Aren't you shocked by what some people DON'T know?

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
601

Um, err…not entirely incorrectly put. More correctly it is the State of Rhode Island and Plymouth Plantations, the island is Rhode Island, and the mainland areas is the Plymouth Plantations… http://www.riedc.com/mcds/rimap.htm . So yes Rhode Island is an island, but whereas it is an island it isnt the whole of the state…but yes virginia, there is an island of rhode island…

Sort of reminds me of being corrected by my 8th grade history teacher about who it was that invented the yellow fever vaccine … at the time i was sneaking a read of ‘Portraits of Nobel Laureates in Medicine and Physiology’ to keep from being bored to death…when i produced the book and proved him wrong i got sent to the office for being a smart @ss)

602

Well, it’s really surprising - obviously they thought what they thought was common knowledge as much as what you thought what you thought was. With a plane not being effected by gravity, etc, there should be a quick explanation that makes them go :smack: but though I am puzzled why anyone would think the north star was the brightest, if you did, you’d obviously have to look it up - how else could you tell the difference between someone who actually knew, and someone else just blowing smoke.

That said, isn’t it Sirius? I thought EVERYONE knew that :smiley:

603

I just spent a few minutes reading Facts The Historians Leave out: A Confederate Primer (by John S. Tilley), and in the first few pages it made it quite clear that the South was not fighting to maintain the right to keep humans as property. First off, Robert E Lee, the south’s leading general had not only freed the slaves he had had under his control, but declared slavery as “a moral and political evil”. Stonewall Jackson was in agreement with Lee’s view on slavery. Also, all in all there were fewer than 350,00 souther slave owners, whereas there was roughly 600,000 soldiers in the confederate army. Now even if every slave owner had been a soldier in the confederate army (which they most certanely were not), do you really think that about half of an entire army would be fighting, risking there lives, just to maintain a right that they weren’t going to put into practice? And finally, Abraham Lincon was opposed to allowing slavery to expand to new states, but he thought he had no right to interfere with it in states where slavery already existed.
Not only that, but in 1862, when the war had been in progress for a year, Republican senators urged him to take action to free the slaves. He answered: “Gentleman, I can’t do it…but I’ll tell you what I can do; I can resign in favor of Mr. Hamlin. Perhaps Mr.Hamlin could do it.”

604

Joe, you can undoubtedly spend a few minutes finding websites that will clear up any numbers of common misperceptions. There are sources that will inform you that no Jews were killed by the Germans in WWII, no Armenians were killed by the Turks in WWI, President Clinton was the head of the Medellin Cartel, President Bush is a member of the American Nazi Party, the Illuminati is running the world, and a duck’s quack doesn’t echo. The thing is, Joe, not all information is created equal. Sometimes information can make you more ignorant than when you started. And just because someone put something in a book or a website doesn’t guarantee that they’re telling the truth or that they even know what’s true.

605

Maybe the rail company operates the bus and/or ferry connections to places where the trains don’t go anymore. Amtrak does a lot of that in the U.S; IIRC if you want to take Amtrak from Los Angeles to Oakland, you have to transfer twice, and part of the way is by bus.

606

I didn’t look for a source of information to prove I was right, I just picked up a book that was laying on the floor in my room. I think my mom bought it a while back. Where would you suggest I look for a brief (or not so brief. Whatever gets the job done) summary of the civil war? And why do you think I’m reading from a book full of inaccuracies?

607

It’s actually the State of Rhode Island and Providence - not Plymouth - Plantations.

Where’s the island of Rhode Island on that map? Is it one of those tiny unlabeled dots in the middle? I’ve lived here all my life and never heard of Rhode Island Island, so it must be mighty small.

608

Hey I only knew that from the *They Might Be Giants * song!

609

Another Rhode Islander here who has never heard of a Rhode Island Island. As far as I know, the smallest state has the biggest name : State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations but all of it is called that, not just the mainland. There is Aquidneck Island, which is where Newport, Portsmouth, Middletown and Jamestown are. There is Block Island. There are Prudence and Patience Islands. But Rhode Island as an Island within the state? Um, err… never heard of such a thing. Too bad your map doesn’t show it.

610

Here’s a list of the Rhode Island Islands:
http://www.eng.mu.edu/~usi/states/ri.html
Apparently Rhode Island is another name for Aquidneck Island.

611

Look Away!: A History of the Confederate States of America by William C. Davis is a good recent general history of the CSA. Davis is a professor of Civil War Studies at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and a three time winner of the Jefferson Davis Prize for Confederate History, so he’s no South basher.

612

My mom was recently planning a trip to Cancun (since cancelled). I asked her if she had gotten a passport yet.
“Do I need one of those?”
“Yes, Mom.” I patiently responded.
“How do I get one?”

I’m sure I could dig up oodles of stuff from my memory, compliments of my mom…

But for now… I don’t know if it’s already been mentioned, but the Amityville Horror is based on a true story. The book is, supposedly, the true story… so they aren’t that dumb.

613

I’ve heard so many assertions and debunkings and de-debunkings on that, I no longer know which one(s) to believe.

I know this, though. I read the book. And certain things were described that were not only creepy, but defied the laws of physics. Had I seen one such occurence, I would have been out the door before you could say Edgar Cayce. I would not have hung around to find out what was gonna happen next. (Either that, or simply had a heart attack, or been rendered insane.) As such, I’m hard pressed to believe that the Lutzes, or whatever their real name was, did hang around as long as they did, and/or didn’t have to be institutionalized.

614

The parenthesized sentence was misplaced; it belongs after “I would have been out the door”.

615

Am I shocked by what people don’t know? How about daily?

