What's in the news?

Started by Beorning, September 21, 2014, 07:02:11 AM

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Oniya

Hey, we survived 'New Math' in the 60s.

(However, the book that I got that problem out of wants you to do it in base eight. But don't panic! Base eight is just like base ten really - if you're missing two fingers! - Tom Lehrer, 1965)
"Language was invented for one reason, boys - to woo women.~*~*~Don't think it's all been done before
And in that endeavor, laziness will not do." ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~Don't think we're never gonna win this war
Robin Williams-Dead Poets Society ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~Don't think your world's gonna fall apart
I do have a cause, though.  It's obscenity.  I'm for it.  - Tom Lehrer~*~All you need is your beautiful heart
O/O's Updated 5/11/21 - A/A's - Current Status! - Writing a novel - all draws for Fool of Fire up!
Requests updated March 17

Cycle

Boehner flips the Freedom Caucus the bird on his way out.  That's right, he's actually trying to pass through functional legislation. 

*raises a beer*  Now, go enjoy your vacation, guy.  You've earned it!


Mikem

Quote from: Ebb on October 26, 2015, 10:09:53 AM
Nobody's saying that "5+5+5=15" is wrong. What they're saying is that the answer to "Use the repeated-addition strategy to solve: 5x3" is more properly "3+3+3+3+3=15", because they're trying to teach the student to look at "5x3" and think to themselves "Five three's". Knowing that that's equivalent to "three five's" is another good thing, but isn't part of this particular question.

It's not incredibly confusion, but more so annoyingly confusing. Such a simple equation doesn't need to be more complicated than it is. It's annoying because they're telling you to look at the problem backwards. Looking at 5x3 as three fives, then the problem should be written as 3x5, as that means three, five times.

It all boils down to the old saying, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it."
"The road to Hell is paved with good intentions. So why not take the scenic route?"

My Ons & Offs

Oniya

Quote from: Mikem on October 26, 2015, 07:05:25 PM
It's not incredibly confusion, but more so annoyingly confusing. Such a simple equation doesn't need to be more complicated than it is. It's annoying because they're telling you to look at the problem backwards. Looking at 5x3 as three fives, then the problem should be written as 3x5, as that means three, five times.

Or, you could read it as '5 apples at $3 each'.  There is no 'backwards' in multiplication.
"Language was invented for one reason, boys - to woo women.~*~*~Don't think it's all been done before
And in that endeavor, laziness will not do." ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~Don't think we're never gonna win this war
Robin Williams-Dead Poets Society ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~Don't think your world's gonna fall apart
I do have a cause, though.  It's obscenity.  I'm for it.  - Tom Lehrer~*~All you need is your beautiful heart
O/O's Updated 5/11/21 - A/A's - Current Status! - Writing a novel - all draws for Fool of Fire up!
Requests updated March 17

Mikem

Quote from: Oniya on October 26, 2015, 07:26:46 PM
Or, you could read it as '5 apples at $3 each'.

Oh God please don't go there, simple Math was bad enough, I absolutely despised scenarios. Please Ma'am, I don't want any more.
"The road to Hell is paved with good intentions. So why not take the scenic route?"

My Ons & Offs

ShadowFox89

Quote from: Mikem on October 26, 2015, 07:05:25 PM
It's not incredibly confusion, but more so annoyingly confusing. Such a simple equation doesn't need to be more complicated than it is. It's annoying because they're telling you to look at the problem backwards. Looking at 5x3 as three fives, then the problem should be written as 3x5, as that means three, five times.

It all boils down to the old saying, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it."

See, the way they're trying to teach in Common Core is exactly how I taught myself to do maths, because the way that my teachers were trying to do it confused the hell out of me.
Call me Shadow
My A/A

Oniya

Quote from: ShadowFox89 on October 26, 2015, 09:22:06 PM
See, the way they're trying to teach in Common Core is exactly how I taught myself to do maths, because the way that my teachers were trying to do it confused the hell out of me.

