Dumb Professor Edition: Teacher Flunks Student Because He Says Australia Not A Country

It's true that Australia is a continent, but contradicting a
now fired New Hampshire online college professor,
Australia is a country, which any bozo knows. 

A woman named Ashley Arnold was pursuing an online sociology degree at Southern New Hampshire University.  

She definite did her homework, but her professor sure didn't.

One of her assignments was to compare a social norm in the United States with that of another country. She picked Australia and got to work, and handed in her paper on time. Excellent!

Um, no. Her professor gave her an F for the assignment. Here's why, in the words of our glorious professor. "Australia is a continent, not a country."

As BuzzFeed, which broke the story, and everybody else knows, it's both. Yes, it's a continent. And any bozo will tell you it's also a country. Arnold sent the professor an email, supplying a few references from reliable sources that tell us that indeed, Australia is a country.

This definitely nutty professor was not having it, though. This is the snippy reply from the professor:

"I will gladly re-examine your week 2 milestone project report. But before I do I want you to understand that any error in a project can invalidate the entire research project. Research is like dominoes. If you accidentally knock over one piece the entire set will also fall.

Australia is a continent; it is not a country. That error made it nearly impossible for you to accurately complete your week 2 research outline correctly. As I mentioned above, I will look over your week two paper once again and see if you earned more credits that I gave you."

In other words, the nutty professor says no dice, you messed up.

Arnold,  perplexed, told Buzzfeed: "With her education levels, her expertise, who wouldn't know Australia is a country?......If she's hesitating or questioning that, why wouldn't she just Google that herself?

Good question. But, always the trouper, Arnold conducted a very, very easy follow up research project, one that a first grader could do, but apparently the professor could not.

Online college student Ashley Arnold
insisted that Australia is a country. She's
right, but a professor gave her an F because
the professor somehow doesn't believe
Australia is a country. 

She found the official Australian government web site, and found on that site a link to "About Australia." She sent it to the professor.

One clue that Australia might be a country is the top headline on that "About Australia" web page. That headline is "Our Country."

Arnold included that link with a snippy email of her own. It read:

"Australia is both a country and a continent. It's the only country that is both. I provided a resource in in the first email that clarifies that for you. If you need further clarification Google or the SNHU Shapiro Library has that information for you. 

Again, I mean no disrespect but my grade is affected by your assumption that Australia is not a country when in fact it is. Thank you and let me know if I need to provide further resources proving Australia is a country."

The professor then relented, sort of: She replied to Arnold via email: "Thank you for this web address. After I do some independent research on the continent/country issue I will review your paper."

Arnold also filed a report with the university, because she said she doesn't want to fail because she picked a country that IS a country, and doesn't want her online classmates to be similarly screwed.

BuzzFeed contacted SNHU, which was not happy when it learned about the professor's stupidity.  "At SNHU, we hold our professors to a high standard of excellence and strive to provide high-quality degree programs for all students.......On this question, the student is right. We take this concern seriously and our academic team is working to resolve the matter."

It turns out that resolving the matter involved SNHU firing the professor, says the Manchester (New Hampshire) Union Leader. 

The professor, who has not been identified at Arnold's request, was let go, according to Lauren Keane, a spokesperson for SNHU.

"We deeply regret the interaction between our professor and our student have apologized to the student and refunded her for the class," Keane said. The class costs about $1,000

Going forward, the class will now be taught by another professor, who presumably knows basic geography and considers Australia a country.

In an added gesture, SNHU wished Australia well in the current 2018 Winter Olympics. Being an obvious country, Australia is competing there.

As for why the original professor was confused, Arnold theorized that the professor was fairly old. "When did Australia become a country? Maybe she thinks it's still part of England," Arnold wondered to Buzzfeed.

Australia became an independent country 117 years ago. The fired professor is not that old.

Oh, well.

Morons Oppose Solar Panels Because They Will "Suck Up Sun's Energy"

Hmm. The vegetation near these solar panels looks
nice and green, so I don't think they're "sucking all
the energy away" and preventing photosynthesis.
A couple in North Carolina publicly worried
that would be the case. 

If you ever wonder why there are idiots in our Great Nation, I'm about to give you one reason why.

It's that there a few idiots among our mostly fine teachers, and these idiot teachers are "educating" kids

I bring this up because a retired science teacher of all things in Woodland, North Carolina spoke up in opposition to proposed solar panels in town, says the Roanoke-Chowan News-Herald newspaper. (Note you'll have to answer a survey question to get access to the article in the link.)

The retired teacher, Jane Mann, said the solar panels would interfere with photosynthesis, the process by which plants absorb sunlight to live and grow. Apparently, she thinks the solar panels would hog all the sun energy coming into Woodland and leave any left for the trees and grass and shrubs in the community.

Mann says she's seen areas near solar panels where the plants are brown and dead because they did not get enough sunlight, reports the News-Herald.

Unless those plants were hidden way beneath the solar panels, I'm afraid those dead plants died of something else, dear Jane. Maybe drought? Insects? Or they gave up after exposure to your ignorance?

For the record, there are many solar panels and solar farms where I live in Vermont. Yes, the vegetation around them is brown now because it's winter. But in the summer, the panels are surrounded by lush green grass and trees.

 Mann also feared the solar panels would somehow cause cancer. Yes, if you stood out in the sun day in and day out, whether you were near the solar panels or not, you could develop skin cancer. But otherwise? Um......

Mann's husband Bobby was even worse. He opposed the solar panels because they would suck up all the energy from the sun and businesses would not come to Woodland as a result.

