FML: Functional Monkey Language

by

Are you still bamboozled by people in Higher Education waxing endlessly on learning topologies and impact on pedagogy before students? With school just around the corner (and Up Ure Street) a light-hearted view on quickly mastering all things “Ejumacational.”
Some inside secrets to growing a powerful mind, since most of us either have children or grandchildren in uncertain schooling.  Or, the return on investment in public schools has become questionable. 
But first, a few headlines, quiche, storm outlooks, bacon strips, financial developments, hash-browns, coffee, statistical data, orange juice, and charts.  (Yeah, can you guess who’s hungry today?)
Well get pronto, too:  My stomach’s been asking if my throat’s been cut.  Click on in for “work before calories…”

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44 thoughts on “FML: Functional Monkey Language”

  1. I still think, similar to your remembrance of adventurers, that it is a solid idea to force/lure/suggest/finagle your offspring into making a trip outside the country post high school. That entire “senior trip” thing should be to another country, preferably a country where English is not the predominant language. The experience itself is almost an entire article in itself in terms of the benefit to young people, but in my own life it was nearly as formative as losing my virginity! Suffice to say that it matures one regardless of their desire to be so matured…

    If we look at a lower energy future, which we have whipped to death here at Ure Ranch, one has to question the long term value of an over reliance on hypercomplex machines and computing. Will there be these same type devices in 50 years? Because a big part of what is heading down the pipe is the death of the throw-away culture we have been swimming in for the last generation. You can already see it in the data in some sectors.

    I’m thinking the internet and it’s massive energy consumption, may slowly be choked down as businesses go more local and globalism recedes. That would change the internet role to one of knowledge resource or communications of complex things perhaps?

    I am hoping that the internet can be a conduit for changing education – removing teachers from the equation, along with schools as they exist today. One of the primary benefits of schools is the social factor – it’s where we learn how to”behave” and learn socializing and civilized behaviors. That function has receded immensely in the face of one-size-fits-all standardized testing and the continued erosion of things like recess and physical education. And it shows in the resultant tone deaf youngsters existing high school.

    Yet I think the internet can be used for much more than the porn, sales and advertising monster it has been for us. One thing that smart phones and internet has accomplished is to allow improved volume of discourse at the expense of social sensibilities and civility. It will be interesting to see where this is in another 20-30 years – do we learn from the jungle of monetization we created or not?

    Well, with TS Laura changing course, most of my preps are likely to be excessive this go round. The latest I have is that TS Rita back in ’05 is going to be a very close analog. Here is the link to Rita data post-storm from spacecityweather.com – which has a very good summary of the coming landfall today:

    https://www.weather.gov/hgx/climate_reviews_pshhgx_Rita05#:~:text=TROPICAL%20STORM%20FORCE%20WINDS%20WITH,COUNTIES%20WAS%20NEAR%20%242%20MILLION.

  2. Oilman2 “ That entire “senior trip” thing should be to another country, preferably a country where English is not the predominant language.”
    I couldn’t agree more and I’m speaking from personal experience. Even more educational is actually living outside your home country for at least 6 months. Gives you a real perspective not only from that experience but when you come back you appreciate your own country even more. Speaking as an American national.

    As far as the educational experience goes… Let’s figure out what works and then start over. Computer learning is kinda a waste in my experience. The best teachers I’ve ever had were working professionals in the field who were either retired or taking a break from their profession. What we have now seems to be de-education and fantasy.

    • Flying over Cuba every day for 18-months commuting in and out of US to Cayman islands was a real perspective changer

      Especially the 3-0drinks before boarding night after the KAL shoot-down…

      Hell yeah… Send people out of the country and maybe they won’t be such assholes when they get back. Learn to respect America a little bit amen OMm2

      • Yes, every trip I made outside the U.S. as a kid and into my 20s, courtesy of Uncle Sam, taught me how great this country really is and still can be. It will take a lot of economic pain and sorrow to achieve that general awareness again, though, but we’ve been over that ground many times here in the past.

  3. Hi George,
    I’d really appreciate more info on the EMF meter you’re working with! Are you happy with the results so far and is it affordable and available? Make and model? That could be really helpful!

