What Constitutes a Real Aptitude Test?

In a previous blog, see http://brane-space.blogspot.com/2013/08/why-so-many-past-aptitude-tests-are-no.html

I noted why most current standardized exams, including the SAT, GRE and others, no longer qualify as bona fide aptitude tests and hence can no longer be used for entry into the high IQ societies, such as Mensa, Intertel. This elicits the question of what a real aptitude test would look like, what type of questions would be seen?

As an example, I can present some sample questions from the (1985) Graduate Record Exam I took (test booklets could be purchased with score release), which result (1330 verbal + quant.) qualified me not only for Mensa entry but Intertel as well  - and also a $9800/yr  post-graduate research assistantship at the University of Alaska-Fairbanks. The test was grueling to say the least, lasting a full 210 mins. (3 1/2 hours) with 30 questions each in 7 sections (30 mins. allowed per section) alternating verbal, quantitative and analytical questions. The questions also varied in complexity. In the case of the verbal portions they ranged from simple recognition of opposites and analogies, etc. to parsing complex paragraphs from diverse writings then interpreting them. In the case of the quantitative sets, they varied from simple algebraic, arithmetic,  geometric or trig questions to analyzing graphs then addressing aspects of them via the questions. The point to bear in mind is that no matter how "simple" the questions may appear, they're not based on rote memory or content but on aptitude.

Since basically there  is only one minute per question on average, then if anyone attempts this as a sample test, you have no more than 20 minutes to complete it.  In the interest of space conservation I have focused only on the shorter version of questions - no lengthy ones. Thus finishing in the time  may be somewhat misleading - since obviously more complex questions (which are excluded) would consume more time.

With those provisos, here goes:

Sample GRE Verbal (I): Time: 5 Minutes

Each question contains a word in capital letters then five lettered choices. Choose the one that is most nearly opposite in meaning to the word in capitals:

1. SATURNINE:

(A) genial (B) devout   (C) distinguished  (D) quick-witted  (E) heavy-handed


2. ABEYANCE:

(A) fulfillment  (B) activity  (C) renascence (D) resistance  (E) continuance


3. MUNIFICENCE:

(A) appreciation (B) deception  (C) modesty (D) stinginess  (E) anxiety


4. JUDICIOUS:

(A) insecure  (B) unwise  (C) inept  (D) lacking consequence  (E) without probability


5. DISSEMINATE:

(A) deceive  (B) garner  (C)  constrain ( D) confirm ( E) conjoin



Sample GRE Quantitative (I) Time: 5 Minutes

1. If the volume of a cube with side of length 6 is equal to the volume of a rectangular solid with length 12 and width 9, then the height of the rectangular solid is:

(A) 2 ( B) 4   (C) 6   (D)8  (E) 9


2. Consider this result of an operation []:

3(4.5 []  3) =  4.5

Which of the following operations could be substituted for [] to make the above equation true?

I (+)   II (-)  III (/ )

(A) None  (B) I only ( C) II only  (D) III only   (E) II and III


3. In a list of numbers the first number is 3, the second is 4, and each subsequent number is the sum of all the preceding numbers in the list. If the 20th number in the list is x, what is the 21st number in the list?

(A) 7x   (B) 16 x   (C) 32x  ( D) 35x   (E) 161 x


4. Electricity to operate a window air conditioner costs 3 cents per hour and to operate an attic fan, 1.2 cents per hour. How many hours would the attic fan have to be in operation to operate the air conditioner for 8 hours?

(A) 2.5  (B) 3,2  (C) 12,0  (D) 20.0  (E) 25.0


5. If r = 4s/ 5  then what is the value of 2s/ 3r?

(A) 8/15 ( B) 3/4  (C) 5/6  (D) 2/2  (E) 6/5


GRE Sample Verbal (II) Time: 5 Minutes

In each of the following, select the lettered pair of words that is closest to the original pair (shown in capitals):

1. GALLEY:SHIP

(A) entry:restaurant (B) market:mall (C)picnic:park (D) kitchen:house (E) banquet: hall


2. SPLINT: MOBILITY

(A) lubricant:friction (B) foundation:stability (C) exercise :activity (D) food:weight (E) antiseptic:sterility

3. RIG: CONTEST

(A) repudiate:thesis (B) predict:race (C) gerrymander:district (D) solve:conundrum (E)incriminate:evidence


4. CREEK:RIVER:

(A) fire:log (B) pebble:rock  (C) leg: desk  (D) island:water (E) beach:desert


5. COURAGEOUS: BRAVADO:

(A) wary:prudence  (B) horrific: panic (C) honorable:veracity (D) self-centered:conceit (E)complimentary:fulsomeness


GRE Sample Quantitative (II): 5 minutes

Choose (A) if the quantity in column A is larger, Choose (B) if the quantity in column B is larger, choose (C) if the quantities are equal, and choose (D) if the relationship cannot be determined from the information given:


Column A -------------------------- Column B


1. 12/ 3.......................................(4/7) x 7

2.  100.010 - 0.009.................100.000 + 0.002

3.  x/y ..........................................y/x

(where x = 25% of 12, and y = 10% of 40)

4. P ................................................Q

(for all x:    x ²   -     7x -  8  = (x - P) (x - Q)



5.  (-4) <> 5..................................5 <> (-4)

(for all real numbers p and r, p<> r = pr - p +r)


(Answers tomorrow!)

