[Non-political] News that makes you Laugh/Cry/Both...

[Username17]

Americans suck at math

I knew this, but this tidbit from the article is just appallingly bad:

Only 18 percent of American adults can calculate how much a carpet will cost if they know the size of the room and the per-yard price of the carpet, according to a federal survey.

I'm shocked it's that high. Rooms are sized in square-distance area, and a yard is a linear distance. I assume they mean "square yard," but if we're talking about a simple math problem, I would definitely have put that there wasn't enough information given.

So what we're really saying here is that 18% of Americans will attempt a basic math problem where an insufficient amount of data was given to actually solve it, and get the answer that the person drawing up the problem was looking for with the question they meant to ask. I really have no idea how to evaluate that.

-Username17

[Grek]

It doesn't particularly surprise me. The question is worded to be tricky. In order to do it the way the problem wants you to, you need to divide by three twice, multiply two single-digit numbers, locate a price for a specific brand of carpeting on a page of carpet ads, multiply a two-digit number by a three-digit decimal all without getting tripped up by the words "your living room" not referring to the living room personally owned by the test taker, by the unit conversion, by the switch from feet to square feet or by the listing of the sale price beside the normal price and a conversion factor. There's plenty of room for error even before we get into sampling bias.

E:
@Frank: If you go in and look at the actual question in the linked article, it lists the price as 9.49 per SQ YD. as part of the advertizement in your reference documents on that test.

[name_here]

Speaking as a guy who has passed differential equations, fuck those problems. They're really annoying and overly complicated.

[Ancient History]

Partial differential equations.

[Maj]

Please tell me you people are being sarcastic.

[Ancient History]

Mildly. Have you done a course on partial differential equations?

[Koumei]

Presumably the question is something along the lines of:
Your living room is 5m by 7m in a nice easy-to-calculate rectangle.
The carpet you want is $12.50 per square metre.
5x7 = 35 square metres.
35x12.5 = $437.50
Bonus marks: 437.5*1.1 (GST) = $481.25 - or you factor in tipping or whatever.

If your living room is shaped like a pentacle or a spiral or goes through a spatial distortion vortex or something, or if they actually do sell it not by the square metre but by the (completely two-dimensional) metre (a big ball of wool?), then yeah, it gets hard.

But I imagine they're actually offering a math problem that is ultimately pretty easy.

Also I have no idea how much money carpet costs, that is looking pretty expensive for one room.

[Maj]

Mildly. Have you done a course on partial differential equations?

Yeah. But since I don't use that stuff in my daily life, I've pretty much lost it. But stuff like that sample problem? Shit, I do that when I plan meals every week. Or make jewelry. Now I understand, though, how so many people get taken to the cleaners.

[Maj]

Asshole extorts money from victims of his revenge porn site.

[Username17]

Asshole extorts money from victims of his revenge porn site.

I genuinely don't understand the revenge porn thing. I understand the stuff where porn stars pretend to be amateurs or underage or whatever. Hell, I even understand the people who take pictures of sexy ladies on the street and share those around (although that's creepy and you shouldn't do it). Heck, I even understand the people who take "upskirt" photos, although that one is probably illegal and in any case a gross invasion of privacy. We've all seen attractive people on the street and "having sex with a random attractive person on the street" seems like a fantasy that enough people would have for there to be a market to fill.

But revenge porn? It's just pictures of people that are posted without their permission. That's the whole thing. The only thing that makes it different from any other amateur or professional pornography is that it is of ambiguous copyright ownership and quite possibly obtained illegally. That's it. Other than being quite possibly against the law and clearly unethical to distribute, it's not in any way distinct from any other form of porn.

That being said, the quasi-illegal nature of the thing is the entire thing. The only claim to fame they have is that they are probably breaking the law. And the only reason such sites can operate without being shut down by the cops is that it's really hard to prove copyright infringement on unregistered personal photos. So it seems like a really bad plan for those people to unambiguously break laws by posting photos of underage girls or attempting to extort money from people. Because those are not legal gray areas and it's really hard to hide in the law's lint trap.

And yet... here we are.

