Things learned the hard way.

[rwatson]

Some of it is trivia, but some is knowledge of pivotal historic events, and for the most part they are utterly clueless. They wouldn't know, e.g., what war the Battle of the Somme was in, even if they could guess the century. That is a kind of poverty and ignorance that I'd say dishonours their forebears.

That wouldn't class as 'must know' for me, and I am 60. We got indoctrinated with WW2 stuff via Hollywood and the Readers Digest, and a lot of people have researched the non-capitalist facts, and found out that Russia did more damage to Hitler than the US did.

More people with a in-depth historic background would now remember the genocide in Rawanda, the Vietnam and more recent conflict events, but Eddie knows his audience. There is no real depth to TV shows, they are all part of the populist tripe that keeps the 1st world buying white bread and drinking imported beer..

The internet has done more for revealing the real world events (past and present) than all the TV ever broadcast.

 

[Mr Efficiency]

Apparently a sizeable proportion of Aussie bogans holidaying in Bali don't know it is a part of Indonesia. Dumbing down works !

 

[ImaginaryNumber]

Thats a common complaint from the 'old school'.

In the old days, we had to commit everything to memory, times tables, historical 'facts' etc.

Nowadays, we are unable to remember all we need to know - so the ability to research quickly and accurately, is paramount.

Imagine an accountant that can remember the entire Aus. Tax Code, Corporate law, Local Government Regulations etc etc. Even small business owners have Occ. Health and Safety, Consumer law and product knowledge overload.

The stuff Eddie MacGuire puts out there is pure sugar coating, and very little of it is strategically important to remember.

Agree. However, my observation of the responses to the Climate Change threads suggests that simply having the "ability to research quickly and accurately" does not guarantee that people will actually take advantage of that opportunity, nor does it necessarily mean that someone can differentiate between the quality of information provided by, say, Fox News vs New York Times. I guess there are topics that some people prefer to "learn the hard way."

 

[upchurchmr]

I sure have to agree about the issue of quality of information.
On the few things I have actual knowledge, I am appalled at the senseless "information" put on the internet as "fact".

I am really afraid to trust information on those subjects about which I know I don't know anything.

There is also a lot of simplistic statements of "fact" without supporting clarifications. Lack of context can lead you to use a true fact, in totally inappropriate ways. This is usually my issue on forums I read.

 

[rwatson]

Agree. However, my observation of the responses to the Climate Change threads suggests that simply having the "ability to research quickly and accurately" does not guarantee that people will actually take advantage of that opportunity, nor does it necessarily mean that someone can differentiate between the quality of information provided by, say, Fox News vs New York Times. I guess there are topics that some people prefer to "learn the hard way."

I did include the word accurately.

In some topics, that is only a current consensus view "eg Does Dark matter exist", while on others it s a case of trimming out the ratbag element "eg is the earth only 7000 years old" and "The end of the world Mayan calender prediction".

In other cases, its being able to apply the most appropriate solution from multiple viable solutions "eg whats the best varnish for my 16ft ply epoxy kayak"

 

[michael pierzga]

If you look carefuly and know what to look for, the internet is full of reliable info.


It just takes time and a basic backround knowledge of the topic.

Its ashame that revenue seeking search engines pervert the search results.

Some info is frustrating or imppossible to find because its hidden behind a mountain of "keyword" google results. At sea bandwith per gigabyte is eyewatering expensive....

 

[philSweet]

Time for a little update. I'm feeling lucky to be in one piece. An acquaintance has been bugging me all day about a balky washer that he has never actually seen run. He just moved into a new apt. The only way this was going to end was for me to go over there and fix it. So he met me at the gate to the apts. He had to go turn around and let me follow him in to the place. So he goes and turns around and I shoot though gate behind him and follow him around the place and park next to him. I hop out of the truck and walk around to his minivan and see this terrified woman pounding numbers into her cell phone! What are the odds of two identical white Hyundai minivans arriving at the same apt gate within 30 seconds of one another. I'm damn lucky she didn't Tasar me. She was a remarkably good sport about it for someone who lives in a gated apt complex. Afterall, she saw this truck shoot through after her and follow her right to her door.

Oh, the washer was a 240 volt unit that somebody had put a 120 volt plug on the end because the 240 volt plug wouldn't fit in the wall.

 

[rasorinc]

Did you fix it by cutting off the plug and sticking the 2 exposed wires into the wall socket???

 

[philSweet]

There wasn't a 240 socket for the washer. The ridiculous part was I asked about the replaced plug first off, and they didn't know who did it. I proceeded to disassemble half the washer trying to figure out why it wasn't running right when it seemed to have power everywhere. Finally looked at the label after about 20 minutes.

I'm pretty sure I know who did the plug replacement, and when - like yesterday. I think they should teach a class in highschool on plugs and sockets.
At least half of all homeowners in the US can not identify the plugs in their own home. I saw a good one recently. Somebody put a 30 gallon waterheater in a closet and tried to plug it in to one of those $2 adapters that convert a lamp to an outlet. It was a 60 Watt fixture, 120V. The water heater was 3600W at 240 V. There wasn't enough power in the entire apt conversion to run the waterheater.

 

[ancient kayaker]

Sounds like the same kind of people that buy those dummy plugs sold to prevent children sticking stuff in electrical sockets, "because I don't want all that electricity leaking out all over the place". My Grandma was suspicous of electricity having grown up with gas lighting and everything else.

Maybe you should tell them to ask the electricity supply company to upgrade their supply . . . afterthought: I meant to 240VAC . . .! As everyone knows this improves lighting efficiency and visibility for a short time . . . )

 

[philSweet]

Don't spread rock salt in your good leather boots. Once the salt gets into the leather, you will not have warm feet ever again. Once it warms up a bit, I'll go sink them in the creek for a few days and see if that leaches the salt out.

 

[philSweet]

Time for an update, now that I've changed trousers. Got asked in to work this morning because some guys are out and the weather was messy this week, so we are a bit behind. My job was to pretty-up some bunkers at the local golf course after an inch of rain last night, and we have a wretched, ancient, gremlin infested piece of equipment we use for doing that. It had a dead battery, naturally, because I only planned to be there 2 hours, as did the other fellow I was working with. So he fetches the booster charger while I pour gas in the thing. Except it wasn't the booster starter he got but the little buzz box welder. Seems to have scared the gremlins for a while though. Notice the location of fuel tank and battery.

 

[hoytedow]

That arrangement would scare more than just gremlins.

 

[Angélique]

Hmm, this seems to be the right thread to test charge a series-connected battery bank, with a DC welder, set for the right voltage and current . .

Before someone starts the test, which problems can be expected . . ? - - -

 

[Angélique]

The next test would be of course to do some welding, with the booster charger . .

Could it provide enough current, and work more or less decently, if it has the option to be set for 24 V . . ?