This is no April Fools deal, here. This is the real schiznit. The Big UGLY sucker in the corner no one wants to talk about., And my buddy David (goat ranchering up in Arkysaw) nails it squarely:
Funny you should mention it…
And we have to give up on planned obsolescence.
If the alleged environmentalist of our generation were the least bit honest planned obsolescence would be the first place to start an environmental movement.
It always fascinated me when the were millions available to the “movement” but you could not find an honest (useful idiot) that had contributed more then $5.
Yes, Brother Dave gets the only gold star I am going to pass out all day long. He and I both see that the reason we can’t have a happy ending to the present worldview is that no one is addressing the number one problem: You can’t have constant growth in a fixed system forever.
Something is going to break. It’s all just a matter of time. Simple as that. D’oh.
Think about this: If everything lasted three times as long, we’d all only have to work one third of the time!
Followed logically, our present trajectory nets us a planet in 100 years where everyone has a 100” TV, a car that gets 900 miles per gallon. Oh, and everyone is dead because with the LBGT movement succeeding, there are no kids being anymore and……
Hello? Can we please – just this once – answer the right question instead of going of on the BS bait and switch? This year’s car, this year’s style, this year’s phone, this year’s Office/operating system and whatever…
Please, tell me you’re not so dumb to miss it? The environmental movement is – Yet Another Distraction (YAD) – because no one starting at the get go and that because no one wants to admit planned obsolescence is what kills us all.
So bring on over-production (and let’s over-medicate, too, while we’re at it) because that way, we can all “green police” ourselves into oblivion.
Save a tree, kill a planet. Save a whale, create a government job. Ban cow farts, more regulators. Blame climate change…and here’s another tax, and more government jobs..
At some point, making the round ball rounder stops being productive. And that’s when the NewCiv begins to arise. The one that blows out of planned obsolescence by asking “Do you know anyone who has ever worn out a dinner plate or a fork?” and other logical starting points.
If PACCAR can put out a Kenworth good for a couple of million miles, how come Detroit can’t do that with cars? Money, turnover, the illusion that working hard is smart. That isn’t necessarily true, you know….
“Why is there Round-Up leftovers not only in soil, but also in air now?” wondered another friend of mine. “What’s the health linkage there?”
The best April Fools joke today is what?
A trip to the mirror with a lie detector.
Learning Your Learning Style, II
I don’t normally pick up a single topic two mornings in a row, but the whole matter of how we learn is critically important. Even more so today because the world is changing – faster and faster – so if we don’t keep up, we’re going to be trampled by the other 7 point some billion people. This is way longer than our usual posting, but the topic is terribly under-addressed in the Mainstream Media.
All Came from a Reader Email
So here we go on more notes about learning. Unlike most sections, this one will be developed just like schools develop curriculum: The start off with a list of “What’s to be learned” and then list out reading assignments, exercises, research, audio, videos, and then they test to make sure you “get it.”
My own “observation of fact” is that everyone has approximately the same mental capacity. What differs is not biologic (in most cases) but how Nature wired our brains. Some brains are impacted by Autism. They work just fine, but with a different underlying “source code” than other people. There are savants, too. See the movie “Rain Man” for details. But both cases argue that people can be exceptional in some areas, while “deficient” [in terms of judgmental society] in other aspects.
Society classifies people according to a prevailing mindset of an era. Under-appreciated is that autistic, savant, and prodigy all live right next door to one another. The Big Lie is that IQ is a simple, two-dimensional curve. It is most assuredly not.
It is a topology.
Those that are on the top of the “bump” that defines it are the self-proclaimed “normals.” Those who see this, are seize leadership are normals tending toward sociopath. At the extreme, sociopath and beyond.
But going off the other direction, people of really good heart around the top of the bump slide into empaths and believers in causes and so forth. None of which makes a person “bad” any more than having a capacitor discharge ignition system is “better” than a magneto system. All have their place.
This email from reader Dave covers a lot of ground:
George, I enjoyed your post on learning. I have been meaning to write to you for several months. Several months back you talked about “Learning to Learn” in one of your posts. In that post you remarked about playing music over and over, or watching moves multiple times as a
learning mode for you. Then more recently you mentioned learning and
had a link to “Gregorc Associates” which offer a program to individuals to find their best learning modes. Today’s post covered focus and right brain / left brain. I have had difficulty learning all my life. I attributed it to a poor memory as so many teachers would say “just memorize this” and you will be fine. With theory I could usually understand and know how to apply formula and data that was in the “Desk Reference” [that you have mentioned, and by the way is available in small pocket edition with all the same info.] and really did not have to memorize anything.
Long intro, my question. Since we are all unique, Is the material from Gregorc Associates of any value in “Learning how to learn”?.
Thanks, Keep Well and Safe,
Ole Dave, in NC.
The answer to the Gregorc Delimiter question is simple: It will give you come insight into how you learn. In other words, whether you do well with sequential or random information, or whether you gobble up abstracts or concrete blocks of information.