Free Will an Illusion? Very Likely!

Perhaps the most daring and provocative renunciation of free will emerged in Alex Rosenberg’s The Atheist’s Guide to Reality. Rosenberg bases his claims on documented experiments, such as those by  Lüder Deecke  and Hans Helmut Kornhuber in 1964, showing that all human actions precede conscious decisions to perform them.

For example, Rosenberg argues, in his discussion concerning neural time delays, that a simple action like flexing a wrist can’t be done at the instant one consciously thinks of doing so . Instead, there’s an inevitable time delay of about 200 milliseconds from conscious willing to wrist flexing and finger pressing.(Rosenberg, p. 152). He adds that the cortical processes responsible commence 500 ms before that!

The obvious implication: Consciously deciding to do something is not the cause of doing it. The “free will” you believe determines your assorted actions is really a fiction. Or, conversely,  if there is no such thing as free will, there can be no willpower to exercise control over it. Rosenberg adopts this as a grounding for his notion that we are beings entirely governed by blind sight- i.e. all our sensory outputs are based on ex post facto- conducted neural process corrections to much earlier sensory inputs.

The point is, humans aren't equipped to gain real time access to anything in their world! What actually happens in vision, for example, is that the brain must perform tricks to first erect an image that appears inverted on the retina. The process takes time and processing via the optic nerve is also needed. Thus, in Rosenberg’s parlance, vision turns out to be hindsight not foresight. Rosenberg’s inescapable conclusion is that because of this we are victims of a monumental illusion condemned to live our lives through rear sight, not foresight or will. This transfers to his Chapter Eight, in which we are shown The Brain Does Everything Without Thinking About It At All.

There can be no aboutness for introspection or description of any meaning, according to Rosenberg’s perspective, since introspection is an illusion given the fact our brain doesn’t really think. We only think it thinks. All these words I’m writing (or any other blogger's, or tweeter's)? Meaningless gibberish! Shakespeare’s work, The Tempest? Doggerel and drivel! Einstein’s original paper on special relativity? A product of human imagination run riot.

 Jean-Paul Sartre’s Being and Nothingness? A delusional, solipsistic voyage that could as well have been produced from LSD ingestion! Basically, all our fine cogitating, ruminating and writing translates to a torrent of meaningless effluent. All our millions and billions of volumes of books, e-books and scientific or other journals amount to culminations of massive forest destruction or wasted bytes. With no introspection, the products of human thought have no interpretative dimensions. They’re merely elaborate chemical-physical automatons operating under the illusion of genuine personhood.

 Now comes a perhaps less radical declaration that free will is overstated in the excellent Mensa Bulletin article ‘Will Power’ ( July, p. 24) by member Mark Chmielewski. According to Mark, our belief that we’re actually determining our actions in real time is an illusion generated by recourse to a set of pre-programmed algorithms in the prefrontal cortex. He observes:

 “The main functions of the prefrontal cortex involve planning responses to complex and difficult problems. It takes past events stored in those billions of neurons and present experiences, runs them through brain-created algorithms and sends a response to the body – which acts accordingly.”

He goes on to note that the brain occupies its first 10 or so years learning by “creating synapses for everything in the person’s life”. The brain then takes those synapses and fine tunes behavior, emotions and planning over the next 10-15 years. What’s the final product? Well, it’s an “electrical-chemical computer that runs the body both consciously and unconsciously”. This enables the person to react to real time situations based on brain responses using input from previously created algorithms.

In other words, no individual is capable of just randomly making a decision. The bottom line:

 ”every living human being’s decision is based on past information assimilated by the brain. The responses come from the brain based on the perceived situation.”

The author then finally arrives at the only acceptable definition of free will, which is one with which I can also concur: “Free will is decision making absent past brain input”

As an example of genuine free will being exercised according to this definition, consider a fundie creationist who'd always blogged or written about his shtick then  suddenly writes a tract in defense of atheism and Darwinian evolution. THAT would make a novel break from his past algorithmic programming and mark the exercise of true free will. Another example would be that of a hate blogger suddenly killing his whole hateful series of past bigoted posts and replacing them with tolerant ones, evoking a genuine love of humanity. To do that, to make that choice, he'd have had to step outside of his racist,  pre-programmed brain algorithms and reactive -emotional behaviors. Clean out his brain, in other words!

Chmielewski adds: “Free will no longer needs to be a discussion topic in philosophy because it is a nonexistent entity”.

Bravo to Mark for a thoroughly rational take!

Yes, It CAN Happen Here!

Winston Smith strapped to the rat cage in Room 101. As the rats approach he screams and betrays his lover telling O'Brien to "Do it to Julia, not me!" This is what the fascist state wants - to divide each from all others to enable totalitarian control.

