Well, it has finally been verified...

[PCIntern]

I’ll make a short story long…

When I began taking Latin in eighth grade for five long years, the Latin teacher, who was a brilliant Oxford/Cambridge university graduate,a British citizen, began each year by saying that when he was in his equivalent of junior high and high school classes everyone was required to take Latin and Greek as well if you wanted to go into any form of literature or humanities scholarship as a career.

There were five students in our class which grew to nine the following year, and then slowly drifted down to about six at the end of my final year. His contention all along was that America was deliberately beginning to Withhold education from its students so that classical education would become a thing of the past, and there would be much more focus on popular entertainment and sports.( Interestingly, he was a first class soccer player and coached our school team, which was a comprised of a bunch of ragtag non-athletes including yours truly to soundly beat powerhouse private schools in the Philadelphia area) .

Of course, this is become known as “dumbing down” of the populace. This morning on Morning Joe, there was a long discussion about the new chip factory opening up in Phoenix, which is owned by a Taiwanese company, and one of the issues apparently in America is that we do not have people who have the necessary education to manage and or supervise These installations. Our graduates from engineering schools are apparently not prepared to enter the cutting edge technologies of modern day manufacturing. They noted that the ship produced in 1956, which was approximately 1“ x 1/2“ compared with the same size chip produced today would require 58 billion (that’s BILLION with a B)of the old chips to make the equivalent computing power of one of the new chips. The progress of science, engineering, and manufacturing in 60+ years is beyond staggering and equally staggering is the fact that I grew up in a country which at least claimed to have the greatest minds in the world l for creativity in these fields and now we are second or third world in this regard.

Well, it worked. We are in a lot of trouble. I will leave you with one last thought today, and that is my civics teacher in grade school, and this was 1965, said that the definition of a colony was that of a territory which exports raw materials and imports finished goods. Well, here we are.

[FoxNewsSucks]

1. I saw most of that

I thought it was a really good discussion. Sadly, they're on sports right now

This country has been thoroughly screwed by corporations, greed and republicons.

[brush]

2. We've been exporting jobs for years and importing production...

from those jobs. Does that count as the same thing...American jobs as raw materials?

It sure looks like it.

[PCIntern]

3. You betcha.

[gab13by13]

4. I had 3 years of Latin in high school,

and because of that I scored really high on my vocabulary SAT's. So many of our words are derived from Latin.

[nuxvomica]

5. Same with me

Latin was required in my parochial high school. Even my username is in Latin.

[PCIntern]

6. Latin saved me on anatomy and pathology tests

[brush]

10. So did I. Those 3 years taught me how to study as we had...

to read our homework aloud every class and I didn't want to be embarrassed by not being able to produce.

I wish I had taken Spanish too though. I grew up in the Southwest and could've used it as Spanish was spoken everywhere in Tucson.

[dlk]

7. If anyone has ever been to Texas...

It’s much like a third world country, by design.

[Lonestarblue]

34. I spent my career in education, and sitting through hearings for the State Board of Education

was just painful. The Board is elected and over the years has included about every kind of right-wing science denier and religious extremist who wanted the Bible taught in every class. Parent groups became involved (google Norma and Mel Gabler, fairly famous in educational obstruction circles) and demanded that textbook publishers include only the content they wanted their kids to know—basically, white people built the country, no white person ever did anything bad, and slavery was good because owners clothed and fed their slaves.

Creationism was always a big demand, and more recently even mentioning climate warming has been forbidden. Praise for how great the US free-market capitalist economy was expected, along with the notion of American exceptionalism. When politicians and right-wing parents got involved in education, quality declined.