I also used it (no kidding here) as a style check when it came to getting married for the third time. I wanted to make sure that whoever I married was very close in abstract-concrete and random-sequential preference. As luck would have it, Elaine and I are just about perfectly matched.
Now, the reason this is important is we both enjoy about a mid-range on both axes, concrete/abstract and random/sequential, so we can both enjoy “smooth jazz” while working around the house . An oldie like Take Five by Dave Brubeck for example” but we both lose interest while Miles is off exploring one of them 8-miles high Miles, places, if you know what I mean.
Since we input similarly, we both get a kick out of the TV soaps lyrics in country music. Toby Keith, or Willy, of whatever. And as a matter of fact (if you don’t mind the commercial on the front end), Hank Junior’s “Red, White, and Pink Slip Blues” is about as poignant a commentary on what gutting America has looked like from the production line, as you’ll find. Bass line is similar to Everlast (in Turn Your Lights On), but you didn’t come for the music critiques here…so I won’t digress further (for now)…
Point is, if you pay attention to what you like to do in life, when no one else is around, when you’re not flat broke, that will tell you gobs about how you learn best.
Light-heartedly, if you read Penthouse, (or PlayGirl, ahem) then you could be visually inclined. If you read Penthouse Forum, then you would be a read-to-learn type.
If you download Earl Nightingale motivational series, like this one, and rip them into MP3s to listen to, then you may be an audio learner. Or, if you call 900 numbers, then audio learning is your mode.
If you jump on your dirt bike for jollies (or your extended forks, chopped soft-tail and know what a top rocker is, and sneer at the dirt bikers as wannabes who can’t handle more than 750 cc) then you’re a tactile learner.
Now that we know what kind of learner you are we can work on speed of learning.
If you find yourself being picked up off bar room floors after fights real often, you’re a slow tactile learner.
On the other hand, if you can shoot the wings off a fly with a Glock at 65-feet while dislodging a particularly well-entrenched bugger from your left nostril, then you are a very fast tactile learner. Provided, of course, you didn’t stop digging in your nose with your left hand to snap off the shot at the fly down-range with your right.
Alternatively, if you have flown a helicopter solo for more than 5000 hours, and have been through at least unplanned autorotation, then you’re either a fast tactile learner, of you should be buying lottery tickets because there’s a cloud of luck around you.
Next we deal with depth of learning.
If you get into bar fights and always lose, then you may not have a lot of depth to your learning.
I’ve seen enough bar fights to know the best way to win is a) keep my mouth shut so I don’t get in them, b) run faster than anyone present, or c) have 9-1-1 on speed dial and take a picture of a perp threatening to email it. This is great depth of learning.
There are lots of other measures of how deep your learning is – I mean really. If you can remember more than one memorable hangover, you may have a problem to deal with. No, make that two problems.
Toss in reading UrbanSurvival and you’ve got a counseling trifecta.
Time Compression
Seriously: It finally all comes down to this: Find how you learn best. Look at your house and your hobbies for hints.
If your wife paints your house (yours doesn’t?) what your learning style is doesn’t matter…because you’ve obviously done something right. Fast-talking audio learning works here with a heaping side of compliments on ‘artistic ability.’ You’re probably a sociopath, but leaders, lawyers, and leeches have to have something in common.
Learn the point, not the fluff.
Life is 18,000 days long by the time you’re old enough to get the humor around here. I passed the 23,800 hour mark a while back. If I were an airplane, I’d have been scrapped by now.
So believe me when I tell you learn what you can use, plus maybe 10% more than you can use immediately so you can see what’s coming.
Then move on with life. Buy someone a paint brush or a lottery ticket. Or better, figure out a way to start a business so you don’t have to work for The Man.
Education is a fine thing…but that’s something we hear from government and educators. The very people who have us locked in to the low quality, disposable crap that is screwing up the world in order to show continuing profits.
And thus, we arrive at our next email…
About That Education Programming
Of course the reason we can’t rethink the world is that planned obsolescense let’s bankers work by lending money. And the reason self-learning is so frowned on is (at least I npart) it doesn’t employ people. As subscribe Kai notices
Not sure if you ever get my emails, but I will keep writing when I find topics that hit me.
I find the “Common Core” programming of our children to be very frightening.
Lately I have seen many posts by parents and teachers of examples of this material. Take a look at this one and tell me that you don’t see the hand of the government carefully choosing the language in these tests:
https://twitter.com/ColetteMoran/status/395967716382629889/photo/1
Here are some very Orwellian excerpts:
“The job of a president is not easy”
“He makes sure the country’s laws are fair”
“The commands of government officials must be obeyed by all”
I really fear for the programmed children that are being brought up to be replaceable cogs in the government machine. I hope you live long enough to see a revolution that means something, but I doubt that will come before even I am grey. People can live with a lot of pain, especially when applied slowly. Take away the rights one by one, give the government more power, make the people dependent on the government, and now you have what they want.
I am a 30-something and think I might be in the last generation to grow up without this kind of influence in the U.S. education system. This is part of the reason I moved to Mexico to raise my child in private schools that do not have the influence of the U.S. government (yet).
