Stupid People Doing Stupid Things Thread - Part 3

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

 

[blueharvest]

Canadian politician caught on camera peeing into mug at constituents home

I don't know what the **** anymore.

To be fair, there's probably no law in Canada saying he shouldn't do that.

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

I've peed in many a cup over the years but usually they were mine or I would wash them out afterwards. But one would expect a politician to have a bit more self-control

 

[KevanG]

Or at least bladder control.

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

Barely Any Americans Could Answer All of These Basic Science Questions

Earth’s hottest layer is the core, we use uranium to build nukes, and ocean tides are created by the gravitational pull of the Moon. Like, duh! But did you also know that the boiling point of water decreases with increasing altitude, or that amplitude determines the loudness of a sound wave? Huh?

Maybe you’re a smartypants who did know all those sciencey facts. (Or you’re going to tell me you did, regardless). But if so, you’re ahead of the curve, according to a new Pew Research Study that polled 3,278 adults on 12 basic science questions.

Overall, Americans gave more correct than incorrect answers — good! And unsurprisingly, people with college or graduate degrees got the most questions right. But only 6% of survey respondents received a perfect score, suggesting that some pieces of “common” knowledge aren’t so common, after all — such as how light travels through a magnifying glass.

And there are a few widespread misconceptions that I’m trying really hard not to smash my face against a wall over. For instance, nearly a quarter of survey respondents said that astronomy is “the study of how the positions of stars and planets can influence human behavior.” I’m sorry, but that’s a different field of study entirely — it’s called ********. Write that one down.

Of course, the questions in the Pew survey represent only teensy tiny slice of basic scientific knowledge, and a rather physical-sciencey one. That bias could explain why men tended to score slightly higher than women — previous Pew research surveys note that gender gaps on scientific knowledge disappear on health and biomedical topics:

But despite its limitations, the survey does manage to tease out some interesting patterns. For instance, the vast majority of young people know that radio waves transmit cell phone calls, while only 57% of adults over the age of 65 have figured this out. On the other hand, adults aged 65 and older schooled American’s youth when it comes to correctly identifying the developer of the polio vaccine (hint: it wasn’t Einstein).

Wait, so....young people are into technology and bored by history? Okay, maybe we already knew that. Read the full report — and take the interactive quiz, now that I’ve given you half the answers!

http://gizmodo.com/barely-any-americans-could-answer-all-of-these-basic-sc-1729922050

This is just so freaking sad

 

[Slushy]

 

[Teelie]

Another "stupid Americans" poll. Not that I'm exactly doubting it but I also wonder how well these things stack up against other countries. As in, how many of those countries have equally "stupid" people in them?

I guess I'm a smarty pants since I knew the answers to those questions they asked, although I haven't taken the whole survey yet so maybe I just knew that handful, or maybe the survey was just poorly executed. Nobody would care if it stated "Americans were smart, knew most answers correctly" afterall.

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

Another "stupid Americans" poll. Not that I'm exactly doubting it but I also wonder how well these things stack up against other countries. As in, how many of those countries have equally "stupid" people in them?

I guess I'm a smarty pants since I knew the answers to those questions they asked, although I haven't taken the whole survey yet so maybe I just knew that handful, or maybe the survey was just poorly executed. Nobody would care if it stated "Americans were smart, knew most answers correctly" afterall.

Well, 3k people is statistically a very small sample group but it still bums me out

 

[KevanG]

To be fair, I consider myself a bit of a science geek and I didn't get all of them.

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

Local Governments Crack Down On The Monstrous Evil of Tiny Free Lending Libraries

It’s good to know that people are focusing on what’s really important. Local governments in a few different U.S. cities and towns have looked past the problems of homelessness, crumbling city services and displacement, to tackle the real crisis: people are putting up tiny “take a book, leave a book” libraries.

This is clearly a major crisis in our culture, and one that can only be addressed by the full busy-bodiness of local busybodies.

