The times they are a-changin'

With a birthday coming up in June, a well-intended soul sent me some "Comments" made in the year of my birth:

"If they raise the minimum wage to $1.00, nobody will be able to hire outside help at the store."
"If cigarettes keep going up in price, I'm going to quit. A quarter a pack is ridiculous."
"The drive-in restaurant is convenient in nice weather, but I seriously doubt they will ever catch on."

You get the idea, but before you speculate in aghast awe at just how ancient I must be (and you would be correct), consider how much has changed since your birth, likely back in the gag-me-with-a-spoon days of the Smurfs, New Kids on the Block, big hair, the Soviet Union, and before nearly all things electronic.

Rise and Shine

Our society is structured as if we are still an agrarian economy, and I'm really tired of it, or maybe just really tired. For most of us, there are no cows to milk at dawn, and electricity has been invented and is widely utilized. Then why must work, school, and so many things start/happen so early?

Yes, there are "morning people" (so I've heard- could be just a rumor), but not that many of them, thankfully. They say things like "Oh, but it's so peaceful in the morning, I can get so much done." It's peaceful because the rest of us are trying to get some sleep, but you are disturbing that by trying to get things done- and then being unproductive millstones about our necks when the afternoon arrives. And then at night we have to go home early because they're so tired.

The data is clear about worker and especially student productivity in the morning, yet we continue to structure our work and school days as though we are all farmers. Even the calendar- summer vacation!- is structured for the benefit of farming. It turns out that most of don't have to tend the crops in the summer, and instead the 14+ weeks off result in bored kids who have forgotten a great deal of the previous year's learning when they arrive back in school around Labor Day.

Please free us from the tyranny of the morning people, or at least keep them and their cheery chirping away from us.

"Research" Papers

Piggybacking on the last entry, small wonder, then, that instructors are generally not thrilled to see internet "sources" for students' academic work. There is not only the inaccuracy problem, but a lack of rigor present in these sources, which are frequently little more than essays or even promotional materials. Google Scholar is not that bad, sometimes, but college students would be well-advised to never use an internet search engine as a basis for their papers and projects. Instructors view such searches as lazy, misguided, and inadequate, but at least it makes it easier to catch the plagiarists.

Believe it or not

I had written a while back about how the internet has made us all instant experts by providing immediate access to a world of information. I've come to reconsider that perspective, however, as it is becoming increasingly apparent that much of what appears online is not well substantiated, to put it kindly. Like you, I get a fair number of emails with internet generated data, often with attachments and links to sites and videos, presenting information for my edification or entertainment. What I've learned is if this information seems amazing, irrefutable, etc., it is generally wrong or at least severely biased. Whether it is hoax or error, so much of what I see on the internet is just plain wrong and represented as fact, especially that which I receive as part of an email.

It used to be, "Don't believe everything that you read." Now it's "Don't believe everything on the internet." In fact, if it's on YouTube, or batched in a Ripley's type email, it might be safer to Believe it Not.

Two Minutes for High Sticking

Little known fact from JH:

The first testicular guard "cup" was used in professional ice hockey in 1874, and the first helmet was introduced in 1974.

It took 100 years for men to realize that the brain is also important!

(Don't know where this originated, pretty obviously a woman, though. She's probably right.)