Keep writing. And yes, we’ve gone from a country where disagreement is honored to a bunch of ADHD group thinkers on pills.
The sad hell of it is I’ll be saying the same thing tomorrow when it’s not April you-know-what Day..
A Word from the HR Department
And from a reader in one of them:
G- An interesting Trend I have been noticing the last year or so. Back when I first started in this biz I would always receive a lot of resumes over the weekend. Of course when I first started companies advertised heavily on the Sunday paper for jobs but even when things went online with Monster and like companies people by and large would apply over the weekend for the most part. But now It’s hardly any on the weekend and almost all on Monday and Tuesday. Which means in reality people are at their jobs and on company time are surfing the net for jobs and applying then. Or of course they are unemployed but don’t want to take up any valuable weekend time to look for a job. God forbid take time away from their College hoops lol But I figured you would appreciate a trend like that.
Oh, well, dude, simple. What part of mass awakening to corpgov BS and knowing there has to be a better deal than this one because it sucks, did you miss?
.
Ham Radio – the New Social
From a New Mexico reader, on the virtues of ham radio (the original social network – and still commercial-free):
Sunday I was working in my Barn and listening to the radio traffic on the Outstanding statewide 2m/70cm, “New Mexico Mega Link,” repeater network. A young man checked in looking for a contact. He was returning with his family to Colorado on I-40 inbound to ABQ and then northbound on I-25 to Santa Fe and beyond. He was first contacted by a local ABQ Ham who was mobile on his way to finish some weekend chores. The young Ham’s first question was, “are you working for your General yet”? The New Ham continued to receive contacts from other New Mexico Hams on the Mega Link network. The last is the best.
A young Ham made contact with the Colorado Ham and the conversation became very animated. They were both new Hams having both received their call signs in Feb. 2014. The New Mexico Ham asked the Colorado Ham if he had presented any demonstrations of what Ham Radio is. The Colorado Ham asked if the New Mexico Ham had done a Demonstration of Ham Radio for the Boy Scouts??? To which SHE replied, NO I AM A GIRL!!! She then continued, “The next time you are asked, what is your Social Network? Just tell them mine is, HAM RADIO”!!! She then stated that her parents are still LOL belly laughing over that one.
Age of the New Generation of Hams I was listening to—11 years old—one Male and one Female.
I am in my 7th decade and received my call sign in early October 2013. To the wimps in the crowd, the Young and the Old can pass the Technician exam. All it takes is a little perseverance. TURN OFF your TeeVee and your Pulsed Microwave Cell Phones. You will not regret the change.
73 George
P.S. I was listening on a Baofeng UV-5RA. It comforting to know that if I have an emergency on my property, I can contact the entire State of New Mexico and request Emergency assistance through the MegaLink system using my low dollar 2m/7cm Handy Talkie.
Which is why we pop our annual check in the mail to support our local ham radio club…because those reliable, robot ham radio systems need maintenance and new solar panels now and then…
Speaking of Solar Panels
No, this is not an ad. But, as you know, UrbanSurvival and Peoplenomics are both “solar powered” on the content side (the servers are a different matter). But here, we have 3.5 kW of solar panels and two grid-interactive since wave inverter/chargers in a system I designed and built myself.
So while huge numbers of people claim to be trying to change the environment, the “cut through the BS” question to me lately has been “So, how many panels do you have up?” We have 20 and I keep eyeing more.
And that’s my point. My friend John down at www.sunelec.com (where we bought our panels) has 230-watt class panels at 68-cents a watt. I’m going to be picking up a single 100-watt class panel to update the automatic tower system for our ham radio set up. But prices of solar right now are just dirt cheap and I thought I’d mention it.
They also have solar powered freezers on sale…
On the panels only, the payback period is getting down well under 10-years and while the balance of system costs will push it back to 15-years, there’s nothing like tiny power bills and a line on your bill that says “Net metering credit.” Most months ours is small ($20 bucks or so) but that 3 kw of solar reduces our home bill to about half what neighbors run.
And we took the tax break for putting it in, of course, too….
Like I said, not an ad…just a heads up.
A Bet Lost
Reader Bob thought he had me:
Bet you didn’t use alcohol-free gas, or didn’t put enough “stabilizer” in the gas. And you let the chainsaw, or the gas, sit more than 30 days. Bet the entire fuel system will need replacing soon. Two=cycle repair people love E-10 and especially E-15 for a continuing source of revenue.
Wrong! We buy 5-gallon jugs of 100 low lead (blue) that we burn in the airplane and use it in all of our farm machines. Except the diesel, of course. And an Avblend with LinKite 12 oz Bottle with each oil change on the 4-cycle stuff..
I’m proud to say we have some of the best-running equipment around, when the fuel filter is clean and the hose isn’t plum wore out. We go through 304 chains per year, even with sharpening, to give you an idea… We haven’t run meth’ed gas forever knowing the evils of crappy fuel.
OK, write when you get rich…and ask yourself “Am I the kind of person I would lend money to?”
George george@ure.net