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Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: September 20th, 2023

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  • As someone who has taught math to students in a classroom, unless you have at least a basic understanding of HOW the numbers are supposed to work, the tool - a calculator - is useless. While getting the correct answer is important, I was more concerned with HOW you got that answer. Because if you know how you got that answer, then your ability to get the correct answer skyrockets.

    Because doing it your way leads to blindly relying on AI and believing those answers are always right. Because it’s just a tool right?


  • Eh, such products minimize the waste of things that would otherwise be thrown away and lost. Us humans have been processing the scraps and leftovers of our food into other edible products for as long as we can remember - Waste not, Want not.

    The problem is the disconnect modern urbanites have from their food and not knowing how it gets made. If you like deli ham eat it! (in moderation as all things should be), it’s not all that different in processing than a hot dog, sausage, or hamburger. Or even cheese…


  • Yes it is.

    When processed, the meat bits, (and yes they are leftover meat bits), are ground into a paste with water added, (nearly all ham you buy has “Water Added” listed on the tag - exception would be something like “country ham” or prosciutto ham), then pumped into a carboy, (the paste is then called babbit), seasonings are then mixed in and then molded by machine into a glorious block 'o ham! To be sold at your local Deli as part of a delicious sandwich for which you happily pay your “hardly earned” monies.







  • I used to be a Toolmaker long ago and far away. And there is a, and not undeservedly so, stereotype of Toolmakers as cranky old assholes. And the job tends to make us intolerant assholes.

    I too had reached a point where I had enough of being angry, cranky, and hateful to everyone and myself every day. So I finally took all that cranky angry hatred and decided to channel it into something more constructive - I became a Medic for the next 15 years. And when that pissed me off enough I decided to teach math in my tiny rural school for 4 years until I retired.

    I am a very slow learner…



  • Not really. As a former math teacher, I used to have kids do speed drill quizzes very similar to that elements chart drill a couple times a week. As in how many basic facts, (addition, subtraction. multiplication and division), with the correct answer can you do in one minute. There are just some basic skills you really need to learn and master before you can move on and learn how to blow things up.

    The point of the quiz was not to expect you to get them all correct all the time or even get to the end of the quiz, (I was aiming for 30 correct answers in that one minute out of maybe 60 or 70 problems). But the idea was to build a very basic skill set for you. And so that you wouldn’t be afraid of the numbers, (this is a real stress point for students), and to lessen the fear of learning and adding to your skills by eliminating the stress of where to start. If you confidently know what 7x3 is, that’s one less detail you need to work out and worry over when doing a math problem, (another stress point for students).

    Education methods sometimes seem dry and useless and even mean to a young student. But they do actually have thought and reason behind the why a teacher might do something. I could never be bothered to try and teach you something that was pointless. I simply didn’t have the time for that kind of effort. Nor do the vast majority of teachers in a classroom.



  • I have nothing against calculators. But I have taught some elementary and jr high school math classes in my old a feeble age. The “why can’t we use calculators” and " what do I need to know this for" was a constant whinge I had to listen to and deal with.

    Why I want you to know how to solve a quadratic equation isn’t because that’s what you are going to do for the rest of your life. But rather, I want you to see something like that in the far future and go “Oh, I know what this and that it isn’t gibberish. And I can whip out that smart phone I got and google it to find the howto steps to solve it.” And I want you to acquire the discipline to learn things. Besides, just knowing what 7x3 is, makes everything else so much easier to learn in math. That removes fear and stress point and builds the confidence to tackle more complex ideas.

    I probably own more calculators than most here. So, I’m all for them. And I did always allow any student to use a calculator in class. I would just hand you a slide rule…(and yes, I’m that old to have used them in class as a kid and I still own a couple). But, when I was teaching, I really wanted my students get their fingers dirty with the numbers themselves and to learn how those numbers work. While getting the correct answer is very important, as a teacher, I was perhaps less concerned with the correct answer and more concerned with HOW you got that answer. Because if you know what you did to get that answer, you are far more likely to get the right answer than the wrong answer.

    In the end, I think education needs to be approached from the idea of making learning more fun. No matter the subject. Sadly, that’s a very difficult trick for any teacher in the typical class room to accomplish.


  • I have nothing against calculators. But I have taught some elementary and jr high school math classes in my old a feeble age. The “why can’t we use calculators” and " what do I need to know this for" was a constant whinge I had to listen to and deal with.

    Why I want you to know how to solve a quadratic equation isn’t because that’s what you are going to do for the rest of your life. But rather, I want you to see something like that in the far future and go “Oh, I know what this and that it isn’t gibberish. And I can whip out that smart phone I got and google it to find the howto steps to solve it.” And I want you to acquire the discipline to learn things. Besides, just knowing what 7x3 is, makes everything else so much easier to learn in math. That removes fear and stress point and builds the confidence to tackle more complex ideas.

    I probably own more calculators than most here. So, I’m all for them. And I did always allow any student to use a calculator in class. I would just hand you a slide rule…(and yes, I’m that old to have used them in class as a kid and I still own a couple). But, when I was teaching, I really wanted my students get their fingers dirty with the numbers themselves and to learn how those numbers work. While getting the correct answer is very important, as a teacher, I was perhaps less concerned with the correct answer and more concerned with HOW you got that answer. Because if you know what you did to get that answer, you are far more likely to get the right answer than the wrong answer.

    In the end, I think education needs to be approached from the idea of making learning more fun. No matter the subject. Sadly, that’s a very difficult trick for any teacher in the typical class room to accomplish.