Completely Random Thoughts

[d00hickey]

I wish I could have gone to the Rifftrax event tonight.

   

I thought the encore was next week!   I could have gone this evening if my brain wasn't jelly and messed up the date...

Oh well, I'll wait for the Blu-ray now....

I lucked out and remembered just in time. I took the short road trip out to watched it and enjoyed it a lot. Definitely pick it up when the VOD comes out, it was fun seeing everyone riffing together.

Apparently the theater I go to was some sort of hot spot in Pokemon Go because there were probably 30 people wandering around aimlessly looking at their phones.

[Variety of Cells]

How many times have you heard that tv and computers and phones are making us stupid?  And that you should read a book instead, make yourself smarter.

But aren't most books just escapism too?  Sure you can read educational things in books, but you can read educational things on your phone, computer, or see them on tv too. I'm pretty sure that when books were becoming popular and easy to make, people were criticized for staying inside and reading all day. They should go out and live life instead of keeping their nose shoved in book after book. 

I can't wait till I'm old so I can tell my grand kids to stop doing _____ and go play some video games. 

[MartyS (Gromit)]

How many times have you heard that tv and computers and phones are making us stupid?  And that you should read a book instead, make yourself smarter.

It's just people grasping at anything new that explains the long term trend of increasing population vs. lower average IQ.

https://www.fourmilab.ch/documents/IQ/1950-2050/




Complaints at work from professors about students not being able to sit through even a 1 hour class started increasing at the same time the hallways started filling with zombies walking around staring at their phones, so there's probably something to the complaint about smartphones causing an issue with education.

[Pak-Man]

How many times have you heard that tv and computers and phones are making us stupid?  And that you should read a book instead, make yourself smarter.

But aren't most books just escapism too?  Sure you can read educational things in books, but you can read educational things on your phone, computer, or see them on tv too. I'm pretty sure that when books were becoming popular and easy to make, people were criticized for staying inside and reading all day. They should go out and live life instead of keeping their nose shoved in book after book. 

I can't wait till I'm old so I can tell my grand kids to stop doing _____ and go play some video games.

And now Video Games are making kids go out and live life.

Woo! FULL CIRCLE!

[Kete]

How many times have you heard that tv and computers and phones are making us stupid?  And that you should read a book instead, make yourself smarter.

It's just people grasping at anything new that explains the long term trend of increasing population vs. lower average IQ.

https://www.fourmilab.ch/documents/IQ/1950-2050/




Complaints at work from professors about students not being able to sit through even a 1 hour class started increasing at the same time the hallways started filling with zombies walking around staring at their phones, so there's probably something to the complaint about smartphones causing an issue with education.

This is in direct opposition of what I understand to be true.  I believe that the IQs are increasing:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flynn_effect

[goflyblind]

there are only ninety-one people in the world? and their mean iq is three and a half billion? whoa...

[Pak-Man]

Three steps to create "legitimate" journalism while bamboozling the public.

Step 1: Outrageous Claim! - "The world is getting dumber!"

Step 2: Find something to support it. "More people today use a walkthrough to beat MYST than did in 1993!" This is a study!

Step 3: Add "Studies indicate" to the beginning of the outrageous claim.

[MartyS (Gromit)]

How many times have you heard that tv and computers and phones are making us stupid?  And that you should read a book instead, make yourself smarter.

It's just people grasping at anything new that explains the long term trend of increasing population vs. lower average IQ.

https://www.fourmilab.ch/documents/IQ/1950-2050/




Complaints at work from professors about students not being able to sit through even a 1 hour class started increasing at the same time the hallways started filling with zombies walking around staring at their phones, so there's probably something to the complaint about smartphones causing an issue with education.

This is in direct opposition of what I understand to be true.  I believe that the IQs are increasing:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flynn_effect

Read the part of the page I linked about the Flynn Effect, about 2/3 down the page, if you apply it backwards it makes the average IQ in the past way too low.


This is an interesting read on the subject:

http://www.livescience.com/37095-humans-smarter-or-dumber.html

[Variety of Cells]

How many times have you heard that tv and computers and phones are making us stupid?  And that you should read a book instead, make yourself smarter.

But aren't most books just escapism too?  Sure you can read educational things in books, but you can read educational things on your phone, computer, or see them on tv too. I'm pretty sure that when books were becoming popular and easy to make, people were criticized for staying inside and reading all day. They should go out and live life instead of keeping their nose shoved in book after book. 

I can't wait till I'm old so I can tell my grand kids to stop doing _____ and go play some video games.

And now Video Games are making kids go out and live life.

Woo! FULL CIRCLE!

Actually Pokemon Go is what inspired my random thought in the first place (please overlook how that statement makes it not a random thought).  Someone posted on Facebook about how augmented reality is going to make people dumber. But in the same post he kept claiming that people need to read more. Both seem to be forms of escapism to me.

I have no problems with escapism. Though I do have a big beef with The Escapist.

[MartyS (Gromit)]

Someone posted on Facebook about how augmented reality is going to make people dumber. But in the same post he kept claiming that people need to read more. Both seem to be forms of escapism to me.

Was he talking about young children or adults? 

For a developing mind one form of escapism is not the same as another, different pathways need to be developed.  Early on it doesn't really matter what is being read, just as long as those pathways get built so later on it's easier to learn when reading educational materials.

For adults reading a romance novel or playing a video game are probably not going to change how smart or dumb you are.

For seniors there are plenty of studies showing that mental activity combined with physical activity is the key to maintaining mental abilities, so you need to read and move....

[LucasM]

I just saw the blurb on the cover of the Blu-ray of 'American Psycho'.  It says, "uncut version".

Doesn't that kind-of remove the raison d'etre for the film?

[RVR II]

So Kevin Costner is supposedly moving to my town..
http://channel18news.com/rock-hill-south-carolina/kevin-costner-explains-why-hes-moving-to-rock-hill-south-carolina/
I think it's a hoax

[Pak-Man]

http://www.snopes.com/celebrity-moving-small-towns/

[RVR II]

http://www.snopes.com/celebrity-moving-small-towns/

Thought so

[stethacantus]

Well, those damn bats are back. Hundreds of them, swarming out from hell knows where every time the sun is setting. All flying around our roofs, dive bombing the bug zapper and porch lights, killing the fireflies, and making their high pitch squealing noise. If I didn't know better I would swear the Munsters moved into the neighborhood somewhere this past month.