Cutie-wootie widdle genius [Jan 27, 2012]

[Zanosuke Kurosaki]

Okay, yeah, that's much better, BT. I was kind of wondering "Okay, so does that mean the more 'sophisticated' Americans read National Geographic for the pictures like this one...? Because that would explain a lot, really..."

Oh, and here's a variation on how some Americans see the world. Whether they're more or less well-read? I'm... not quite sure.

[sgtrock]

Okay, yeah, that's much better, BT. I was kind of wondering "Okay, so does that mean the more 'sophisticated' Americans read National Geographic for the pictures like this one...? Because that would explain a lot, really..."

Oh, and here's a variation on how some Americans see the world. Whether they're more or less well-read? I'm... not quite sure.

(snip image)

A more positive and I think more objective view of North America was proposed 30 years ago in "The Nine Nations of North America":



Helps if we don't generalize ourselves too much. Let alone the rest of the world.

I'm probably biased, though. The section discussing the Breadbasket makes us local yokels look pretty good in terms of our knowledge of globalization and how it can impact, say, hog futures in Iowa.

[starkruzr]

About PHP: Monica's monologue is credible to me. I've met people with similar views, although I believe she's quite wrong. And yeah, it's a snobby thing to say. "Oh, Facebook doesn't know what they are doing, but I do."

The formula in the last panel has the heart: integral of 1/x dx equals ln(x). If I could draw a picture here: ln(n+1) - ln(n) is the definite integral of 1/x dx from n to n+1. This is roughly 1/n. And ln(n+1) - ln(n) = ln((n+1)/n) = ln(1+1/n) is also, roughly, 1/n.

Or, do a web search on natural logarithm, read a couple of pages until you find one that clicks.

And after that, the step from "1/x" to "1/1 + ax" is just a linear substitution.

Credible to me, too. The thing is, engineers love hyperbole for the sake of argument. PHP *IS* a giant pain in the ass to maintain. FB isn't "doomed" because of it, but I'm sure they've had to develop very strict best practices rules about writing code and have had to be very careful about making their development environment (on a large scale) organized. She's not "wrong" exactly, just overstating her case. Like ya do.

[Mung]

Bunnythor, that made me laugh. It was like you read my brother's mind.
My countrymen do tend to take a simplistic view of the world. More accurately "the rest of the world" after whatever part of it that concerns them individually is excepted. I'm one of the few who have both the time and inclination (I'm a contractor - lots of downtime between assignments) to try to learn about places in the news, and there's still too much going on for me to consider myself well informed about all of them. Our media outlets decided long ago that there just wasn't any profit to explaining things properly, so if you want to know - say - what possible pitfalls could the invasion of Iraq run into, or even cause? - you have to go do the research yourself, because no one's going to just tell you.
So, yes, most Americans, far too busy with their own lives and problems to have/take the time, really do have very simplistic notions about the world.

[Adrishiana]

I'm still reeling from the time a high school student asked me what Arabic is.

[CEOIII]

I'm still reeling from the time a high school student asked me what Arabic is.

....it's a language?

[Adrishiana]

This was when I was participating in a tutoring program through my university, and tutors were allowed to do their homework when they didn't actually have any students in need of their help (if nothing else, they probably figured that it set a good example). One of the girls, a freshmen or sophomore, saw me doing my Arabic homework and asked what the "scribbles" were.

Me: That's Arabic.
Student: What's Arabic?
Me: [pauses, then explains that Arabic is spoken in Lebanon, Jordan, Syria, etc.]
Student: The people who want to bomb us?!
Me: ... ... [caaareful, more or less neutral explanation regarding that being not quite true]

[Zanosuke Kurosaki]

Stunning example of someone's horrible, horrible ignorance about the Middle East

Wow. And I thought you were kidding about the area you live in. You reacted much better than most people would, I think. I know my own mother (who had Arab linguist as her primary MOS while she was in the Army) would have nearly had a fit of apoplexy. *wince*

[Fen]

There's a story going around about this Chinese student who dropped out after a few classes because "no one told her she had to learn a new alphabet". We're talking a Uni freshman here. Signed up, chose Chinese as her major and all. Never bothered googling it to know that Chinese does not use the Latin Alphabet.

(we did have a few people who were baffled that we didn't actually use romaji in class...but they were at least aware that some scribbles were necessary).


Still.
Adrishiana, you are a far better person than I am.

[Adrishiana]

Stunning example of someone's horrible, horrible ignorance about the Middle East

Wow. And I thought you were kidding about the area you live in. You reacted much better than most people would, I think. I know my own mother (who had Arab linguist as her primary MOS while she was in the Army) would have nearly had a fit of apoplexy. *wince*

It was actually more of a shock because northwest Ohio and southeast Michigan both have pretty high numbers of residents from the Middle East or of Middle Eastern descent, and chances are pretty good the girl KNEW people who spoke Arabic (if only at home).

As it goes, I think this particular student's age (we tutored high school students, not fellow university students, so this girl was probably 14-15) and maturity level were such that many of her opinions were probably not her own yet so much as reflections of what she'd grown up hearing (likely from family members) and never had any real reason to question. (Possibly contributing: this was in 2006 or 2007, and the girl was probably around eight years old at the time of 9/11 and thus would have grown up with the resulting rhetoric.)

