The baffling and shocking things you've learned.

[Vhite]

Spoiler

Santa Claus doesnt exist!

 

[Shoggoth2588]

Modern Warfare 2 taught me that war is for assholes. I have literally lost count of the number of times I was betrayed and left for dead in that stupid game.

Also: Necrophilia is only a misdemeanor offense

 

[XJ-0461]

The tips of shoelaces are called aglets. Their purpose is sinister....

Justice League, right? Specifically from the Question?

On Topic: Nintendo started as a card company in 1889. And also owned a love hotel at one point. Yeah.

Where's your family friendly image now, Nintendo?

 

[SimuLord]

That in community college, teachers' performance evaluations are partially based on how many students drop or don't drop the class, so they have an incentive to dumb the material way down so the stupid people stick with it.

Then again, in a stroke of Fridge Brilliance, I thought "no wonder the average wage for an associate's degree is only about a nickel on the dollar higher than for a high school education only!" Those same idiots transfer to the full university as juniors...and flunk out.

I prefer my high school's way of doing it - those that take the test are the ones we judge the teacher on. Those that drop out - basically fuck them.

American high schools can't do that because of our asinine No Child Left Behind law, that basically codifies "dumb it down for the most retarded student" as the law of the land.

I'd love to see the state that basically tells the US Department of Education to take its school-funding extortion and shove it up its ass.

On the bright side, the smarter students would probably completely destroy those tests, wouldn't they?

Except the smart students get cheated out of an education because the teachers just teach to the standardized test because if it's not on the test, it's not something schools want to acknowledge even exists. Total race to the bottom---explains why America's getting dumber.

Thankfully, private schools aren't held to this requirement, but then again, that only increases the rich-poor divide because the rich can afford to send their kids to schools that don't suck.

 

[GamingAwesome1]

I learned that absolutely everything is composed of mostly empty space. (Due to the spacing of electrons from the nucleus of an atom.) And if you took all 6Billion of us, took away the empty space and compressed us down. We would be the size of A Single Sugar Cube

Okay. You officaly broke my mind.

 

[Eggsnham]

The fact that many people I talk to agree that American schools are effective, efficient, fair, and non-oppressive. It just baffles me that people actually think all of that.

 

[Lord Mountbatten Reborn]

-snipperoo-

Except the smart students get cheated out of an education because the teachers just teach to the standardized test because if it's not on the test, it's not something schools want to acknowledge even exists. Total race to the bottom---explains why America's getting dumber.

Thankfully, private schools aren't held to this requirement, but then again, that only increases the rich-poor divide because the rich can afford to send their kids to schools that don't suck.

Is anyone trying to remove this requirement of pandering to the lowest common denominator?

 

[Bloodstain]

I learned that many people are stupid, while many people are not.

Many people are...not stupid? Really?
...wow.

Well okay, guess that baffled me now.

 

[Not-here-anymore]

When you shoot an electron at two small slits, it goes through one slit, the other slit, both slits, and neither.

But if you put a detector on one of the slits, the electron only goes through one or the other.

This. The fact that you are observing something can change it's behaviour.

Quantum shit is weird man.

All of the aforementioned quantum stuff. I've been studying physics at university for 2 years, with courses in QM, and still don't understand it qualitatively...

 

[Johnson McGee]

That in community college, teachers' performance evaluations are partially based on how many students drop or don't drop the class, so they have an incentive to dumb the material way down so the stupid people stick with it.

Then again, in a stroke of Fridge Brilliance, I thought "no wonder the average wage for an associate's degree is only about a nickel on the dollar higher than for a high school education only!" Those same idiots transfer to the full university as juniors...and flunk out.

I prefer my high school's way of doing it - those that take the test are the ones we judge the teacher on. Those that drop out - basically fuck them.

American high schools can't do that because of our asinine No Child Left Behind law, that basically codifies "dumb it down for the most retarded student" as the law of the land.

I'd love to see the state that basically tells the US Department of Education to take its school-funding extortion and shove it up its ass.

On the bright side, the smarter students would probably completely destroy those tests, wouldn't they?

great, until you waste 1st year in university and $10 000 in tuition while they teach you everything you should have learned in high school but didn't because stupid people slowed down the class.

