As thoughts were going to be about the tactics of improvement to student comprehension, until recent repeat of usa "gunboat diplomacy" promoted recurrent thought of the exploitation of knowledge for personal gains, of course with complicit co-operation of scientists that possess the intellect to comprehend such knowledge.
It has been relatively easy for "learned societies" to condemn Russia: not so for violence in west Asia (e.g. destruction in Gaza or assassinations/oppression of scientists, so will "western" scientists/engineers quietly participate in the covetous interest in Venezuela's natural resources?
It would be no surprise to see further incursion of Palestine (natural gas reserves?), Ukraine, Taiwan, Congo, etc. by those with the military power to do so. Another example of "(un-)intended consequences.
The imminent discussion of nuclear magnetic resonance has occasionally in the past, diversified into nuclear (energy) chemistry, which is another reminder of the politics involved. It is a difficult topic to teach, pedagogically, without further consideration of philosophical debate about the morality of scientific knowledge. Too many economies of the world prefer to employ chemists to make 'Big Pharma' chronic disease drugs, or 'Big Oil' non-sustainable primary energy sources. In an era of 'Big (student) Debt' insufficient/unstable employment, what are the next generation supposed to do?
Extent review of rss feeds more often than not, reveals a decline in accessibility of the format:
Error while retrieving https://www.raeng.org.uk/rss-feeds/news-releases: HTTP response code said error 404 Error while retrieving http://www.edie.net/news/rss6.xml: HTTP response code said error 403 Error while retrieving https://natmatsci.ac.uk/feed/: unsupported feed format Error while retrieving http://blog.rsb.org.uk/feed/: Couldn't resolve host name Error while retrieving https://en.unesco.org/rss.xml: Couldn't connect to serverThey may be change in sentiment. Have recently noticed renewed interest to promote rss, exemplified by a nice blogpost in aforementioned service, courtesy of 'Harold'(source: in toxic woolly mammoth. Hopefully more people will become aware of the impact of extant amgaf-style internet infrastructure upon accessibility.
Personal observations of the detrimental impacts that mobile phones and video games have been upon children, are similarly evident with "artificial intelligence". It seems that each technological development includes a significant potential for the average person to become less inclined, motivated, to think. A week ago, encountered an interesting interview of Mustafa Suleyman, about the advice to be wary of ai (he has been interviewed before). No surprise that there will good and bad usages of technology, as evidenced a few days later by the latest example of the amgaf hegemony; this time a mis-calculation of the political power to curb their power; such as efforts to prevent ai use for generation of salacious content. As always, governments are too slow to act. Mr Suleyman makes a valid perspective that aeroplane safety has been achieved by effective regulation; it is obvious analogy that ai requiries similar scrutiny of dubious design bias. Meanwhile, children are exposed to this environment with scant guidance, having to navigate through this grand experiment with insufficient care, attention, nor foresight of the "adults (not) in the room".
On a "side-note", bbc is, as with the rest of the web, increasingly a frustration to use. As always, gratuitous ecmascript and the relentless desire for data are the main culprits. In this case a visit to aforementioned web site via a "standard" web browser yields:
Cycling amongst the neighbourhoods in this city (together with an 'oyster', who needs a car?), recent considerations to extend the ban of social media content for children came to mind. In the public realm, every Tom, Dick and Harriet has said device in hand. It is now quite common for retailers to look with disdain at those that seek to pay with cash (or refuse such custom), but a discussion for another post.
Since other vices such legalised drugs are controlled by age restrictions, it seems more effective to proposal similar control for 'smartphone' devices. So, for all children (by definition, under 18 years),it is proposed that 'smartphones' become licenced products. There should be restrictions for certain reasons (e.g. to act as a health monitor?), but otherwise a return to the simple 'dumbphone' and at home a cheap chromebook (such as yours' truly, 10 years and counting!) should be a better option; remember one laptop per child? ;)