And then there’s the enormous problem of state standards for each subject area. Some are decent but moat are poor. They began in the 1990s with standards for science education and spread to other areas. Here’s an excerpt from a document ( https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1058495.pdf that provides much more information for anyone interested):

“Although prescribed standards for science education are the basis for educational reform in virtually all states in the United States, these standards are often problematic. Indeed, an emphasis on prescribed standards often (1) frustrates and inhibits good teachers, (2) marginalizes many at-risk students, (3) produces curricula that ignore fundamental ideas in science (e.g., many states’ standards do not mention the word evolution), and (4) do not enhance teaching and learning. It is teachers, not prescribed standards, who are the most important ingredient of science education.”

Every state has different standards. An attempt was made a few years ago to introduce national standards, the Common Core, that was actually started by Republican governors. They were quickly politicized in red states as the federal government telling states what to teach, all to get votes from constituents who didn’t know any better. Those standards weren’t perfect either, but the fragmented nature of our education systems means, for example, that students in strong education states like Massachusetts are learning far more than students in weak education states like Mississippi. We need real reform, and we will not get it with today’s Republican Party trying to turn education over to for-profit companies that hire inexperienced teachers and the more recent groups like Moms for Liberty working to ban books and teach only the Republican version of our history.

[dlk]

62. There is a critical need for education reform

A well-educated population is required for democracy to survive and the Republican monetizing of our education system is creating disastrous results. By getting in bed with religious extremists, they have figured out a way to turn a large profit. I was shocked to learn substitute teachers, in Texas aren’t required to have a college degree; apparently, any warm body will do. We give lip service to the value of teachers but not much else. Yet, the work they do is foundational to our country’s future survival. Too often, quality education takes a back seat to financial and religious agendas disguised as “freedom.” Poorly educated American are tearing down our democracy, one brick at a time.

[gab13by13]

8. OMG, I just had a thought,

does this mean that all of us who took Latin are woke?

[NNadir]

9. I'm not quite sure that "Morning Joe" is an authority of the ability of American engineering...

...graduates.

My son is one, by the way.

There are many reasons why qualified engineers might not want to live in Phoenix.

As an educated person myself, I certainly wouldn't want to do so. I'm not sure how long the city will be able to survive without water, for one thing, and with climate change, there are periods it's quite possible to die rather quickly if the air conditioning fails.

[dlk]

11. Good point, however, there is a large segment of our population that is very poorly educated

We ignore it at our peril.

[PCIntern]

12. I believe he was referring to graduates nationally...

And of course, we would have this debate in academic circles, and I would understand that. I taught at the doctoral and post-doctoral levels at an Ivy League institution, and everybody there thought they were the best, until they saw this gentleman come to lecture from the uUniversity of Iowa who put everybody’s work at my school to shame. Quite frankly, in this advancing world most of us don’t know what we don’t know.

[NNadir]

26. Speaking of not knowing what we don't know, I would suspect that "Morning Joe" doesn't know...

...what he doesn't know about American Engineering.

I run into people all the time who are way smarter than I am; in general I seek them out, since I feel like I'm doing well when I am the dumbest person in the room. Many of such people, not all, but many, are American born and American trained, and highly accomplished.

I might not feel as if I'm doing well were I sitting in "Morning Joe's" studio, I suspect, but finding out what "Morning Joe" does and doesn't know is something I feel I need to know.

As for thinking one is the best, it's not a good idea, I believe. I'm not actually a fan of the so called "Ivy League." I've seen too many people ruined by those institutions.

[brush]

16. On AC, that's true, but one dies quicker in cold climates if heat fails.

Been there, done both. Being without AC is miserable but you can survive. Freezing though will put you to sleep and you never wake up.

[NNadir]

30. At wet bulb temperatures of 35C, temperatures which are now appearing all over the world...

...standing outside in the the air is fatal within a half hour. I suspect we have no idea how many people on this planet died from what used to be called "heat stroke." It's direct death by climate change, something that will become increasingly obvious in the common years, even beyond Arizona. Happily Arizona is fairly dry, but in a Monsoon season there may be hell to pay. This said, in the absence of water, wet bulb temperatures are not required to kill someone rather quickly. I once came close myself in Nevada when my car broke down.

