Care to answer any of these questions?

Remember when grandparents and  great-grandparents stated that they only had an 8th grade  education? Well, here is what you had to know in 1895.

This is the eighth-grade final exam from 1895 in Salina, Kansas , USA. It was taken from the original document on file at the Smokey Valley Genealogical Society and Library in Salina and reprinted by the Salina Journal.   

8th Grade Final Exam:
Salina, KS - 1895  
Grammar  (Time, one hour)
1. Give nine rules for the use of capital letters.
2. Name  the parts of speech and define those that have no modifications
3. Define verse, stanza  and paragraph
4. What are the  principal parts of a verb? Give principal parts of 'lie,''play,' and 'run.'
5. Define case;  illustrate each case.
6 What is punctuation? Give rules for  principal marks of punctuation.
7 - 10. Write a composition of  about 150 words and show therein that you understand the practical  use of the rules of grammar.
  
Arithmetic  (Time,1 hour 15  minutes)
1. Name and define the Fundamental Rules of Arithmetic.
2.  A wagon box is 2 ft. Deep, 10 feet long, and 3 ft. Wide. How many  bushels of wheat will it hold?
3. If a load of wheat weighs  3,942 lbs., what is it worth at 50cts/bushel, deducting 1,050  lbs. For  tare?
4. District No 33 has a valuation of $35,000.  What is the necessary levy to carry on a school seven months at  $50 per month, and have $104 for incidentals?
5. Find the cost  of 6,720 lbs. Coal at $6.00 per ton.
6. Find the interest of  $512.60 for 8 months and 18 days at 7 percent.
7. What is the  cost of 40 boards 12 inches wide and 16 ft.. Long at $20 per  metre?
8. Find bank discount on $300 for 90 days  (no grace) at 10 percent.
9. What is the cost of a square farm  at $15 per acre, the distance of which is 640 rods?
10. Write  a Bank Check, a Promissory Note, and a Receipt
  
U.S.  History (Time, 45 minutes)  1. Give the epochs into  which U.S. History is divided
2.  Give an account of the discovery of America by Columbus
3. Relate the causes and  results of the Revolutionary War.
4. Show the territorial  growth of the United States
5. Tell what you can of  the history of Kansas
6. Describe three of the  most prominent battles of the Rebellion.
7. Who were the  following: Morse, Whitney, Fulton, Bell, Lincoln, Penn, and Howe?
8. Name events connected with the following dates: 1607, 1620,  1800, 1849, 1865.
  
Orthography  (Time, one hour)  [Do we even  know what this is??]
1. What is meant by the following: alphabet, phonetic,  orthography, etymology, syllabication
2. What are elementary sounds? How classified?
3.  What are the following, and give examples of each: trigraph, subvocals, diphthong, cognate letters,  linguals
4. Give four substitutes for caret 'u.' (HUH?)
5.  Give two rules for spelling words with final 'e.' Name two exceptions under each rule.
6. Give two uses of silent letters  in spelling. Illustrate each.
7. Define the following prefixes and use in connection with a word: bi, dis-mis, pre, semi, post, non, inter, mono, sup.
8. Mark  diacritically and divide into syllables the following, and name  the sign that indicates the sound: card, ball, mercy, sir, odd, cell, rise, blood, fare, last..
9.  Use the following correctly in sentences: cite, site, sight, fane, fain, feign, vane, vain, vein, raze, raise, rays.
10. Write 10 words frequently mispronounced and indicate pronunciation by use of diacritical marks
And by syllabication.
 