In the movie '1984' prior to being led to "Room 101" (roughly the equivalent of the torture-water boarding room in our modern era, except worse), "O'Brien" (the INGSOC inquisitor)  informs Winston Smith what the future will look like: "It will be a boot stomping on a human face.....forever!"  He was referring to the unstoppable spread of fascism across the planet. Winston is first forced to submit to electro-shock torture:  his body placed on a large conductor and administered shock after shock  because he has refused to betray his lover (Julia) and submit in 100% devotion to the State ('Big Brother').  Also, because he refuses to say O'Brien is holding up five fingers, when it is really just four. (O'Brien: "If I say it is five, then it is five!")

But after Winston expresses distinct disgust for "Big Brother" it is to Room 101 he must go where the torture is the manifestation of one's worst fears. In Winston's case- rats - two of which are put into a rat cage-cum-mask that can be strapped to the head and allow the vermin to approach his face as different levers are pressed and wire partitions collapse. One more partition and they will be eating away at his face- likely boring right through his head. The scene from the movie is shown below:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pLFIxt2cK_0

Orwell's novel was meant to be a cautionary tale of what can transpire within the most obnoxious, obscene,  totalitarian systems, such as Stalin's Soviet Union or Hitler's Third Reich. It never crossed his mind to consider the possibility of a fascist state emerging in a democratic nation, say like the U.S. However, unknown to too many Americans, Sinclair Lewis did consider such a possible future and wrote about it in his novel: 'It Can't Happen Here'.

Those who are interested can find the entire text of the novel here: http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks03/0301001h.html

A brief synopsis:

It is (1935), and there's a  highly contested election of an oafish yet strangely charismatic president, who talks like a "reformer" but is really in the pocket of big business, who claims to be a home-spun "humanist," while appealing to religious extremists, and who speaks of "liberating" women and minorities, as he gradually strips them of all their rights. One character, when describing him, says, "I can't tell if he's a crook or a religious fanatic."  After getting elected, he puts the media - at that time, radio and newspapers - under the supervision of the military and slowly begins buying up or closing down media outlets.  The biggest media tycoon of the time directs his newspapers to heap unqualified praise upon the president and his policies, and a special relationship with the government. The president, taking advantage of an economic crisis, strong-arms Congress into signing blank checks over to the military and passing stringent and unconstitutional laws, including seizing property and mass spying.



Hmmmm.......sounds very familiar, similar to what happened in the U.S. after the Bush II bloodless coup in 2000. We saw Bush entrain Big business and the military by exploiting a terror attack then getting unconstitutional laws passed in the form of the Patriot Act - including provisions to enact martial law on the flimsiest pretext, as well as getting a pussified congress to pass the Military Commissions Act in 2006, removing habeas corpus.

Recall earlier I'd warned of one of the outstanding hallmarks of the fascist state, tied to demolition of privacy protections as enshrined in the 4th Amendment. I noted, referencing the language of the amendment:

" 'Being secure in one’s person, house, papers, effects'  implies PRIVACY! These are after all MY private papers, my private effects, my house, etc. If an inherent right to privacy was a myth then by all accounts being secure in one’s person, papers, effects wouldn’t matter. Hell, let the whole freakin’ world see ‘em! This is why in a fascist dictatorship 'personal effects' don’t exist. “Personal papers” has no meaning. The state has full monopoly, de facto ownership on whatever the person has, even his own body. Hence, in fascist dictatorships, such as existed in Nazi Germany, all personal effects, papers could be seized by the Nazis on a whim or remote suspicion "

Enter now the barbaric recent seizure of property of Glenn Greenwald’s Brazilian partner David Miranda by British police during a flight transfer at London’s Heathrow Airport. Without offering any reason whatsoever, they seized his property (laptop, jump drives, computer games)  on the basis of an anti-terrorist statute, passed in 2000, with the Orwellian name “Schedule 7.”   As blogger David Lindorff writes:

"Miranda was subsequently detained and held, without access to a lawyer, for nine hours -- the maximum amount of time allowed under the draconian terms of Schedule 7 -- and was during that time questioned by at least six security agents, whom Miranda says asked him about his “entire life.” Never was there any suggestion that he was a terrorist or that he had any links to terrorism. Rather, the focus was on journalist Greenwald’s plans in relation to his writing further articles about the data he had obtained from US National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden, now living in Russia under a grant of political and humanitarian asylum"

In other words, it was obviously payback for Greenwald's reporting of Snowden's leaks in the UK Guardian newspaper.

Lindorff goes on:

"In a related action, police also went to the offices of the UK Guardian newspaper, which is where Greenwald works, though from his home in Brazil, and, in an act of wanton destruction reminiscent of Nazi storm troopers or Chinese public security bureau thugs, destroyed hard drives of the newspaper’s computers containing leaked documents provided by Snowden."

Are we entering the era of Newspeak and Orwellian-style  fascism written about in '1984' and Sinclair Lewis' 'It Can't Happen here'? You be the judge. But bear in mind, as in those novels, once liberty is lost it is unlikely to be recovered. Miranda's case is now being investigated in Britain, see e.g. http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2013/aug/22/terror-law-watchdog-report-david-miranda and civil libertarians will rightly see this as a test of whether the UK is tilting toward becoming "Oceania" and remaining a lapdog of the U.S. spy state, or if it truly values civil liberties.