Here's the wet bulb temperature interactive map put out by Columbia University: Wet bulb temperature map.

[Bettie]

28. Wait...Phoenix?

As I understand it (and I may be wrong) chip manufacturing uses a LOT of water.

So, it won't be long before a choice will need to be made: water for the plant or water for the people who live there?

[Abigail_Adams]

53. Egad, that's an

excellent point. Even without the 500-year regional drought. I wonder if Phoenix wants the plant and jobs so much that it's letting Taiwan Semiconductor get away with not proving where it will get the water. The federal government is already mandating water cuts in the Southwest if states don't do it themselves.

My sister lived outside San Diego for many years, and developers were pushing for large housing developments in areas with no water, and they did not have to show how they would provide the water. And outlying towns that had been promised property tax income from the new developments were letting them do it. A recipe for disaster.

By the way, I had four years of Latin in high school (a small, private girls' school). Freshman year we were six. Sophomore year, four. Junior year, three. By senior year I was the last woman standing, and it became an independent study rather than a class. : ) Very hard work at the time, but it's saved my butt countless times, and I'd do it again.

[Pobeka]

54. Two Chem Engrs in my family, who are designing chip plants right now.

I may be biased, but the programs they went through to get degrees were very tough. Dropout rate was 50% per semester. Nearly non-stop studying required. Sitting for professional exams etc, post graduation. These were kids who got 4.0 GPAs in high school.
---

And, yes, who would want to relocate to Phoenix area (or anywhere in the desert SW)? I heard an interview with a professor at AZ state last night, and the chance that Lake Powell could run out of enough water to flow over the dam is in the double digits in the next couple of years.

Siting a chip plant in that area is a head-scratcher for me, maybe I don't understand all the factors...

[yankee87]

13. Schooling for work

Now schools exists to get us job ready. I went to a Catholic HS, graduated a long time ago, and even then, Latin was not taught. I heard graduates of the 60s had to take 3 years of it.

[gab13by13]

27. That was true for me,

I graduated high school in 1965. We were required to take 2 years but I signed up for the 3rd year, I liked it.

[Kid Berwyn]

14. USA's Wretched Rich want an ignorant populace.

“The best slave is the one who thinks he is free.” - Johann Wolfgang von Göthe

[Prairie_Seagull]

36. Furtum.

Just looked it up.

[area51]

49. +1

Poorly educated people tend to vote republinazi.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

15. Chips are "raw materials" needed for cars, refrigerators, and many items the USA exports

Latin is of minimal use for engineers. Mind you, I did take a year of Latin, but though I don't remember any grammar, I have accumulated masses of Latin-derived vocabulary over the decades.

[PCIntern]

19. My reference to a Latin education

was to point out that the process of education has been severely compromised in this country at all levels. The “rigor” is disappearing rapidly.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

24. Latin is not required for rigor in education. It is much more useful for health care professionals

than any other profession, except perhaps Latin scholars and classical antiquity historians.

Studying French or Spanish can provide a similar language base and vocabulary while providing a skill that can be used in the real world of the 21st century.

[PCIntern]

41. I respectfully beg to differ:

It gives young scholars in any field a framework and rigidity which only math has for their scholastic level. It teaches rules of language and linguistics not taught in conventional English classes.

And Latin was tough for me…

[Bernardo de La Paz]

43. Latin will do the job, but French and German and Chinese have their own rigor

I advocate a tripod for the foundation of building minds and teaching people how to think. (Teaching people TO think is harder.)

Mathematics is the science of patterns,
Music is the art of patterns,
and Language is communication by patterns.

A second language of any kind (Latin, French, Arabic, Chinese, Ukrainian, whatever) makes a student discover ways of seeing and thinking about concepts and relationships and connections that are unavailable to people who only have one language.

One of the most striking things about professionals and intelligent citizens is they frequently have musical interests or abilities. They are able to communicate well and organize their advice and advocacies because they usually have a greater acquaintance with language beyond one. Mathematics of course is fundamental with logic and reasoning and analysis and synthesis and modelling.

