This fear 2016-01-20

[Warrl]

you may need SQL to do paintballing!

I remember my first introduction to SQL. It was about an hour of "this is complex, this is confusing, I don't quite..." and then suddenly "this is what I've been trying to build for the past ten years!" And the next day I wrote a query with three subqueries and it worked correctly on the first try.

http://www.the-whiteboard.com/autotwb2030.html then click next day ( cannot see how to refer to 'current' ??)

For most webcomics, you can go from the current page to the "previous" page and then the "next" page, and get the archive link for the current page.

Unfortunately, some webcomic sites don't actually put the page in the archive until there's a newer page. (Often you can look at the URLs of pages that are in the archive and anticipate what the URL of the current page will be.) I don't bother remembering which of the webcomics I read do this; I rediscover as I desire to put a link.

[Warrl]

That's... That's horrific. What the hell.

New Math. What is old, is new again.

It sounded good, so even though there was no evidence that it would work, we implemented it everywhere by throwing a whole lot of money behind it.

It didn't work.

So we changed the name and threw a whole lot more money behind it to get it implemented everywhere under the new name.

I've seen descriptions of pretty much the entirety of US national, state, & local government from the early 1960s on as a process of systematically replacing what is known to work with what sounds good.

[FreeFlier]

. . . I've seen descriptions of pretty much the entirety of US national, state, & local government from the early 1960s on as a process of systematically replacing what is known to work with what sounds good.

And the infestation of MBAs is spreading it into industry and business.

I swear the first step in getting an MBA is a lobotomy.

--FreeFlier

[eee]

The Zombie Apocalypse may start when someone divides by zero...

[Dave]

The Zombie Apocalypse may start when someone divides by zero...

So, the Number Of The Beast is not 666. Rather, it is NaN.

[Sgt. Howard]

MBA= Moronic Blithering Asshole... essentially a classic case where an over-abundance of formal education caused significant damage to one's common sense. Real education begins AFTER you leave school if you have any brains at all. Right now in the state of Washington, should some dude decide he's a girl (based on whatever criteria he can think up), he not only has the RIGHT to use the girl's toilet in High School, but any girl asking why he is there can get FINED for the crime of challenging him! I am not making this up! Thank GOD both my boys understand their gender assignment and that I might do harm to them if they invade a girl's restroom on this paltry excuse.

[Dr. Otter]

I've seen descriptions of pretty much the entirety of US national, state, & local government from the early 1960s on as a process of systematically replacing what is known to work with what sounds good.

Some years ago, a friend fixed me up with a blind date with a PhD in Education on the faculty of our local state university. She specialized in Primary Grades Education and started talking with me about her research in the teaching of reading. It was all whole-word recognition which I know doesn't work—my mother was a primary grades teacher from 1948 to 1984, and many times I heard her railing against the "new reading." (She kept her "obsolete" readers and used them until they disintegrated, despite what the School Board said.) I asked my date how many years she had taught before getting her PhD. The answer was "none." She had no experience in the primary classroom. That explained the whole problem to me.

[AnotherFairportfan]

I've seen descriptions of pretty much the entirety of US national, state, & local government from the early 1960s on as a process of systematically replacing what is known to work with what sounds good.

Some years ago, a friend fixed me up with a blind date with a PhD in Education on the faculty of our local state university. She specialized in Primary Grades Education and started talking with me about her research in the teaching of reading. It was all whole-word recognition which I know doesn't work—my mother was a primary grades teacher from 1948 to 1984, and many times I heard her railing against the "new reading." (She kept her "obsolete" readers and used them until they disintegrated, despite what the School Board said.) I asked my date how many years she had taught before getting her PhD. The answer was "none." She had no experience in the primary classroom. That explained the whole problem to me.

I am a whole-word reader; have been almost since the first. In fact, i read by phrases a good part of the time.

[FreeFlier]

MBA= Moronic Blithering Asshole... essentially a classic case where an over-abundance of formal education caused significant damage to one's common sense. Real education begins AFTER you leave school if you have any brains at all. . . .

Friend of mine has a definition that uses bigger words and emphasizes the role of the MBA in destruction of businesses . . . I can't remember the definition, just what it means.

Frankly, I think it understates the case.

I the first MBA I had to deal with at work created a system to solve all of our problems . . . the complainant would assign every complaint a priority of 1 through 4.

I was looking for the criteria for each class . . . "They know what there priorities are!"

Since we already had a system that used A through D with criteria assigned as to what could be called an A, or a B, etc . . . and the shop totally ignored it and called everything an <A1 LINESTOPPER!!!> . . . I got the picture and shut up.

As we left the meeting, the MBA in question collared me and told me "You're just being negative and I don't want to hear it!"

I told him I just wanted to be sure I understood the system. (I can shovel the BS too, and knew he was too stupid to catch me at it.)

I only told three of my shop guys about the new system . . . we all had a good laugh about management idiocy, and continued with the current system.

