The Flynn effect as I understand it is suggesting that thick kids today are brighter than the thick kids when I was young but that bright kids today are no brighter than bright kids were when I was a lad. That reassured me that none of you young lads on here are any more intelligent than we old posters. You aren't any more intelligent it's just thick kids today aren't so thick but I will need some convincing of that having see the young lad at Palace with his baseball hat on back to front shielding his eyes from the sun with his hands .
That is what I was trying to say. The state does have to take some blame (let's blame Gove!) for not properly equipping the youth for the future. In school, you're not taught how to buy a house and take out a mortgage, how to rent out a flat, what different types of taxes there are, how to use debit/credit cards, etc. I only understand how to through Google, but I bet a lot of people my age don't know how to do the said things as they were never taught! It also comes back down to sensible and thought through decisions: if you don't have much money, whether you're unemployed or working in a low paid job, you should not have a child.
Interesting one liner that Godders. My father tried to install in me the "only spend what you have" and "pay for one brick at a time" policy. So we were brought up in a frugle environment, second hand bikes, not having everything we wanted, having half our birthday money taken away and put in an account, etc... My older sister ended up in dire financial position as she owes money everywhere. I was lucky, I hit 20, got a credit card and ran up £600 before ignoring those monthly statements. At 23 I paid back about £2,000!! Believe me that was a good lesson for me and a far easier one that my sister. My point is that a good upbringing can be helpful and advise from a father can be good, but sometimes it can send you the other way! Fwiw, 15 years ago I stopped my endowment Morte and went back to buying a brick at a time... Back to some of Dad's sound advise!! Thankfully. Now I find myself advising my kids in a similar way to how Dad advised me!
You really don't need to spend hours cooking that. (Unless you like to stand and look at stuff in a pot or oven)
Tip 1. Always keep your veg peelings and trimmings. Boil them up in a pan and you have a stock which can be used for the basis of a good, healthy soup on your next meal. As daft or old fashioned as it seems, if we have a family Sunday roast, say chicken, we always use the carcass to make a stock for a soup later in the week. Any veg or spuds not eaten, go in the soup. If we had the servings correct first time, we may just add noodles and an extra veg for the soup. I remember my parents having roast on a Sunday, remainder would then be partly chopped for a stew the next night, some minced in mum's hand held mincer for a cottage pie and then bones used a stock. It can be done, however nowadays, I usually end up having a bit extra, hence the fatter people mentioned earlier
Well, I buy my eggs from a farm and they are about half price compared to a supermarket. Meat I get from a different farm. Again, much cheaper and much better quality. I hope this doesn't come across as a "let them eat cake" kind of statement! The butcher is a great chap and I know that he looks after people according to their needs and budget. Of course, not everyone has access to farms that is obvious. As an ex chef, it is clear to me that people are in too much of a hurry nowadays to do what our parents and grandparents would do with food where nothing is wasted. FLT has put in a few examples. One 'scandal' though is this. I used to manage a department, for a major company, that among other things looked after the staff restaurant and canteen. At the end of a day we would often have sandwiches left over. Just across the road from us was a hostel for the homeless and yet we weren't allowed to give them sandwiches (fresh that day, and which I would often take home for myself) on health and safety grounds. If this is replicated across the country then the wastage of perfectly edible food must be enormous.
On my way to Cardiff for the Cup Final i sat on the train opposite a young lad with SAINTS written backwards on his forehead. I asked him if he'd done that looking in a mirror (I was joking actually). He said, "Why does everyone keep saying that?". He had, by the way.
Nothing wrong with using a microwave as a way of speeding up cooking...part cooking potatoes before baking or roasting, cooking vegetables (then using stock produced for gravy), 3 min porridge etc, but microwave meals should be used sparingly. I used to have quite a few because they were quick, tasty, and no mess or waste, but then I developed heart problems and had to watch what I ate. The content of those instant meals are horrifying...especially fat, sugar and salt. And some pizzas are just a heart attack on a plate...especially take away ones. Don't believe in complete no-no foods, but use sparingly. I have to go to a cardiac keep fit class now...mainly men with big beer bellies...and only one looks much over sixty.
So what you're saying is that on average kids now are more intelligent? And all those responding to my food question, thanks, and I'm sure many people could learn from those tips, but if you work two jobs and have fussy children to feed I'm sure it's not that easy. Also had to laugh at Joe's money-saving advice to have a couple of glasses of wine while cooking
Cheap wine, obviously. What money you save buying all these cheap ingredients you spend on getting drunk while cooking said ingredients!
The mean may have increased but the median has probably stayed in the same place and the mode fallen backwards.
How can the mode (presumably the apex of the bell curve) have gone backwards if the mean has increased? That would require a number of exceptionally intelligent people to outweigh the general drop, and seems to contradict your earlier statement that people aren't more intelligent but fewer kids are truly thick.
Oh PTF, fussy children? Someone start a "Guide to Stronger Parenting" thread please? You'll be saying we should pay them money as soon as they leave school next so their parents can feed them....... Joking by the way (on the last bit) Ps. Two kids, one job with communication from about 6am through to early hours as have global colleagues, coach football team, wife works, runs daughter everywhere for dance, both kids do activities nearly every day, season ticket holder (2 hour each way journey)..... .... No wait, hold those tissues.... Regular long distance UK travel, regular overnight UK travel, regular foreign travel, father on own since mum died, lives 90 minutes away, mother in law on own, lives two hours away ... No wait, don't start crying for me yet.... I have to grow my own veg which my Dad says, and I quote, "We'll son, if you popped out there for an hour every night you wouldn't have that weed problem.... And by the way, I have no idea why I am overweight and don't excercise
We've all got problems mate It's 7:45am, I notice you've been lurking on here for about two hours now. Maybe you could have spent that time doing sit ups?
Must be getting predictable. Walked into the café in Sainsburys...looked wistfully at the cake counter...the assistant said (without me asking), 'I'll get you a custard tart from the store if you like.' And he duly did.