    Regarding schools: It seems that in some areas, schools are the excuse for building football fields and bleachers, and perhaps sports gyms too. Interscholastic competition seems to be a major spectator sport for many citizens. Personally, I find it a complete waste of time and money, but I’m forced to pay for it through property taxes. Sometimes kids actually learn something valuable in school, but more often less than they might in a less structured environment. In most cases, home school by involved parents would provide a much better education. That’s been my experience, at least.

    The social aspect of conventional school is overrated. Home schooled kids interact with other kids sometimes, they interact with adults constantly, and if allowed, they interact with nature daily. They develop their own modes of learning, along with gentle guidance from involved adults. They’re less able to be sucked into groupthink(unless they go to college) and they learn the exquisite art of thinking for themselves. When I was in school, things such as recess and gym were things to be endured, not enjoyed. I learned little if anything from such a waste of time. I learned much more from building a massive rock wall where I had to dig and transport the rocks and figure out how to dry lay each one to endure over time. Kids can learn a lot by doing and introspecting rather than spending their formative years sitting in obedience school.

    • Wintact Instruments (Amazoon)
      Digital LCD Electromagnetic Radiation Detector EMF Meter Dosimeter, Handheld Mini Electric Magnetic Field Tester with Ambient Temperature and Sound-Light Alarm

      $33-bucks

      Biggest surprises so far: The Echo dot in the bedroom needed to be moved.
      The magnetics in my DC power center throw out gobs of u/T’s!
      And my 5G router off the dedicated ViaSat is clean as a whistle.

      • Thanks George! I looked up what I think is what you bought. It seems like a good value for the money, but are you sure about that DC to daylight? The one I saw was 5hz to 3500Mhz. That covers up through regular wifi and microwave ovens, but not 5G. I didn’t see anything on Amazon that detected above 10Ghz, and that cost a lot more. I’ll be getting one like yours as a partner to the Geiger counter. Sensors matter!

        BTW, did you change something with the coloring on the site? The text is now very light gray on white, and more difficult to see on a PC(Pale Moon browser). Just wondering.

  4. The Something B I G is “silent DNA.”

    Sometimes called “junk DNA.”

    Nature is astoundingly efficient. Non-funct DNA frags left “hanging around” would get purged. The Silent DNA is functional — we just can’t recognize what it does. Yet.

    • shut off/junk/Silent DNA does not happen naturally, something/somebody shut it off.
      We do not have the functioning ability to perceive the hidden hand that rules our earthly civilizations,a created dumbed down species,,and why? humm,what will reactivate the dormant groups,
      just some thoughts that I have entertained for some time. If I had answers, would I still be here now?

      • When farming, we restrict the lives of our animals and plants. We clip wings, geld males, dehorn, defang, etc. That which asserts control over us will never voluntarily allow perfect health and unlimited life or eventually we’d become a real challenge to the them. After all, farmers never plant without intending to reap.

        Whoever/whatever planted us on this rock may have done so, or perhaps someone/something after that. We pay for indoctrinating our kids so as to become “productive members of society” rather than empowering them to find their joy and only then choose whether or not they wish to be productive. There’s no class in joy or how to have fun or be desirable. It’s just assumed and often disparaged. We all came from GMO seeds and live on a farm.

  5. George, I have something to add… have a variety of cognitive chores in their lives. With a large part of our population, just about everything we use on a daily basis…we know how to operate, but have no clue how it’s made…nor do we want to. The right brained people like me couldn’t care less. I know how to operator a car, computer, TV, LED light, I-Phone, the house I live in, the clothes I wear and even the simple toaster….But I don’t know, nor do I want to know how they are made.

    I am of the mindset of the Ideation cognitive group though. We are the feeders of the process. Engineers, Mathematicians and scientists are the inventors. The third cognitive chore grouping are the makers…Factory, construction, service types that construct our ideas and inventions into monetized goods. Together, we make the world work. I think its the most productive use of humans…It’s impossible for us to be jack of all trades. It’s much more useful to have core competencies for economies of scale.

