Posts by Dag

  • PISA Logic Test Rankings

    I've been studying Japanese lately and one of the things I've come across is PISA, which stands for Programme for International Student Assesment. It's pretty interesting. What I'm specifically interested in is problem-solving test. This is a test given to 15 year olds in participating countries. It's all based on logic, so it's a pretty good indication of the capabilities of the average student in each of the participating countries - it's not cirriculum based; all you really need to do well is a brain, basic mathematical knowledge, and simple problem-solving skills.

    Here are the results:

    [Blocked Image: http://www.tidalflame.net/images/pisa.gif]

    (Basically it's best to worst from left to right. Level 1 is basic problem solving ability and level 3 is "complex" problem solving ability.)

    You can see the report for yourself here. Maybe nobody finds this interesting but I think it's kind of neat. Any ideas regarding the disparity?

    The other thing I'm interested in is the reactions I'm getting to this I posted it over at HL2World (albeit perhaps in a slightly sardonic manner - I mentioned that there are only 11 countries below the US on the 40-some list of participants, but hey, I was just stating the facts) and it was met by countless posts along the lines of "OMG USA ROX0R WE R #1 CUZ WE CAN B0MB U!!1"

    Anyway, I just thought that was kind of interesting.

    (On another note, I'm new here and I've noticed that sometimes when I click reply/new topic it just sends me back to the main page - yeah, I'm logged in. What's up with that?)

  • Cuba~

    For those wondering about the last picture:

    Around the time of Christmas some American organization operating in Cuba put up a big lit sign which said 77 or some number thereabouts, which was a reference to prisoners being held by the Cuban government. I forget exactly. Basically, it was an implication of injustice. In response, the government put up those billboards.