NotSyncing

Sydnie (age 6 - kindergarten): Dad, I know what 12 + 12 is.
me: oh yeah, what?
Sydnie: 24
me: how did you know that?
Sydnie: because there are 12 hours in the daytime and 12 hours in the nighttime and there are 24 hours in a day. So 12 plus 12 is 24.
me: good thinkin'

Ah... that's my girl. As long as she keeps thinking about math instead of merely learning algorithms for computation she'll be miles ahead of most of her peers.

Not a big deal, but hey... it made me smile.

When I can make it all the way through a Cal Thomas commentary without vomiting I like to pick apart his reasoning for sport. Below is the full commentary as syndicated in today's Holland Sentinel. My comments are interleaved. The title of the commentary is the same as the title of this blog entry.

This is the second commentary of his I've made it all the way through in less than a month. I agreed with 80% of what he said in his recent commentary An obituary for the Religious Right - a fact that makes me feel a little dirty... though he did manage to get my eyes to roll. He's very consistent in that regard, irrespective of topic.

Washington, D.C. —

While Congress spends — and plans to spend — like the proverbial drunken sailor to “bail out” various industries for practices that are largely their fault and the fault of those in Congress who were supposed to provide oversight, another deficit looms which is at least as troubling as the economic one.

Is this even true? They've *cough* bailed out *cough* the financial "industry" but they don't seem to keen on bailing out anyone else. They may do something for the auto industry in the end, but if they do anything at all hopefully there are some serious strings attached. As an aside, my personal opinion is that GM (and whomever else) should file for bankruptcy. At most the federal government should ensure they can secure credit to the extent that they could have, say, 12 months ago.

For the third straight year, the Intercollegiate Studies Institute (ISI) has found that a large number of Americans cannot pass a basic 33-question civic literacy test on their country’s history and institutions. The multiple-choice questions ask about the inalienable rights mentioned in the Declaration of Independence (life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness), the name of Franklin D. Roosevelt’s 1933 series of government programs (The New Deal) and the three branches of government (executive, legislative, judicial). No, I didn’t peek at the answers. I received a good education.

We're already question begging. (Hyperlink to educate the logic-illiterate...) What does it mean to have a "good" education? If there's a universally agreed upon measure of educational quality, I'm the last remaining person ignorant of it.

The random sample of 2,508 American adults, ranging from those without high school diplomas to people with advanced degrees, revealed a minimal difference in civic literacy between the uneducated and the highly educated. Fifty-six percent of those surveyed could identify Paula Abdul as one of the judges on “American Idol,” but only 21 percent were able to recognize a phrase from Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address. I had to memorize that speech in high school. What are they memorizing now?

There's no such thing as a truly "random sample", but I won't blame Cal for repeating a phrase that appears in the press release he's discussing. "Statistically random" or "pseudorandom" would be more accurate. And yes, I'm really that anal.

Only 56% of those surveyed could identify Paula Abdul as one of the judges on American Idol? I don't even watch the show and I know that. Of the two statistics that strikes me as the more remarkable. However, this comparison is meaningless. It's always going to be the case that more people are familiar with something in popular culture than something that happened before their lifetime. To hope for the opposite result or parity in understanding is to hope for the value of learning to be more than or equally as pervasive in popular culture when compared to the value of entertainment. Don't count on it. Past, present, future... it never has and never will happen. The overarching concern of human nature is short term survival. A desire to learn history as part of an endeavor to construct a society that will benefit generations not yet born is not a trait that is or should be expected to be taken on by the masses.

I was supposed to memorize the Gettysburg Address in school too. But I didn't. I looked at the syllabus, determined what portion of the grade it was, looked at what else factored into the grade and then chose to not bother with it. (I hate memorizing stuff.) Instead I took a set of easier tasks that added up to a passing grade an did those. One of the teachers of the class wrote on my report card that I had manipulated the grading system. Still makes me laugh. I did, however, read and study the Gettysburg Address. Not because I had to - because I found it interesting. Incidentally, I made it all the way through high school (~8th -12th grade) without ever reading a book cover to cover. The strategy was similar, though I sometimes watched the movie or read the cliff notes to eek out a few needed points. But I digress... (I started reading books shortly thereafter -- when I could read what I wanted to read.)