 

[cheese_wizington]

That you can survive on 2 hours of sleep a "day."

That the human timescale is pathetic. On the Universes timescale, things are a lot different.

 

[Eerors]

The cells in your ear canal move! They migrate out of your ear at the same rate as it takes your fingernails to grow.

Promising someone a reward after completion of a task they enjoy means they will work less at the task. The reward turns the task dull.

The reason Hiroshima was so utterly destroyed was that most of the buildings there were made of wood. The wood was blown away in the blast. If the same thing happened in a modern city then the destruction wouldn't be quite so absolute (I think).

Also, there was a guy who was in a bank vault when the atomic bomb descended on top of him. He survived.

 

[Eekaida]

The crane fly has the most poisonous vemon of any animal in the UK, but its fangs are too small to bite anything.

 

[SimuLord]

-snipperoo-

Except the smart students get cheated out of an education because the teachers just teach to the standardized test because if it's not on the test, it's not something schools want to acknowledge even exists. Total race to the bottom---explains why America's getting dumber.

Thankfully, private schools aren't held to this requirement, but then again, that only increases the rich-poor divide because the rich can afford to send their kids to schools that don't suck.

Is anyone trying to remove this requirement of pandering to the lowest common denominator?

Smart people, but in a democracy they're so severely outnumbered that it's a hopeless cause.

 

[Aerodyamic]

I learned that many people are stupid, while many people are not.

Many people are...not stupid? Really?
...wow.

Well okay, guess that baffled me now.

I know! Amazingly, some people really AREN'T dumb!

I'm not, I just run a good fake. DURRR.

 

[Lord Mountbatten Reborn]

The reason Hiroshima was so utterly destroyed was that most of the buildings there were made of wood. The wood was blown away in the blast. If the same thing happened in a modern city then the destruction wouldn't be quite so absolute (I think).

That depends which weapon you mean. If you mean an atomic bomb dropping on 21st century London, which I'd assume is certainly not primarily made of wood, then of course the damage wouldn't be as absolute as with Hiroshima. I'd also assume we use stronger materials now in building, or at least are better at creating stronger structures.

But remember we've now modernised nuclear weapons to be far more effective than the atomic bomb was. So, if you mean a modern city, do you mean a modern nuke, or the atomic bomb?

Forgive me if I made no sense there.

Smart people, but in a democracy they're so severely outnumbered that it's a hopeless cause.

I hear that intelligent and well-educated politicians are actually distrusted far more in America. That kind of thing would be inconceivable here. We distrust our politicians as a rule of thumb certainly, but we'd distrust them far more, and would be scared of giving them power, if they weren't excellently educated.

 

[VivaciousDeimos]

The tips of shoelaces are called aglets. Their purpose is sinister....

Justice League, right? Specifically from the Question?

On Topic: Nintendo started as a card company in 1889. And also owned a love hotel at one point. Yeah.

Where's your family friendly image now, Nintendo?

Yes! Points and cookies for you.

 

[SimuLord]

Smart people, but in a democracy they're so severely outnumbered that it's a hopeless cause.

I hear that intelligent and well-educated politicians are actually distrusted far more in America. That kind of thing would be inconceivable here. We distrust our politicians as a rule of thumb certainly, but we'd distrust them far more, and would be scared of giving them power, if they weren't excellently educated.

Ever seen Idiocracy? Yeah. It's kind of like that. Long before that movie came out, I was using the word to describe America and its politics in my blog.

 

[Quiet Stranger]

The fact that the place I work are sheisters and I only get payed 7.50

 

[Eekaida]

The 'crispy seaweed' at chinese restraunts is actually cabbage that's been very thinly sliced, fried up to a chrisp and covered in sugar. DISGUSTING.

Also, DISNEY OWNS EVERYTHING!! (hyperbole) Disney owns Buena Vista, which owns sky, fox, pathe, all the kids chanels and quite a few studios.
Also, PROCTER AND GAMBLE OWN EVERYTHING!!! (slightly less hyperbole) Seriously, any cleaning or beauty product in the UK, look closly enough on the packaging and you'll see 'Procter and Gamble' on it somewhere. Even all the 'rival' brands are owned by them.