Heath Ledger and the Decay of our Society

[Bogie]

You know, more folks probably are following the whole "movie star tragedy" thing than are following the election...
 
And I have a theory about the 911 calls, or delay thereof...

I'm guessing that the service drone had received strict instructions to talk to NOBODY about anything that happened in the dwelling. ANYTHING. And likely was being paid quite well for the silence.
 
However, since the service drone was likely a member of our public school system, any thing new, or actually requiring decision making capabilities are out of her hands. I'd call 911. You'd call 911. But there's a lot of folks who'll go "Hey, I should call The Boss, and see what I should do about this."
 
Jen's got a twelve year old, and I'm getting a lot of the "Well, I don't know" about common sense stuff... So, lately I've been forcing encouraging her to do unfamiliar stuff... She got a stereo a little while ago, and like, those wires were just too much... So I sit down, and started going "Okay - it's got a red and a black plug - and there's red and black things over there - how do you think that works?" It's like they don't teach deductive reasoning or something...
 
Kid's an A student. I'm not going to do stuff for her. But I'm happy to talk her through doing it herself - Maybe she can figure some stuff out...

[Regolith]

Depending on TOD, the drone's reaction time probably wouldn't have mattered.  From what I understand, he was taking sleeping pills because he had a bad chest cold and couldn't sleep.  Accidental overdose on sleeping pills + difficulty breathing = asphyxiation, and if he was taking sleeping pills it means he likely wasn't expecting company for several hours, which is a long time given your brain dies within 10 minutes with no oxygen.

But yeah, it's still baffling why she called someone other than 911 three times before actually summoning an ambulance.  Mind boggling.

Personally, I try to go out of my way to learn how to do certain things so I can be more self sufficient, and so I'm not caught like a deer in the headlights.  First aid classes, independent research, provisions for self defense or emergencies, etc.  A lot of my peers couldn't give a rats ass, though, and can't be bothered.  They figure they'll always be able to pay someone else to do it for them, so they don't bother to learn.  And if it doesn't effect them directly or they believe it will never effect them directly, its not even on the radar.

[Manedwolf]

People who take too many sleeping pills can die from something as dumb as suffocating in their pillow. Normally, if you're on your face and you can't get enough air, you will reflexively turn your head to get your nose out of the pillow...but too many sedatives can prevent that.

[seeker_two]

Ledger's COD sounds a lot like my first blackout......heavy dose of codine-laced medication plus coughing spell plus positional asphixiation equals potential life-threatening situation. If my wife hadn't been there, I could have ended the same way.

The hired help probably did what they were told to do....call an Olsen twin if something is wrong. And finding a dead body where a live Hollywood actor was supposed to be falls in that category. Also, most managers/agents would want to get ahead of the press on this news. Hence, no 911 called until way too late.

Bogie is right, though. Most kids today are not taught deductive reasoning in school or at home. Schools teach "the test" (the test that gets schools their funding, not reviews how well students are taught), and many parents let the mainstream media educate their kids. Scary thought.....

[Jamisjockey]

I've made my mission and goal to positively mentor and teach my children.  My 4 year old son knows what ingerity is, as an example.
Most of the publicly educated mouth breathers in whats left of our society can't spell integrity much less define it.

[K Frame]

"My 4 year old son knows what ingerity is"

Unfortunately, none of the rest of of us know what ingerity is...

[Declaration Day]

Jen's got a twelve year old, and I'm getting a lot of the "Well, I don't know" about common sense stuff... So, lately I've been forcing encouraging her to do unfamiliar stuff... She got a stereo a little while ago, and like, those wires were just too much... So I sit down, and started going "Okay - it's got a red and a black plug - and there's red and black things over there - how do you think that works?" It's like they don't teach deductive reasoning or something...

You might be on to something there.  I have two daughters, 11 and 13 now.  One has average intelligence and is a solid B student, the other gets all As.  I'm baffled at some of the questions they ask / things they say.  It doesn't happen too often, but for example my oldest daughter recently pulled a box of macaroni and cheese out of the pantry, glanced at the picture on the box and asked, "How do I make it?"  I told her to read the instructions on the box, and her face lit up like it was some sort of revelation or epiphany.  She then proceeded to make it with no trouble.

Another time, they wanted something out of the fridge and said they couldn't get it because other things were in front of it.  Huh?  Move the stuff!

This last one happened about 4 years ago, just before Halloween.  They'd just finished carving their pumpkins and I told them to clean up the mess on the kitchen floor (we put newspaper down to collect the guts), put it in a bag and take it out to a garbage can.  They did it, but they put the bag in the closest can which was also overfull.  Of course, the bag fell off and everything spilled out on the ground.  So I told them to clean it up, and they put it back on the same pile, where it once again fell.  Not five feet away, there was a completely empty garbage can.  I had to tell them to put it in that one. Yeesh.

