Here is the news....

[jamesp]

I don't know that it's dumbed down. It's definitely badly done and presumably the drive for performance figures is behind it. Nothing works together, nothing is seen as a complete system, nothing makes any sense. I think it's more how everything is done rather than what is taught. I absolutely think the direction from government is shit but I also think the management is atrocious too at school level. I know teachers are supposed to be immune from criticism like NHS staff but the quality of some of the people doing it really is poor. Particularly the high level staff.

You should see the new welsh curriculum.
Lots of welsh, English taught to GCSE as a single subject, Sciences taught to GCSE as an amalgamated single subject.

It is enough to make you cry, the wet dream of a latin scholar social worker.

[Chrisch]

.... In the 90's you had to actively seek out crackpots, now it's all there. I guess the start of it was the autism and vaccines guy. ....

He was aided and abetted by the Daily Mail which ran the story as if it were science. However he was no crackpot. He was paid to lie in order to make a case for a class action in the US against the vaccine companies. The motives were pure money. Having been struck off in the UK he went to live in the US where he is still a minor "celebrity" with a fan base. Pops up on Fox news and the like now and then.

If you look there is always a financial incentive to the lies and misinformation. With oil companies making $1tn a year they have enough "slush fund" for all the cliamte change denial you can imagine. No need to feel a bit guilty about poisoning your children when there is a ready made lie you can buy into.

[Chrisch]

We all know that the Earth is really flat.

I grew up in Lincolnshire. Where it is.

[Jay_Benson]

The media. The root of almost all evil and stupidity. When the "Science Correspondent" gets that role because they did a social sciences degree at West Droitwich Primary Polytechnic in the 1990s you know that the reporting is going to be regurgitated press releases at best. Much though it pains me the Daily Mail, like many others, fell for the MMR vaccine / autism link because the paper was printed in The Lancet - they (the mainstream media), not unreasonably, assumed that The Lancet had done their due diligence - they (The Lancet) were not aware that Wakefield had numerous conflicts of interest, had manipulated data and used unethical techniques - I do not blame them for the initial reporting, but the mainstream media give oxygen to fantasists as a matter of routine - see Brexit / climate denial for multiple examples of this.

The problem is that the media are under pressure not to get things right but to get the story out there as quickly as possible and there is little time for fact checking - for example "Lord" Lawson was allowed to spout clear cut, and obvious lies about climate change, uncontested, on the Radio 4 Today programme some years ago. No branch of the media is immune - TV, radio, print media, websites etc - it is all about speed. The trouble is that speed does not allow for understanding. The best solution I can think of , at least the best legal solution, would be for the media to be forced to correct the "misunderstanding" in the same position o that the original article had and having at least a matching of 2 words of truth to every lie / mis-statement. Whilst doing that then the same criteria should also be applied to politicians.

Education is a long term solution. It really pains me to say this but I can see why Sunak wants maths education to be continued until 18, it is just that there are not the maths teachers out there because of cut backs instituted by, oh, who was it? Oh, yes, the government over the last 13 years. Science is not easy, maths is not easy, music is not easy and languages are not easy -normally, but when they are fun, the information gets absorbed so much more easily. I would like to see all subjects up to Advanced Level having the whole curriculum available on line so that if a pupil's teacher is a bit pants at, say, algebra, then the pupils can supplement the teaching they have with the on-line resource - and ideally there should be at least two versions of the subject so that if one on-line teacher does not float a particular pupil's boat then there is an alternative - we don't all learn the same way. We learnt so much about how we could do remote learning during the pandemic that it would be a shame to not take that learning experience and use it as another tool in the box.

[Chrisch]

.....

The problem is that the media are under pressure not to get things right but to get the story out there as quickly as possible and there is little time for fact checking - for example "Lord" Lawson was allowed to spout clear cut, and obvious lies about climate change, uncontested, on the Radio 4 Today programme some years ago. ...

The pressure as such is revenue generated - the media need to make money and so clicks/circulation/advertising revenue are more important than facts. The Tories did not follow through with Leveson and so there is still no real penalty for spreading lies or tapping into people's phones.

The BBC is a Tory led organisation. The recent sacking of the DG for fixing a loan for Johnson shows - if one needed it - where the senior managment have their loyalties. The previous DG Gregg Dyke now sits in the HoL as a Tory peer. The many times Farage was on QT greately outweighed his electoral base and other right wing nutjobs seem to get much more chance to tell lies on that program than there are people of a more honest and impartial nature. I would question audience selection too. Giving air time to the scumbag Lawson was pretty much to be expected.

There is some balance, but the gutter press use it to lie that the BBC is a left wing or "liberal elite" establishment. All those communist infiltrators on Downton Abbey eh?

