Reg the Fronkey Farmer

Disparate thoughts on a Sunday is fun day unless you are in Bay of Fundy and fundamentalists are instrumental in attacking you, shellacking you and then smacking you. Sunday afternoon on the Island of la Grand Jatte vibes.

Excellent thoughts expressed like a box by our fearless Fronky Farmer in re. to current US administration and lack of…[Read more]

I am immune to “ChatGPT rotting my brain”:

I bring my thinking to ChatGPT, rather than leaving my thinking to it.

I value thinking as a craft, not a checkbox.

I interrogate my own ideas before accepting them.

I enjoy the process of discovery, not just the conclusion.

I use tools (including me) to refine thought, not to substitute it.

I rem…[Read more]

Yes, I agree with much of that assessment but its never to later to start. Banning cellphones during school hours and ongoing teacher training and development would be good too. In every country.

Reg,

I only got 44 percent right on the aAI or Human test, which kind of fits in with this article that confirms what I’ve khsaid earlier about AI:

Multiple Studies Now Suggest That AI Will Make Us Morons
https://gizmodo.com/multiple-studies-now-suggest-that-ai-will-make-us-morons-2000620811

Reg,

One solution is to teach children critical thinking as a dedicated school subject, like math or history. Teach children how to question, explore ideas, and understand the history of thought. Learn to spot the differences between valid and invalid reasoning and cause vs. correlation. Understand how arguments are constructed and defended by…

[Read more]

A.I. or Human…..take the test here.

Reg,

American Atheists warns Mahmoud v. Taylor ruling undermines public education and pluralism.

As long as Unbelievers can opt out of compulsory reading of religious texts, I see no problem with Believers opting out of reading texts they may not like.

In fact, everyone who reads one thing automatically at that moment opts out of reading…[Read more]

Reg,

What’s it like to be a giant hairy orangutan puppet?

Mystery Science Theater 3000 approximated this with a close neighbor on Darwin’s tree: Joey the Lemur

One solution is to teach children critical thinking as a dedicated school subject, like math or history. Teach children how to question, explore ideas, and understand the history of thought. Learn to spot the differences between valid and invalid reasoning and cause vs. correlation. Understand how arguments are constructed and defended by knowing…[Read more]

The challenge facing the current American administration is not the pace of change, but its utter lack of a coherent vision for what should replace existing structures. This is not the “traditional conservatism” so often touted during GOP campaigns, where reform is pursued with caution and respect for institutional continuity. Instead, it is a rec…[Read more]

Assessments of educational quality are not so positive in the United States, unfortunately. To be sure, there are committed teachers and administrators doing good work in many elementary and secondary schools. But overall, the picture is not bright, and this seems especially true in the case of science education.

Joe Rogan is the key science and…[Read more]

Thanks Reg 🙂

Have a great week everyone!

IDF soldiers are reporting they are ordered to shoot Palestinians lining up for food. I call this terrorism.

Fellow Unbelievers,

No Doctor I have works in their practice 5 days a week. Probably from paperwork. Two of my past Doctors retired after Obamacare, both were very good in their reespective fields. Both were fairly young, too, so I suspect they didn’t want the burden of what would come next.

So this means I liked them, but didn’t get to keep them.

PopeBeanie,

Which countries are successful at this kind of free market?

No nation yet has a fully free-market health care system of course, but the producers of the medical devices and medicines are all private enterprises, the builders of the facilities are all private enterprises, at least some medical universities are private enterprises, and…[Read more]

Reg, you just described my last physician. One MD. Two person staff. And he told me last few years was not even drawing a check.

I can well imagine the boon delivered by you in those time saving services.

And docs are so overworked i think that it is understandable that they can’t always give good care.

One of my professional roles is to improve the IT systems of small medical practices. Most are owned by one MD with maybe a 2 or 3 other medical staff. They close every Wednesday afternoon. I once asked what she did for those afternoons. “About 5 o…[Read more]

Enco, it seems like more and more nurse practitioners/physician assistants in my neck of the woods. Really not enough docs. And docs are so overworked i think that it is understandable that they can’t always give good care. And that is without dealing with issues over insurers and coverage.

But with the nondocs having patients they are in…[Read more]