# Just Stupid People Things **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [December 13, 2015, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-stupid-people-things/740361 "2015-12-13T21:30:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2015, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-stupid-people-things/740361/41 "2015-12-14T21:39:01Z")
> [@billfish678](#): > > So wait. So your solution is to allow stupid people to breed but then we will take their children from them and have them raised by non stupid people? “_It takes a village_”. We should be able to insure that stupid parents are not able to shove the stupid into their childrens’ heads. As to the actual breeding, well, whatever works. We are far from having a deficit in that department. ---
**Author:** ![billfish678](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7bcc69/32.png) [@billfish678](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/billfish678)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2015, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-stupid-people-things/740361/42 "2015-12-14T21:40:30Z")
And when people raised by modern “villages” start kicking ass I’ll take note. ---
**Author:** ![Merneith](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/57b2e6/32.png) [@Merneith](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Merneith)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2015, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-stupid-people-things/740361/43 "2015-12-14T22:00:50Z")
> [@kbear](#): > > My sister linked to the solar farm thing on her Facebook page. I thought it was a spoof article. The link I used in the OP is the local newspaper to the North Carolina town where all this went down. The paper is the Roanoke-Chowan News-Herald. Here’s the wiki page for them - > **[Roanoke-Chowan News-Herald](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roanoke-Chowan_News-Herald)** > > The Roanoke-Chowan News-Herald is a newspaper founded in 1914 as the Ahoskie Patriot. It serves the rural North Carolina communities of Bertie, Hertford, Northampton and Gates counties, including the towns of Ahoskie, Murfreesboro and Windsor. It is published on Wednesday and Saturday. > The paper gets its name from the location of its primary region of distribution between the Roanoke River and Chowan River in Northeastern North Carolina, a location that includes Bertie, Hertford, and Northampto... According to their masthead they’ve been in business for 101 years, (although maybe not in this current corporate arrangement). I’ve never heard of them before but I appreciate their willingness to name and shame their neighbors. Elsewhere: Daylight Savings Time Stupid and Doesn’t Understand Traffic Lights Stupid are definitely worthy candidates for our list. ---
**Author:** ![Spiderman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spiderman/32/230_2.png) [@Spiderman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spiderman)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2015, 2:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-stupid-people-things/740361/44 "2015-12-15T02:01:01Z")
> [@Dendarii\_Dame](#): > > A neighbor (from where I used to live) had a MIL who believed that Earth’s weather and earthquakes were all caused by astronauts walking on the moon. > > She wasn’t, however, a science teacher. It’s been doing that for [43 years](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=778164)? 😕 :dubious: > [@Green\_Bean](#): > > I can’t find a good online picture of the finished project, but it actually looks pretty neat. If you want, I can post some pictures I took of it. I was going to link a [google maps pic](https://www.google.com/maps/place/Stevens+Institute+of+Technology/@40.7453537,-74.0265613,71m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m2!3m1!1s0x89c259de94dced4f:0xd4c9d146086e72ae!6m1!1e1) from a parking lot that I know that has them (on the top/8th street side), but the street level view is from before they were installed. :smack: > [@Frostillicus](#): > > Because, since the power outage was due to ice storms, she could just temporarily put her food outside. Do you live in the 'burbs or even more rural? That solution won’t work in a city neighborhood. Great username/post combo, BTW. ---
**Author:** ![brujaja](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4af34b/32.png) [@brujaja](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brujaja)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2015, 3:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-stupid-people-things/740361/45 "2015-12-15T03:56:13Z")
So, is there any reason you can’t put solar panels on the _ **sides** _ of buildings? (I’m talking about, say, skyscrapers that tower over the surrounding area.) Do they not work so well with indirect light? Also, if we mandated that _ **every single building** _ (where practical) had solar panels on the roof (just for the sake of argument --I know it would be obscenely expensive), around what percentage of our total power needs would it cover? ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2015, 4:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-stupid-people-things/740361/46 "2015-12-15T04:39:22Z")
