QAnon shifts into the mainstream, remains a far-right ally
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2405844022000524
compared to other fringe groups QAnon members consumed the least diverse variety of information sources, relying disproportionately on mainstream conservative sources.
insights into how this new political movement is dissimilar to the far-right or the far-left but shares offline interests with the far-right.
Unlike the far-right and the far-left that both share and consume less mainstream news, QAnon’s increasing reference to mainstream conservative content should be of concern. Mainstream right-wing communities and individuals must reconcile with the role they have played and will continue to play in shaping the QAnon movement. QAnon poses a significant threat to social and political institutions, and its growth into mainstream politics and news media suggests that it may be here to stay.
China’s Fiber Broadband Internet Approaches Nationwide Coverage; United States Lags Severely Behind from r/technology
China’s Fiber Broadband Internet Approaches Nationwide Coverage; United States Lags Severely Behind
In 2013, 17 percent of consumers in both China and the U.S. had access to a fiber internet connection. Fast forward to 2019, China’s penetration has jumped to 86 percent while the U.S. is only at 25 percent.
Despite the constant posturing and discussion about the importance of fiber, the U.S. has not been effective at deploying a nationwide fiber optical network. Why is this?
LACK OF PRIVATE COMPETITION
INADEQUATE BROADBAND MAPPING
INEFFICIENT NATIONAL FUNDING PROGRAMS
ABSENCE OF COMMON SENSE STATE-LEVEL INFRASTRUCTURE POLICIES
Unlike America, virtually all of the access points that make up the internet “backbone” in China are state-owned, with private providers only able to lease out bandwidth from the government. The communist government’s plans extend beyond its own borders as well; the Belt and Road Initiative includes plans for direct investment in infrastructure spanning nearly 70 different countries, potentially giving China a vice grip on internet innovation if left unchecked by the West.
CHINA LEADS IN 5G DEPLOYMENT AS WELL
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more on broadband in this IMS blog
https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims?s=broadband
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https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2019/12/17/chinas-education-system-produces-stellar-test-scores-so-why-do-students-head-abroad-each-year-study/
Education scholars have already critiqued PISA as a valid global measure of education quality — but analysts also are skeptical about the selective participation of Chinese students from wealthier schools.
Second, Chinese students, on average, study 55 hours a week — also No. 1 among PISA-participating countries. This was about 20 hours more than students in Finland, the country that PISA declared to have the highest learning efficiency, or reading-test-score points per hour spent studying.
But PISA analysis also revealed that Chinese students are among the least satisfied with their lives.
Students look overseas for a more well-rounded education
Their top destination of choice, by far, is the United States. The 1.1 million or so foreign students in the United States in 2018 included 369,500 Chinese college students
hostility in U.S.-China relations could dampen the appeal of a U.S. education. Britain, in fact, recorded a 30 percent surge in Chinese applicants in 2019, challenging the U.S. global dominance in higher education.
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https://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2019/12/03/us-students-gain-ground-against-global-peers.html
Immigrant students, who made up 23 percent of all U.S. students taking PISA, performed significantly better compared to their native-born peers in the United States than they did on average throughout the OECD countries.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/finance/news/pisa-rankings-2019-four-chinese-regions-top-international-student-survey/ar-BBXGCZU
The survey found that 15-year-old students from Beijing, Shanghai, and the eastern provinces of Jiangsu and Zhejiang ranked top for all three core subjects, achieving the highest level 4 rating.
Students from the United States were ranked level 3 for reading and science, and level 2 for math, while teens from Britain scored a level 3 ranking in all three categories.
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Looking for Post-PISA Answers? Here’s What Our Obsession With Test Scores Overlooks
https://www.edsurge.com/news/2019-12-03-looking-for-post-pisa-answers-here-s-what-our-obsession-with-test-scores-overlooks
Andreas Schelicher, director of education and skills at the OECD—the Paris-based organization behind PISA wrote that “students who disagreed or strongly disagreed with the statement ‘Your intelligence is something about you that you can’t change very much’ scored 32 points higher in reading than students who agreed or strongly agreed.”
Those results are similar to recent findings published by Carol Dweck, a Stanford education professor who is often credited with making growth mindset a mainstream concept.
“Growth mindset is a very important thing that makes us active learners, and makes us invest in our personal education,” Schleicher states. “If learning isn’t based on effort and intelligence is predetermined, why would anyone bother?”
It’s “absolutely fascinating” to see the relationship between teachers’ enthusiasm, students’ social-emotional wellbeing and their learning outcomes, Schleicher notes. As one example, he noted in his summary report that “in most countries and economies, students scored higher in reading when they perceived their teachers as more enthusiastic, especially when they said their teachers were interested in the subject.”
In other words, happy teachers lead to better results. That’s hardly a surprising revelation, says Scheleicher. But professional development support is one thing that can sometimes be overlooked by policymakers when so much of the focus is on test scores.
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https://nces.ed.gov/surveys/pisa/
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more on Estonia in this IMS blog
https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims?s=estonia
Former German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel‘The World Is Changing Dramatically’
Former German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel speaks to DER SPIEGEL about his call for the country to take on a new global role and why Germans are underestimating the dangers posed by the current geopolitical situation.
Interview Conducted by Mathieu von Rohr and Britta Sandberg September 24, 2018 04:32 PM
http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/interview-with-former-german-foreign-minister-sigmar-gabriel-a-1229393.html
Now Trump is criticizing us for not spending enough money on our military. Part of the truth, however, is that the U.S. wanted exactly that for a very long time. They were worried that too much military power in Germany could provoke the next world war. I once told Tillerson, I don’t know what you are complaining about, you raised us for 70 years to be peaceniks. Now that’s what we are and you’re surprised. He laughed.
Some people want Germany to be something like a large Switzerland, but we are simply too big. We can’t just stand on the sidelines. Because of the Assad regime’s bombs, almost a million refugees were standing in front of our door. It’s not just about military operations, but about crisis prevention, diplomacy, economic development. Germany shouldn’t transform from a geopolitical abstainer to an influential geo-strategist. I wish that we would return to once again having strategic debates — no matter the result. It is important to prepare the public for the fact that the world has changed.
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more on political science in this IMS blog
https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims?s=political+science
LEVERAGING HISTORY What Britain’s Decline and America’s Rise Can Tell Us about China’s Future
https://s3.amazonaws.com/files.cnas.org/documents/CNASReport-LeveragingHistory-final.pdf
Britain
Colonial interests compelled Great Britain to build a complex economic system that funneled resources and wealth to the home islands. Great Britain’s time as the central organizing great power came to a rapid end, with the United States filling that central role.
the United States can no longer uphold all its commitments to international laws and norms. Gaps in attention to historical American commitments have opened the door for competitor nations, including China, to challenge U.S. leadership at the margins.
p. 17 Does China have a strategic plan to replace the United States as the leader of the world? Some voices suggest that it does; however, it is important to note that they do not suggest that it is modeling its ascent upon the United States’ rise a century ago
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more on history in this IMS blog
https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims?s=history