    My belief is that our schools should allow us to choose our path, not the other way around. There are too many rote learning processes that suppress our intended purpose in life. Can AI help? Possibly, because humans aren’t changing the paradigm. They are too damn lazy and satisfied with the status quo to make any changes.

    One little rant. The biggest bungle that Trump made during this pandemic is to NOT specifically compensate or give tutor/internet/computer tax free credit to families with children to help two income families deal with the home schooling of our children.There was NO PLAN! This has turned out to be the biggest gripe with working families. They are tasked with doing their real job and acting as a teachers assistant all at the same time. One of my friends has two twin 9 year olds and she had to help create a POD with three other families and hire a third party Tutor/parent for $200 a week to make sure here kids received the proper education and paid attention to their Zoom education. That $200 a week adds up, especially since her husband, who is in sales has seen a significant reduction in his commissioned sales.

    That brings me to another point..There are out of work men and women that could fill in and be Teachers Assistants and help create PODS. The Trump administration and Do-Nothing Betsey DeVoss could have concocted a plan to implement that. Instead…they took the stance that everything is fine…even though it was the opposite,

      • D,
        It’s people like you that make the world a stressful and horrible environment for others that can’t take your negativity. Fortunately for me, I find you to be a clown. A deplorable clown…but a clown nevertheless.

    • Hi Mark. Thanks for the insight into right brained people. I’ve never understood them, though I realize that they have a place in the world. I have very little of that functionality, preferring by far to understand everything in the world and be able to construct a process to manifest anything – if only in my mind. I enjoy inventing and making, and listening to or watching others’ stories. I can’t quite imagine not wanting to be able to design circuits in my mind, or deduce the engineering behind the distribution of rivets on bridge beams and gussets. We’re all different.

      Your type of person is required for a functioning world and I’m glad you’re doing well. If I need to buy real estate, I can do it on my own, but if I need to sell it I’ll outsource. Selling is about displaying specific emotion as much as anything and not everyone can do it effectively. Buying is about hiding or simply not feeling emotion and getting really clinical. That I can do, and though sometimes I’ll lose the deal, I’m less likely to overpay.

      • Sorry Mike, if Mark-o had his way we’d be back in feudal times with him sneering down from his horse at all the great unwashed. His type, regardless of sophistication and moneyed success, disparages those that disagree with him simply because his lofty perch allows it while forgetting where he came from in the first place as described in his own words on this website. It is a rare and humble person that can handle wealth and still manage to commune with all of humanity rather than throwing cognitive barriers between him and the rest of the World. His refusal from the very beginning to believe the degeneration and soiling of his much vaunted San Francisco was our intro into his mind.

      • “deduce the engineering behind the distribution of rivets on bridge beams and gussets.”

        LOL I actually got into that discussion on the rivets used on the titanic a while back.. .. LOL.. they changed rivets to save money in the middle of the construction.. the stress studies were amazing..

    • The federal government should never have got into the education business. It is up to the states and local school boards. Blame them.

    • “our schools should allow us to choose our path, not the other way around.”” They are too damn lazy and satisfied with the status quo to make any changes.”

      First Our schools are set up that way.. if you can pay.. In the usa we have taught our children that there isn’t a future..the hopes and dreams and aspirations of success have been dashed on the rocks of the shores of you don’t matter.. we give free college galore to students from outside the USA but refuse to give the same education to the american children of the low and middle class.. IN San Fran for an example.. you have successful smart individuals using the streets as toilets and living in the car or cardboard box.. even though they make where anywhere else in the world would be a decent successful wage, there you still qualify for food stamps and cannot afford a toilet.Take that one step further what about the guy working as a clerk in the grocery store or the server at McDonalds.. their wage doesn’t even come close. this is a spirit killer.. we need to break away from that. I hear all the time people commenting on I wish I was from another country so I could go to school in the USA.. In China.. school is free and top notch education but only to Chinese citizens an american would not make it there.. there college isn’t a social club its there to educate.. you will succeed if you don’t have the aspirations to learn then out you go.It use to be like that in the UK to.. but lately they are moving more towards the american way of making the population dependent on govt.. it is happening slow but a great way to enslave humanity..through dependence on programs to survive..

