on to the blog article which only partially about the movie.

http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/9123782/the-strange-case-super-mario-bros-movie

What I became most intrigued with from the article was the idea that all of these movie people wanted to make a movie about an 11 year-old’s game, yet none of them had the sense to try and find out if an 11 year-old would even like it.  They poured 50 million dollars into a movie that, not only had so many problems that is nearly didn’t get made, only made about 31 million dollars when it came out.  That’s a $19,000,000 deficit.  Granted, it’s not the 16 trillion dollars the US now owes (or more), but it’s a sizable amount for a movie to lose.

I don’t think this would have gotten my attention so much if it weren’t for a video that Alienhippy posted yesterday.  The video from this post  is here:

Now, perhaps, you can see where I am headed with this?  No?  Okay.

This is college; perhaps, other lower grades should adopt some of these policies.

It seems to me that these films may have a bit in common.  The Mario movie was made for kids by adults without kids being consulted.  The result was disaster.  The animal film was made to show how students who are good at things in schools are, often, told they aren’t good enough and sent off to do something they are not so good at.  The result?  Again, failure.

In my humble opinion, the US educational system is setting itself up for abysmal failure.  We have never been very good at educating our children, at least, not by the polls and studies done over the years.  We are always set on “improving” what is a poor system.  We do this by replacing a poor system with another poor system.   I was told, when teaching, to not teach to the test.  I was told that we can’t help them with the tests.  One school, apparently, didn’t know this and now…

http://news.yahoo.com/3-dozen-indicted-atlanta-cheating-scandal-214241949.html

Yep.  I didn’t do this.  I continued to try and teach my students things I knew they could handle, along with small things that would be new and I would have to work to get them to learn.  I knew that a lot of my students would not read the books (or couldn’t), so I would make sure to lecture and show them what they would not, otherwise, see.  I made certain that the students who needed big examples that were “weird” got them so the info would stick.  I was not the greatest teacher around, but I was dedicated and worked very hard to help them.

One of the big problems I see today is that a person who is wonderfully gifted in art, for example, painting, does not get much exposure from around 4th-8th grade to do what he/she does best.  They may have art class (that is being looked at as superfluous now), but even that will only have a small amount of painting.  I allowed my students to draw a lot, those who enjoyed it.  I allowed my students to try and build things, those who…well.  I allowed students to tell me rather than write part of the time.  I did a lot of things to try to give my students every way I could think of to express themselves on different things.  I partially succeeded.

Today’s students are being pushed toward high scores in English and Math, especially.  The US is trying to get the next generation ready to be “computer” idiots.  They will know computers (maybe), but may not know how to tie their shoes (isn’t that what velcro is for?).

Maybe what we need are schools of thought.  Use grades 1-3 to get the children ready for a little of everything, including life.  Heck, make kindergarten mandatory and use it, too.  Then, use 4-8th grades to see what the student excels at.  Let high schools do the beginning of college education.  Let students be divided into groups for high math/science, high English, the Arts, and general (put sports in with general, maybe).  Then, when students graduate, colleges will get who they are looking for.

Sound like segregation by intelligences?  Maybe.  You have ideas?  I would love to hear them.

Let’s start shouting to the people with the power to free children and allow them to learn with a bit of joy in their hearts.  Could it really hurt?

Namaste,

Scott

I have been Told…

I have been told a lot of things over the years, especially by the “experts”.This has concerned a wide variety of subjects and, even the experts haven’t agreed most of the time.
One of the biggies, recently, for me has been Dreamfield’s Pasta. Since working very hard on my Diabetic Diet concerning carbs, I have looked to labels more and more. When a good friend recommended DF to me, I went to the local Kroger’s and looked for it. The label gave an astounding promise of 5 net carbs per serving! This was simply beyond belief. So, I bought it, took it home, and began eating. Now, I am much more careful since my stroke, so I did continue my research and test on my own. I subscribed to the comments on DF and was devastated to hear that all the “experts” and scientific testing showed that DF was no better than any other pasta and referred to it as the “Dreamfield Fraud”.

I decided to test harder. After conducting some fairly intensive personal tests and redoing them off and on for the last few months, I have concluded that, for me, DF works. I have revised it just a bit (under cook the pasta just a shade – Al Dente) and use a low-carb sauce now. However, it does not raise my sugar and allows me to eat a good portion of spaghetti now when I feel the urge.

What amazed me more was that, after I commented on the website about my findings and conclusions (I always said “for me” and “test for yourself”), I was told that 1) I was wrong; 2) I was a liar 3) I was telling a story to promote DR (I was a rep). I retested and put the findings out again, and, again, was told that I was not a scientist and was, therefore, doing it wrong and so on. People would almost hatefully argue this with me, as if I was calling them liars with their own discoveries.

It did not seem to matter that I kept stating that it was true “for me” and that everyone “should test” for themselves. I pointed out that not everyone was alike and that, only by checking things out for themselves, would they really know.

It’s been kinda funny, but, in the last few weeks, I have had several people comment on the site that, “I tested this and it works for me” and “not everyone is the same”.

The reason I put this here is two-fold:

First, many people take it as a personal attack if you say anything different from their views. I notice this in all areas, but, especially, in religion.

Second, I have also seen that, once someone speaks up, it doesn’t take long before there are others.

My Dad is in the hospital; “experts” (well, one) have said what he needs and dismissed my sister when she asked questions about it all. I find that terrifying that an “expert” no longer considers it necessary to study the situation more and that he/she is not willing to explain the situation to those extremely concerned about the matter.

As I told my students many times, “Science, in my opinion, is a ‘best guess’ thing, in spite of ‘facts’. After all, we were a flat world once. Also, there was no such thing as germs or radiation.”

We change our “facts” all the time. It is now believed that an object (sub-atomic, but an object) can, indeed, be in two places at once. Supposedly, it can be proved. What this all tells me is that an expert should be someone who is continually looking to improve and find new facts, and everyone can learn from others.

I hope and plan to never stop learning. And, a good way for me to learn has been to teach.

All of you have something to teach and much to learn.

Do both.
Namaste,
Scott