You thought the stars were.....WHAT!?

a reply to: ketsuko

I was looking for McEnroe and just came across it by pure luck

Oh, wrong thread and clip

But that "Planet Moon" clip is just soooooo good.

I watched it several times after posting it here

a reply to: aboutface

Hehe!

No aboutface! No element of showing off is involved with my lighting cigarettes using sunlight! There are a few reasons for my use of a magnifying glass in order to light cigarettes in fact.

First: It constitutes a reduction in my fossil fuel use, which although slight, is something positive I can take away from the days proceedings, in the event that other reasons for celebration are not easily come by on a given day!

Second: It tastes so much cleaner than using gas or liquid fuel, or matches for that matter, to do the same job!

Third: It is good practice, for if it ever becomes a trick worth knowing in an emergency situation!

Fourth: I live by the coast, and I have long hair. With costal breezes being what they are, even if you have a windproof lighter (which I do) the flame although easy to kindle, can be somewhat difficult to contain and control once lit. With a magnifying glass, not only can one light a cigarette in strong wind (assuming their is enough sun), but one need not worry about accidentally setting ones hair alight. You see, when you light a cigarette with a zippo for example, you have to draw on the smoke as you light it, otherwise it will not stay lit. You cannot just hold the cig in the heat, because it would be wasteful and not particularly effective either.

With a magnifying glass however, the heat stays in the cigarette long enough, once it has been heated sufficiently, to be drawn upon, without any risk to ones hair!

Take a toilet paper tube and look through it.

This is how an amazing amount of people view their world. Unless it directly enters their sphere of awareness, it simply isn't part of their reality. It stuns me that so many people are ignorant of the most simple things on a daily basis. But they know how to send a tweet!

Yesterday I met someone who had never even heard of global warming.
I had a class once with a girl who thought Europe was a country.
A friend of mine knows someone who thought we (USA) were in the middle east.

One night I'm riding shotgun in my buddy's car, flying down the blacktop at 70mph and he suddenly slams the brakes, screaching and sliding to a stop on the empty highway. He quickly gets out and stares up at the sky and I do the same, and then he quietly asks, "what is that?" I'm looking all over for a UFO or comet, something unusual or strange but could see nothing of the sort. So I asked where he is seeing it and he replies, "What do mean WHERE? Can't you see that huge white streak in the sky?!?!" Again I start looking for a comet when it dawns on me he is talking about the Milky Way. So I spent the next two hours explaining our solar system, our galaxy and the universe but I still don't think he can wrap his mind around the speed of light and how small our world is in relation to our galaxy.

a reply to: LowTechRedneck

That's how I felt when I was done explaining it lol That's a funny story. Sadly I have never been far enough away from light pollution to see the arm of the milky way

I worked with another teacher who was quite concerned when he found out my parents live in the country.

"How do they see at night?" he asked. "There's no lights out there."

a reply to: Shepard64

Have any of you met someone like this? Someone so ignorant of science and space? How did you deal with them? I thought I remained pretty calm but thought my head was going to explode. I didn't want to make her feel stupid. Sorry if my grammar is off I have trouble articulating my thoughts especially when flustered by this.

We each have our own reality tunnels. Some people choose to entertain or delve into certain facets of creation that others do not due to how their life has evolved. Share your perspective with the understanding that there may be some matters they are aware of about life and existence that you have never entertained as well.

I encounter people every day ignorant in how to lead a more fulfilling life that reflects their highest dreams. Nothing is more frustrating, especially knowing deep down it is very simple to do so.

We each have our own lives to lead.

p.s my grammar (and punctuation) is always off. Don't sweat the small stuff.

Great post. S+F

ETA: I once had the pleasure of driving my girl friend's brother up to the cottage. As we passed by a few farms with round bails of hay neatly arranged, he turned to me and asked: "How does the wind blow all that hay into such perfect spiralled balls?"

It was a two and half hour drive to boot...

a reply to: Involutionist

Here you are making a post about people's ignorance not allowing them to have a more fulfilling life and yet you admit you don't have flawless grammar and punctuation? What about your own fulfillment?!



Sorry, I couldn't help it.

a reply to: ketsuko

Not sweating the small stuff such as grammar allows room for more fulfilling thoughts. How does poor grammar prevent one from experiencing their dreams? It doesn't! Waking up when I choose; going to bed when I choose; and doing whatever I choose to in between those times allows for a very fulfilling life.

Here you are making a post about people's ignorance not allowing them to have a more fulfilling life and yet you admit you don't have flawless grammar and punctuation? What about your own fulfillment?!

