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Great Acts Of Stupidity

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Heh, back when I was doing online college, one of the classes was about computer programming. Well, what was the final exam? write a paper explaining WHY an employer would want to USE a specific program. something that barely even got mentioned prior to the final. :p
 
Inspired by Byron's Mazeppa? :)

According to the poem, the young Mazeppa has a love affair with a Polish Countess, Theresa, while serving as a page at the Court of King John II Casimir Vasa. Countess Theresa was married to a much older Count. On discovering the affair, the Count punishes Mazeppa by tying him naked to a wild horse and setting the horse loose. The bulk of the poem describes the traumatic journey of the hero strapped to the horse.
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gordonrutter said:
Talking about things like that I have a pupil about to sit a test. The agreement is that if they score 100% I buy them a packet of Haribo. If they score less than 80% they buy me a packet of Haribo. I will be the one marking the test...
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I'm hoping it's Sugar Free Gummies. A really big bag of those. :cool:
 
I think this might count as a great act of stupidity. Ah yes concrete barriers and big signs saying the road's closed. Oh it'll probably be alright though?? You can sense the exasperation of the police. Especially as now two cars have ended up in the nice big car-size holes. You'd think word might have got round after the first time.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news...a-sinkhole-devours-cars-despite-warning-signs
 
Eponastill said:
I think this might count as a great act of stupidity. Ah yes concrete barriers and big signs saying the road's closed. Oh it'll probably be alright though?? You can sense the exasperation of the police. Especially as now two cars have ended up in the nice big car-size holes. You'd think word might have got round after the first time.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news...a-sinkhole-devours-cars-despite-warning-signs
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Ah, the motoring public…

maximus otter
 
maximus otter said:
Young adults in 1944:

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maximus otter
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Yep. I watched an interview with a veteran who was 17 at the time and in the Coast Guard. He was part of the crew on landing crafts on D Day. He had to make 15 trips to the beach and watched as troops were slaughtered as soon as the door was opened(his job). Held the hand of those who were dying, pushed bodies off the door so he could close it for return trips, and returned the wounded to hospital ships. Made him cry 75 years later when he talked about it. He couldn't come to terms with the fact that he had survived.
 
Eponastill said:
I think this might count as a great act of stupidity. Ah yes concrete barriers and big signs saying the road's closed. Oh it'll probably be alright though??
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When the Chess broke its banks a few years ago in Chesham Vale, the water reverted back to the course of the original riverbed. Unfortunately a road had been built over it in the meantime. It was amazing how much tarmac and ballast can be removed by a steady stream of water over 3-4 days and the pot-holes looked capable of swallowing a car. I was driving very carefully along this road for 3/4 mile with my Mum with mounting disbelief, until we finally reached the end at Chesham. That's where we saw the Road Closed signs and other cautionary notices. Would have been of greater help if they had placed signs at both ends of the lane.
 
Bad Bungle said:
Would have been of greater help if they had placed signs at both ends of the lane.
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Oh come on that would require a level of common sense and organisation which the Highways Agency, Environment Agency, Local Authorities etc apparently don't possess. Flood warnings on the main road near me are usually positioned so they end up in the exact middle of the flood water.
 
PeteS said:
Oh come on that would require a level of common sense and organisation which the Highways Agency, Environment Agency, Local Authorities etc apparently don't possess. Flood warnings on the main road near me are usually positioned so they end up in the exact middle of the flood water.
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When we had the recent heavy rain a couple of weeks back I saw one 'flood' sign at the start of a dual-carriageway which goes uphill. There was no flood there, and clearly no place that a flood could exist.
I also saw a little side road with a 'flood' sign at the junction with the main road - that road was basically a river beyond the sign with the next (permanent) street sign being clearly submerged by about 4 feet. Anyone would have been very stupid to have attempted to drive down there. But I bet people did.
In fact it was this road here (Rabley Heath Road) near Codicote, which is significantly lower than the surrounding area.
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escargot said:
Aged about 14, I once obtained a history question paper before the exam and swotted up like mad, and still failed.
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I had a mate who was on University Challenge in the late 70s, I think it was. She said they were shown the questions but not far ahead of time, just before they filmed, I guess. These days you'd get on your phone and find the answers so I doubt they do that now.