> [@brujaja](#): > > So, is there any reason you can’t put solar panels on the _ **sides** _ of buildings? (I’m talking about, say, skyscrapers that tower over the surrounding area.) Do they not work so well with indirect light? Yes, the angle of the panel makes a big difference. Use [this handy insolation calculator](http://www.pveducation.org/pvcdrom/properties-of-sunlight/arbitrary-orientation-and-tilt) with module tilt β =90° for a vertical panel, and see how crappy your light intensity will be as compared to a flatter panel. Basically, the issue is that the sun is much more “overhead” than “off to the side”, at least for the vast majority of the daytime. You see sun shadows projected on the ground, not on objects beside you, right? Except when the sun’s right at the horizon and is getting a lot more of its radiation absorbed by the extra atmospheric thickness anyway. [QUOTE=brujaja] Also, if we mandated that _ **every single building** _ (where practical) had solar panels on the roof (just for the sake of argument --I know it would be obscenely expensive), around what percentage of our total power needs would it cover? [/QUOTE] Well, [it’s been claimed](http://gizmodo.com/5350191/how-many-solar-panels-would-it-take-to-power-the-entire-world) that 496,905 square kilometers of solar panels (an area somewhat less than that of Spain) would be required to supply the electricity needs of the whole world. In most parts of most land regions, building footprints account for only a fairly small percentage of total land area. So just off the top of my head, I’d imagine that relying on rooftop panels to cover all electricity requirements would be extremely optimistic. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2015, 10:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-stupid-people-things/740361/47 "2015-12-15T10:04:25Z")
> [@Spiderman](#): > > Do you live in the 'burbs or even more rural? That solution won’t work in a city neighborhood. It does, if you have either a balcony or enough windowsill surface. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2015, 10:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-stupid-people-things/740361/48 "2015-12-15T10:25:43Z")
> [@Merneith](#): > > Right. Just like building an autofactory creates a shadow on the ground underneath. But whatever. That’s not the claim that’s pissing me off here. It’s the claim that solar panels will, and I quote, “suck up all the energy from the sun and businesses would not come to Woodland”, that is the subject of this pitting. My father’s second wife refused to have satellite TV because it required installing a dish antenna somewhere, and she believed it would attract harmful radiation. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2015, 11:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-stupid-people-things/740361/49 "2015-12-15T11:36:13Z")
One of the first measures taken by the current mayor of Barcelona (elected this same year) was to close down the Fairgrounds in Montjuic. She thinks they’re “too expensive”. Fairs and congresses which were supposed to be held there during this same year have had to move to L’Hospitalet (the next town over, you can’t even tell you’ve walked from one town to the other unless you look carefully at street signs), whose own mayor is very very very happily busy finding space for all those week-long congresses, fairs, meetups et al. Tickets for the minor events number in the low six figures, major events have been known to reach eight. The Barcelona Aquarium has announced that their mammals will not be performing in public any more. It’s animal exploitation. They will still be doing acrobatics, synchronized swimming and playing nose-ball, but in private. As explained by one of the veterinarians, the animals actually demand to get their games when not provided. ---
**Author:** ![Saintly\_Loser](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saintly_loser/32/4045_2.png) [@Saintly\_Loser](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saintly_Loser)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2015, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-stupid-people-things/740361/50 "2015-12-15T19:34:56Z")
> [@Declan](#): > > I just had a news article show up on Facebook, regarding this principal in Brooklyn, being her first year. Decides that she is going to, Im not sure if she is banning or if she is simply rebranding for ethnic diversity reasons, things like Christmas and T-giving and a few others. Was that [this](http://www.snopes.com/ps-169-pledge-allegiance-holiday-ban-controversy/) teacher? Didn’t really happen, if you’re thinking of the same incident. ---