As The Atlantic’s Conor Friedersdorf explains, local governments in Los Angeles, Shreveport, LA and Leawood, KS have all tried to levy fines and other sanctions against people who put up these tiny birdhouse-like lending libraries. These are just what they sound like: tiny boxes on stilts, where anybody can leave behind a book, or take one of the books that have been left behind by others. They bring pleasure and excitement, and a badly needed sense of civic participation and shared fun, to communities, and most of all, they encourage people to notice and read books. But they violate obscure zoning and other ordinances.

In the case of Los Angeles, city officials did say that the tiny library could stay if its creators applied for a permit, which could be funded through local arts organizations. As Friedersdorf points out:

This is what conservatives and libertarians mean when they talk about overregulation disincentivizing or displacing voluntary activity that benefits people. We’ve constructed communities where one must obtain prior permission from agents of the state before freely sharing books with one’s neighbors! And their proposed solution is to get scarce public art funds to pay for the needless layer of bureaucracy being imposed on the thing already being done for free.

The power to require permits is the power to prevent something from ever existing. This lovely movement would've never begun or spread if everyone who wanted to build a Little Free Library recognized a need to apply and pay for a permit. Instead they did good and asked permission never.​

In Shreveport, one woman created her own small “free range” library on her front yard, as a protest after the “little free library” was sanctioned by the city—and her civil disobedience paid off, with the city backing down and agreeing to pass a new resolution exempting the libraries from regulations. But even if they create a special exemption, it’s bizarre and ridiculous that these awesome little community projects ever needed permission in the first place.

http://io9.com/local-governments-crack-down-on-the-monstrous-evil-of-t-1729930863

We must prevent the serfs from reading lest they gain knowledge and rise against us!

 

[jaganar]

Day care center staff charged with running 'fight club'

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2015/09/02/day-care-center-fight-club/71576072/

Baby brawling. Place your bets !

having done time in RETAIL ( 5 yrs plus) i would sooooo love for this to happen in that enviroment , cus you know those brain dead idjits *MGT* wouldnt have the brass to try it,
but the plus side is that we would get to pound all the smack talkers and lazy sobz into hamburger meat .

 

[Slushy]

Local Governments Crack Down On The Monstrous Evil of Tiny Free Lending Libraries

It's because you're not allowed to do anything without the government getting their cut. Like that guy who built his own self-sufficient home and was shut down because it was "unsafe".

 

[Marvolo]

It's because you're not allowed to do anything without the government getting their cut. Like that guy who built his own self-sufficient home and was shut down because it was "unsafe".

Since its a free service their cut would be...let me see...multiply the zero dollars by zero percent and that equals...yep zero.

 

[Teelie]

Local Governments Crack Down On The Monstrous Evil of Tiny Free Lending Libraries

http://io9.com/local-governments-crack-down-on-the-monstrous-evil-of-t-1729930863

We must prevent the serfs from reading lest they gain knowledge and rise against us!

I was with this until that guy Friedersdorf started spouting off all that awful libertarian (he really missed a chance to pun librarian) and conservative ********. It has nothing to do with politics everything to do with bureaucrats who will be there regardless of your governmenting preferences.

These mini libraries sound harmless and possibly redundant if there is a local library nearby but then I've been to enough public libraries to know they don't always have the best or most recent selection of books to read either.

All of it just sounds ridiculous to me. The story here is how to turn a silly situation into a serious one by throwing political rhetoric in with it.

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

Ya I thought the political BS in it was garbage

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

Louisiana Officials Said That After Planned Parenthood Closes, Women Can Just Go to the Dentist

When Louisiana state officials announced their plans to terminate Planned Parenthood’s state Medicaid contract in late August, they argued that there were plenty of doctors who could take on the more than 5200 patients the reproductive health organization sees each year in New Orleans and Baton Rouge.

They even provided a list of those doctors to the US District Court when Planned Parenthood filed suit against the state (Planned Parenthood argues that breaking the contract is a violation of federal law). It’s an impressive 37 pages long, including 1146 Medicaid providers near New Orleans and 864 near Baton Rouge.