-Username17

[Josh_Kablack]

It's primarily the other parts of revenge porn I don't understand:

It's a sad statement on society that photos which show that various ladies do in fact have lady parts are seen as demeaning to those ladies. The idea that nudes are demeaning might have been understandable (if still harmful) back in a time when the existence of nude photographs of a person implied that "this person previously accepted money to get nekkid". But nowadays we live in an age where images are cheap and plentiful and surveillance is ever-increasing. Nude photos nowadays mean "that at some point when you were nude, there was a phone nearby" and I don't understand why societal standards haven't changed to reflect that.

And then I don't understand paying any sort of extortion fee to attempt to remove images from the internet. That doesn't just merely run afoul of "paying people to do things only encourages them to do more" / "we do not negotiate with terrorists" but also runs into the difficulties of removing easily and nearly infinitely replicable data from the internet. If HBO's legal team can't keep a lid on Game of Thrones episodes, the typical individual cannot expect to exercise much control over the spread of images of themselves.

[name_here]

People generally do not like allowing random strangers to see their gendered bits. It's creepy and unsettling, and they allowed the pictures to be taken/took them themselves on the assumption that only specific known people would see them.

As for paying the extortion despite how hard it is to control the spread of images, even on the internet relatively few people are big enough assholes to post naked photos connected to someone's name, address, phone number, etc. without their consent.

[Maj]

Revenge porn is all about humiliating and betraying the victim. Frequently, names, addresses, and social media pages accompany the images (because posting a scandalous picture without anyone knowing about it is pointless). And then it spreads.

The last thing a person needs when looking for a job is to have Google return a bunch of porn results. You really don't want people to share your photos on Facebook with your name tagged in the image so your family and friends can see. It's a horrid situation (which is why people will pay someone who claims to be able to fix their reputation).

Naked pix will never be acceptable because it affects employees, which affects employers, which affects the bottom line.

[Koumei]

I think the bit that confuses people is "from the point of view of the person downloading it, what is the appeal?" Obviously the person uploading it is doing so because they're a shit and want to betray and humiliate the victim (and provide stalking information).

But I can't tell you why someone might specifically go looking for "pictures of other people's exes" unless they're the kind of guy who goes to MRA meetings with their fedora and feels that "all women are bitches who have this coming."

[Maj]

Yeah. I don't get the desire to go looking, either... Maybe they want to see if there's anyone they know? Maybe because it's free?

[Fuchs]

The better photoshop software gets, the easier it'll be to create revenge porn pictures out of normal pics and porn.

[Josh_Kablack]

Naked pix will never be acceptable because it affects employees, which affects employers, which affects the bottom line.

My contention is that the attitude which makes it unacceptable needs to change. A few decades ago, Naked pix were plausibly a potential indicator of bad judgement . In the current age of ubiquitous video-capture communications devices, naked pix are an indicator that the subject has been in a locker room (or similar situation) with someone who had a lack of respect for a stranger's privacy.

[Kaelik]

Yeah, the best solution to the naked pics problem is for companies and employers to stop thinking that random google searches of your name can only bring up relevant information in hiring you, and therefore, everything they find is totally a reason not to hire you.

[Maj]

I get that, Josh, but I have no clue how that's supposed to happen. Social media seems to have had the exact opposite effect on employers. They are less likely to tolerate things people do and say because they are afraid of being tarnished themselves.

[Maj]

Asshole hits Salvation Army bell ringer for saying the wrong thing

[Grek]

That article is incredibly shitty. How the hell do you make the leap from someone saying "It's a ‘Happy Holiday' or a ‘Merry Christmas,' I'm good with either one." to claiming that they agree with the crazy old lady who punched a Salvation Army worker? That is literally the opposite of what you should be inferring.

[erik]

And apparently upon review of the video the police are not going to pursue this as an assault. I dunno if that means nothing was captured or if it was more of a gentle tap than a hit.

I have known people to lose their shit when someone does the gentlest of taps which normally are viewed as friendly contact. I had a coworker who got written up for intimidating behavior after he said "What's up" and tapped the back of the guy's chair in passing in the break room.

[Darth Rabbitt]

World's oldest living animal, a 507-year old quahog, turns out to be older than expected. And now it's dead.

[Maj]

The fucking fuck?

[Stahlseele]

Science:"Let's cut it open and observe in detail what happens!"