The jury is still out and the clock is ticking.  Meanwhile, the release of recent government audit reports disclose even more unauthorized NSA seizure of emails, communications, etc. violating the 4th amendment. See: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/aug/21/nsa-illegally-collected-thousands-emails-court


Will congress do anything now? This is another test, for our own nation!

Mail Brane: Readers Seeking Answers to Questions

Q. I hope you can help! My husband, age 38, had  been diagnosed 2 years ago with aggressive prostate cancer (classified adenocarcinoma with stage T2(c) in biopsy) and had to have the radical prostatectomy or so he was told. The urologist told him he would need to begin penile rehabilitation as soon as the Foley catheter was removed but he refused. He said the pain was still too unbearable after the surgery and couldn't bear any erections from Viagra or whatever. To make a long story short his initial resistance to penile rehab - such as you described in your October 14 blog last year- became hardened. Gradually, he became incapable of getting any erections and his penis deformed. Much like you described. What can be done? Anything? - Barbara B., Orlando FL

A. At this stage it's doubtful since if the therapy isn't done soon after surgery and erections are allowed to lapse as you described, the tissue damage - due to lack of consistent blood flow - becomes permanent. There may be some surgery that can correct the deformation (I presume you mean the U-shape that Dr. John Mulhall describes in his book that I referenced in that Oct. blog) but the urologist would have to weigh in on that. This, of course, is a cautionary tale that those who have radical prostate surgery need to follow this  with penile rehab as soon as possible, though yes, there may be some residual pain. Your question also seems to imply that a radiation therapy treatment might have been better, but generally at the stage you described (T2c) it isn't an option.  Also, remember the effects of radiation increase over time, as tissues become hardened by the delayed radiation impact. This is also why it's essential to remain sexually active, whatever mechanism is employed.

Q. I was disheartened to read in your July 24 post that Colorado Springs had opted out of the marijuana retail business! Don't they know how much money they are losing? Are there any counties in the state that plan to implement the retail businesses? How many have opted out so far? - Clint, Pompano Beach FL

A. At last count some 57 communities in the state had opted out, but 21 remain in play -seeking rational ways to implement legal guidelines for MJ retail stores. Among those latter are Denver, and Aurora, CO. Almost to a tee, the opt- outs are in conservative counties, though they seem to forget they are flouting the voters' will by their opt out (and in many of those counties, Amendment 64 passed!)  I believe they might well pay at the polls next time any of the respective city council members come up for re-election. It never pays to piss off the voters! The mistake was probably making any "opt out" part of Amendment 64 in the first place. It gave too facile a way to deal with the nettlesome problem of how to regulate, where the controls would be and the level of taxation. It was a cheap way out, a cop out. So, I guess cities like Colorado Springs will have to keep on getting revenue from other sources, say like becoming or staying top national speed traps.

Q. Thanks for your post on being child free! (Aug. 18th). My husband and I were delighted to read and now feel much better about our childless choice. But how do you deal with nosey people that persistently inquire why we're childless? It really bugs me! - Delores, Sioux City, IA

A. Tell them: "Mind your own business, please!  Haven't you enough to do with your own time as opposed to meddling in others' lives".

Q. I've been wanting to join Mensa for a long time, but none of my past standardized tests (SAT in 1995, GRE in 2002) have been found acceptable. I dread taking the actual Mensa test because I hear it's a lot harder. Is this true? What can I expect? - Ricardo, Mt. Shasta, CA

A. It's not that big a deal. Below is an image from the U.S. Mensa site showing some of those taking a recent test.

The Mensa Admission Test takes two hours to complete and includes two tests featuring questions involving logic and deductive reasoning. If you score at or above the 98th percentile on either of the two tests, you'll qualify and be invited to join Mensa. Score below....well I understand there is a 5% society (The International High IQ Society) that accepts entrants at the 95th percentile level.

If you'd like a practice test (always a good idea) you can also get an idea if you're Mensa level by taking the home test, e.g. https://www.us.mensa.org/join/mht/

A more dated (1989) example which doesn't cost anything to see or assess can be found at this link:
http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1989-01-04/entertainment/8902220824_1_typists-chickens-eggs

Another shorter version with "Mensa-style" questions and answers:
http://www.agincourtpractice.co.uk/resources/mensa.htm

Q. I get a real kick out of your loopy brother (Mike) who thinks he's a Confederate raider or something. On clicking at the entry link to his blog on your August 8 post I see he always tries to appear this homespun dude with this "My friends" stuff. Who's he trying to fool? He's not friends with anyone! You just have to read his crappy blogs to see how disturbed he is. Any take on if and when he might change his blog again to be more tolerant? Also, what is this guy's damage? Was he dropped on his head as a kid?, Murray T., Norman, Oklahoma

A. I do agree that his 'my friends' intros are a bit over played. He likes to portray himself as this down home, relaxed type of southern dude but his own words and hateful content betray him. He's a raging maniac underneath the soft soap veneer, calling people "apes" (mainly blacks), "libtards", "c*nts" or worse.  As for being dropped on his head, no. But maybe in one too many fights where he took as many blows to the head as he delivered. We know, from looking at the NFL football head injuries that have come to the fore (e.g. Junior Seau), that repeated blows can have deleterious effects on the brain. This can lead to erratic behavior.  As for changing again, I could care less if he does or doesn't. It's his choice to make, and he has to deal with who and what he is. As an aside, it's really goofy and misplaced how he often makes lame invocations of our dad, when dad detested everything about Mike's hateful blog when he was alive.

