[Politics] Are you able to do mental arithmetic as good as Americans?

[Guinness Boy]

Strangely, Diane Abbott didn't cross my mind as this was nothing like the interview with her.

What crossed my mind was "I bet some lazy ***wit mentions Diane Abbott" and I wasn't disappointed. Credit to Stat for laying an almost crodo-esque trap.

 

[Super Steve Earle]

That's unfair on Diane I doubt she would have been that far adrift of the correct answer.

However on a serious note, mental arithmetic is quickly becoming a lost skill. I've lost count of the number of times I've been given a print out of a spread sheet and immediately said these figures are wrong, to be told that they must be right because Excel worked them out.
A quick look at the figures and a sense check with mental arithmetic would tell you that the figures are wrong and therefore the formula used needs correcting.

But people are so used to using calculators and spreadsheets mental arithmetic is a lost skill (to many people)

Must admit I like to amuse myself from time to time by adding up my weekly shopping in my head as I go round the store to see how close I am to the bill at the checkout. It's the loose fruit and veg that messes me up, but I'm usually within a pound or so.

 

[Bakero]

Must admit I like to amuse myself from time to time by adding up my weekly shopping in my head as I go round the store to see how close I am to the bill at the checkout. It's the loose fruit and veg that messes me up, but I'm usually within a pound or so.

I find that whenever I go to the supermarket the bill is about 28 euro, whatever I buy. Doesn't matter if I'm picking up a few more expensive items that day, it somehow balances out. Perhaps, I'm subconsciously adding it up as I go.

 

[Harry Wilson's tackle]

Nonsense. Diane Abbot is famous for that awful interview she did when she got her numbers all mixed up. Which has nothing to do with her being black. I immediately thought of Diane Abbot when I saw it, and the colour of her skin didn't register at all. The people who immediately make the black connection are the ones who are the racists in these situations.

That's utter cobblers, mate, and you should know it. As posted elsewhere that was nothing like the Abbott interview, and the elephant in the room for anyone making a 'connection' is 'black woman on the telly'. And as I said, what about the white man on the telly who was absolutely on the same page with her?

I say all that as someone who really, really dislikes Abbott as a politician, cringed at her car crash interviews, her two faced attitude to private education, her 'playing the race card' which she has done, and her support for gormless Corbyn. That said I quite liked her TV chat with her old college mate, Portillo, though. Not everything is.....black and....white

 

[Commander]

Strangely, Diane Abbott didn't cross my mind as this was nothing like the interview with her.

That's fine, but that doesn't make someone who did think of her a racist. A TV interview with someone who gets her numbers completely wrong, who is the first person that would spring to your mind? If you said that to me without me seeing this interview (or God forbid, the colour of the woman's skin who was being interviewed) I'd automatically say Diane Abbot. And I'm some way from being a rabid Corbyn / Abbot hating, frothing-at-the mouth Tory.

The constant obsession of people desperately looking for offence somewhere in this country completely trivialise genuine racism / homophobia / sexism etc. It has the absolute opposite effect that people want it to.

 

[Commander]

That's utter cobblers, mate, and you should know it. As posted elsewhere that was nothing like the Abbott interview, and the elephant in the room for anyone making a 'connection' is 'black woman on the telly'. And as I said, what about the white man on the telly who was absolutely on the same page with her?

I say all that as someone who really, really dislikes Abbott as a politician, cringed at her car crash interviews, her two faced attitude to private education, her 'playing the race card' which she has done, and her support for gormless Corbyn. That said I quite liked her TV chat with her old college mate, Portillo, though. Not everything is.....black and....white

No it isn't. I can genuinely say that I watched that 30 second clip and it didn't register who had what skin colour. The only reason I know the guy was white is because people have mentioned it a few times since. If you'd have asked me afterwards who was black and who was white I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have known for sure. Maybe I'm just unobservant? Or maybe I'm just not racist. Not everybody is desperately looking to find offence in everything!

