• @Moobythegoldensock@lemm.ee
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      3828 days ago

      That wasn’t so much a “fact” told in school as it was a prediction, and it was true for them. Some people carried pocket calculators, but most people didn’t. Some supermarkets has calculators built into their carts, but most didn’t.

      Failing to predict society’s norms in 20 years isn’t the same as teaching a false fact.

      • ThoGot
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        928 days ago

        The same was told to me even as everybody already had mobile phones with calculators in them or even iPhones

        • @anomnom@sh.itjust.works
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          28 days ago

          Tiny photocell powered calculators used to be everywhere. There were “thin” ones to fit in your Costanza sized wallet, Mousepads with them built in, and my wristwatch in 6th grade had one with tiny rubber keys.

          It was a magical time till be alive. 5318008

        • @Moobythegoldensock@lemm.ee
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          728 days ago

          Yep, back in the 90s they were in some places. My local supermarket had one like this, except without the annoying ad on the left side.

  • @will_a113@lemmy.ml
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    5528 days ago

    That humans came out of Africa once and then settled the rest of the world. In reality there was a constant migration of humans in and out of Africa for millennia while the rest of the world was being populated (and of course it hasn’t ever stopped since).

    I love how much DNA analysis has completely upended so much “known” archaeology and anthropology from even just a couple decades ago.

  • kingthrillgore
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    28 days ago

    Taste buds are arranged by flavor in four sections of the tongue. Complete load of horseshit.

    Multiplication tables (I still know them mostly). I have a calculator on damn near every device now.

    Things will always get better <-- this one is the biggest lie of them all

      • mosiacmango
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        1528 days ago

        6 x 6 mothefuckers. Y’all tell me that didn’t immediately form “36” in your brain.

        • Sonotsugipaa
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          228 days ago

          Nope, went through “(6 × 5) + 6”. Slightly slower, but much more flexible since you can do that with any (base 10 representation of a) number that has a reasonable number of digits.

            • Sonotsugipaa
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              28 days ago

              When dealing with base 10 representations, multiplying by 10 is a simple matter of adding zeroes;
              dividing numbers that end with a zero by two is (usually) an afterthought;
              doing both operations in that sequence is (usually) equally trivial, the only effortful thing I have to do is adding or subtracting a multiplicand, once or twice or thrice.

              It’s not easier than having the result imprinted in my memory, but it cuts away ~ three quarters of the table.

    • @Smaagi@lemm.ee
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      328 days ago

      I need to use multiplication at work every single day, it’s extremely handy to remember them.

    • @alcibiades@lemm.ee
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      228 days ago

      Is it so bad to know your multiplication tables? It’s lowk a quality of life thing yknow. imo it’s just a good thing to know so you aren’t entirely reliant on the calculator for an answer.

    • @HelixDab2@lemm.ee
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      327 days ago

      Broadly speaking, failing to put in effort does tend to lead to worse outcomes.

      …Unless your parents have the last name “Musk” or “Trump”.

    • @turnip@sh.itjust.works
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      27 days ago

      Did we conclude that, I thought its still heavily debated.

      Some argue in the 50s and 60s the US was spending Europe’s gold to build highways and infrastructure, gifting Americans the wealth with a continuation of the new deal, they then defaulted in 1971 as inflation eroded foreign debt owed.

      Some feel some form of debt accrual is how we derive such a consumption focused standard of living, which is misallocated capital that ends in someone holding the bag when it can’t realistically be paid back, or when population doesn’t grow fast enough like in Japan or most of the developed countries.

      • @lordnikon@lemmy.world
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        28 days ago

        Pluto is a great test for what type of person someone is.

        If someone says Pluto is still a planet. They have a personality where they are immovable and can’t accept scientific change and everything has to be how they first learned it.

        If they do say pluto is a new kind of dwarf planet they are more accepting of new information and belive in the scientific method and love to be wrong. Since it means we learn something new.

        It’s a great quick test when meeting new people.

  • 2ugly2live
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    28 days ago

    “Those bullies will be working at a gas station while you’ll be the boss!”

  • @bonegakrejg@lemmy.ml
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    3028 days ago

    I would say “cursive is how adults write, you’ll need to know it”, but that wasn’t true then either.

    • @TheTurner@lemm.ee
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      428 days ago

      Cursive is such a bad way to write. I used to have to decipher sloppy cursive notes on how to check airplane fixtures. I even learned it in school!

      • @Jarix@lemmy.world
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        227 days ago

        Good cursive flows very nicely. I got to watch my grandmother’s handwriting deteriorate as the dementia and Alzheimer’s took her. Was always amazed for well she wrote when i was younger, but her handwriting turned pretty incomprehensive as her brain was eaten away by the disease

    • @JeremyHuntQW12@lemmy.world
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      428 days ago

      “You need a pen licence because that’s what you use at work”.

      Um no. Secretaries, lawyers and journalists used typewriters and engineers used propelling pencils. Builders had these odd rectangular shaped pencils that could write on anything. Fitters and boilermakers used chalk.

      Only schoolchildren used biros.

  • Luke
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    2528 days ago

    Basically everything I can recall being told in D.A.R.E program classes (war on drugs era propaganda taught in public schools in the USA) was utter nonsense and fabricated bullshit. After actually having personal experience with most of the substances they vilified, none of the effects - good or ill - are what I was taught in that ridiculous program.

    On the contrary, some of the fear tactics they used made me curious to investigate on my own. The breathlessly scared rural teacher describing the mind bending effects that “magic mushrooms” was supposed to have sounded fascinating to teenage me. In reality, they are very fun and therapeutic to use, but nothing like the wild Alice in Wonderland mind journey they made it sound like it would be.

  • @hddsx@lemmy.ca
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    28 days ago

    -Coequal branches of government

    -Separation of Church and State

    -Life terms for SCOTUS ensures political impartiality

    -The second amendment was so that we could defend ourselves (see: redcoats)

    -Bohr system