My cousin was a professor of some science subject, and as a side gig marked A level papers. And the year I took my A levels, think it was the summer after I'd done them so was waiting for results, told him I'd been so rubbish at Geography it wouldn't surprise me if I failed and got an unclassified. Cousin says: "Ah no, that's not likely - to get a U, you'd have to be so thick you couldn't even spell your name right at the top of the papers..."

Guess who got a U..?
 
Bad Bungle said:
When the Chess broke its banks a few years ago in Chesham Vale, the water reverted back to the course of the original riverbed. Unfortunately a road had been built over it in the meantime. It was amazing how much tarmac and ballast can be removed by a steady stream of water over 3-4 days and the pot-holes looked capable of swallowing a car. I was driving very carefully along this road for 3/4 mile with my Mum with mounting disbelief, until we finally reached the end at Chesham. That's where we saw the Road Closed signs and other cautionary notices. Would have been of greater help if they had placed signs at both ends of the lane.
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What you need there is not the River Chess but the Chess Navigation.

Here in Cheshire, where the land is flat and we have meanders and ox-bows galore, we sorted the lower reaches of one of our more troublesome rivers with a juicy navigation. It was done in the 18th century to promote the salt trade.

The navigation also stopped the river flooding. This still occurs further upstream in Nantwich where the river is natural, and areas along the river are left as a flood plain/park rather than being built on.

Can highly recommend walking or cycling along the beautiful Weaver Navigation. :)
 
Ghost In The Machine said:
I had a mate who was on University Challenge in the late 70s, I think it was. She said they were shown the questions but not far ahead of time, just before they filmed, I guess. These days you'd get on your phone and find the answers so I doubt they do that now.

My cousin was a professor of some science subject, and as a side gig marked A level papers. And the year I took my A levels, think it was the summer after I'd done them so was waiting for results, told him I'd been so rubbish at Geography it wouldn't surprise me if I failed and got an unclassified. Cousin says: "Ah no, that's not likely - to get a U, you'd have to be so thick you couldn't even spell your name right at the top of the papers..."

Guess who got a U..?
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That's tough, Goat in the Mackintosh. :)
 
Ghost In The Machine said:
I had a mate who was on University Challenge in the late 70s, I think it was. She said they were shown the questions but not far ahead of time, just before they filmed, I guess. These days you'd get on your phone and find the answers so I doubt they do that now.

My cousin was a professor of some science subject, and as a side gig marked A level papers. And the year I took my A levels, think it was the summer after I'd done them so was waiting for results, told him I'd been so rubbish at Geography it wouldn't surprise me if I failed and got an unclassified. Cousin says: "Ah no, that's not likely - to get a U, you'd have to be so thick you couldn't even spell your name right at the top of the papers..."

Guess who got a U..?
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I had a teacher secondary school 'two' who told me I was spelling my own surname incorrectly. There followed a frank exchange of views on the subject...
 
Coal said:
I had a teacher secondary school 'two' who told me I was spelling my own surname incorrectly. There followed a frank exchange of views on the subject...
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I have a middle name that begins with the same letter as my surname, so at the top of maths homework I'd write "first name, initial middle name, surname" and the horrible maths teacher once wrote under it (taking a dig at my teenage pretension, no doubt), "Do you st...stutter?"
 
Bad Bungle said:
When the Chess broke its banks a few years ago in Chesham Vale, the water reverted back to the course of the original riverbed. Unfortunately a road had been built over it in the meantime. It was amazing how much tarmac and ballast can be removed by a steady stream of water over 3-4 days and the pot-holes looked capable of swallowing a car. I was driving very carefully along this road for 3/4 mile with my Mum with mounting disbelief, until we finally reached the end at Chesham. That's where we saw the Road Closed signs and other cautionary notices. Would have been of greater help if they had placed signs at both ends of the lane.
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Perhaps you drove over the car of the person assigned to put the signs at the other end, said person's vehicle having occupied one of those holes?
 
Some philosophical thoughts on being wrong:

But before we can plunge into the experience of being wrong, we must pause to make an important if somewhat perverse point: there is no experience of being wrong. There is an experience of realizing that we are wrong, of course. In fact, there is a stunning diversity of such experiences. As we’ll see in the pages to come, recognizing our mistakes can be shocking, confusing, funny, embarrassing, traumatic, pleasurable, illuminating, and life-altering, sometimes for ill and sometimes for good. But by definition, there can’t be any particular feeling associated with simply being wrong. Indeed, the whole reason it’s possible to be wrong is that, while it is happening, you are oblivious to it. When you are simply going about your business in a state you will later decide was delusional, you have no idea of it whatsoever. You are like the coyote in the Road Runner cartoons, after he has gone off the cliff but before he has looked down. Literally in his case and figuratively in yours, you are already in trouble when you feel like you’re still on solid ground. So I should revise myself: it does feel like something to be wrong. It feels like being right.

