Idiot of the Day

[Grefter]

Then you haven't been paying enough attention to WBC to realise that they do in fact do that kind of shit.  If you can't get someone to attack you like they try to do then you just lie about it.  Works just as well.

Now you should go back to not paying enough attention to WBC because that is the best thing to do to them.

[NotMiki]

Now you should go back to not paying enough attention to WBC because that is the best thing to do to them.

I agree, but the other week a group putting on the Laremie Project actively tried to get WBC to picket their show so they could get some free publicity.  That's also probably a pretty good way to handle them.

[NotMiki]

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/01/science/01qna.html?_r=1&ref=science

an article debunking the 5-second rule.  take a look at the data they use to support their proposition.

[Dark Holy Elf]

People actually believe the 5-second rule? I mean, there's a morsel of truth to it in that if something lies on the ground for longer, it increases the chance someone will step on it and transfer bacteria to it that way, but otherwise...

[DjinnAndTonic]

Haven't they debunked the 3-second rule like 100 times already? I feel like I've seen this same article in like 3 separate places throughout my life.

[NotMiki]

If they wanted to debunk the 5-second rule, they probably should have included a study that included times less than 5 seconds.

[Dark Holy Elf]

Tests of 5 seconds clearly debunk the 5-second rule. They don't debunk a hypothetical 3-second rule, say, but they establish that by 5 seconds the food is already at maximum contamination, when the rule claims that anything up to 5 is safe. Unless you believe there are no bacteria on the food at 4.9 seconds and it magically jumps to maximum contamination at 5.0, but then you fail science forever.

[DjinnAndTonic]

I always heard "3-second rule" growing up. But I know that's been specifically debunked too. IIRC, I think they -did- detect that something like 0.9 seconds or less actually has a notably low amount of contamination, though.

[NotMiki]

you're right.  I was thinking of the 5-second rule as 'safer if picked up within 5 seconds,' not 'safe if picked up within 5 seconds.'

[Hunter Sopko]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110302/ap_on_re_us/us_teacher_table_rattling

The girl or the school. I have to wonder who the bigger idiots are.

[Lady Door]

The girl.

The school has to be stupidly careful about incidents because, well, getting the school sued is a big deal. Just as there's a girl who will call 911 over something so trivial, there is a parent who will sue the district because a teacher had the police called on them and nothing happened. And if that teacher later on went to assault a student? And someone found out that the cops had been called on him before, but nothing happened? Oh boy.

The girl is going to grow up to be that parent.

[Shale]

Or, hopefully, not any kind of parent.

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

Darwin is never that kind.

[NotMiki]

The school probably has a mandatory policy for placing employees on leave when police are involved.  That makes sense to me.  Look at it this way: if the school has to make a choice and they choose not to put the teacher on leave, they may get sued or get in a lot of trouble from parents by leaving a potentially dangerous person in school.  On the other hand, if they choose to suspend the teacher and the teacher is later exonerated, they may be looking at a lawsuit from the teacher or the union for defamation, discrimination, you name it.  If the school lacks the discretion not to suspend the teacher, though, they can't be sued for anything like that because they're not taking a potentially problematic action.  No teacher is going to be able to say, "you put me on leave based on my race/sex/whatever," or "you irreparably and unjustly damaged my reputation by choosing to put me on leave."  The real test for the school is how quickly they can resolve this mess and get the teacher back into the classroom.

Side note, but education-related: just read a case where a student appealed a suspension based on their First Amendment right to wear, get this, Big Johnson t-shirts.  Thank you, early nineties.

[SnowFire]

I don't normally post op-eds here.  But.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/02/opinion/02friedman.html?_r=1

I'll just quote the person who sent ME the link.  "I don't know how to interpret this except to conclude that Friedman was smoking some really powerful hash while he was here in Egypt, and I should write to ask him who his dealer is. Unless it turns out he got these insights by wandering out into the desert without water or head-covering, then smoking his own mustache until the visions came."

[Grefter]

http://www.gamefaqs.com/boards/561316-tales-of-symphonia/58283099

Pretty much everything in here is retarded and could die with fire and make the world a better place.

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

If someone spends as much as 800 hours playing a crappy Tales game, they may as well jump off a bridge.

[Nephrite]

Hey guys, what do you think is better? Pancakes or the color purple?

[DjinnAndTonic]

If someone spends as much as 800 hours playing any RPG, they may as well jump off a bridge.

[Talaysen]

Hey guys, what do you think is better? Pancakes or the color purple?

Pancakes.

[Nitori]

If someone doesn't spend as much as 800 hours playing SC2, they may as well jump off a bridge.

[NotMiki]

Hey guys, what do you think is better? Pancakes or the color purple?

Pancakes.

If they're my pancakes, pancakes.

hm, I should go make some pancakes.

[DomaDragoon]

Hey guys, what do you think is better? Pancakes or the color purple?

Pancakes.

If they're my pancakes, pancakes.

hm, I should go make some pancakes.

Well, it is Shrove/Pancake Tuesday today, so go ahead.

[DjinnAndTonic]

Pancakes is by the better 'word that starts with p'. Yes, I realize that's not what you were asking, but I have eaten over 800 pancakes in my lifetime, so that's how I'm going to interpret your question to drag this meaningless topic out even longer.

[Dhyerwolf]

If someone spends as much as 800 hours playing any RPG, they may as well jump off a bridge.

You've just condemned most of Warcraft's players. Which is fair enough.