You have to wonder who at the National Science Foundation thought funding a website that makes fake voicemails from the future and games that have people running around looking for fictional fallen “chronofacts” (artistic plastic disks named “chronofalls” that apparently fall out of time) was a good idea? Yes, you can hear voicemails from the future about “Arctic Corn” and “Hurricane Simulator Booths”. Your tax dollars at work.
Eric Worrall writes:
Columbia University’s Climate Center has received $5.7 million from the National Science Foundation for the university’s “PoLAR Climate Change Education Partnership,” to “engage adult learners and inform public understanding and response to climate change.”
The funding was used to create climate change “games”, including fake voicemails from the future, one of which bizarrely warns that in 2035 neo-luddites would kill scientists, anyone who “knows anything”, and other oddities such as advertisements for Tsunami insurance.
http://futurecoast.org/voicemail/93594-38625955/
This cloud has one silver lining – next time anyone you know suggests that the government spends your money wisely, on your behalf, send them a link to the Future Coast project.
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Note from Anthony.
When I saw this story submitted I thought surely this must be some sort of mistake, but the deeper I went, the more bizarre it got. And it is true, the website is set up by Columbia on a grant from NSF: See http://www.futurevoices.net/the-fine-print/
Strangely, and perhaps illegally (since this is publicly funded), the ownership of the website is secret: http://whois.net/whois/futurecoast.org
Here are some voicemail topics: http://futurecoast.org/voicemail/93594-38625955/
And a video they produced, which looks like a bad version of the “Blair Witch Project”:
Actually, ten of them: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCa0iSEwmopVXf2Y8x1NnbSg
And of course, anyone can play. You can call this number and make a “voicemail from the future” about climate. From http://www.futurevoices.net/
Here are the people and rationale behind it, something called “The Polar Hub”, they say:
Mission and Vision
The world’s polar regions are changing rapidly. What implications do these changes have for polar ecosystems and communities? How do they compare to changes of the past? Do changes in the Arctic and Antarctic regions affect life outside of the poles? The Polar Learning and Responding Climate Change Education Partnership (PoLAR CCEP) seeks to inform public understanding of and response to climate change through the creation of novel educational approaches that utilize fascination with shifting polar environments and are geared towards today’s adult learners.
Supported by a five year grant from the National Science Foundation, the PoLAR Partnership is developing a suite of interactive and game-like tools that capitalize on the iconic imagery of the Arctic and Antarctic, areas of the globe that are experiencing the most dramatic shifts in climate. Games and game-like activities are increasingly used to engage diverse participants in problem solving. Focusing on the poles also leads to discussion of broader impacts, especially as the changes taking place in the polar regions are increasingly linked to concerns about rising sea levels and extreme weather around the globe. Adult learners, be they community leaders, the general public, pre- and in-service teachers, or college students, are today’s decision makers and are more likely to make informed decisions if they understand the scientific evidence of climate change and its social, economic, and environmental consequences.
The PoLAR Hub is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant Number DUE-1239783. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.
![PoLAR_ProjectMatrix_10-25[1]](http://wattsupwiththat.files.wordpress.com/2014/05/polar_projectmatrix_10-251.jpg)
http://thepolarhub.org/content/mission-and-vision
The next time somebody complains about a climate skeptic getting a tiny scrap of funding for a study or a project, show them this.
The CUSP award Berenyi linked to not only includes working with community organizers in Philly, Pittsburgh, NYC, but also includes working with the Learning Research Development Corporation. LRDC was heavily involved with what was called the New Standards Project in the 1990s and is called the Common Core now.
The gaming for those of you who have not read those posts gets held up as ‘relevant’ and ‘engaging’ by educators justifying making this the classroom focus. It is also held up as a means of increasing the graduation rate. Worthless credentials of course create expectations without genuine knowledge or skills to see that those expectations can be fulfilled.
The gaming is intended to be a huge part of the Social Studies C3 Framework and the Next Generation Science Standards in the K-12 classroom. Edutopia, funded with Lucas’ haul from selling the Star Wars franchise to Disney, has a great deal of material on the gaming push in the classroom. Strategies used by players also throw off a great deal of useful Big Data and metadata.
