Mine’s not so good, but it was recent which makes me remember it.
My girlfriend and I were at the zoo in Vienna and somehow we got into this crazy debate about whether or not elephants can swim. She could not believe that they could no matter how much I tried to convince her.
Me: Why wouldn’t they be able to swim?
Her: Because they’re too big!
Me: Hippos can swim and they’re big.
Her: Hippos are different.
Me: Whales can swim, and they’re huge!
Her: That’s because they’re more aerodynamic!
Me: :dubious:
Oh well, I got pictures of the koalas so the visit was worth it.
That doesn’t strike me as so far off as to merit being called stupid. In fact, I’m far more knowledgeable about astronomy than the average person and that’s certainly within an order of magnitude of what I’d come up with…
I don’t think this is at all a tautological observation, as you seem to be saying it is:
(1) A period of complexity could be followed by another period of complexity… but “periods” could be defined by other characteristics, unrelated to complexity
(2) It could also be stating that the “periods” don’t last long. People always talk about the swing of the economic pendulum, which is in many ways basically the same thing.
(3) And as someone else pointed out, “complexity” and “simplicity” aren’t the only two possible choices. There could be a period of medium-levels-of-complexity, or a period of combined-complexity-and-simplicity, or various other possibilities.
Oh, and I agree that “the Lakers can’t win them all” is a perfectly reasonable statement. And as for screwing in lightbulbs, it’s possible that someone would, if they experimented, be able to figure out how to screw the lightbulb in, but was still more comfortable asking for help.
Several years ago I was working on an out of town job. My older brother was working for me and we were staying in the same motel room. Late one night he came draggging in from one of the local bars. He had left his key in the room so he woke me up banging on the door to let him in. I opened the door and discovered he had brought some barfly back to the room. Now being a polite southern boy, he introduced his “date” to his brother. I swear to God, she asked; “How long have you been brothers?” I was extremely grateful that they departed for her place shortly thereafter.
Okay, this isn’t someone I know or heard spoken around me, but such asinine comments by such a beloved musician cannot be ignored. In a recent article written for CNN…
Uh huh.
There’s some other gems in the article, but this was the most egregious.
It’s not the stupidest, but surely the most memorable.
It was freshmen year in college, and I was taking an English lit course. The class read “The Autobiography of Malcolm X” and we were discussing it. Most of the more vocal comments were from students who thought Malcolm X was racist and that the book sucked (I kinda believe they didn’t read the WHOLE book, but whatever). As someone who enjoyed the book and felt like Malcolm X, while no saint, was at least a charismatic person deserving of some respect, I had a hard time listening to what some of them were saying.
We were talking about the part in the book when Malcolm X talks about the African origins of humans, in doing so implying that the first humans were black. One of the more annoying students in the class said:
“How could the first humans be black? Everyone knows most humans are white, so that’s impossible!”
I glanced over at the prof and was relieved to find his facial expression mirroring mine.