 

[neilbard]

In fairness to the pair of them, if someone 'authoratitive' posts a tweet like that you don't neccessarily check the numbers. [MENTION=435]Stat Brother[/MENTION] would. I probably would. But we are old cynics.

When I was 10, at St Nick's in Portslade, our teacher, Mr Stone wrote two words on the blackboard and asked us one by one to read out the words. These are the words:

Untied Diaries.

At the time, all the milk we bought, sold via the milk marketing board, was sold by the nationalised company United Dairies

Naturally the first kid said 'United Dairies'. And ever other kid bar one followed suit. That kid was not me. The girl in question went red in the face, and said 'Untied Dairies' (half right).

The entire class laughed at her. Until, at the end, Mr Stone pointed out that the whole class, bar her, were lazy minded sheep, mugs, and the sort of virmin who were responsible for Hitler taking over (I may have slightly exaggerated that last bit, but you get my drift).

Dianne Abbey (which, coincidentally, was her name), wherever you are, hats off.

I said 'Untried Deities'

 

[Wozza]

That's fine, but that doesn't make someone who did think of her a racist. A TV interview with someone who gets her numbers completely wrong, who is the first person that would spring to your mind? If you said that to me without me seeing this interview (or God forbid, the colour of the woman's skin who was being interviewed) I'd automatically say Diane Abbot.

And why do you think the Diane Abbot incident is so infamous?!

Why do you think of her first rather than, say, the Tory minister who once got his figures wrong by £20,000,000,000 in a radio interview?

 

[Gwylan]

And why do you think the Diane Abbot incident is so infamous?!

Why do you think of her first rather than, say, the Tory minister who once got his figures wrong by £20,000,000,000 in a radio interview?

Or, rather more pertinently (as this about mental arithmetic) Stephen Byers or Nick Gibbs who, as education ministers, couldn't do simple multiplication? (hint: Byers and Gibb are both white men)

 

[The Optimist]

In fairness to the pair of them, if someone 'authoratitive' posts a tweet like that you don't neccessarily check the numbers.

If the answer is as absurd as $1m per American then you really should check the numbers!

 

[Blackadder]

But they're all richer than us.

The American rich are certainly richer than our rich.

The American poor are considerably poorer than our poor.

Damn those yanks, always beating us at everything!

 

[Thunder Bolt]

Nonsense. Diane Abbot is famous for that awful interview she did when she got her numbers all mixed up. Which has nothing to do with her being black. I immediately thought of Diane Abbot when I saw it, and the colour of her skin didn't register at all. The people who immediately make the black connection are the ones who are the racists in these situations.

You are right, she did get her numbers all mixed up (not completely wrong as you go on to post in subsequent posts)

It has also been explained many times, that Abbot is a diabetic, and did that interview when her blood sugar was low, which can affect mental agility, temporarily, but people find it hilarious to continue taking the mickey out of her.

I don't think it's so much because she is black but because she is a woman (just my opinion).

 

[father_and_son]

What stuns me is that this must have been read by multiple people in the studio beyond the original researcher and the two presenters and yet no-one has chimed in with "hang on, that doesn't sound right". Nor has anyone read the many replies to the tweet which must have challenged the maths. This isn't so much a failure of mental arithmetic but a shocking exposé of shoddy journalism.

 

[marcos3263]

In fairness to the pair of them, if someone 'authoratitive' posts a tweet like that you don't neccessarily check the numbers. [MENTION=435]Stat Brother[/MENTION] would. I probably would. But we are old cynics.

When I was 10, at St Nick's in Portslade, our teacher, Mr Stone wrote two words on the blackboard and asked us one by one to read out the words. These are the words:

Untied Diaries.

At the time, all the milk we bought, sold via the milk marketing board, was sold by the nationalised company United Dairies

Naturally the first kid said 'United Dairies'. And ever other kid bar one followed suit. That kid was not me. The girl in question went red in the face, and said 'Untied Dairies' (half right).

