While some people might disagree with me, I still think that this was (a lot) better than the original. One of my Sift-aspirations is building a playlist by that name, only I haven't found enough great covers yet. If you see any cover/remix/remaster here that you believe is better than the original, gimme a shout, will you?

That's not meant to subtract any value from Frank, of course. Added my upvote.

1) If he's only 4, he's not going to have homework of any kind, let alone math homework. See this article on national age for children entering kindergarten. Thirty-nine states will not allow your child into kindergarten unless they turn five less than a month and a half into the school year. The likelihood of math homework when the teacher is still trying to teach some kids how to count is slim to none. The Flagstaff school district suggests you teach your child to count to ten before s/he starts kindergarten. And that's only a suggestion. To most parents, reading and writing come before math, because math is easier to learn. That's why you'll see kids struggling to write their name before they know what 4+5 is. They certainly wouldn't be working with two-digit numbers like 16.

2) Even if everyone in this particular class knew how to count before the school year started, the units in kindergarten (at least the ones in my school) didn't have math specific homework. The closest thing I can think of is when we went through the money unit, and we had to make change with what we had. I think we had worksheets with little cutouts of coins and we had to glue or tape on the page the combination that equaled X amount as homework.

3) The concept of subtraction is taught long, long after addition has been mastered. The concept of adding negative numbers, or "take-aways" is usually a difficult one for kids to grasp. No four-year-old, unless they are in an advanced after-school tutoring program or homeschooled, is going to be doing subtraction homework.

4) A cell phone number would've been relatively useless in this case, as there is obviously someone else in the house. The dispatcher says something about "listen to your mom," and the kid on the phone doesn't correct him. If you've ever babysat a four-year-old, you know they love to correct the slightest mistakes. If it wasn't his mother, I'm sure he would've let everyone know.

And there's no need to be condescending just because you disagree. No one's miserable for calling "fake" on a video. Jeez. Calm down.

>> ^karkarlee:
I could count, add and subtract a bit ( simple things, like 4+5 and 19-1 ) and was grasping reading and writing when I was four. I did it alone most of the time, because I myself wanted to. I would watch TV shows and learned from that.. I also knew to call 911 if something bad happened or someone was hurt or needed help badly.
This could just as likely be real. If it is, it's not the kid's fault that his parents didn't tell him their cellphone number as well. ( I knew my home phone by the time I was five. )
The child's mind doesn't work like an adult one, kk? Children and adults alike are diverse in all ways: height, hair color, race, development, intelligence, maturity, on and on. Stop sticking everything in a box, you're just making yourself miserable.

I could count, add and subtract a bit ( simple things, like 4+5 and 19-1 ) and was grasping reading and writing when I was four. I did it alone most of the time, because I myself wanted to. I would watch TV shows and learned from that.. I also knew to call 911 if something bad happened or someone was hurt or needed help badly.

This could just as likely be real. If it is, it's not the kid's fault that his parents didn't tell him their cellphone number as well. ( I knew my home phone by the time I was five. )

The child's mind doesn't work like an adult one, kk? Children and adults alike are diverse in all ways: height, hair color, race, development, intelligence, maturity, on and on. Stop sticking everything in a box, you're just making yourself miserable.

In reply to this comment by thepinky:
Totally fake, although I wish it weren't. Kids don't do subtraction at 4 years old. And if they do, they wouldn't be left alone by their parents to do it. And if they had the kind of parent who taught their kid to do subtraction at age 4, the parent wouldn't have told them to call somebody if they needed help with it.

I could count, add and subtract a bit ( simple things, like 4+5 and 19-1 ) and was grasping reading and writing when I was four. I did it alone most of the time, because I myself wanted to. I would watch TV shows and learned from that.. I also knew to call 911 if something bad happened or someone was hurt or needed help badly.

This could just as likely be real. If it is, it's not the kid's fault that his parents didn't tell him their cellphone number as well. ( I knew my home phone by the time I was five. )

The child's mind doesn't work like an adult one, kk? Children and adults alike are diverse in all ways: height, hair color, race, development, intelligence, maturity, on and on. Stop sticking everything in a box, you're just making yourself miserable.


>> ^thepinky:
Totally fake, although I wish it weren't. Kids don't do subtraction at 4 years old. And if they do, they wouldn't be left alone by their parents to do it. And if they had the kind of parent who taught their kid to do subtraction at age 4, the parent wouldn't have told them to call somebody if they needed help with it.

Totally fake, although I wish it weren't. Kids don't do subtraction at 4 years old. And if they do, they wouldn't be left alone by their parents to do it. And if they had the kind of parent who taught their kid to do subtraction at age 4, the parent wouldn't have told them to call somebody if they needed help with it.

If I take the number of views of this video, subtract off the number of upvotes, and add the number of downvotes, will that give me the approximate number of racists on the sift?

