News and Views: December 5, 2024

U.S. math scores show 'devastating' decline   

"One in five U.S. eighth graders scored below the low benchmark, meaning they lacked even basic proficiency," Meltzer writes. That's way up from earlier years. 

   The drop in science scores was less extreme, but U.S. fourth-graders now score worse in science than they did in 1995.

   Singapore, South Korea, Hong Kong, and Japan topped the rankings. Poland, Sweden and Australia made the greatest gains, passing the U.S.  “We have countries leapfrogging over us,” Carr said.

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Report: ‘Demographic Cliff‘ Will Cause College Closures to Soar Notably, the value of a college or university degree — amid skyrocketing tuition prices — has larger number of prospective students questioning if taking on significant debt is worth it.

   Meanwhile, the United States is facing a declining birth rate, along with higher than usual borrowing by students looking to cover the cost of tuition, with the number of students enrolled in institutions of higher learning falling by 15 percent in 2021 when compared to 2010.

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EU's baby bust: New data reveals the terrifying population plunges   Experts believe the trend is partly down to women focusing on their education and careers and couples waiting to have children until later in life.

   The UK's fragile economy and cost-of-living crisis is also putting people off having children, some believe, evidenced by abortion rates simultaneously spiking.

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Celebrate Diversity: Kansas City Imam Wants Allah to Kill All the Zionists, One by One  Tarife’s prayer that Allah would kill the Zionists one by one is all too common. In late November, a Muslim entered a Montreal Jewish business and screamed “We’re gonna kill you one by one.” Just weeks ago, the Palestinian Authority Supreme Shari’ah Court Director Alaa Dweikat prayed: “Strike the aggressive Zionists. O Allah, kill them one by one and count them one by one, and do not leave [even] one.”

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Stone Age Ports...America's ports have fallen behind. Not a single one ranks in the top 50 worldwide   A big reason is that dock unions stop innovation...

 "We're going to see less activity in 'Stone Age' ports," says Palagashvili.

"Stone Age?"  

"They want to ban automated opening and closing of port doors," she points out, requiring workers to pull heavy doors themselves.

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The Green Energy Apocalypse 

That astonishing paradox of trying to get rid of the energy resources that provide 80% not just of the U.S.’s energy, but the whole world’s, is powerful evidence of how unscientific and incoherent the whole net-zero carbon pursuit is. Moreover, what reductions of carbon emissions that have already occurred result not from pie-in-the-sky expensive mandates or bribes to consumers and manufacturers to buy and produce electric cars, but from the development of shale fracking, which produces cleaner natural gas for generating electricity.

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Lessons From The Covid Fringe 

Reading that COVID-19 report today was a reminder—not only to pay closer attention to those loud objectors the next time I’m having a narrative mercilessly stuffed down my throat—but also to try and have a modicum more courage than I’ve had in years past to find my own voice and courage to speak up when something doesn’t make sense to me.

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