Random Thread

leib10

leib10

HKHolic
Joined
Feb 17, 2005
Messages
3,513
Location
Lubbock, TX
This worked well at the other forum I've belonged to over the years. Just make a random comment or post something of interest that doesn't warrant a new thread.
 
To start if off:

Deputy mistakes pistol for Taser

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/13512149/

BREMERTON, Wash. - A sheriff's deputy who was trying to get a man down from a tree shot and wounded him after mistakenly pulling a gun instead of a Taser, authorities say.

The deputy, a five-year veteran of the force whose name was not released, was placed on leave while Thursday's shooting is investigated.

Deputies carry both a Taser and a gun on their utility belts. The Taser, or stun gun, is similar in shape to the compact .40-caliber gun the deputy carried, sheriff's spokesman Scott Wilson said.

The victim was listed in satisfactory condition.

The man had climbed a fig tree and stayed there for hours, talking to himself. Deputies were unsure whether he was intoxicated or psychotic, and they wanted to get him down before he hurt himself or others, Wilson said.

Deputies and rescue workers tried to coax him down for almost two hours, during which he became increasingly hostile, said David Blakeslee, an employee at an auto repair shop nearby.

Blakeslee said the man climbed down on his own after getting shot.

"He said, `Ow, that hurt. I'm coming down, I'm coming down,'" Blakeslee said.
 
Negative numbers - what a load of nonsense. :mad:

For example: 2-1 = 1.
1-1= 0
All nice and sensible so far.

Then we get 1-2 = -1 (negative 1).

Rubbish - if you have one apple, and take two away, you can't. You only have one apple. You still end up with no apples. Its logical really. :rolleyes:

I suspect a conspiracy by mathematicians to confuse everyone. And don't even get me started on "imaginary numbers" that really pisses me off... :mad:
 
I agree. Math sucks ass. The crap they teach kids in high school is only of use to physicists and engineers and architects. Not everybody needs to know advanced algebra and geometry and trig. It's pointless.
 
Ditto. Leave the advanced math to those of us who actually care. Most people would do fine with no more advanced math than long division, multiplication, and maybe fractions and decimals. Sure I use trig some, but that's cause I'm weird.

And as far as science goes, what matters more than actual knowledge is the scientific view of life, which is almost non-existent in schools today it seems to me. If I was teaching science, I would initially concentrate on the history and philosophy of science, because that's how you get an idea of what it's really all about.

Of course, the schools would probably make it like a high school history course, where all you need to know are dates, people and other facts. :mad: :frown: It's history, people, from the French word for story. Make it a story, and people will love it. And as a bonus, I bet you would get a lot more kids interested in science.
 
All this randomness is starting to get structured. Has anyone used calculus to balance their checkbook?
 
Exactly my point. Calculus is useless to probably 90% of people.

I'm in a really bad mood right now because I am taking care of a friend's dog while she's gone and it's driving me nuts. :mad:
 
leibstandarte10 said:
Exactly my point. Calculus is useless to probably 90% of people.

I'm in a really bad mood right now because I am taking care of a friend's dog while she's gone and it's driving me nuts. :mad:
Click to expand...

Dude, once you master calculus, Algerbra is damned near obsolete. All those algebra problems that take half an hour to solve can be done in about 90 seconds with calculus. Unfortunately you have to crawl before you can walk. so the more you understand algebra and trig the easier calculus becomes. I suck at math, always have, and I struggled through a year of college calculus and I am glad I hung in there. A solid background in math opens up a lot of doors career wise, (read this as high paying jobs) and you will find you will use those math skills in ways you can not even imagine today.
 
bonehead said:
Dude, once you master calculus, Algerbra is damned near obsolete. All those algebra problems that take half an hour to solve can be done in about 90 seconds with calculus. Unfortunately you have to crawl before you can walk. so the more you understand algebra and trig the easier calculus becomes. I suck at math, always have, and I struggled through a year of college calculus and I am glad I hung in there. A solid background in math opens up a lot of doors career wise, (read this as high paying jobs) and you will find you will use those math skills in ways you can not even imagine today.
Click to expand...
Hm. I haven't taken a calc course yet, but I thought I understood the basics of differential calculus. Don't really know much about integrals, so that might be what you're talking about, but what I know of differentials has nothing to do with algebra. Good for finding out distance traveled during acceleration, and other problems dealing with changes over time, but finding x? I don't know, maybe you can explain what you're talking about. Also, could you give some examples of careers that calc skills require? Science/engineering, sure. Computers, yeah. Accounting, perhaps?
 
The problem is that I'm a more literature/history type of guy. I can write an A-paper for literature in half an hour, and history is my strong point. But I can't remember equations to save my life. That's just the way some people are. I've got lots of friends who are geniuses at math and science but suck at English and history. Unfortunately, other than teaching those two subjects, there's not much else you can do with either. :frown:
 
leibstandarte10 said:
The problem is that I'm a more literature/history type of guy. I can write an A-paper for literature in half an hour, and history is my strong point. But I can't remember equations to save my life. That's just the way some people are. I've got lots of friends who are geniuses at math and science but suck at English and history. Unfortunately, other than teaching those two subjects, there's not much else you can do with either. :frown:
Click to expand...

