Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Watterson for November 28, 2012

To go outside would be my suggestion too!

Sally Brown would appreciate this.

The logic is twisted .. but I too kinda agree with Calvin on this one!

Go outside? And get skin cancer and premature aging? I propose we stay inside and watch TV or surf the Net.

At least he tried…

Leave math to the machines and next thing you know… Skynet!

I’m in! In fact, I’m in front of you. Catch me if you can!

our smartphones have more computing power than putting a man on the moon during the apollo missions. excel made what if scenarios easier to simulate. databases made the card catalog obsolete. internet and ereaders are replacing books and libraries and newspapers and magazines. so, why not teachers teach kids programming.

It wasn’t until I got to college that some of the teachers moved their classes outdoors on nice days.

Nice try, Calvin!

My bills never got through too.But I still must have learned something ,or at least how to learn something later.

Right!Stay inside and let your legs atrophy, as well as your brain.Don’t go outside, you might melt. Don’t run, you’ll hurt your body. Use your brain and at 50, you’ll be crawling to you wheelchair!

A friend of mine is a retired physicist. His son (an artist) gave him the perfect Christmas gift: one of those glass-fronted boxes, labelled “In Case of Malfunction, Break Glass.” Inside—a slide rule.

I grew up watching my much-older brothers use “slipsticks” and dreamed of the day when I would be taught to use them. By the time I was old enough they were long gone.

I am a recovering math thead – aced my math ACT test, etc. In 42 years of high tech I have never used anything above the fundamentals of algebra in my job. Really, it is time we re-evaluated the level of math we teach to most students.

You can multiply/divide great on a slide rule. The add/subtract is a little tougher. I’ll take the calculator. -——Plus with the slide rule you had to worry where the decimal point went. But you still have to know some math just in case you put your finger the wrong place on the calculator.

I think they should ban all electronics in the classroom until at least 5th grade (some computer time is fine but not when teaching anything else). I always got mad at my parents for making me go to a small Catholic school that made me learn the old way. Now I thank God. I am 25 and can not believe the number of my friends that can’t figure out the simplest things without breaking out their phone or google. AAAAAHHHHH

I found my old slide rule but couldn’t figure out how to plug it in.

Reading,Reasoning (logical thinking) andRemembering (history of mankind’s prior mistakes).

Recreation is good, too.

They’re planning to start teaching kids to progam from an early age in the UK. (I’ve no idea how since I doubt many teachers know how to.)

But most programming requires a solid basis of maths, and if you can’t get the hang of something so simple as algebra you aren’t going to get far. If you want to do fancy graphics (beyond canned stuff) you’ll need trigonometry and matrices.

And to write worthwhile applications – its like writing a book – you have to have something worth writing. I work for a scientific software company – most of us are PhD chemists/biophysicists.

I agree Calvin, machines are good at math, except mine must be broken because she is always asking me You spent HOW MUCH on that?How long are you going to sit there?How much money are you going to put into that thing?How many times have I told you?Etc.Etc. Heh heh heh.

calculators ruined my life, I owned a slide rule grease factory. It was a niche market.

You don’t teach programming, you hire nerd kids(that are doomed to living in their parents’ basement) to do the job for you. The best programmers are all self taught.

Raspberry pi. A $35 computer the size of a credit card, designed to teach computer skills (both hardware & software) to school children. It seems to have the most active group of proponents in the UK.

That’s a really good idea, Calvin.

100% agree with you!

xxx

From these comments, it is obvious there are three kinds of people in the world…those who can count and those who can’t.

Higher math, Algebra, Trig, were my worst subjects. I’ve always felt there was no real need for them. That was 45 years ago. I became a Mechanical Engineer. I use Trig on a daily basis. Thank God for Computer Aided Design programs. They’ve made my life a lot easier. Learn what you can, while you can. You never know what you’re going to need until you need it.

I take it Calvin will pass on being a computer programmer when he grows up.

Brilliant! My slide rule is make sure all the rocks are picked up before hittin’ the Slip-in-slide!

If we are to be ruled by machines, learn how to rule the machines.

Close, but no cigar.

Growing older and older I more and more prefer to go outside!! I appreciate every sunbeam and natur and think, how long it will be permited to me to see everything what God has created!!

In past blogs, there have been discussions about what Calvin’s dad does for a living. Given the bit of info about the slide rule, (which I also learned to use in high school until my senior year when large, “portable” calculators started appearing) I would guess that dad is an engineer. Accountants wouldn’t use slide rules.

The weather here has been magnificent lately. Too bad I am recovering from arthroscopic knee surgery and am hobbling around on a crutch, so an excercise walk is “out” at the moment, otherwise I would do that this afternoon….

Yeah, I’ll never be a politician. First of all, I don’t have enough charisma, second of all, I don’t have any money. So, Calvin and I are in the same boat.

To all those that agree with Calvin…what are you going to do on December 22nd?

I wish I still had my slide rule. It was actually kind of fun using it.

ha ha very funny

fail

not entirely wrong….

Asimov long ago wrote on the dangers of relying on technology in “The Feeling of Power”.

++++

On the other hand, I still find uses for and value in using my 3-digit analog solar powered calculator. Quite handy—and even more so if the power ever quits, as in that new series Revolution.

LIN 4869 – prayers said for you…khp<><

I use algebra almost every day in my work.