Geography  (Time, one hour)
1 What is climate? Upon  what does climate depend?
2. How do you account for the extremes of climate in Kansas  ?
3. Of what use are  rivers? Of what use is the ocean?
4. Describe the mountains of North America
5. Name and describe the  following: Monrovia, Odessa, Denver, Manitoba, Hecla, Yukon, St. Helena, Juan Fernandez, Aspinwall and Orinoco
6. Name and locate  the principal trade centers of the U.S. Name all the republics of Europe and give the capital of each.
8. Why is the Atlantic Coast colder than the  Pacific in the same latitude?
9. Describe the process by which  the water of the ocean returns to the sources of rivers.
10.  Describe the movements of the earth. Give the inclination of the  earth.
The student were given five hours to complete the exam, and gives the saying 'he only had an 8th grade education' a whole new  meaning.

Tea Party People

Yeah, they confuse me. I mean, seriously, where have these people been?!? I read an article in the NYTimes about said tea party-ers here and it got me seriously thinking about these people...who are they and where did they come from, primarily. So, I started doing some math.

1960--the beginning of the wild times when just about everything changed in the US. Welcome in the generation that ends with love, sex, and drugs, JFK and LBJ and eventually protesters of the Vietnam war. So, pretty much our baby boomers People who in 1970 were about 20 years old. 40 years later, these people are about 60. For some of us, these are our parents, for others, our grandparents (by us I mean the 20 year olds of today).

But for some reason, I don't see a bunch of Vietnam draft burners being the primary "out of the woodwork" movers and shakers of the Tea Party Movement. And I'm going to put all my money down that at least 50% of the Tea Party Movement (with me being conservative, because my gut says closer to 70%) are right around 45 years old.

And I think I'm right. Glenn Beck comes in right at 46 years old. The "Alex P. Keaton" generation, I'm going to start calling it. Think about it. In 1984 these kids were turning 20 years old, entering college and everything was about "The Reagan". Republicanism was the "it thing" to combat the hippies that are their parents. What are the most beloved movies of the 1980s? The "Brat Pack"--a bunch of upper middle class suburban yuppies whose biggest fear is to belong to the wrong clique in high school. If I was a 45 year old member of the Tea Party Movement I would HAVE to agree with this analysis because otherwise, they are just a bunch of uninformed ignorant soccer moms and accountants who have NO idea what they are actually doing.

THIS is the problem with the Tea Party People--where the hell were you 10 years ago?!? Where were you 6 years ago?! IF they are for a more fiscal conservative government, why was it okay for Bush to be reelected in 2004?--they claim today that they disagree with his increasing the national debt for the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, but I guess that didn't matter 6 years ago. I guess the fact that the government was allowing businesses to pull the crap that they did to set the stage for the financial meltdown 10 years ago wasn't so important. I think I'm more worried about the fact that these people are suddenly getting into the whole politics scene than about what they actually stand for. It's like, where were you when your 16 year old kids asked you why you could vote for a person like that back in 2004?

I do support the Tea Party Movement (as you will hear true from most 20 year old democratic-libertarians) HOWEVER! Those who think like me, and I tend to think of myself as a very moderate central leaning person of the majority, will tell you that we do NOT agree with destroying the US government as it was established 230 years ago. The system is as perfect as it can be, given the fact that people are greedy and sometimes stupid beings. There MUST be checks and balances and all the rest that our system incorporates. The problem? It's the same problem as 1910--PLEASE watch "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington". It's a bunch of Fat, Greedy Cats who are doing what they can to make a quick buck while pretending to represent their constituents. If you want to reform Washington, you have to send honorable people there. It's not impeaching one man who HASN'T DONE ANYTHING! I don't understand this whole call to reform the presidency when REALLY Congress has ALL the power. Will I say that Obama has failed to pass anything of any importance? Yes. Why couldn't he pass anything? Congress. Why is the Health Care Bill full of tons of (literal) shit? Obama didn't write it (and he sure as hell better not sign it as is)--Congress did.

You show me a congress willing to accept term limits and who will take a pay cut and I'll show you a better Federal Government. Quit focusing on who will be president in 2012 (*cough, I'm not voting for Palin even if I have to vote Satan instead)--focus on the fact that guys have been serving 35 terms and DYING in office--really--have they made your life ANY better?

Finally. An excellent idea.

