http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-11672679

The University of South Carolina has developed a sociology course dedicated to the life, work and rise to fame of pop star Lady Gaga.



The course description says it aims to "unravel some of the sociologically relevant dimensions of the fame of Lady Gaga with respect to her music, videos, fashion, and other artistic endeavours".

Prof Deflem said he initially planned to call the course the Sociology of Fame or the Sociology of Celebrity, and to use Lady Gaga as an example.

"Then I thought, 'Oh, what the hell? Let's make the whole freaking course about Lady Gaga and her rise to fame.'



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/03/2010 11:46AM by eesh.

well how about that; yet another way to keep the dumb kids dumb.
reminds me of those "home economics" courses they offer in schools.
guess we'll be seeing an influx of successful lady gagas rising to fame.
not.

yeefuckinghaw

Sociology - a degree in stupid. The courses with the most idiotic "professors" have the letters Soc in their title description.

Maybe the truth about her/his genitalia will come out of this.

Alias Wrote:
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> Sociology - a degree in stupid. The courses with
> the most idiotic "professors" have the letters Soc
> in their title description.

The football players have to take some courses.

Radiophile Wrote:
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> The football players have to take some courses.
>

Don't forget about the baseketball players, too.

I took a soc class in college and it was interesting. Nothing spectacular, but I've taken more worthless classes. They try to claim it's a science because they use the scientific method in their studies. However, it def wasn't in the college of science at my school.

Lady Gaga course thesis conclusion: The he/she thing is pure bat shit crazy.

==================================================================================================
"And if any women or children get their legs torn off, or faces caved in, well, it's tough shit for them." -2LT. Bert Stiles, 505th, 339th (On Berlin Bombardier Mission, 1944).

Sign me up.

College is mostly a waste of money, except in the hard science, engineering, and math courses. Even there it is a bit watered down. I work with engineers who can't spell, and they tell me that spelling is not important for an engineer. The concept of a "university" and "literacy" is lost on them; for them college was just a tech school.

For everyone else, college is what you do after high school so you can try to be like the party animals in all those movies, keep up with your cool friends, and hope you don't have to do manual labor.

Actually learning stuff is not really important, especially when you aren't paying out of pocket.

tomahawk Wrote:
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> College is mostly a waste of money, except in the
> hard science, engineering, and math courses.





+1000

tomahawk Wrote:
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>
> College is mostly a waste of money, except in the
> hard science, engineering, and math courses.

I can somewhat agree with that. I've staffed alot of projects with non-degreed folks who were some of the best employees I've ever had, meanwhile interviewing dipshits who think they're entitled to the job simply because they just got a 3.7 at UVA.

I don't think college is a waste of money. But weeding thru resumes, a degree stands out. It's like a hoop that only certain people have jumped through. A degree tells me they were able to set an important goal in life, and accomplish it.

They might not be smarter, but it's something that makes them more competitive in the local job market, because it's easier for me to sell to a client.

TheMeeper Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> tomahawk Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> >
> > College is mostly a waste of money, except in
> the
> > hard science, engineering, and math courses.
>
> I can somewhat agree with that. I've staffed alot
> of projects with non-degreed folks who were some
> of the best employees I've ever had, meanwhile
> interviewing dipshits who think they're entitled
> to the job simply because they just got a 3.7 at
> UVA.
>
> I don't think college is a waste of money. But
> weeding thru resumes, a degree stands out. It's
> like a hoop that only certain people have jumped
> through. A degree tells me they were able to set
> an important goal in life, and accomplish it.
>
> They might not be smarter, but it's something that
> makes them more competitive in the local job
> market, because it's easier for me to sell to a
> client.




I find that in the Federal govt/DOD world, sometimes you take what you can get. I have known quite a few outstanding engineers that can't get the clearances required for contracts because they have immediate family in China, India, or Africa.

Often a thoroughly mediocre person with a lifestyle polygraph and SCI access gets their resume put on top, regardless of past work performance, education, or relevant experience. I used to have a manager that made close to 300k a year, had a BA in political science, and was considered a senior engineer, just because of his clearance.

Well, let me clarify...college isn't a COMPLETE waste of money, it does get you a job, as you describe.

But that fact is that for the money spent to put you through college you really should be more knowledgable when you graduate.

My dad went to high school in the 50s and he had to translate Latin text. In high school!

Not that I think everyone needs to know Latin, (although Newton's Principia, the greatest text in modern physics, was written in Latin, as were so many other classic works), but certainly there was no room in my dad's course schedule for a bullshit course about Lady Gaga. Certainly his dad wouldn't have paid for that, either.

