The electric company

I'm not generally a huge YouTube scavenger, but occasionally I link to it from some other forum or site and get sucked into chasing a nostalgic path. Like today, when I ran across a link to a video from the old "The Electric Company" children's show from my youth (it was "Billy Lick a Lolly"), and that started me browsing for more. I was pretty sure I had watched this show, and now that is confirmed because in seconds of video, or just from the video titles, it all comes back to me. (What a strange and awesome show this was!) Other good ones:

• It really blew my mind
• Steady Freddy
• Whimper and Whine
• Freeze
• T-I-O-N (shun, shun, shun, shun), which is a song I never really forgot, along with
• Eleven Twelve (this one is a bit of a remix) from Sesame Street
• Lost Kid and Yo-Yo Master - another one from those trippy 70s episodes of Sesame Street

Browse around YouTube and you'll find tons more (just be careful about getting the songs stuck in your head).

IT vision, student vision, future vision, bleak vision

Here's a small set of items for today:

• 10 little secrets you should know about working in IT - as an IT person myself, I saw some truth in these, though I thought it was a bit pessimistic.
• A Vision of Students Today (YouTube video) - I thought this was an interesting class project, but I'm not entirely sure the point they were trying to make, if any. I'm guessing it was that classes are too impersonal, but there was a little bit of students-are-slackers-that-don't-pay-attention-or-study in there too.
• The Smartest Futurist on Earth - a short article on Ray Kurzweil (someone most IT geeks have probably heard of already). His vision of the future is fascinating, and I'd like to hear more about the ethical aspects of how these technologies would be applied.
• Top 50 Dystopian Movies of All Time - This is a good list for fans of this type of movie (like me), but I completely agree with several of the posters that the author is really loosely using the term "dystopian". Many of the movies don't belong on the list.
  

US Americans don't have maps

Ah, America's youth. Here is a fine example in this year's Miss Teen Intellect Contest, er Beauty Pageant...

Miss Teen South Carolina answers "Why do you think a fifth of Americans can't find the US on a world map?"

Now, she was probably very nervous at the moment, but even if you don't have an answer, you can spin this into some practiced speech about education. But hey, at least she is pretty.

Facts, exams, polls on positions

Hello! Spring is here! Mowed the lawn for the first time today. It is always a great feeling, until I realize "Wait, now I have to do this once a week or more!".

Some links:

• 301 Useless Facts. While many are useless, a lot of them are interesting.
• Comparison of a Chinese high school test question with a British college one. Ah, it's just math. You'll never need to use that again... In reality, I find this disturbing. (Not that the Chinese are educating their kids well, but that the British and Americans are letting education slide.)
• This political poll states that three quarters of Americans like leaders that will compromise, and two thirds of Americans like leaders that stick to their positions, even if unpopular. I very firmly believe in this and will stand strong on it, but I'm willing to change my mind.

Anna Nicole! Britney! Idiots! Copernicus!

Hello,
A little warmer here, but with some more snow now. This weekend is giving a little warmth that is starting to hint at spring. (Maybe that groundhog was right after all!)

Anna Nicole, Anna Nicole, Anna Nicole. Argh! I ran across this article about how television is failing the public because of the obsession on non-news disguised as important news. I could not agree with this more. It is unbelievable how her death has taken more air time than President Ford's death, or even the North Korean six party talks, the "Scooter" Lewis Libby trial, Iranian nuclear news, bombs in Thailand, or anything else that is, well, news.

I just saw the movie Idiocracy this weekend. It deals with a man frozen until the year 2505 where he wakes to find society is so dumbed down due to celebrity worship, commercialization, mass media/entertainment, and larger number of children from lower intelligence families. While it was mainly a dumb comedy (and a pretty funny one at that), there was a hint of horror there because you can really see things moving that way. I recommend the movie, but be aware there is a high amount of very bad language and sexual and bathroom humor. But it fits in with the analysis of...

...oh wait! There's new Britney news! Hooray! Let's see what top celebrity psychiatrists say about her bald headed, rehabbin', tattooin', partying like she's crazy lifestyle! We need a replacement when this Anna Nicole stuff dies down anyway!

Other bits:

• A different kind of crazy: Texas Republican Chairman Warren Chisum believes the earth stands still and the sun rotates around it. And he's distributing memos to legislators pitching this knowledge.
• A bit of fun: the Line Rider is a fun little online diversion. Give it a try and check out some of the saved movies.

Activist judges, average iq, villager villains, punch out

Snowy day here in Whitmarshall. Thought we'd miss most of it this winter, but snow is now all around.
Links:

• Attorney General Gonzales raps 'activist' judges, saying that federal judges can not make rulings (or judge, ahem) matters of national security. He says they should defer to the President and Congress. But wouldn't that be disabling one of the checks and balances from the three equal parts of government? I don't know what to say: I'm torn between my confusion on how we have cabinet members that don't understand the basics of government, and my obedience of Big Brother. He's double-plus good! All hail Oceania!
• Average IQ Map of the World. Uh-oh, changed my mind: All hail Eastasia! (This Wikipedia page is flagged for possible deletion, so view it before it goes away.)
• Entire village suspects in mayor's murder. Wow, must have been a well liked politician. Darn those activist villagers!
• Sorry to link another live-action video game recreation, but this live action Mike Tyson's Punch Out was pretty humorous for those that remember the game.

Uncanny Orville, below average children

Hello!
I watched bits and pieces of the Golden Globes (though I usually try to avoid the big awards shows), and the thing that disturbed me most was the new Orville Redenbacher commercial. Yikes! That's creepy. Why do we always need to use dead spokespeople? I'm more or less OK with it if it is an animated cartoon capturing the trademarked image, like the animated Colonel Sanders from a few years back. But integrating old footage of a celebrity or creating a computer generated version of a dead spokesperson is just weird and seems kind of disrespectful. Did these people say from their deathbed "Please, if technology provides a way to milk my image for corporate gain, please do so!"

Switching topics: I ran across this article that says you can't blame schools and teachers for American woes because intelligence, not education, is part of the problem. The author points out that half of all children are below average, and I guess I can't argue with that. I think there are definitely problems in educational systems (and discipline and parental guidance, and such), but the article has some interesting points.