Category: Education

Navigating to the Moon — Remembering the Apollo Sextant

The Apollo sextant was used in Earth and lunar orbit, as well as while en route between Earth and the Moon. It played different roles in each of those contexts: in orbit around Earth or the Moon, the sextant could be used to compute the spacecraft’s altitude and position; whereas in transit between Earth and the Moon, it could be used to compute the spacecraft’s attitude (orientation), position, and velocity. A proper attitude during the flight to and from the Moon was critical for accurate course corrections and burns to reach the Moon and correctly insert the spacecraft into the desired lunar orbit. The device was used repeatedly throughout the Apollo program across many phases of the missions, up to and including re-entry.

Pretty impressive advanced technology! Also shows how the basics will never be outdated.

Source: Navigating to the Moon — Remembering the Apollo Sextant

Ray Bradbury Wrote ‘Fahrenheit 451’ to Prevent a Dystopia. Instead, He Predicted One

It’s a strange irony that, in the age of the Internet, which was supposed to encourage more transparency and debate, the open exchange of ideas is under threat. This was pointed out by another famous science fiction writer, Michael Crichton. “In the information society,” says Ian Malcolm in Jurassic Park, “No one thinks. We expected to banish paper, but we actually banished thought.”

Source: Ray Bradbury Wrote ‘Fahrenheit 451’ to Prevent a Dystopia. Instead, He Predicted One

History and the High Price of Forgetting

The reason we study history is because certain patterns repeat themselves. And this is where our education system has been failing us so terribly for decades, in part because of “multiculturalism.” Circa 1990, it became fashionable to condemn the teaching of history in our society as too “Eurocentric” and this academic trend, along with a general contempt for “dead white males,” had the effect of demoting the study of the history of our own culture in favor of “inclusive” history about African, Asian and Latin American societies. But this involves a misunderstanding of why we study history at all. The peasant living under a hereditary monarchy, or a goat-herder in a nomadic tribal society, would have no use for the study of history. In a non-democratic polity, it is only the leadership caste which has need to study history, as a guide to statecraft. However, in a republic, where every citizen is eligible to participate in the decision-making process — at the very least, as a voter — the study of history as part of a general education becomes much more important. How are we to participate intelligently in politics if we don’t know history? And the reason we study ancient Greece and Rome, rather than the Mayans or the Chinese or some other culture, isn’t because of racism or “Eurocentrism.” It’s because Greco-Roman civilization produced the earliest models for representative government, and because these civilizations left behind a written record, including such valuable resources as Thucydides.

At the beginning he asks “Have you ever read Thucydides’ History of the Peloponnesian War?” Yes, I have. I also recommend it.

Source: History and the High Price of Forgetting

Are Homeschoolers Overqualified?

Dear Mike

My son, Spencer, decided to apply for the High Voltage Lineman program at Arkansas State University Newport. He went through the interviews just fine, applied and was accepted. We also applied for the full tuition scholarship that was offered through our local electric cooperative. (There are 17 said scholarships available annually, one for each co-op in the state of Arkansas.)

My son filled out his application and eagerly awaited his interview with the selection committee. A little background: Spencer was homeschooled most of his life. That gave him the opportunity to do some pretty neat things. At 18, his skill set includes: light electrical, sheetrock, tiling, concrete work, and graphic design. He currently works full time for a cement contractor, awaiting school to start in the Fall.

So Wednesday, he had his interview. This is what he was told. ‘Spencer, I’m gonna tell you something you don’t want to hear. Your grades and test scores are too high and you are too articulate. We ran into this with another kid today. You need to enroll at the University and go into engineering. We need someone who won’t get bored and drop out.’

No many how many assurances Spencer gave them, they wouldn’t listen. He got the official rejection call the following day.

Jennifer Hutchinson

Homeschooling is superior to the government union product. You’re making everybody else look bad.

Source: Are Homeschoolers Overqualified?

Many studies’ results cannot be reproduced, scholars warn | The College Fix

“Not all irreproducible research is progressive advocacy; not all progressive advocacy is irreproducible; but the intersection between the two is very large. The intersection between the two is a map of much that is wrong with modern science,” the report states.

