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Geek boys and conspiracy theories
Dec. 21st, 2006 07:45 pmOver the course of this week, I attended the RedHat course that is the last one for achieving the RedHat Certified Engineer qualification. I won't be doing the actual exam any time soon, since it has been the most difficult course I've done as an adult. While I had no problem with the concepts (except for bloody SELinux, give me a break), carrying out the lab sessions was an exercise in frustration. Even when I followed some solutions line by line, they were still frustrating - ie. they didn't work. The instructor couldn't figure out why some things didn't work. Not one of my happier weeks. Although getting the email working was a breeze, hah.
Anyways, we all had lunch together, and of course I was the only female in the class. Within half an hour of chat, they all got onto their outré theories as to the origins of 9/11. I really don't have patience with conspiracy theories on that matter. Anyone with any brain can see how the towers collapsed. The planes were most definitely civil aviation planes. If you have the slightest inkling of how aviation systems work (and my own inkling is very slight), you know just how easy it is for an air traffic controller to lose a particular plane when there are thousands flying around, its transponder is turned off, and it's not where you expect it to be. ATCs manage sectors. If a pilot doesn't update the ATC of his/her location, and flies into another sector, that unidentified blip on the radar screen could be anything (assuming that sector has full radar coverage). My boss, who should know better about the aviation side, is another one of these conspiracy idiots.
Ranting aside, I've decided that conspiracy theories fulfill the same mechanism for a certain kind of geek boy that those schmaltzy "you're a special person, forward this on to 5000 people and make a wish" chain emails sent by certain females do. It's a kind of bonding thing. Both things drive me absolutely insane. What happens if you get a conspiracy geek-boy making babies with a glurge-letter chick? I'm sure the resulting offspring would be slaves of Cthulhu in short order.
Oh, and to the uber-nerdboy who couldn't eat with his mouth shut, and who thought Torchwood was too much with the sexiness, because you know, there has been "lesbian kissing"? Get a fucking life.
[Wine and eps 8 & 9 of Torchwood are starting to make me human. Just as well.]
Anyways, we all had lunch together, and of course I was the only female in the class. Within half an hour of chat, they all got onto their outré theories as to the origins of 9/11. I really don't have patience with conspiracy theories on that matter. Anyone with any brain can see how the towers collapsed. The planes were most definitely civil aviation planes. If you have the slightest inkling of how aviation systems work (and my own inkling is very slight), you know just how easy it is for an air traffic controller to lose a particular plane when there are thousands flying around, its transponder is turned off, and it's not where you expect it to be. ATCs manage sectors. If a pilot doesn't update the ATC of his/her location, and flies into another sector, that unidentified blip on the radar screen could be anything (assuming that sector has full radar coverage). My boss, who should know better about the aviation side, is another one of these conspiracy idiots.
Ranting aside, I've decided that conspiracy theories fulfill the same mechanism for a certain kind of geek boy that those schmaltzy "you're a special person, forward this on to 5000 people and make a wish" chain emails sent by certain females do. It's a kind of bonding thing. Both things drive me absolutely insane. What happens if you get a conspiracy geek-boy making babies with a glurge-letter chick? I'm sure the resulting offspring would be slaves of Cthulhu in short order.
Oh, and to the uber-nerdboy who couldn't eat with his mouth shut, and who thought Torchwood was too much with the sexiness, because you know, there has been "lesbian kissing"? Get a fucking life.
[Wine and eps 8 & 9 of Torchwood are starting to make me human. Just as well.]