>> ^Doc_M:

...
The US is basically responsible for the most foreign aid
...
I challenge each of us to consider what would happen if the US decided to retract all of our military from all over the world, divest all of our funds from all foreign corporations, and stop all foreign aid.


Doc_M, please name a source for your claim that he US spends more on foreign aid than most other countries. Is that per country, compared to its GPD or per capita? Does it include the trillions spent in Iraq, military aid to Israel &c? Did you subtract the interest on not paying UN contribution in time?

Re what would happen if the US would retract all its interference with the rest of the world: is there anything I can do to (apart from bashing the US at this place) to speed that up ;-)?

PS: btw, the government and politicians in my country also suck, but fortunately we're so small that we cannot afford to start a war on any other country or create a Guantanamo.

his uplifting narrative was... really uplifting, although the fact that they mixed up FTL for "for the loss" (which, as we all know, is actually Faster-Than-Light jump/travel </sarcasm>) kinda subtracted from the overall w00tness.

>> ^MarineGunrock:
Wait - how is this NOT a dupe?
From the FAQ: "alternate background music, will still be considered dupes." discuss

Well the rule sucks then, and here's why:

The music for both my video and this video are appropriate, yet they are distinctly different. However, NOT all music would be appropriate. If someone posted this video with the SpongeBob SquarePants theme it would suck. This video does NOT suck, AND it is distinctly different. If we are to firmly adhere to this rule then we should discard this video, because if you subtract the sound and factor out the zoom that was added after this video went viral then it would be the same video as this.

People know the difference and can vote accordingly. Leave this one alone. Remember that I posted the original, so if I can live with it then so can everyone else.

I think the only way to solve this is Thunderdome! Two men enter. One man exits. Grimm steps into the Dome followed shortly by MarineGunrock! Who will rise the victor? Place your bets!

Seriously though, in your analogy, Grimm, it's not that the 40 nay votes don't subtract from the 60 yay votes, but rather it subtracts from the percentage spread, which is the maximum 100 votes. In other words, 60 out of 100 votes conveniently translating to a 60% majority vote. I don't think a percentage spread of votes cast would be a terrible thing to show on the video's page. Up top you could show 20 upvotes out of a total 40 votes cast would show that half of the people liked the video and half did not.

The current system works on a vote-to-vote system that can cancel votes, and I get that you think that is unfair, because you'd rather see a percentage spread showing the true upvotes compared to total votes. The problem is getting the video out of the unsifted ranks, at that point, because having the video just receive ten upvotes would decrease the site's ability to police video quality (which is what the site is founded on: quality control). Negating other's votes seems to be the system to keep lower quality videos out of the sifted ranks. Do you have an alternate solution for that, Grimm, that you think could work better? I think everyone would like to hear it.

Maybe it's just me...but I come from the old school of thinking that "ever vote should count" (yeah I know it's naive).

I don't have a problem so much with people registering their dissatisfaction with a "down vote" if that's going to somehow make them feel better. My objection is in the way the down vote is allowed to "subtract" from how many votes a video really got.

When they pass a bill in congress with a vote of 60 (yes votes) to 40 (no votes) we say the bill passed with 60 votes...we don't allow the 40 no votes to nullify 40 yes votes and say the bill only got 20 votes.

In the end analysis, a man's worth is not what's in his bank account, but what he has added, or subtracted, from humanity. There seems to be plenty of sentiment that he has detracted for valid reasons including, software that makes you pull your hair out, monopolistic business practices, the list can go on and on. That Gates can afford to make such huge contributions without sacrifice doesn't change the FACT that the donations ARE being made. I'm no saint, but I've done mission work in sub-saharan Africa and I know what impact billions of dollars in aid can have there. So, I'm not getting off the charity thing. 2 scenarios, (1) a world with no Bill Gates- uncertain, can't say how it would have turned out (2) a world with Bill Gates - personal computers and billions in charity. I'll take option 2.

Ok so subtract the cough, wiping his sleeve, and flipping the bird and you have.....a blundering idiot. The sad thing is he has writers to prepare the speaches, he just has to read and repeat.

Nice idea, but I'm pretty skeptical that you could change the entire Earth climate with only fifty ships. Cloud mechanics are notoriously difficult, and even the role of clouds in global warming is far from understood. Some clouds add to global warming by trapping heat and others subtract by reflecting more heat than they trap.
I say this research deserves a lot more funds.

Goofball Jones: As I understand it, the fact that we exist means that all of the parameters are greater than zero. One or more of them might be very, very close to zero, but you can't round it down. In my opinion, you'd actually need to subtract 1 (us) from the result of the multiplication.

Haven't actually watched the video as my connection's being screwy. But, I'm gonna upvote anyway based on the fact it's Sagan.