Interesting news of note

I found this article earlier today, and just decided to comment on it. It is about a 16 year old girl in Atlanta who wanted to commit suicide. She was driving (in daddy's Mercedez) down the highway and swerved into oncoming traffic, slamming into a Daewoo coming the other direction, carrying a mother and her 6 year old child.
The ensuing crash killed the mother and injured the child, while the suicidal girl came out with minor injuries. The thing about it is, the girl was text messaging her count down to another girl, one who goes to the same school, this one. The girl that was getting the texts had earlier rebuffed the 16 year olds sexual advances. That is right, the little bitch wanted to kill herself after she tried to get another girl to lick her box, and, instead of taking herself out, she killed an innocent woman, hurt a child, and destroyed a family.
So, I just wonder what the punishment for this murderer is going to be. She was obviously out of her mind, trying to kill herself, but she failed that, and took someone else out with her. Will she get life in prison (which is what the prosecutor is looking for), or will she be able to cop out with an insanity plea?
And what kind of legal precident does that imply, if someone attempts suicide, and instead kills someone else? Will this be an easy out for people who want to murder someone, get in the car, "try" to commit suicide by running into a telephone pole, and accidently hit a pedestrian (who happens to be your most hated enemy) before hitting the pole, and claiming insanity because you were distracted by texting your suicide note on your cell phone to finish the job?
I will never understand why anyone would ever commit suicide, let alone do such a bad job of it to fail to take yourself, instead claiming another life. Is life for this 16 year old girl really that bad, when Dad will let her drive the Benz when she wants (to kill herself), and that she got rejected by some other chick. Hell, if I tried to off myself every time I was rejected by some woman, I would be dead many times over (as would pretty much every man in the world). Maybe this is a lesson for all of the budding lesbians, it isn't all chocolate and roses (or would that be Birkenstocks and flanel) when in the dating game, trying to get a woman to...well you know.
All in all, I do hope that this little rug muncher gets life in prision, where she can munch as much rug as Agnes in cell block A can provide her with. Then, maybe she will learn the lesson, that life is worth living, with the good and the bad, and that ending it in the most cowardly way is just that, the cowards way out.

Oh, and if you (my wonderful reader) takes offence to this, then you can just GKY*.
















*Go Kill Yourself

The Lowest Common Denominator

First of all, to all five of you who actually read this, I apologize for this rant, because it is a re-hash of an earlier post. But what the hell, it is the situation I am in right now, and I have a right to complain about it, right?

So I will get right down to it. The lowest common denominator. Used in math for addition of factors, where you figure out what number you must multiply your fractions by to get them to the same denominator, making it simple to sum them up. A simple process, one that a person who has the development beyond the 4th grade in elementary can understand. My question is, why do some people insist on teaching to the lowest common denominator? While attending this fine scholastic institution known as New Mexico State University, I have the pleasure of taking Physics for Engineers and Scientists...Basically a watered down version of vector algebra (which I am also taking at the same time, but that is beside the point). It is a class with 80-ish people in it, so no one gets much attention from the Ph.D. that instructs us. It is a Sophomore level class, intended to re-enforce other classes (of which you must have a good background in math to get into). There are university ordained guidelines to make sure that, say, and idiot from the education department could not take the class unless they were able to take Calculus, or another "high" math, so they have the background to take the class.
Well, it seems that the Physics department doesn't understand that people will come it with a working knowledge of trigonometry, i.e. how to figure out an angle, or the sides of a freaking triangle. We have been going over a vector problem in this class for 2 days (that is 2 hours), and we are barely through it. It isn't a hard problem, it is just that, well, they teach to the lowest common denominator.

Imagine if you will, you are learning something that is relatively new to you, let us say, how to build a bookcase. What would you expect to learn in this class? You may learn how to make certain cuts of wood (assume you are building it from scratch), measure out the pieces that you want, nail the damn things together, and then stain it (any carpenters out there, don't berate me for not explaining how to build a bookcase, this is a metaphor, not actual instructions). Well, what if, to learn how to build this bookcase, your class had 80 people in it, who have all taken (or learned in some way) how to build stuff with wood. You would assume that you will be able to learn how to build a bookcase in the first day, and then put a few together, learn some techniques for adding more features to your bookcase....doors, glass facing, lighting, etc....However, instead of the instructor assuming that you know what the hell a hammer is, he assumes that 5% of the class have no idea what a hammer, a nail, or even wood is. So, instead of going ahead, and teaching the 95% of people who have a clue (some may not know how to hammer very well, or some may be bad at staining, but all know what a hammer and nails are), said instructor decides to catch the lagging 5% up, and teach the basics.

This is a hammer, it is used to hammer nails into the wood. Remember what wood is? This is wood...yes Alex...no, that is plastic, this is wood.

You see how frustrating this would be, don't you?

I don't claim to be the smartest person in the world, but, for God's sake, please don't treat the majority of a friggin college level class like they are in the 1st grade. I felt like it was time for a snack and nap, right after finger painting, at the pace we were going.

Why are our colleges wasting time and money on allowing Ph.D.s to NOT teach 70-ish people, just because 10-ish shouldn't be in that class? I have noticed this, in the past 2 1/2 semesters I have enjoyed being at NMSU, that, any class that doesn't have ME before it, is a waste of time. They assume that people don't know anything at all about anything, and teach from there. I have an idea, just assume that I don't speak English, and then start teaching me the language in Physics class, so I can have a background when you start teaching the numbers, colors, and how to piss standing up.

I feel really sorry for some of these people that are going through this type of instruction, they are learning one thing only, that to get a degree, all you have to do is be the lowest common denominator and skate right on by. They will do great at their next job...."Would you like fries with that?"