Re: [Phys-l] backwards units : entrenched usage

[Trevor Fink <tmfink@ilstu.edu>]

On 5/18/08 4:15 AM, "John Denker" <jsd@av8n.com> wrote:

> What do you mean by "we", Kemosabe?
    I sometimes interchange "the majority of American society" (whose
average education I hold in low esteem, unfortunately...and yes, I realize
that I am employing a rather ethnocentric view) with a simple "we"

I don't know why I include myself in that group by using we, maybe it makes
me feel like I should take responsibility or something... Maybe why I want
to be a teacher?  I'll find a therapist and work that out =)

If you would like to see the view I have of the masses education you may
watch a short news clip available on youtube here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nda_OSWeyn8

This clip reveals three things to me:
1) These people have to be terribly ignorant.  I mean, they actually believe
it!
2) The media must believe that we, too, are ignorant (maybe not to the same
extent) if they feel this to be more newsworthy than say... alarming
increases in China's emissions.
3) Dumb stuff make me laugh laugh. What is it about many people (speaking to
my peer group exclusively), myself included, that wont let us escape the
mesmerizing grasp of senseless humor?

>   A panda walks into a bar. He orders a sandwich, eats it, then draws a gun
>   and fires two shots in the air.
>
>   "Hey, what are you doing?  Where are you going?" asks the confused waiter,
>   as the panda walks towards the exit. The panda produces a badly punctuated
>   wildlife manual and tosses it over his shoulder.
>
>   "I'm a panda," he says. "Look it up."
>
>   The waiter turns to the relevant entry and, sure enough, finds an
> explanation.
>
>   "Panda. Large black-and-white bear-like mammal, native to China.
>   Eats, shoots and leaves."

That made my day!  I may like dumb humor, but extremely dry humor has the
most tact and is, in a word, ideal.

Trevor