But actually reading their list reveals that very few of those doctors are qualified to give pelvic exams, provide contraceptives, or administer screenings for STDs or breast and cervical cancer. The list is actually of every provider who takes Medicaid in the region—including dentists, along with anesthesiologists, eye doctors, radiologists, cardiologists, pharmacies, and nursing homes.

The Hon. John W. DeGravelles, who will decide whether it is legal for the state to break their contract with Planned Parenthood, was not amused. From the court transcript of September 2, 2015:

The Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals submitted a revised list of providers on September 8. This list is much shorter. It includes just 29 providers, 24 of which provide the same range of services as Planned Parenthood. Only five providers are in Baton Rouge; two have three-week waits for new patients, and one is not accepting new patients.

DeGravelles is expected to rule on the case September 15th.

http://throb.gizmodo.com/louisiana-officials-said-that-after-planned-parenthood-1730126531

Insane

 

[Teelie]

And this is why I hate the religious right/conservative/anti-government/anti-welfare camp. They do not give one little bit of care or respect to anyone who can't afford insurance or the outrageous cost it is to visit a doctor.

They don't care or don't think of just how hard it is to afford anything when you are poor. And this is Louisiana, they don't get much poorer than that, excluding Mississppi and maybe West Virginia.

 

[KevanG]

That's because they're all men and grew up being taught that the women folk aren't important. Only the men and since they don't get pregnant then it can't be that big a deal.

 

[Teelie]

Sadly not all of them are older white men. There are plenty of women and younger adults who buy into that crap too.

 

[Marvolo]

Well if Karma or reincarnation is real maybe they will spend their next life as a woman so they can learn to appreciate the difficulties that the fairer sex encounters in daily life.

 

[redmarvel]

'Impatient' driver gets vehicle impaled on Parking Poles

Peel Regional Police say a driver in a hurry managed to impale his car on a parking pole in a Brampton, Ont., parking lot. (Peel Regional Police)

Police say the driver, with two small children, was rushing to get them to school and decided to cut through the parking lot to save time — only to strike a pair of yellow parking poles.

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

Idiot

 

[XtremelyBaneful]

high school freshman arrested after taking homemade clock to school

Ahmed Mohamed — who makes his own radios and repairs his own go-kart — hoped to impress his teachers when he brought a homemade clock to MacArthur High on Monday.

Instead, the school phoned police about Ahmed’s circuit-stuffed pencil case.

He loved robotics club in middle school and was searching for a similar niche in his first few weeks of high school. So he decided to do what he’s always done: He built something.

Ahmed’s clock was hardly his most elaborate creation. He said he threw it together in about 20 minutes before bed on Sunday: a circuit board and power supply wired to a digital display, all strapped inside a case with a tiger hologram on the front. He kept the clock inside his school bag in English class, but the teacher complained when the alarm beeped in the middle of a lesson. Ahmed brought his invention up to show her afterward.

“She was like, it looks like a bomb,” he said.

“I told her, ‘It doesn’t look like a bomb to me.’”

The teacher kept the clock. When the principal and a police officer pulled Ahmed out of sixth period, he suspected he wouldn’t get it back.

They led Ahmed into a room where four other police officers waited. He said an officer he’d never seen before leaned back in his chair and remarked: “Yup. That’s who I thought it was.”

Ahmed felt suddenly conscious of his brown skin and his name — one of the most common in the Muslim religion. But the police kept him busy with questions.

Police led Ahmed out of MacArthur about 3 p.m., his hands cuffed behind him and an officer on each arm. A few students gaped in the halls. He remembers the shocked expression of his student counselor — the one “who knows I’m a good boy.”

http://www.dallasnews.com/news/comm...ted-after-taking-homemade-clock-to-school.ece

 

[Marvolo]

They questioned a minor without his parents present and then cuffed him... That school is going to be sued into oblivion. Not only is what they did illegal, but it is racist as ****. That kid is about to own that school.

 

[XtremelyBaneful]