Invisible <voi### [at] devnull> wrote:
> To be fair, while the US is legendary for stupidity, there are plenty of 
> stupid people in other countries too. Visit any shop while the computers 
> are down and watch the poor checkout girl struggle to compute £2.99 + 
> £4.85. Watch, and sigh.

  Can you blame them?

  When was the last time you wrote something on paper with a pen, other
than your name / other personal information / signature?

-- 
                                                          - Warp

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On 04/10/2011 08:21 PM, Warp wrote:
> Invisible<voi### [at] devnull>  wrote:
>> To be fair, while the US is legendary for stupidity, there are plenty of
>> stupid people in other countries too. Visit any shop while the computers
>> are down and watch the poor checkout girl struggle to compute £2.99 +
>> £4.85. Watch, and sigh.
>
>    Can you blame them?

Um, YES?



(Also... what's up with the character encoding?)

>    When was the last time you wrote something on paper with a pen, other
> than your name / other personal information / signature?

Lamentably, about 2 hours ago...

(I'm required to write often quite verbose items of data for 
documentation purposes on a regular basis.)

-- 
http://blog.orphi.me.uk/
http://www.zazzle.com/MathematicalOrchid*

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On 04/10/2011 8:21 PM, Warp wrote:
> Invisible<voi### [at] devnull>  wrote:
>> To be fair, while the US is legendary for stupidity, there are plenty of
>> stupid people in other countries too. Visit any shop while the computers
>> are down and watch the poor checkout girl struggle to compute £2.99 +
>> £4.85. Watch, and sigh.
>
>    Can you blame them?
>

Yes, the above sum is mental arithmetic. It does not need pencil and paper.

>    When was the last time you wrote something on paper with a pen, other
> than your name / other personal information / signature?
>
For me it was a shopping list a couple of hours ago. Also I often make 
drawings at work to either clear my mind or to explain something.

-- 
Regards
     Stephen

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On Tue, 04 Oct 2011 15:21:46 -0400, Warp wrote:

> Invisible <voi### [at] devnull> wrote:
>> To be fair, while the US is legendary for stupidity, there are plenty
>> of stupid people in other countries too. Visit any shop while the
>> computers are down and watch the poor checkout girl struggle to compute
>> £2.99 + £4.85. Watch, and sigh.
> 
>   Can you blame them?
> 
>   When was the last time you wrote something on paper with a pen, other
> than your name / other personal information / signature?

Well, I can't speak for Andy, but I do nearly every day.  I use a 
dayplanner and when I have many tasks to do, I find it an easier way to 
track stuff - and I don't have to worry about the battery dying on me.

Jim

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Orchid XP v8 <voi### [at] devnull> wrote:
> >    When was the last time you wrote something on paper with a pen, other
> > than your name / other personal information / signature?

> Lamentably, about 2 hours ago...

  I don't remember when was the last time I wrote something on paper.

-- 
                                                          - Warp

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On 04/10/2011 09:25 PM, Warp wrote:
> Orchid XP v8<voi### [at] devnull>  wrote:
>>>     When was the last time you wrote something on paper with a pen, other
>>> than your name / other personal information / signature?
>
>> Lamentably, about 2 hours ago...
>
>    I don't remember when was the last time I wrote something on paper.

In addition: I quite often write formulas on paper. It's much quicker to 
do algebra on paper than try to fight some computer software to make it 
produce mathematical notation.

-- 
http://blog.orphi.me.uk/
http://www.zazzle.com/MathematicalOrchid*

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On 10/4/2011 12:21, Warp wrote:
>    When was the last time you wrote something on paper with a pen, other
> than your name / other personal information / signature?

I take pen and paper notes all the time, myself.

-- 
Darren New, San Diego CA, USA (PST)
   How come I never get only one kudo?

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On 04/10/2011 08:39 PM, Stephen wrote:
> On 04/10/2011 8:21 PM, Warp wrote:
>> Invisible<voi### [at] devnull> wrote:
>>> To be fair, while the US is legendary for stupidity, there are plenty of
>>> stupid people in other countries too. Visit any shop while the computers
>>> are down and watch the poor checkout girl struggle to compute £2.99 +
>>> £4.85. Watch, and sigh.
>>
>> Can you blame them?
>>
>
> Yes, the above sum is mental arithmetic. It does not need pencil and paper.

To be fair, if there were a few more items, you'd probably need to write 
it down just to keep track of it all. But two pencil sharpeners which 

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On 05/10/2011 8:55 AM, Invisible wrote:
>>> Can you blame them?
>>>
>>
>> Yes, the above sum is mental arithmetic. It does not need pencil and
>> paper.
>
> To be fair, if there were a few more items, you'd probably need to write
> it down just to keep track of it all. But two pencil sharpeners which



blame.

-- 
Regards
     Stephen

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>> To be fair, if there were a few more items, you'd probably need to write
>> it down just to keep track of it all. But two pencil sharpeners which

>

> blame.

Um... part of the job of the education system is to teach people who to 
do arithmetic. If people can't do arithmetic, that's *totally* within 
the failure of the system!

Although arguably our culture deserves part of the blame. It seems we 
live in an age where possessing intelligence or skill is seen as 
pointless and stupid. Only losers are good at maths, right? *Real* 
people win stuff on game shows, and that's the thing to aspire to...

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