Annoying Questions I'd Like Answered...

Maxus · Post by **Maxus** » Wed Jul 16, 2014 4:18 am

Lego bricks.

Meikle641 · Post by **Meikle641** » Wed Jul 16, 2014 5:56 am

Depends on if the embers are covered in ash or not, I guess. Just the same, I'd go with Lego.

Prak · Post by **Prak** » Wed Jul 16, 2014 6:05 am

I choose to ask why I'm restricted to the paths.

Maj · Post by **Maj** » Wed Jul 16, 2014 6:07 am

Because it's a thought experiment and you will be obliterated if you don't play along.

Korwin · Post by **Korwin** » Wed Jul 16, 2014 6:51 am

Maj wrote:You are barefoot and running for your life. The path you're on forks - to the left, the path turns to glowing hot embers. To the right, the path turns to Lego bricks.

Which do you choose?

How long are those sections?
Anyway I think I would try the hot embers. If I make it, chances are higher the thing I run away from wont follow me. (and the light is better)

Count Arioch the 28th · Wed Jul 16, 2014 1:12 pm

I'll take the embers, I've done that before. Or more specifically, I've walked through a campfire before.

I was at a family function, and my brother kept talking about how you could walk through a campfire and it wouldn't hurt, but he kept chickening out every time. So I walked through it to see if it hurt. It didn't...

Lago PARANOIA · Post by **Lago PARANOIA** » Wed Jul 16, 2014 2:56 pm

So what's the deal with New Math as proposed 40-50 years ago and why did it cause some people to ADAMANTIUM RAGE so very hard?

Maj · Post by **Maj** » Wed Jul 16, 2014 10:06 pm

Thank you to those who played.

---

As far as I can tell, New Math was more conceptual at lower levels, and math normally has a tendency to move from the concrete to the abstract. For this reason, teachers weren't as able to teach, and parents didn't understand it as well, so they couldn't assist their kids.

Ancient History · Post by **Ancient History** » Wed Jul 16, 2014 10:11 pm

New Math was supposed to make the US science curriculum more competitive with Soviet Russia after Sputnik went up. It emphasized an earlier and heavier emphasis on algebra, boolean algebra, matrices, etc.

Lago PARANOIA · Post by **Lago PARANOIA** » Wed Jul 16, 2014 10:30 pm

So why did New Math get demonized as stupid participation-trophy passing hippies trying to dumb down our kids instead of mindless robot bureaucrats trying to ram eldritch maths down toddlers' mouths?

Ancient History · Post by **Ancient History** » Wed Jul 16, 2014 10:39 pm

It was at once more abstract, and they focused a lot on vocabulary and dumbed-down teaching techniques.

Occluded Sun · Post by **Occluded Sun** » Thu Jul 17, 2014 12:11 am

And if you're focusing on mathematical abstractions while not managing to impart the basics of arithmetic to children, lots of people are going to be upset with you.

Part of the issue was that the New Math was perceived as being a top-down imposition instead of something that parents perceived a need for. Another part was that it wasn't successful at its stated goals. And then it screwed up a system that people didn't perceive to be broken in the first place.

Orion · Post by **Orion** » Thu Jul 17, 2014 4:11 am

Chamomile wrote:Here's a naming question. I have this fictitious force that twists and corrupts everything it touches, spreading as an ominous fog. Within the fog are monstrous horrors and everything begins to decay. So basically it's Silent Hill, but contagious. I need a name for this thing, preferably something that's just a word but capitalized.

The Fray. Or the Tarnish.

Prak · Post by **Prak** » Thu Jul 24, 2014 11:39 pm

So, random question as I'm watching the Takei interview on the Daily Show-

Of the nationalities who the American government put into internment camps, were there ever any actual spies found on American soil spying for their home country?

(Not that it would in any way legitimize the practice of internment camps, I'm just curious as to where there was any validity to the fear which led to them)

name_here · Post by **name_here** » Fri Jul 25, 2014 12:00 am

Well, yeah, of course there fucking were.

fectin · Post by **fectin** » Fri Jul 25, 2014 1:02 am

For some context on that, remember Japan was fighting an especially nasty war, so that by 1944, 13% of Americans actually believed that all Japanese people should be exterminated. The New York Times ran articles on it.

It... wasn't a shining moment for America. But it could very easily have been much, much worse.

Prak · Post by **Prak** » Fri Jul 25, 2014 1:47 am

Huh. Interesting. Actual foreign spies caught during WW2 isn't something they really cover in the test preparation courses that are American schools.

Shrapnel · Post by **Shrapnel** » Fri Jul 25, 2014 2:35 am

Maj wrote:You are barefoot and running for your life. The path you're on forks - to the left, the path turns to glowing hot embers. To the right, the path turns to Lego bricks.

Which do you choose?

A bit late, I know, but... is the path on the right MADE of LEGO's, or is it littered with LEGO bricks strewn about the floor? Because if it's the latter, I would chose the embers, every. Single. TIME.

Maj · Post by **Maj** » Fri Jul 25, 2014 2:49 am

Strewn. And I totally agree with you.

Maxus · Post by **Maxus** » Fri Jul 25, 2014 3:04 am

EDIT DISREGARD THAT I SUCK COCKS

...You Lost Me · Post by **...You Lost Me** » Fri Jul 25, 2014 3:16 pm

Maxus are you crazy?

Maxus · Post by **Maxus** » Fri Jul 25, 2014 5:49 pm

Evidently. -.o

There was some discussion about shaving and I must have had multiple tabs open and put it in the wrong one.

Edit: Oh, I see now. There was some discussion about razors and shaving waaaay back on page one and I forgot it threw me back on an edit and thought that was a current issue because, fuck it, all kinds of stuff comes up in this thread.

Woohoo. Go me.

Prak · Post by **Prak** » Fri Jul 25, 2014 10:28 pm

So, as I've mentioned before, I'm not really up on my math, especially statistics.

I'm working on Tides of Shadow a bit more, and found myself needing to know- what number of new adults popping up in the world yearly would be few enough to be regarded as essentially a rounding error?

erik · Post by **erik** » Sat Jul 26, 2014 12:36 am

Whatever is one decimal point less than the scale you care about.

Prak · Post by **Prak** » Sat Jul 26, 2014 12:42 am

soo.... 700 million a year could be considered a rounding error on a global scale? That would be like the earth gaining the population of Europe every year. That seems like it'd be noticed. Am I confusing something here?