[mopinko]

17. and everyone thinks of immigrants as lettuce pickers not phd's.

all the ppl who come here from india, china, etc, and stay on after graduation. w/o THOSE immigrants we r well and truly fucked.

[arlyellowdog]

18. They were always trying to justify my 4 years of Catholic school Latin

I think the only connection is training people to do mind numbing repetitive jobs. The workers are no more on the cutting edge of technology than any other grueling assembly line job. The one good thing about exposing Twitter is it shows that we glamorized learning coding and now our kids work for a group of Elon Musks. If America First really wants these jobs to come to this country, they can’t be the horror jobs that were done overseas.

[erronis]

20. There was an excellent segment on 1A radio yesterday about the poor training of the US work force

https://the1a.org/segments/will-americas-investment-in-semiconductor-chips-pay-off/

Basically, TSMC (Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company) may have to import highly trained workforce from elsewhere to run the new plant in Arizona.

[Stargazer99]

21. This is the object of charter schools which suck up money from public schools

half educated people are easier to gaslight and control...

[nightwing1240]

22. The late George Carlin was right on the money with this regarding education

RIP Mr. Carlin, we could really use a straight talker these days.

[judesedit]

23. You are right. North American college kids' GPA's are lower than

the Europian and Asian kids'. I worked in the Graduate Dept of an Engineering College in Florida. The kids came from all over the world. I assisted with their admission to the program. I saw then, the difference. And, actually, some of the home schooled were higher. Our kids are being short-changed. They want a bunch of "yes men and women" here. No critical thinking allowed.

[Pepsidog]

25. Really good shows on YouTube about the chip industry and how ASML in the Netherlands builds the

Fabs with components from all over the world. It's a brief, very good history of ASML and TSMC and the mind-boggling process that manufacture advanced microchips. Worth a watch. When they talk about billions of transistors created by lasers bouncing off mirrors it really is a miracle. Watch and be amazed at how chips are made.

[TNNurse]

29. I started nursing school at 25.

I was a college graduate who finally decided what she wanted to do. I had to take a lot of math I had avoided. However, all that medical terminology came easier for me than for my younger classmates. I had two years of Latin in high school...they did not.

[jaxexpat]

31. The American education system is ambivalent about educating America's youth.

This has been the case for at least the last 50 years. The blatancy of its commitment to mediocrity, however, is relatively new and normalized in tandem with the philosophy of "participation is winning". (coincidental to the burgeoning populations in "gated" communities and prisons) Really, there's been no serious attempt to educate the masses for decades now.

Part of this is the result of centuries of classism, wherein only the upper classes are exposed to education, which the framers took no effort to remedy even as they acknowledged its critical importance to the quest for a lasting democracy. Yeah, those guys appear to have encouraged antipathy to monarchy while sustaining the trappings of a class of "nobility". And did so without shame. But to be fair, their thinking was not based in knowledge of the French revolution where people expressed their feelings toward the "nobility" with exuberant egalitarianism.

But I think the greater part is the power given to "school boards". These are populated by persons elected from the general public who generally have no knowledge of the actual science of educating. What could go wrong?

[Bernardo de La Paz]

47. "no serious attempt"? You just dissed millions of American teachers. . . nt

[infullview]

32. We've been dumbing-down education since the sixties.

This was a complaint I heard from some of the professors that taught EE classes in the 70's. They were attempting to hold to the same educational standards that they had when they were in school and often complained about the quality of their students; that they were unprepared and thus unable to keep up with the material.

[plimsoll]

33. When the US exported the VLSI manufacturing

Most engineers went to other fields. You don’t spend that much effort learning the skills needed for a job that wont exist. Sure education keeps getting gutted, but this wasn’t planned, it’s endless prioritizing of short term profits over long term strategy. The wealthy power brokers don’t really mind education, they just don’t want to pay for it. Twelve year old kids aren’t going to pursue a difficult education when the kid next door makes more money than it’s parents on it’s YouTube channel. Entirely predictable 30 years ago. I’m just surprised we’re surprised.