Yes, he really said that.

Also for the record, the amount of solar energy that hits the earth in just one hour is enough to provide the entire planet its energy needs for an entire year.

Geez, if Bobby Mann were right, you'd think he'd be happy. If the solar panels sucked up all the energy from the sun, so much for global warming, right?

What does he think? Sunlight is like water poured from a bucket? If you empty the bucket into a solar panel, there's none left for anything else?

A representative of the solar company involved actually had to explain to the Manns and others at the town council meeting that the only sunlight the solar panels use in generating power is that which hits them directly.

I thought everybody knew that, but apparently not.

In the end, the town council in Woodland rejected the solar farm, so the town is safe from the dastardly solar panels sucking all the energy from the town.

I just wish solar panels had the ability to suck away the ignorance and stupidity of some people.

SCOTUSBlog Gleefully Trolls The Trolls.

An on line site that reports on the Supreme Court is getting a lot of hate today. Because people are too clueless to distinguish between the Supreme Court and SCOTUSblog, which is the news site.

I'm sure many people in social media will never
get it, but SCOTUSblog is NOT part of the U.S.
Supreme Court.  

A quick, and I mean very quick, glance at their profile reveals that SCOTUS blog, or @SCOTUSblog on Twitter, is a site that offers news and analysis of what the US. Supreme Court is up to.

They're the go-to place if you want to know the ins and outs of what the High Court is doing and what their rulings mean for you and me.

But I guess social media is the land in which everybody likes to yell but nobody knows who they're yelling at.

On Twitter, people have been firing away at SCOTUSblog, yelling and screaming at them for the "ruling" they issued today saying privately held businesses like Hobby Lobby can withhold insurance coverage for contraceptives, based on their religious faith.

Of course, it was the Supreme Court that made the ruling, not SCOTUSblog, and as far as I know the Supreme Court doesn't keep a blog. But if you have to yell at somebody, might as well yell at someone who just reported on the decision, but otherwise had nothing to do with it.

What's wrong with these people? Yeah, I know there are similar sounding names on social media like Twitter, or people pretend they are someone or something they are not, but really.

So, the fine reporters at SCOTUSblog, who are only trying to help us understand what the Supreme Court did, are an outfit that "sided with the crazies" and treat women like second class citizens.

I bet the people who work at SCOTUS blog wish they had the kind of power the Supreme Court does.

At least SCOTUSblog is having fun with peoples' stupidity. Responding to someone who Tweeted: "You disgust me," SCOTUSblog responded, "But you complete us."

Someone else asked SCOTUSblog: "When will you start honoring the constitution." SCOTUSblog responded. "When you start reading our description."

Touche!!

Now, social media is alive with the correctors, the media outlets and such (like me!) that are trying to give people a clue. REPEAT!, they're saying. SCOTUSblog is NOT part of the Supreme Court.  wise up, doofuses!

But the yellers and trolls will have none of it.

Says one person, clueless upset that SCOTUSblog is having fun with the ignorant, and not part of the Supremes: "The passive aggressive way @SCOTUSblog is answering right now is horrible considering the position they just put women in. Not okay."

What's not okay is the people who are continuing with their willful ignorance. It's the American Way!!

On the bright side, this is surely making LOTS of people click on SCOTUSblog to see what all the fuss is about. It can't help the blog's bottom line, no?

Two Very Weird And Stupid Reactions To Gay People

Two items in the news this week highlight some of the bizarre contortions people go through when anything remotely gay ends up on their radar screen.

Church kicks this woman's family out of church
because the family refused to hate her because she's gay.  

The first is a church in Tennessee who kicked an entire family out of the congregation. Why?

The daughter in one family, named Kat Cooper,  won same sex domestic partnership benefits at the police department she works at, according to the Chattanooga Times Free Press. 

Worse, in the eyes of the church, the family loves the daughter and wouldn't turn their backs on her.

"Literally, they're exiling members for unconditionally loving their children--and even extended family members," Cooper told the Times Free Press.

Well, that's grounds for excommunication. How dare family members love each other!  What, are we supposed to hate our way to heaven?

The family could have stayed with the church had they gotten in front of the congregation and repented for the "sin" of supporting Cooper.

But the family, reasonably enough, says there's no sin to repent.

The family is upset they're being forced to leave the church, and I can understand that, since it was such an important part of their lives.  But they're probably better off without the "church" in the long run.

I'm frankly surprised anybody still belongs to this church. Every family has a member who has done something to "violate" the rules of this church, I'm sure.   Heck, any random "impure" thought could get you kicked out. And I have to wonder what nasty stuff goes on in the paster's mind?

I'm sure this church will wither and die.  Good.

In the other case, via BoingBoing, a man named Michael Jensen had the novel he co-authored canceled by the publisher because his bio said he lived with his male partner. OMG!

"They knew I was gay when they signed me," said Mr. Jensen. "If tey didn't want to print the bio of an author who happened to be gay, then they shouldn't have sign an author who happened to be gay."

Jensen said the owner of Cedar Fort Publishing, Lyle Mortimer went off on him: "The conversation really devolved quickly...... Lyle started yelling about my 'agenda' and how I was trying to destroy families. He even started saying inappropiate things about how God had given me a penis for a reason. It was very uncomfortable."

What, God gave Jensen a penis so he could  write a novel? I'm confused. I hope Jensen finds another publisher for his novel. Maybe a publisher which does what they're supposed to do, like find good books to publish, and not worry about what the author does when he's not writing.

What a novel idea!