**Author:** ![dasmoocher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/dbc845/32.png) [@dasmoocher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dasmoocher)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2015, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-stupid-people-things/740361/51 "2015-12-15T19:51:28Z")
> [@FairyChatMom](#): > > Right now she’s got a teacher who’s an anti-vaxxer and who insists global warming is a government plot of some sort. Can’t we vaccinate against global warming? I once saw a PBS special on genetically modified food and they interviewed grocery store shoppers. One woman said she wouldn’t eat anything with DNA in it. ---
**Author:** ![raventhief](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/raventhief/32/4_2.png) [@raventhief](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/raventhief)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2015, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-stupid-people-things/740361/52 "2015-12-15T19:56:30Z")
> [@Dendarii\_Dame](#): > > A neighbor (from where I used to live) had a MIL who believed that Earth’s weather and earthquakes were all caused by astronauts walking on the moon. > > She wasn’t, however, a science teacher. What - or who - caused weather and earthquakes before astronauts got to the moon? What was stomping around up there? ---
**Author:** ![Kimballkid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b5a626/32.png) [@Kimballkid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimballkid)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2015, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-stupid-people-things/740361/53 "2015-12-15T20:28:14Z")
Santa and his reindeer. ---
**Author:** ![Damuri\_Ajashi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/898d66/32.png) [@Damuri\_Ajashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Damuri_Ajashi)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2015, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-stupid-people-things/740361/54 "2015-12-15T20:51:48Z")
> [@kaylasdad99](#): > > Plant life doesn’t rely on the entire solar energy spectrum to thrive, though, does it? Isn’t it possible to develop solar cells that can harvest energy from selected portions of the spectrum, and remain transparent to the energy that could sustain photosynthesis? So everything will look green everywhere we go? ---
**Author:** ![Declan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ecae2f/32.png) [@Declan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Declan)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2015, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-stupid-people-things/740361/55 "2015-12-15T22:12:05Z")
> [@Saintly\_Loser](#): > > Was that [this](http://www.snopes.com/ps-169-pledge-allegiance-holiday-ban-controversy/) teacher? > > Didn’t really happen, if you’re thinking of the same incident. Thats the one, guess I got fooled. Declan ---
**Author:** ![Euphonious\_Polemic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/euphonious_polemic/32/3002_2.png) [@Euphonious\_Polemic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Euphonious_Polemic)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2015, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-stupid-people-things/740361/56 "2015-12-15T23:06:38Z")
> [@Declan](#): > > Thats the one, guess I got fooled. > > Declan Well then I"d like to complain about stupid people who believe every stupid asinine thing that pops up on their facebook page, and then forwards it to all of their stupid friends. Fascinating that these stupid, false facebook memes are frequently ones about how some horrible liberal did some horrible liberal thing. I once had a facebook “friend” who posted every idiotic stupid thing under the universe, particularly if it had a slant to it that showed how terrible “the left” was. And they were all complete and utter crap. I called her on each and every one, with a link to a factual site. She got very snippy with me because I was “taking her fun away”. I guess she preferred to be an ignorant stupid cow that forwarded stupidity to other ignorant stupid cows. ---
**Author:** ![drm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a88e57/32.png) [@drm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drm)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2015, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-stupid-people-things/740361/57 "2015-12-15T23:09:15Z")
> [@kayaker](#): > > Yeah, _my_ way heads them off at the pass. I’m not dismissing the idea completely but it might be a tough one to get through congress but that’s gonna be an issue for both of them, I suppose. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2015, 1:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-stupid-people-things/740361/58 "2015-12-16T01:45:33Z")
My garden is so large, it is soaking up all the solar radiation that should be going to furnish life-giving energy to plants outside the garden’s boundaries. No wonder my neighbors’ yards are brown and lifeless. On the plus side my garden is consuming so much carbon dioxide that I have solved the local problem with global warming (we are at least 5F cooler than surrounding neighborhoods). [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-stupid-people-things/740361.md?page=2)