And when my daughter was having difficulty with how they were teaching mixture problems, I dragged out a positively ancient algebra book (yard sale, FTW) and showed her a template for organizing it, and she went to town.  Lots of people learn in different ways, and the trick is finding the methodology that gets the right data going through the right hoops for the individual.
"Language was invented for one reason, boys - to woo women.~*~*~Don't think it's all been done before
And in that endeavor, laziness will not do." ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~Don't think we're never gonna win this war
Robin Williams-Dead Poets Society ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~Don't think your world's gonna fall apart
I do have a cause, though.  It's obscenity.  I'm for it.  - Tom Lehrer~*~All you need is your beautiful heart
O/O's Updated 5/11/21 - A/A's - Current Status! - Writing a novel - all draws for Fool of Fire up!
Requests updated March 17

Cycle

Remember that twerp who jacked up the price of an anti-parasite drug from $13 to $750?  Well, apparently someone decided to compete with said twerp.

And offer their drug at $1.

Nice.


Mikem

That's very commendable, though it's something thats should of been done a long time ago. But if Sanders becomes president then his universal health care should fix all that.
"The road to Hell is paved with good intentions. So why not take the scenic route?"

My Ons & Offs

ShadowFox89

Quote from: Mikem on October 27, 2015, 12:31:03 AM
That's very commendable, though it's something thats should of been done a long time ago. But if Sanders becomes president then his universal health care should fix all that.

It won't be a be all end all. There is a lot of red tape and cutting through the crap to do. Even then, any legislation he tries to pass would get stonewalled for at least months. I'm a supporter and hopes he makes it, but that's mainly because he's the only one with plans that don't involve harming ths common American.

Really sad when our two democratic candidates are so in name only.
Call me Shadow
My A/A


Lustful Bride


gaggedLouise

#2113
Apparently Sepp Blatter has made the bombshell admission in an interview, that the 2022 FIFA world cup wasn't really meant to go to Qatar, even from FIFA's own angle. The strategy was to give the hostship to the USA, four years after Russia in 2018. Somehow things got reversed over the final laps of the process...  :P This seems to confirm, too, that the whole thing did include a good deal of bribes and jockeying for the top spot.


What's kind of funny is, I just saw this being covered on the BBC News, and while the news anchor got it right, the sports journalist they brought in to talk about it was utterly mixing up Qatar and the USA. He was actually saying "they had planned all along to give it to Qatar, but this changed after a dinner between Michel Platini and then French president Sarkozy. After that point, they changed and decided to give it to Qatar---"  XD

The guy must have been seriously jet lagged or something. It wasn't the only point when he mixed them up either, he did it a few times... But well, does this mean both Platini and Sarko were heavily bribed, and that Blatter is tossing this at them as he steps down from the FIFA throne?

Good girl but bad  -- Proud sister of the amazing, blackberry-sweet Violet Girl

Sometimes bound and cuntrolled, sometimes free and easy 

"I'm a pretty good cook, I'm sitting on my groceries.
Come up to my kitchen, I'll show you my best recipes"

Lustful Bride

Quote from: gaggedLouise on October 28, 2015, 10:06:45 AM
Apparently Sepp Blatter has made the bombshell admission in an interview, that the 2022 FIFA world cup wasn't really meant to go to Qatar, even from FIFA's own angle. The strategy was to give the hostship to the USA, four years after Russia in 2018. Somehow things got reversed over the final laps of the process...  :P This seems to confirm, too, that the whole thing did include a good deal of bribes and jockeying for the top spot.


What's kind of funny is, I just saw this being covered on the BBC News, and while the news anchor got it right, the sports journalist they brought in to talk about it was utterly mixing up Qatar and the USA. He was actually saying "they had planned all along to give it to Qatar, but this changed after a dinner between Michel Platini and then French president Sarkozy. After that point, they changed and decided to give it to Qatar---"  XD

The guy must have been seriously jet lagged or something. It wasn't the only point when he mixed them up either, he did it a few times... But well, does this mean both Platini and Sarko were heavily bribed, and that Blatter is tossing this at them as he steps down from the FIFA throne?

