This morning...

[woody b]

Back on topic....In 1965 I started in building construction....Through the years I met tradesmen that had trouble dealing with a measuring tools marked in fractions, usually 1/16inch...Inability to calculate simple math is not something new....There's just more people and the Internet gives more oppurtunity to bitch about it...

My brother in law does remodeling as well as maintenance work, most to apartments. He had a guy working for him that was a really good carpenter, but.....not very smart. This guy was trying to teach his son how to read a tape. He was saying, this mark in 1/16th, the next smallest one is 1/8th, and so on. His son said "But Dad, I'm not good at fractions". The Dad, my brother laws employee said "reading a tape don't have anything to do with fractions".

[Truckedup]

Back on topic....In 1965 I started in building construction....Through the years I met tradesmen that had trouble dealing with a measuring tools marked in fractions, usually 1/16inch...Inability to calculate simple math is not something new....There's just more people and the Internet gives more oppurtunity to bitch about it...

My brother in law does remodeling as well as maintenance work, most to apartments. He had a guy working for him that was a really good carpenter, but.....not very smart. This guy was trying to teach his son how to read a tape. He was saying, this mark in 1/16th, the next smallest one is 1/8th, and so on. His son said "But Dad, I'm not good at fractions". The Dad, my brother laws employee said "reading a tape don't have anything to do with fractions".

Some people cannot read a tape...Some can read them but not if it's upside down...

[midnightbluS10]

My older Sister can still recite the divisions of the inch by sixteenths. I took the same shop class after her back in middle school. It was simply required for us to memorize them by rote -- like memorizing the times table up to twelve times twelve. This was back in the mid 1970s and shop class is now long gone from the district. She retains her analytical mind and it finds expression in seriously complicated quilts.

In maths class in high school, our (shared) geometry teacher (who still teaches at a private school, btw) told us about a theorem governing tesselation patterns to carpet the plane (seventeen possible). I think you remember what is interesting or useful to you. But, onwards to the next chilling tale...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tessellation

Most recently, Samantha met a young woman who was wearing an analog watch (i.e. having a dial). She had to count the positions to determine the time as she was never taught to do this at a glance in school or by her parents. Apparently the local schools are now all using digital numeric displays. From personal experience I can assure you that local hospitals and other medical facilities still use analog clocks on the walls.

How absolutely mind-boggling scary is that?

I graduated school in 1999 and we were taught the same things. Times table had to be memorized, fractions, etc... In 9th grade, we had to design and draw blueprints for a house with all of the electrical run, door and windows, etc... We even learned Hunter/Firearm Safety as a required course in 7th grade, around 1995.

Is it really that different these days?

[GRTfast]

The Father of the exchange family that I stayed with in Germany had (has -- he is still with us) close to or actual eidetic memory for numbers and figures. He was interviewed by the town paper (he turns 90 this year, I believe) and he stated that he remembers all the work he has ever done with numbers.

I played chess with him as a teenager and when he had won he went through all the moves in the game to show me the tactical error(s).

We had a guy that recently retired from our engineering group, he had been with the company (Westinghouse, then Siemens when we were bought in the 90's) for 45 years. His memory and "in head" math ability were off the charts. He could remember and recite entire material BOMs (list of parts) for massive jobs with thousands of parts. I can do a lot of seemingly complex math in my head fairly quickly (quicker than most), but this guy was on another level. It wasn't just numbers either. The level of detail and accuracy of his memories is truly astounding and humbling.

In his cubicle were many neatly stacked piles (some over a foot high) of various reports, drawings, specs, etc. No index. If you went and asked him something, he could spin around, pick a stack, and grab the document he needed usually on the first try. I don't even understand what he was doing.

[Kevin Johnson]

http://arteflora.org/wp-content/uploads ... monist.pdf

Synaesthesia.

[gmrocket]

The Father of the exchange family that I stayed with in Germany had (has -- he is still with us) close to or actual eidetic memory for numbers and figures. He was interviewed by the town paper (he turns 90 this year, I believe) and he stated that he remembers all the work he has ever done with numbers.

I played chess with him as a teenager and when he had won he went through all the moves in the game to show me the tactical error(s).