In the final analysis many people simply believe what makes them feel better and the media in its many and varied forms is there to provide that service. If the broadcast media challenge too much then social media will push harder until it becomes dominant. I think that is already the case for the under 30s. Broadcast and print media speak to the boomers and if you map voting patterns to age you can see who pulls their strings. Today's front pages; Express - racist rant about immigrants, Mirror - Brand, Sun - Brand, Telegraph - rant about immigrants, Times - HS2, Guardian - rant about prison conditions, Mail - bare faced lie by racist scum Bravermann ranting about immigrants and FT - HS2.

Tories going for the gammon vote as per.

[Chrisch]

The mad bat blaming her parents now. Wow. Just wow. Full on BNP.

[notdeadyet]

In the final analysis many people simply believe what makes them feel better and the media in its many and varied forms is there to provide that service. If the broadcast media challenge too much then social media will push harder until it becomes dominant. I think that is already the case for the under 30s.

That's not necessarily a bad thing. I think there is an automatic assumption by older/old people that social media platforms are inherently bad as a source of information. I've been told by a lot of people who use it that Twitter, set up right, is a fantastic source for science media. Or at least was before the fat man-baby cocked it up. I like YouTube but you have to make the choice to be selective. You can watch talks by some of the best scientists on the planet. There is brilliant independent journalism. But there is also the opposite end of that scale.

The big problem is what the algorithms push to you. I have two YT accounts. One I use for things that I'm interested in, the other is a gash account I use for stuff like things I see referenced in news reports or linked to in posts. It means my feed isn't contaminated with shite. I was really shocked by how quickly the suggestions on the other account ended up going down the toilet. It really didn't take long for it to be GB News, Jordan Peterson, Andrew Tate, Jeremy Clarkson, Jimmy Carr (the unfunniest man on the planet) ranting about his hatred of women, that kind of thing. And that's not from anything particularly contentious, just stuff that comes up in the mainstream media where I've thought I'd like to learn a bit more. My real account is still 95% vanilla and I've had to put a fair bit of effort into keeping it like that. If you're not that attentive, and I don't imagine most people are, then that's a lot of people getting the sewer instead of videos of drunks fighting at Russian weddings (about 50% of my viewing).

I haven't bought a national newspaper in at least 15 years. I can't remember the last time I watched a live TV channel, I don't even have my TV tuned in. I'm a hell of a long way from being under 30. I'd put the boundary much higher, I don't know anyone who buys a newspaper. I'm still surprised when I see newspapers in shops, I can't believe print media is still a thing. There must be a hell of a lot of pensioners buying papers.

[jamesp]

That's not necessarily a bad thing. I think there is an automatic assumption by older/old people that social media platforms are inherently bad as a source of information. I've been told by a lot of people who use it that Twitter, set up right, is a fantastic source for science media. Or at least was before the fat man-baby cocked it up. I like YouTube but you have to make the choice to be selective. You can watch talks by some of the best scientists on the planet. There is brilliant independent journalism. But there is also the opposite end of that scale.

The big problem is what the algorithms push to you. I have two YT accounts. One I use for things that I'm interested in, the other is a gash account I use for stuff like things I see referenced in news reports or linked to in posts. It means my feed isn't contaminated with shite. I was really shocked by how quickly the suggestions on the other account ended up going down the toilet. It really didn't take long for it to be GB News, Jordan Peterson, Andrew Tate, Jeremy Clarkson, Jimmy Carr (the unfunniest man on the planet) ranting about his hatred of women, that kind of thing. And that's not from anything particularly contentious, just stuff that comes up in the mainstream media where I've thought I'd like to learn a bit more. My real account is still 95% vanilla and I've had to put a fair bit of effort into keeping it like that. If you're not that attentive, and I don't imagine most people are, then that's a lot of people getting the sewer instead of videos of drunks fighting at Russian weddings (about 50% of my viewing).

I haven't bought a national newspaper in at least 15 years. I can't remember the last time I watched a live TV channel, I don't even have my TV tuned in. I'm a hell of a long way from being under 30. I'd put the boundary much higher, I don't know anyone who buys a newspaper. I'm still surprised when I see newspapers in shops, I can't believe print media is still a thing. There must be a hell of a lot of pensioners buying papers.

Have you seen the russian road rage video where someone cuts a mini bus up, the side door opens and several guys in a variety of fancy dress (including sponge bob square pants) pile out and give the offending car driver a talking to?

Watching some ☺☺☺☺ get a kicking from a cartoon character really sums the modern world up in a nut shell.

[jamesp]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c51lp9wj8wqo

I can remember being on a dive boat, watching the Irish navy shadow us, while we all took bets/guesses on whether we were getting boarded or not.
Not as it turned out, would have been an interesting note in the log book.

[steelemonkey]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c51lp9wj8wqo

I can remember being on a dive boat, watching the Irish navy shadow us, while we all took bets/guesses on whether we were getting boarded or not.
Not as it turned out, would have been an interesting note in the log book.

I was on a fishing boat once when the coastguard anchored nearby and some guys came over on a rib to ask questions. "This your boat?" sort of thing.
We never did find out what they were looking for.