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StringJunky

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Everything posted by StringJunky

  1. I agree, the practice of repetition, in terms of physical tasks, promotes muscle memory, rather like a musician practices scales. They start off thinking about it, then eventually embed the knowledge neuroplastically until it becomes intuitive. They don't need to see the keys/strings/buttons because they've mapped it mentally through repetition. If you don't get something into the intuitive level, you can't move on in terms of creativity etc. This process applies to education generally as well, I think. I think diversity of input sources, rather than just consulting Google, as an example, promotes neuroplasticity. When we were at school, pre-Windows, finding sources, getting information from our sources was relatively labour intensive, but it promoted neuroplastic development because more senses were directed at a task. When we oldies (50+) hit on a problem, we can draw on a wider range of skills within ourselves and through media compared to the younger generations. Getting your information on tap just through computers is boring for our brains and I don't think it's good for students in terms of promoting neuroplasticity in the long run because there isn't enough variation in effort to maintain stimulation.. If something's boring you just want to go the least laborious route to get it out of the way. The effect of that is much less information 'sticks' at the intuitive level, with the resulting reduction in creative potential.
  2. I'm ok with that. I still think you are a good bloke... even though you are misguided. 😛
  3. But you are biased. You are firmly flying the Israeli flag in your posts. I'm biased because what I see leads me against Israel and US/UK governments actions. Those three are basically pissing in somebody elses pond.
  4. What I was getting at is that equality of opportunity is not the same as equality of ability. Inequality of ability will always be there. The selection process for the genuinely able has been hobbled to include more people at the lower ability range.
  5. Todays students seem to have lost, or not been taught, the concept of working from first principles. TBH in my O-level years in 1977 working from first principles was dying even then when 'easier' exam boards came out, like Joint Matriculation Board exams, I found going from Cambridge exam papers to JMB papers the level of difficulty dropped significantly. There was more emphasis on multiple choice, for instance. The rot started in the UK, I think, with the end of the 11+ system, which I just missed. The trend was towards lowering the level of entry to university to be more inclusive/accessible to a larger cohort of high school students.
  6. Would the link I gave be a progression from that conclusion, having eliminated the pulse width of light, or taken it into account, and the anomaly is still there, like it says at the end:
  7. I don't think it will be just geopolitical, I think there will be internal strife within the NATO countries themselves as well. I see a conflict of ideologies coming to blows that transcends pure nationalism and geographical borders.
  8. The surrounding Arab countries have been sitting on their hands, so far, and someone needed to shift up a gear to help the Hezbollah and the Palestinians.
  9. Yes I think the more difficult the route to learning, the more robustly it is implanted in the memory. Experiencing failure more often in the pursuit of understanding ideas, trying different things out, sets the student up better for the real world where no one's holding their hand. They are getting a taste of the real world earlier, instead of in bite-sized pieces with all the irrelevant stuff neatly removed. In a nutshell, I suppose, the trend is towards an emphasis on finding answers as the ultimate goal, rather than path leading to the answer.
  10. If you think in terms of computer software hierarchies and using them, from low level programming to high level programming, each generation rises a level as the software becomes more automated in executing tasks. Although they've risen practically, in terms of what can be accomplished with the higher level software, they lose the learning of the processes that underpin the modern methods. The more fundamental, increasingly historical stuff is ultimately and progressively, through time, is left to specialized experts and hobby nerds. If the mental processes you laboured and learned at school have been presently automated for your current students, they don't need to learn the 'hard way', like you did. What it means in evolutionary terms is that the skillset of students in each era is constantly changing, and it is that which needs to be acknowledged. Each generation gets comfortable with the technology and methodologies of their day and begins to struggle after say the 50-60 age mark.
  11. Price gouging is buying a Cold Play or Taylor Swift ticket for £150, by swamping with requests with a bot army, and then selling them on the secondary market for £3000.
  12. I remember that. Martin Shkreli got 7 years jail for securities fraud and a lifetime ban from the pharmaceutical industry. It also set off several investigations into drug pricing.
  13. That's because I've been following the middle east situation for years and not just from Oct' 7th. It's a symptom, not a cause. Israel wants the world to see that day in a vacuum, but those of us that have followed this issue know otherwise.
  14. Way to make Israel the victim. My cognitive dissonance meter needle has just broken.
  15. I agree this is true now, since Oct 7th, where Israel has gone renegade. OK.
  16. Why is one a "terrorist attack" and the other a "military response"? Why can't it be a military attack or offensive, which it was. You can even argue it was a counteroffensive response to a century-long systematic siege against a native population. Also, not in this post though, but generally, the rather hypocritical notion of calling Hezbollah a proxy for Iran, isn't the IDF a military proxy for western interests?
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