g m g D e s i g n . c o m

My PGP key was about to expire (ok, in 4 months). My new public key can be downloaded here or from the corporate PGP keyserver (that link works as of today).

Key ID is:  0xBDC999B5

A respected scientist bemoans indoctrination of children in schools, favoring facts over feel-goodism.

Indoctrination of this sort, mostly with a left-ward slant on a variety of issues, seems more likely to backfire. Many former left-wing advocates do a 180 and lean more heavily to the right (David Horowitz, for eg) after realizing that they were “duped,” if you will. Isn’t it better to present both/all sides and focus on objective reasoning than feel-good indoctrination?

Answer: yes, for the students. For the teachers/professors, probably not. Professors known to lean to the right are likely to face consequences for doing so (being shunned, at best). For them, it’s better to withhold their opinions, meaning only their more left-wing counterparts get to control the political message.

Well, at least many people, like Horowitz, will eventually rebel. But, as with Horowitz, rebellion can be counterproductive, as people go too far in the other direction, leading to increasing polarization.

So, for the sake of reduced polarization, it would be nice if the indoctrination ended, not that that will actually happen.

It’s been a while since my last post. I’m hoping to get back into blogging—at least a couple a week. I’ll kick things off w/ news that my wife and I got food poisoning. I’ve had it before and know the symptoms well. I was fortunate to only miss one day of work (as a contractor, that day cost me). All evidence points to a Chinese restaurant called Red Dragon (in Research Triangle Park, in North Carolina) as the culprit.

I know there are different symptoms of food poisoning depending on the source, severity, etc. In my experience, it helps to have Ginger Ale on hand (or, if not Ginger Ale, some caffeine free carbonated beverage). The carbonation helps to settle the stomach and provides a source of hydration (water often leads to vomiting, whereas carbonated soda probably won’t).

Plenty of rest is a must, of course. And after the stomach ache subsides, prepare for the likely throbbing head ache that will ensue.