This is why I don't follow major sports. Its all corrupt and not about the best player anymore. Such a shame :(

Cycle

Quote from: Mikem on October 27, 2015, 12:31:03 AM
But if Sanders becomes president then his universal health care should fix all that.

I don't know about that.  I mean, if twerp boy is still charging $750 a pill, then someone still has to pay it.  It won't be the insurance companies.  They'll pass it on to their customers via increased premiums.  If it is subsidized by the government, then the money is coming out of the taxpayers' pockets.

Best to have the $1 alternative and let twerp boy stand there idle with no one wanting to buy his pills so he gets nothing.

Lustful Bride

Quote from: Cycle on October 26, 2015, 10:48:36 PM
Remember that twerp who jacked up the price of an anti-parasite drug from $13 to $750?  Well, apparently someone decided to compete with said twerp.

And offer their drug at $1.

Nice.

I'm pretty sure everyone will be swapping over to the cheaper alternative.

Meanwhile with the 1 dollar competitor.

making it rain

Bloodied Porcelain

I want no ordinary lover. I want a storm. I want sleepless nights and endless conversations at four a.m. I want passion, I want madness.
I want someone who's able to make my whole body shiver from a distance and also pull me close to make sense of all my bones.

~ Bizarre, Beautiful, And Breathtaking ~
~ O/O ~ Seeking ~ A/A ~ Mirrors and Masks ~ Poetry ~
She walked with the universe on her shoulders and made it look like wings.

Cycle

Well, that's what you get for bodyslamming an unarmed teenage girl.

Mithlomwen

I was just having a discussion about that on FB. 

I mean....I'm glad he got fired.  What he did was completely wrong. 

But, if the little brat of a child had done what the teacher had asked her to do in the first freaking place, none of that would have happened.  *grumble*  This is exactly what is wrong with the youth of today.  They have exactly zero respect for anyone. 

The teacher asked her multiple times to put her cell phone away.  She refused.  The teacher asked her several times to leave the class.  She refused.  That's when the teacher called the security guard.  And from what I understand, it sounded like she was trying to get lippy with the officer too.  Not that it excuses his actions, but....damn. 

Now, her family are likely going to sue the school (just a guess) over all of this, and she is going to get her fifteen minutes of fame over this, and then kids are going to think she's all that because of it, and it's going to become MORE of an epidemic.....

As a parent it makes me both sad and exhausted that this is the world my middle and youngest are going to grow up in.   :-\
Baby, it's all I know,
that your half of the flesh and blood that makes me whole...

LisztesFerenc

Quote from: Mithlomwen on October 28, 2015, 01:08:04 PM
I was just having a discussion about that on FB. 

I mean....I'm glad he got fired.  What he did was completely wrong. 

But, if the little brat of a child had done what the teacher had asked her to do in the first freaking place, none of that would have happened.  *grumble*  This is exactly what is wrong with the youth of today.  They have exactly zero respect for anyone. 

The teacher asked her multiple times to put her cell phone away.  She refused.  The teacher asked her several times to leave the class.  She refused.  That's when the teacher called the security guard.  And from what I understand, it sounded like she was trying to get lippy with the officer too.  Not that it excuses his actions, but....damn. 

Now, her family are likely going to sue the school (just a guess) over all of this, and she is going to get her fifteen minutes of fame over this, and then kids are going to think she's all that because of it, and it's going to become MORE of an epidemic.....

As a parent it makes me both sad and exhausted that this is the world my middle and youngest are going to grow up in.   :-\

  Its hard to tell if this is actually the case, or simply an illusion created by the current generations ability to document such incidents on their cell phones, which previous generations lacked.

