Showing posts with label misc. Show all posts
Showing posts with label misc. Show all posts

Tuesday, July 29, 2014

GPS Prevents You From Learning

I've had this thought about GPS (and know I've told people about it), and it's nice to see it validated by a real study.  If you use GPS navigation to get from point A to point B there's a really good chance that you will have no idea how you got there.  If, however, you look at a map (even mapped directions) and figure out where you are going.  You will then have to pay attention on the trip and will have a much better idea of where you are, how you got there, how to get back, and even how to get around problem spots that may occur.

I think GPS is great for navigation if you are someplace you are not likely to return (say on vacation, or a road trip), but it is a much better idea to get around without it as much as possible in the place you live.

Sunday, April 04, 2010

So Much News

So little time to bitch. Le Sigh.

Health (insurance) reform: historic and probably right direction but not nearly enough. It pretty much ignores all the health care providers issues because people like doctors and it's really easy to conflate doctors with health care providers and so harder to deal with. Also: Democrats enacting Republican health care reform with zero Republican votes...Not really sure who won this 'cause I didn't. If the GOP wasn't dominated by crazy this would be a huge coup for them.

NCAA tournament this year: meh. It's always kind of fun to watch good games and upsets, but Dook is in the finals and Kansas lost early so it sucks. UNC seemed to wake up a bit in the NIT before losing in the finals. Hoping Butler wins, but not optimistic and probably won't watch much.

Financial reform: not so much looking like reform. Dems will strip away anything that may function because the Wall Street super-geniuses own them almost as much as they do Repubs, so we'll likely be going through the same thing again in 5-10 yrs. Only it'll be worse.

Obama still letting torturers roam free and refuses to return to the rule of law when it comes to brown skinned people who have been labeled as "terrorists" (whether arbitrarily or legitimately, we don't know), so he is still working hard on that EPIC FAIL on the part of his job that is actually part of his job (health care and financial regulation are largely Congressional issues).

Freaking Tiger Woods practicing golf and Apple releasing a lame product are apparently big news, so news media is still atrocious.

I still don't understand why becoming more like (random Western European or Scandinavian country here) is such a horrible thing. I mean: more happiness, less poverty, no one going bankrupt then being forced off medical treatment for some disease thanks to crappy/no insurance and insane costs. Oh, I get it: fewer ultra rich in the financial industry. That would be sad.

Yes, I know the argument is related to economic growth...So, apparently most right-wingers would rather live in China than France? Ok.

Israel is acting like a spoiled brat child, but it's anti-semetic to point that out, so let's we just give them billions worth of arms to go blow up some more Palestinians because someone threw rocks at a tank. If Israel could exist without a phenomenal amount of charity from us, I say: feel free to commit human rights abuses and suffer the consequences. They can't, so we suffer the consequences in terms of hatred directed our way from many Islamic nations/people. Our unending and unquestioned support of Israel supports terrorism, but anyone who says that must hate Jews. Or something. I don't know. I'm just a poor rational thinking type who clearly doesn't understand...something?

The Catholic Church looks destined to burn in hell. Irony or poetic justice? That the Catholic Church has been stridently anti-woman (and anti-sex) for a long damned time didn't seem to matter much, though, so maybe being pro-child rapist will turn out ok for them as well. Seems the wrong side to take though.