Krushnick Effect

No no, not all kids are bad or screwed up, BUT there are enough of them that are. This IS havingg an impact on society as a whole. Murders, drugs, teen pregnancy, AIDS, Hepititus, Herpes, waisted lives, its a problem in our society.

If you live in an urban center, your very life hangs in the balance every day. You can be shot because some teen punk, needs to find a 'mark' so that they can join a street gang. There are people who car-jack, and don't care if you program computers or voted for Gore. They will take your life for the few dollars that are in your wallet.

The FBI released a study back in the 1980s where they estimated that by this time, violent crime would be up across America due to the unwed mothers, crack babies, and junkies being created back at that time.

People visiting Miami turn down the wrong street, and BAMMMMMMMMMM, a bullet in the head for what is in their lugage and wallet/purses... we live in an enlightened age :/

Are most kids bad and dumb, NO. Are there millions of bad and dumb kids, teens, adults in America? Hell &$#*ing YES! And that number is growing day by day by day ... just have to live in a gate communty and keep a 45 by your bedside at night :)\

As for computers, well until the advent of the PC and Heathkits, most people either couldn't afford nor had the skills available to learn languages. Of the programmers of today, they really are not that sharp. Most just follow guidlines that someone else taught them. There aren't hundreds of new computer languages being created everday. Assembly has been in use for over 40 years. Most of the 3rd and 4th generation languages have been around for 30+ years or more. C existed back in the 70s, and C++ came into being in the mid-late 1980s. Ok, so where is C+++ ... doesn't exist :)

Computers are a lame way to guage society. How many &#$@ing times have we all called up some business and are told, 'Sorry I can't help you because our computers are down'. How the *&#$ did the world operate before computers? How was WWII fought without computers? How did Mr. Kelly over at Locheed design and build the SR-71 WITHOUT computers ... computers are now a threat to our society, and not an asset IMHO ... now where did I place that new 40 Gig iPod I just bought! LOL

Mario Perdue wrote:

No no, not all kids are bad or screwed up, BUT there are enough of them that are. This IS havingg an impact on society as a whole. Murders, drugs, teen pregnancy, AIDS, Hepititus, Herpes, waisted lives, its a problem in our society.

If you live in an urban center, your very life hangs in the balance every day. You can be shot because some teen punk, needs to find a 'mark' so that they can join a street gang. There are people who car-jack, and don't care if you program computers or voted for Gore. They will take your life for the few dollars that are in your wallet.

The FBI released a study back in the 1980s where they estimated that by this time, violent crime would be up across America due to the unwed mothers, crack babies, and junkies being created back at that time.

People visiting Miami turn down the wrong street, and BAMMMMMMMMMM, a bullet in the head for what is in their lugage and wallet/purses... we live in an enlightened age :/

Are most kids bad and dumb, NO. Are there millions of bad and dumb kids, teens, adults in America? Hell &$#*ing YES! And that number is growing day by day by day ... just have to live in a gate communty and keep a 45 by your bedside at night :)\

As for computers, well until the advent of the PC and Heathkits, most people either couldn't afford nor had the skills available to learn languages. Of the programmers of today, they really are not that sharp. Most just follow guidlines that someone else taught them. There aren't hundreds of new computer languages being created everday. Assembly has been in use for over 40 years. Most of the 3rd and 4th generation languages have been around for 30+ years or more. C existed back in the 70s, and C++ came into being in the mid-late 1980s. Ok, so where is C+++ ... doesn't exist :)

Computers are a lame way to guage society. How many &#$@ing times have we all called up some business and are told, 'Sorry I can't help you because our computers are down'. How the *&#$ did the world operate before computers? How was WWII fought without computers? How did Mr. Kelly Johnson over at Locheed design and build the SR-71 WITHOUT computers ... computers are now a threat to our society, and not an asset IMHO ... now where did I place that new 40 Gig iPod I just bought! LOL

Mario Perdue wrote:

Oh and Mario,

PARENTS (healthy and well meaning) DO know best! So if we are starting to sound like your parents, it really is a GOOD thing. Most of us on here have been around long enough to finally figure things out and to anticipate pitfalls in life.

Now I know what you are saying, 'Well how does a child learn, if they can't make mistakes to learn from?' Good question. Now ask yourself, Would you want your child learning about HIV AIDS by first catching the disease? Would you want your child to learn the tragedy of Crack or Meth by becomming a junkie? Would you want your child to learn the pain, suffering and death involved in drunk driving, but first having them in a tragic traffic accident? The list goes on...