Overviews from data will allow planners to know which schools and districts have True Believers on CAGW and which are in need of reeducation curricula from the new Learning Registry. Honestly, if this topic were really understood it would diminish everyone’s sense of what a Memorial Day observance is really protecting anymore.
When I speak and am trying to get people to appreciate just how radical the intended changes are, it is usually gaming that is the lightbulb moment.
Below is a link to the NSF FY 2013 financial report.
They spent 6.9 billion dollars in this period and there are numerous complaints that this amount was less due to the sequester.
I’ll bet there are a lot more of the same useful programs covered under the grants.
There are 1922 Universities, colleges on the dole, 10,800 grants supporting 299,000 people. Does anyone think “they” would do anything but do the Governments bidding for their agenda?
Why do I think they are bought and paid for?
http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2014/nsf14002/pdf/nsf14002.pdf
Here are the results for a typical search on chrono facts
http://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/simpleSearchResult?queryText=chrono%20facts
This is the problem with so many new fake science journals doing peer review – they can get hundreds of new papers stamped peer reviewed [without base dataset or methods so they can be verified or debunked] – it is then qualified to apply for GRANT MONEY FROM THE GOVERNMENT [AKA TAXPAYERS].
Robin says, “The gaming is intended to be a huge part of the Social Studies C3 Framework and the Next Generation Science Standards in the K-12 classroom.” aka Common Core
Thank you for your broad reading and for taking the time to write and post. I suspected this was meant for children in public schools. The clue is that it says it is meant for “adults,” but this means ages 13 and up. In my opinion, all talk of using Gaming in education is part of the push to make year-round school palatable to American children and parents. That is Arne Duncan’s goal.
The only hope for some children to be literate is to take them out of public schools, which are implementing Common Core.
$5.7 million, and one video has only 16 views. Is this perhaps the least successful project of all human history?
How about spending some money to research plans like this>
A BOLD NEW ENERGY POLICY TO SAVE THE AMERICAN WAY OF LIFE!!!
We put millions of skilled workers on manufacturing jobs building 500 to 1,000 Nuclear power plant of a low cost standard design. This will provide all the energy to accomplish a full restoration of our industrial base. How will this happen you ask?
First we “MINE” the oceans for gold, silver, copper, uranium, methane, manganese and other valuable minerals and metals. It has been estimated that it will be profitable to mine gold from the seas at around $ 3,000 per ounce. Second we use cheap nuclear power to extract these metals which could make a profit to pay off the national debt. Third we use the byproduct “WATER” to farm the huge vacant dry south west feeding the entire planet with low cost food.
Finally we use the cheap nuclear power to build factories to manufacture everything the entire planet needs and we return to zero unemployment and can pay good wages because we have free energy that makes a profit in it’s creation.The money generated can payoff all debts, build nuclear reprocessing plants, research and develop a system to render nuclear waste harmless.
Just think, full employment, no energy crisis ever, gold to make money valuable, make the dollar the strongest currency on earth, end inflation, end government debt. Just imagine “AMERICA REBORN AND THE DREAM FULFILLED!!!
Where’s Senator William Proxmire when you need him? He’d have a field day with this and his Golden Fleece award.
NSF = Nationalized Science Fiction
Doing a google search including the grant number, I found http://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1239782 which says, in part:
This doesn’t sound much like the site at hand, I wonder if they’re up to multiple mischiefs on one grant.
-Ric
“If conservative politicians can’t or won’t stop this, I will STOP voting FOR THEM TOO!!!!!!!”
Pamela,
I understand your frustration but find it difficult to blame the House for it’s inability to throttle the wasteful ;spending and crazy subsidies promoted by the Democrats, especially when it purpose is to get the recipient of subsidies in bed with dear leader and Harry Reid. Harry has piles of good Bills on his desk that do not see the light of day, like the Keystone Pipeline, which many democrats support (only because they are up for election and they are cowards to deny their vote for the pipeline)..Instead their priority is to change the name of the Redskins!
