The unimportant news thread

[North Star]

Surprise, surprise. That was a meat pie filled with human
body parts.

Ah, my favourite pie.

[Ken B]

We squabbled over this.

http://www.vice.com/read/uk-sex-workers-disabled-people-833
I would not jail anyone involved, but most here disagree. Anyone care to explain why?

[kishnevi]

Schadenfreude alert
http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2015/02/24/lawsuit-accuses-comcast-al-sharpton-of-discriminating-against-black-owned-media/

Schadenfreude because if Sharpton's claims about this case are true,  he is now the target of a strategy he himself uses.

[Todd]

These things happen.

[Todd]

Talk about kicking someone when he's down.

[kishnevi]

IS continues its efforts to support archeology
http://www.timesofisrael.com/is-destroying-iraqs-ancient-archaeological-city-of-hatra/

Question no one asks of them:  if the "Rightly Guided Caliphs" were content to leave these places (and countless others throughout the Mideast, most notably Egypt, does that mean IS is more Islamically pure than the original Moslems?

[Todd]

I wonder just how brave these young leaders might be.  Would they be so brave as to ban that ultimate symbol of America: $$$?

[ibanezmonster]

Anyone hear this bit of news lately?

http://metro.co.uk/2015/03/12/as-the-average-penis-size-is-revealed-to-be-5-16-inches-one-brave-man-speaks-out-about-being-below-average-5100000/

I thought 5 inches was slightly small, not average, but whatever. Probably didn't measure enough black guys. 

[Ken B]

Anyone hear this bit of news lately?

http://metro.co.uk/2015/03/12/as-the-average-penis-size-is-revealed-to-be-5-16-inches-one-brave-man-speaks-out-about-being-below-average-5100000/

I dunno. I worked out the average number from craigslist ads and it came out at 8 and a half ...

[ibanezmonster]

I dunno. I worked out the average number from craigslist ads and it came out at 8 and a half ...

That and porn is kinda what makes a lot of us believe we are either small or barely average. 8 1/2 is a ridiculously rare size... they actually have a chart for this, and out of 15,000 guys no one was that big.

[Ken B]

That and porn is kinda what makes a lot of us believe we are either small or barely average. 8 1/2 is a ridiculously rare size... they actually have a chart for this, and out of 15,000 guys no one was that big.

I was home sick that day.

[ibanezmonster]

I was home sick that day.

[Todd]

I'd bet that homework assignments would be scrupulously completed in a timely manner.

[ibanezmonster]

I'd bet that homework assignments would be scrupulously completed in a timely manner.

Bad idea IMO...

They can talk about it without showing it. And this is complete lunacy:

But it can also be excluding – of body types, gender and sexuality.

You know how much freakish, vomit-inducing stuff is out there which you'll accidentally find looking up the normal stuff? That's why I don't search for porn any more.

I'm sure the feminists and the religious wouldn't want porn shown in classrooms. Weird to think I'd be in agreement with both about something.

(Could be the first part of a plan to increase Denmark's birth rate?)

[Corey]

I dunno. I worked out the average number from craigslist ads and it came out at 8 and a half ...

I always say, "never measure from the taint."

(NB I have never knowingly said this)

[Florestan]

Speaking of lunacy...

http://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-news-from-elsewhere-30146160

[North Star]

Speaking of lunacy...

http://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-news-from-elsewhere-30146160

Yes indeed. 
I wonder how long it will take for the politicians to realize that writing can't be replaced by typing.

[Florestan]

Yes indeed. 
I wonder how long it will take for the politicians to realize that writing can't be replaced by typing.

To promote illiteracy as the goal of education, now that is lunacy hard to beat. 

Do you expect teachers to react to this insanity and actively oppose its implementation? Or are they trained / accustomed to blindly accept anything coming from the governmental educational bureaucracy?

[Jo498]

But I think there are several countries that gave up cursive handwriting in favor of teaching printed letters and letting students figure out their own way of connecting them if if helps them writing faster. I do not think that Finland will abolish writing by hand altogether.

I am in favor of teaching cursive although calligraphy should be optional not compulsory. (Also long division and Latin). Because I am in many respects a culturally conservative square. Besides the fact that there are apparently studies showing that it is "good for your brain" I find it a fundamental skill everybody should be taught. Those who hate it, can abandon it later and only type.
I am writing this as someone who could read about a year before entering school but really struggled with cursive handwriting for several months when starting school. But those motor skills are important as well, so I glad I had to do it, and my handwriting was fine enough from second grade on or so. Although I never tried my hand at it, I also like some calligraphy.

[North Star]

The BBC piece is wrong in saying that Finland is ditching the ink - pupils always, always, use a pencil in schools, except in the matriculation exams' mother tongue & literature exams.

To promote illiteracy as the goal of education, now that is lunacy hard to beat. 

Do you expect teachers to react to this insanity and actively oppose its implementation? Or are they trained / accustomed to blindly accept anything coming from the governmental educational bureaucracy?

The school system has being slowly doing away with teaching cursive writing for almost two decades. The mother tongue & literature teachers will largely accept what they education board tells them, but there is of course some leniency for the teachers (the requirements for curricula are rather loose in general, and most specific requirements are for the 5th (IIRC) and 8th classes. If you can teach those to the kids, you can do pretty much anything you want with time you have to spare, whatever it is that you teach.), and they certainly can't be denied teaching cursive. I'm not absolutely sure whether it is possible to fit it in practice, but kids write a good deal in elementary school mother tongue / lit. class in any case, and a teacher can insist on them writing in cursive. I don't know which subjects will get the extra hours freed by the end of teaching IT as a separate subject in junior high. It ought to be mother tongue & literature and math if you ask me.