      they are to lazy.. no that is being taught to them.. what future does someone in the ghetto have of moving forward.. very little.. they have to learn to dodge bullets.. their parents are forced to leave them in the hands of network television and the local street gangs to be raised.. their view of life is even bleaker.. their spirits were crushed before they are born.. their parents as hard as they work cannot pull themselves up from the bottom..
      Medical bills.. many are so scared insurances price them out of the loop.. ( I am waiting for the well this year because of covid we have to raise rates six or eight hundred a month.. at that price we won’t be able to afford to keep it..)
      You don’t leave here with anything the medical end takes it all.. people are terrified to go to the doctor.. employers only offer those benefits to a very few at the very top the rest go without spiraling the costs skyward..
      look at the line up of physicians.. I don’t care what hospital.. count how many doctors there are that are naturally born americans.. very few in comparison.. we give that education to students from outside the usa free of charge.. people are terrified to go to the doctor.. many clinics refuse to see them if they are uninsured and they are sent to the ER to be seen.. an er visit will almost bankrupt anyone..
      they are not lazy they are beaten to the ground.. told they aren’t worth any future.. those that do loan their way through an education end up with payments that are more than a mortgage..those lucky enough to get a job in the VA healthcare system or other govt. office gets their school loans taken care of and forgiven.. the rest end up after deducting their educational expenses make a little less than a wage earner.. I have worked side by side with PHD’s.. unable to get a job in their fields.. our education system is broken.. sheets of paper only given to a very few.. if your daddy can pay for it.. then you get it most of those kids fail to realize their great fortune until they are older in life..
      slowly we are teaching our population that socialism in the USA is the only way..

  7. Everything George writes about ‘educating’ the self-mind is true, from my personal experience. I always knew I had a good memory… it got me through school with minimal ‘homework’ as I tested well with my good memory. How good it was became clear during an all-school auditorium presentation by a memory expert/educator. Some 700-800 students in my high school auditorium as he was talking about memory and mind. Onstage he had a chalkboard where he wrote about 10 numbers in the first line, then another line, and another…. four lines of random numbers. He told us in the audience to memorize all the numbers on the chalkboard as he talked for the next few minutes about memory and the mind’s eye. I heard several nearby students mutter “Yeah, right!” in disbelief that anyone could do that. But I was challenged! Attention… focus… don’t listen to the speech, but repeat the numbers… over and over. I developed a mind’s eye picture of that chalkboard and numbers.

    After a few minutes, the lecturer told us…. you have photographic memories among you right now! He flipped the chalkboard over so the audience could not see it, and asked how many among the audience could remember those numbers? Maybe two dozen hands went up in the audience, including mine, and he invited us all up on stage. The rest of the school looked at us like we were freaks that had just grown two heads, but we lined up onstage. Again he flipped the chalkboard so we could not see it, but the audience could see it. Then he went down the line and had each of us recite the number sequence. Anyone missed, they went and sat down. Toward the end there were six of us that he could not trip up with questions like: “Third line… backwards” I had that mental picture and could respond to every question… whether directed at me or not. I was shocked and amazed at what I was doing. When he determined he could not trip any of us six up, he finally stopped and told us that we all had photographic memories, that we knew how to do it now, and to practice it so we could get even better at it. I took a lot of ribbing from friends calling me ‘egghead’, but I just shook my head and said, “I didn’t know I could do that!”

    Years later, I took the Army entrance exams at Minneapolis where they serviced a five-state area. All the aptitude questions, fold the boxes, rotate, which design in what configuration is on top, etc. As results were being called out by our alphabetical last names, I notice my name got skipped over. After the room was emptied, I was the last body there. A major came in and sat on the table next to me and said: “So…. you are ‘Hank’…. I saved you for last because you did something that only three or four people a year do here in the five-state area. You got perfect scores on all the tests… some of which are designed to not be finished in the allotted time. The Army is yours…. what do you want to do??” I told him the high-end computer repair MOS I was interested in, and I got it. The Army taught me digital logic and computer electronics…. in 1972.

