Cancer Posted July 8, 2015 Report Share Posted July 8, 2015 Chalkboards: Chalk dust is messy and, theoretically, harmful. In large doses. Whiteboards: Dry erase pens are messy, expensive, dry out, give off harmful fumes, and stain anything they write on (including, sometimes, the whiteboard). Progress! I loathe whiteboards and the markers. The latter mostly because you can never tell if one is going to work until you actually try it, and throw it away if it doesn't work well enough. (I literally throw them across the room so I won't make the mistake of picking a bad one up again.) As an undergrad my work-study job for a year and a half was doing the nightly observatory shows, which used the old 6-inch refractor when the weather was clear, and a slide show in the classroom downstairs when it wasn't. Lots fewer visitors when cloudy, but I had to be there. Now, the Campus Observatory was built in the late 1890s, and aside from one posterboard and five smallish (by today's standards) windows each on the east & west walls, the rest of the wall surfaces were all glorious old real dark-grey slate blackboards. Chalk on real 80-year-old slate has a much better feel than the cheap painted plywood chalkboards which are most of what you encounter. It was really a joy doing my quantum and E&M homework on the cloudy nights in that old classroom on boards so you could see everything you'd done at once. Sometime in the 1990s they renovated that classroom (they had to, the old roof was leaking badly) and ripped out those old slate boards. I would have been on site and paid cash for one on the spot had I known. Sigh. Lucius 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
L. Marcus Posted July 8, 2015 Report Share Posted July 8, 2015 You old grognard, you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Man Posted July 8, 2015 Report Share Posted July 8, 2015 I just don't understand how whiteboards replaced chalkboards. At all. They're inferior in almost every way. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Man Posted July 8, 2015 Report Share Posted July 8, 2015 Then again, d20 and Hero exist. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Enforcer84 Posted July 8, 2015 Report Share Posted July 8, 2015 Then again, d20 and Hero exist. And hero is much worse? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Man Posted July 9, 2015 Report Share Posted July 9, 2015 The other way around. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Enforcer84 Posted July 9, 2015 Report Share Posted July 9, 2015 ?ɘƨɿow ʜɔum ƨi oɿɘʜ bnA Old Man 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lucius Posted July 9, 2015 Report Share Posted July 9, 2015 And why isn't the US on the metric system yet?? Lucius Alexander "Euphony" says the palindromedary Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cancer Posted July 9, 2015 Report Share Posted July 9, 2015 Because it's less embarrassing to admit you can't multiply/divide by 12 or 5280 in your head than it is to admit you can't multiply/divide by 10 or 100 or 1000 in your head. We have our pride. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BoneDaddy Posted July 9, 2015 Report Share Posted July 9, 2015 At least we've gotten away from the rood. From wikipedia: Rood is an English unit of area, equal to one quarter of an acre or 10,890 square feet (1,012 m2) or 0.10 hectares). A rectangular area with edges of one furlong (i.e. 10 chains, or 40 rods) and one rod respectively is one rood, as is an area consisting of 40 perches (square rods). The rood was an important measure in surveying on account of its easy conversion to acres. When referring to areas, rod is often found in old documents and has exactly the same meaning as rood.[1] tkdguy 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bazza Posted July 9, 2015 Report Share Posted July 9, 2015 And why isn't the US on the metric system yet?? Beats me Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Logan D. Hurricanes Posted July 9, 2015 Report Share Posted July 9, 2015 Beats me The rest of the world gets to call us retarded as soon as Britain sorts out their money system. And quits using "our" measurements as well as metric. I hear them using miles constantly on British TV, so they can't feel too far above it. Burrito Boy and Enforcer84 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cancer Posted July 9, 2015 Report Share Posted July 9, 2015 The Brits went to 100p to the pound back in the ... 1970s? It's been a while since the £.s.d. thing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
L. Marcus Posted July 9, 2015 Report Share Posted July 9, 2015 '71, I think. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Logan D. Hurricanes Posted July 9, 2015 Report Share Posted July 9, 2015 Well, that's retarded. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
L. Marcus Posted July 9, 2015 Report Share Posted July 9, 2015 Five cent is worth a nickle, five nickles is worth a quarter, four quarters is worth one dollar ... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
death tribble Posted July 9, 2015 Report Share Posted July 9, 2015 And why isn't the US on the metric system yet?? Lucius Alexander Because the metre comes from France and that is why. How many more times must the British tell the Americans ? Find your own arch foes the French are Britain's arch foes not yours ! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
L. Marcus Posted July 9, 2015 Report Share Posted July 9, 2015 And the Scots have the Scots. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Man Posted July 9, 2015 Report Share Posted July 9, 2015 And no one respects the Welsh. They're just a dumping ground for consonants. The French are not arch foes of America, they're like the little brother that you like but that you constantly pick on for being so weird. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
L. Marcus Posted July 9, 2015 Report Share Posted July 9, 2015 We've got the Russians and the Danes ... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Enforcer84 Posted July 10, 2015 Report Share Posted July 10, 2015 Five cent is worth a nickle, five nickles is worth a quarter, four quarters is worth one dollar ... it's still 100 cents. If you can't do that kind of math, kill yourself. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cancer Posted July 10, 2015 Report Share Posted July 10, 2015 SSSSSSSSHH!!!!! Don't say that where my students can hear! L. Marcus 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cancer Posted July 10, 2015 Report Share Posted July 10, 2015 So you know how it hasn't rained in Vancouver in two freaking months? No, no you don't. There's enough weird weather around these days to go around. So just one question. How can it not rain when the humidity index is a million percent? Ummm ... the worst day in Vancouver, Seattle, etc., is paradisical compared the typical conditions May through October anywhere in North America east of 100 degrees longitude and south of about 42 degrees latitude. We are all weather wimps up here. It's like USers complaining about being too cold or too snowy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Enforcer84 Posted July 10, 2015 Report Share Posted July 10, 2015 SSSSSSSSHH!!!!! Don't say that where my students can hear! Could theoretically cut down on the papers you'd have to grade. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cancer Posted July 10, 2015 Report Share Posted July 10, 2015 Wait until later in the term, man! AFTER they've paid their tuition bills! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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