The entire class laughed at her. Until, at the end, Mr Stone pointed out that the whole class, bar her, were lazy minded sheep, mugs, and the sort of virmin who were responsible for Hitler taking over (I may have slightly exaggerated that last bit, but you get my drift).

Dianne Abbey (which, coincidentally, was her name), wherever you are, hats off.

aren't good teachers fantastic! I remember my old History teacher Mr Harding and a lesson he once did when he was covering religious studies. He took a kid into a side room and told then a great little story about a knight and his mission on the crusades, then he left the room and another kid went in and was retold the same story from memory, the Chinese whispers continued until the last kid had to retell the teacher the story which was written down. The difference between the original and the last was amazing with names, dates etc changed and the story completely altered.

His conclusion was that the bible was made up bollox which was brilliant from a history teacher but undermined the lesson somewhat.

And before you ask, no he didnt touch the kid

 

[Thunder Bolt]

aren't good teachers fantastic! I remember my old History teacher Mr Harding and a lesson he once did when he was covering religious studies. He took a kid into a side room and told then a great little story about a knight and his mission on the crusades, then he left the room and another kid went in and was retold the same story from memory, the Chinese whispers continued until the last kid had to retell the teacher the story which was written down. The difference between the original and the last was amazing with names, dates etc changed and the story completely altered.

His conclusion was that the bible was made up bollox which was brilliant from a history teacher but undermined the lesson somewhat.

And before you ask, no he didnt touch the kid

His conclusion was wrong and just his opinion. Hebrew and Greek are still in use today, and are very much written languages. Being a Scribe in bibiblical times was a valuable career. The Dead Sea scrolls found in 1948 contained copies of parchment which said exactly the same thing as Isaiah in the bible therefore confirming it.

Even oral traditions like African languages are fairly accurate. Have you read Roots, where Alex Haley traced his ancestor back to the town where ****e Kinte came from? The renowned Gnot in the Gambian village related exactly the same thing Alex had heard from his older family.

 

[father_and_son]

His conclusion was wrong and just his opinion. Hebrew and Greek are still in use today, and are very much written languages. Being a Scribe in bibiblical times was a valuable career. The Dead Sea scrolls found in 1948 contained copies of parchment which said exactly the same thing as Isaiah in the bible therefore confirming it.

Even oral traditions like African languages are fairly accurate. Have you read Roots, where Alex Haley traced his ancestor back to the town where ****e Kinte came from? The renowned Gnot in the Gambian village related exactly the same thing Alex had heard from his older family.

Doesn't negate the original point though.

 

[GT49er]

His conclusion was wrong and just his opinion. Hebrew and Greek are still in use today, and are very much written languages. Being a Scribe in bibiblical times was a valuable career. The Dead Sea scrolls found in 1948 contained copies of parchment which said exactly the same thing as Isaiah in the bible therefore confirming it.

Even oral traditions like African languages are fairly accurate. Have you read Roots, where Alex Haley traced his ancestor back to the town where ****e Kinte came from? The renowned Gnot in the Gambian village related exactly the same thing Alex had heard from his older family.

Did you mean to edit ****a Kinte's name with asterisks, or was that NSC's bad-words filter playing silly buggers?

Edit: having seen my question once I'd posted it, I now know!

 

[Bakero]

Did you mean to edit ****a Kinte's name with asterisks, or was that NSC's bad-words filter playing silly buggers?

Edit: having seen my question once I'd posted it, I now know!

Why the **** can't we write ****a Kinte?

 

[Thunder Bolt]

Did you mean to edit ****a Kinte's name with asterisks, or was that NSC's bad-words filter playing silly buggers?

Edit: having seen my question once I'd posted it, I now know!

Yes I realised when my post had gone through. I should have called him Kinte Kinte.
I don't think we can write that LIncolnshire football team either.

 

[A mex eyecan]

But they're all richer than us.

well that all will be when they get their expected 1 million , FFS what a bunch of dumb asses