This morning...

[Kevin Johnson]

After Samantha and I ate breakfast we went to the local food store (which shall remain nameless but it is a large chain). Samantha had been given a rain check for electrolyte drinks.* The packs are regularly $9.00 each but the rain check is for a buy one get one free offer (BOGO).

She picked up eight packs and went to the cashier who took the coupon and promptly charged her card for $72.00 and tax.

Now she had to get a refund from customer service.

Customer service said that they understood the problem and promptly entered eight packs at regular price and eight more packs at $0.00, so sixteen packs in total. Samantha pointed out that, first, customers are limited to eight packs total and, second, that this did not address that she wanted to only pay for four.

The customer service rep brightened ... "Oh, so the packs are $9.00 each so half of that is $4.00."

If the register does not calculate it for them they are simply lost.

Sigh.

* Aside: drinking these electrolyte drinks has stopped the severe muscle cramping in her legs. It has been yet another saga in trying to make some local doctors believe that.

[hoodeng]

I find when you can do seemingly simple head math as fast as the other person is talking, the blank look you get back is not them in astounded admiration that you are calculating as fast as they are talking,,they just work out that as you are old you must be just babbling again.

I find if you tell someone in this situation that you are not comfortable and reluctant to get into an intellectual battle with the ill equipped, their smugness is prolonged, this,realization if it sinks in will be after you leave or not at all.

Cheers.

[Kevin Johnson]

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).

[Kevin Johnson]

When my Grandfather was growing up in England (1920s) Maths class involved doing mental arithmetic which he was good at. Samantha just said that her Mother had to do this in Germany as well and the teacher would rap them with a ruler if they got it wrong.

Edit -- they got wacked if they used their fingers!

[PackardV8]

I now have sets of micrometers I could never have cost-justified when they were new. Today’s machinists don’t or can’t read vernier; gotta have direct reading digital. Thus the old vernier metrology is going for cheap.

[Kevin Johnson]

Alexa, what is the bore diameter on number one cylinder?

Or at Tony's...

J.A.R.V.I.S., what is the bore diameter on number one cylinder?

[hoodeng]

Ah yes,,the vernier scale, great if you have good eyesight,I still have a vernier height gauge at the back of the face plate just for old times sake. Just looked at it then and can still read out a measurement but i would have to say i would not switch back from the digital measuring instruments that are everywhere here. I have also kept my school slide rule from the 60's, i have pulled that out in nostalgic moments and can still get a sum.

Cheers.

[Kevin Johnson]

Topic drift...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antikythe ... m#Accuracy

Note the importance of precision machining.

[ZIGGY]

Thank you for the Wiki link Kevin. Interesting read over bite of lunch.

[Kevin Johnson]

Local Greek restaurant owner knew about that device by heart. They are deservedly very proud of it.

[Kevin Johnson]

Her doctors have suggested that in the past and she has tried it to no avail. Thank you for the suggestion!

Samantha also tried the Gatorade version (G-Zero) but that did not do the trick. It is apparently the Magnesium that is a requirement for her.

[Keith Morganstein]

Kevin, I'm not sure if I ever mentioned Quinine before for leg cramps ?

My family have been taking it for about a century for "Charley Horses" in legs, mostly at night.

Recently we have been experimenting with Tonic water with Quinine and Orange juice.

Please give Samantha my kind regards!

Thanks
Randy

Quinine works for muscle cramps!

Randy, I didn’t realize you were that old

[Kevin Johnson]

Kevin, I'm not sure if I ever mentioned Quinine before for leg cramps ?

My family have been taking it for about a century for "Charley Horses" in legs, mostly at night.

Recently we have been experimenting with Tonic water with Quinine and Orange juice.

Please give Samantha my kind regards!

Thanks
Randy

Quinine works for muscle cramps!

Randy, I didn’t realize you were that old

Hey Keith:

I'm not quite that old but my Grandmother who was born in 1898 passed it on!!

Her mother passed it on to her and we still take it today.

Recently my wife has been experiencing "Charley Horses" and it seems to help her as well.

Thanks
Randy

My Great Grandmother was born in 1900 -- she told me about her and her friends rolling bandages for the soldiers in WWI and then learning that the ship containing them all was sunk by a U-Boat. She lived in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan at the time. I think it is really important to keep alive their memory and things they tried to teach us.

[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...

[Kevin Johnson]

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?