I am a BOOMER, 77 now so I can relate. And not all are useless.
1. We have a home phone, with a pad of paper and pen by the main phone to take phone calls.
2. We use paper maps while overseas. And if the car has GPS then I use that also.
3. I remember my Mom making clothes using patterns.
4 Cursive writing – I just don’t write much any more and that is a good thing. I am Left Handed and my writing is very bad. While in college we used Blue Books. My Advisor wrote on one BB that my handwriting “reminded him of an Epileptic Rooster going across a sandy barnyard”.
5. Fun having your Girlfriend shift for you.
6. YES, you should balance the check book all the time. I check bank account and MC often.
7. With letter writing going away there will not be a record in the future. Things will disappear in the cloud.
8. Still use typing for the computer keyboard.
9. We have 2 sets of Fine China. We try to use them often.
10. Glad I am married because I have no idea how people date now.
11. Last two days made two trips to HD and King Soopers. Yes I do get things delivered but sometimes you just have to examine what you are buying.
I tried to learn cursive writing they used to say i should go to medical school (the scrawl) but you should see what a generation trained on shells writing looks like
Paging hammurabi
My younger brother is a “boomer”; my mother informed me decades ago that I am officially a “war baby”. 🙂 That said, those skills shown in the video are still very useful although not taught today. Shirehome hit all the points I would…
With the most recent move, the land-line home phone went away, but one of the cells is designated as “home phone” to keep things organized. Both my vehicles (car *2019) and truck (2003)) are manual transmission. the truck with manual window operation. My introduction to driving was sitting next to my dad and shifting the gears, first on command and then on my own as I learned the noises the car made when a shift was needed. (Being able to shift fast became a necessary skill in my teens.) Both vehicles have paper maps stuffed in the door pockets, and I am somewhat skilled at refolding the paper maps on the original lines.
My cursive writing took a hit when I worked as a draftsman and then as a police officer where the handwritten reports were printed, no cursive allowed. (Some had the skill to make their printing as unreadable as their cursive, however.) Typing class, both in school and the Army, was done with the keys unmarked.
The video missed the practice of maintaining a savings account. One had to have a stash of money to use for emergencies. I used the water heater as my analogy: how are you going to pay for a new water heater when this one goes out? was my mantra. The MC concept made savings “old fashioned”.
The loss of letter writing will be a loss to future generations.
RE: What should the government’s response be to UFOs, and what might be the consequences?
Below I’ve linked to a very serious, informed, and thoughtful article exploring this topic written by Chris Mellon, a former Assistant Secretary of Defense for Intelligence, and before that, the Staff Director for the Senate Intelligence Committee.*
One concern, now that the AI revolution has truly arrived, is the enfeeblement of humanity.
We already see that in the ability of young people to make change properly. It seems to me that general writing ability of Americans has declined too.
With ChatGPT the ability to write from the blank page to a finished product is going to drop off a cliff. People will just feed a vague specification into Chat, Chat will produce a serviceable first draft, and the human will become an editor, not a writer..
Another Mike–In the late 1940s early 1950s I trained as a child in elementary school at a wooden and wrought iron desk with a wooden hole, an inkwell, in the upper right hand corner, which was filled with a little glass jar of ink (this sometimes useful for dipping the pigtails of the girl in the desk in front of me in it), and we practiced the Palmer method using steel nibbed dipping pens.
Sad to see the passing of so many of the things which made the past a much more stable and comfortable/comforting past, including writing letters–penmanship, ruminating, evaluating things, thoughtfulness, politeness, social rituals, significant dates, and personal communication–but discovered that there is apparently a community of people nowadays who collect ink pens–new and old, and who will apparently pay what I consider to be astronomical amounts for them, so various pen companies keep churning out expensive (quite often mostly plastic) model after model, with very fancy model names attached to them.
I would be curious to know just how many of these pens, fancy paper, and inks are actually used to write letters.
(As a “collector” of many things, I know I am “guilty as charged.”)
Take a look on Ebey or at pen, paper, and ink seller’s websites.
huxley–As an Air Force corpsman back in the 1960s in Japan, I was sometimes called on to be the substitute X-Ray, lab technician, or pharmacist at the small dispensary where I was stationed, and the handwriting of the doctor’s prescriptions I had to fill as the pharmacist was sometimes an almost totally illegible scrawl, sometimes in Latin no less.
It looked like a drunken worm, dipped in ink, had crawled, erratically, over some doctor’s prescription pad.
This thread has drifted into Old Fogy territory.
P.S.–As I’ve gotten older I’ve noticed that–unless I make a determined effort–my handwriting–once so nice and clear–is verging on being illegible, even to me.
IrishOtter49–I resemble that remark.
Perhaps we will devolve to the point where a special class of “scribes,” who can write legibly, will arise–good way to use all of those fancy pens, papers, and inks.
Not useless skills, undervalued skills.
The main one that got me is reading a map. Being able to read a map can save your life, depending on where you happen to get lost.
I’ve got nothing against modern technology. I use a GPS in my car. I use my phone for navigation when I’m walking around in a city I’m visiting. I even use a GPS when in the woods. Nothing wrong with that convenience when its available, but what if it doesn’t work? You’ll just wander around lost and hope for the best? I keep a US road atlas in my vehicles and even have more detailed maps of the areas I travel to/through regularly. When I’m in the woods, I carry a compass and a topo map of the area. I virtually never use them any more, but it’s like a fire extinguisher. You take them for granted when they’re just sitting there unused, but when you need one you REALLY need it…and it might just save your life.
The rest of them may not be life critical, but to say they’re useless is just ignorant.
Snow on Pine:
If the USA has solid evidence of UFO stuff and UFO dead bodies, then it is highly likely that dozens of other nations, including China, India, Japan, Russia, etc., have them as well.
Consequently if the USA announced and showed solid evidence, it would not be a surprise to other nations.
The idea that making public any and all UFO data would create chaos and disorder is bullshit.
People would still have to go to work, school, shopping, etc.
Neo would still have her blog we all frequently visit.
Yea, there would be some folks that would totally freak out; e.g., similar to those Year 2000 end of the world nuts that killed themselves and other such nut-jobs, but the vast majority of people would get on with life.
After all, if UFOs exist, there is nothing anybody can do about it; this includes the US military, NASA, etc. etc.
As such, UFOs do not represent any threat to national security because the UFOs are immune to any and all human actions to stop UFOs from doing what they intend to do. Sort of like when it rains; streets get wet and that’s all there is to it.
And when you think about it, if UFOs are a threat, why haven’t they acted upon that ability of theirs?
After all, UFOs have probably been around for thousands of years.
They could have prevented humans from, say, developing nuclear weapons if they chose to.
Clearly, UFOs are not interested in dealing with, what they consider, life forms with zero intelligence; that would be humans. Human intelligence to UFO denizens is akin to insect intelligence to humans.
The bigger and more realistic threat is earth bound; Russia, China, Iran, Hamas, etc. , in terms of external threats, and just as threatening, if not more so, are our home grown Federal agencies – DHS, DOJ, FBI, NSA, IRS, – EVERY SINGLE FEDERAL AGENCY – that do whatever they want, whenever they want, and are accountable to nobody – while congress does nothing about it.
This entire UFO topic – how much should be revealed – is just another ploy, a power grab by Federal agencies that know they can tell Congress (our representatives ! ) to F off realizing that nothing at all will happen to them if they ignore Congress.
Think the Dept of Homeland Security chief, Majorcas. He literally needs 50 hands attached to each of his arms, to be able to count the number of times he actually flipped off Congress, and not have a worry in the world.
I learned to drive with automatic…but when I needed to pick up my then-girlfriend at the airport, the motorscooter I had then wasn’t going to work, so I asked a friend if I could borrow his VW Beetle.reasoning that since I could do the manual shifting on the scooter, surely I could adapt to the VW. Made it to the airport & back OK, but with a little grinding of gears involved.
btw, this is one of the very few examples of online advertising I’ve seen where the ad has any logical fit with the content.
On handwriting, I don’t think that mine will ever go away, no matter how much I use it. I’m afraid the Sisters of the Sacred Heart will track me down and wack my hands with a ruler. An 18 inch solid copper ruler.
Yes I am Irish, and Proud of it.
Lots of memories. Two things I remember that bring back my younger days are twice-per-day mail delivery and, on the rare occasions when your phone didn’t work, going next door to call the phone company and have a cheerful repairman with his fancy tool belt show up in about an hour. And, this was in suburban Kansas City — not a small town.
I see the open thread has its very own UAP posting, which is actually quite the read with some good arguments. One might not agree 100% with the author, but it has food for thought.
Re: More Plisetskaya … performing “Bolero”
Just bopping around the web, as one does, I clicked this YouTube link:
OMG. I was transfixed for the whole thing and I hadn’t even had breakfast. Including the long audience acclaim at the end.
It was modern dance, not ballet. Plisetskaya danced barefoot. The performance was shot by a real director.
I don’t get modern dance. Mostly it looks contrived and silly, E for Effort at best. But Plisetskaya’s Bolero is a life-changing aesthetic experience. Lest I sound overwrought here’s wiki:
_______________________________________
What makes the piece so compelling is that although Plisetskaya may be accompanied by dozens of other dancers mirroring her movement, the first and only focus is on the prima ballerina herself. Her continual rocking and swaying at certain points, rhythmically timed to the syncopation of the orchestra, create a mesmerizing effect that demonstrated an absolute control over every nuance of her body, from the smallest toe to her fingertips, to the top of her head.
BTW Plisetskaya was 50 years-old in this performance.
Awesome.
By the way; I forgot to mention re: UFO’s if they do exist and if the USA has UFO stuff and UFO dead bodies.