Q. You mentioned doing a blog post soon on JFK and how he challenged the national security state. When can we expect it? Desmond, Portland, OR

A. That post is still in the process of preparation, as I'm juggling that with completing a book, that's due to launch in about 4 weeks, maybe sooner. The title is 'Beyond Atheism, Beyond God'  (to be published by iUniverse) and will be my final entry in my atheist series, showing how a rational atheism can lead to a Materialist conception of Being. Meanwhile, I am also trying to re-organize a science fiction novel on the Kennedy assassination, entitled, The Lancer Expedition. If all goes well it should be out by Nov. 1st, but hopefully sooner!

Q. When can we expect more interviews with your delightful sister-in-law Krimhilde? (Aug. 12 post) She has me considering joining Eckankar. - Molly D., London, UK

A. The next interview will probably be when I see Krimhilde again, perhaps next Spring. Will keep readers posted!

Can The Right’s Wingnuts Grasp That Chris Lane is NOT Trayvon Martin?

An example of the gross lack of critical thinking in this country is the Right’s current depiction of Obama and the Left as “hypocritical” because we don’t come out in manifest outrage at the Chris Lane killing – by two blacks and one mixed guy – as we did with the Trayvon Martin killing. A brain is truly a precious thing to waste, but to hear the lapdogs on the Right, you’d think they’d all lost their brains –or what’s left of them!

How do we spell it out for them that this is a clear case of false analogy? I mean, if these jokers don’t even grasp the basics of accelerating climate change – and still believe it to be a “hoax”- how in Hades can we get them to grasp a highly nuanced illustration of causal disjunction in the Chris Lane murder vis-à-vis the Trayvon Martin murder? I wonder!

Look, the case of the young Aussie here on a baseball scholarship that gets plugged in the back by three teen punks who were “bored” is a tragedy beyond belief. He was just visiting at his girlfriend’s place, going out for a jog one evening, and gets shot in the back with a .22 revolver. His life ended, his scholarship hopes terminated as well as a likely major league baseball future – maybe with the Milw. Brewers!

But it was not to be because of these thugs. So how is this case different from Trayvon’s murder?

1) The cops actually acted expeditiously and effectively in arresting the perps in this case, while they were asleep at the switch in the Trayvon killing. (Probably immobilized initially by Florida’s reckless ‘stand your ground’ law – hence unable to decide if Zimmerman really committed a crime).

2) Zimmerman basically used the SYG law as a legal cover to whack Martin, who was just minding his business and trying to get through the neighborhood. The punks in the Lane case out and out blasted a guy to death but had no legal cover to hide behind.

3) The three punks (not “apes”) in Oklahoma, are singularly responsible for their dastardly act and must face the music. They stand trial as adults as well they should. Zimmerman had a state law (Fla. State statute 776.013) as an untried accomplice- which means others can get away with the same crime in the future.

4) Zimmerman, because he had a legal façade to protect him, collected hundreds of thousands of bucks to hire the best lawyers to make his legal case. The 3 punks in Okey-land won’t have doggy lickspittle. This is not to say they deserve $$$, but only that had they been white and acting under the same ‘guidelines’ as Zimmerman in FLA- they’d likely have had a rat’s chance of escaping like Zimmerman did. But black or mulatto, and SYG law or not, they’d have faced Old Sparky.

5) I know this must give a certain wannabe Confederate cretin a stroke, but Obama owes no one any explanation or any chiming in on the Lane case. Basically, it is 'case closed', and those 3 punks are going to likely get the maximum punishment. International outrage alone – e.g. from Australia – demands it.

6) The Australian former PM correctly blames the "NRA gun culture" for making weapons too easily available in the U.S. and he’s correct. Some wingnut lamebrains compare this argument to suggesting that all autos be confiscated because they kill 35,000 or so a year, and all pressure cookers be confiscated because they can be used to make bombs such as in the Boston Marathon bombing.

But these again are false analogies. The reason is that the primary use for a car is transport and people are killed mainly out of negligence, causing accidents. The primary use for a pressure cooker is and always has been to cook food. All other uses - including taking a crap in or making a bomb out of are aberrant at best, and hence not justifiable to base withdrawal or disuse upon. The primary use for a gun, by contrast, is to kill or maim and most gun deaths – better than 90% - are caused out of intent to kill, maim. (“Protection” is often cited but the stats show this hardly if ever materializes. The crooks usually get the guns and employ them against the owners)

But here’s the butt -kicker for the Right to ruminate on: Had the three OK punks all been white and the shooting occurred in FL they likely would have gotten away with their punk deed on the basis of the Florida ‘Stand Your Ground’ law - if they’d come up with the right pretext – as opposed to the stupid, degenerate “bored” crap.

Something to think about!

The Biggest Conspiracy Theorist of All: Government!