(The reason I told those three guys was that they gave me real priorities . . . with the result that their Bs and Cs were worked ahead of everybody else's <A1 LINESTOPPER!!!>s.)

I've only met one MBA I respected . . . And I only found out he had an MBA when he jumped in the middle of an idiot MBA and told the idiot he wasn't impressed by an MBA because he had one too! And knew what kind of idiot could get through an MBA program! Good boss . . . he's dead now. )

. . . Right now in the state of Washington, should some dude decide he's a girl (based on whatever criteria he can think up), he not only has the RIGHT to use the girl's toilet in High School, but any girl asking why he is there can get FINED for the crime of challenging him! I am not making this up! . . .

I know you're not making it up.

If I was building a new school, all restrooms would be one-person individual restrooms . . . problem solved.

--FreeFlier

[Dr. Otter]

Some years ago, a friend fixed me up with a blind date with a PhD in Education on the faculty of our local state university. She specialized in Primary Grades Education and started talking with me about her research in the teaching of reading. It was all whole-word recognition which I know doesn't work—my mother was a primary grades teacher from 1948 to 1984, and many times I heard her railing against the "new reading." (She kept her "obsolete" readers and used them until they disintegrated, despite what the School Board said.) I asked my date how many years she had taught before getting her PhD. The answer was "none." She had no experience in the primary classroom. That explained the whole problem to me.

I am a whole-word reader; have been almost since the first. In fact, i read by phrases a good part of the time.

I am too, now. In general, it is a poor way to learn to read, but many move to whole-word as they get older.

[AmriloJim]

If I was building a new school, all restrooms would be one-person individual restrooms . . . problem solved.

--FreeFlier

No, problem redefined. Instead of a individual rights issue, it becomes a budget issue to pay for extra janitorial staff to clean all those hqizzy restrooms.

[FreeFlier]

If I was building a new school, all restrooms would be one-person individual restrooms . . . problem solved. . . .

No, problem redefined. Instead of a individual rights issue, it becomes a budget issue to pay for extra janitorial staff to clean all those hqizzy restrooms.

Janitors are a lot cheaper than lawyers.

"Come the revolution, the first thing we do is hang the lawyers."

--FreeFlier

[Opus the Poet]

Common Core was created to solve the problem I had when I was a military brat of going from long division and basic readers to doing square roots by hand and Shakespeare in the same grade after a move. Kids are getting moved all over the country in the middle of a school year because a parent gets transferred or gets a new job in a different town and they want the kids' education to not have any hiccups. That was the plan, the implementation was anything but that. Seriously moving from one side of town to the other gets almost as big a swing as I used to get going from HI to WA to TN.

[Opus the Poet]

If I was building a new school, all restrooms would be one-person individual restrooms . . . problem solved. . . .

No, problem redefined. Instead of a individual rights issue, it becomes a budget issue to pay for extra janitorial staff to clean all those hqizzy restrooms.

Janitors are a lot cheaper than lawyers.

"Come the revolution, the first thing we do is hang the lawyers."

--FreeFlier

Or do what they have been plotting in VA, have a teacher check each kid's genitals before allowing them to use the bathroom. Seriously, they would rather damage every child in the school to keep one person in a thousand from transitioning at or before puberty when transitioning is easiest, than allow people to be who they are.

[AnotherFairportfan]

Allow me to point out that that Shakespeare quote about hanging all the lawyers is from an anarchist revolutionary describing how to destroy society.

[Catawampus]

Ah, but if we teach algebra to everybody, then the zombies might have a good grasp of math and overwhelm us with their applied calculus!

Algebra has always been fairly intuitive for me... Geometry and algebra just sort of "click" in my brain. Trigonometry is kind of tricky, but once I get into the swing of things, it gets easier.

Calculus sucks. It fries my brain every time.

Matrices are my mortal enemy. I could never understand them at all. Trying to get me to understand matrices is like trying to make the Cubs win the World Series. It's just not gonna happen unless you get a wizard involved.

I learned math by reading whatever book on the subject (some of which only touched on math as a tangent, so to speak) happened to come my way. Which meant that I didn't learn things in any particular order. Meaning that I started on calculus before I'd learned algebra. That was a tad rough. It was also rough on my math teachers when I did finally take some actual math classes many years later, because I'd had to basically derive my own laws of mathematics and they sometimes got a tad weird and occasionally drove professors to despair.

[Typeminer]

I think the problem with all the systems for teaching is that all of them work for some kids, and none of them work for all kids, and people naturally tend to think that the system that worked for them is the right one.

[FreeFlier]

I think the problem with all the systems for teaching is that all of them work for some kids, and none of them work for all kids, and people naturally tend to think that the system that worked for them is the right one.

A few of us know better . . . but not many are in teaching.

And the ones that go into teaching get driven out by the politics and endless meddling.

It's well-intentioned meddling, but you know the old saw about good intentions and the road to hell . . . . . . Here's a speeding ticket.

--FreeFlier