88 lines
4.7 KiB
Plaintext
88 lines
4.7 KiB
Plaintext
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= F.U.C.K. - Fucked Up College Kids - Born Jan. 24th, 1993 - F.U.C.K. =
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The Mind as a Muscle
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I'm not a Fucked Up College Kid, I am a Fucked Up College Professor
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(FUCP). I am amazed, bewildered and outraged at the complete lack of
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experience my students, and the populace from which they come, have in
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the area of critical thinking.
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Here are two sample test questions from a recent exam:
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How fast is a memory chip labeled MB-81256-10?
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What would you plug into a high-density DB-15 connector on the back of a
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PC?
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The answers are, respectively, 100 nanoseconds and a VGA monitor. One of
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my students answered "motherboard" to the first question and "yes" to
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the second. Not only did this student not know the answer to the
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question, he did not even attempt to answer the question using correct
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english syntax. A "How fast..." query obviously can not be answered
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with "motherboard." A "What would..." query is obviously not going to
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be satisfied with a "yes" answer.
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I was at a friend's house some time ago and his (adult) sister called
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him on the telephone to ask him what 1 and 1/3 cups minus 2/3 cups was.
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Was this beyond her mental capabilities? No, she is a person of at
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least average intelligence. The simple fact is that she is out of
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practice in the art of thinking. She is suffering from nothing other
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than laziness.
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I edit the alt.2600 FAQ on Usenet and frequent that newsgroup regularly.
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I constantly answer questions that could be answered by either a minor
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dose of common sense or a few moments of experimentation. People
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constantly ask for pointers to files they could find themselves in less
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than 10 minutes of searching. Freqently, people ask for help using
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programs described in the Unix online manual pages. Occasionally, I
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will quote man pages directly in response. These people are not
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"challenged" in any way, they are simply avoiding the process of
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thoughtful research.
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Have you ever gone out to dinner with someone who is unable to determine
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how much to tip the waitperson? Is determining 15% of the bill an
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incredible feat of mathematics? No, it is simply that many (if not
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most) people are too lazy to force themselves to think the problem
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through. Drop the rightmost digit of the bill (convert 46.42 to 4.64)and
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add half of that number to itself (add 2.32 and 4.64). Your sum, and
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your tip, is 6.96. Round up to $7.00 and continue on with your life.
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All of these instances reflect one fact: The mind is a muscle. If you
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use it regularly, it will be strong and healthy. If you let it atrophy,
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it will shrivel up into uselessness. Even the dumbest of college athletes
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realizes that if he does not work out and excercise his body, it will
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not perform for him when he needs it to. And yet we restrict our minds
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to a life of idleness, separated from the mental exercise which would
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make them strong.
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Next time you find yourself sitting back on your couch, watching Beavis
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& Butthead and eating Twinkies(tm), consider getting your lazy ass up
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and finding some constructive excercise for your body and your mind.
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= Questions, Comments, Bitches, Ideas, Rants, Death Threats, etc etc... =
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= Internet : jericho@netcom.com (Mail is welcomed) =
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= Chemical Persuasion 203.324.0894 Celestial Woodlands 214.252.6455 =
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= Ionic Destruction 215.722.0570 Hacker's Haven 303.343.4053 =
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= E.L.F. (NUP) 314.272.3426 Misery 318.625.4532 =
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= Dungeon Sys. Inc. 410.263.2258 Psykodelik Images 407.834.4576 =
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= Paradise Lost 414.476.3181 (Your Board Here!@#$!) =
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= Digital Fallout 516.378.6640 Bad Trip 615-870-8805 =
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= Plan 9 716.881.3663 Deadly Intoxication 801.553.8644 =
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= Purple Hell 806.791.0747 Logikal Nonsence XXX.XXX.XXXX =
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= PuRe EViL (NUP) 905.XXX.XXXX The Keg 914.234.9674 = =
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= Files through Anonymous FTP: FTP.NETCOM.COM - cd /pub/il/illusion/fuck =
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= FTP.FC.NET - cd /pub/deadkat/misc/fuck =
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= FTP.WINTERNET.COM - cd /users/craigb/fuck =
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= http://www.ora.com:8080/johnl/e-zine-list/zines/fuck.html =
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