Things that I don't know but I should know

[Anonymous]

DH worked for Freddie Mac for years and I don't know what they do (or did, or were proported to do). I also don't know the difference between them and Fannie Mae, even though I have asked these questions and gotten answers several times.

(I think we must tune out information that we don't actually care to know.)

[Anonymous]

I don't understand what's "inside the beltway" and "outside the beltway," or the inner and outer loop. No clue how the stock market works, or the economy at all. I could go on and on but people generally regard me as really smart. I've got them fooled!

[Anonymous]

I don't know exactly what a "settlement" is, and I have very, very little knowledge of the history of the Middle East.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't understand what's "inside the beltway" and "outside the beltway," or the inner and outer loop. No clue how the stock market works, or the economy at all. I could go on and on but people generally regard me as really smart. I've got them fooled!

You must not live in the greater Washington Dc area, then.

[Anonymous]

Batteries - I have NEVER understood how batteries work. How do we get so much energy into a tiny little metal tube? And why are they able to cause a "burn" on people, like if children's put them in their mouths? and what are the two different sides, the positive and negative? How do they dddoooooo that????

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't understand what's "inside the beltway" and "outside the beltway," or the inner and outer loop. No clue how the stock market works, or the economy at all. I could go on and on but people generally regard me as really smart. I've got them fooled!

The outer loop goes counter clockwise, because we drive on the right side, placing us on the outside when we're going that direction. Inner loop goes clockwise because we're on the inside. As for what constitutes inside and outside the beltway, well, that's so elementary that either PP is right and you're not from around here, or you really haven't given it any thought.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Here is one for you. I worked in a pretty important position on the Hill for 7 years am now in a different job), have lived in Va for 10 years and have NO IDEA who our governor is.
Really.

Were you in a coma during the 2009 campaign?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't understand what's "inside the beltway" and "outside the beltway," or the inner and outer loop. No clue how the stock market works, or the economy at all. I could go on and on but people generally regard me as really smart. I've got them fooled!

The outer loop goes counter clockwise, because we drive on the right side, placing us on the outside when we're going that direction. Inner loop goes clockwise because we're on the inside. As for what constitutes inside and outside the beltway, well, that's so elementary that either PP is right and you're not from around here, or you really haven't given it any thought.

Not the pp you were quoting but thank you! I spent 8 years in Baltimore and 5 years here and I STILL had no idea what the difference between an Inner Loop and Outer Loop was.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:1. What the Vietnam was was about.
2. What a "settlement" really is. (as in the settlements in Israel)
3. How many Jewish people died in the Holocaust.
4. How many planets there are
5. The basic premise of Islam
6. The basic premise of Hinduism
7. How Bangladesh became its own country
8. What a co-op preschool is
9. What exactly a "stock" is. (as in the stock market)
10. What art period are we in now?

I think this is a troll joke because no one can be this ignorant.

Oh shut up. I don't know how the stock market works. I don't know WTF a black hole is. How the hell do radar waves work? Nobody knows everything. The folks who recognize the fact that they have much to learn will go forward. The jerks who think they know everything and no one can tell them anything will die alone and unloved. At least I know that much.

YAY! A question I know the answer to! A black hole is something that happens in space when stars go supernova and explode. Light can't be emitted from a black hole. It's pretty much an absence of anything in that particular spot in space.

Some of the other questions are too hard for me, lol! I have no clue about the stock question or the Bangledesh question. I'm not too sure of the art period one either. The basic presmise to Hinduism is the belief in reincarnation and karma and dharma. I'd have to look up the Islam question because I'm not 100% on that one. There are 8 planets currently, but who knows how many other planets could be out there. Not sure what a co-op preschool is either. Six million Jews were killed in the Holocaust. I'm not sure if that number includes all of the other groups that were attacked as well. The Vietnam question is tough because it's a matter of perspective. There is the view that the war was fought in an attempt to help the Vietnamese people who were being treated inhumanel, but there is also the school of thought that believes that the war was fought out of a fear of impending Communism. It's all a matter of perspective, I guess.

I love that this thread came up because it's an interesting change of pace. I hope that there are more thread like this one.

I'm positive most of the PPs do not know what a supernova is and if you want to understand the Vietnam War, read David Halberstam's.
The Best and the Brightest." Very long but worth the effort.

I haven't read all of this thread because I am truly appalled at the lack of basic knowledge. I, too, went to a private school and the school's curriculum included American, European, Ancient history, higher mathmatics, geography, knowledge of a foreign language (this was high school, not college), world geography, civics, Literature (world), physical and social science, English grammar, music and art appreciation and some others. Obviously, public education in the US is almost useless. Is it any wonder the US is lagging so far behind other countries? I cannot believe the level of ignorance of basic knowledge. God help this country.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:1. What the Vietnam was was about.
2. What a "settlement" really is. (as in the settlements in Israel)
3. How many Jewish people died in the Holocaust.
4. How many planets there are
5. The basic premise of Islam
6. The basic premise of Hinduism
7. How Bangladesh became its own country
8. What a co-op preschool is
9. What exactly a "stock" is. (as in the stock market)
10. What art period are we in now?

I think this is a troll joke because no one can be this ignorant.