    After learning how my mind and memory works, I had a successful 40-year career as a TV broadcast engineer, building and fixing TV stations. As George knows also… this requires a heaping dose of knowledge, memory, and “McGyver” savvy to invent solutions on the fly… in seconds. The mind is a precious thing. Feed it. Nurture it, Exercise it.

  8. “An example of a bankster trying to out-talk the reality of “printing over” a Depression? ”

    See.. as the dollar crumbles.. IF.. you had bought Bit Coin.. you would in essence be saving money and it growing .. you can’t use it hold it to loose it. it is secure on a ledger that you own it.. and since they don’t make any more bitcoins.. then as more people see the wisdom of buying them for safe keeping in slow mo’s hands.. you get to increase your savings.. it is just pure wisdom to buy it.. you don’t have to use it.. no one will accept it.. you can spend it so you get to let it sit and grow..
    I also hear they are going to take photo’s of all the proud bitcoin owners so that people can show off their pride.. ( LOL )

  10. Holy smokes, George! Did you get new glasses and now can see perfectly? The new fonts and format must be optimized for something other than a desktop or laptop screen. Need more contrast and a next larger font size for sure!

    • Now it’s back to normal. What happened? Did my browser get an update or something? It seemed like everything went Windows 10 on me for a bit last night? Scary.

      • I was tweaking some of the security settings. There’s a balance out here “at the edge” between security and speed. Which is why the changes were tried on a non column day… thanks for the feedback, though.

  11. whats this flash manure .. yeah your beauties talk doom gloom pandemic end of the world and yah pump the futures and your market . next there will be tips on how to home service your Ferrari or lamboghini. eh should take lie tests all of yous ..

  13. Ah, posting is back, as is my vision. I couldn’t post last night off either Mozilla or Vivaldi (probably could have but didn’t want to screw up the interface any more, and it DID give me multiple comment boxes into which I could type…)

  14. “Revolutionary stupidity running rampant in Wisconsin and spreading: “Two people are dead and a third injured after an overnight shooting in Kenosha, police say.”

    I dropped in on Broadcastify last night because my neighborhood, usually a zero-crime zone, had cops crawling through it.

    The city nearest me had 77 listeners. Detroit, Cleveland, Indianapolis, Columbus, between 300-400. Louisville and St Louis, about 200, Chicago, less than 600. (If’fn y’all missed it, Chi-town and Derby-town are rioting hot-spots right now.)

    Kenosha had ~47,000 listeners.

    That 47k was more than SeaTac, Portland, SanFran, LA, Phoenix, Dallas, Boston, NYC, and DC, combined.

    Kenosha has a population of less than 100,000…

  15. “…I found an interest in folk and ballad styles of music. Woody Guthrie, Kingston Trio, the early Bob Dylan stuff. Peter, Paul, and Mary…and it was a discovery track that would lead to Joan Baez and from there Joni Mitchell.”

    The Dave Brubeck “Take-Five” album was an entryway into Jazz.”

    Boy, does that take me back!

    Brubeck’s lead wind man was my HS Band student teacher. EVERYBODY memorized and played the sax line from “Take 5.” Ya ain’t heard nuttin’ until you hear a HS Freshman try to play dem riffs on a flute or trombone (after you hear it, it’s impossible to forget, no matter how hard you try!)

    He carried the first Winchester TreyPak (instrument case designed to hold 3 instruments — the forerunner of the “gig bag”) I ever saw. He had a Selmer Mark VI alto, a Buffet R13, and a solid sterling Armstrong in it — tools of the Trade for a top musician, stuff of dreams for poor musician wannabees…

    FWIW I had Stan Kenton’s lead wind as a GA in college. I told him about the other fellow and asked him why a professional would bother with a degree. His reply: “So I can teach.”

    “You can’t?”

    “No, not without a Master’s.”

    ‘Never occurred to me that even ‘way back when, one had to have that silly piece of paper to be able to teach a craft, of which one was obviously tops in the field…

  16. “Pretty obvious how the “modern teachers” have – as stooges of political correctness, promoters of do-overs, and “everyone finishes the same” in Life, have pretty well reached their usefulness limits.”

    Some of it is the teachers, most of it is the school board, State DoE, and Federal DoE.

