WillBlack

If you graduated from an Australian primary school you would now be able to perform the simple calculation.

iamthecreaturefromuranus

Forget it mate. You have become such a tedious, one trick pony, that I'm going to do what I have only done once before in all the time I've been on BE. I'm going to put you on my ignore list.

thewilk

The only reason an Australian primary school kid would be able to calculate that, is because they all carry a laptop to school. I know none of our apprentices could calculate that. Most can't do up their own shoe laces without help from mummy.

WillBlack

Calculator / computer, they all have one or other these days.

As an aside: Why would you take on such incompetent apprentices?

moneypenny20

That bloke looks like a cross between Marty Feldman and Tony Benn

thewilk

I wouldn't myself. That's the responsibility of my Australian boss. "The price you pay for living on the coast" is the constant reply you'll get around these parts. Born and bred Queenslanders. And if you're smart, you would't be entering into a manual trade these days anyway. Oh well, no one's perfect.

Wol

Without wishing to prolong what is becoming - as is often the case in this matter - tedious, my point is still that no-one can possibly follow all the arguments on a technical level.

Critics of the IPCC would say that, since they (the IPCC) have done the reduction of the equations they must be suspect.

This sort of argument is extremely common in the AGW debate, and is probably the reason that the scientists involved are increasingly avoiding getting into the discussion.

At some point in any argument the specialists see little gain in repeating the same highly complex answers when the opposition immediately goes on to another denial without rebutting them.

I believe it was Bertrand Russell who cut to the chase on this: he said, IIRC, that because it was impossible to disprove his (an) assertion that there was a little pink teapot in orbit around the sun some might say that it was true. Those who denied it would at some stage give up trying to argue their side - it is a waste of their time. I think the same thing has happened in the AGW field.

copa

I think we are warming at an increased rate, it's dangerous... and it's caused by humans.

I also think we have to learn to live with it ... It will cause problems.... because most people couldn't care less about preventing it.

copa

the stone age? wtf... do you know anything about the stone age?

moneypenny20

My daughter graduated from an Australian primary and confimed to me just now that they didn't go near logarithms in Primary. End of Year 8 and onwards. Maybe they have a different curriculum for Citizen by Descent Australians than they do for True Blue dyed in the blood Australians.

WillBlack

Or immigrant teachers?

moneypenny20

Apparently her grade six and seven teachers were both as Australian as you suggest you are. She wasn't there prior to that but none of the kids learnt it. I did ask if she had seen their genealogical tree to confirm that the two teachers were Australian but she admitted failure on that part.

WillBlack

It was a long time ago for me. Long before the calculator and long before the computer. Must be global warming stunting the young's intellectual development. Funny thing though is that the cold in Britain seems to have had a similar effect.

OK, perhaps you are right and the young today are a year or two slower and stay at school longer to make up for it. Still no excuse for any adult not be able to perform the simple 3 step arithmetic above.

Wol

>>OK, perhaps you are right and the young today are a year or two slower and stay at school longer to make up for it. Still no excuse for any adult not be able to perform the simple 3 step arithmetic above.<<

You really don't get it, do you?

quoll

Yes poor bloke has a disability - he has Graves disease. Doesnt affect his brain though, sharp as a tack.