We had a guy that recently retired from our engineering group, he had been with the company (Westinghouse, then Siemens when we were bought in the 90's) for 45 years. His memory and "in head" math ability were off the charts. He could remember and recite entire material BOMs (list of parts) for massive jobs with thousands of parts. I can do a lot of seemingly complex math in my head fairly quickly (quicker than most), but this guy was on another level. It wasn't just numbers either. The level of detail and accuracy of his memories is truly astounding and humbling.

In his cubicle were many neatly stacked piles (some over a foot high) of various reports, drawings, specs, etc. No index. If you went and asked him something, he could spin around, pick a stack, and grab the document he needed usually on the first try. I don't even understand what he was doing.

When our company went to 100% online tech/engineering manuals...I was lost. The search functions just didn't cut it.

The transition was over a long five year period with plenty of scary emails " your physical manuals will be returned (confiscated) on such and such date, if you are still in possession of them after than date...you will be disciplined "

The five year start date was around Jan 2010,, by mid 2014 everyone, including me where have minor heart attacks. We were just not getting the hang of searching,, neither were the younger people. So the company offered some specialized training.

They found out it was way worse than anyone realized....we did search tests over and over, they redesigned the search software, brought in outside experts etc...the online manuals where so massive...the search function could not come close to any of us old timers with the physical hard copy manuals at finding engineering procedures...not even close.

It was a total of four manuals..each about as thick as a phone book. I could grab a manual stick my finger in one of the tabs, open it and be with a couple pages of the needed info.

Meanwhile, those using the search and scrolling function through the online version were getting tunnel vision and motion sickness while scrolling endlessly.

In the end, the hard copies survived because in emergency situations the company realizes seconds counted...but, only managers and engineers were allowed to have special hard copies, a set in their office and a set in the trunk of their cars....so they could ask us to find what we needed ASAP

It's mid 2019...I'm out of there now, but I know those hard copies are still so precious and are treated like gold. The online version is still a fail

[Kevin Johnson]

Cough.

So, they do realize the biggest danger is not ransomware but rather someone changing things subtly... ?

[Kevin Johnson]

A friend in SoCal had a worker who remembered everyone's detailed orders going back as long as he had been there. Before business PCs of course.

[Kevin Johnson]

So, this morning Samantha was out mailing packages and stopped by a local major chain grocery store which shall go nameless.

She noticed a bakery worker sneeze while carrying a baking sheet and then again over a preparation area and a third time into her hand which she did not wash.

Samantha spoke to her supervisor who dismissed it by saying that it was okay, she is on antibiotics.

[Joe-71]

And you went back there after the first fiasco? Surely there is another place to shop where you live. OR IS THIS A JOKE?

[Kevin Johnson]

Same chain, different store.

A while back, Samantha applied at a DIFFERENT large store in the area for part time work.
Seventeen people applied; only three passed the drug test and background check.

[She passed, of course, and was hired on the spot. Neither Samantha nor I had ever done drugs. The general manager asked her to spy on the floor managers and Samantha told him that if he wanted her to do that, then SHE should be a manager. He abandoned that store after a time as the problems were too great. It was not a safe place for Samantha to work particularly if people ever caught wind of her being asked to report on them.]


Many meth labs and this area was one of the major oxycodone procurement and distribution sites.

[Kevin Johnson]

Thanks, Randy.

We are now stocked up on water and petrol.

[Kevin Johnson]

Any weather updates??

Hoping you are safe, not much on the news here about your area.

Thanks
Randy

https://www.baynews9.com/fl/tampa/weather/radar is what we use to follow it. The Tampa area is the lightning strike capitol of the US so thunderstorms are normal during hurricane season.

[Kevin Johnson]

I am glad your family is safe.

I talked to my folks today in eastern Canada (PEI) and the storm has passed by them.

Power was out for about 12 hrs and a few branches etc blowing around but its OK now.

I'm assuming you're still safe and sound with not much damage?

Kind regards to Samantha

Thanks
Randy

[Kevin Johnson]

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-49624138



I am glad your family is safe.

I talked to my folks today in eastern Canada (PEI) and the storm has passed by them.

Power was out for about 12 hrs and a few branches etc blowing around but its OK now.

I'm assuming you're still safe and sound with not much damage?

Kind regards to Samantha

Thanks
Randy