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[Red Fortune]

Why does this thread just fill me with dread?

It's all in your head, you should go to bed.

WIN

[JoshuaFH]

  Americans rally behind me. We shall stand behind the spirit of Woodrow Wilson and become self-independent.

Uh, Woodrow Wilson was one of the driving forces behind the creation of the League of Nations. He was far from isolationist and believed that the US should wholeheartedly involve itself in foreign affairs.

Sorry, I remembered the guy who got USA involved in WWI was the 28th president and when I looked up the guy before him I must have gotten them mixed up.

 So change to Taft. What a swell guy.

Best governor-general we ever had. Bit big, though.

Governor-general? I didn't know Taft had a hand in the Philippines.

[Vester]

It's one of the things he did before running for President.

[JoshuaFH]

It's one of the things he did before running for President.

[Jreengus]

Knowing is half the battle!

In other news I learned all I know about most American presidents from the JoCo song. For those who don't know it it's a son where each line is a little fact(oid) about an american president in order. Probably the only time you'll ever hear about most of the presidents as like the leaders of pretty much every country only those who completely screw up or rise to a challenge are ever remembered, rulers who simply do a good job in uninteresting times seem doomed to be forgotten.

[Aqizzar]

Spoiler: This got me through 6th grade Social Studies. (click to show/hide)

George Washington was the first, you see
He once chopped down a cherry tree

President number two would be
John Adams and then Number three

Tom Jefferson stayed up to write
The Constitution late at night
So he and his wife had a great big fight
And she made him sleep on the couch all night

James Madison never had a son
then he fought the War of 1812

James Monroe's colossal nose
Was bigger than Pinnochio's

John Quincy Adams was number six
And it's Andrew Jackson's butt he kicked
So Jackson learns to play politics
Next time he's the one that the country picks

Martin Van Buren number eight
For a one term shot as chief of state

William Harrisson, how do you praise
That guy was dead in thirty days!

John Tyler he liked country folk
And after him came President Polk
Zachary Taylor liked to smoke
His breath killed friends whenever he spoke

[Akigagak]

How does '...had a son', and 'war of 1812' rhyme?
Because, no matter what accent I put on it, it doesn't.

[Aqizzar]

Those two lines aren't supposed to.  It's a surprisingly tricky meter, so you'd have to listen to it yourself to really follow the tune.

[Jackrabbit]

I'm starting to think Animaniacs is a good show.

How odd.

[woose1]

It's because of the b00bi3s.
"Hellooooo, Nurse!"

[Aqizzar]

Why you ever have thought otherwise?  Did it never air in Australia or something?

Also, earthquakes.  Today, I watched a professor obliquely imply that earthquakes are caused by pollution.  Not in as many words, it was about intelligent and responsible architecture, but you can't play a clip of An Inconvenient Truth and immediately start talking about earthquakes without intending to correlate.

[Duke 2.0]

 Clearly there are two possibilities: Trust Science that heat is causing air to expand and force pressure upon the earth thus causing tectonic plates to tighten and thus form stronger earthquakes, or Mother Nature really hates us because of what we have done.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

 
 I goddam hate you.

[Cthulhu]

Speaking of correlations, I read some articles for English 112 today.

One of them noted that violence levels started rising around 15 years after the television was invented, and used that to assert that TV doubled the amount of violence in the world.  Correlation does not imply causation, and TV is kind of an integral part of modern society.  Derp.

The other article was talking about how music can incite violence, and cited A Clockwork Orange (The movie, not the book.  They specifically cited the movie) when Alex jumps out the window because Beethoven.  They conveniently left out that it wasn't the music, but the conditioning from his treatment.

These articles are awful, and I hope I don't have to critique anything in this book or I may get vitriol all over the paper.

[Aqizzar]

I assume the point of the class is to learn how to critique such articles.  As that would be interesting and sensible, because-

One of them noted that violence levels started rising around 15 years after the television was invented, and used that to assert that TV doubled the amount of violence in the world.

-that is the dumbest fucking thing I've ever heard.

[Cthulhu]

Well, there was more to it than that, but it was still standing on very shaky ground.