WASHINGTON (AP) -- Science and math have zoomed to the top of the nation's education agenda. Yet Amanda Cook, a parent of two school-age girls, can't quite see the urgency.

"In Maine, there aren't many jobs that scream out 'math and science,"' said Cook, who lives in Etna, in the central part of the state. Yes, both topics are important, but "most parents are saying you're better off going to school for something there's a big need for."

Janelane: Oh. My. God. I think I've just had a stroke and heart attack.

Decius: Oh, so THATS what this place is coming to...

CNN: Parents don't see a crisis over science and math

The addition of 75 million people each year to an already overcrowded globe is exacerbating the problems of pollution, desertification, underemployment, epidemics, and famine.

Wow, the CIA world fact book has an entry on the earth. Clearly this would only be necessary if they planned to add other planets as well. :-p

The World Economy

janelane wrote:
In my "Engineering Design" class, we have to figure out what the world of 2020 will be like.

Brilliant. This is the sort of question we all should be asking. I'd like to see the final results.

communication: No one will have a POTS line. You'll have a digital network connection in your house, maybe ip6, all voice traffic will be carried over that digital network, your cellphone will be like a sidekick, it might have thin parts that fold out to make the realestate bigger when you need it, it will use your home network when at home and other networks when not at home. It will be able to project content onto the wall. Long Distance will be included in the price of whatever you pay for network access. Its possible that the internet will submerge into a MMORPG style virtual reality environment, but it remains to be seen. There might be a standards war over that in 15 years.

The media industry will be quite blurred with blogs and independent music/film. The copyright battles will be near their peak at that time. Movies, music, and news will come as often from proam indies then from "industry," but you'll turn to the same source for both kinds of information and it may be hard to tell them apart. You'll have internet radio in your car. Reputation systems will matter more then editors.

Comptuer security problems will constantly plauge what we'd today call telecom and television infrastucture.

South Korea will do for communciations technology what Japan did for manufacturing in the 80s.

information availability: You'll search wikipedia instead of searching google. You'll pretty much have everything instantly available to a device that fits in your pocket. We're almost there today. A lot of the good information will be produced by proams.

geographic location: What do you want? Your digital devices will know where they are. Your cellphone will easily map your location, show you where you want to go, and give you directions. You'll be able to leave virtual notes for people connected to physical locations, like a bulletin board connected to every bar. Often, the way to get news about major events will be to ask an internet service what pictures were submitted from a particular physical location at a particular time. Everyone will have devices in their cars which report their driving habits to their insurance company, in exchange for a cost break for most. Some orwellian use of this technology will go on, particularly with regard to minors.

government structure: This is a US centric response: I don't see many structural changes occuring in a 15 year timespan, other then the final nails in the coffin of the idea that the commerce clause restricts federal authority. Politics will increasingly be influenced by internet based open information sources like blogs and wikipedia. Voters will be more informed about particular issues. You will see more ballot refer... [ Read More (0.2k in body) ]

RE: The Year 2020

] Spring Commencement Shifts to Georgia Dome
] May 7, 2005 9:00 AM - 1:00 PM
] Georgia Dome
]
] The 221st Commencement of the Georgia Institute of
] Technology will take place Saturday, May 7, 2005 at
] 9:00AM. This spring commencement will be held at the
] Georgia Dome in Downtown Atlanta. It will include both
] graduate and undergraduate students.

] Woo-hoo! Acidus and I are finally get out of this hellhole!

Congrats!!

Georgia Institute of Technology :: Campus Calendar & Events

Acidus turns 24 on Friday. Party time!

Happy Birthday Acidus!

] Strict regulations published by Athens 2004 last week
] dictate that spectators may be refused admission to
] events if they are carrying food or drinks made by
] companies that did not see fit to sponsor the games.
]
] Sweltering sports fans who seek refuge from the soaring
] temperatures with a soft drink other than one made by
] Coca-Cola will be told to leave the banned refreshment at
] the gates or be shut out.

Usually they just ban all outside food and drink as a "security measure." In this case they've tipped their hand.

SBN: Olympics marketers tip their hand

Your tuition dollars at work.

Go Tech!

There is much to comment on in this interview. Too much, perhaps.

Its clear he is really spinning hard on this intel commission out of the gate.

I wouldn't be pissed off about his comment about not testifying. Its a matter of fact. Same rules applied to Clinton.

The war issue is something I've already discussed. Iraq was a threat. Iraq was not an imminent threat. Thats what they sold. They were wrong. Now they have to explain it. This doesn't mean that going into Iraq was a bad idea. He explains clearly what the benefits were. He is being honest there. The primary problem that I have with it was related to the international law issue. Not what we did but how. Bush misrepresents what he did when we talks about going to the international community. They drove the international community away, and they did so intentionally. They set a poor precedent for international relations. But I have a hard time saying they were wrong about the war per say. Its hard to say for certain. The world is clearly a safer place without Saddam Hussein, but there have been costs.

I greatly appreciate his careful respect for the armed services, and for the families connected to them. This guy is calling families every day. You can tell it has effected him.

I think he is playing the wrong card when he talks about jobs. The unemployment rate is not a good indicator of the health of the jobs situation in the country. If I were running for president I would promise to create new data points which more accurately include the number of people who are underemployed or who have left the job market.

I am also skeptical of what he has done for small business, and innovation. He isn't specific. Tax cuts on dividends coupled with expensing stock options have clearly cost the innovators. I look forward to hearing what the hell he is talking about.

As far as the deficit is concerned, this is DIRECTLY connected to the issues of international law I raise above. You don't have the sort of economic assistance from allied powers that you had with the Gulf War. Possibly Bush is attempting to avoid his father's fate? Bush Sr. said "no new taxes" and then ended up having to raise them because of the Gulf, and lost an election because of it. Bush Jr. is really juggling to pull this off. The reality is, raise or lower taxes, he's pretty much fucked either way. The fiscal conservatives listed (SIC, Cato is not a "conservative" group!) are wrong in the sense that Bush has proposed DEEP cuts in regular spending. Moreso then anyone in recent memory. This is a complex fish to fry and Bush deserves credit and blame alike. You show me a candidate with Bush's general fiscal responsibility along with Clinton's diplomacy and I'll show you America's first libertarian president.

Bush is not responsible for the country becoming more partisan. Bin Lauden is responsible. The interviewer really nails him in the end with the polling, but conspiracy theories about skull and bones is a little silly for MSNBC. Its a public service organization. Get a fucking grip. You sound like Robert Anton Wilson!

In the final analysis, I have mixed opinions about Bush, but he has a clearer message then John Kerry.

I too have a question I would have asked that was glaringly missing. I wonder if mine is the same as Jeremy's. I can sum it up in one word, which I piped to md5sum and posted here:

fa599b3d72699e176dec80a2739e5115

NBC -- Meet the Press with GWB

] We strongly encourage the state of Georgia to incorporate
] the entirety of the AAAS benchmarks. A complete science
] education is essential to scientific literacy and to our
] state's economy.

Please sign! Save Georgia from itself! First the Ten Commandments, now this...what part of "separation of church and state" DOESN'T FREAKING APPLY?!!

Georgia Science Education Petition