Lordofduct short rant about crap that he hates... agree?

[racketboy]

Anyone see the movie, Idiocracy?

[Mozgus]

Woah, Mike Judge?! If OfficeSpace is any indication, this movie should rock balls. Must get.

[lordofduct]

I've been meaning to see that for a while now. Haven't gotten around to it yet though.


Oh and finally I can truthfully say "Happy Thanksgiving". And to all you people who start bitching about it being the beginning of the massacre of Native Americans... go read a little bit of History and you will learn of all the HORRIBLE DISGUSTING things we did to these people. The first "Pilgrim" ThanksGiving is probably the ONLY time we did all right with the Natives of New England.

I don't know how many stupid articles I've read the misinform people about the first Thanksgiving... just yesterday I read one that stated:

"Thanksgiving Day" was first proclaimed by the Governor of the then Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1637 to commemorate the massacre of 700 men, women and children who were celebrating their annual Green Corn Dance...Thanksgiving Day to the, "in their own house", Newell stated.

They couldn't even say the name of the colony, or the Governor's real name. Despite the fact both the name "Plymouth" and "William Bradford" are common historical names related to the topic. Already the falsifications this article spits out show through. Secondly the first Plymouth ThanksGiving was in 1621 (there is another recorded in 1619 in Virginia, but the ThanksGiving holiday celebrated today is based on the Pilgrim's first ThanksGiving). And Also William Bradford was an ally of the Wampanoag, the Natives in the area who joined in on the 3 day feast... it was more of an offering giving by the Pilgrim's as a sign of respect to the Wampanoag.

William Bradford remained governor until 1640... and never once did he lead any massacre of 700 men. The only killing of Indians that did occur under him was a small fight between the Pilgrims and the Nausset when they first landed... which wasn't massacre, but more protecting ones self on both sides of opposition(not the site of Plymouth, but further south), and later as an ally force with the Wampanoag merely as part of their barter together as they supply assistance in cultivation, the Pilgrim's supply man power for protecting the already dwindling Wampanoag population brought on by a plague that was unrelated to the Pilgrims.

But no, everyone has to take everything in extremes... can't look between the lines. Things aren't all Black & White... bleh, angry again.

[racketboy]

Woah, Mike Judge?! If OfficeSpace is any indication, this movie should rock balls. Must get.

It's not as good as Office Space, mostly because you have to listen to all the people in the future than can barely speak straight. But the concept is quite interesting.

Racketboy's Amazon Affliliate Link For Anybody That Wants The Movie

[D.D.D.]

Anyone see the movie, Idiocracy?

I saw it and it was painful to watch the first half of the movie because everyone was so blithering stupid... The latter half was okay. I still feel dumber for watching the movie. (paraphrasing) "Plants don't grow with 'Super-ade' on them..." "Have you tried water?" "Like from the toilet?"

And yeah, that's pretty much what will happen to the earth unless the intelligent purge the cretins from the planet and make some sort of a LOST colony~ Then again as I saw on Star Trek:TNG, that will lead to inbreding and sterilization... Ahhh TV and movies~

[The Apprentice]

OMG at first post. ORLANDO??? You gotta be kidding me! Florida is an easy place to navigate. Or at least for me, I'm one of those people who could probably draw a map of orlando and lives plenty far away. I cannot believe someone could wonder like that. Are there not highway signs ALL OVER the place around here? I mean god, they tell you the name and general direction of every town with a population over 1,500. God that is freaking hilarious.

[Bev]

Someone goes and does some math. They multiply 12 and 10 and assume the answer is 120 because the calculator told them so. But they are oblivious to the fact that 12 * 10 actually means add 12 up 10 times. Instead they just memorize the damn times tables and then wonder why math gets SOOOO hard later on in life.

I do question things like that - but only to a point. When I was very young and learning basic maths, I learned the "why" of everything and found everything else clicked into place a lot easier later on because of that. But, at some point a lot later on it all just got a bit too complicated and I gave up trying to understand why things work and accepted that for some logical reason they just do. So I agree with you that people should at least TRY to learn and solve their own basic problems, but at the same time... what seems simple to learn for some people is difficult for others.

[racketboy]

Someone goes and does some math. They multiply 12 and 10 and assume the answer is 120 because the calculator told them so. But they are oblivious to the fact that 12 * 10 actually means add 12 up 10 times. Instead they just memorize the damn times tables and then wonder why math gets SOOOO hard later on in life.

I do question things like that - but only to a point. When I was very young and learning basic maths, I learned the "why" of everything and found everything else clicked into place a lot easier later on because of that. But, at some point a lot later on it all just got a bit too complicated and I gave up trying to understand why things work and accepted that for some logical reason they just do. So I agree with you that people should at least TRY to learn and solve their own basic problems, but at the same time... what seems simple to learn for some people is difficult for others.

Try BrainAge.
It's actually quite fun and helps get your mind back in "processing mode" again.

[lordofduct]

I think the idea that "what may be easy for some can be really hard to others" is a load of bologna.

to an extent. There are obvious scenarios where it does fit. But that doesn't mean it fits in the world of general knowledge.

But I didn't get as good in my studies as I am now because I'm some super genius... because I'm not (one can tell just by my grammar alone). I just practiced... because I was tired of not knowing in class and getting Ds in middle school.


Humankind has shown they have the abilities time and time again when put to the test. Several nations (though probably not fun) have shown through forced academia that children in elementary school can take on higher level math and science. It isn't a matter of can and can't...

it's more are you interested or not, are you willing to try or not, and do you have someone who can teach it to you properly. (or like in China, do you have parents kicking your ass hard enough to make you just regurgitate it... not my prime choice of how to teach).


I tutor, have for years. I've taken on students completely dumbfounded by Algebra... let alone the Calculus course they are in. My method of tutoring the student has nothing to do with the actual application of the topic for their class; the teacher will take care of that. All I do is spend a couple hours a week explaining concepts and processes... the "why" behind how it works. And also remove that apathetic response of "meh, it just works, my teacher said so".

In a matter of 2 weeks I've already gotten several students quiz and test grades to improve by nearly 150 - 200% (I usually take on F students pulling in 30s and 40s on tests).

[Bev]

Haven't tried any of the Brain Age/Training games yet - maybe I should drop hints for a Christmas present.

Anyway, I like to think that I tried really hard to understand the concepts behind what I was being taught, but there was only so many times I could look at the problems from the same angle. I remember asking my teachers why what I was doing worked, and their response was always just to go over which methods you had to apply yet again. It seemed a lot harder to get the answers as to why things work rather than how they work. Which I guess can be expected really - as long as the student understands how to approach an equation they'll pass an exam regardless of whether they understand why or not. The problem is that you don't get the same degree of understanding.

I'm back in a course now which has a maths heavy section coming up soon - so I'm really hoping that being retaught things will help me out a bit.