Oh shut up. I don't know how the stock market works. I don't know WTF a black hole is. How the hell do radar waves work? Nobody knows everything. The folks who recognize the fact that they have much to learn will go forward. The jerks who think they know everything and no one can tell them anything will die alone and unloved. At least I know that much.

YAY! A question I know the answer to! A black hole is something that happens in space when stars go supernova and explode. Light can't be emitted from a black hole. It's pretty much an absence of anything in that particular spot in space.

Some of the other questions are too hard for me, lol! I have no clue about the stock question or the Bangledesh question. I'm not too sure of the art period one either. The basic presmise to Hinduism is the belief in reincarnation and karma and dharma. I'd have to look up the Islam question because I'm not 100% on that one. There are 8 planets currently, but who knows how many other planets could be out there. Not sure what a co-op preschool is either. Six million Jews were killed in the Holocaust. I'm not sure if that number includes all of the other groups that were attacked as well. The Vietnam question is tough because it's a matter of perspective. There is the view that the war was fought in an attempt to help the Vietnamese people who were being treated inhumanel, but there is also the school of thought that believes that the war was fought out of a fear of impending Communism. It's all a matter of perspective, I guess.

I love that this thread came up because it's an interesting change of pace. I hope that there are more thread like this one.

I'm positive most of the PPs do not know what a supernova is and if you want to understand the Vietnam War, read David Halberstam's.
The Best and the Brightest." Very long but worth the effort.

I haven't read all of this thread because I am truly appalled at the lack of basic knowledge. I, too, went to a private school and the school's curriculum included American, European, Ancient history, higher mathmatics, geography, knowledge of a foreign language (this was high school, not college), world geography, civics, Literature (world), physical and social science, English grammar, music and art appreciation and some others. Obviously, public education in the US is almost useless. Is it any wonder the US is lagging so far behind other countries? I cannot believe the level of ignorance of basic knowledge. God help this country.

I guess your private school offered drama class, too!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:In our solar system there are only 8 planets now but there are many hundreds on known planets in the nearby galaxy with that number only expected to grow. Regardless of what you think of Pluto being demoted, the number would not be 9 as we all learned in school because Xena or whatever they ended up calling Brown's Pluto-like find would have to be a planet if Pluto was. Fun fact, this is not the first time an object has been demoted from being a planet. 4 of the asteroids in the asteroid belt (there's an asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter) were initially labeled as planets until people realized there were hundreds on similar objects. It's actually much like the Pluto story except that there wasn't as long of a time between the first asteroid being discovered and the demotion as there was between Pluto and the discovery of all the Kuiper belt objects.

I'm going to have to disagree slightly with the black hole response. It's not the absence of everything, there is substantial mass there and therefore gravity. It just has a very small size. I can go extremely far into detail if anyone is interested but I don't want to sound like a show-off (I've just been with the kids all day and am slightly geeked to show off some hard earned knowledge that most people couldn't give a rat's ass about).

As for radar, it is just light waves, radio waves in fact. So they work just like other electromagnetic waves - visible light being the best known form. Think flashlight and mirror.

As you can probably tell, I have a degree in physics but I'm not sure how airplanes work. Something about lift I know. And when I see them in the air I am completely sure I don't understand how they work.

For the VA folks:
Gov -- Bob McDonnell
Senators -- Jim Webb & Mark Warner
Reps -- possibly one of Jim Moran, Frank Wolf, or Gerry Connelly (not sure of all the spellings). I live near the corner of all 3 districts so I see lots of different signs around elections.

As a science/engineering type there are large swathes of liberal arts type knowledge that I do not have.

Awesome response! Did I just read recently that there's a new theory that in fact, the earth might be inside a black hole? Or maybe the earth was created inside a black hole? If so, how is that possible?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

I haven't read all of this thread because I am truly appalled at the lack of basic knowledge. I, too, went to a private school and the school's curriculum included American, European, Ancient history, higher mathmatics, geography, knowledge of a foreign language (this was high school, not college), world geography, civics, Literature (world), physical and social science, English grammar, music and art appreciation and some others. Obviously, public education in the US is almost useless. Is it any wonder the US is lagging so far behind other countries? I cannot believe the level of ignorance of basic knowledge. God help this country.

Honestly, I also went to a private high school and studied the equivalent of 2 years of Latin and 3 years of Spanish. Also studied French for 2 semesters in college. Beyond a few basic phrases and some counting, I cannot speak or write in any of those languages. I studied most of the other subjects you mentioned as well. As they say: if you don't use it, you lose it.

By the way, I know I'll be chastised for being the spelling police, but it is actually spelled mathematics.

[Anonymous]

Reason for U.S. involvement in Vietnam: After WWII, the U.S. foreign policy establishment believed that if a country like Vietnam became communist, other countries would likely become communist. Known as the domino theory. So, it wasn't so much about Vietnam, per se, but stopping the spread of communism even further.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:[ Obviously, public education in the US is almost useless. Is it any wonder the US is lagging so far behind other countries? I cannot believe the level of ignorance of basic knowledge. God help this country.

I guess your private school offered drama class, too!

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[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yep, Pluto is no longer a planet.

Also, brontosaurus (remember brontosaurus burgers from the Flintstones?) no longer is a name of a dinosaur. It is now apatosaurus. There are also rumblings these days about triceratops and whether it is actually a different type of dino (taurosaurus).

What is Pluto then?