Dirty Harry has turned the Senate from a democratic organization that debates issues to a personal dictatorship that does not even allow amendments to come to the floor, especially if the vote on them would embarrass his colleagues.
Remember the MSM always demagogues the Republicans when ever they try to throttle wasteful spending or offer an alternative (not that they are all angels). (PS I am a registered Democrat).
“$5.7 million, and one video has only 16 views. Is this perhaps the least successful project of all human history?”
Probably successful because it funnels taxpayer dollars to those who support the agenda and buys their vote with tax dollars.
It is worse than we thought.
Zeke says:
May 26, 2014 at 12:41 pm
“The only hope for some children to be literate is to take them out of public schools, which are implementing Common Core.”
Literate children are highly likely to become educated and productive adults. A literate child can read a book of reasonable length, enjoy it, relate the contents of the book, and then criticize the book as satisfying the child’s interests or not. Such a child GRASPS the book.
Producing literate children is difficult, but there was a time when we did it well and did it consistently. The last bulwark against illiteracy in secondary education was the large network of Catholic Schools. College students from Catholic Schools are literate. (I did not attend such a school and am not Catholic.)
Common Core teaches that books are not different from government tracts. In other words, that curriculum does not recognize what a good book is. And its designers are not interested in learning what a good book is. Only bureaucrats could design such a monstrosity.
Jimbo May 26, 2014 at 9:18 am
Yes, that was the event that I was thinking of. We need to be careful that solutions don’t spawn more hazards than they solve. CO2 as a tiny fraction of the atmosphere is not toxic but extract it and put it all in a big store under pressure… Mistakes are most likely to be made if we rush into things and CAGW theory is all about ‘now, now we must act now!’
I wonder if “Jane MacGonigal of the Institute for the Future and a game designer” who is quite happy to use games to indoctrinate children is also one of those who says that violent video games don’t de-sensitize children to violence?
5.7 million for scifi, and we get that?
I want Klingons and Romulans and Cardassians for that kind of dough.
Theo that is utter nonsense and you know it. The Common Core is not a curriculum. It is a list of standards that if met by the senior year in high school, colleges and technical schools will no longer have to provide extensive remedial classes in reading, writing, and math in order to prepare incoming freshman to pass required entry level but standard college freshman courses.
I take it you prefer dumb students who can’t read, write, or figure beyond a 5th grade level.
See link for all included links:
“FireHost” is a cipher, this site has no info.
It includes pic of futurecoast logo, which is not currently used on site’s homepage (has “2013” in it).
http://images.thumbshots.com/image.aspx?cid=2319&v=1&w=200&url=futurecoast.org&xurl=CVAnrdTvMD%2BLCoXoaIoBUQ%3D%3D
Feeding the saved image itself to Google (URL alone didn’t work) yielded it’s part of a stock photo, “many young people meeting sunset on sky background”. “Futurecoast” cropped the bottom so it doesn’t show the people are standing on a pier or walkway, above the water. Looks like they’re already prepared for the inevitable six feet of sea level rise.
Google found FireHost.com, another startup “managed” cloud storage company. But the Google result and the homepage has a quirk. It is prominently featured they have “HIPAA Compliant Hosting” (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act). That’s showcasing credentials for medical record storage, in the cloud.
The suspicious among you may note that since Obamacare is the law, even if illegally implemented, and has onerous provisions for record standards and other items that will lead to essentially-mandated centrally-stored online comprehensive medical records, accessible by any provider of medical services or national security, it sure looks like FireHost wants a piece of that action, which will likely include government funding, direct or otherwise, especially as it leads to locked-in contracts for government services as we devolve into single-payer. And look, here FireHost is already accepting indirect government funding to provide services for CAGW-hyping, another predilection of the Occupant in Chief.
From the commoncore.org website confirmed by myself after many, many hours studying and closely reading the standards:
“Because the standards are the roadmap for successful classrooms, and recognizing that teachers, school districts, and states need to decide on the journey to the destination, they intentionally do not include a required reading list. Instead, they include numerous sample texts to help teachers prepare for the school year and allow parents and students to know what to expect during the year.