[jaxexpat]

38. Reminds me of the first time I discovered high school grads couldn't do long division.

They told me it was no problem since there were calculators everywhere. Things became obvious at that point.

[plimsoll]

45. No, it's a different problem.

Businesses have been moving manufacturing oversees for decades because it was cheaper to build a new modern factory someplace else instead of modernizing a US based facility. That suppressed wages, and forced not only the factory workers to look for other jobs, but the technicians who maintain the equipment and eventually the engineers who design the products to look for other jobs.

Since 1995 people have been lulled by the "information society" BS, but in reality the internet wasn't used as a method of delivering information, it was a mode of entertainment delivery. If you are going to deliver entertainment then the people who produce the current entertainment are going to want in on that, and you need a mechanism to generate revenue on that delivery mode. Because the original infrastructure was developed as data systems you can harvest details about the users and use that information to tailor advertising to them. You can also use it to steer people towards the stuff you want them to see.

Since 1980 the US has been looking at the societal environment and trying to figure out how to make a buck off of some aspect of it. What we haven't done is look at the decisions and try to see where it will lead. Large numbers of the people who got to make decisions along the way were either Ayn Rand fanboys (and yes they're mostly boys) or greed narcissists, in both cases they believed that they were better than everyone else, and everyone else's only real value was to make them important. Because they were wealthy or powerful they assumed they were the geniuses, and everyone played along.

You could argue persuasively that the US doesn't really suffer from Dunning Krueger individually, but collectively, we're not really smart enough to realize that we're not that smart. It's one of the reasons that Democratic "messaging" isn't as "effective" as Republican "messaging." If you tell people unpleasant truths, enough of them will choose the self congratulatory lie that you can win elections. Lying is a winning short term strategy, but I think the consequences are really starting to bite. It would be just if you could let Republicans run the country until the wheels completely come off, but it will clearly be a disaster for mankind and responsible people don't let sociopaths run riot so the sociopaths can learn a lesson. The sociopaths won't.

[jaxexpat]

55. Agree with every point.

It would be accurate to state that the dissolution of our society and the rise of handheld technology have run parallel since the age of the "rust belt" phenomenon.

I see business as a reactionary creation and rarely on the cutting edge of innovation either sociological or technological. Fascism is opportunistic and moves about the planet like an invasive fungus.

Just sharing my thoughts.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

50. Long division is NOT the problem

Mathematical concepts are the problem as they are not being focused on. Long division is very mechanical, but the underlying concepts are much more important than calculation. It is possible to know the concepts without knowing the mechanical process, but knowing the former and acquiring the latter is much easier than knowing the long division and acquiring the concepts. Even so, there is synergy in mathematical knowledge and synergy with much wider concepts outside of mathematics.

I'd rather they know what a mathematical "group" is than long division.

However, the overlap between people ignorant of long division and ignorant of groups is large.

[Meowmee]

35. I agree

Maybe latin is not necessary to be well educated but the dumbing down in every area, especially sciences, has been going on for a long time. I have encountered many students who can’t write a coherent sentence in english which is their native language and that has been true for 30 years or more. On the other hand years ago my French teacher in England told me my french was so much better than all of the other students. The whole program was very behind what I had learned here in 2 years or so maybe. I did not attend a ritzy school there, while my brother did. I opted not to take latin when it was started here but I wish I had learned it now.

Now we are being told that education has to be chunked into small segments because students can’t handle more than a 10 minute lecture. But at the same time a lecture may be a required 3 hours per week. And other similar things. Something is seriously wrong with many people’s attention span and ability to focus.

[vlyons]

37. Why don't we teach ethical morality?

To me, that seems to be what's missing the most. The Church has failed miserably in this regard.