"A nation that is afraid to let its people judge truth or falsehood in an open market is a nation that is afraid of its people."- John F. Kennedy
Emmanuel Goldstein - the Ultra "terrorist" in '1984'. Oceania's enforcers went batshit crazy trying to ferret out all his allies for 'thought crimes'. Are we near such a future in the U.S.?

In the popular  media stereotype, the "conspiracy theorist"  directs his particular brand of paranoia at the government: The CIA implemented JFK's assassination. NASA faked the moon landing.  9/11 was an inside job . The UN plans to invade our grand nation with black helicopters and the gov't is setting up FEMA concentration camps to help them. Oh, let's not forget that the CDC has designed flu shots to give you the flu not help prevent it!

The problem, of course, is the media is indiscriminate in conflating all conspiracies - the whacky and improbable, with those few actually proven in the sense of satisfying basic scientific criteria of adequacy of evidence and consistency. The latter set include: the JFK assassination conspiracy - including the evidence of cover-up in the aftermath, i.e. fake autopsy photos, destruction of key evidence(limo, suit coat); the BCCI banking conspiracy (which saw thousands in Barbados and around the world lose all their savings), the Watergate conspiracy - including the attempt at cover-up there, and of course, the Iran-Contra conspiracy, see e.g.  http://brane-space.blogspot.com/2012/10/argo-iran-contra-and-what-bob-sheiffer.html


But in his landmark book,  The United States of Paranoia: A Conspiracy Theory, Jesse Walker- books editor for Reason magazine, makes the case that 'folklore' may underpin most CTs and that perhaps the biggest and most baseless and misdirected  conspiracy theorists inhabit the government! Or at least that paranoid clique within government that has been so confounded by the national security state that it's lost all perspective. After all, if gov't really was determined to sort out the primary conspiracy eating away at the nation's public trust and innards, they'd release all the files to do with the JFK assassination this 50th anniversary year. Unless, of course, they were involved at some level or had one or more branches involved, and hence had to resort to cover-up.

But no, that's not the case. What's transpired instead is such a free floating paranoia that Washington is petrified of itself. The latest example is the ferocious crackdown on leaks that has the government crippled by a fear of its own employees. How many people really know the extent of this? Probably not many!

According to an Op-ed appearing by Jesse Walker in the WaPo (8/19), the  paranoid federal effort  is called the Insider Threat Program, and was launched in October 2011". Be that as it may it certainly hasn’t diminished since Edward Snowden disclosed details of the National Security Agency’s domestic spying.  Walker cites the McClatchy reporters Marisa Taylor and Jonathan S. Landay who "have described federal employees and contractors are encouraged to keep an eye on allegedly suspicious indicators in their co-workers’ lives, from financial troubles to divorce. A brochure produced by the Defense Security Service, titled “INSIDER THREATS: Combating the ENEMY within your organization,” sums up the spirit of the program: It is better to have reported overzealously than never to have reported at all.”

Seriously?

Walker notes "the word 'espionage' appears 10 times in that pamphlet, while 'leak' isn’t used even once"  . The tragedy of this wholesale crackdown is that "it blurs the boundary between spies and whistleblowers". This means, logically, that whistleblowers are no longer honored, wanted or respected in any form but are treated the same way as traitors.

Walker adds:

"This comes, after all, at a time when the government is increasingly willing to prosecute leakers under the Espionage Act. An agent of a foreign power would fall under the program’s purview, but so would someone releasing information to the media. Leaking, one Defense Department document declares, “is tantamount to aiding the enemies of the United States.” 

Of course this is absolutely insane, and more than one astute pundit has observed that if this had been in place 40 years ago, the Nixon Watergate conspiracy never would have been exposed. All the leakers, as well as both Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein would have ended up like Bradley Manning or worse.

Extreme reaction? You bet! And all out of proportion, despite the fact Obama had promised government transparency. According to Walker:

"It doesn’t help that the Insider Threat Program has been adopted in agencies that have little or nothing to do with national security, including the Social Security Administration, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the Department of Education and the Peace Corps. A tutorial for Agriculture Department employees includes a long list of 'examples of behaviors that may indicate an individual has vulnerabilities that are of security concern.' These include sleeping at your desk — that might be a sign of alcoholism — and 'expression of bizarre thoughts, perceptions, or expectations.' The list was imported, word for word, from a Defense Department document."

Jesus Christ in a cap! You know how much this sounds like the officialdom of Oceania in George Orwell's '1984'? A LOT! In that scenario, kids in INGSOC uniforms were mandated to report every bit of odd behavior detected in adults - whether 'proles' or those like Winston Smith (a kind of bourgeois 'everyman') - charged with altering the language to Newspeak!  Eventually, Winston's behavior gets him in trouble (recall his head being strapped to a cage as rats were released and shagged to his face)  as the monitoring led the INGSOC fascists to his little room hideout where he was having it on with a prole.

Like '1984',  paranoia also runs riot  in D.C., as Walker points out:

"The enemy within.....can live anywhere and look like anyone. The men and women allegedly atop the cabal might be based in another country, but their puppets are neighbors, co-workers, members of your family. Anyone could conceivably be — or become — part of the plot."