I suppose the kicker had to be when me and some of the guys from work were engaging in some rare (for me) guy talk. I made a reference to “fellatio”. The first guy had to ask what that was. I laughed, and asked the other guy with us to tell the first one what it was. He didn’t know, either.

Stunned, I went to find a third guy and drag him into it. HE didn’t know!

I went to find another guy, this one a Vietnam vet in his fifties, married for some 20 years, so I figure he’d been around. HE didn’t know!

With each guy drawing a blank, I was laughing harder and harder. I was in hysterics by the end of the day (trying to keep female co-workers out of earshot, lest they be offended). Out of some thirty men, maybe three knew. I pulled the office dictionary to the entry and enlightened the rest.

Then there was the time we were discussing human cloning, and one co-worker announced that human clones would be legal to kill or enslave because “they wouldn’t have souls”, since they weren’t created by God. I polled my co-workers that day, and discovered the most Dark Ages mentality about clones and artificial insemination existed in the minds of ordinary citizens, even people who weren’t Christian. (no offense to Christians. But learn science along with your religious beliefs, OK? I know many of you do. After all, your God created this beautiful world around you and gave you eyes to see it…)

My wife of ten years recently coughed up the fact that she did not know that the government bans books. A visit to the American Library Association webpage straightened her out, and several dozen of her internet friends, who didn’t know either. Like any of them care if they ever see a book again, anyway!

I’m constantly running into people THIS year (2004) who think (a) Iraq attacked the World Trade Center in 2001 (b) didn’t know that the Pentagon was also attacked the same day as the World Trade Centers © actually believe that Bush launched this war out of the goodness of his heart for those poor, suffering Iraqis (d) STILL cling to the hope that we’ll find WMDs over there (e) refuse to admit that the US, Britain, or any of the other “good” countries have ANY WMDs (what do we call nukes, then?) (f) do not understand the concept that the US helped both Osama and Hussein come to power in the first place…I could go on. I guess that’s what they mean when they say “the fog of war”, huh?

One more: at work, we have a weekly game where we have movie trivia questions on the board, give us the line and we guess the movie. This week it was “We don’t have to show you no stinkin’ BADGES!”. Only I knew it. Ironically, the past ten questions have all been for movies like “American Pie”, “The Matrix 3”, “Ice Age”, and other bits of retarded immaturity that you couldn’t drag me to see if I was dead, hence didn’t know them. So, I’m called “the ignorant one”. Kind of like what happens when people who speak of nothing but sports try to engage me in sports talk. If there’s an entry on this thread where somebody marvels at the idiot they met who doesn’t know anything about football, that’s me they’re talking about. And I’m DA-Yum proud! (-:

By the way, casinos do not make money when you lose at their game. They make their profit when you win. They do that by not paying you the money you’re entitled to for beating the odds you just beat. For example: I make up a game involving a single die. You pick the number and pay one dollar per game; if your number comes up, I’ll pay you five dollars. Note that the true odds of winning are 1-6, I’m paying you 1-4. This is how all casino games make their money off of you, the exact same concept applied to all different kinds of games. I am morally convinced that I am the only mortal endowed with this knowledge, the other 6.3 billion of you need to get this straight…please do reply that you know this, and give me some hope for the world, yet. Even if you’re Donald Trump, drop me a line.

Man, I can’t WAIT to move outta Las Vegas!

Sorry if some of this sounded arrogant. It’s my “hot button” topic.

Peace and Love and all that jazz,
Hosiah

PS Oops, I almost forgot, you’re wasting your time if you let a credit card balance ride from month to month at 18% interest, while putting money away in a savings account earning 3% interest. Pay off your debt first, then save.

616

I still don’t know that the government bans books, even after a visit to the ALA webpage, unless by “the government” you mean East Podunk Township School District and by “bans” you mean “decides not to assign for class reading and not to hold in their library.” Am I missing something?

617

This is just wrong on so many levels I have often wondered if it was staged. I was watching a TV game show with my brother several years ago. I don’t remeber the show but basically a team of 4 had to answer 5 trivia questions. Host asks the question: team has 10 seconds to discuss and come up with the answer.

Host: What does the F in JFK stand for?

*long pause as team talks it over

Host: What does the F in JFK stand for?

Moron: Phil

*dead silence

I look at my brother who looks like this :confused: WTF did he just say?

Me: Apparently Phil is spelled with an F

We finally crawl back in our seats after rolling on the ground for 10 minutes.
Guess what one of the members of the group name was?

Yup Philip. I laughed til I hurt.

To this day when ever JFK is mentioned around us one of will say “JFK. You know Fill.”

618

My 6th grade teacher truly believed that instects were not menbers off the animal kingdom… he claimed they were ‘creatures’ - this from a man who was only convinced that oil floated on water after we brought oil and water to class to show him!

619

Right.

If it really was true that casinos “do not make money when you lose”, you could open a casino where you get to keep your money if you “lose”, but the casino picks up its profit by sneakily shafting the winners. Think of the draw! Who wouldn’t want to go to a place where you could never lose money, you could only win! Even if you know the “secret”, how could you lose? I’d certainly gamble somewhere where the worst that could happen was to get less money than I’m entitled to by strict probability. It would be paid to me, of course, out of…out of…

Hey, if it doesn’t come from the losers, where does my payoff come from?

620

I just had the most surreal conversation with a guy, about “up north” (a place where he has obviously never been). To make a dumb story even shorter, it turns out this guy thought Canada was a small country, about the size of California, but he didn’t know where exactly it was. He couldn’t fathom that you could drive 4000 miles across it. “Is it a big country?” “Yes, second only to Russia.” “Bigger than the United States?”

Just shoot me now, OK?