Not much of any use, it appears. Ignorance of America’s history and heritage is a set-up for politicians and others who want to manipulate us into a way of thinking that allows them to make decisions that are unconstitutional and unwise. More than repeating phrases and figures, knowledge of the past prepares us for a future based on unchanging principles. That’s why knowledge matters and ignorance endangers our government and threatens our way of life even more than terrorism.

The smart manipulating the dumb... there's something new. It's good to know Cal opposes the Patriot Act though. Oh wait, he's in favor of it. I guess some unchanging principles matter more to him than others. It's almost like he was manipulated by those in power. Maybe he just hasn't read enough history yet.

In general this just speaks to my fantasy of requiring a basic history/civics test before being allowed to vote. As it is the ignorant outnumber the educated. Our system allows the stupid people to control the fate of the country. How is that a good idea?

Civic illiteracy in the United States crosses all educational lines, including the vaunted Harvard where, according to the ISI survey, seniors scored 69.56 on the test, or a D-plus. And they were the best. The survey found that up to three-fourths of Americans believe teaching America’s heritage is fundamental to a good education and to producing good citizens. So why is it not being done?

Hey! I got a 81.82% (27 out of 33 correct)! I want an honorary degree from Harvard and I want it now. (I should have done better on the test. #33 was ambiguous, but the others I should have known. I used to know most of those answers but have since forgotten.)

It seems it takes more than winning Jeopardy trivia knowledge (and a medium fortune) to get a degree at Harvard. Bummer, that.

Part of it, I think, has to do with the continued embarrassment by the liberal education establishment over America and what it means to be an American. From their guilt about prosperity and our freedoms to their opposition to "dead white males," college professors, especially since the ’60s, have favored the trendy and quaint over the established and proven.

I knew it! It's the liberals' fault! Cal - I'm so shocked that you've come to this conclusion.

There are so many tangents here I don't know where to start or what to leave out. A random collection of thoughts inspired by the above:

We came to these lands, slaughtered most of its inhabitants and claimed the land as our own. God bless America. Don't get me wrong. I love this country. I'm proud to be an American... but lets not forget the dead bodies on which we stand. That many college professors are critical of the US is something to be celebrated.

Our educational system is an example of basic evolution. Start with a diverse population that consists of most children in the United State. Impose a set of constraints. Who makes it to the Ivy Leagues? Those who adapt and thrive under the constraints. What do you see when you look at a freshmen class at Harvard? You see a set of students who have learned to adapt to the system better than most of their peers have. First and foremost, they are excellent test takers. They know how to study. They have an incredible ability to regurgitate facts. Are they intelligent? Some truly are. Others, not so much. Unless you define intelligence as "the ability to score well on a test" -- in that case they're all intelligent. Not even scratching the thin coating on the surface of this one...

"Trendy and quaint over the established and proven." Examples please? Otherwise, shut up.

Remarkably, a college degree does not increase civic knowledge. According to the report, "The average score among those who ended their formal education with a bachelor’s degree is 57 percent, or an “F.” That is only 13 percentage points higher than the average score among those who ended their formal education with a high school diploma. Only 24 percent know that the First Amendment prohibits establishing an official religion for the United States. That’s pretty basic information, isn’t it? One might expect the Bill of Rights to be part of any class on government, even as early as elementary school.

This is not remarkable. Many colleges are a joke. The difference between a well-read high school graduate and your average college graduate is that the high school graduated is probably more knowledgeable (in breadth at least, and maybe even depth depending on the college degree in question). If I can coast through an engineering university surely many people can coast through a generic university-level liberal arts education. It's not exactly rocket science.