Ahhhh! In 1984, recall the primo villain was the arch-intellectual Goldstein! At every interlude the hapless denizens of Oceania had to sit in a large auditorium as Goldstein's face appeared on a vast screen whereupon they began screaming at the top of their lungs: 'TRAITOR!' until they were delirious. Everyone - each man, woman- was watched carefully to detect any sign of 'Goldstein' contamination leading to thought crimes.  What did this "traitor" Goldstein preach? Ha! That continuous war was used to siphon off the wealth of society to keep people living at bare subsistence. Goldstein's exact words, for which Oceania's fascists wanted him dead:

"The essential act of war is destruction, not necessarily of human lives, but of the products of human labour. War is a way of shattering to pieces, or pouring into the stratosphere, or sinking in the depths of the sea, materials which might otherwise be used to make the masses too comfortable, and hence, in the long run, too intelligent. "


 But INGSOC's nabobs couldn't have any of that  'too intelligent' citizen crap, hence Newspeak: e.g. "War is Peace!"

So, really, have we now entered - or nearly so - the realm of Orwell's 1984, but 30 years delayed? I don't know, but Jesse Walker believes it might be so (though he doesn't reference '1984'). He does say:


"Today’s Leak Scare has the potential to be even more open-ended, since it isn’t rooted in fear of a particular country or subculture. There are countless motives for releasing classified or “sensitive” information to the media, from political convictions to bureaucratic turf wars. And there is plenty of material that has been classified not out of a genuine security concern but simply because it might make an agency — or someone inside it — look bad. Meanwhile, the Insider Threat enforcers’ profile of a potential security risk is vague and untested; it could send interrogators on wild goose chases, questioning employees based on groundless suspicions and poisoning the office atmosphere."

He adds, however, that the leakage isn't likely to be halted by even these draconian steps and references Bruce Schneier who wrote (when the WikiLeaks cables shook Washington in 2010), “The government is learning what the music and movie industries were forced to learn years ago: it’s easy to copy and distribute digital files.”

Well, this is the digital age after all. And the same technology that gives the gov't troglodytes vast power to snoop gives many others the vast power to disclose.

Another aspect of the bind the security fetishists are falling into is betrayed by their compulsive classification.  According to a report from the Public Interest Declassification Board last year, one intelligence agency alone classifies the equivalent of about 20 million well-stuffed four-drawer filing cabinets every 18 months. Nearly 5 million federal employees or contractors have access to at least some secret information. Even more have access to information that isn’t classified but might embarrass someone.

As Walker notes:

"That creates a double bind: The more the government trusts someone with sensitive data, the more it has reason to fear that person. Trust breeds mistrust. It’s the sort of situation that might make a person paranoid."

He then asks:

"Did anyone ever imagine a government so scared of its own shadow?"

He goes on to cite novelist and essayist Robert Anton Wilson, who observed: "Any secret police agency must be monitored by another arm of the government, lest it be infiltrated by its enemies. But then a sinister infinite regress enters the game. Any elite second order police must be, also, subject to infiltration. . . . So it, too, must be monitored, by a secret-police-of-the-third-order and so on. “

Walker adds:

"In practice, of course, this cannot regress to mathematical infinity, but only to the point where every citizen is spying on every other citizen or until the funding runs out.” The point applies not just to police but to any hierarchy with secrets to hide."

AHH-HA! 1984 and Oceania again! Exactly what INGSOC and its hyper spy recruits were all about, and then all the other INGSOC moles that spied on them, and the secondary moles that spied on them!

To quote Walker once more:

"And so the war on leaks degenerates to a government deliberately destroying its property to keep its staffers from catching sight of publicly available information.

Now there’s an enemy within"

The moral of the story is that paranoia feeds on itself. And the more that the paranoid - whether a person who sees UN black helicopters coming to seize his guns, or a government that sees every citizen as an enemy - the more draconian steps are taken for  pseudo-protection. In the end it never works, simply because paranoia is not the way to build a foundation of trust - say between citizens and government - or to build a mentally healthy nation.  The fact that recent stats disclose that more than 20% of  the U.S. population has serious mental health issues ought to be a wake up call. Instead, we behold the entire government veering into a "Goldstein-tracking" paranoid embolism of its own making.

Kids Hate Algebra II? WHY?

Quick! Do the following in 10 minutes or less!

If (3x + 1)/3 - (x - 3)/2 = 2 + (2x - 3)/3

find the value of x

(b) Factorize completely:

(i) 15 x² - 20 xy²

(ii) 3 - 12b²

2) f and g are functions defined as follows:

f: x -> 3x - 5

g: x -> ½ x

a) Calculate the value of f(-3)
b) Write expressions for (i) f ^-1 (x) and (ii) g^-1 (x)


3) Solve the quadratic equation:

x ²   -  3x  + 2= 0

Plot the graph, indicating the coordinates of any maximum (or minimum), and also of any x-, y- axis intercepts.


If you were able to complete the above problems, even if not necessarily in the time, then you likely took Algebra II.  If not, then well, you obviously stopped at Algebra I, assuming you took Algebra at all.

Now, however, it's come to light that kids HATE Algebra II! They are sick and tired of it and want out. This according to the article 'Wrong Answer!' in Harpers (Sept., p. 31) by Nicholson Baker. The author provides a number of examples of Algebra II hate he encountered on the Web with comments such as:

"Algebra needs to die!"