The standards include certain critical types of content for all students, including classic myths and stories from around the world, foundational U.S. documents, seminal works of American literature, and the writings of Shakespeare. The standards appropriately defer the majority of decisions about what and how to teach to states, districts, schools, and teachers.”
I’ld say there are some pretty good books on my shelf that would work quite well in fulfilling these standards. And as a teacher, I am able to choose from that rich selection. I was privileged to spend time in a high school classroom as they worked through “The Crucible” in one class, and “Romeo and Juliet” in another. The Crucible is an especially riveting story based on actual events with many parallels to today’s mob rule hysteria prone society.
The gaming issue has nothing to do with Common Core. To say that it does makes me wonder at a person’s true ability to preach to anyone about the perils of propaganda.
Let me offer one of the largest free History and Constitutional libraries on the web . . free eboooks, links and video libraries for kids and adults . . give it a try it is free, no tracking, no email needed, no cookies – just free information . .
http://articlevprojecttorestoreliberty.com/the-basic-library.html
Climate voicemails from the future is jumping the gun.
I for one would be satisfied if I could get all those embarrassing climate emails from the present and the past into the public domain.
They are going to take the phone calls, your numbers, plot them and do a research paper that shows that 97% of the phone numbers have been turned over to the IRS to …
Theo Goodwin says:
May 26, 2014 at 2:19 pm
“Literate children are highly likely to become educated and productive adults. A literate child can read a book of reasonable length, enjoy it, relate the contents of the book, and then criticize the book as satisfying the child’s interests or not. Such a child GRASPS the book. ”
============================
I usually just read for the fun of it.
Some of it sunk in, some didn’t.
I’m not ready to make any profound statements, but it did lead me here.
My research reveals that Common Core is in fact nationalized, copyrighted content, and includes a national student tracking database system.
From HSLDA: “Common Core proponents offer upbeat descriptions of utopian educational goals along with detailed practical lists of what students should know and be able to do in grades K–12 in mathematics and English language arts. But those goals and standards are just two facets of the conglomeration of federal funding, preschool–workforce invasive student tracking, and one-size-fits-all computer-based learning that has become the Common Core.”
More: http://www.hslda.org/commoncore/Analysis.aspx#FAQ
Educational freedom as practiced in our country and supported by court decisions has already conclusively demonstrated the ability of home, charter, and private schools to do far more with far less than these teachers’ unions.
The nationalization of standards will and does mean the nationalization of content. As it stands, every one is outperforming the state schools. Educational freedom is what is at stake here. Nationalizing education is an attack on state, local and parental freedom.
Theo says, “Literate children are highly likely to become educated and productive adults. A literate child can read a book of reasonable length, enjoy it, relate the contents of the book, and then criticize the book as satisfying the child’s interests or not. Such a child GRASPS the book.”
Absolutely. If you as a parent impart to your children an affection for reading, they will find and read books on their own. My own kids read text books already on subjects that interest them. One is teaching himself Latin and reading German history, and one has read many serious scientific books about wolves. What people fail to understand is that education does indeed become a self-motivated and self-organized activity as they mature. You have to see it to believe it. Sometimes I wish they did like the same subjects as I do, but still I facilitate and get them whatever materials they need, while providing the basics.
Zeke, you are wrong. In every solid piece of published research on student outcome between charter, private, and public schools, none are better than the others. The link below focuses on low income students. You would think that private and charter schools would be better able to improve educations outcomes for these kids, given all the rhetoric.
http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=5&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0CFYQFjAE&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.edline.com%2Fuploads%2Fpdf%2FPrivateSchoolsReport.pdf&ei=INiDU5C8I4isyAS9-IGYDQ&usg=AFQjCNGuaBW9sosoYNo4zbXE9WDucGRwxA&sig2=h2uSgfsQ1MGEML2F7Ywlnw&bvm=bv.67720277,d.aWw
I wonder how many private, charter, and home school kids are now, as watermelon adults, feeding us with global warming hysterical propaganda. Hey! If you can engage in rhetoric, I guess I get a turn at it too! But I hope you see that what I just alluded to is nonsense.