The classical Greek virtues were prudence, the ability to make wise choices in a given situation; justice, the ability to make fair decisions, righteousness, and lack of bias; fortitude, strength to remain undaunted in the face of fear, uncertainty, or intimidation; and moderation, the practice of self control.

Buddhism has ten virtues that relate to right body, speech, and mind. Mind, generosity, loving kindness, correct view of reality; speech, honesty, reconcile, speak pleasantly, and speak meaningfully; body, protect life, don't steal, self-discipline.

Alas our society seems to be more and more enthralled by money and power.

[jaxexpat]

40. Quick quiz.

Which seed is planted deepest for maximum germination? Shallowest?
- corn
- winter wheat
- bean

[Bernardo de La Paz]

51. I think you'll have to explain your point, at least to me. Others probably get it, I don't. . . .nt

[jaxexpat]

57. It is my lameassed attempt to identify knowledge/education.

There is knowledge that can improve and enlighten and there is knowledge that enables our existence. We are surrounded by those who know neither. We should be encouraging knowledge of both.

[Just A Box Of Rain]

39. I signed up to take Latin in High School.

But then I was called into the Counselor's office and they told me that I was the only student in the whole school who signed up for Latin.

I said, "that's okay, it will be sort of weird to be the only student in the class, but I'm willing."

My counselor gave me a blank look for a moment and then said, "you don't seem to understand, we are not going to offer a class for one student."

My ensuing protest went nowhere. Finally, when I realized my appeals would be fruitless, I said, "okay I'll take German."

"We've cancelled German."

French it was.

Latin I studied on my own.

[NJCher]

48. Re your last sentence

I had a similar experience except I was able to take German.

I taught myself Italian and French with the result of being able to read but not speak it.

I had designed my own classes in consultation with teachers anyway, which I did from about fifth grade through twelfth and higher ed.

Teachers—who needs ‘em.

The net result of all this is I’ve spent 30 years of my adult life with a person who speaks fluent Italian and French and oh, yeah, I became a teacher.

[Just A Box Of Rain]

52. LOL. Great story.

[Prairie_Seagull]

42. My daughter is a teacher of 5th graders and her main concern is about,

disruptive students. She indicates that over half or her class time is spent dealing with these few. While not the whole problem in education in America, it is significant. Honestly dealing with this one issue would allow teachers to actually spend more time teaching, maybe being creative and teaching say,,,Latin. (for instance and humor)

[Quakerfriend]

44. This dumbing down is so sad!

I’ve watched it go on - getting worse and worse over the decades.

Learning languages used to start in kindergarten.
The developing brain of a child is made for this!
Now, they tend to start in 7th grade & most kids never become fluent- even after 3-4 yrs.

I can still remember the French songs I learned in kindergarten but, relatively little of the Spanish I took for 4 years in high school.

Latin is being phased out in many schools.
My boys took it to improve their SAT scores.

Coming from a family of engineers going back over 4 generations & I can really see the steep decline in this area with many colleges now offering a ‘general’ degree in
Engineering- What a waste!

[Bo Zarts]

46. I took two years of Latin in high school .. then two years of French (1962-66)

I took two years of German at Georgia Tech. In Vietnam, I took a university level Latin course by correspondence.

[Jim__]

56. What do people think of elite schools, for instance, Brooklyn Latin School?

From wikipedia:

The Brooklyn Latin School is a public specialized high school in New York City. It opened in September 2006.[2] The ideals governing Brooklyn Latin are borrowed largely from the Boston Latin School,[3] and popular society's ideals. The school’s founding headmaster was Jason Griffiths.[4]

Admission to Brooklyn Latin involves passing the Specialized High Schools Admissions Test. Each November, about 30,000 eighth and ninth graders take the 3-hour test for admittance to eight of the nine specialized high schools. Approximately 200 applicants are accepted each year. It is the second specialized high school in Brooklyn (along with Brooklyn Technical High School) and has the distinction of being the only specialized high school in which students adhere to a school uniform. The school color, purple, reflects the preference of Roman nobility, who wore robes dyed in that color and is also the school color of the Boston Latin School, another borrowed trait.[citation needed]

The school spent its first five years at 325 Bushwick Avenue, in limited space. In 2013 it moved to 223 Graham Avenue, not far from the previous school.[5] In that same year it was named as one of New York State's top public schools.[2]

...

