Stupidist things youve heard people say

[endplanets]

One of my classmates said that lightning came from the ground, and was adamant about it even after being shown a video of it striking from the sky.

He was right. Ground-to-cloud lightning is a thing. It's documented.


Don't be so quick to judge if you are no expert yourself.

Yes, that is true. You should have a PhD in all subjects before you can comment on anything.
Also: I knew I wasn't crazy for thinking this could happen.

 

[Doclector]

Bullies saying bully things. Nothing is more stupid to me than when a person puts another person down for no reason. Bullies in highschool are among the the stupidest people I have ever encountered, the things they say make me laugh at them. A hate filled, laugh of menace.

I'll paraphrase it: "If we move the PC to the next room, would we still have all our files on it?" - this might have been the stupidest question I've been asked.

Haha, thanks for that one. Made me laugh!

I was once called a dodo. That's either a clever death threat or a stupid insult. Actually, I don't care. It sounds stupid as hell either way.

 

[Daveman]

My friend is a Dental student and one time he was chatting with this women about how she'd been trying to get pregnant for the last few months to no avail. She was on the pill.

 

[Apollo45]

I don't see how having different taxes for different COUNTIES is a more efficient way to do anything. Transparency of cost is such an important fiscal growth system.

That being said I see how it is a way to deal with the problem imposed by different taxation systems in varying areas of a state... but there can't be that many differing tax systems to make printing a few different labels such a budget burden?

That comes in to play with the "rights of the States" stuff that continually comes up. Income taxes go entirely towards the Federal budget, and that accounts for most to all of the taxes that the Federal Government gets. State Governments are considered separate entities, almost entirely, so they don't get anything from the income taxes, which in turn means they need some sort of tax system of their own. That's where sales taxes, along with property taxes and the like, come in to play. States put in a general sales tax number, and on top of that counties add their own sales tax. That, along with some other taxes (property tax and the like), is where the smaller governments get their money from. The Federal Government does charge some select sales taxes on specific items - cigarettes I believe are one of them, and they recently started to tax tanning beds - but for the most part sales taxes allow the smaller governmental bodies to function. That's why we get different tax rates across states and counties.

I'm by no means an expert, and some of my specifics may be slightly off, but that's the gist of it. The different States over here operate on a more independent level than many people, even in the United States, realize. They're definitely still subordinate to the Federal Government, but states govern themselves on many things, and that's part of the reason why a lot of people tend to get annoyed when the Federal Government tries to exert more authority than they normally do.

 

[lechat]

Wait. You guys dont add tax to the shown price?

Why the hell not?

Because 'murica, apparently.

Because lying to the consumer seems to be a national pastime.

Because they need an excuse to keep the penny in circulation because Abe Lincoln was the best president everrrrrrr!!!!111

snip taxy tax tax snip

wait i still don't get it
when we brought the GST into australia it was a condition that the true price must be listed on all products (either $5.50 or $5 plus gst) all items have a set price depending on how much gst is charged. price may vary from shop to shop but the sticker price is always what i pay.
am i to understand your tax price varies from person to person or state to state? if i walk into a shop and say "ill have that apple" would the cashier say "thats $5 plus tax" to which i would reply "i dont need to pay the tax"?

 

[Kyrian007]

I see several "I work at x so I get stupid questions every day" answers here. I'll add one. I'm a talk radio producer working at a station that airs right-wing commentary (Rush, Herman Cain, Hannity... you get the idea) during the day. At night we run conspiracyland "Coast to Coast AM."

Not saying anything against those shows (well not Coast, its fun to laugh at the crazies who believe that junk) but over exposure to these shows has a tendency to MAKE normal but not bright people into paranoid hate-mongers. I literaly sort phone calls by "paranoid freak," "racist," "hillbilly gun nut," or the folks that call saying "how can you air this crap" or as I call them "rational people." All angry at us of course. Our news affiliate is ABC radio, so of course to liberals we're "conservative talk radio" while since we don't get our news from FOX, conservatives say we're the "liberal media." People WANT slanted news, it's no wonder that MSNBC and FOX just gave up on even the pretense of "journalistic integrity." If the news makes someone unhappy, they will just change it to a station that will slant it the way they want it.

But, trust me. With the shows we air we get LOADS of stupid calls. Birthers, Truthers, hell even the odd bigfoot or Elvis sighting. Just this morning, got a call accusing me personally of supporting the "liberal media and president's agenda to take urrrr gunnnznzzz." Yup, I shouldn't have reported about an armed robbery unless one of the heroic NRA gun owners "shot that *!@@&^ (racial slur deleted) dead." Because reporting about gun crime right now is proof that the President is trying to take "all urrrr gunnnzzz."

People bag on the media... but when all you do is attempt to tell the truth. All you get for it is scorn. The only solace I find is my paycheck comes from exploiting TEA baggers for ad revenue and making huge bank off of the worst mud-slinging dirtiest elections that find new lows every time.

 

[Apollo45]

wait i still don't get it
when we brought the GST into australia it was a condition that the true price must be listed on all products (either $5.50 or $5 plus gst) all items have a set price depending on how much gst is charged. price may vary from shop to shop but the sticker price is always what i pay.
am i to understand your tax price varies from person to person or state to state? if i walk into a shop and say "ill have that apple" would the cashier say "thats $5 plus tax" to which i would reply "i dont need to pay the tax"?

Hmm... Sorry if I was confusing on that.