Its up to the parent to establish the rules and the boundaries. After that, we support and upkeep the child until they can fly from the nest an independent and productive member of society! Now eat your vegitables and go do your homework!

Veggies build and maintain your immune system. Homework gets you a good paying job that allows you to support a family and buy rockets.

Good parents, really do know best :)

You're right, it's up to parents to teach their children. But today's kids are our kids. The kids you say are dumbed down are our dumbed down kids. Perhaps our smarter generation isn't nearly as smart as you seem to think. A lot of our generation have proved to be miserable parents, miserable politicians, and miserable teachers. It's great to know that we're better at building models though.

Hank: Yup. Dale: Yep! Boomhower: Dangolrockit takesoffrealfast fuzzzzt! Screaminflyinaloverdangolsky telyouwhut, juskool man!

Randy

Mario,

View it in this light:

Technology has made our paths in life narrower and narrower. Now if we wage war, we risk the extinction of mankind. 30 years ago, you slept around, you caught something, a simple pill or shot in the arse was enough to cure it. Today, you catch somethiing and within 18 months YOUR DEAD.

Pediphiles back in the 1940s/50s/60s could only regionally rape, and kill children. Now with the internet, it can and IS done on a world wide scale.

greatest lead spewers out there. Now in 2006 you can take your pick on the black market of a plethera of automatics that make the BAR look like a BB gun.

Things today are far more dangerous for people than in ANY time in recorded history (not counting the Great Flood).

We are smarter because we could and did spend far more time pursuing creative activities; there was no internet, so we created one. We for the most part, didn't have to deal with a STD or a baby at 14 (yes there were people in this situation, but they were there in class one day, and never to be seen again once the word got to teachers.).

It was much easier for us to be creative, than it is to a young child being pressurred by her peers to 'do it' or to get high, or to post thong shots of themselves on myspace.com.

The question I wonder about is if we are living durings America's decendency, or is this just a stall, and we are still living our accendency??

Mario Perdue wrote:

Why, thank you! But why would I buy ROL back when there is a perfectly suitable alternative at

? If you haven't taken the time to review the site, please do. I don't think you will be let down.

I visited the site, and bookmarked it.. very nice, easy to navigate around, and its full of information. Brent really should take notes from your site :)

Running a portal site doesn't take a genius, nor does it take a programmer or a media expert. It takes a live human being actively tinkering around. You can not put a web portal on auto-pilot and expect it to run itself. If you do, you can expect it to run in the ditch, because if it looks like no one's home, nobody's going to stop by.

When I sold ROL it had a news email list with over 10,000 hobby rocketry subscribers that received a weekly news update email. Today, not a single email gets distributed and the list no longer exists. A portal simply will not run itself, except into the ground.

Mike,

Your remarks spur contradictory reactions in these old bones.

The first is.... MY GOD! Don't get me started! YESSSSSS. I'm sitting here trying to write an article on off-vertical accelerometer analysis that would never find an audience, because no one would be interested in the science.

The second is that science itself is not as neat and publishable as it used to be. Before the computer, the thrust of science was to reduce things to formulas. Alas, not everything can be reduced to formulas; most things have to be explored numerically. The computer makes that possible, and it has changed the very face of science. In

1969 an article could be about scientific formulas. Today it's going to involve a computer program. On the one hand, many more problems can be addressed this way. On the other hand, we tend to solve all problems way. The connection here? The technological emphasis gets larger as the presumed scientific background of the audience gets smaller.

Finally, this seems to be the way of all hobbies. They start with fundamentals and end with ready-made products.

Your car article is an example.

Amateur astronomy started with science and optics. Now it's expensive GoTo telescopes. The better your scope, the greater your status.

Home computers started with IC's, boards, and teletypes. Now... it ain't even a hobby, it's bloody work! Few people who use home computers understand anything about them. Instead of getting more work done, we consume every extra CPU cycle in the process of dumbing the machine down.

The entire magazine, _Popular Science_ started with baking soda and vinegar chemistry in the thirties. Now it's all the new products that science is going to give us someday.

The funny thing is that if this doesn't happen... well hobbyists don't make many advances by themselves, so they start going over the same tired territory. Take Zinc and Sulfur rockets, for example. They were once considered cutting edge for hobbyists. Now they are grotesque relics, still pursued by purists. Pre-packaged AP composites are a splendid alternative, when you think about it.

Nevertheless, you have my sympathies,

-Larry C.

D'oh!