Comparative International Educational Testing Over the Years

The test measures ability to think in reading, math, and science. The only thing the United States is number one is spending per pupil. Although Luxemburg actually spends more, it has a population less than Nashville.

The item I found of most interest is that there is a one-to-one relationship between a nation's scores and that nation's long-term economic growth. Guess there is value in students, who will become workers, being able to think analytically. Imagine that.

The other thing the graph illustrates is that a nation's scores can be improved over time--dramatically.

The Smartest Kids in the World: And How They Got That Way by Amanda Ripley.

 

 

Arctic Ice Increase

The increase in Arctic ice is equivalent to about one-third the area of the United States. Guess the polar bears won't go extinct quite yet.

Of course, 6000 years ago, the world was much warmer and Arctic ice probably non-existent as indicated by ice cores and the fact that bananas grew in Sweden. That also explains why Finnish and Hungarian languages have some Japanese roots.

I wonder why the polar bears didn't go extinct then. Perhaps they didn't get the memo.

 

The Hockey Schtick and Arctic Ice

The small rise coming out of the Little Ice Age at the extreme right of the graph shows the "hockey stick" of Gore's "Inconvenient Truth." The portion of the graph to the left of the Little Ice Age shows the balance of this interglacial period, indicating the "hockey stick" should be called the "hockey schtick."

The graph shows it was much warmer than today for the thousands of years of this interglacial, indicating the Arctic was ice free for those thousands of years. It also indicates the dire predictions of an ice free Arctic have already not happened aka are BS.

False Flag For What?

Obama asks Senate for an Authorization to Use Military Force (AUMF) in Syria over an alleged chemical weapons attack. That AUMF was already worded incredibly wide, allowing the president to wage unlimited war over all the Middle East and beyond. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee widens even more so Obama can wage unlimited war in Syria and earth-orbit environs, as he wishes.

The Syrian gassing appears more and more to be a false flag which is being used for what? One begins to suspect the real intent is not just to fly a few cruise missiles into Syria, but a beginning to go after Iran and its nuke program.

If so, a lot of things make sense that otherwise make the National Command Authority look like it doesn't have sufficient brains to blow its nose. It does.

Syria Strike

Unfortunately, a Syria strike probably became inevitable when someone opened their mouth a year ago about not using chemical warfare.

The puppet masters in Russia and Iran immediately spotted the opportunity: If someone did nothing, it would weaken him around the world; if he did something, it would further alienate him from the Arab world. So they perpetrated an incident. When it got mealy mouthed, the second, larger incident on the anniversary of the red-line statement couldn't be ignored.

We will probably hit some targets with cruise missiles to no great avail, and it will be over in a matter of hours. The bad guys will seek revenge by taking Americans hostage and/or other terrorist acts.

It's the price of an OJT president up against Darwinian-survivors of their climb to the top. The President has bad advisers or didn't listen to them before speaking. He is now in a no-win situation, unnecessarily.

What scientific evidence of warming?

What scientific evidence of warming? Warmistas immediately go to "consensus" or "authority says," after denigrating anyone who wants to discuss the subject.

Here is scientific evidence. Global warming is the small rise coming out of the Little Ice Age. Note it is still a degree cooler than the Medieval Warming, two degrees cooler than the Roman Warming, and almost three degrees cooler than the Minoan Warming. The graph also shows the thousands of years of warmer climate at the beginning of the Holocene Interglacial.

What scientific evidence of warming?
--------------------------------------------------

Some detail of the Medieval Warming, see Global Warming--Much To Do About Not Much.

Perspective of climate model performance and solar alternative: The Cold Experiment.

A look at CO2 as the cause of warming and prevention of cooling: Time for the Cold?

 

The Illusions of Democracy

Democracy has been defined as two wolves and a lamb voting on what is for lunch. The classic story of this is the death of Socrates. The democratically elected city fathers voted to kill Socrates, reputedly in hopes that he would leave Athens. He did not, instead accepting the judgement and drinking the hemlock.

Today, we are not short of examples. Condi Rice insisted the Gaza Strip hold democratic elections and they replaced the PLO with Hamas. Egypt replaced one dictator with the candidate of the Muslim Brotherhood, who immediately replaced the Egyptian constitution with a theocratic power document and the democratically elected president assumed all powers unto himself. All persons not fundamentalist Muslim came under attack, often fatal. The previously secular society had its economy implode, so the Egyptian army stepped in. It appears they may well have a civil war to decide the outcome.

We have various senators now calling on the Egyptian military to quickly return to democratic rule, even though a new election would re-elect the Muslim Brotherhood with the same consequences. In the meantime, these senators demand the military should not suppress the riots--which are burning Coptic Christian churches and killing Christians.

Our illustrious senators also call for an immediate cessation of the $1.3-billion in military aid. Considering the other Arab countries, opposed to the Muslim Brotherhood, are already supplying $12-billion in aid, cutting off the US aid would have little effect other than removing the US from any future influence. If the Muslim Brotherhood wins, we will have no influence; if the Egyptian army wins, the secular society will be to their benefit and the reason they strive--not our 10% contribution to their aid.

This is an Arab argument about who they want to be--and inserting our two-cents worth will be resented.  The Muslim Brotherhood has telegraphed they will not give up, so the Egyptian army will have to destroy them--and they know it. That is why they are receiving the $12-billion from other Arab states.

This potentially dark side of democracy is also why revising the vote in the US Senate to a simple majority is not the best idea. If an idea cannot accumulate a few votes from the minority party, it probably shouldn't become law. This seeming inefficiency is a major check for minority rights.

As Mr. Franklin so adroitly put it, "We have a Republic, if we can keep it."