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[pisskop]

A freshman just told me that Americans maturing at a younger age was evolution.

And then furnished actual class notes where the professor said this.


And several other heresies, mostly mistaking evolution for cultural change.
Like using Disney princesses and the stereotypes therewithin as a model for evolution.
And that Darwin was talking about 'mental adaptability' when the wrote his theory.


WTF?  Ive half a mind to report shenanigans, but it isnt my degree field

[Dutchling]

This sounds like Dawkins' ideas on memes.

[Aklyon]

This sounds like Dawkins' ideas on memes.

I thought memes being a serious thing was just MGS/MGR being ridiculous.

[Dutchling]

This sounds like Dawkins' ideas on memes.

I thought memes being a serious thing was just MGS/MGR being ridiculous.

It didn't start out as an internet thing.

The word meme originated with Richard Dawkins' 1976 book The Selfish Gene. Dawkins wrote that evolution depended not on the particular chemical basis of genetics, but only on the existence of a self-replicating unit of transmission—in the case of biological evolution, the gene. For Dawkins, the meme exemplified another self-replicating unit with potential significance in explaining human behavior and cultural evolution.

[AlleeCat]

Someone tried to tell me that you're less likely to be murdered in the US than get struck by lightning...

[Neonivek]

Someone tried to tell me that you're less likely to be murdered in the US than get struck by lightning...

Let me see!

about 500 people are struck by lightning in a year... and about less than 1000 are murdered each year.

NOW! of course, you can also use statistics.

You are most likely to die from a GUN from someone you know personally. So if you don't know anyone personally who carries heat... Your chances go up.

[Karkov]

Someone tried to tell me that you're less likely to be murdered in the US than get struck by lightning...

Let me see!

about 500 people are struck by lightning in a year... and about less than 1000 are murdered each year.

NOW! of course, you can also use statistics.

You are most likely to die from a GUN from someone you know personally. So if you don't know anyone personally who carries heat... Your chances go up.

Are... Are we talking about the same United States here?  Shouldn't that be horribly skewed due to gang activities in say... Detroit alone?

[Neonivek]

Yeah sorry I misread add another 0 to that...

Though yeah the murder rate in the USA is actually going down. Impressive.

[TamerVirus]

Reminder that USA is also no longer the most obese nation on Earth.

That belongs to Mexico

[Frumple]

Yeah sorry I misread add another 0 to that...

Though yeah the murder rate in the USA is actually going down. Impressive.

Add another 0 and up it by a factor of 1.5 or so. Looks like there was around 14k murder/non-negligent manslaughter cases... last year? Or the year before. Something like that. You're around 30 times more likely to get killed by a fellow human than lightning. More, really, if you account for negligent manslaughter and whatnot.

Grand scheme of things, zeus is a bit of a wuss. Dionysus* and aphrodite's where the killin's at.

_{*Totally aware of the irony of this considering the critter (was probably at least one of the ones that) got expy'd into jesus, yes. It is to laugh.}

[Greiger]

Spoiler: work rant (click to show/hide)

Work tech support for a third party contractor from home that provides the tech support service for a major U.S ISP.

Immediately after this big hire push that got me the position major policy changes happen, none of which we were trained for or even told how to use the new tools we are supposed to use (and they are not something you could jump into and figure out either) and we're just told to make do.

At the same time we get another policy change that all but says that the ISP that we're doing the tech support for basically no longer wants us too solve the customer's problems.  We are the advanced tech support.  Orders from the ISP now says they just want us to go over the same troubleshooting steps the people who transferred the customer to us are supposed to do before transferring. 

We are not to deviate from those steps for any reason.  The steps do not troubleshoot for a bad internet signal or bad ISP equipment (which is what more than 50% of the actual problems are, and we can actually see those issues through our tools, but are not to use that information).  If we go through the steps and the customer still can't access the internet we are to say that the problem is with the customer's computers or smart devices (even against all logic) attempt to sell them 3rd party technical support and disconnect the call without waiting if they decline.

From what somebody on my team said "It sounds like we are making [name of isp]'s techs look bad, so they want us to do badly so they have an excuse to cut us."

[Frumple]

That's... kinda' ridiculous, greig. Alternate explanation could be the ISP trying to dodge having to fix faulty equipment, though. To a certain degree, that would seem more likely, t'me.

The absolute lack of freedom to address customer issues is somewhat mindboggling, though. Why hire a person if you're just going to have them run through a checklist? Would be a lot cheaper to set up a machine, I'd think.

[Greiger]

We've had access to those troubleshooting steps for a while, and we were suppose to try them first, but the old instructions were that if they fail to solve the issue or are going in the wrong direction to attempt a much better troubleshooting flow as well as attempt any best effort solutions we are aware of.

So every single one of us knows how utterly useless those troubleshooting steps we are now not to deviate from are.  It's like they were written by some corporate bigwig who never did tech support in their life needed to write it up after an hour on google. 

As an example if somebody can't get ahold of the internet through their ethernet cable hardwired to the box one of the troubleshooting steps has us try to change the wi-fi encryption and reset their wifi passwords.  That of course, causes more problems than it solves because now all their wifi connected stuff isn't working either.

Not only is the lack of freedom to troubleshoot mindboggling we DO have a machine that attempts all this stuff for us before they get on the line.  We are also supposed to have one previous teir of technician that is ALSO supposed to follow these same steps before sending to us.

[Aklyon]

I'm gonna agree with that guy on your team there. Cheaper to blame someone else for your problem than actually fixing it likely will be.

[Octobomb]

Did the threads on that iOS game just get Toadied?
I was about to deliver my analogy:
Bay12 is like a pack of Canadian piranhas, stay on their good side and you can join in with the carnage. Step over the line and they'll politely rip your flesh from your bones and a thank you for coming.