Admission to the Brooklyn Latin School is based exclusively on an entrance examination, known as the Specialized High Schools Admissions Test (SHSAT), open to all eighth and ninth grade New York City students. The test covers math (word problems and computation) and verbal (reading comprehension and grammar) skills. Out of the approximately 30,000 students taking the entrance examination for the September 2011 admission round (with 14,529 students listing Brooklyn Latin as a choice on their application), about 572 offers were made, making for an acceptance rate of 3.9%.[7][8]

I know we are concerned about education for all students. But, an excellent education for very good students, based on tests open to all, at least seems like a place to start. I know the Specialized High Schools Admissions Test came under fire during De Blasio's administration, probably legitimately, for being biased.

[3catwoman3]

58. Education used to be respected, admired, honored, sought after.

Now, it is mocked, scoffed at, and regarded with derision. Very sad and distressing.

[GreenWave]

59. Definitely a dumbed down population will vote reactionary if frightened, but...

I am surprised that the classics survived as long as it did. It is essentially Western Civilization only at the expense of the rest of the world being ignored.

I would surmise as well that having to study at all is the big issue.

[3Hotdogs]

60. Sometime, in the 1850's, there was a meeting of oeducators

And manufacturers. Educators asked what could be done to further mold public school graduates to the needs of business.

Top recommendation was to focus on punctuality. Workers were showing up late to work.

Hence, all the bullshiit on tardy and absence penalties.

[aggiesal]

61. I agree that our nation is being dumbed down ...

but we have world class chip designers in our country.

From 2014 to 2017, I worked for a small company called KnuEdge here in San Diego.
Most chips that come with your home computer have 4 cores, maybe 8 cores.
1 core is a CPU (Central Processing Unit).

We created a chip about 1.5" x 1.5" that had 256 cores.
Each core can communicate and pass data amongst the other 255 cores.
Then we created a PCI board with 4 chips on the board.
That's 1024 cores per PCI card, again each can communicate and pass data to the other 1023 cores.

We are able to install 8 PCI cards in a computer chassis. that's 8,192 cores per chassis. We can load 8 chassis per computer rack. Again that's 65,536 cores per rack. And we can create unlimited racks up to 131,072,000 cores, That's 62.5 racks.

What was the purpose of all this?
We were trying to simulate the human brain with each core representing a neural network.

It worked too. Systems similar to ours started popping up from tech powerhouses like Intel, Amazon and Apple. Amazon uses their neural network in their AWS (Amazon Web Services).

So you see, you will never convince me that we can't accomplish what that Taiwanese company is making or saying.

Here are a few stories on KnuEdge
https://venturebeat.com/business/former-nasa-chief-unveils-100-million-neural-computing-chip-company-knuedge/

https://futurism.com/ex-nasa-chief-reveals-knuedge-a-neuro-computing-startup

[llmart]

63. I took two years of Latin in high school.

I signed up for a third year but there weren't enough students interested, so they didn't offer it. I took two years of Spanish instead.

The two years of Latin are probably the most important classes that I ever took. I can figure out what a lot of words mean because of learning the roots of the word which are often derived from Latin. I can also understand other languages that use Latin roots in their words. Needless to say, Spanish was just a breeze for me and I earned the Most Outstanding Spanish Student award.

Was Latin a challenge? Absolutely, but I always loved a challenge. I had to take a 5-credit hour Calculus class in college in order to get my BSBA and that was even more of a challenge, but I did get an A.

Sometimes it's the challenging classes that teach you to persevere and use your critical thinking skills.