A new PC classic!

[Clara Bow]

My fahter is a professor of geology at a major university. He was telling me that one of his students was arguing with him the other day, claiming that dinosaurs and people lived at the same time. Dad told him that that was not the case, even pulled out his huge chart of geological time and the kid said "Well what about all those caveman movies?"
My dad just stared at the kid, then continued his lecture. Never argue with an idiot, they pull you to their level then beat you with experience.

[Brentwood]

My fahter is a professor of geology at a major university. He was telling me that one of his students was arguing with him the other day, claiming that dinosaurs and people lived at the same time. Dad told him that that was not the case, even pulled out his huge chart of geological time and the kid said "Well what about all those caveman movies?"
My dad just stared at the kid, then continued his lecture. Never argue with an idiot, they pull you to their level then beat you with experience.

Well, clearly, Fred Flintstone had a dinosaur as a pet!

[IndianInlaw]

I went to high school when dinosaurs roamed the earth.

Does that count?

[Brentwood]

I went to high school when dinosaurs roamed the earth.

Does that count?

Of course it does. I had a woolly mammoth when I was a kid.

[Clara Bow]

I was in high school a little later than you guys, it was during the reign of the Caesars...

[Brentwood]

I was in high school a little later than you guys, it was during the reign of the Caesars...

Salad or Sid?

[Sirius]

It was the anniversary of John F. Kennedy's death, and the year was 1989.  My boss and I were talking about where we were when we heard the news.  The 18-yo tech who was in the room hadn't been born yet, and to him it was something he learned about in school.

[ShadesOfGrey]

Never argue with an idiot, they pull you to their level then beat you with experience.

may I use this? I sure hope it isnt copyrighted! I am going to be chuckling to myself all night.   

[hollasa]

Ooooh - can I throw in a Robert Heinlein story? It's a bit long, apologies if too long. It's from his book Expanded Universe, the non-fiction piece The Happy Days Ahead, on the subject of education.

Span of time is important; the 3-legged stool of understanding is held up by history, languages, and mathematics.  Equipped with these three you can learn anything you want to learn.  But if you lack any one of them you are just another ignorant peasant with dung on your boots.
    A few years ago I was visited by an astronomer, young and quite brilliant.  He claimed to be a long-time reader of my fiction and his conversation proved it.  I was telling him about a time I needed a synergistic orbit from Earth to a 24-hour station; I told him what story it was in, he was familiar with the scene, mentioned having read the book in grammar school.
    This orbit is similar in appearance to cometary inter-planet transfer but is in fact a series of compromises in order to arrive in step with the space station; elapsed time is an unsmooth integral not to be found in Hudson's Manual but it can be solved bv the methods used on Siacci empiricals for atmosphere ballistics: numerical integration.
    I'm married to a woman who knows more math, history, and languages than I do.  This should teach me humility (and sometimes does, for a few minutes).  Her brain is a great help to me professionally.  I was telling this young scientist how we obtained yards of butcher paper, then each of us worked three days, independently, solved the problem and checked each other—then the answer disappeared into one line of one paragraph (SPACE CADET) but the effort had been worthwhile as it controlled what I could do dramatically in that sequence.
    Doctor Whoosis said, " But why didn't you just shove it through a computer?"
    I blinked at him.  Then said slowly, gently, "My dear boy—" (I don't usually call Ph.D.'s in hardcore sciences "My dear boy"—they impress me.  But this was a special case.)
    "My dear boy ... this was 1947."
    It took him some seconds to get it, then he blushed.
    Age is not an accomplishment and youth is no sin.  This young man was (is) brilliant, skilled in mathematics, had picked German and Russian for his doctorate.  At the time I met him he seemed to lack feeling for historical span ... but, if true, I suspect that it began to itch him and he made up that lack either formally or by reading.  Come to think of it, much of my own knowledge of history derives not from history courses but from history of astronomy, of war and military art, and of mathematics, as my formal history study stopped with Alexander and resumed with Prince Henry the Navigator.  But to understand the history of those three subjects, you must branch out into general history.

[scooter2071]

Forgive me but I am relatively well educated (BS) and I don't know who either Ginsberg or Keroauc are.

