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Parents Baffled By Science Questions
Pickens writes "The BBC reports that four out of five parents living in the UK have been stumped by a science question posed by their children with the top three most-asked questions: 'Where do babies come from?', 'What makes a rainbow?' and 'Why is the sky blue?'. The survey was carried out to mark the launch of a new website by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills called Science: So what? So everything."
In the UK?!
Why, I'll bet we Americans could get stumped even easier!! take that, britian!
She blinded me with SCIENCE!
“Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
Everyone knows the stork drops them off. Duh.
Yes. Geography to be specific. Croydon to be precise.
No folly is more costly than the folly of intolerant idealism. - Winston Churchill
Actually, intercourse is considered uncouth by Britons. Hence, they all adopt, but rarely stop to question where the babies come from in the first place. Curious, isn't it?
FTSummary:
Where do babies come from?
From the sixties:
Some parents asked their son, "What do you want for Christmas?"
He said, "I want a watch."
So they let him.
How did we learn about things before google?
Sleep your way to a whiter smile...date a dentist!
There is no way that children in Britain think blue is the colour of the sky.
Her dad is not a turkey baster. Her dad is a wanker.
Geography to be specific. Croydon to be precise.
Alternatively:
Genealogy. The milkman to be precise.
"Well honey, would you like to see a live demonstration?" would be unwise to say to a child.
how is babby formed?
how girl get pragnent?
The answer to "rainbow" and "sky blue" is "refraction", so I'm guessing that's probably where babies come from as well.
The World Wide Web is dying. Soon, we shall have only the Internet.
You left out the absolute best one.
This isn't bad either.
"I assumed blithely that there were no elves out there in the darkness"
They are used up on the last story, about Googles GFS, making every lame comment funny/
If our elected representatives no longer represent us, do we still live in a Democracy?
Soylent Green?
This is not the funny you're looking for.
However, surely parents should have a certain amount of... familiarity with the answer to, "where do babies come from?"
Huh? Why would they? Its not like they get to chat with the stork when the baby is dropped off.
I swear, if I hear ANYONE say, "LOOK, A MONKEY!" again and point to an orangutan or gorilla I'm going to kill someone.
I've also heard penguins being called fish, Bats called birds and just about anything small and furry, mice.
Some people don't need any animal classification beyond "fish - meat - not food".
Actually, when I read about anyone who was educated in 1800-1950, I feel like a complete ignoramus.
Any guest worker system is indistinguishable from indentured servitude.
When I asked my mother where I came from, she said, "Cleveland."
I will give you the gift of science but curse you with such poor spelling nobody will pay any attention to what you say because they are too incandescent with rage. *evil laughter*
If all else fails, immortality can always be assured by spectacular error.
They'd try WolframAlpha.
That's it!
Maybe Computers will never be as intelligent as Humans.
For sure they won't ever become so stupid. [VR-1988]
And yes, I am a quantum optics physicist.
No, the biggest problem is that, especially in the US, people have moved beyond simply being ignorant about science and OK with it. We now have a sizable cohort that are PROUD that they are stupid. They point towards an extension of Heinlein's famous quote:
Given what I've seen of my fellow Americans lately, I'm not sure about any of the three positive points at the end. Many of the "proud to be ignorant" crowd fail on all three categories...
Not to mention, display a good amount of passion in passing on that knowledge and hope some of it rubs off.
(Dangerous mentioning rubbing and passion on /.)
'Thats they exact same thing a banana wrench monkey.'
I first read this as "Where do babies come from? From the sixties!"
Meta will eat itself
so there's more space left over for American Idol [...] I can't think of any reason it would be any different in the UK.
Maybe they prefer Pop Idol ?
Did she apologise after that?
If I point out that you are incorrect, making me a foe does not make you any more correct.
My great-grandparents and grandparents were educated in the 1800-1950. How do you feel now?
-dZ.
Carol vs. Ghost
Sounds like someone else needs to watch the DVD. :)
how is babby formed?
how girl get pragnent?
How come I don't learn English in school even though it's my country's official language ?
No wonder parents are baffled. They can't understand WTF their children are talking about.
"Honey ? Timmy asked me about those "babby" things again this morning"
"You too ? I tried looking it up but I couldn't find anything."
"It's probably part of this advanced science curriculum they have nowadays, we'll never be able to help our kids with such exotic topics being taught in schools, what were they thinking of !"
"Couldn't they do simple things like human reproduction, particle spin, muons, halting states and how to meet girls ?"
"We're so out of our league... we have to face it, we're old."
May contain traces of nut.
Made from the freshest electrons.
Is the question "Where do babies come from?" really a science question?
Ever heard of biology? You fuck!
Fixed that for ya!
Quidnam Latine loqui modo coepi?
How did we learn about things before google?
My folks had an Encyclopedia set. The World Book Encyclopedia. When we learned about sperm and eggs and embryos and fetuses in school, I became curious as to how the man's sperm got into the woman. Not only was I curious, I was concerned. I certainly didn't want something like that happening: fathering a child simply by kissing a girl or holding her hand, so I figured I better find out before I got in trouble. So I pulled out the first "S" volume.
The article on "Sex" (human) starts out quite dry enough, describing relationships between the sexes and how they develop and change as children mature. It discusses dating and marriage and religious and social influences on intersexual relationships. Then finally the mechanics. As I recall, the description read like this: "A man and woman lie close together. The man places his penis inside the woman's vagina." This made a real impression on me: I figured I'd have to do quite a bit of growing before I could lie down next to a woman, take hold of my penis, and pull it over to the her vagina and plug it in like an extension cord! I was a little disappointed by how dull this sounded, but at the same time relieved that I wouldn't be accidentally spreading my genes around by casual contact.
I am not a crackpot.
Silly! The sky is blue because it is daytime. If it were night time, the sky would be black.
Babies come from the hospital and rainbows from the ground (they arch up into the sky, and then come back down to the ground - rainbows, that is, not babies).
I am anarch of all I survey.
n = 1, way to be scientifically minded (and n = "your mom" is hilarious)
They haven't used storks since 1973 when the Ciconiiformes Rights Protection Act was passed. Nowadays the baby is usually sent by first-class mail.