Liturature/English and history are equally important in their own right. There are a select few that are good at all subjects, but most of us are good at one or the other. Some people do better at math when they consider it a foreign language at treat it as such. Even when you are not doing math per se, you can still use the problem solving skills learned when doing math.
 
ArmchairGeneral said:
Hm. I haven't taken a calc course yet, but I thought I understood the basics of differential calculus. Don't really know much about integrals, so that might be what you're talking about, but what I know of differentials has nothing to do with algebra. Good for finding out distance traveled during acceleration, and other problems dealing with changes over time, but finding x? I don't know, maybe you can explain what you're talking about. Also, could you give some examples of careers that calc skills require? Science/engineering, sure. Computers, yeah. Accounting, perhaps?
Click to expand...

Some of these careers involve a math degree which includes Calculus and this is only a drop in the bucket: Research, marketing/sales, consultant, commerce, banking, marketing, analyst, statistition, engineer. You need to have some calc under your belt to get into most med schools (not so much for the calculus, but for the problem solving skills.)

Briefly, when finding high and low points on graphs, graphing curves, finding the local min and local max for optimization problems, and graphing in general, Calculus rules, Calculating change over time and the rate of change over time is best done with calculus. Calculus is also quicker to find the (x) in complex equations. You still use the rules of algebra, but calculus has lots of shortcuts so you could look at it as shorthand algebra. There are other examples as well, but that was too many years ago.
 
leibstandarte10 said:
Exactly my point. Calculus is useless to probably 90% of people. :mad:
Click to expand...

Calculus!! :eek:

The word itself it too scary for me! :eek: :redface:
 
Ok, make a list of things one can do with a kidney stone that you can't do with calculus.
 
leibstandarte10 said:
Make urinating extremely painful.
Click to expand...

Drinking gallons of coffee while pulling an all nighter while studying for a calc exam makes one dehydrated and yes, hurts to pee. NEXT!
 
Just finished reading an article about Erich Hartmann. I have nothing but the utmost respect for him as a soldier and a man, for what he did in war and what he did when illegally incarcerated by the Soviets for 10 years.
 
I originally hated math (except geometry) in high school because the Algebra teacher had absolutely no idea what practical applications it had in real life. However, in Physics class I excelled because I could "see" the math working inside the structures of levers, wheels, block and tackle, etc.

There is a difference between a mathematician who only knows ways of juggling numbers around that are totally meaningless. But then there are engineers and practical scientists that use math to build things and explain how and why things work.

I invented an engineering formula myself because I had a couple of steel rings on my desk that had undergone strength tests. One stretched a quarter of an inch and the other did not. Rourke's Formulas for Stress and Strain had no formula estimating the strength of a steel ring in tension. Engineering books by Shanley and Timoshenko had a meaningless formula because they admitted that for some strange reason the rings were always much stronger (when tested to destruction) than their formulas said they sould be. Taking other tests done on steel rings back in 1947 I started putting the numbers together and BACK engineered them. One engineer in my office suggested using the modulus of PLASTICITY instead of ELASTICITY that the "standard" formulas used. Of course. When trying to stretch a CIRCULAR steel ring, you are not actually trying to pull it apart as with a long link or elliptical shape. You are compressing the sides into each other. There were also two "K" factors included and I found by swapping them I came out with a formula that was within 5% of all rings tested to yield failure (not breaking, but permanent stretching).

So, teach the right kinds of math to the right kinds of people who would benefit most from it. If a student loves science class and likes to blow up rockets on the football field, lead him in the right direction of thermo-dynamics and structural strengths. If the student only likes to bake cakes, send him or her to chef's school (NOT just home economics).
 
Last edited:
leibstandarte10 said:
I have a bad tendency to get kidney stones. I seem to be passing one today. :frown:
Click to expand...
Fnck man - if there is anything that makes me sick those arestones getting out of d!ck!!!!!!!

My father is also in your club.. he had one egg-sized few years ago. Off course, that one needed interevention - didn't go out on its own. However, I prefered to stay pretty uninformed about that matter.
 
kNikS said:
Fnck man - if there is anything that makes me sick those arestones getting out of d!ck!!!!!!!

My father is also in your club.. he had one egg-sized few years ago. Off course, that one needed interevention - didn't go out on its own. However, I prefered to stay pretty uninformed about that matter.
Click to expand...
Egg sized kidney stone!!! heres hoping i never get anything like that.... rather do astrophysics with an abacus...
 
This thread also mentioned history. I love history, but ONLY if it was written by Harold Lamb. He writes it as a novel, love story, adventure story, mystery story. It is not cut and dry with meaningless dates except as needed for comparisson as to what the rest of the world was like then.

But the biggest problem with schools is that they are stuck on teaching history starting with the dinosaurs and cave men. This is their "required" program in Elementary School, Junior High School, High School, Junior College and Senior College. By the time they get up to the 20th century, the semester has run out.