Those in the federal govt that have this UFO stuff and/or are knowledgeable about what UFO stuff the govt has, have not gone off the deep end and panicked and killed themselves or sold their homes and moved their families deep into mountain caves to await Armageddon.
They are just getting on with their lives despite knowing the “real” UFO story.
Yet it is these same people – in their arrogance and contempt of ordinary people – that claim the general populace cannot handle the truth. Therefore it’s their job to keep all of this stuff secret.
Yep, can’t trust the folks in “fly over” country, the Walmart crowd. Thank god we have the intellectually superior folks – sort of like the presidents of Harvard – who populate the Federal govt to protect us.
Not wise to be totally dependent on GPS. This navigation system is highly susceptible to jamming. Also, people should have some level of situational awareness, such that they don’t attempt to drive across rivers or across active airport runways, which some have done because GPS told them to.
When I first went into the armed forces, my handwriting consisted of printing, and it was very legible and all caps. I remember a tough sergeant waving a form of mine around and saying aloud “THIS is how you should fill out these forms!” Needless to say I paid dearly for that “honor”!
Over the years of using computers, my handwriting has degenerated to the point that it is indecipherable, and it hurts me to hold a pen or pencil!
Yes, I am left-handed, but can do many things with either hand. For example I never hit a backhand in tennis or other racquet sports – I just quickly switch hands, without even thinking about it!
Also, people should have some level of situational awareness…
–David Foster
One apparent Boomer skill is to “Look both ways before crossing the street.” I recall that skill being drummed into me. Rightfully so.
I see so many young pedestrians staring into their phones, maybe even while wearing headphones, who blithely wade into intersections as though they were Jesus walking on the water.
My late father, born 1941, did not write in cursive. He was a physicist for Pennzoil. Maybe he was taught cursive as a child, but he did not use it.
I print also,even though I was taught cursive, though even my print is barely legible.
My signature is partial cursive.
I do not like trying to read cursive. Give me print any day. There is a reason the majority of the internet, including this site, uses some type of ” print” style , not ” cursive.”
There are a number of things in our society that have changed for the worse, but I do not lament the loss of cursive.
I keep a US road atlas in my vehicles[…]
And jumper cables.
I’d like someone to explain how, with flying saucers belly flopping all over the planet for 70-80 years and even strewing the corpses of little green, or grey or silver men around like a rotary sprinkler, the United States, or foreign governments, one and all, east west north south, first second and third worlds have managed to scoop up every single piece of unequivoval material evidence, without apparent exception.
Never trust a fat balding white man in a Hawaiian shirt and sandals, or any guy who wears a fedora in the house. He is lying, even if he is not.
Whatever the truth may be about UFO’s or UAP’s the full disclosure of whatever the government is thought to be concealing can not be done without full disclosure or ALL black world testing of advanced systems so no matter how much demand there may be it isn’t going to happen. OTOH in the regular course of conducting advanced systems development the UFO/UAP controversy helps explain away operations that weren’t meant to be seen or aren’t ready to be revealed.
And sometimes things just aren’t what they appear to be. Just sayin
Re the link to the Mellon essay.
In principle I substantially agee.
If the incidents of open, incidental, precipitating contact were limited, and persisted in a controlled and regulated fashion, the best possible policy of the responsible governing parties might just be to let sleeping dogs lie, and tamp down or misdirect interest for now.
Because,taken on average, there seems to be almost no limit to the heedless emotion driven, inadvertantly self-destructive potential present in portions of the human population.
Suppose just for the sake of argument:
– That there exited a largely static and decadent yet technologically advanced through inheritance, “civilization” right here on earth, and dwelling under the oceans or in subterranean environments as has been proposed by story tellers.
– That these creatures were native to this planet, dating back eons
– That they are, say, “Silurians”, or some hypothetical facsimilie
– That despite having expanded beyond it, they consider this planet theirs, but for various reasons are willing to tolerate our existence and concede the surface largely to us
– That this toleration is conditional on us keeping out of their way or some other stipulation
Now suppose that the caravans of quasi-religious lunatics and UFO celebrants discovered their confirmed existence and their whereabouts.
Now, what ….
Not to mention if we in the US did manage to reverse engineer certain aspects of their transportation technology, but had not mastered it completely nor been able to weaponize it for defense, and nonetheless decided to confirm for all of our human adversaries that such technical means did exist …
Driving a stick shift. I was very dismissive of automatic transmissions and swore I would never own a car with one. Now, it’s hard to find a stick shift car and I’ve been driving auto transmissions for the last twenty years. Never say never.
One bit of knowledge I learned early on was Ver useful. I was sitting on a n oil well that was being drilled near Vernal, Utah in 1958. It was a joint venture with Gulf Oil Co. The Gulf geologist was a friendly and knowledgeable guy. We had a lot of time on our hands when the driller was pulling pipe out of the hole to put on a new drill bit.
During that time, he revealed to me the magic of compound interest and the long-term performance of the T. Rowe Price mutual fund. It was an area of knowledge that I had never been exposed to.
That two weeks spent on that well gave me the knowledge to discipline myself to put small amounts to work in the stock market over the long haul.
That life skill is even more important now because pension plans have been replaced by 401ks. It should be taught to every senior in high school.
Left-handed here, but very nice cursive handwriting. I hated those blue book exams and pencils. My fingers and my text would be smeared with graphite. I think my handwriting is nice because, being an obedient student, I turned my paper angled to the right just like the other kids, and then wrote uphill, hence the pencil smears.
I’m sure I could still drive stick shift although I haven’t in years.
I do use GPS. I have little sense of direction and my family rejoices to think that I will return when I leave them. But it’s not entirely reliable. One day recently my car’s GPS told me I was driving over the surface of the nearby lake, when my eyes told me it wasn’t so. We take printed maps on trips as a backup.
John Tyler and DNW—
The more research I do, the more interviews I see, the more documents I read, the more my bad, gut feeling and apprehension about what “Disclosure” might actually bring increases.
From the various hints which have been dropped by knowledgeable insiders like “sombre” Lou Elizondo and a few others, my current reading of the UFO situation is that, if and when we learn the truth, it will not be a happy day for us humans.
The bad news could be almost anything. Pick any malevolent, catastrophic scenario from first contact with NHIs which our SF writers and movie makers have managed to conjure up.
Perhaps some of the NHIs visiting and surveilling us are predatory, not in any way our friends, only being restrained—say, for the moment–by other more powerful NHIs, or that the “Zoo Hypothesis” is the correct one and, unbeknownst to us, for NHIs we (to them) feral humans are just an “exhibit,” being kept in a sort of cage, and we will be prevented from being able to get out of our cage and reach other solar systems, to spread out into the Galaxy, thus assuring the survival of the human race.
Perhaps a lot of those Abductions, and Greys are real, and us humans just a source of genetic material; we’re cattle on a feed lot.
The potentially bad outcomes for us humans—pretty obviously on the short end of the power imbalance, and essentially powerless in the face of what appears to be vastly superior NHI technology (see the history of our interactions with American Indians)—would seem to be virtually endless, the good outcomes few.
I see statements from several prominent figures doing research on the UFO Phenomenon about how any NHIs might be able to help the human race to get out of the perilous course we seem to be on, headed toward our own nuclear or other destruction.
What if, though, we are at the mercy of entities who are not benign, and who may have no interest in or sense of obligation at all to treat us kindly, with mercy, or to actually “help” us out in any way?
These NHIs just wanting to stand by and to merely “observe,” and likely to record, the show?
Oh noes, “The Prime Directive” from Ray Bradbury and Star Trek surfaces. Existential angst in SoP.
I belong to a Facebook group of Graphic Designers, and periodically, there are us oldsters who “reminisce” about the “good ol’ days.” To be honest, when it comes to graphic design, I MUCH prefer the contemporary stuff: I hated Letraset, Leroy Lettering, french curves, rapidographs, ruling pens, different pencil weights, non-photo blue pencil, mylar, compasses, triangles, pantone sheets, paste ups, pasteboards… It is sooooooo much easier nowadays. There is some website that is the Graphic Design Museum
I recall once in the late 1990’s, I worked in a back, in portfolio management, as an administrative assistant. One day, we lost access to our internet. No one knew what to do except the “old times” who had been doing that job for years. One thing I found ironic about that job is that PRIOR to the computerized stuff, client files had MUCH, MUCH less paper. Prior to computers, each transaction was written down in a lined ledger paper with that movable carbon paper. The details were noted: Who directed the transaction (client or portfolio manager), date, time, and how much, and to/from where. AFTER email, each email was PRINTED and put in the folder.
I drove a stick for years but gave up when it became harder to find someone who knew how to repair them. (I didn’t drive a fancy sports car that have specialized garages.) I kind of miss it.
Back in the days of maps, you used to go to AAA and get a “Triptik” for your trip, plus all the maps. the Triptik would include where there was planned road closures and how to get around them.
You are crazy to NOT have paper map backup for GPS. I read all sorts of horror stories about people who follow what GPS or Google Maps tell them to do. You especially need paper maps if you rely on Google Maps — if you get out of cell phone coverage, you lose your Google Maps.
I still remember random phone numbers I memorized a million years ago, and I have no idea to whom those numbers belonged. Of course, everyone over a certain age knows 867-5309. Even older people know PEnnsylvania6-5000. Lol!!
I’m a later Boomer (born in 1957) and all the things in the video were part of my upbringing. The one mentioned that I think is overstated is the memorization of phone numbers. First of all, I only had to remember local phone numbers, that is for people in my city/town. I didn’t know anyone outside the area other than my grandparents and a couple of aunts & uncles. I might have called them just once or twice. In the 60’s & 70’s, and into the 80’s in some places, the Area Code was not required when dialing. The places I lived also had a single exchange, so all I had to remember were the last four digits of a friend’s phone number. For many years you only had to dial the last five digits for a local call.