I graduated Penn State a decade ago with an engineering degree and a really good GPA, but I couldn't shake the feeling that I had gotten away with something. Some of my coursework was really hard, but I felt like I was missing something, and certainly some the bullshit diversity courses they made us take were both easy and useless. I really enjoyed English composition and music history, which is something I expected in a university, but womens' studies was just brainwashing. I would rather have spent that time learning, well, Latin....



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 11/03/2010 10:52PM by tomahawk.

WE ARE

I'll be the contrarian here. Our society is totally fucked up because of our obsession with fame and, worse, infamy. It's changed the course of history (John Wilkes Booth, Lee Harvey Oswald). And you see it being manifested today with Social Media. Now everyone gets their 15 minutes...no matter the cost to productivity or our self-respect. We are all attention whores like GaGa.

I have no problem with a sociologist packaging something that is probably boring at the core of it and making it compelling to young dumbasses.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
http://bible.cc/1_corinthians/13-11.htm

TheMeeper Wrote:
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> WE ARE


PENN STATE

WashingTone-Locian Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I'll be the contrarian here. Our society is
> totally fucked up because of our obsession with
> fame and, worse, infamy. It's changed the course
> of history (John Wilkes Booth, Lee Harvey Oswald).
> And you see it being manifested today with Social
> Media. Now everyone gets their 15 minutes...no
> matter the cost to productivity or our
> self-respect. We are all attention whores like
> GaGa.
>
> I have no problem with a sociologist packaging
> something that is probably boring at the core of
> it and making it compelling to young dumbasses.


Well, actually, your observation about social media and pop culture would make a better course than one that focuses solely on Gaga. Gaga is just one datapoint in a discussion about modern culture, not a worthwhile discussion on her own.

"a" students = engineers
"b" students = professors
"c" students = entrepreneurs that endow the universities

yeefuckinghaw

Home economics used to be valuable because it taught women how to do all the things necessary to manage a household, which was a full-time job.

These days, motherhood and wifedom are considered ancillary goals to whatever a woman really wants to, and a woman who says that she only wants to be a wife and mother is mocked, or people wonder what's wrong with her.

I really don't want to go through college classroom lectures again, especially since I've learned an enormous amount outside of college (Since first trying my Freshman year). However, I realize that if I want to get the job which I'm going for, then I need the degree that a college will enable me to attain. I've known of plenty of extremely brilliant, competent people, who were denied jobs SOLELY based upon their lack of that piece of paper. It's really a shame in my view, because a degree in-of-itself only shows that you put in the work for it, and it has absolutely no bearing whatsoever upon an individual's intelligence or competency.

As a matter of fact, some of the biggest idiots and whackos out there are PhD's, but to be accepted within certain fields as a "Credible" individual, and as a peer worthy of listening to, you also need to have that PhD after your name. I think a PhD would be nice to attain, truth be told, but I would also make a point to keep the humility and common sense that is all too often lost when in pursuit of such.

Btw, going to college and attaining a degree used to have a real meaning to it when my parents went. Nowadays, however, I'm afraid that it's been tremendously cheapened.

==================================================================================================
"And if any women or children get their legs torn off, or faces caved in, well, it's tough shit for them." -2LT. Bert Stiles, 505th, 339th (On Berlin Bombardier Mission, 1944).

ThePackLeader Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I really don't want to go through college
> classroom lectures again, especially since I've
> learned an enormous amount outside of college
> (Since first trying my Freshman year). However, I
> realize that if I want to get the job which I'm
> going for, then I need the degree that a college
> will enable me to attain. I've known of plenty of
> extremely brilliant, competent people, who were
> denied jobs SOLELY based upon their lack of that
> piece of paper. It's really a shame in my view,
> because a degree in-of-itself only shows that you
> put in the work for it, and it has absolutely no
> bearing whatsoever upon an individual's
> intelligence or competency.
>
> As a matter of fact, some of the biggest idiots
> and whackos out there are PhD's, but to be
> accepted within certain fields as a "Credible"
> individual, and as a peer worthy of listening to,
> you also need to have that PhD after your name. I
> think a PhD would be nice to attain, truth be
> told, but I would also make a point to keep the
> humility and common sense that is all too often
> lost when in pursuit of such.
>
> Btw, going to college and attaining a degree used
> to have a real meaning to it when my parents went.
> Nowadays, however, I'm afraid that it's been
> tremendously cheapened.

Hence the old joke as to what college degree acronyms really stand for:

B.S. - Bull Shit
M.S. - More of the Same
Ph.D. - Piled Higher and Deeper

Most colleges are really what used to be called normal schools, business schools, or technical schools. They provide the basics of job training, rather than the original trivium and quadrivium that universities originally provided.