Basically, I felt that a careful, neutral explanation would serve her a lot better in the long run than just about anything else, in the sense that it might lead her to (eventually) examine some of those opinions rather than, for example, getting defensive and clinging even more tightly to said opinions as a result. I don't know if I was right about that, but she at least seemed willing to think it over, so that's something.

ETA: And lest you guys give me too much credit, the few seconds I spent mentally gaping (and, most likely, wearing the facial expression to match) were probably just enough time to overcome the initial "... ... WTF is wrong with you" reaction that I think probably would have been detrimental in this particular situation.

[Arouette]

Also, query: Why do people tend to use "Estimated Time of Arrival" when they're adding an Edit? Anyone know? Because I keep having to tell my little prompt in my head every time I see that "No, they don't mean they're going to get here at such and such time, shaddup, you know what they meant..." and it's making the little man in my head get a little confused and sad sometimes. x.x

I didn't see anyone answer this, so I will. "Edit To Add".

ETA: 8:30 p.m.

[Zanosuke Kurosaki]

Also, query: Why do people tend to use "Estimated Time of Arrival" when they're adding an Edit? Anyone know? Because I keep having to tell my little prompt in my head every time I see that "No, they don't mean they're going to get here at such and such time, shaddup, you know what they meant..." and it's making the little man in my head get a little confused and sad sometimes. x.x

I didn't see anyone answer this, so I will. "Edit To Add".

ETA: 8:30 p.m.

...OH. Okay, now it actually makes sense, thank you. I still think it's kind of a funny acronym to use, but oh well. Thanks!

[Arky]

Heh, when I read this one quickly last Friday I only picked up on Sara's feelings of inadequacy intelligence-wise. I didn't spot the inflated breasts and diamond jewellery her imagination has handed to the other girls.

Oh, Sara.

[NobodySpecial]

Stunning example of someone's horrible, horrible ignorance about the Middle East

Wow. And I thought you were kidding about the area you live in. You reacted much better than most people would, I think. I know my own mother (who had Arab linguist as her primary MOS while she was in the Army) would have nearly had a fit of apoplexy. *wince*

It was actually more of a shock because northwest Ohio and southeast Michigan both have pretty high numbers of residents from the Middle East or of Middle Eastern descent, and chances are pretty good the girl KNEW people who spoke Arabic (if only at home).

As it goes, I think this particular student's age (we tutored high school students, not fellow university students, so this girl was probably 14-15) and maturity level were such that many of her opinions were probably not her own yet so much as reflections of what she'd grown up hearing (likely from family members) and never had any real reason to question. (Possibly contributing: this was in 2006 or 2007, and the girl was probably around eight years old at the time of 9/11 and thus would have grown up with the resulting rhetoric.)

Basically, I felt that a careful, neutral explanation would serve her a lot better in the long run than just about anything else, in the sense that it might lead her to (eventually) examine some of those opinions rather than, for example, getting defensive and clinging even more tightly to said opinions as a result. I don't know if I was right about that, but she at least seemed willing to think it over, so that's something.

ETA: And lest you guys give me too much credit, the few seconds I spent mentally gaping (and, most likely, wearing the facial expression to match) were probably just enough time to overcome the initial "... ... WTF is wrong with you" reaction that I think probably would have been detrimental in this particular situation.

It gets even better when you start discussing Islam and then show them an Indonesian, a Palestinian, and a Croatian and go 'Yeah, those guys'.

[sgtrock]

Stunning example of someone's horrible, horrible ignorance about the Middle East

Wow. And I thought you were kidding about the area you live in. You reacted much better than most people would, I think. I know my own mother (who had Arab linguist as her primary MOS while she was in the Army) would have nearly had a fit of apoplexy. *wince*

It was actually more of a shock because northwest Ohio and southeast Michigan both have pretty high numbers of residents from the Middle East or of Middle Eastern descent, and chances are pretty good the girl KNEW people who spoke Arabic (if only at home).

As it goes, I think this particular student's age (we tutored high school students, not fellow university students, so this girl was probably 14-15) and maturity level were such that many of her opinions were probably not her own yet so much as reflections of what she'd grown up hearing (likely from family members) and never had any real reason to question. (Possibly contributing: this was in 2006 or 2007, and the girl was probably around eight years old at the time of 9/11 and thus would have grown up with the resulting rhetoric.)

Basically, I felt that a careful, neutral explanation would serve her a lot better in the long run than just about anything else, in the sense that it might lead her to (eventually) examine some of those opinions rather than, for example, getting defensive and clinging even more tightly to said opinions as a result. I don't know if I was right about that, but she at least seemed willing to think it over, so that's something.

ETA: And lest you guys give me too much credit, the few seconds I spent mentally gaping (and, most likely, wearing the facial expression to match) were probably just enough time to overcome the initial "... ... WTF is wrong with you" reaction that I think probably would have been detrimental in this particular situation.

It gets even better when you start discussing Islam and then show them an Indonesian, a Palestinian, and a Croatian and go 'Yeah, those guys'.

I think you meant Albanian, not Croation.

(My family tree includes a strong contingent of Serbians who spent 450+ years in Croatia, so the regional politics and religious issues were regular topics of conversations at the dinner table when I grew up.)