rant

[G-spotter]

In fact - here's the full quote:

 

His ignorance was as remarkable as his knowledge. Of contemporary

literature, philosophy and politics he appeared to know next to nothing.

Upon my quoting Thomas Carlyle, he inquired in the naivest way who he

might be and what he had done. My surprise reached a climax, however,

when I found incidentally that he was ignorant of the Copernican Theory

and of the composition of the Solar System. That any civilized human

being in this nineteenth century should not be aware that the earth

travelled round the sun appeared to be to me such an extraordinary fact

that I could hardly realize it.

 

"You appear to be astonished," he said, smiling at my expression of

surprise. "Now that I do know it I shall do my best to forget it."

 

"To forget it!"

 

"You see," he explained, "I consider that a man's brain originally is

like a little empty attic, and you have to stock it with such furniture

as you choose. A fool takes in all the lumber of every sort that he

comes across, so that the knowledge which might be useful to him gets

crowded out, or at best is jumbled up with a lot of other things so that

he has a difficulty in laying his hands upon it. Now the skilful workman

is very careful indeed as to what he takes into his brain-attic. He will

have nothing but the tools which may help him in doing his work, but of

these he has a large assortment, and all in the most perfect order. It

is a mistake to think that that little room has elastic walls and can

distend to any extent. Depend upon it there comes a time when for every

addition of knowledge you forget something that you knew before. It is

of the highest importance, therefore, not to have useless facts elbowing

out the useful ones."

 

"But the Solar System!" I protested.

 

"What the deuce is it to me?" he interrupted impatiently; "you say

that we go round the sun. If we went round the moon it would not make a

pennyworth of difference to me or to my work."

[ivan]

my favorite bill hicks bit - he rants about a waitress at a diner, who, upon walking up to him to get a order and see's he has a book in front of him, inquires: "what'chu reading for?"

[tvashtarkatena]

i'm not illiterate in the sciences however, so maybe that helps - that said, i can't name the precepts of thermodynamics by #, but i can explain the theory in general and place its development in its historical context, and all for the low, low price of 1$/student/day!!!

 

I know the 2nd Law disproves evolution.

 

Perhaps if you knew what the 2nd Law was, you would not have posted this. More college needed, perhaps?

 

The 2nd Law applies to closed systems. An organism, group, or lineage of organisms is not a closed system. Feel free to put a baggie over your head, a cork up your ass, and some duct tape over your mouth and test my statement for yourself.

 

A common lack of understanding,among common people who choose to consume what certain anti-science groups put out there.

Edited February 5, 2009 by tvashtarkatena

[tvashtarkatena]

You really don't need any of that liberal horseshit at college. What you need is vocational training, how to do your job. That's what you're paying $ for, to get a job that will pay you bux so you can pay back that $ and make yourself $ to raise your family and kids in your own way without some lame-ass twerpy university types telling you how to live your life. How in the fuck can learning about some sentence structure in some fucking French novel make one $? What the fuck do the French know? Nothing about your future job, that's for sure. That's all you need, not some gay-ass literature or Humanities, reading some bullshit about other people you don't know or some shit that happened a long time ago. And especially finance or economics or political science and shit. That shit doesn't have anything to do with the common man just trying to do his job. You can learn all you need about the golden rule and morals and shit from your folks and the people in your community. And if you want a good story, there's television or movies and that shit don't take a goddamn week to get through. And there's news and analysts on tv too. Hey, Bill Gates dropped out of college, so he saw what bullshit it was, too.

 

Please don't tell us you've had kids already. The world's pert near full up with morons already.

[Fairweather]

i'm not illiterate in the sciences however, so maybe that helps - that said, i can't name the precepts of thermodynamics by #, but i can explain the theory in general and place its development in its historical context, and all for the low, low price of 1$/student/day!!!

 

I know the 2nd Law disproves evolution.

 

JC: No it doesn't:

 

http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/thermo/bioentropy.html#c1

 

http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/thermo/seclawcon.html#c1

 

TTK: The only problem I have with entropy is it's bleak outlook on the fate of the universe. Energy and matter in eternal balance under law #1 feels a lot nicer.

[tvashtarkatena]

The long term outlook for the universe is bleak...by our standards. The universe, in general, is a harsh place by our standards as well, yet here we are to discuss it. That's no small wonder.

 

Most things are dead a lot longer than they're alive. I suppose the universe is no exception.

 

And hey, look at it this way; there'll probably other universes that are just coming to life at that point.

[ivan]

"In the beginning the Universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move."