More crap from the ‘educated’ amongst us.

Source: Many studies’ results cannot be reproduced, scholars warn | The College Fix

Don’t Go To College

Today, academia’s product is largely garbage – gender studies, twisted history, and pointless sociology spin-offs like communications and political science. Yeah, we need more students studying politics when they don’t even know that the Constitution says they can’t shut people up because their feelz has got the hurtz.

Sure, the STEM fields produce a few grads who are going to be more than mere cogs in the corporate machine like their marketing major pals, and some STEM research is useful, but don’t think STEM is immune from academia’s endemic idiocy. Why, the latest thing is how science is racist because…well, probably because these hacks say everything is racist and the weak-willed gutless wonders of America’s faculty are too scared to stand up and say, “Uh no, that’s stupid and it’s not a thing and stop it.”

I submit that STEM is not ‘education’. It doesn’t teach you the history of your country, the philosophy behind our founding documents, etc. It doesn’t teach you good citizenship. I wonder how many STEM graduates could pass a citizenship naturalization test? STEM by itself is just job training.

Source: Don’t Go To College

What Are the Children Learning?

One college is proud to advertise that they have done away with “unrelated curriculum.”  So nursing students are not required to study U.S. history and a student majoring in Information Technology does not need to take Philosophy 101.  This is countered by Jack Kerwick, who describes a liberal arts education as supplying students “with ‘the habit of attention;’ ‘the art of expression;’ ‘the art of assuming at a moment’s notice, a new intellectual position;’ ‘the art of entering quickly into another person’s thoughts;’ ‘the habit of submitting to censure and refutation;’ ‘the art of indicating assent or dissent in graduated terms;’ ‘the habit of regarding minute points of accuracy;’ and ‘the art of working out what is possible in a given time [.]'”

This is why I laugh when people with degrees tell me they know better than me because of their ‘degree.’ It’s worthless outside of their area of study… and sometimes not even then. Alexandria Occasional Cortex’s pronouncements on economics are comical, yet she claims to have a degree in economics. (which is why she was bartending…)

College isn’t an education anymore. It’s glorified job training.

What is job training? It’s education for slaves. No need to read, write, or think. Just spew out the leftist extremist talking points you were force fed and do your job.

Source: What Are the Children Learning?

Spotting the wild Fascist

The Fascist theory was of a unitary, totalizing state ruled by a leader acting as the embodiment of the will of the nation. No power centers in opposition to the embodied will can be tolerated; church, family, education, and civic institutions must all become organs of that will.

One way to tell if you’re dealing with an actual Fascist is whether your subject has that theory of state power. If he doesn’t, you might be dealing with (say) a garden variety conservative-militarist strongman like Admiral Horthy in Hungary. Rulers like that will kill you if you look like a political threat, but they’re not invested in totalitarianizing their entire society.

Source: Spotting the wild Fascist

This Plane Accidentally Flew Around The World

The morning of 6th January 1942 was going to be a cold one. Not that this was unusual for New York, mused the night-shift air controller at LaGuardia’s tower, but it did mean he’d have to wrap up…

* * *

“In the event that you are required to open and read these instructions, you may assume that hostilities have already occurred and that the aircraft under your command represents a strategic military resource which must be protected and secured from falling into enemy hands…”

A three-part series. Fascinating.

Hollywood, why isn’t this a movie?

Source: This Plane Accidentally Flew Around The World – Part One

Source: The Long Way Round: Ice Cold in Auckland – Part Two

Source: The Long Way Round: Getting Home – Part Three

Fifty Years of Apocalyptic Global Warming Predictions and Why People Believe Them

You may have noticed that nearly all of the doomsday theories seem to begin with the phrase, “if current trends continue.” But, as I have just reviewed, current trends don’t continue. Global temperatures go down, then up, then stay flat. Population growth tapers off, new oil reserves are discovered, agricultural yields increase at even higher rates. Doomsday forecasters always overestimate gloomy trends and underestimate human ingenuity in problem solving.

Source: Fifty Years of Apocalyptic Global Warming Predictions and Why People Believe Them