"Is poking myself in the eye an acceptable substitute for my algebra homework?"

"Algebra is the huge fucking dam that prevents me from flowing, and being a better person!"

"I have to take 11 algebra tests in 2 hours. It's six in the morning and I've got to pass 'em all or I fail!"

"I really hate Algebra 2! I wish I was dead! I want to kill myself!"

Woah!  Can it be THAT bad? What's going on?  Why are all these kids so miserable and some, evidently, to the point of phoning it in (though granted we must make allowances for teen hyperbole!) The author, Baker, believes he has the answer: It's the Algebra 2 Common Core, stupid! Egged on by the ridiculous 'race to the top' baloney (which only rewards a few schools anyway), schools across the nation have evidently adopted a new, common core Algebra text by Pearson which:

"is very new and very heavy"

Also:

"The federal Race to the Top grants have encouraged your school to buy many copies of this new, expensive textbook along with the associated workbooks and software licenses."

For what? Well, evidently in order to follow the injunctions of the "Common Core" standards developed by a non-profit outfit called Achieve, "and paid for by grants from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation".  Baker then quotes Melinda Gates:

"High standards mean more than just teaching all students Algebra II. It means teaching all students the skills necessary for success in Algebra II so they can apply them in different areas throughout their lives and careers."

In other words, Melinda - and likely Bill too- are convinced that a high standard of performance in Algebra II will translate to major useful life-career skills.  But I dispute this, and so does Baker, and so does a high profile mathematician, Underwood Dudley - a number theorist who for many years has been  a sharp critic of required math courses. As Dudley put it in an issue of The American Mathematical Monthly in 1987:

"The vast majority of the human race and the vast majority of the college educated human race never need any mathematics beyond arithmetic to survive successfully."

Wow! What a transgressive statement! It basically turns the entire Common Core Algebra II standards idiocy on its head. He's saying that not only will the college -educated barely use the math embodied in Algebra II, but for sure neither will those with just high school degrees. I mean hell, you don't need Algebra II to work out how much interest you will have to pay on your 4.5% mortgage on a $150,000 home (for which you paid $20,000 down) over thirty years.  You don't need it to figure out a 20% saving on a pair of jeans that normally costs $19.99 - and factoring in a 5% tax.

Obviously, having said all that, it doesn't apply if a kid plans to go into engineering or astrophysics. Then, he will need not only Algebra  II but plenty of calculus, as well as differential equations, numerical analysis and complex analysis. But how many college grads will go that STEM route? Better, how many graduating with a STEM degree will actually find a STEM job?

The author also makes the cogent case that if thinking skills are really what's required, Algebra II isn't essential to specifically fulfill the need. Many alternatives can be found, e.g. a basic logic or critical thinking course. So, why in hell expose so many kids to stuff like rational functions, as defined e.g. in  Chapter 8 of Algebra 2, Common Core:

"A rational function is a function that you can write in the form: f(x) = P(x)/Q(x) where P(x) and Q(x) are polynomial functions. The domain of f(x) is all real numbers except those for which Q(x) = 0"

The author adds: "Not only that but rational functions can be continuous or discontinuous, and a continuous rational function is one that 'has no jumps, breaks or holes'"

To make his point further, on how the average non-math oriented kid can be confused:

"Next you're presented with a salient feature of discontinuous functions: If a is a real number for which the denominator of a rational function f(x) is zero, then a is not in the domain of f(x). The graph of f(x) is not continuous at x = a and the function has a point of discontinuity at x = 1.

Then you learn something more about points of discontinuity: they can be either removable or non-removable."

Got that? If you don't, then imagine some kid who isn't math savvy sitting for endless hours a week in a classroom and getting more frustrated with each succeeding lesson. Imagine the frustrated teacher that has to teach this to a class, to whom it comes over as Greek, literally. Then you get the picture of why forced Algebra II for a mass audience, a mass captive high school audience, is a bad idea.

As for the textbook:

"Algebra 2 Common Core is, in other words... a highly efficient engine for the creation of math rage: a dead scrap heap of repellent terminology, a collection of spiky, decontextualized, multi-step mathematical black box techniques that you must practice over and over..."

As it is, all our schools are going under the spell of this 'Common Core' BS -  and it's creating mass hatred of math. We have kids actually talking of killing themselves over it, or else expressing such manifest hate that they will be math detractors for the rest of their lives.  This is not the way to move the nation forward educationally.

We can do better and have to do better. It's time to rethink the standardization of high school math and realize we can't fit 22 million square pegs into 22 million round holes. In the words of Underwood Dudley, in his math article (ibid.)

"We cannot justify teaching mathematics to 17, 18-year olds by asserting they will find it useful. We cannot claim we are presenting beauty either. We are, of course, but what percentage of our students can see that, however dimly?"

He thereby pigeonholes the problem in a nutshell. As Nicholson Baker puts it:

"If Algebra II were an elective and colleges didn't ubiquitously demand it, fewer people would learn it. But fewer people would fail it too, and fewer people might drop out of high school, and the level of cheating would go down, and the sum total of student misery would be reduced."

Words to consider!