    ALL school teachers have their hands tied by their local School Board, PTO, and Union, so even those who might produce students who excel, rarely do, unless the student is taught by their parents, to expect nothing less.

    People who’re far from “learning,” issue edicts and mandates regarding something which “sounds like a good idea” (remember my constant b!tching about the “Law of Unintended Consequences” and piling “crap fixes” on a “bad law” to make it workable?) Departments of Education do it too. Something comes down from “on high” and it is left to the local Board to figure out how to implement it without violating either it, or previous regs — and do it from a list of “required texts” for each subject. Then it’s pushed onto the teachers, who must figure out a way to teach something useful from a text full of bullsh!t and unnecessary, unrealistic process.

    Teachers must implement “Common Core,” which is an obfuscation of teaching and learning protocols.

    They must stress verbose answers to posed problems — even for Math, which (last time I checked) is an “exact science.”

    They are not allowed to discipline in any way, other than by Office referral, nor are they allowed to re-establish an orderly classroom, if it becomes unruly.

    They are pressured severely by both their Administration and the parents, to “pass, regardless of ability or performance” because failing a student might damage the student’s self-esteem, and cause the school’s published performance stats to decline.

    In summary:

    Teachers can’t teach subjects – they have to teach processes

    They are not allowed to discipline or maintain disciplinary control

    They can’t fail kids, which means they have to teach to the “lowest common denominator” and scale grades accordingly

    They MUST teach to standardized tests

    Where’s the incentive for teachers to excel?
    Where’s the incentive for students to excel?

    …And nowadays, they have a bunch of PC crap, non-historical history, and an emphasis on minor people, places, processes, and events, dumped on them — The teachers have to teach this garbage, the kids have to learn it like it has meaning. Accordingly, teachers can’t teach anything important or useful and kids can’t learn anything useful or valuable.

    …At least not in school.

    • “unless the student is taught by their parents, to expect nothing less.”

      I agree.. I have been telling the thirteen year old to question.. make the teacher look it up.. answer your questions..
      what I have been told lately is that the teachers just ignore the questions and move on to the next thing..I told the thirteen year old to push me.. make me look it up.. heck I started to wear my hearing aides when I am around them LOL..Or go ask one of your cousins.. make them look it up..

  17. People ask me what they can do.

    I tell them:

    Junior starts real-world learning before he learns to crawl. Accept the fact your kid is learning how to behave and interact from you. Read to your baby until she’s an accomplished toddler — THEN have her READ TO YOU. Take junior to the store with you and let her pay & accept the change.

    -=PRESTO!=-

    You’ve just taught your kid elementary arithmetic, commerce, reading, and sentence structure (and if you’re lucky, spelling.)

    I played a game with my kids: When the younger was little more than 2, I started pointing out a sign or billboard and asking them what they thought it said. I’d then tell them what it actually said, and why. By the time the elder (my son) hit kindergarten, they were both reading above 4th Grade level, so I changed the game: I would wait until we’d PASSED a sign or billboard, THEN ask them what it said. We’d pass a farm field and I’d ask how many cows, or horses, or buildings, or whatever, had been there. I’d pass a car, or one would pass me, then I’d ask them what the plate number was — not always, but sometimes. Because there was more than one child, there was a constant competition to get the right answer, and get it before a sib, so their sibling competition spurred their learning, probably more than I ever could’ve done with an only child.

    -=VOILA=-

    Suddenly da kids are speed-reading trained observers, with semi-photographic memories.

    I taught my kids how to cook simple meals and do laundry when they were seven and five; taught them how to wash dishes when they were eight and six (we had a dishwasher, they refused to load it, so I removed it and taught them how to WASH dishes, by hand, in a sink.) I also taught them that going through the motions of “doing a job” was not the same as actually doing it. If the dishes weren’t clean, they got to redo the entire sink full… The lesson being “an action, without results, is meaningless… A job isn’t done, until it’s done right.” The dishes aren’t “done” until they’re clean, dry, and put-away; laundry isn’t “done” until it’s dry, folded, and put-away. My son still b!tches about this — my daughter, thanks me.

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