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POPSAre American Voters Stupid or Rationally Ignorant? Americans vote ignorantly because they willingly limit what they research because there is little incentive for one person who cannot individually make very much difference. This also explains why information from another viewpoint, or party, is rashly dismissed out of hand without consideration or deliberation, for mere convenience. Listen to this short podcast from CATO for the interesting analysis which has alot of merit. This is where Democracy fails, and why Presidents (like Bush) can be elected with less than 23% of potential voters (about 50% eligible do not vote for various reasons, including disgust): the rational decisions of individuals create a dysfunctional collective outcome
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POPSFactCheck: Who's really responsible for crisis? "Screwing up takes a great deal of cooperation." D's blame R's and R's blame D's - but those accusations (and I have made them, too, sorry to say) are far too simplistic to help us fix the problem. Here's a list of contributors to the perfect storm.
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POPS"Dreaming the Future": Something is Coming article continues: In an attempt to track this phenomenon of "aggregate intuition," TAI is in the process of launching a web portal called WHETHEReport where users can post their gut feelings and dreams, to be compiled and analyzed for patterns in the hopes of anticipating major future happenings. As a preliminary experiment, TAI is asking for anyone who experiences any "significant suggestion" of a disruptive event occuring in the coming weeks to send it in an email with the following information: (Send email to dreams2008@arlingtoninstitute.org) Date of dream or intuition: Geographic Location of dreamer: Narrative of actual dream/intuition: Degree of urgency of dream/intuition: (scale of 1-10. 10 is most urgent) Element of the dream/intuition that stands out as being most important: Geographic location of the dream event (if any): Illuminating comments about the experience:
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POPSOLDS: Preparing for a neuroscience revolution Our challenge is that we don't pay enough attention to such game-changing discoveries as they are happening. And when we don't pay attention, then the societal conversations that need to happen to reach consensus on policy also don't happen - at least in a proactive fashion. We end up reacting instead. In the case of the uncovering the secrets of the human mind, such proactive consideration would be better off earlier than later. The writer is James Olds is the director of the Krasnow Institute for Advanced Study at George Mason University. This is an important read.
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POPSObama born to Muslim Martians!
Hey, believe that and I've got a bridge on the MOON to sell ya! Good Gobbly Goop, there are too many gullibles in the USA. Sometimes, I get a notion to post on the Internet, something so outrageous, that only a person living on some mountaintop without any info at hand and with an IQ of minus 10, could believe. Just to see how breakneck fast it would go from computer to computer. Then I’ll sit back and listen to the, collective shouts of the 'Uninformed" yelling, "I TOLD YOU SO, I KNEW OBAMA WAS A DIRTY WHATCHAMACALLIT!" We sure are a nation of nincompoops (Well, too many, anyhow.). It's scary, that countless "informationally challenged" will vote for a USA president, based on rumors and negative hearsay of the opposition. What's so stressful, is that not only they, will live with the consequences but the rest of us who have half a brain will also have to live with their boneheaded mindsets. Just for fun, let's have another 8 years of Dubya to see what how low we could go. :eek:
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POPSPresident Bush's Clout in the Middle East is Going, Going, GONE! Georgie W. Bush, the lame, lame-duck guy temporarily occupying the Oval Office has no clout in the Middle East, or anywhere else in the world of foreign policy. His credibility is shot. His allies are few, and most of the world is counting the days until he shakes hands with his replacement at the new president's inauguration in January. The world is waiting to take its collective sigh of relief on the winter morning, when the war criminal in chief finally bid farewell, and hopefully gets dragged to the Hague where he will be tried for war crimes. Oh well, I can dream, can't I?
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POPSOn building the Red-Green alliance "The absence however of wide participation from among the socialist left, outside the sponsoring organizations such as the Socialist Alliance, suggests that a lot more attention has to be invested by reds to turn green. The challenge thrown up not only by the Cuban example of sustainability — explained by Roberto Perez — and the ecological relevance of Marxism –as argued by John Bellamy Foster — gave many greens much food for thought and many lefts a lot of inspiration."