From:
Being Wrong: Adventures in the Margin of Error
Kathryn Schulz
 
Coal said:
Yeah , I had a teacher liked that. Git he was.
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I truly deserved it though. ;)

Dunno, I just failed over and over at history no matter how hard I worked.

I was at a slightly posh school where some of the staff, including the senior History Department ladies, looked upon us working class scholarship scruffs with contempt.

One was a Deputy Head who wrote references for pupils' files to give to potential employers. She composed such an insulting and frankly actionable one for me that it's a wonder I wasn't locked up, never mind get turned down for jobs.

So as I wasn't ever going to do well in Miss Snottypants' subject, cheating was a last resort, which also failed. :dunno:
 
uair01 said:
Some philosophical thoughts on being wrong:

But before we can plunge into the experience of being wrong, we must pause to make an important if somewhat perverse point: there is no experience of being wrong. There is an experience of realizing that we are wrong, of course. In fact, there is a stunning diversity of such experiences. As we’ll see in the pages to come, recognizing our mistakes can be shocking, confusing, funny, embarrassing, traumatic, pleasurable, illuminating, and life-altering, sometimes for ill and sometimes for good. But by definition, there can’t be any particular feeling associated with simply being wrong. Indeed, the whole reason it’s possible to be wrong is that, while it is happening, you are oblivious to it. When you are simply going about your business in a state you will later decide was delusional, you have no idea of it whatsoever. You are like the coyote in the Road Runner cartoons, after he has gone off the cliff but before he has looked down. Literally in his case and figuratively in yours, you are already in trouble when you feel like you’re still on solid ground. So I should revise myself: it does feel like something to be wrong. It feels like being right.

From:
Being Wrong: Adventures in the Margin of Error
Kathryn Schulz
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Hm, but I've definitely done stuff and know a small voice in my head was going "Er...mate? Really?....."
 
Coal said:
Hm, but I've definitely done stuff and know a small voice in my head was going "Er...mate? Really?....."
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Well, there's also the thing where you don't really know WHY something feels wrong, you check to see, and... get nothing, so you go ahead anyways since you're not sure what felt "off". and maybe figure it out later... maybe.
 
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Municipality of Oss acknowledges: korfball field across soccer pitch was not so smart

The municipality of Oss is going to remove a newly constructed korfball field in a residential area. It lies across a soccer field where children from the neighborhood have been playing for years. Many local residents reacted furiously.

The municipality has now decided to move the new korfball field. It will now be built next to the soccer field and both fields will be made of artificial turf.

'A little too hasty'
Oss decided to build the korfball field because two children from the neighborhood had requested it in a letter. "With that we went to work. In retrospect, you can see that we were a little too hasty. A few local residents are not so happy about this," the municipality tells Omroep Brabant.

0:47Korfball field on top of soccer field in Oss: 'Not at all convenient'
Last night there was a residents' meeting in Oss about the korfball field. Emotions ran high. "I opened the curtains a few months ago and suddenly there were excavators to build the korfball field," said a local resident. "We all knew nothing."

A neighbor agrees with her: "We just want our old soccer field back. It's waiting for accidents if you play soccer here with those korfball poles in the field."

How much the construction of the korfball field has cost and how much money is needed to install the two new artificial turf fields side by side, the municipality cannot yet say. The spokesperson also does not know why the korfball field was built across the soccer field.

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)
 
"First played in 1902, Korfball is a ball sport, with similarities to netball and basketball.
It is played by two teams of eight players with four female players and four male players in each team.
The objective is to throw a ball into a netless basket that is mounted on a 3.5 m high pole."

I wonder why it never gained popularity?
Oh that's right - it sounds terrible.
Somebody back in 1902 decided to smoosh together different sports but what they failed to take into consideration is something I call 'The Sofabed Problem'.
The premise of which is that a sofabed, whilst trying to be two different things simultaneously, is no good at either.
Sofabeds ultimately are uncomfortable to sit on, and impossible to get a good nights sleep on.
 
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