this post was submitted on 15 Nov 2024
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Science Memes

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Habits of Insects (mander.xyz)
submitted 22 hours ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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[–] [email protected] 101 points 19 hours ago (4 children)

Say it with me:

No. Research. Is. Useless.

If we say that research is useless because it doesn't bring you mo ey we could stop teaching children math beyond the absolute basics because "it doesn't brinf them anything". This is stupid, because those are the fundamentals that tech children to thing logically and become useful member of society. Same with research. It teaches us the things necessary to maybe invent some of the most useful stuff ever seen

[–] [email protected] 68 points 19 hours ago (1 children)

Republicans: "No. Research is useless."

[–] [email protected] 10 points 17 hours ago

That's a good one, but sadly true.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 18 hours ago

Republicans want drones and cannon fodder, not scientists and intellectuals.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 17 hours ago (2 children)

You say that but I've heard concerningly many people say that there is no point in teaching everyone stuff like basic math because chances are they won't use it

[–] [email protected] 5 points 14 hours ago (1 children)

I also hear that argument often and I absolutely hate it. They always say "tech them things like insert manual labor work. Nobody needs Math."

It always depends. A lot of people will likely never use a saw outside of school. Especially in a time where a lot of people go to university the skills that complex math teaches you are basically the bare necessitys. Also school usually is teaches you the basic broad knowledge and skills required to get more specific education on a specific topic. This includes studying all different subjects and also getting training as a woodworker. It is literally impossible to focus on everything and that also isn't really the use of school. Its just the first and universal form of education.

[–] brygphilomena 5 points 10 hours ago (1 children)

Besides all that manual labor requires math. A ton requires geometry.

You think plumbing, framing, electrical or any trade is done without measuring and quite complicated math?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 hours ago* (last edited 9 hours ago)

Especially in America. Sure just cut that board down to 29-13/64 inches...and remember the blade is 1/8" thick.

[–] Anticorp 3 points 16 hours ago (2 children)

India just removed pythagorean theorem from their educational curriculum for the very reason you mentioned.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 9 hours ago (1 children)

I've already seen this exact same claim these days, so now I decided to try and find out what's happening exactly.

https://www.dw.com/en/indiadropsevolution/a-65804720

Apparently, it happened last year, not just now, as you said, and I'm sure I've already seem someone else (maybe on Lemmy, maybe on reddit) also describe it as a very recent event.

However I can't find absolutely anything else regarding the topic. So I tried googling in Hindi instead, with the help of some machine translation.

https://www.aajtak.in/education/news/story/pythagoras-theorem-has-vedic-has-roots-karnataka-panel-proposes-to-sanskrit-as-a-third-language-1496805-2022-07-10

This is the only piece of news I've managed to find, again not very recent, and not nearly as dramatic as the DW article makes it out to be. Some official has described the Pythagorean theorem as 'fake news' because that same theorem had already been developed in India before Pythagoras, i.e. the point is that the name is a misnomer. They say nothing about removing the theorem.

The reduction of teaching of the periodic table and evolution that DW mentions is also explained in the PDF that the article links as mere reorganisation of the topics due to the circumstances (difficulties in teaching during corona). They don't suggest actual removal of the topics. (The PDF is an official explanation from the Indian "National Council of Educational Research and Training".)

I'm getting the impression DW is just fearmongering. Ideally there should be some article with exact and complete quotes in Hindi. I know that media freedom in India is not great (esp. considering the situation with Wikipedia), and it's probably not easy to get to the bottom of it, but this story looks very suspicious.

[–] Anticorp 2 points 9 hours ago (1 children)

You know more than me then. I was just irresponsibly repeating a headline I saw on Lemmy yesterday

[–] [email protected] 2 points 8 hours ago* (last edited 8 hours ago) (1 children)

I believed it completely at first too, perhaps we even saw the same headline...

[–] Anticorp 2 points 8 hours ago

Probably! I knew there was another subject mentioned, but couldn't remember what it was, so I didn't mention it. Now that you said the periodic table, I'm certain that was the second subject mentioned.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 11 hours ago (1 children)

Even carpenters and masons need geometry

[–] Anticorp 1 points 9 hours ago

Do they though? You need like one guy on the job who understands that stuff, and then a bunch a grunts with speed squares.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 17 hours ago (1 children)

I agree no research is useless but some just goes straight into the bonkers folder.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 14 hours ago (1 children)

Yeah, but just because a scientist calculated what would happen if we replaced the earth with blueberrys doesn't mean we should defund him.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 13 hours ago

If a scientist came to me asking for funding to research on bodily odor (which has happened, if memory serves me well) I would be baffled by the request but I wouldn't outright deny it.

Sweaty arm pits. Stinky feet. Bad breath. Farts.

The lab would have to be declared a bio hazard area by itself. Too good to miss out. Just the chance to see someone trying to keep a straight face while taking in some of these fine bouquet of rancid would be too good to miss.

Imagine watching the footage of a day of work.