Originally Posted by Paul Smeenus

My home state of Oregon

Originally Posted by Paul Smeenus

If you have Netflix watch this one. Scenery that will absolutely stagger the mind

The National Parks: America's Best Idea: | PBS

Originally Posted by Taxman

So you guys are still arguing about that? And still most of the votes go for Anal Beads cos nobody but the Americans want to vote for America.
Seems like America is worse than our ******* countries if we do not count those poor countries and Sweden.

Originally Posted by J.R.R. Tolkien

There is only one bright spot and that is the growing habit of disgruntled men of dynamiting factories and power-stations; I hope that, encouraged now as ‘patriotism’, may remain a habit! But it won’t do any good, if it is not universal.

Originally Posted by grindy

Basically you're David Hasselhoff.

Originally Posted by Paul Smeenus

Originally Posted by FRED HALE SR.

That guy has never seen the sun. He could star in Powder 2 without makeup.

Originally Posted by RoxyRollah

IMO I don't know jack-**** though so don't listen to me.

Originally Posted by Franco Pepe Kalle

The problem is that most police officers in America are psychopaths.

Originally Posted by The Batlord

You're a terrible dictionary.

Originally Posted by djchameleon

I like that movie though. I went to the theaters to see it when it came out.

Originally Posted by Paul Smeenus

Originally Posted by Sansa Stark

"check yr fucking posable limbs privilege you ****s"

Originally Posted by Lord Larehip

Once again American students ranked near the bottom in math in international tests. Far Eastern countries, as usual, fared the best. I work in a technical and engineering field and you would think there would be a lot of math-savvy people around me but about a month ago, a coworker called me into his office when I was walking by. He showed me an algebra question on his son's homework and wanted to know if I could solve for x. I did. and he said he had gotten the same answer but his son's teacher is saying that's wrong. "I've had a few people here try it," he said. I asked him what they came up with. He said, "You're the only one who even had a clue on where to start. The others just looked at and said they didn't know." I mean, this was like 10th grade algebra and most of the technicians he spoke to at work didn't even know where to start. In fact, I was the only one.

Then I'll pick up a book about a technical subject-made-easy where I just want a very basic understanding--not too detailed. The author will always say not to worry because they won't be looking at any math. I can only shake my head. Why are we so math-phobic in this country?? Whenever I study a certain technical or science topic, I always look for the formula or I'll ask an instructor. If you know the formula and how to read it, you don't need the 20 pages of words. The whole topic is expressed in this one beautiful, little compact expression.

Take something like Ohm's Law: I=E/R where I is current, E is voltage and R is resistance. It tells you a lot. We can get resistances very low in a superconductor. Ohm's Law tells us that the lower the resistance the greater the load (current)--we can push more load with the same amount of electrical pressure (voltage). So ideally we should strive to reach 0 ohms of resistance. But can we? No. Why? Because the current can't be calculated because you are dividing by zero. Mathematicians call that an undefined property. So we know that to have a current flow, we must have some amount of resistance but we cannot and should not lower the resistance to zero or the circuit stops working.

You don't have to have any deep knowledge of a certain topic to answer those kinds of questions if you know a few math formulas. Another beautiful formula is E=VBL which encapsulates our modern world.

I remember when we learned to write in cursive and how extensively we were tested and how much we practiced making our letters. Nowadays, many American school districts are no longer teaching cursive writing even though you still need to sign your name on official documents in cursive (no, printing your name does not count--I know banks won't accept it). Literacy and numeracy in the US are becoming irrelevant. We have become a country of stupidity and mediocrity.

Originally Posted by Sansa Stark

**** I hated handwriting lessons

I still write in cursive though