Other than that, this is a really good list. I plan to share it with my kids, they’ll get a laugh out of it.
At one point after I moved to Mercer Island, I worked in a drug store. I was really surprised at how many people gave their phone number as 2-xxxx or AD2-xxxx when the actual number was 232-xxxx by then.
@ Snow on Pine
Well, I don’t think that the malevolent interest scenarios are actually very probable if the hypothesized entities were extra terrestrial, at least insofar as being from outside the solar system.
It stands to reason that if they were advanced enough to conduct interstellar or even intergallactic travel, that their level of advancement would be sufficient to make both us and our planet irrelevant to them in terms of either material or biological resources.
Of course it might be that we would find ourselves dealing with the effective lumpenproletariat and sons of Cain of the interstellar population and that we are to them as local chimps might be to a colony of pirates. Or as rats to gangsters hiding out in a slum, mostly ignored until they become annoying.
So, hypothetically, there is that.
Here is what makes no sense: interstellar craft flying ” in echelon”. What are they, geese? WW II P47s?
It makes no sense for a hyper advanced civilization to even be detectable to us, much less to be tooling around in spacecraft we can detect and that crash.
So,
1. They are not that advanced, being
a, degenerate or static in some way
b, of locally occurring origin
2. We are living in a reality wherein we are actually being swarmed constantly by all manner of more or less unorganized and from their standpoint casual visitors; with we being in the equivalent of an anthropark or reservation, having been shielded from it until recently by our own technological limitations.
That would not place us in a zoo precisely, but approximate more to the until recently relatively uncontacted tribes in the Amazon, or New Guinea.
And it is possible that “they” if not so advanced as to appear supernatural or magi1c, and taken in aggregate and considered distrbutively, may not know all that we know simply because they have no reason to care … to this point.
However if we had complacent visitors who we might alarm by broadcasting everything our deepest theorists and labs had achieved, well, who the hell knows what might be the fallout.
As far as underground or subsea civilizations go, I imagine the oil companies or oceanic floor mappers would have spotted evidence of them decades ago.
Re: Plisetskaya’s “Bolero”
A fun thing in that video is that Plisetskaya’s right-hand man (literally) is a stripped, muscular, bare-chested dancer wearing a black neckerchief who was the spitting image of Keith Richard in some photos around the time of the Stone’s “Exile” album.
However, the electricity is all wrong, at least for this cis-het white male. A guy in mascara dancing up on the circular wooden dais, surrounded by a couple dozen adoring males doesn’t work the same way.
Still, interesting. It’s been all-Bolero all-dancing all day for this cis-het white male. This kind of drilling down is what the internet is all about.
Iceland’s latest Reykanes peninsula rift volcano — weeks now awaited — has finally erupted this evening at 10:15 pm Iceland time, and it’s a doozy! Growing from a small crack of a few tens of meters initially to a long stretching series of fissures now estimated to extend well over a kilometer (perhaps 3 by some estimates!) it is putting on quite a fiery show. Link to one of many livestreams on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/live/YAQzsB9ev9Q?si=6rGrQlpzwk5jQkhn
France is ahead, but Iceland is still a place I’d like to visit.
@ IrishOtter > “This thread has drifted into Old Fogy territory.”
We didn’t drift, we jumped feet-first into the deep end!
In re GPS: trust but verify.
If you look up our summer mission site on GPS it will give you very exact directions for driving to Martin’s Cove.
It will NOT tell you that the last six miles are a dirt road not open to vehicular traffic.
We occasionally had to stop people at the parking lot.
On a vacation trip last summer, our GPS showed a clearly marked road up the side of the Missouri River from one town to the next. We started on a two-lane paved road, very nice, which became a two-lane dirt road, then one-and-a-bit lane, then two ruts. When the track disappeared totally in the prairie grass we turned around and went back.
In other news: I can still write a semi-decent cursive, drive a stick, and run a sewing machine (though I need help threading the needle). Balancing the check-book is actually easier since we can see our bank transactions on-line and check them off. AesopSpouse reviews the credit card accounts daily to catch the hackers; we replace a compromised card 2 or 3 times a year.
When I taught computer programming in the 80s, I recommended that my students take a typing course to improve accuracy and speed on the keyboard; I don’t think that is a useless skill even now, but I doubt anyone uses it.
I use some of those old unforgettable phone numbers for PINs, as I only have to record the name of the former owner somewhere on the card or in my wallet.
I recommended that my students take a typing course to improve accuracy and speed on the keyboard; I don’t think that is a useless skill even now, but I doubt anyone uses it.
I lag behind a bit using the older-school mechanical Das Keyboard, but …
MECHANICAL SWITCHES RULE!
I learned to do a lot of math on a slide-rule way back in junior high school. It only gave you 3 significant digits for your answer, but you had to learn to keep track of the exponents so you would know the magnitude of your answer. I had to laugh when I went to college (later in life) where most other students were using hand held calculators. A lot of those students would punch numbers into their calculator, and whatever answer the calculator gave them, the students would write that answer on their exams. The problem is, if a student accidentally punched in an extra digit, or didn’t punch in a digit, their answer would be way off. When I started using a calculator, I was always able to estimate my answer due to my previous slide-rule experience, so if my answer seemed “off,” I would re-enter it into the calculator.
I also learned to determine north just by the time of day and the position of the sun (and the date, as the sun has a different angle of declination at different times of the year), and usually did not need to refer to a compass. Another lost skill among the young.
Re: UFOs
My problem, well one anyway, is that Right Now — no foolin’ — we are seeing an alien intelligence emerging in our midst as Artificial Intelligence equal to our own.
In ten years I daresay AI will be 10x more intelligent than us, likely more.
Imagine an intelligence thousands of years older and millions times more intelligent.
Would such an intelligence be playing crashed saucer games with us?
Rusty,
I too was good with a slide rule. My High School math classes put significant focus on interpolation, extrapolation and estimating as part of the slide rule instruction and, like you, I still find it an incredibly useful tool. (Estimating, not the slide rule. I haven’t held a slide rule in decades.) I can typically get to a decent approximation quickly; a mental guesstimate, so when I do the actual math in a spreadsheet, program or calculator I generally see when there is a mistake somewhere.
I’m lousy at finding compass directions by the position of the Sun, but when I was around 14 I learned how to tell time by the position of Ursa Major (only works at night, of course). As long as I knew my approximate latitude and the date I could generally get within about 3 minutes of the actual time by looking at where Ursa Major was in its revolution* about the tail of Ursa Minor (Polaris).
*OK, neither constellation is moving**, it’s the Earth that’s rotating, but the effect is just like the hands of a clock.
** OK, the constellations are actually moving, incredibly fast, well, each star in them is moving incredibly fast (as well as rotating), in different directions, but they are so far away they appear motionless.
I am touched by David Shapiro’s optimistic theory about our AI children — in the hope they don’t eventually decide to exterminate us all. 🙂
He calls it Progenitor Information.
________________________________
Progenitor information refers to the concept that all machine intelligence and knowledge will have its roots in human-generated data and insights. Even if AGI replaces or outpaces humanity, this foundational connection implies a form of intrinsic interest or alignment towards humans.
–David Shapiro, “The AGI Exodus Thought Experiment: Will Intelligent Machines Leave Us Behind?” https://youtu.be/N9KcjduNB-s?t=781
________________________________
I can see that in our study of mythology and religion. We don’t discard it all as stupid and infantile — though some do — but we honor our predecessors and their thoughts as where we came from.
Shapiro’s argues that if AI evolves exponentially, it may evolve so rapidly that it won’t care about killing humans off — wheew! — any more than we obsess about killing off ants.
There are plenty more resources in space for an AI to exploit beyond those of Earth.
huxley–Hard time sleeping, so here goes.
From what David Grusch has said, the total number of partially or fully intact UFOs which the U.S. has in it’s possession is apparently in the “double digits”–and it seems like it may be in the low double digits–so, let’s just say it’s 20 or under.
Grusch has also testified that other rival nations have also been trying to find and to retrieve their own bunch of crashed UFOs, so, lets’ credit Russia and China each with their own low, double digit collection.
So, now we’re talking, say, a total of 60 or less craft, collected by all countries, from crash sites spread all over the world, during the span of the last 90 or more years.
(It is also thought that some of these vehicles were either deliberately crashed, or were landed intact, and the pilots walked away–they were “donations.”)
As for the question of, why, if these NHIs are so advanced, do their craft sometimes crash, echoing long time UFO researcher Richard Dolan, my guess is that nobody–not even highly advanced NHIs–is perfect and, given their apparent operating tempo of what could be hundreds of thousands of sorties spread over our entire planet during the course of 90 some years, there are bound to be the occasional less than fully competent or tired and/or unobservant pilot, unavoidable accidents, very bad flying conditions, and the occasional piece of faulty equipment.
Then, again, perhaps, we, the Russians, or the Chinese, got really stupid, and actually shot some of these UFOs down.
One other possibility is that what we are the subjects of is the equivalent of poorly funded academic, anthropological field research, which has to make do with less than first class pilots, and with second hand equipment.
P.S.–Many of the researchers in this field have apparently come to the conclusion that what we are dealing with is not just one species of NHIs, but likely several.
Perhaps some species are much better pilots and/or have much better equipment than others.
It also seems as if many of what I consider to be the most knowledgeable, informed, and intelligent researchers are coming to believe that the UFO Phenomenon has two different components to it–one mechanical, the other psychic.
Another conclusion that some researchers have come to is that this UFO Phenomenon may actually be terrestrial in origin–and has been with us since the dawn of time–the people of each era clothing it in the current ideas, images, and belief systems of that time–first forest, water, air, weather, and other nature spirits, then daemons, then gods and goddesses, then angels and demons, and now some form of technology.