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POPSCulture Influences Brain Function, Study Shows To read the full interesting article: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/01/080111102934.htm There is so much to learn. What is interesting is how this affects testing as in schools or IQ. I think it may start to show what many of us already know. People think and perceive differently and need to be tested that way or tests not given the same importance. People/children learn differently. I have a strong opinion that things won't change very fast in the classroom though. But maybe parents can learn and appreciate what they have. Maybe people can start to appreciate differences and what we all bring to the table.
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POPSCulture influences brain function “Everyone uses the same attention machinery for more difficult cognitive tasks, but they are trained to use it in different ways, and it's the culture that does the training,”
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POPS100 billion Internet videos 100 billion videos were watched this year on the Internet. That's mucho input into the collective brain. When I am watching one of those computer shorts, I can't help but think of all the others around the world who may be observing it along with me. A feeling of comradeship I never did get while gazing the boob-tube. I guess it's because when I'm viewing these clips I think of the people who uploaded them. Yesterday, I came across a comedian named Bill Hicks, a very funny young man who died in 1994. One particular video was an interview Bill did in England explaining his type of humor. The person who put this vid on youtube explained he had come across the rare footage while searching for something else. A happening I've experienced on more than one occasion. Camaraderie with a stranger. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nMyti0nxBqQ
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POPSHow to get out of a speeding ticket If you cant weasel your way out of a ticket, and are forced to go to court, do so with knowledge on your side. First, contact your local Dept. of Transportation office and request a copy of the Traffic Engineering Study for the road you received your ticket on. You may luck out right there, as a large number of roads in this nation have never had a TES study done on them!! Most localities just pick a number and stick with it. If you run into the unfortunate circumstance of actually getting a ticket on a road that has had a TES study done on it, make sure to request the as-mandated- 5 year update. If no updates were done, and the TES was done more than 5 years ago, you can argue that the speed limit is no longer valid, and the state wouldnt have anyway to justify that it was.
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POPSIf in New York area, Help these soldiers get respect. If you are in the New York area where these soldiers will be at. And you don't want to support Gestapo tactics against soldiers who fought for your freedom. Then be there as a witness, so the Nazis don't get out of hand. Bullies have a hard time picking on people when there are witnesses.
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POPSWhat Grannies Want For The World Grannies lobby Congress to end the war in Iraq. Go, Grannies, go! "The new grannies want it all: to bake cookies and change the world for the youngest generation." Read the article for more info on the changing roles and attitudes of grannies.
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POPSStop The Pit Bull Ban in NYC New York City Council Member Peter Vallone, Jr. said the city should ban residents from owning pit bulls and he is calling for the repeal of a state law prohibiting breed-specific legislation. Overturning this law would clear the way for NYC to enact legislation banning city residents from owning pit bulls. To read the entire letter http://www.nsalamerica.org/pitbull/
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POPSEverything 2.0 " Mainly "thin" web-based variations on classical (Outlook!) office ware in this category. Only a few brilliant apps; most of them beat MS in bad logic, stupid interfaces and ugly GUIs:"
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POPSIs online etiquette a myth? "Digg is a popularity contest of one-upmanship. Gawker is all about making fun of things, so its readers mock each other and it. Karma’s a boomerang."
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POPSThe Richard Dawkins of India According to this author, Pagan revivals are either doomed to failure, or doomed to become fascist monsters. I'd like a second opinion!
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POPSMURDOCRACY Long live the internet as an alternative media outlet. Rupert Murdoch and his FOX News media empire must be taken down.
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POPSUPEI Takes Action to Ensure Teaching Excellence and Academic Integrity UPEI professors rank number one in the country for awards? Now that’s quite a claim. But, who determined they “rank number one in the country,” and how? Where are the statistics to support this claim? Are we talking number of awards, number of awards per 100 faculty, number of dollars awarded, or what? And, what type of awards? National, regional, or perhaps internal? The possibilities are endless. Maybe the UPEI President should demonstrate some concern for integrity in advertising. By the way, UPEI faculty are currently on strike. If it’s true they “rank number one in the country for awards,” maybe they deserve to earn number-one wages?
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