That was the essence of the OP. I was just mirroring the OP's thought. Did you not realize that was the theme of the thread...? Why single me out...? (rhetorical)

Basically, what I was getting at was this:

We each have our own limitations. The OP is frustrated with certain ignorance of others pertaining to certain matters (science and cosmology) and I'm frustrated at people who possess great potential but are living ordinary lives. My frustration is personal and has nothing really to do with them.

Sorry, I couldn't help it.

No worries...

a reply to: Shepard64

Maybe you shouldn't be so flustered. There is the notion that what only exists is what is experienced around us, and that we exist in a sort of 'spiritual' existence. There is nothing one can do to prove this right or wrong - to prove whether things actually exist "out there". For all we know, there is only mind and the experience. I think with this sort of notion, people do not take much interest in what is "out there" as people with a more 'material' point of view such as yours.

In a video game MMO, everyone sees a place, and everyone has an experience, but none of those places really exist. They can travel far and wide, or at least it seems, but they go nowhere. Do all these things, people, beings, places, really exist? That's a lot of things.

Who knows?

a reply to: LowTechRedneck

About the Milky Way.. Only last year did I realize that the Milky Way was our own galaxy, or a spiral arm seen from the side.

I have always seen the Milky Way, and knew it was the 'Milky Way' but did not make the connection of seeing the galaxy, our galaxy edge on. I was a wow moment. You can even see the glow from the center of our galaxy with you naked eye.

OP, you blame the woman, but it leads me to ask, "how crappy was the school she went to growing up?" How do you make it past 3rd grade not knowing?

Blame the schools for squelching curiosity. My husband is a high school teacher, well was, he was "let go" for believing in student centered teaching rather than the memorize without thought method the school he was at pushed. He always complains that at the high school level there isn't much he can do when it comes to getting students to think, because they have been taught not to think for so long.

a reply to: Silcone Synapse

originally posted by: Silcone Synapse
a reply to: Shepard64
Its amazing what some folks have no clue about..

I knew a really old lady when I was a kid,and one day I took my pet tortoise to see her.
She held it up and looked at him closely,then declared"isn't it amazing how they manage to get them into their shell?"as though tortoises are made in a factory or something.

Then there's my brother in law,who was taught in school(in outback Indonesia)that dinosaurs did not exist,and that fossils were put in the ground by tricksters trying to fool people.

No joke.

Hey that's not too crazy. Hermit crabs find their own shells and crawl into them. ..Ok, thats pretty bad.

I have friend too.. mind you highly educated, almost a lawyer and an officer in the military - does not believe in evolution and thinks ET's implanted fossils and bones in the ground to simulate evolution.

a reply to: TrueBrit
You may try marketing a TrueBrit brand of finely crafted magnifying glasses.
Specifically aimed at the fire-starting market.
I can see it taking off if marketed properly. I'd buy one.

Hmmm. I stopped being amazed some years ago. I have worked with all kinds of people, and some I seriously thought they were pulling my leg......... but unfortunately that was not always the case, some were truly ignorant. This brings to mind a nursery rhyme that I suspect most of us have heard growing up.

Complete lyrics of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star Perhaps it is little known that Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star actually consists of 5 verses, with the fifth verse rarely sung. Here’s the complete 5 verses, taken from the Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes (2nd edition, 1997), with the repetition of the first two lines added to fit the melody.


Twinkle, twinkle, little star, How I wonder what you are! Up above the world so high, Like a diamond in the sky. Twinkle, twinkle, little star, How I wonder what you are!
**** When the blazing sun is gone, When he nothing shines upon, Then you show your little light, Twinkle, twinkle, all the night. Twinkle, twinkle, little star, How I wonder what you are!
**** Then the traveller in the dark, Thanks you for your tiny spark, He could not see which way to go, If you did not twinkle so. Twinkle, twinkle, little star, How I wonder what you are!
**** In the dark blue sky you keep, And often through my curtains peep, For you never shut your eye, Till the sun is in the sky. Twinkle, twinkle, little star, How I wonder what you are!
**** As your bright and tiny spark, Lights the traveller in the dark,— Though I know not what you are, Twinkle, twinkle, little star. Twinkle, twinkle, little star, How I wonder what you are.


Surely this must have been widely sung and known of... ? Well perhaps not in these late modern times, say the 80's and more recently. We are currently raising functioning idiots. And that is disheartening to think we may be the most technological idiots ever inhabiting Earth.

Bear in mind the origin of this rhyme is from the 1700's.

a reply to: Shepard64


Oh yes, I have met someone like this.


Now, go have strike up another conversation about politics. 100 to 1 odds she votes democrat!

a reply to: Shepard64

Sounds to me like you and the woman both gave something to each other.

I can't see anyone being that ignorant. I think it was a ploy to get some kind of attention from you. If there are people out there that ignorant, I fear for society as a whole.