P.P.S. Or, to make things even more confusing, perhaps what we are dealing with here are several different kinds of NHIs–some prosaic ETs from other solar systems and using machines, some NHIs indigenous, and of a more ethereal nature.
At this point, and very frustratingly, absent people who were or are still actually involved in these Legacy programs coming forth, and telling us what they have discovered, we are just dealing with conjecture.
I’m just hoping that after 80-90 years of data gathering and study, whoever these people are have come to some actionable conclusions; what this UFO phenomenon is, and what it is not.
Regarding this business about natural reality [ as we understand it] ” non human intelligences” and our speculated contact with them or their technical means.
Let’s present a couple of historical counterfactual analogies as if our predecessors had taken our advice.
– October 1941.
Memo: “The Japanese really seem to be up to something in the Far East and Congress and the American people have a right to know what this portends. Please instruct the Navy Department to release all they have on the codebreaking success of August 1940, and what intelligence they have been able to glean since then. Include a picture of the device which we have using inferential methods successfully built to mimic the functions of the original. It might be pretty darn close to what they have. We should be proud of this achievement.”
Summer 1945.
. Memo: ” After 3 years of intensive research and an unprecedented expenditure of funds on this secret project, we are prepared to test a new type of fission weapon in the desert which might make war obsolete or impossible to carry on.
Please inform our ally the Soviet Ambassador of the impending test and issue him a pass to observe the same. Whether the device works or not, this is too important a matter for all of humanity to keep secret any longer. Especially between friends … “
– Summer 1966.
Memo: “News reports have been circulating with regard to glowing objects moving through the upper atmosphere at incredible speeds and alarming citizens. Please inform the public that
1. Many of these sightings match the flight paths of our new A12 aircraft as they fly at Mach 3 at 78,000 feet. What people are seeing is the set sun reflecting off of the unpainted body of the aircraft which is at an altitude where the light of the sun is not yet blocked off due to the curvature of the earth.
2. Make sure that people know the difficulties in manufacturing this craft due to materials science and supplies lagging our conceptual design capabilities; and how this at present limits their use and near term potential.
They will be greatly reassured.”
sdferr, where does that put Iceland in the ranking of global warming?” 🙂
But as far as life skills, I think Neo is making us all confess our age.
Anyone here that’s not a boomer?
Many people say that there is only one species of Unicorn, and that they have been here in the Universe before the beginning of color and sound, oops, before time. Many people …..
Regarding “counterfactual” 2, it occurred to me that it was not all that counterfactual given that summer starts on June 21 and Potsdam and Truman’s exchange was a month later.
More appropriate might have been an illustration using the hydrogen bomb which researchers expected would give us years of lead, but due to espionage did not.
In the event, it shows what damage leaking, be it via imprudent revelation, or espionage, can do to one’s future advantage, security, and safety.
“Anyone here who is not a boomer?”
— Bill K, 0942.
I learned to do a lot of math on a slide-rule way back in junior high school. It only gave you 3 significant digits for your answer, but you had to learn to keep track of the exponents so you would know the magnitude of your answer. I had to laugh when I went to college (later in life) where most other students were using hand held calculators.
I was in the middle, as I didn’t get a calculator until my junior year in college. One good thing about slide rules is that you needed to write out the problem. By writing out the problem you not only kept track of exponents, but you could also do an in-your-head estimate of the calculation. I continued to write out problems when I got a hand-held calculator.
I could find the North Star at night, but didn’t learn much about the sun. All I recall is that being outside near sunrise in the winter taught me that the sun rose in the southeast.
Snow on Pine:
Perhaps there are dozens of crashed saucers in the custody of major governments. Although somehow no hard proof has emerged, just some damned interesting stories. (Astronaut Gordon Cooper tells some great ones in his memoir “Leap of Faith.”)
I don’t know. However, I have been following fringe stories of all sorts since I was a teen. Most of them hinge on the love of a good story and the telephone game — each time a story is told, it gets modified and embroidered until the original facts, whatever they were, are buried.
There’s something important going on with UFOs, but I’m tired of waiting up nights for the Truth.
huxley—As I’ve written here before, there is just too much information—many decades worth of it–from too great a number of different and trained, credible sources for there not be be something to the UFO Phenomenon.
There has been, and is, way too much government effort—extending over generations, no less–being put into doing UFO research in secret, to quashing this story, to misinforming and misleading the public, and to discouraging whistle blowers, for the UFO Phenomenon not to be an extremely important, major issue, and UFOs (and NHIs) not to be real.
Add in the fact that reputable current scientists of the caliber and reputation of Avi Loeb and Garry Nolan are increasingly attracted to, and focusing their attention and research on the UFO Phenomenon, and this is another confirmatory sign.
(Not to mention the fact that—according to the SECRET, now declassified Australian government military intelligence document summarizing U.S. government attitudes toward and activities dealing with UFOs–covering the time of the 1950s and 60s–that I referenced and linked to in an earlier post, during this time, the U. S. government set up 46 different research projects, generated almost 500 research papers, and was calling on scientists of the caliber of Teller and Oppenheimer to help unravel the mysteries of UFOs, and especially their presumed anti-gravity propulsion systems.
The government wasn’t expending all of this money and effort unless they were quite sure that UFOs were real and, moreover, a real problem.)
Finally, add to current developments the fact that some far-seeing individuals are looking ahead and starting to form companies and organizations to take advantage of i.e. to acquire the power to influence events, and to make money in a new Reality, to push Disclosure forward and, then, to help governments and other organizations, companies, and individuals navigate –for a price–through this new Reality, after some form of Disclosure has happened.
This adds yet another layer of confirmation to the Reality of UFOs and of NHIs.
These last are canny people, and they would not be plotting and planning, expending money and effort, if they didn’t think that they had a good chance of profiting from all of their efforts. It doesn’t seem to me that these are the types of hard-headed, impractical people who go off, chasing after an illusion.
To me, it seems as if the signs are all starting to point thataway, towards the new Reality of UFOs and NHIs.
the problem lies in why they haven’t ruled out any particular reason, I remember project blue book there was a series back in the 70s, that debunked all these elements, then Close Encounters raised the prospect, then the Majestic 12 papers inspired Men in Black and the X files, as well as Dark Skies,
miguel cervantes— Perhaps they haven’t ruled out anything because—despite 80-90 years of collecting data and research —they still really don’t know what they are dealing with.
To me, it seems as if the signs are all starting to point thataway, towards the new Reality of UFOs and NHIs.
Snow on Pine:
I don’t rule it out.
I’m making a standard ROI (Return on Investment) calculation. I was keen on such scenarios earlier in my life, but there was not much return. I’m 71 and I doubt much return in my foreseeable lifespan.
What I do see for certain is an AGI (Artificial General Intelligence) equivalent to ours within 10 years, more likely within three. After that, ASI (Artificial Super Intelligence) within decades.
I don’t see how that fits in with well with the Big-Eyed Greys and the rest of the Menagerie.
Old joke about plumbers:
A guy called in the plumber late one night because his water wasn’t flowing through the taps. The plumber examines the pipes for a few minutes, takes out a little hammer, and gives one of them a good thwack. The water starts flowing again.
He gives the homeowner a bill for $350 (it’s an OLD joke).
“That’s outrageous!” the man fumes. “All you did was hit a pipe!”
So the plumber tears up the bill and writes a new one.
Hitting pipe $50.
Knowing which pipe to hit $300
Oops – the Plumber belongs in the Dumb Yout’ thread.
@ Snow > ‘These last are canny people, and they would not be plotting and planning, expending money and effort, if they didn’t think that they had a good chance of profiting from all of their efforts. It doesn’t seem to me that these are the types of hard-headed, impractical people who go off, chasing after an illusion.”
I enjoy reading your comments, as I’m a sucker for a good UFO story and I would LOVE for them to be true, but you have to remember all the smart people who invested in tulip bulbs.
In re slide rules – learned to use one in middle school and dropped it in college after my freshman year, when all the engineering students went to personal calculators. The caveat about being able to guesstimate the calculated answer to do a quick check that you got the right one is so true. I taught summer school once, HS algebra, and the first thing I did was ban calculators in class.
Our son the architect cum civil engineer tells about his classmate, who calculated the speed of water in the pipes of a building he designed at Mach 23 and had no idea why that was wrong.
Decimal places rule.
Old fogey note: Robert Heinlein’s space ship astrogators in his early works used slide rules, even when he also provided a futuristic computer.
Always cracks me up.
AesopFan–Yes, it’s true that throughout history people have believed–and bet on–a lot of crazy and stupid things; the people caught up in the 17th century Tulip mania in the Netherlands, and losing fortunes during it, a prime example.
As have stated in posts here a couple of times, I could very well be wrong about UFOs and NHIs and, in fact, it would be a good thing if I was.
Because the more information I come across and accumulate, the deeper I dive, the more I have the feeling that whatever this UFO Phenomenon is, and who or whatever the NHIs are behind it, when we find out the truth behind these things, it will not be a happy day for the human race, and quite likely the opposite.
It will not be a pleasant thing to find out that we are very likely low man on the totem pole, and that may just be the beginning of our “tough “love”” education.”
It’s just that the more information–from what I judge to be credible sources–I find, the more I am convinced–for all of the reasons I have enumerated above in prior comments–that UFOs are very real, indeed, and that there is some type of NHI or other–be it some type of an actual biological entity, or an AI–directing them.
And they very obviously want something; knowledge, what to them would be treasure, genetic material, entertainment, who knows.
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I am a BOOMER, 77 now so I can relate. And not all are useless.
1. We have a home phone, with a pad of paper and pen by the main phone to take phone calls.
2. We use paper maps while overseas. And if the car has GPS then I use that also.
3. I remember my Mom making clothes using patterns.
4 Cursive writing – I just don’t write much any more and that is a good thing. I am Left Handed and my writing is very bad. While in college we used Blue Books. My Advisor wrote on one BB that my handwriting “reminded him of an Epileptic Rooster going across a sandy barnyard”.