Essentially what we have, for the most part anyway, is that the prices listed are the "$5 plus GST", only it's just Sales Tax and it varies from county to county and state to state. There are a few places that list the actual price you'll pay ($5.00 will come out to $5.00 at the register), but those are mostly vendors at sports venues and the like, and somewhere it will usually say "Prices include sales tax". By far the majority of places just list the price without sales tax, and then that tax is added on at the end.

The taxes don't vary from person to person, and instead are important based on where you buy things. So if you were to walk into a shop and buy an apple the sticker would say $5.00. When you went to pay, however, the cashier would ring it up and say "That's $5.50". That would include the sales tax, which you (and everyone else) would be required to pay. I don't think I've ever had someone tell me "That's $5.00 plus tax", because the entire sale price - tax included - is what shows on the register at the end of the transaction.

Hopefully I explained it a bit better that time. It's getting late here and I'm getting kinda tired, so things may be coming out funky.

 

[sagitel]

"What weighs more, a ton of feathers or a ton of bricks?"
The answer is both weigh the same, but it you answer quickly, you will instinctively say bricks right? Well a friend answered with feathers, we asked him why and he said "well, feather weigh a lot when they are together" What?

well one could prove that a ton of feathers have more mass.it goes as the feathers having lower density take up more space. because of the Archimedes principal (and the fact that air is a fluid) there is an upward force for each one. feathers take up more space so more upward force is applied to them. now some math: a-x=b-y. x>y => a>b. so a ton of feathers actually has more mass!

OT: its not the stupidest i have heard but its the stupidest i can remember nowthis conversation is 100% real. to put in perspective this happened in high school and we had Autotrophy in biology for like 5 years )
teacher:which one is a producer? bees, grass, worms or MR.X?
student:bees!

 

[Abomination]

...that's part of the reason why a lot of people tend to get annoyed when the Federal Government tries to exert more authority than they normally do.

You make it sound so... feudal.

 

[Arfonious]

"What weighs more, a ton of feathers or a ton of bricks?"
The answer is both weigh the same, but it you answer quickly, you will instinctively say bricks right? Well a friend answered with feathers, we asked him why and he said "well, feather weigh a lot when they are together" What?

well one could prove that a ton of feathers have more mass.it goes as the feathers having lower density take up more space. because of the Archimedes principal (and the fact that air is a fluid) there is an upward force for each one. feathers take up more space so more upward force is applied to them. now some math: a-x=b-y. x>y => a>b. so a ton of feathers actually has more mass!

Well, while it's true that the mass of the feathers would be larger than the mass of the bricks the weight of a tonne feathers would be the same as the weight of a tonne of bricks.

Mass and weight are not the same thing

 

[teebeeohh]

Voting in elections is an important part of the political process.

 

[Grouchy Imp_v1legacy]

"Who's Kurt Cobain?" - Girl on facebook who had a Nirvana shirt on in her Display Picture.

I ...

I ...

Spoiler: Gah!

As for stupid things I've heard someone say? I'll just leave this here ...

 

[thesilentman]

I'll paraphrase it: "If we move the PC to the next room, would we still have all our files on it?" - this might have been the stupidest question I've been asked. I don't think it's the actual stupidest thing, I've heard though - yeah, some people aren't that good with technology (even though these ones had a PC for more than a year...) but I recall somebody in school was answering questions in a biology class and said that one...I dunno, thing (I think it was some sort of worm) lived in wet water only. And another classmate of mine on a Maths exam, had to calculate what was the volume of a barrel 2 metres high and 1 metre in diameter. He got half a litre and apparently he was satisfied with that answer.

Lord. Apparently no one in my school can do math even when they have friggin' computers next to them.

For me, I've heard people say that every single country is like the worst parts of Africa besides the US.

Yep, I may have gotten very slightly pissed that day.

 

[Davroth]

I watched a political debate this morning. So....


I can't think of a single thing.

 

[sagitel]

"What weighs more, a ton of feathers or a ton of bricks?"
The answer is both weigh the same, but it you answer quickly, you will instinctively say bricks right? Well a friend answered with feathers, we asked him why and he said "well, feather weigh a lot when they are together" What?

well one could prove that a ton of feathers have more mass.it goes as the feathers having lower density take up more space. because of the Archimedes principal (and the fact that air is a fluid) there is an upward force for each one. feathers take up more space so more upward force is applied to them. now some math: a-x=b-y. x>y => a>b. so a ton of feathers actually has more mass!

Well, while it's true that the mass of the feathers would be larger than the mass of the bricks the weight of a tonne feathers would be the same as the weight of a tonne of bricks.

Mass and weight are not the same thing

thats why i used mass in my post!

also in normal chit-chat people mean mass when they use weight

 

[Simple Bluff]

Myself and my mother once met a fully grown German woman who didn't know what Ireland was. It's too bizarre for me to think she was being serious but she tried really hard to make it seem like she was...

 

[AngloDoom]

After seeing a small black lizard run across the road and looking up to see a shocked stranger:

Me: Woah, what was that?
Stranger: Dunno, probably those damn Polish
Me: Y-yeah, probably.

I know he probably meant that he thought it had been introduced to the country by Polish people, but I like to think he thought that Polish people were lizard-men coming over to steal all the jobs and claim benefits.

 

[Proverbial Jon]

A conversation I had with someone regarding WiFi... doesn't sound so bad does it? Turns out that it's bloody hilarious when they pronounce it wiffy and don't see what's wrong.

My mother is also quite partial to the odd spoonerism, including: Violence is a virtue. Not sure where she got that one from.