Uh, no. Absolutely not.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Excepti...roves_the_rule

I don't know that most would know that Kamikaze attacks were a mission (i.e. from the get-go you will be crashing your plane into the enemy) rather than a tactic employed in combat (i.e. if you get shot/run out of ammo/get a wild hair up your ass crash your plane into the enemy). I asked a few of my friends (they're all pretty bright guys; top 5 law schools and top 3 mgmt. consulting firms; obviously not history scholars though) this question over the weekend and the general response was, "Were there not Kamikaze attacks during Pearl Harbor?" Alluding to my thought that they believed it was just another tactic to be employed in combat, rather than a mission directive. I think most people probably think that way.

I love the way people preen about this thread, stating with certainty, "You're wrong, EVERYBODY knows what really happened...", despite the fact that several people have since attested that they were similarly misinformed. Even as more and more of these misinformed people speak up with a "Gee, I guess I was wrong about that...", they're cut off by someone who assures me that EVERYBODY BUT ME knows what's what.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning-Kruger

As far as I'm concerned, I don't pretend to know what the general public knows about these matters. I pretty much disqualified myself from that discussion anyway because I have read many books on WWII and it is one of those things that I have known about as far back as I can recall. Taking a stab at it, I guess that the further you get from the West Coast, the less emphasis there is in teaching the PTO portion of WWII in depth.

Otherwise, I don't know. I will say that any general history narrative devoted to tracking the entire war will likely have a section about Kamikaze missions. I cannot recall reading one that didn't. It usually is introduced and treated between the battles for Iwo Jima and Okinawa.

I think this is interesting. I would think that part of the problem is that smarter people (and those with more relevant experience) tend to identify and appreciate more issues involved with tasks that can potentially lead to failure. Those who don't have as much intelligence or experience, tend to take a narrow approach as they see the problem in much simpler terms.

I have been in situations where I have seen really, really smart people get bogged down on projects because they overthink it and then lose confidence. At the same time, I have seen less intelligent people just start plugging along and getting the job done and being ready to move on to the next thing.

I guess in everyday life, most things are not that complicated and it is somewhat of a virtue to just move forward making the occasional mistake as opposed to overthinking things and never leaving the starting line. I think smarter people have to work hard to find a field that suits their intellect in order to become sucessful. I have seen a lot of really smart people just not able to make a go at anything because they lose their confidence and cannot really just get things moving forward.

True, because the first kamikazes were taken from the existing pilot group. But as the kamikaze program continued they trained newbies with minimal flying skills

I know. I was making a joke.

In any event, joke or not, one pronounced weakness of Japan is that they did not replace lost assets of skilled men and materiel very well. It some respects, they approached the war as if it presented a problem of static supplies and troops, and they plotted accordingly. The United States, on the other hand, make it a priority to keep changing the balance by introducing and readying as many assets as possible.

ahhhhh tytyty, I've always been super tilted by people using this phrase, glad to know that it actually used to mean something that made sense!

Yea that's pretty much it. Other than the classroom, I've never really had a discussion about what happened in Pearl Harbor. If WW2 is brought up as a topic, it's always about Germany. I asked 4 or 5 people over the weekend if they thought the attack was by kamikaze. Only 1 guy said no and he was a history major. The others assumed it was kamikaze.

I would think quite a few do after the release of Charlie Wilson's War.

"2007 boston bomb scare"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2007_Boston_bomb_scare

stupidity knows no bounds. apparently in 2007 lots of folks didnt know how to use google

Wow, this sums up the entire poker economy so perfectly.

Well said.

I personally have been in IT for 20+ years, and oh boy, do we see the Dunning-Kruger effect. One of the most annoying was smart peoples' assumption that they are as smart as anyone else. No, not the case. In fact, IQ is a logarithmic scale. Those extra IQ points count for a lot.

Also annoying, was the "smarter than the manager" posers who would make clearly bamboozling, phony, smart sounding sentences... We techies would go "WTF?!?!?" while the managers would go "Great point, Bob!! Joe, what should we do about OO-BGP over TCP/IP SNMP??!"

Speaking for myself, I'm confident I fall into the "paralysis through overthinking" crowd...

Elgin James - A leading member of the straight edge community, he helped form FSU, a gang of sorts that was originally created to deal with the ever increasing number of white-power skinhead gangs in the area of Boston where he resided.

After a short time in orphanages and foster homes, James (who is of mixed race) was raised by civil rights activists on a rural farm in the Northeast.[1] With a crop of marijuana in the backyard and alcohol and drug abuse in the house, James formed strong anti-drinking and anti-drug beliefs which later led him to be a pivotal figure in the 1990s militant straight edge movement within the punk subculture

James left juvenile hall, and inspired by civil rights attorneys William Kunstler and Morris Dees, left for Antioch College at age 17 to study pre-law. During a break in his first semester, he was involved in a gang fight and beaten in the back of the head with a baseball bat, which left him with left hemispheric brain damage.[4] He could not speak or move the right side of his body. After intensive physical and speech therapy he eventually recovered his speech and motor skills, but he ended up homeless, living on the streets and in squats across the country. Eventually he settled in Boston, Massachusetts

They started FSU (originally '**** **** Up', however it came to be known as 'Friends Stand United' or 'Forever Stand United'). They formed to fight back against the influx of white power skinhead gangs in the area.[5] Having successfully eliminated several neo-Nazi groups, James turned his attention to drug dealers,[6] going, in his words, “right after the heart of the enemy, money”.[7] He would rob drug dealers and then give half of that money to local charities.[5]

While part of FSU, using a tactic learned from the United States government,[8] James and other FSU members set up an "arms for hostages" scenario in which they traded handguns with inner city gang members for pit bulls used in dog fighting rings. The dogs would then be nursed back to health and fostered until safe homes were found for them.

While part of FSU, using a tactic learned from the United States government,[8] James and other FSU members set up an "arms for hostages" scenario in which they traded handguns with inner city gang members for pit bulls used in dog fighting rings. The dogs would then be nursed back to health and fostered until safe homes were found for them.

This is the dumbest ****ing thing I've ever read, and I LOVE dogs. What a moron.

Should name one of the dogs Hamsterdam imo

the boston authorities overreacted, but it was still stupid of the marketing company to put unauthorized advertising everywhere

I remember that, I think a friend of mine has one of the originals

I dunno about stupid, they certainly got a hell of a lot of media coverage!

i don't want to derail this thread with more tedious walls of text, so i'm looking for a one sentence answer here. who exactly do you think should have the power to 'authorize' expressions of speech and art?

I was playing a card game like Hearts or something, and one of my dimmer friends thought I was playing too slowly.

I explained to him, "I agonize over things you don't even consider."

So yeah, glad those science guys got around to that.

I never knew the original plans for Mount Rushmore called for entire upper bodies, not just heads.

Also never notice you can see they started George's jacket.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Rushmore

It's pretty ingenious if the aim is to get gang members to kill each other.