My kids are learning the subject material in question, and they're in elementary school. Wait, I should rephrase. They're not actually learning anything. They're being told facts that they're expected to be able to repeat on demand and recognize on a 33 question multiple choice civics quiz. Actual assimilation of facts into a working understanding is a rare and undocumented phenomenon. And they're also only learning the sanitized version - a practice I despise. History and real life are rated "R". Or "M" for mature. (Movies or video games, pick your favorite rating system.) Making it rated G is simply a lie. (I also think kids in Sunday school should learn that Moses was a murderer but I guess they haven't created the felt friends required to depict that yet.)

It's temping to just go off on education in general here (hm... maybe I'm already doing that) - something I've been known to do in meatspace from time to time. An educational system that is designed to educate the masses will always yield a bare minimum level of competency. This isn't necessarily a bad thing - unless it represents the full extent of one's learning. OK, it's still a bad thing. But it's an unavoidable result as long as "educating the masses" is the goal. The "really smart people" aren't so much taught as they are learned. They seek information and construct a working understanding that is malleable upon the acquisition of new data. They don't expect to passively develop superior intellect. This sort of thing is sometimes taught, but not often and not always by teachers. Here's a sure way to make sure you're as knowledgeable as everybody else and not a bit more: get the best possible grades all the way through school and don't learn a thing beyond that.

Other findings: Elected officials score lower than the general public, which tells us all we need to know about Washington.

Bzzt. Come on Cal, you can't really be this stupid. I would bet large sums of money that elected officials in Washington fare far better on this test than elected official in general. The survey is documenting the latter. And since it was "random" it's likely that nobody in Washington even took the quiz. Say what you want about those in Washington. They're not stupid or ignorant. Wrong, maybe. But not stupid.

ISI calls on everyone involved in education, including parents, to re-evaluate curricula and standards of accountability and to emphasize to students the fundamentals about our country. It notes Thomas Jefferson’s admonition: “If a nation expects to be ignorant and free ... it expects what never was and never will be.”

Sounds like an exercise in missing the point... like treating a severed head with a cotton swab. Jefferson, though... I'm with ya man. Please come back to life.

Read the report at www.isi.org and weep. And then demand of yourself and others that something be done to fix the intellectual deficit.

Lets start with firing Cal Thomas. Surely we can find someone more educated and understanding of nuance to take his place.

Just my $0.02. (It was my $5.00, but I've adjusted for deflation.) Sorry to ramble. Two things that get me fired up crossed paths: education and Cal Thomas.

OAK RIDGE, Tenn., Nov. 20, 2008 — A team led by Thomas Schulthess of the U.S. Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory received the prestigious 2008 Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) Gordon Bell Prize Thursday after attaining the fastest performance ever in a scientific supercomputing application.

Full press release.

Breaking the petaflop barrier, a feat that seemed astronomical just two years ago, won't just allow faster computations. These computers will enable entirely new types of science that couldn't have been done before. This new generation of petascale machines will move scientific simulation beyond just supporting the two main branches of science, theory and experimentation, and into the foreground. Instead of just hypotheses being tested with experiments and observations, large-scale extrapolation and prediction of things we can't observe or that would be impractical for an experiment, will become central to many scientific endeavors.

Full article.

I saw Quantum of Solace on Friday night with my Dad. It's every bit as good as Casino Royale. While both of the new Bond films "borrow" from the Bourne series in both style and substance it seemed a bit more obvious in Quantum. In particular, the Bond creators seem to be fond of the fighting style in Bourne and the style in which it was filmed. The style appears to be mostly based on Krav Maga - the system used by Israeli armed forces. ("Krav Maga" is Hebrew for "close combat".)

Anyway... the The New Bond, having retired the over-the-top gizmos and the role of Q (probably in no small part due to the death of the actor everyone associates with Q), strikes a more pseudo-realistic tone. It's like the Bourne Identity with more obvious villains and overt appeal to the male sex drive. I like Bourne better, but the new 007 is a big improvement over the old.

President-elect Barack Obama imposed strict new ethics rules on the transition team yesterday, restricting what work former lobbyists can do for the team and barring registered lobbyists from donating to the transition or to inaugural events.

