Something like: Don't say what schools have to teach, but make the exams independent on schools.
Why have governments control exams at all? Have different certifying authorities and employers are free to decide which authorities' diploma they accept.
That could work! On the other hand, it may set up a situation where a person who is only guilty of being raised in the wrong place may never get a decent job. Wonder what can be done to prevent that as much as possible?
You don't need to believe in intent to spread negative values to analyse that spreading negative values is bad.
Hopefully, the positive values are greater in number than the negative ones, if one is not certain which ones are which--and I see quite a few positive values in recent superhero movies.
“Those who will not reason, are bigots, those who cannot, are fools, and those who dare not, are slaves.” --Lord Byron.
All too often those who are least rational in their best moments are the greatest supporters of using one's head, if only to avoid too early a demise. I wonder how many years Lord Byron gained from rational thought, and which of the risks he took did he take because he was good at betting...
“Reality provides us with facts so romantic that imagination itself could add nothing to them.” --Jules Verne.
The fellow had a brilliant grasp of how to make scientific discovery interesting, and I think people could learn a thing or two from reading his stuff, still.
Why is there that knee-jerk rejection of any effort to "overthink" pop culture?
Maybe the social signaling sensitive unconsciously translate it into "I thought up this unobvious thing about this thing because I am smarter than you", and then file it off as being an asshole about stuff that's supposed to be communal fun?
It is not healthy to believe that every curtain hides an Evil Genius (I speak here as a person who lived in the USSR). Given the high failure rate of EVERY human work, I'd say that most secrets in the movie industry have to do with saving bad writing and poor execution with clever marketing and setting up other conflicts people could watch besides the pretty explosions. It's not about selling Imperialism and Decadance to a country that's been accused of both practically since its formation(sorry if you're American and noticed these accusations exist only now in the 21st century), or trying to force people into some new world order-style government where a dictator takes care of every need. Though, I must admit that I wonder about Michael Bay's agenda sometimes...
Tony Stark isn't JUST a rich guy with a WMD. He messes up. He fails his friends and loved ones. He is in some way the lowest point in each of our lives, given some nobility. In spite of all those troubles, the fellow stands up and goes on with his life, gets better and tries to improve the world. David Wong seems to have missed the POINT of a couple of movies (how about the message of empowerment-through-determination in Captain America? The fellow must still earn his power as a "runt"), and even worse tries to raise conspiracy theory thinking up as rationality.
So, maybe, the knee-jerk reaction is wise, because overanalizing something made to entertain tends to be somewhat similar to seeing shapes in the clouds. Sometimes, Iron Man is just Iron Man.
This post reminds me of my own experiences with the "smartphone question." For years, I had derided smartphones for lacking a killer app. However, a recent conversation with several LW community members ultimately changed my mind, and now I consider my previous view to have been very misguided.
What I overlooked was that while there was no one "killer app" that provided huge value, there were lots and lots of smaller apps that provided small individual value. When taken together, they constituted a substantial overall benefit. My focus on the "one big thing" was causing me to miss out on a lot of potential value.
Very well said! I would say it's a better example than the one listed in the above post...
-Thank you, thank you Lord, for preserving my virginity! - You bloody idiot! Do you think God, to keep you a virgin, will drown the whole city of Florence?
(Architect Melandri to Noemi, the girl he is in love with, who thinks the flood of 1966 was sent as an answer to her prayers)
All my Friend, Act II [roughly translated by me]
This is yet another reason why a God that answers prayers is far, far crueler than an indifferent Azathoth. Imagine the weight of guilt that must settle on a person if they prayed for the wrong thing and God answered!
On another note, that girl must not be very picky, if God has to destroy a whole city to keep her a virgin...(please don't blast me for this!)
Do they play Mass Effect? It's possible that they picked it up from sci-fi in which A) its' required or B) in which brains are considered quantum.
I am reminded of Asimov's "positronic brain" and how he came up with it. Perhaps the new goal of research in artificial intelligence should be coming up with new magical terms and explaining as little as possible. It could earn enough money and public interest to create an artificial person...
The forms of intelligence I am familiar with (really only one kind, from a materials points of view) are not enough to discuss what is truly necessary for successful AI.
"Foreign" does not mean "stupid".
As a person who had to adjust to life in the United States after moving over from Russia... There are three English phrases that a foreigner must know to learn English quickly, so long as they are willing to LOOK stupid (an important art in a world so obsessed with being serious). 1. "Where's the Bathroom?" Apart from its obvious uses, it is is essential to one's survival to know where one may hide to plot one's next move. Given the creative responses I sometimes received, I suspect it is also useful for learning profanity. 2. "I don't understand." It is the most useful phrase in the English language. People will generally make an effort to communicate on a number of levels after this is used. Excellent for new words and concepts. 3. "Please help." Not all technology will have clear instructions printed on it. Getting lost is also unpleasant when you cannot read the signs. So, asking for help early and often helps one avoid all kinds of trouble (such as accidentally setting a classroom on fire because you don't know how a Bunsen burner works). Many learning opportunities are missed when one figures something out with no input from a person used to the tech...
Perhaps phrases similar to these exist in every language--by using them, one can learn the rest of the language quickly, if clumsily.
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And this differs from the status quo, how?
I was under the impression you wanted to improve things significantly. Hence why I mentioned that issue--and it IS an issue.