5. Fun having your Girlfriend shift for you.
6. YES, you should balance the check book all the time. I check bank account and MC often.
7. With letter writing going away there will not be a record in the future. Things will disappear in the cloud.
8. Still use typing for the computer keyboard.
9. We have 2 sets of Fine China. We try to use them often.
10. Glad I am married because I have no idea how people date now.
11. Last two days made two trips to HD and King Soopers. Yes I do get things delivered but sometimes you just have to examine what you are buying.
I tried to learn cursive writing they used to say i should go to medical school (the scrawl) but you should see what a generation trained on shells writing looks like
Paging hammurabi
My younger brother is a “boomer”; my mother informed me decades ago that I am officially a “war baby”. 🙂 That said, those skills shown in the video are still very useful although not taught today. Shirehome hit all the points I would…
With the most recent move, the land-line home phone went away, but one of the cells is designated as “home phone” to keep things organized. Both my vehicles (car *2019) and truck (2003)) are manual transmission. the truck with manual window operation. My introduction to driving was sitting next to my dad and shifting the gears, first on command and then on my own as I learned the noises the car made when a shift was needed. (Being able to shift fast became a necessary skill in my teens.) Both vehicles have paper maps stuffed in the door pockets, and I am somewhat skilled at refolding the paper maps on the original lines.
My cursive writing took a hit when I worked as a draftsman and then as a police officer where the handwritten reports were printed, no cursive allowed. (Some had the skill to make their printing as unreadable as their cursive, however.) Typing class, both in school and the Army, was done with the keys unmarked.
The video missed the practice of maintaining a savings account. One had to have a stash of money to use for emergencies. I used the water heater as my analogy: how are you going to pay for a new water heater when this one goes out? was my mantra. The MC concept made savings “old fashioned”.
The loss of letter writing will be a loss to future generations.
RE: What should the government’s response be to UFOs, and what might be the consequences?
Below I’ve linked to a very serious, informed, and thoughtful article exploring this topic written by Chris Mellon, a former Assistant Secretary of Defense for Intelligence, and before that, the Staff Director for the Senate Intelligence Committee.*
* See https://thedebrief.org/disclosure-and-national-security-should-the-u-s-government-reveal-what-it-knows-about-uap/
One concern, now that the AI revolution has truly arrived, is the enfeeblement of humanity.
We already see that in the ability of young people to make change properly. It seems to me that general writing ability of Americans has declined too.
With ChatGPT the ability to write from the blank page to a finished product is going to drop off a cliff. People will just feed a vague specification into Chat, Chat will produce a serviceable first draft, and the human will become an editor, not a writer..
Another Mike–In the late 1940s early 1950s I trained as a child in elementary school at a wooden and wrought iron desk with a wooden hole, an inkwell, in the upper right hand corner, which was filled with a little glass jar of ink (this sometimes useful for dipping the pigtails of the girl in the desk in front of me in it), and we practiced the Palmer method using steel nibbed dipping pens.
Sad to see the passing of so many of the things which made the past a much more stable and comfortable/comforting past, including writing letters–penmanship, ruminating, evaluating things, thoughtfulness, politeness, social rituals, significant dates, and personal communication–but discovered that there is apparently a community of people nowadays who collect ink pens–new and old, and who will apparently pay what I consider to be astronomical amounts for them, so various pen companies keep churning out expensive (quite often mostly plastic) model after model, with very fancy model names attached to them.
I would be curious to know just how many of these pens, fancy paper, and inks are actually used to write letters.
(As a “collector” of many things, I know I am “guilty as charged.”)
Take a look on Ebey or at pen, paper, and ink seller’s websites.
huxley–As an Air Force corpsman back in the 1960s in Japan, I was sometimes called on to be the substitute X-Ray, lab technician, or pharmacist at the small dispensary where I was stationed, and the handwriting of the doctor’s prescriptions I had to fill as the pharmacist was sometimes an almost totally illegible scrawl, sometimes in Latin no less.
It looked like a drunken worm, dipped in ink, had crawled, erratically, over some doctor’s prescription pad.
This thread has drifted into Old Fogy territory.
P.S.–As I’ve gotten older I’ve noticed that–unless I make a determined effort–my handwriting–once so nice and clear–is verging on being illegible, even to me.
IrishOtter49–I resemble that remark.
Perhaps we will devolve to the point where a special class of “scribes,” who can write legibly, will arise–good way to use all of those fancy pens, papers, and inks.
Not useless skills, undervalued skills.
The main one that got me is reading a map. Being able to read a map can save your life, depending on where you happen to get lost.
I’ve got nothing against modern technology. I use a GPS in my car. I use my phone for navigation when I’m walking around in a city I’m visiting. I even use a GPS when in the woods. Nothing wrong with that convenience when its available, but what if it doesn’t work? You’ll just wander around lost and hope for the best? I keep a US road atlas in my vehicles and even have more detailed maps of the areas I travel to/through regularly. When I’m in the woods, I carry a compass and a topo map of the area. I virtually never use them any more, but it’s like a fire extinguisher. You take them for granted when they’re just sitting there unused, but when you need one you REALLY need it…and it might just save your life.
The rest of them may not be life critical, but to say they’re useless is just ignorant.
Snow on Pine:
If the USA has solid evidence of UFO stuff and UFO dead bodies, then it is highly likely that dozens of other nations, including China, India, Japan, Russia, etc., have them as well.
Consequently if the USA announced and showed solid evidence, it would not be a surprise to other nations.
The idea that making public any and all UFO data would create chaos and disorder is bullshit.
People would still have to go to work, school, shopping, etc.
Neo would still have her blog we all frequently visit.
Yea, there would be some folks that would totally freak out; e.g., similar to those Year 2000 end of the world nuts that killed themselves and other such nut-jobs, but the vast majority of people would get on with life.
After all, if UFOs exist, there is nothing anybody can do about it; this includes the US military, NASA, etc. etc.
As such, UFOs do not represent any threat to national security because the UFOs are immune to any and all human actions to stop UFOs from doing what they intend to do. Sort of like when it rains; streets get wet and that’s all there is to it.
And when you think about it, if UFOs are a threat, why haven’t they acted upon that ability of theirs?
After all, UFOs have probably been around for thousands of years.
They could have prevented humans from, say, developing nuclear weapons if they chose to.
Clearly, UFOs are not interested in dealing with, what they consider, life forms with zero intelligence; that would be humans. Human intelligence to UFO denizens is akin to insect intelligence to humans.
The bigger and more realistic threat is earth bound; Russia, China, Iran, Hamas, etc. , in terms of external threats, and just as threatening, if not more so, are our home grown Federal agencies – DHS, DOJ, FBI, NSA, IRS, – EVERY SINGLE FEDERAL AGENCY – that do whatever they want, whenever they want, and are accountable to nobody – while congress does nothing about it.
This entire UFO topic – how much should be revealed – is just another ploy, a power grab by Federal agencies that know they can tell Congress (our representatives ! ) to F off realizing that nothing at all will happen to them if they ignore Congress.
Think the Dept of Homeland Security chief, Majorcas. He literally needs 50 hands attached to each of his arms, to be able to count the number of times he actually flipped off Congress, and not have a worry in the world.
I learned to drive with automatic…but when I needed to pick up my then-girlfriend at the airport, the motorscooter I had then wasn’t going to work, so I asked a friend if I could borrow his VW Beetle.reasoning that since I could do the manual shifting on the scooter, surely I could adapt to the VW. Made it to the airport & back OK, but with a little grinding of gears involved.
btw, this is one of the very few examples of online advertising I’ve seen where the ad has any logical fit with the content.
On handwriting, I don’t think that mine will ever go away, no matter how much I use it. I’m afraid the Sisters of the Sacred Heart will track me down and wack my hands with a ruler. An 18 inch solid copper ruler.
Yes I am Irish, and Proud of it.
Lots of memories. Two things I remember that bring back my younger days are twice-per-day mail delivery and, on the rare occasions when your phone didn’t work, going next door to call the phone company and have a cheerful repairman with his fancy tool belt show up in about an hour. And, this was in suburban Kansas City — not a small town.
I see the open thread has its very own UAP posting, which is actually quite the read with some good arguments. One might not agree 100% with the author, but it has food for thought.
Re: More Plisetskaya … performing “Bolero”
Just bopping around the web, as one does, I clicked this YouTube link:
–“Maya Plisetskaya – Bolero (choreography by Maurice BĂ©jart)” (1975) (20m)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SsSALaDJuN4
OMG. I was transfixed for the whole thing and I hadn’t even had breakfast. Including the long audience acclaim at the end.
It was modern dance, not ballet. Plisetskaya danced barefoot. The performance was shot by a real director.
I don’t get modern dance. Mostly it looks contrived and silly, E for Effort at best. But Plisetskaya’s Bolero is a life-changing aesthetic experience. Lest I sound overwrought here’s wiki:
_______________________________________
Among her most notable performances was a 1975 free-form dance, in a modern style, set to Ravel’s BolĂ©ro. In it, she dances a solo piece on an elevated round stage, surrounded and accompanied by 40 male dancers. One reviewer wrote, “Words cannot compare to the majesty and raw beauty of Plisetskaya’s performance”:
What makes the piece so compelling is that although Plisetskaya may be accompanied by dozens of other dancers mirroring her movement, the first and only focus is on the prima ballerina herself. Her continual rocking and swaying at certain points, rhythmically timed to the syncopation of the orchestra, create a mesmerizing effect that demonstrated an absolute control over every nuance of her body, from the smallest toe to her fingertips, to the top of her head.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maya_Plisetskaya<
_______________________________________
HuxleyBob says check it out.