They were (very good) beat generation writers. I will be getting my BS very soon and this subject was not covered anywhere in my education, either, actually. I only read their stuff because I went through a '1960s' phase. hmm.

[Linley]

I can no longer count the number of times someone has claimed to know more about history than I do because they "saw it on tv." Umm, I have spent years studying this stuff, I think I know what I'm talking about. The fact that you've seen a movie about the Second World War does NOT trump the fact that I've read hundreds of books on the subject.

As a historian, I am finding this thread profoundly depressing.

[Pixie]

I totally agree.

 Its also depressing when someone (my niece)  born in the 80s tries to tell me what it was like in the 60s and 70s!     I LIVED it, she saw it on TV re-runs, and yes, there is a difference.  Watching it live is very different from reading a book or watching the history channel.  That particular niece just annoys me.

[Suze]

I can no longer count the number of times someone has claimed to know more about history than I do because they "saw it on tv." Umm, I have spent years studying this stuff, I think I know what I'm talking about. The fact that you've seen a movie about the Second World War does NOT trump the fact that I've read hundreds of books on the subject.

As a historian, I am finding this thread profoundly depressing.

the worst is when they have seen a movie (like TITANTIC or ELIZABETH) and think that those are the gospel truth about the subject.

About Elizabeth - one of the ladies in our group is a PROFESSOR OF ELIZABETHAN HISTORY and the collage asked her to review the movie -- her review was very short

"They got the names right."

I have always maintained that if you can't get the big facts straight, why bother making a movie about HISTORY?  Rename it all and set it in a Sci-Fi world, it would make more sense.

A for instance - a movie about JFK where he does not die at Dallas, and advertise it as a TRUE story. 

Ok - Titantic got the big fact straight - it sank -

[jaxsue]

When I was in college a fellow student asked me what came first, the (American) Civil War or the Revolutionary War! This is a person who was passed from grade to grade. How sad, and not unusual.

[hobish]

Ooooh - can I throw in a Robert Heinlein story? It's a bit long, apologies if too long. It's from his book Expanded Universe, the non-fiction piece The Happy Days Ahead, on the subject of education.

Span of time is important; the 3-legged stool of understanding is held up by history, languages, and mathematics.  Equipped with these three you can learn anything you want to learn.  But if you lack any one of them you are just another ignorant peasant with dung on your boots.
    A few years ago I was visited by an astronomer, young and quite brilliant.  He claimed to be a long-time reader of my fiction and his conversation proved it.  I was telling him about a time I needed a synergistic orbit from Earth to a 24-hour station; I told him what story it was in, he was familiar with the scene, mentioned having read the book in grammar school.
    This orbit is similar in appearance to cometary inter-planet transfer but is in fact a series of compromises in order to arrive in step with the space station; elapsed time is an unsmooth integral not to be found in Hudson's Manual but it can be solved bv the methods used on Siacci empiricals for atmosphere ballistics: numerical integration.
    I'm married to a woman who knows more math, history, and languages than I do.  This should teach me humility (and sometimes does, for a few minutes).  Her brain is a great help to me professionally.  I was telling this young scientist how we obtained yards of butcher paper, then each of us worked three days, independently, solved the problem and checked each other—then the answer disappeared into one line of one paragraph (SPACE CADET) but the effort had been worthwhile as it controlled what I could do dramatically in that sequence.
    Doctor Whoosis said, " But why didn't you just shove it through a computer?"
    I blinked at him.  Then said slowly, gently, "My dear boy—" (I don't usually call Ph.D.'s in hardcore sciences "My dear boy"—they impress me.  But this was a special case.)
    "My dear boy ... this was 1947."
    It took him some seconds to get it, then he blushed.
    Age is not an accomplishment and youth is no sin.  This young man was (is) brilliant, skilled in mathematics, had picked German and Russian for his doctorate.  At the time I met him he seemed to lack feeling for historical span ... but, if true, I suspect that it began to itch him and he made up that lack either formally or by reading.  Come to think of it, much of my own knowledge of history derives not from history courses but from history of astronomy, of war and military art, and of mathematics, as my formal history study stopped with Alexander and resumed with Prince Henry the Navigator.  But to understand the history of those three subjects, you must branch out into general history.

Nice quote! Heinlein is my favorite of favorites.