One study, reported by the European Medicines Agency, found that the Covid vaccines caused 8.2 deaths per million vaccines. That is .0008% Another study in https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/article-abstract/2837831, showed that Covid vaccines saved 2.5 million lives. Are those 8.2 deaths a reasonable sacrifice for saving a million lives? This is an extreme version of the ‘Trolleycar Problem’, […]
Category: Education/Psychology
PEOPLE WANT SIMPLICITY — TRUMP SUPPLIES IT
This guy doesn’t look very simple to me. I’ve recently been doing battle with the U.S. Government, trying to use a service online, but being stifled at every turn by the complex technology. I feel that millions of Americans, with far less computer savvy than mine, are being frustrated by passwords, regulations, authentications, etc. They […]
THE EVOLUTION OF CAMBODIAN PRIVATE EDUCATION
Enhancing Pedagogy In Cambodia (EPIC) I just participated in an education conference in Siem Reap, Cambodia. I was pleasantly surprised by a genuine desire to improve Cambodian education, by government officials, NGOs, and foreign agencies. Notably absent was any input from private schools, as though they were not interested in enhancing education. Why? When I […]
TOXIC MASCULINITY IS GENDER DYSPHORIA
What? I’ll bet you never heard anyone make that claim before. But hear me out, as I make my case. My understanding of Gender Dysphoria The basic dilemma is that some people’s physical sex is male, while their mental make-up (gender) is female. Most transgenders will state that they have always been that way; there […]
IT’S NOT RACISM; IT’S RACE HATRED
‘Alligator Auschwitz’, the concentration camp built in the Everglades, really brings out the race hatred in Trump and the MAGA world. Did you see the smiles of jubilation when they described alligators eating 65 million immigrants? While liberals are aghast at the cruelty of the concentration camp, MAGA folks are rubbing their hands in glee. […]
CAMBODIA’S S.T.E.M. PROBLEM
Let’s face it – STEM education in Cambodia is terrible. First, some statistics: Countries the world are ranked by PISA scores of 15-year-olds in math and science. Of 81 countries measured (Africa excluded), the average score is 472, while Cambodia scores 336 in math and 347 in science – in both cases dead last, far […]
MUST A SYMBOL REPRESENT SOMETHING?
Almost all Cambodian homes have a red cloth talisman, called a yantra (or yo-an in Khmer) hanging in their house. It is covered with all sorts of symbols, the most common of which is a squiggly spiral called an ounalome. Yantra with dozens of ounalome spirals The ubiquitous ounalome is a well-known and revered symbol in […]
WHAT IS INTEGRITY?
Sure, we all know what integrity is: honesty, sincerity, morally upright, etc. Merriam-Webster defines it as: firm adherence to a code of especially moral or artistic values : incorruptibility. But somehow, I feel there’s more to it than that. This essay is the sort of exercise that Plato engaged in: taking concepts as real things, […]
Ozymandias in Central Asia:
History Repeats Itself Merv — former capital of the world Few people know anything about Turkmenistan, and far fewer have actually gone there. But its former capital of Merv was once the hub of the universe: a major stop on the Silk Road, a center for science and culture (home of Omar Khayyam), and in […]
INTIMATIONS OF MORTALITY
I’m reaching that age when one’s body starts to fall apart. It could happen any day — that first stroke, that first cancer diagnosis. I can’t pretend that it’s not going to happen. I’m so blessed that it hasn’t happened yet. As a result, I am savoring every moment of happiness. My family is a […]