I so want to do this.
Truth in Advertising
Exactly what students say when I ask them what they’re doing
I found an old disk in my desk and showed it to the class. when I explained what it was, several of them said “Oh, that’s why the ‘save’ icon looks like that.
I started my Facebook account as an assignment in one of the technology classes I took for my Master’s Degree. It lay dormant for a couple years, until the last Presidential election, when I discovered there is a lot of funny stuff being passed around there. I spend most of my time there scrolling through, looking for things like this 
and passing it on for my friends and family to see.
But blended into that humor, I also found a source of news. Now, I take everything I see on Facebook with a grain of salt, so this is only a starting point. Things like this 
make me curious and then I look into it further, in this case to find out that Cheerios got slammed for having a commercial with an interracial couple and their mixed-race daughter. They also decided to continue airing the commercial.
And then there’s my creative/opinionated side. The beauty of memes is that they are meant to be copied, adjusted, edited and then passed on. I adjusted this one about Naval Bases and noise to fit our current debate about moving the Utah State Prison.
I also had to adjust this one, because although I agreed wholeheartedly with the basic premise, I felt it had a myopic view of the problem.
So that’s why I like my Facebook account. For me, it’s a source of humor, information and inspiration for spewing my own opinions.
I tend to question the validity of everything I see and read on Facebook, and the internet in general. Which is why, unless it’s funny regardless of it being true or not, I either ignore a lot of the stuff, or check on it before I bother to “like” and/or “share” it.
Which is why when I saw a list of incredibly ironic names that claimed to be the pilots of the Asiana plane that crashed in San Francisco, I simply thought “Yeah, right” and moved on.
Later, when I saw the above post from AATTP, I decided to find out who was yanking my chain. A quick Google search validated my suspicions, brought up several stories on the names and as it turns out KTVU News in San Francisco did confirm these names as the actual pilots, on the air, live.
In defense of the news organization, they had called the National Transportation Safety Board and a summer intern did confirm the names (NTSB Press Release).
Then I saw this one and thought the same thing.
But, with my recent confirmation of my feelings about the fake names, decided to check out it’s authenticity. I Googled Barbara Soper and, again, found several articles on her.
This time I was wrong (sorta), she actually exists and she did have three children born on 08/08/08, 09/09/09 and 10/10/10.
But, the odds are way off, considering all three were induced labors. According to this article, they were all induced for medical reasons, not to intentionally give birth on these days, but that still means there was human interference, which alters the odds.
Hmmm, reminds me of that commercial “It has to be true, I saw it on the internet.” Yeah, right.
Early in my teaching career I learned that no matter what we do, we’re going to be criticized in the media for it.
One year a huge snow storm hit the valley and our district decided to cancel classes because of it. Headlines read something like “Schools closed, parents left scrambling for daycare upset.”
The very next year we had another huge snowstorm, much like the one the year before. Fearing the backlash they got the year before (my assumption) the district decided to keep the schools open. This time the headlines read something like “Schools open despite snow, parents upset by dangerous conditions, many keep kids home.”
I have no idea how many were the same parents complaining both years, but the fact remains no matter what the decision, there was going to be a hissy-fit.
I remembered this lesson as I was reading the comments on this Facebook post:
This 7th grade student from Canada got in trouble with his school for STOPPING a dispute between two students, one of which pulled out a knife! The school says they don't "condone heroics" and he should have ran to get a teacher! Just another example of what is wrong with the world today. I'm glad he had the courage to act, and stop a situation that could have ended badly. LIKE if you think he did the right thing! Story and interview here.
All of the comments I read (only about 20) were critical of the school’s actions. Some were downright furious and a few were just this side of asking for the public lynching of the school’s administration.
I’m not saying the kid should be punished for what he did, frankly it would be nice if more kids would stand up against bullies. And according to the article, anyone who works in a school would realize he wasn’t actually punished. He wasn’t suspended, issued a detention or even written up for it.
He was called down to the office to answer questions about the incident and reminded that he put himself in a dangerous situation which was against school policy. Questioning and reminding go on in a school every day, not too many students would consider either a punishment.
What really annoys me is that these people refuse to look at it from the school’s point of view. The kid put himself in the middle of a knife fight. How many of these people bitching and moaning, the parents included, would be even more upset if this kid had got himself stabbed? “The school should have done something to protect him?” “He should have known to just go get a teacher.” I would bet a full month’s paycheck that someone would come out with “They should tell the kids not to put themselves in a dangerous situation.”
Damned if you do, damned if you don’t. My job became a lot less stressful when I finally came to terms with that.
Some of may have seen this on Facebook, or elsewhere.
You know it has to be some sort of trick, or we’d all go out and buy a candy bar, eat it that way and never have to buy another one again. So I decided to dissect the gif animation and find out how they did it. Here are my results.
And in slow motion so you can really see what’s going on.
So, it’s not really a scam, just a funny little slight of hand trick that I couldn’t resist figuring out.
All I ever do on Facebook is look for these funny little graphics and then share them forward. I rarely read, and never post, those little “Having lasagna for dinner” updates. I’m not inclined to care what people are having for dinner, unless I’m invited to join. And I doubt many of you want to know that I am currently microwaving some leftover pasta.
But, there are a lot of hilarious little graphics on there, so I keep going back. Here’s a few I decided to “share” here too.
(This one’s for you Lisa)
For those of you who don’t get that last one, this should explain it:
“Meet the man who cured his own colon cancer and was called ‘crazy’ by doctors.”
Maybe?
I want to thank the people who posted these pictures to Facebook…
…because they opened up the comparison, thereby legitimizing society’s right to treat them similarly.
My response on Facebook:
We don't blame guns for violent acts, but since you started the comparison:
We require cars to be licensed with the state,
we require people to be licensed to drive them,
we require people to carry insurance on them in case they do damage to other people or their property,
we take them away from people who use them inappropriately and/or to harm others or their property,
we impound them if they are stored improperly,
we impose fines and/or criminal sanctions against people who allow unlicensed, underage or irresponsible people access to them.
So, please, let's treat guns like cars.
When I saw this I knew it couldn’t be right. It took me a few minutes to figure out the one fatal flaw. I checked all the Algebraic steps, did the problem myself, and I’ll tell you that none of the steps are done wrong.
For the answer, click on the picture.
Ok, I’ll admit it, I’ve become addicted to Facebook.
I’ll also admit that the only reason I get on is to check out what funny stuff people are passing along. If it’s funny, I’ll “like” it. If it’s very funny I’ll “share” it forward. And if it’s really very funny, you’ll see it here. Like this one:
And some of them hit so close to home, I just can’t help personalizing them.