BTW Plisetskaya was 50 years-old in this performance.
Awesome.
By the way; I forgot to mention re: UFO’s if they do exist and if the USA has UFO stuff and UFO dead bodies.
Those in the federal govt that have this UFO stuff and/or are knowledgeable about what UFO stuff the govt has, have not gone off the deep end and panicked and killed themselves or sold their homes and moved their families deep into mountain caves to await Armageddon.
They are just getting on with their lives despite knowing the “real” UFO story.
Yet it is these same people – in their arrogance and contempt of ordinary people – that claim the general populace cannot handle the truth. Therefore it’s their job to keep all of this stuff secret.
Yep, can’t trust the folks in “fly over” country, the Walmart crowd. Thank god we have the intellectually superior folks – sort of like the presidents of Harvard – who populate the Federal govt to protect us.
Not wise to be totally dependent on GPS. This navigation system is highly susceptible to jamming. Also, people should have some level of situational awareness, such that they don’t attempt to drive across rivers or across active airport runways, which some have done because GPS told them to.
When I first went into the armed forces, my handwriting consisted of printing, and it was very legible and all caps. I remember a tough sergeant waving a form of mine around and saying aloud “THIS is how you should fill out these forms!” Needless to say I paid dearly for that “honor”!
Over the years of using computers, my handwriting has degenerated to the point that it is indecipherable, and it hurts me to hold a pen or pencil!
Yes, I am left-handed, but can do many things with either hand. For example I never hit a backhand in tennis or other racquet sports – I just quickly switch hands, without even thinking about it!
Also, people should have some level of situational awareness…
–David Foster
One apparent Boomer skill is to “Look both ways before crossing the street.” I recall that skill being drummed into me. Rightfully so.
I see so many young pedestrians staring into their phones, maybe even while wearing headphones, who blithely wade into intersections as though they were Jesus walking on the water.
My late father, born 1941, did not write in cursive. He was a physicist for Pennzoil. Maybe he was taught cursive as a child, but he did not use it.
I print also,even though I was taught cursive, though even my print is barely legible.
My signature is partial cursive.
I do not like trying to read cursive. Give me print any day. There is a reason the majority of the internet, including this site, uses some type of ” print” style , not ” cursive.”
There are a number of things in our society that have changed for the worse, but I do not lament the loss of cursive.
I keep a US road atlas in my vehicles[…]
And jumper cables.
I’d like someone to explain how, with flying saucers belly flopping all over the planet for 70-80 years and even strewing the corpses of little green, or grey or silver men around like a rotary sprinkler, the United States, or foreign governments, one and all, east west north south, first second and third worlds have managed to scoop up every single piece of unequivoval material evidence, without apparent exception.
Never trust a fat balding white man in a Hawaiian shirt and sandals, or any guy who wears a fedora in the house. He is lying, even if he is not.
Whatever the truth may be about UFO’s or UAP’s the full disclosure of whatever the government is thought to be concealing can not be done without full disclosure or ALL black world testing of advanced systems so no matter how much demand there may be it isn’t going to happen. OTOH in the regular course of conducting advanced systems development the UFO/UAP controversy helps explain away operations that weren’t meant to be seen or aren’t ready to be revealed.
And sometimes things just aren’t what they appear to be. Just sayin
Re the link to the Mellon essay.
In principle I substantially agee.
If the incidents of open, incidental, precipitating contact were limited, and persisted in a controlled and regulated fashion, the best possible policy of the responsible governing parties might just be to let sleeping dogs lie, and tamp down or misdirect interest for now.
Because,taken on average, there seems to be almost no limit to the heedless emotion driven, inadvertantly self-destructive potential present in portions of the human population.
Suppose just for the sake of argument:
– That there exited a largely static and decadent yet technologically advanced through inheritance, “civilization” right here on earth, and dwelling under the oceans or in subterranean environments as has been proposed by story tellers.
– That these creatures were native to this planet, dating back eons
– That they are, say, “Silurians”, or some hypothetical facsimilie
– That despite having expanded beyond it, they consider this planet theirs, but for various reasons are willing to tolerate our existence and concede the surface largely to us
– That this toleration is conditional on us keeping out of their way or some other stipulation
Now suppose that the caravans of quasi-religious lunatics and UFO celebrants discovered their confirmed existence and their whereabouts.
Now, what ….
Not to mention if we in the US did manage to reverse engineer certain aspects of their transportation technology, but had not mastered it completely nor been able to weaponize it for defense, and nonetheless decided to confirm for all of our human adversaries that such technical means did exist …
Driving a stick shift. I was very dismissive of automatic transmissions and swore I would never own a car with one. Now, it’s hard to find a stick shift car and I’ve been driving auto transmissions for the last twenty years. Never say never.
One bit of knowledge I learned early on was Ver useful. I was sitting on a n oil well that was being drilled near Vernal, Utah in 1958. It was a joint venture with Gulf Oil Co. The Gulf geologist was a friendly and knowledgeable guy. We had a lot of time on our hands when the driller was pulling pipe out of the hole to put on a new drill bit.
During that time, he revealed to me the magic of compound interest and the long-term performance of the T. Rowe Price mutual fund. It was an area of knowledge that I had never been exposed to.
That two weeks spent on that well gave me the knowledge to discipline myself to put small amounts to work in the stock market over the long haul.
That life skill is even more important now because pension plans have been replaced by 401ks. It should be taught to every senior in high school.
Left-handed here, but very nice cursive handwriting. I hated those blue book exams and pencils. My fingers and my text would be smeared with graphite. I think my handwriting is nice because, being an obedient student, I turned my paper angled to the right just like the other kids, and then wrote uphill, hence the pencil smears.
I’m sure I could still drive stick shift although I haven’t in years.
I do use GPS. I have little sense of direction and my family rejoices to think that I will return when I leave them. But it’s not entirely reliable. One day recently my car’s GPS told me I was driving over the surface of the nearby lake, when my eyes told me it wasn’t so. We take printed maps on trips as a backup.
John Tyler and DNW—
The more research I do, the more interviews I see, the more documents I read, the more my bad, gut feeling and apprehension about what “Disclosure” might actually bring increases.
From the various hints which have been dropped by knowledgeable insiders like “sombre” Lou Elizondo and a few others, my current reading of the UFO situation is that, if and when we learn the truth, it will not be a happy day for us humans.
The bad news could be almost anything. Pick any malevolent, catastrophic scenario from first contact with NHIs which our SF writers and movie makers have managed to conjure up.
Perhaps some of the NHIs visiting and surveilling us are predatory, not in any way our friends, only being restrained—say, for the moment–by other more powerful NHIs, or that the “Zoo Hypothesis” is the correct one and, unbeknownst to us, for NHIs we (to them) feral humans are just an “exhibit,” being kept in a sort of cage, and we will be prevented from being able to get out of our cage and reach other solar systems, to spread out into the Galaxy, thus assuring the survival of the human race.
Perhaps a lot of those Abductions, and Greys are real, and us humans just a source of genetic material; we’re cattle on a feed lot.
The potentially bad outcomes for us humans—pretty obviously on the short end of the power imbalance, and essentially powerless in the face of what appears to be vastly superior NHI technology (see the history of our interactions with American Indians)—would seem to be virtually endless, the good outcomes few.
I see statements from several prominent figures doing research on the UFO Phenomenon about how any NHIs might be able to help the human race to get out of the perilous course we seem to be on, headed toward our own nuclear or other destruction.
What if, though, we are at the mercy of entities who are not benign, and who may have no interest in or sense of obligation at all to treat us kindly, with mercy, or to actually “help” us out in any way?
These NHIs just wanting to stand by and to merely “observe,” and likely to record, the show?
Oh noes, “The Prime Directive” from Ray Bradbury and Star Trek surfaces. Existential angst in SoP.
I belong to a Facebook group of Graphic Designers, and periodically, there are us oldsters who “reminisce” about the “good ol’ days.” To be honest, when it comes to graphic design, I MUCH prefer the contemporary stuff: I hated Letraset, Leroy Lettering, french curves, rapidographs, ruling pens, different pencil weights, non-photo blue pencil, mylar, compasses, triangles, pantone sheets, paste ups, pasteboards… It is sooooooo much easier nowadays. There is some website that is the Graphic Design Museum
I recall once in the late 1990’s, I worked in a back, in portfolio management, as an administrative assistant. One day, we lost access to our internet. No one knew what to do except the “old times” who had been doing that job for years. One thing I found ironic about that job is that PRIOR to the computerized stuff, client files had MUCH, MUCH less paper. Prior to computers, each transaction was written down in a lined ledger paper with that movable carbon paper. The details were noted: Who directed the transaction (client or portfolio manager), date, time, and how much, and to/from where. AFTER email, each email was PRINTED and put in the folder.
I drove a stick for years but gave up when it became harder to find someone who knew how to repair them. (I didn’t drive a fancy sports car that have specialized garages.) I kind of miss it.
Back in the days of maps, you used to go to AAA and get a “Triptik” for your trip, plus all the maps. the Triptik would include where there was planned road closures and how to get around them.
You are crazy to NOT have paper map backup for GPS. I read all sorts of horror stories about people who follow what GPS or Google Maps tell them to do. You especially need paper maps if you rely on Google Maps — if you get out of cell phone coverage, you lose your Google Maps.
I still remember random phone numbers I memorized a million years ago, and I have no idea to whom those numbers belonged. Of course, everyone over a certain age knows 867-5309. Even older people know PEnnsylvania6-5000. Lol!!
I’m a later Boomer (born in 1957) and all the things in the video were part of my upbringing. The one mentioned that I think is overstated is the memorization of phone numbers. First of all, I only had to remember local phone numbers, that is for people in my city/town. I didn’t know anyone outside the area other than my grandparents and a couple of aunts & uncles. I might have called them just once or twice. In the 60’s & 70’s, and into the 80’s in some places, the Area Code was not required when dialing. The places I lived also had a single exchange, so all I had to remember were the last four digits of a friend’s phone number. For many years you only had to dial the last five digits for a local call.