Transition team co-chair John Podesta characterized the policy as "the strictest ethics rules ever applied."

Across the country, national leaders and ethics experts praised the decision.

"As a professor who has taught a class on Lobbying and Ethics for many years, I want to commend President-elect Barack Obama for his historic new ethics rules," American University Professor James A. Thurber said. "His campaign pledge to change the way Washington works with the lobbying industry became a reality yesterday....The new ethics rules are great for our democracy."

Fred Wertheimer, president of the non-partisan watchdog group Democracy 21, told USA Today that the rules are unique for a president-elect.

"[The rules are] unlike anything that I have seen at the transition stage in 35 years," he said.

At a press conference, a reporter asked Podesta about complaints from lobbyists who claim they have relevant expertise and say the policy leaves them "out in the cold."

"So be it," Podesta said, adding that the President-elect intends to enforce this policy in his administration so that the "revolving door ceases to exist."

Thomas Mann of the Brookings Institution agreed, saying it's a worthwhile price to pay.

"They will prevent some honorable people with rich experience from serving in the transition," he said. "That is a real cost but it is more than balanced by the strong signal sent by the President-elect."

Source.

Since I can ramble for hours about everything I despise about the Bush presidency I figure I should take the opportunity to praise him when I see reason to do so. I think it's big of him to be so gracious in dealing with the Obamas during this great American tradition of the peaceful transfer of power. He doesn't have to be this gracious so I applaud him for welcoming the man that will do his best to overturn 95% of his actions as president.

Thanks, Dubya. Now get the fuck out of town please be on your merry way.

Go team.

OAK RIDGE, Tenn. -- The latest upgrade to the Cray XT Jaguar supercomputer at the Department of Energy's (DOE's) Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) has increased the system's computing power to a peak 1.64 "petaflops," or quadrillion mathematical calculations per second, making Jaguar the world's first petaflop system dedicated to open research. Scientists have already used the newly upgraded Jaguar to complete an unprecedented superconductivity calculation that achieved a sustained performance of more than 1.3 petaflops.

"Jaguar is one of science's newest and most formidable tools for advancement in science and engineering," said Dr. Raymond L. Orbach, DOE's Under Secretary for Science. "It will enable researchers to simulate physical processes on a scale never seen before, and approach convergence for dynamical processes never thought possible. High end computation will become the critical third pillar for scientific discovery, along with experiment and theory."

The upgrade at DOE's Oak Ridge National Leadership Computing Facility represents a major milestone in a four-year project, begun in 2004 when DOE's Office of Science launched a sustained effort to upgrade supercomputing capabilities for unclassified research at DOE's complex of national laboratories. The project to build a petaflops machine--completed on time, on budget and exceeding the original scope--included partnerships with industry to develop new hardware and computer architectures.

"With the expansion of the leadership computing resources at Oak Ridge, the Department of Energy is continuing to deliver state-of-the-art computational platforms for open, high-impact scientific research," said Michael Strayer, Associate Director of the DOE Office of Science for Advanced Scientific Computing Research. "The new petaflops machine will make it possible to address some of the most challenging scientific problems in areas such as climate modeling, renewable energy, materials science, fusion and combustion."

Within hours of access to the Oak Ridge supercomputer, an ORNL team became the first to achieve sustained petascale performance on a scientific application. In 1998, another ORNL team was the first to achieve sustained terascale performance for science. Thomas Zacharia, Associate Laboratory Director for Computing and Computational Sciences, said he expects that Jaguar "will drive new developments that in turn will lead to energy technology innovations."

Supercomputing holds significant promise for U.S. economic competitiveness, including the promise of enabling American industry to perform "virtual prototyping" of complex systems and products. Jaguar will enable companies to reduce development costs and shorten the time required to market new technologies.

Jaguar is the result of a partnership among DOE, ORNL and Cray that has pushed computing capability at a rapid pace. The current upgrade is the result of an addition of 200 cabinets of Cray XT5 to the existing 84 cabinets of the XT4 Jaguar system.

Full press release.

Lame.