I realized this several years ago when we were having a family discussion and the phrase "Ask not what your country can do for you, but ask what YOU can do for your country" was quoted. I identified that as the acceptance speech by John F. Kennedy when he was elected President. Our daughter, who was in Junior College by then, said, "You know Dad, I've heard that speech many times before but never knew who said it."

BOOOOIIIIIINGGGG! What the hell is wrong with schools today? It turns out that, with luck, students might have enough time to get past the Civil War and maybe have a couple of hours left for a brief descripton of the Spanish American War.

No time for the Boxer Rebellion, First World War, depression of the 1930's, Second World War (and why WW I Treaty of Versailles caused it), invention of Penicillan, popularity of affordable Television sets, Korean War, invention of Salk and Sabin vaccines, Cuban Embargo, Viet Nam War, Race for the Moon, the transistor that led to the micro chip and today's computers and cell phones, etc. It is my firm belief that most of the events that happend in the 20th century have had more of an effect of who we are, why we are and how we are more so than all of the preceding centuries. Rome's conquest of Europe has no meaning to us anymore and Greek philosophies are only of interest to philosophers who have nothing else better to do ("Honey, when are you going to fix the fence?" "As soon as I get done doing a treatise on Plato vs Socrates")
 
Last edited:
PubFather said:
Egg sized kidney stone!!! heres hoping i never get anything like that.... rather do astrophysics with an abacus...
Click to expand...
Sorry, it was a bladder.. I think... And believe me, I don't want to check.

Or to check my chances to have some... drinking those mineral waters regulary.
 
Yep, they run in my family too. My mom, grandma, and grandpa all get them. I've never had one that requires that sonic shockwave treatment, but my grandpa has.

Anyway, I want this shirt sooo bad:

evenjesus.jpg


The guy in the picture is Dexter Holland, lead singer of The Offspring and one helluva cool guy.
 
leibstandarte10 said:
The guy in the picture is Dexter Holland, lead singer of The Offspring and one helluva cool guy.
Click to expand...
I was quite delighted with Offspring when I was younger... but I litteraly don't listen to music anymore...
 
kNikS said:
Fnck man - if there is anything that makes me sick those arestones getting out of d!ck!!!!!!!

My father is also in your club.. he had one egg-sized few years ago. Off course, that one needed interevention - didn't go out on its own. However, I prefered to stay pretty uninformed about that matter.
Click to expand...
I have heard of GALL STONES getting that big, but not KIDNEY STONES. I had to pass a kidney stone once. It was about the size of a full pepper seed. Coming out the final few inches of the urinary tract wasn't too bad as I knew I was finally getting rid of the damn thing.

But it was the excruciating lower back pains before as it began its blitzkrieg on out of the kidney.

One nurse wasn't too sympathetic and said, "Now you know what it feels like for a woman to give birth to a baby. Both are just as painful".

She made the mistake of saying that in front of my mother who strongly admonished her, "Bull. I've had three sons AND three kidney stones and the stones are MUCH worse."
 
RustyBattleship said:
I have heard of GALL STONES getting that big, but not KIDNEY STONES. I had to pass a kidney stone once. It was about the size of a full pepper seed. Coming out the final few inches of the urinary tract wasn't too bad as I knew I was finally getting rid of the damn thing.

But it was the excruciating lower back pains before as it began its blitzkrieg on out of the kidney.

One nurse wasn't too sympathetic and said, "Now you know what it feels like for a woman to give birth to a baby. Both are just as painful".

She made the mistake of saying that in front of my mother who strongly admonished her, "Bull. I've had three sons AND three kidney stones and the stones are MUCH worse."
Click to expand...

I had a friend with kidney stones. He used to carry a prescription for Demerol in his wallet in case it got REALLY bad. One day I got a call from the police asking me if I would pick up his car. He had started to pass a stone while driving. Pulling over he almost ran over a cop who was giving someone a ticket. Luckily the officer was very understanding, calling an ambulance (and me). He finally did some kind of aquatic sonic wave therapy and was cured (for now).
 
RustyBattleship said:
I have heard of GALL STONES getting that big, but not KIDNEY STONES. I had to pass a kidney stone once. It was about the size of a full pepper seed. Coming out the final few inches of the urinary tract wasn't too bad as I knew I was finally getting rid of the damn thing.

But it was the excruciating lower back pains before as it began its blitzkrieg on out of the kidney.

One nurse wasn't too sympathetic and said, "Now you know what it feels like for a woman to give birth to a baby. Both are just as painful".

She made the mistake of saying that in front of my mother who strongly admonished her, "Bull. I've had three sons AND three kidney stones and the stones are MUCH worse."
Click to expand...
ROFL

My mother had a gall stone about a 2cm in diameter... those are a bit less disguisting.. though I guess that they're not less unhealty.

But having a egg-sized stone in your bladder is certainly one of the few things that ultimately scares the sh!t out of me. Or imagining a pepper seed getting out...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top