Other than that, this is a really good list. I plan to share it with my kids, they’ll get a laugh out of it.
At one point after I moved to Mercer Island, I worked in a drug store. I was really surprised at how many people gave their phone number as 2-xxxx or AD2-xxxx when the actual number was 232-xxxx by then.
@ Snow on Pine
Well, I don’t think that the malevolent interest scenarios are actually very probable if the hypothesized entities were extra terrestrial, at least insofar as being from outside the solar system.
It stands to reason that if they were advanced enough to conduct interstellar or even intergallactic travel, that their level of advancement would be sufficient to make both us and our planet irrelevant to them in terms of either material or biological resources.
Of course it might be that we would find ourselves dealing with the effective lumpenproletariat and sons of Cain of the interstellar population and that we are to them as local chimps might be to a colony of pirates. Or as rats to gangsters hiding out in a slum, mostly ignored until they become annoying.
So, hypothetically, there is that.
Here is what makes no sense: interstellar craft flying ” in echelon”. What are they, geese? WW II P47s?
It makes no sense for a hyper advanced civilization to even be detectable to us, much less to be tooling around in spacecraft we can detect and that crash.
So,
1. They are not that advanced, being
a, degenerate or static in some way
b, of locally occurring origin
2. We are living in a reality wherein we are actually being swarmed constantly by all manner of more or less unorganized and from their standpoint casual visitors; with we being in the equivalent of an anthropark or reservation, having been shielded from it until recently by our own technological limitations.
That would not place us in a zoo precisely, but approximate more to the until recently relatively uncontacted tribes in the Amazon, or New Guinea.
And it is possible that “they” if not so advanced as to appear supernatural or magi1c, and taken in aggregate and considered distrbutively, may not know all that we know simply because they have no reason to care … to this point.
However if we had complacent visitors who we might alarm by broadcasting everything our deepest theorists and labs had achieved, well, who the hell knows what might be the fallout.
As far as underground or subsea civilizations go, I imagine the oil companies or oceanic floor mappers would have spotted evidence of them decades ago.
Re: Plisetskaya’s “Bolero”
A fun thing in that video is that Plisetskaya’s right-hand man (literally) is a stripped, muscular, bare-chested dancer wearing a black neckerchief who was the spitting image of Keith Richard in some photos around the time of the Stone’s “Exile” album.
–Maya Plisetskaya – Bolero (choreography by Maurice BĂ©jart)”
https://youtu.be/SsSALaDJuN4?t=451
I can’t find the exact Keith photo I’m looking for but this is close with a thin shirt:
https://imgs.search.brave.com/DUmMD5Q84VJl9SKGVqKPnTWfu2E6_D2U3VXbet8-5WE/rs:fit:860:0:0/g:ce/aHR0cHM6Ly9pLnBp/bmltZy5jb20vb3Jp/Z2luYWxzLzIzL2Iw/LzNlLzIzYjAzZTQy/M2Q3ZWUwNDE3NmMx/OTI2OTIzMTgwZGNl/LmpwZw
I doubt this was a coincidence.
I too am disappointed with much modern art, but when it did hit home, it was a home run.
Plisetskaya was a dance force in her 50s. She performed The Dying Swan when she was 80!
Of course, all those beautiful boys dancing with Plisetskaya look like they could have played in the Rolling Stones…
Here’s a 1982 version of “Bolero” with Jorge Donn performing Plisetskaya’s lead. Oh, he’s good, but he’s no Maya Plisetskaya (though who is?).
–Jorge Donn, “Bolero” (1982)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m5CFJlzlGKM
However, the electricity is all wrong, at least for this cis-het white male. A guy in mascara dancing up on the circular wooden dais, surrounded by a couple dozen adoring males doesn’t work the same way.
Still, interesting. It’s been all-Bolero all-dancing all day for this cis-het white male. This kind of drilling down is what the internet is all about.
Iceland’s latest Reykanes peninsula rift volcano — weeks now awaited — has finally erupted this evening at 10:15 pm Iceland time, and it’s a doozy! Growing from a small crack of a few tens of meters initially to a long stretching series of fissures now estimated to extend well over a kilometer (perhaps 3 by some estimates!) it is putting on quite a fiery show. Link to one of many livestreams on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/live/YAQzsB9ev9Q?si=6rGrQlpzwk5jQkhn
And a helocopter view: https://youtu.be/gwbDXAidDyg?si=haBgYUSjbZCB6mMN
Go, see!
sdferr:
Wow!
France is ahead, but Iceland is still a place I’d like to visit.
@ IrishOtter > “This thread has drifted into Old Fogy territory.”
We didn’t drift, we jumped feet-first into the deep end!
In re GPS: trust but verify.
If you look up our summer mission site on GPS it will give you very exact directions for driving to Martin’s Cove.
It will NOT tell you that the last six miles are a dirt road not open to vehicular traffic.
We occasionally had to stop people at the parking lot.
On a vacation trip last summer, our GPS showed a clearly marked road up the side of the Missouri River from one town to the next. We started on a two-lane paved road, very nice, which became a two-lane dirt road, then one-and-a-bit lane, then two ruts. When the track disappeared totally in the prairie grass we turned around and went back.
In other news: I can still write a semi-decent cursive, drive a stick, and run a sewing machine (though I need help threading the needle). Balancing the check-book is actually easier since we can see our bank transactions on-line and check them off. AesopSpouse reviews the credit card accounts daily to catch the hackers; we replace a compromised card 2 or 3 times a year.
When I taught computer programming in the 80s, I recommended that my students take a typing course to improve accuracy and speed on the keyboard; I don’t think that is a useless skill even now, but I doubt anyone uses it.
I use some of those old unforgettable phone numbers for PINs, as I only have to record the name of the former owner somewhere on the card or in my wallet.
I recommended that my students take a typing course to improve accuracy and speed on the keyboard; I don’t think that is a useless skill even now, but I doubt anyone uses it.
AesopFan:
Au contraire! Here’s TechLead expounding:
–“How I Type REALLY Fast (176 WPM) – Ex-Google Programmer on Mechanical Keyboards”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qj8PCCAiBdk
I lag behind a bit using the older-school mechanical Das Keyboard, but …
MECHANICAL SWITCHES RULE!
I learned to do a lot of math on a slide-rule way back in junior high school. It only gave you 3 significant digits for your answer, but you had to learn to keep track of the exponents so you would know the magnitude of your answer. I had to laugh when I went to college (later in life) where most other students were using hand held calculators. A lot of those students would punch numbers into their calculator, and whatever answer the calculator gave them, the students would write that answer on their exams. The problem is, if a student accidentally punched in an extra digit, or didn’t punch in a digit, their answer would be way off. When I started using a calculator, I was always able to estimate my answer due to my previous slide-rule experience, so if my answer seemed “off,” I would re-enter it into the calculator.
I also learned to determine north just by the time of day and the position of the sun (and the date, as the sun has a different angle of declination at different times of the year), and usually did not need to refer to a compass. Another lost skill among the young.
Re: UFOs
My problem, well one anyway, is that Right Now — no foolin’ — we are seeing an alien intelligence emerging in our midst as Artificial Intelligence equal to our own.
In ten years I daresay AI will be 10x more intelligent than us, likely more.
Imagine an intelligence thousands of years older and millions times more intelligent.
Would such an intelligence be playing crashed saucer games with us?
Rusty,
I too was good with a slide rule. My High School math classes put significant focus on interpolation, extrapolation and estimating as part of the slide rule instruction and, like you, I still find it an incredibly useful tool. (Estimating, not the slide rule. I haven’t held a slide rule in decades.) I can typically get to a decent approximation quickly; a mental guesstimate, so when I do the actual math in a spreadsheet, program or calculator I generally see when there is a mistake somewhere.
I’m lousy at finding compass directions by the position of the Sun, but when I was around 14 I learned how to tell time by the position of Ursa Major (only works at night, of course). As long as I knew my approximate latitude and the date I could generally get within about 3 minutes of the actual time by looking at where Ursa Major was in its revolution* about the tail of Ursa Minor (Polaris).
*OK, neither constellation is moving**, it’s the Earth that’s rotating, but the effect is just like the hands of a clock.
** OK, the constellations are actually moving, incredibly fast, well, each star in them is moving incredibly fast (as well as rotating), in different directions, but they are so far away they appear motionless.
I am touched by David Shapiro’s optimistic theory about our AI children — in the hope they don’t eventually decide to exterminate us all. 🙂
He calls it Progenitor Information.
________________________________
Progenitor information refers to the concept that all machine intelligence and knowledge will have its roots in human-generated data and insights. Even if AGI replaces or outpaces humanity, this foundational connection implies a form of intrinsic interest or alignment towards humans.
–David Shapiro, “The AGI Exodus Thought Experiment: Will Intelligent Machines Leave Us Behind?”
https://youtu.be/N9KcjduNB-s?t=781
________________________________
I can see that in our study of mythology and religion. We don’t discard it all as stupid and infantile — though some do — but we honor our predecessors and their thoughts as where we came from.
Shapiro’s argues that if AI evolves exponentially, it may evolve so rapidly that it won’t care about killing humans off — wheew! — any more than we obsess about killing off ants.
There are plenty more resources in space for an AI to exploit beyond those of Earth.
huxley–Hard time sleeping, so here goes.
From what David Grusch has said, the total number of partially or fully intact UFOs which the U.S. has in it’s possession is apparently in the “double digits”–and it seems like it may be in the low double digits–so, let’s just say it’s 20 or under.