 

— Douglas Adams

[STP]

You really don't need any of that liberal horseshit at college. What you need is vocational training, how to do your job. That's what you're paying $ for, to get a job that will pay you bux so you can pay back that $ and make yourself $ to raise your family and kids in your own way without some lame-ass twerpy university types telling you how to live your life. How in the fuck can learning about some sentence structure in some fucking French novel make one $? What the fuck do the French know? Nothing about your future job, that's for sure. That's all you need, not some gay-ass literature or Humanities, reading some bullshit about other people you don't know or some shit that happened a long time ago. And especially finance or economics or political science and shit. That shit doesn't have anything to do with the common man just trying to do his job. You can learn all you need about the golden rule and morals and shit from your folks and the people in your community. And if you want a good story, there's television or movies and that shit don't take a goddamn week to get through. And there's news and analysts on tv too. Hey, Bill Gates dropped out of college, so he saw what bullshit it was, too.

 

 

 

[video:youtube]nTeLI5dUzKw

sssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss

[jclements]

 

Please don't tell us you've had kids already. The world's pert near full up with morons already.

 

In fact I've had fourteen, all homeschooled, so their minds aren't poisoned by all the State's propaganda and gay agenda.

[olyclimber]

thank god. now none of them will be gay, since you raised them right.

[jclements]

JC: No it doesn't:

[/sarcasm]

Sorry. Jes bullshittin.

 

'Fore I would later languish in various California community colleges in such useless classes as Music Appreciation and Foreign Film and French and Calculus and Basket Weaving I went to Nukyalur Power School in the Navy. We did thermodynamics.

 

My point was that - and that video posted by STP is synchronous - if we're just a society of specialists than we're not much further along than pyramid builders and sumerian irrigation ditch diggers.

 

Ivan - are you gonna fix the cable?

[JayB]

JayB attempting to school Ivan.

 

Now that's funny.

 

Easy there Baron Von Munchausen - your friend is in no peril, real or imagined, that you need to charge in and save him from. Ditto for any non-existent slight that you feel compelled to rectify on his behalf.

 

 

 

 

[ivan]

your friend is in no peril

dude, didn't you get the memo? tvash-ie has no friends - he's too hollow inside

 

we use everyone in the world merely as props - foils to our own goddamnedly undeniable geniuses!

[tvashtarkatena]

Is there an echo in here? Oh wait, that's just my empty convictions reverberating....

[G-spotter]

you're a matroschka with no other dolls inside

[tvashtarkatena]

you're a matroschka with no other dolls inside

 

More of a metroschka, really.

[ivan]

you're a matroschka with no other dolls inside

well duh! that's whacha put your weed in, man!

[ivan]

*double post bitzes*

Edited February 6, 2009 by ivan

[prole]

The fact is that the arts foster innovation. We've just published a study that shows that almost all Nobel laureates in the sciences actively engage in arts as adults. They are twenty-five times as likely as the average scientist to sing, dance, or act; seventeen times as likely to be a visual artist; twelve times more likely to write poetry and literature; eight times more likely to do woodworking or some other craft; four times as likely to be a musician; and twice as likely to be a photographer. Many connect their art to their scientific ability with some riff on Nobel prizewinning physicist Max Planck words: "The creative scientist needs an artistic imagination."

 

Bottom line: Successful scientists and inventors are artistic people. Hobble the arts and you hobble innovation. It's a lesson our legislators need to learn. So feel free to cut and paste this column into a letter to your senators and congressmen, as well as your school representatives, or simply send them a link to this column. One way or another, if we as a society wish to cultivate creativity, the arts MUST be part of the equation!

Hobbling Arts Hobbles Innovation

[billcoe]

this thread has turned out some mega-gaint responses!

 

come on people, you make me feel guilty when i have to scroll through your 5 page magnus opus! my high school failed me! i never learned to read! where is the goddamn porn?!?

Porn?! Hey there, this is a literature thread! Here, see if this helps out although it is only rated 2 out of 5 Kleenex:

 

[video:youtube]

[JosephH]

I remember climbing one day in Giant City, a lovely park in SoIll with lawns up right up to the cliff face, when along comes a troop of drunken partiers, prancing hand in hand in a chain along the base going to town on Pink Floyd's 'Another Brick In The Wall'. They got to "We don't need no education..." just as they passed us. Mark, the more sardonic and wry among us, looks up from whatever he was doing at the moment and comments, "yeah, give us disease instead...!".

 

It kind of put education into perspective for me in a nutshell. That, and it's not for everyone. All in all I'd say it's a matter of appreciation and, at the risk of plagiarizing the witless - 'worthless is as worthless does'.