Bloodied Porcelain

It's pretty well established that teenagers in general always have been and always will be assholes who want to challenge authority at all times. I think the biggest differences now aren't teens, but the society they're growing up in. As a society we've tied parent's hands when it comes to being able to really discipline kids. The fact of the matter is that "time outs" and "grounding" and things like that just don't work on a lot of children, and because in a lot of states it's even illegal to spank your kids, they grow up not really having a firm grasp on action vs consequence. And then of course, we blame their parents for being bad parents. I know I've had plenty of people imply that my 8 year old acts the way he does because I'm "not disciplining him well enough", but they're usually the first person to get all offended when I say that yes, when all else fails, I DO spank my son (it's legal in my state, thank the gods). It doesn't have much impact outside of the moment, but there are times when it's the only way to sort of shock him out of his behavior.

There's also the fact that most people aren't even talking about, which is the fact that the teacher called the police on a student for using a cell phone and refusing to hand it over/put it away. That's not what the police are for. Resource officers aren't mall cops. They're REAL cops. And their job isn't to deal with a student who won't listen to you. Their job is to deal with the students who pose a real threat to themselves or others. A girl on a cell phone doesn't pose a threat, so he never should have been called in the first place. And the fact that "disturbing school" is now enough to throw someone in jail is absurd. We had two or three resource officers assigned to my high school, and one was always on campus any time classes were in session, with the other two patrolling the nearby areas so they could respond quickly in the case of a crisis. The cops were not there to handle disciplining a situation like this one, and had they been called on to deal with it, they likely would have told the teacher and administrators to deal with it themselves.

Beyond all of that is the fact that the current movement to bring more clarity and openness about police forces and the fact that they're more likely to protect their own than police their own has lead a lot of people, especially hot head teens who suck at making decisions (which is basically almost all of them) to lacking respect for them and the authority they're supposed to encompass. The fact that this particular cop apparently has a reputation and history for being particularly harsh with African Americans I'm sure only exacerbated the problem.

There are moments I'm worried for the track our society is taking, but then I remember... the people who do the most complaining about the world our kids are growing up in right now... are the ones who made the world this way in the first place. Our kids certainly didn't.
I want no ordinary lover. I want a storm. I want sleepless nights and endless conversations at four a.m. I want passion, I want madness.
I want someone who's able to make my whole body shiver from a distance and also pull me close to make sense of all my bones.

~ Bizarre, Beautiful, And Breathtaking ~
~ O/O ~ Seeking ~ A/A ~ Mirrors and Masks ~ Poetry ~
She walked with the universe on her shoulders and made it look like wings.

Cycle

Force does not translate into authority nor respect.  It translates into fear, at best, and hate, more often.

Using force to establish discipline has the opposite effect.  Discipline requires respect, which itself require patience, understanding, and consistency.  All of which, unfortunately, are much harder to achieve than the use of force.


Mithlomwen

I'm not agreeing with what the officer did.  Not at all. 

I feel sorry for the teacher more than anything.  She asked the student several times to put her cell phone away.  Which the student refused to do.  The teacher then asked the student to leave the classroom several times as she was disrupting class, the student refused to do so.  Which leads me to believe the student had the, "I'm not doing anything you say, and you can't make me..." attitude.

Sadly, that didn't leave the teacher with many options. 
Baby, it's all I know,
that your half of the flesh and blood that makes me whole...

eBadger

Quote from: Mithlomwen on October 28, 2015, 01:08:04 PMNow, her family are likely going to sue the school (just a guess) over all of this, and she is going to get her fifteen minutes of fame over this, and then kids are going to think she's all that because of it, and it's going to become MORE of an epidemic.....

Hopefully the take away will be more about seeing violence as unacceptable. 

Quote from: Mithlomwen on October 28, 2015, 04:53:58 PM
Sadly, that didn't leave the teacher with many options.

From the video, although the kid may well have been very disruptive she was not in any way violent.  She was sitting and not even moving.  An assault was not the correct response: police (and every other authority, starting with the teacher) should seek to deescalate the situation, not make it more violent.  There were plenty of options, the first of which was to step away from the win/lose mentality of forcing immediate and unconditional compliance.