Grusch has also testified that other rival nations have also been trying to find and to retrieve their own bunch of crashed UFOs, so, lets’ credit Russia and China each with their own low, double digit collection.
So, now we’re talking, say, a total of 60 or less craft, collected by all countries, from crash sites spread all over the world, during the span of the last 90 or more years.
(It is also thought that some of these vehicles were either deliberately crashed, or were landed intact, and the pilots walked away–they were “donations.”)
As for the question of, why, if these NHIs are so advanced, do their craft sometimes crash, echoing long time UFO researcher Richard Dolan, my guess is that nobody–not even highly advanced NHIs–is perfect and, given their apparent operating tempo of what could be hundreds of thousands of sorties spread over our entire planet during the course of 90 some years, there are bound to be the occasional less than fully competent or tired and/or unobservant pilot, unavoidable accidents, very bad flying conditions, and the occasional piece of faulty equipment.
Then, again, perhaps, we, the Russians, or the Chinese, got really stupid, and actually shot some of these UFOs down.
One other possibility is that what we are the subjects of is the equivalent of poorly funded academic, anthropological field research, which has to make do with less than first class pilots, and with second hand equipment.
P.S.–Many of the researchers in this field have apparently come to the conclusion that what we are dealing with is not just one species of NHIs, but likely several.
Perhaps some species are much better pilots and/or have much better equipment than others.
It also seems as if many of what I consider to be the most knowledgeable, informed, and intelligent researchers are coming to believe that the UFO Phenomenon has two different components to it–one mechanical, the other psychic.
Another conclusion that some researchers have come to is that this UFO Phenomenon may actually be terrestrial in origin–and has been with us since the dawn of time–the people of each era clothing it in the current ideas, images, and belief systems of that time–first forest, water, air, weather, and other nature spirits, then daemons, then gods and goddesses, then angels and demons, and now some form of technology.
P.P.S. Or, to make things even more confusing, perhaps what we are dealing with here are several different kinds of NHIs–some prosaic ETs from other solar systems and using machines, some NHIs indigenous, and of a more ethereal nature.
At this point, and very frustratingly, absent people who were or are still actually involved in these Legacy programs coming forth, and telling us what they have discovered, we are just dealing with conjecture.
I’m just hoping that after 80-90 years of data gathering and study, whoever these people are have come to some actionable conclusions; what this UFO phenomenon is, and what it is not.
Regarding this business about natural reality [ as we understand it] ” non human intelligences” and our speculated contact with them or their technical means.
Let’s present a couple of historical counterfactual analogies as if our predecessors had taken our advice.
– October 1941.
Summer 1945.
– Summer 1966.
sdferr, where does that put Iceland in the ranking of global warming?” 🙂
But as far as life skills, I think Neo is making us all confess our age.
Anyone here that’s not a boomer?
Many people say that there is only one species of Unicorn, and that they have been here in the Universe before the beginning of color and sound, oops, before time. Many people …..
Regarding “counterfactual” 2, it occurred to me that it was not all that counterfactual given that summer starts on June 21 and Potsdam and Truman’s exchange was a month later.
More appropriate might have been an illustration using the hydrogen bomb which researchers expected would give us years of lead, but due to espionage did not.
In the event, it shows what damage leaking, be it via imprudent revelation, or espionage, can do to one’s future advantage, security, and safety.
“Anyone here who is not a boomer?”
— Bill K, 0942.
[raises hand] Pre-boomer here. [and owner of 3, count ’em, 4 functioning slide rules. 🙂
Rusty
I was in the middle, as I didn’t get a calculator until my junior year in college. One good thing about slide rules is that you needed to write out the problem. By writing out the problem you not only kept track of exponents, but you could also do an in-your-head estimate of the calculation. I continued to write out problems when I got a hand-held calculator.
I could find the North Star at night, but didn’t learn much about the sun. All I recall is that being outside near sunrise in the winter taught me that the sun rose in the southeast.
Snow on Pine:
Perhaps there are dozens of crashed saucers in the custody of major governments. Although somehow no hard proof has emerged, just some damned interesting stories. (Astronaut Gordon Cooper tells some great ones in his memoir “Leap of Faith.”)
I don’t know. However, I have been following fringe stories of all sorts since I was a teen. Most of them hinge on the love of a good story and the telephone game — each time a story is told, it gets modified and embroidered until the original facts, whatever they were, are buried.
There’s something important going on with UFOs, but I’m tired of waiting up nights for the Truth.
huxley—As I’ve written here before, there is just too much information—many decades worth of it–from too great a number of different and trained, credible sources for there not be be something to the UFO Phenomenon.
There has been, and is, way too much government effort—extending over generations, no less–being put into doing UFO research in secret, to quashing this story, to misinforming and misleading the public, and to discouraging whistle blowers, for the UFO Phenomenon not to be an extremely important, major issue, and UFOs (and NHIs) not to be real.
Add in the fact that reputable current scientists of the caliber and reputation of Avi Loeb and Garry Nolan are increasingly attracted to, and focusing their attention and research on the UFO Phenomenon, and this is another confirmatory sign.
(Not to mention the fact that—according to the SECRET, now declassified Australian government military intelligence document summarizing U.S. government attitudes toward and activities dealing with UFOs–covering the time of the 1950s and 60s–that I referenced and linked to in an earlier post, during this time, the U. S. government set up 46 different research projects, generated almost 500 research papers, and was calling on scientists of the caliber of Teller and Oppenheimer to help unravel the mysteries of UFOs, and especially their presumed anti-gravity propulsion systems.
The government wasn’t expending all of this money and effort unless they were quite sure that UFOs were real and, moreover, a real problem.)
Finally, add to current developments the fact that some far-seeing individuals are looking ahead and starting to form companies and organizations to take advantage of i.e. to acquire the power to influence events, and to make money in a new Reality, to push Disclosure forward and, then, to help governments and other organizations, companies, and individuals navigate –for a price–through this new Reality, after some form of Disclosure has happened.
This adds yet another layer of confirmation to the Reality of UFOs and of NHIs.
These last are canny people, and they would not be plotting and planning, expending money and effort, if they didn’t think that they had a good chance of profiting from all of their efforts. It doesn’t seem to me that these are the types of hard-headed, impractical people who go off, chasing after an illusion.
To me, it seems as if the signs are all starting to point thataway, towards the new Reality of UFOs and NHIs.
the problem lies in why they haven’t ruled out any particular reason, I remember project blue book there was a series back in the 70s, that debunked all these elements, then Close Encounters raised the prospect, then the Majestic 12 papers inspired Men in Black and the X files, as well as Dark Skies,
miguel cervantes— Perhaps they haven’t ruled out anything because—despite 80-90 years of collecting data and research —they still really don’t know what they are dealing with.
To me, it seems as if the signs are all starting to point thataway, towards the new Reality of UFOs and NHIs.
Snow on Pine:
I don’t rule it out.
I’m making a standard ROI (Return on Investment) calculation. I was keen on such scenarios earlier in my life, but there was not much return. I’m 71 and I doubt much return in my foreseeable lifespan.
What I do see for certain is an AGI (Artificial General Intelligence) equivalent to ours within 10 years, more likely within three. After that, ASI (Artificial Super Intelligence) within decades.
I don’t see how that fits in with well with the Big-Eyed Greys and the rest of the Menagerie.
Old joke about plumbers:
A guy called in the plumber late one night because his water wasn’t flowing through the taps. The plumber examines the pipes for a few minutes, takes out a little hammer, and gives one of them a good thwack. The water starts flowing again.
He gives the homeowner a bill for $350 (it’s an OLD joke).
“That’s outrageous!” the man fumes. “All you did was hit a pipe!”
So the plumber tears up the bill and writes a new one.
Hitting pipe $50.
Knowing which pipe to hit $300
Oops – the Plumber belongs in the Dumb Yout’ thread.
@ Snow > ‘These last are canny people, and they would not be plotting and planning, expending money and effort, if they didn’t think that they had a good chance of profiting from all of their efforts. It doesn’t seem to me that these are the types of hard-headed, impractical people who go off, chasing after an illusion.”
I enjoy reading your comments, as I’m a sucker for a good UFO story and I would LOVE for them to be true, but you have to remember all the smart people who invested in tulip bulbs.
In re slide rules – learned to use one in middle school and dropped it in college after my freshman year, when all the engineering students went to personal calculators. The caveat about being able to guesstimate the calculated answer to do a quick check that you got the right one is so true. I taught summer school once, HS algebra, and the first thing I did was ban calculators in class.
Our son the architect cum civil engineer tells about his classmate, who calculated the speed of water in the pipes of a building he designed at Mach 23 and had no idea why that was wrong.
Decimal places rule.
Old fogey note: Robert Heinlein’s space ship astrogators in his early works used slide rules, even when he also provided a futuristic computer.
Always cracks me up.
AesopFan–Yes, it’s true that throughout history people have believed–and bet on–a lot of crazy and stupid things; the people caught up in the 17th century Tulip mania in the Netherlands, and losing fortunes during it, a prime example.
As have stated in posts here a couple of times, I could very well be wrong about UFOs and NHIs and, in fact, it would be a good thing if I was.
Because the more information I come across and accumulate, the deeper I dive, the more I have the feeling that whatever this UFO Phenomenon is, and who or whatever the NHIs are behind it, when we find out the truth behind these things, it will not be a happy day for the human race, and quite likely the opposite.
It will not be a pleasant thing to find out that we are very likely low man on the totem pole, and that may just be the beginning of our “tough “love”” education.”
It’s just that the more information–from what I judge to be credible sources–I find, the more I am convinced–for all of the reasons I have enumerated above in prior comments–that UFOs are very real, indeed, and that there is some type of NHI or other–be it some type of an actual biological entity, or an AI–directing them.
And they very obviously want something; knowledge, what to them would be treasure, genetic material, entertainment, who knows.