[Dntsycnt]

"Memorize and spit!  Memorize and spit!  Memorize and spit!"

School, public school at least, is nigh to worthless.

[Myself]

Unfortunately, none of the rest of of us know what ingerity is...

Weren't they made by Acura?

[Manedwolf]

Unfortunately, none of the rest of of us know what ingerity is...

Weren't they made by Acura?

I thought they were whole numbers and their negatives?

[Myself]

Unfortunately, none of the rest of of us know what ingerity is...



Weren't they made by Acura?


I thought they were whole numbers and their negatives?

With all this confusion it's easy to see how these things happen.

[Bogie]

Coupla weeks ago, they were here, and brought one of the twelve year old's friends... They had my laptop, and the battery ran down.
 
"Chuck, how do we plug the laptop in?"
 
"You got it out of the laptop bag. How the heck do you THINK you plug it in?"

"With a cord."
 
"Good guess. Now, where do you think the cord would be?"
 
"In the bag?"
 
"Bingo - I'm sure you can figure the rest out..."
 
Sigh...
 

[Iain]

Kids have always asked questions before engaging the brain.

[Perd Hapley]

I started a very similar thread to this about two weeks ago.  I posted a picture of some people acting stupid, and complained of social decay.  All I got was lectures about some Bible-thumper frenzy I was supposedly having. 

[BrokenPaw]

Sometimes habit can get in the way of common sense.  My own shameful story:  I always use the keyless-entry on my car, because that way it's impossible to lock my keys in.  So one day I tried to unlock it, and the battery in the fob was dead.  The embarrassing part:  I stood there staring at the door like a retard for a few seconds, wondering how the heck I was going to get into my car.

Eventually I worked out the clever feature on the door where there's a spot to put the key in. 

-BP

[K Frame]

Boy, that's scary, Brokenpaw.

You could have locked yourself IN your car and starved to death before anyone noticed that you were in distress....

[Mabs2]

Jen's got a twelve year old, and I'm getting a lot of the "Well, I don't know" about common sense stuff... So, lately I've been forcing encouraging her to do unfamiliar stuff... She got a stereo a little while ago, and like, those wires were just too much... So I sit down, and started going "Okay - it's got a red and a black plug - and there's red and black things over there - how do you think that works?" It's like they don't teach deductive reasoning or something...
 
Kid's an A student. I'm not going to do stuff for her. But I'm happy to talk her through doing it herself - Maybe she can figure some stuff out...

A shame.
And I thought having trouble figuring out the custom wiring on an old oil furnace was shameful. =\

[BrokenPaw]

Boy, that's scary, Brokenpaw.

You could have locked yourself IN your car and starved to death before anyone noticed that you were in distress....

Yeah, it was a close thing. 

You've met me.  You know full well I'm in no danger of starving any time soon.
-BP

[Tecumseh]

"Memorize and spit!  Memorize and spit!  Memorize and spit!"

School, public school at least, is nigh to worthless.

  Well thanks to "No Child Left Behind" we have only made it worse.  Bush sure blew it on that one.

[Bogie]

Er... She was born while Clinton was president, so it's his fault, not Bush's...
 
You guys are _really_ starting to sound like a broken record. Why don'tcha just go downstairs and get some Starbucks, and think about how your drive home to Virginia is going to be...

[Sergeant Bob]

Er... She was born while Clinton was president, so it's his fault, not Bush's...
 
You guys are _really_ starting to sound like a broken record. Why don'tcha just go downstairs and get some Starbucks, and think about how your drive home to Virginia is going to be...

Must have been vaccinated with a phonograph needle......

[Scout26]

http://www.funnyhub.com/videos/pages/blonde-star.html

Work safe.....Unless your boss is a Blonde.

And to the original post.  I had no idea who Heath Ledger was prior to his death.  Not that it matters now. 

[wooderson]

I have no idea what public schooling has to do with this, but, uh, ok.

Employees of wealthy/powerful individuals (or let's just say those in the public eye) are generally under orders to keep private those things they see behind closed doors. Been this way since, oh, forever.

So if you'd titled this "The Decay of the Moneyed Classes," perhaps...

edited - left out 'keep'

[Sergeant Bob]

I have no idea what public schooling has to do with this, but, uh, ok.

Employees of wealthy/powerful individuals (or let's just say those in the public eye) are generally under orders to private those things they see behind closed doors. Been this way since, oh, forever.

So if you'd titled this "The Decay of the Moneyed Classes," perhaps...

Hey, the sky is blue!

[Bogie]

Sigh... But every so often, common sense has to come into play...

I'm guessing that if the place had been on fire, she'd also have been on the phone to the Olsen/Lawyers, wondering what to do...
 
The Olsen kids are RICH, and from what I've seen, they also employ more attorneys than the average "rich" folks do too...