For context - I was helping via "Text" my 35 year-old step daughter install 6" round LED lights on the ceiling of her basement. I stated to draw the circles using a compass. Her reply, "what is a compass?"
Reminds me of the Congress woman who was asked to describe a barrel shroud and she said, "the little thing that goes up." I think she got her answer from watching Predator.
"The plain fact is that education is itself a form of propaganda - a deliberate scheme to outfit the pupil, not with the capacity to weigh ideas, but with a simple appetite for gulping ideas ready-made. The aim is to make 'good' citizens, which is to say, docile and uninquisitive citizens." ~ H. L. Mencken
For context - from the end of WW I until the Great Depression, Mencken reached an audience unmatched by any other political or cultural figure in American history. Today he is largely forgotten.
Forgotten on purpose. But all the kiddies know who Karl Marx is. And of course today we have more important things to teach the kiddies like how a condom works and have them put one on a banana during drag queen story hour.
About all I can say is SCOTTY...beam me up! There is almost no intelligent life down here! The reason I say "almost" is because the folks that are on substack reading and posting are the exception.
I will say, tho, as a youngster of the 60's, I do think this brain fogging was gradual... and started in the 50's.
I remember going to English class in college and being alarmed that the other students couldn't put together a coherent paragraph. I also very much wish I'd had the foresight to take shop/auto mechanics in high school instead of Home Ec. I could have saved myself a helluva lot of money if I could fix my own car...
Somethings you don't need to learn in school. I never went to auto mechanics class or shop. Yet at the age of 20 I built a book case with side panels that open up so you can hide firearms in it. That to this day sits in my bedroom. Nice looking stained in walnut all built out of pine. I've remodeled my kitchen and three bathrooms using ready to assemble cabinets. I did the tile. I did the plumbing and I did the electrical. I think that some folks simply have a knack to be able to figure things out.
I remember one day a while ago I was walking out of O'Reilly's and there was a guy there trying to put a serpentine belt on his Subaru. One of the adjustment points was frozen and he just couldn't get it on the rest of the way. Without hesitating I asked where his old belt was. He got it out of the trash can and said here it is. I wrapped his old belt under his new one, grabbed both ends with my hands and pulled the new belt up on to the pulley. He looked at me and said, "Have you ever done that before?" I said, no, because I hadn't. He said, "I've been trying to get that on for the last TWO HOURS and you put it on in 10 seconds!" I said, yeah my name is Mark McGyver Reynolds. I simply have the knack. I can relate many stories that are similar.
I think one of the funniest and yet saddest was the day I was down in Florida with a 1992 van that had 297,000 miles on it and something was making it miss really bad that didn't make sense. I came to the conclusion that the ignition switch had crapped out. So my brother and I have the steering column apart to get to the switch, sitting on an incline with nothing to stop the van from rolling. Since I didn't PLAN on taking it out of gear, I wasn't too concerned. Well my brother insisted on trying to fix the indicator that tells you what gear you are in. I told him to not worry about it, I knew by experience that park was all the way to the left and then reverse, neutral and then drive. And it had been broken for years. Well he ignores me, grabs the shifter and pulls it out of park. The van starts rolling back, knocks him down and rolls right over him. Yeah it put him in the emergency room and he still has issues caused by it. Fortunately I was able to keep the van from destroying a car parked in the street and only damage the neighbors bushes across the street. So why am I telling this? Because this is what it led up to. I looked at the reason the indicator wasn't working. A very tiny cable had a piece of plastic with a screw hole in it attached to the steering column and the piece of plastic had broken away, causing the tiny cable to loose tension. I looked down on the floor and there just happened to be small paper clip lying there. (The Secret?) . I thought hmmmmm....I took the screw out of the column, put the paper clip on it and wrapped the cable around the paper clip in such a way as to keep tension on it and screwed the paperclip to the column. The indicator works and has been working for two years now since my brothers mishap. If you read this far, you're wasting your time. LOL!
I've "got the knack," too, but I just don't have much familiarity with engines... I guess I'll just start reading about them and see if I can absorb it... I think I can, it's kind of like that for me, too... I just suddenly go "Oh." and do it, or try it... I think it's my fear of fucking up the car and then not being able to get anywhere that's keeping me intimidated... lol. Okay.
I love to mess with stuff and how it works. You've inspired me! Thanks!
Just realize that everything that I mentioned has been done by someone before me. And all I have to do is look at what they do to figure out how to do it. You can look at videos of somethings that are on YouTube and it blows my mind how they can do such fantastic explanations using the graphics. Here is one for you...These blow my mind!
Bravo my Roaring friend! Bravo. Also.... https://frederickrsmith.substack.com/p/nauseating-nea-20-08-02
For context - I was helping via "Text" my 35 year-old step daughter install 6" round LED lights on the ceiling of her basement. I stated to draw the circles using a compass. Her reply, "what is a compass?"