 I just read this article and I'm quite impressed.

By the way, my 10th grade class (gosh, 5 years ago) also agreed with me when I mentioned that this is how high school is run in many other countries.

"Money" is just paper.

I'm totally going to buy my new computer with cowry shells. Seriously, though, how rich do you think those poor people would be if they could actually "sell" their actual worth? I honestly think a carpenter is worth more than a CEO, but that's just me and my love of the barter system as the way to undermine the big banks.

http://www.theonion.com/content/news/u_s_economy_grinds_to_halt_as

Q/A with professor about Global Warming

1st off, this starts out reading like some of the labs I wrote in Ecology and will write in other Envi. Sci. courses. "Statistically Significant" is the bane of my existence--I hated statistics when I took it and I hate trying to remember (i.e. not screw up) whether a number bigger than alpha means it's significant or whether it's supposed to be lower than alpha to be significant. And seriously, just because a number isn't statistically significant doesn't mean that it isn't a hell of a lot close enough to be so.

As for the "trick" seems to me that taking KNOWN inaccurate data out of the mix. In other words he was using tree-ring data which did not correspond with known data measured by instruments, so there was obviously an error in the tree-ring data which is much harder to measure accurately. Trust me, I know a LOT about inaccurate data gathering, which is why I don't plan to become a real scientist.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8511670.stm

Jon Stewart on The Factor

Definitely should be watched. I still think Jon gets a WIN. O'Reilly won't let Jon speak. Like every time Jon says something important, O'Reilly talks over him/brings up something stupid.

The customer is always right...

...sometimes. I've heard the old adage numerous times throughout my life. The closest chain pizza shop to my house had 2 rules behind the counter: "#1 The Customer is always right. #2, see #1."

So, imagine my surprise when I came across this site which gives anecdotes of all the stupid stuff shop workers, tech support, etc. go through on an almost daily. But this site thrives on how dumb people can be.

I was quite surprised to read this article which talks about service in France where equality is a must.

I guess it all centers around the fact that service workers are people too and no one should take this common statement to much to heart. Sometimes the customer isn't right and sometimes the worker is just plain rude.

American's Charged for Child Trafficking in Haiti

Yeah, what a bunch of Dumb-A$$es. Seriously, there is NOTHING that differentiates them from other child traffickers--hence the importance of PAPERWORK!! Just another case of overenthusiastic volunteers who think they can change the world without having a CLUE as to how to do it! Yeah, I've had experiences with that type of person who has no concept of reality. I have my own healthy dose of naivete, but at least I know that while it may seem stupid to an overall good person, there is a reason behind the madness. There can't be a double standard for those who "claim" good intentions, because no child trafficker is going to say "hey, I'm just going to take your kid and sell him into slave labor". 

However, I am surprised to hear that they got charged, but then again, what they did is against a clear law--that there must be proper paperwork to cross country lines with children which are not yours. Maybe this will be a WIN for the common sense movement. So, to end, good luck ladies. Sorry about your situation, but you really should have known better. Hopefully your sentence isn't too tough and will keep other people like you from  trying the same dumb act.

Charging MPs for theft in the UK.

So, how come we don't have this kind of control over OUR congressmen?!?!

A new way to think about marriage.

Being gay in China tells the stories of 3 men in China about their experiences as being gay there.

Funny. So many people who are so deathly afraid of allowing gay marriage would ALSO be terrified that the government would put such a restriction on people's lives as China does.


Here's an American blogger's view on internet in China. As I have a friend currently stuck behind the great firewall in China, it isn't a myth that sites are blocked. I'm just glad that she isn't in this specific area--where she is is much more open.

***
With the recent start to get rid of "Don't ask, Don't tell", I was quite happy to see this letter from a gay pilot who is in the process of being unfairly discharged. I hope that this will finally bring to light the fact that not every gay is a "flamer" and that most are just like straights in their life goals, etc--it's just who they want to be romantically with that is different.