Reminds me of the Congress woman who was asked to describe a barrel shroud and she said, "the little thing that goes up." I think she got her answer from watching Predator.
"The plain fact is that education is itself a form of propaganda - a deliberate scheme to outfit the pupil, not with the capacity to weigh ideas, but with a simple appetite for gulping ideas ready-made. The aim is to make 'good' citizens, which is to say, docile and uninquisitive citizens." ~ H. L. Mencken
For context - from the end of WW I until the Great Depression, Mencken reached an audience unmatched by any other political or cultural figure in American history. Today he is largely forgotten.
Forgotten on purpose. But all the kiddies know who Karl Marx is. And of course today we have more important things to teach the kiddies like how a condom works and have them put one on a banana during drag queen story hour.
About all I can say is SCOTTY...beam me up! There is almost no intelligent life down here! The reason I say "almost" is because the folks that are on substack reading and posting are the exception.
Many good points.
I will say, tho, as a youngster of the 60's, I do think this brain fogging was gradual... and started in the 50's.
I remember going to English class in college and being alarmed that the other students couldn't put together a coherent paragraph. I also very much wish I'd had the foresight to take shop/auto mechanics in high school instead of Home Ec. I could have saved myself a helluva lot of money if I could fix my own car...
Somethings you don't need to learn in school. I never went to auto mechanics class or shop. Yet at the age of 20 I built a book case with side panels that open up so you can hide firearms in it. That to this day sits in my bedroom. Nice looking stained in walnut all built out of pine. I've remodeled my kitchen and three bathrooms using ready to assemble cabinets. I did the tile. I did the plumbing and I did the electrical. I think that some folks simply have a knack to be able to figure things out.
I remember one day a while ago I was walking out of O'Reilly's and there was a guy there trying to put a serpentine belt on his Subaru. One of the adjustment points was frozen and he just couldn't get it on the rest of the way. Without hesitating I asked where his old belt was. He got it out of the trash can and said here it is. I wrapped his old belt under his new one, grabbed both ends with my hands and pulled the new belt up on to the pulley. He looked at me and said, "Have you ever done that before?" I said, no, because I hadn't. He said, "I've been trying to get that on for the last TWO HOURS and you put it on in 10 seconds!" I said, yeah my name is Mark McGyver Reynolds. I simply have the knack. I can relate many stories that are similar.
I think one of the funniest and yet saddest was the day I was down in Florida with a 1992 van that had 297,000 miles on it and something was making it miss really bad that didn't make sense. I came to the conclusion that the ignition switch had crapped out. So my brother and I have the steering column apart to get to the switch, sitting on an incline with nothing to stop the van from rolling. Since I didn't PLAN on taking it out of gear, I wasn't too concerned. Well my brother insisted on trying to fix the indicator that tells you what gear you are in. I told him to not worry about it, I knew by experience that park was all the way to the left and then reverse, neutral and then drive. And it had been broken for years. Well he ignores me, grabs the shifter and pulls it out of park. The van starts rolling back, knocks him down and rolls right over him. Yeah it put him in the emergency room and he still has issues caused by it. Fortunately I was able to keep the van from destroying a car parked in the street and only damage the neighbors bushes across the street. So why am I telling this? Because this is what it led up to. I looked at the reason the indicator wasn't working. A very tiny cable had a piece of plastic with a screw hole in it attached to the steering column and the piece of plastic had broken away, causing the tiny cable to loose tension. I looked down on the floor and there just happened to be small paper clip lying there. (The Secret?) . I thought hmmmmm....I took the screw out of the column, put the paper clip on it and wrapped the cable around the paper clip in such a way as to keep tension on it and screwed the paperclip to the column. The indicator works and has been working for two years now since my brothers mishap. If you read this far, you're wasting your time. LOL!
I LOVE this. lol
Yeah!!!!!!
I've "got the knack," too, but I just don't have much familiarity with engines... I guess I'll just start reading about them and see if I can absorb it... I think I can, it's kind of like that for me, too... I just suddenly go "Oh." and do it, or try it... I think it's my fear of fucking up the car and then not being able to get anywhere that's keeping me intimidated... lol. Okay.
I love to mess with stuff and how it works. You've inspired me! Thanks!
Just realize that everything that I mentioned has been done by someone before me. And all I have to do is look at what they do to figure out how to do it. You can look at videos of somethings that are on YouTube and it blows my mind how they can do such fantastic explanations using the graphics. Here is one for you...These blow my mind!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=omv85cLfmxU
I just erased my answer... doggone it. lol
I will save this to watch this week, cuz I think I'll be snowed in...
I'm studying for my CDL test, and this will fit right in, maybe! Anyway, cheers!