Shop Truths, Phrases, Tales; and Outright Lies

**Toolmaker51** · Jun 10, 2018, 10:32 AM

Shop truths;
Over there [posts initiated about astronauts, brief orbit of loose tools, moon landings] I added a wistful anecdote that quality requires cognizant dedication.

Our dear Marv K posted on how difficult simple physical tasks become in a pressurized suit; dexterity, inhibited range of movement, and near totality of unfamiliar environment, plus - "it's damned difficult to turn off gravity".

One of my favorite shop jibes for times, such as sockets rolling off a bench, is "Careful! Gravity is really strong right there".

**Frank S** · Jun 10, 2018, 12:08 PM

Originally Posted by Toolmaker51

Shop truths;
Over there [posts initiated about astronauts, brief orbit of loose tools, moon landings] I added a wistful anecdote that quality requires cognizant dedication.

Our dear Marv K posted on how difficult simple physical tasks become in a pressurized suit; dexterity, inhibited range of movement, and near totality of unfamiliar environment, plus - "it's damned difficult to turn off gravity".

One of my favorite shop jibes for times, such as sockets rolling off a bench, is "Careful! Gravity is really strong right there".

But when gravity is briefly interrupted by another invisible force is when disaster can strike. Case n point a logger is felling a tree the tree has a natural lean in the direction he wants it to fall so he cuts the notch to make the hinge appropriately in the proper place Just as he finishes and is ready to drive in the wedge to start the fall a gust of wind blows the tree in the opposite direction

**Frank S** · Jul 19, 2018, 10:06 AM

Yankee ingenuity is a stereotype of inventiveness, technical solutions to practical problems, "know-how," self-reliance and individual enterprise associated with the Yankees, who originated in New England and developed much of the industrial revolution in the United States after 1800.[1] The stereotype first appeared in the 19th century. As Mitchell Wilson notes, "Yankee ingenuity and Yankee git-up-and-go did not exist in colonial days."[2]

Yankee ingenuity characterizes an attitude of make-do with materials on hand. It is inventive improvisation, adaptation and overcoming of shortages of materials.

From as near as I can tell
The term 'Yankee ingenuity' originated from the construction of the Erie Canal across rural upstate New York.[citation needed] Work began in 1817. The canal opened October 26, 1825.

The term was common worldwide in the wake of World War II, as American forces employed engineering solutions to military problems. Doug Stewart notes of the jeep: "the spartan, cramped, and unstintingly functional jeep became the ubiquitous World War II four-wheeled personification of Yankee ingenuity and cocky, can-do determination."[3] Today it refers broadly to a typically American pragmatic approach to problem solving instead of traditional methods.

Although this may be where the term was first used. It is my belief that the roots of this dates much further back in history I feel that inventive folks such as Archimedes Da Vinci Galileo had a lot to do with how things developed But if you really want to know how ingenuity became ingrained in modern man's mind set you would have to go back to the discovery of copper, long before the Bronze age

**Toolmaker51** · Oct 21, 2018, 10:42 AM

Another day in the 'moderate' midwest...Elections veil deceit of politics with decent government.

This is broadly publicized, yet I've eliminated names and gender terms, substituting positions occupied, to fend slander or libel attempts. No secret that under fire, unsavory characters need to divert attention from their actions, unto others holding a rightful opinion.

“(incumbent senator) distancing self from the party is gonna help win more votes than saying like: ‘Oh here’s Obama, the former President of the United States, to now speak on my behalf,’” said (campaign staffer #1).

“And they essentially have the same views on everything?” a journalist asked
“Yeah. People just can’t know that” (campaign staffer #1).

(incumbent senator) wasn’t happy when the video surfaced earlier this week. Their campaign is demanding that State Attorney General open a fraud investigation into the videos, according with (local newspaper). The claim is that (private campaign investigation team) committed fraud that violated the state’s merchandising practices act.

[investigators secretly filmed audio & visual during interviews conducted as conversations with incumbent and staffers)

'Win' more votes is different than 'Earning' more votes.
-----------------------Counterpoint-----------------------------
My resume exceeds the recommended one and a half pages, fully 3x. There is no hype or flowery statements; just verifiable facts. Along with it I supply a full list of references. Potential employers are invited cross check to any degree they feel position warrants. Obviously, to be found incorrect or false, I don't get the job. Some positions require security agreements, a signature affirms statements are accurate, including protecting trade and process information.
Found otherwise they can initiate prosecution for breach of promise.

How is it engineered a politician practices duality without implications? (incumbent senator) campaign demands a FRAUD investigation be commenced, because undercover investigator(s) hid their agenda collecting information damaging that bid for re-election? And notice, quotes from several individuals support what is occurring, recorded in all kinds of social interactions.

So, if the real agenda was known, whom of them keeps their job? Shouldn't such volunteer actions jeopardize their next applications?

Far back as I recall, coercion wasn't a redeeming quality.

UPDATE. The candidate profiled above, an incumbent no less, failed to retain seat campaigned for. I'm positive my comments above were publicized far and wide enough to facilitate that.
Or sufficient voters came to same conclusions independently...

**Frank S** · Oct 21, 2018, 11:58 AM

As a life long agnostic of government and the policies which ensue from failed and over stated agendas I used to think there was truth in one candidate as being the better choice over the other no matter their party affiliation. Heck I might have voted for George McGovern had I registered. The first time I felt compelled to vote was in 1980 being agnostic towards government that is a person who holds neither of two opposing positions as truth. I thought that if I didn't finally voice my opinion one way or the other then the outcome could be con-screwed as my fault for not voting. and at the time I cure couldn't see another 4 years of what we had as being a viable outcome.
As of late one can no longer consider voting for the lessor of two evils as a good choice the way I look at it you have to consider voting for what is working or against what is not working. regardless of how you feel about party affiliation. I looked at what was not working in 2016 versus the real economy and world events of today.
Sure not everything dare I say anything is absolutely perfect but there have been significant improvements across almost all avenues. there fore my views are even if I don't particularly care for one of the candidates in one of the many smaller local or State positions being sought after I find myself having to consider a straight ticket towards the party that I feel is currently striving to help. When I see a party being lock step bent on trying to prevent me or anyone else from expressing my opinion in a public place or even considering that I we have rights to sit in a restaurant and eat in peace without being accosted or harassed even though no mention of politics or any related topic had been brought up in conversation, but rather they I we had been attacked verbally or physically simply for being recognized as as being of the opposing party. Then I feel compelled to at least speak up and try to get folks to do their own research not to listen to propaganda by either party or to be sure the drivel of talking points spewing out the mouths of talking heads like robots programmed to one function.
Love or hate the President deep down no rational thinking individual IMO can deny by en large the USA and indeed the world is showing at least a modicum of improvement in the past 2 years. And should there be a flip to the other side in any branch things will not continue along the path of recovery that we have seen.

**Frank S** · Nov 6, 2018, 08:34 PM

I have formulated the theory that the only difference between retirement and indentured servitude depends on whether or not you are married. secondly whether or not you have a land or a property to keep up.
I have a friend who, like me is retired my wife calls it retarded I'm not going to enter into a debate over that one.
My friend is single has been so all of his life and believe it or not never learned to cook but that too is another topic. He rents a small mouse in a medium sized town not large enough to be classed as a small city He drove over the road for 40 years until he felt that it was time to pass the gear shift on to a younger generation. He doesn't hunt, doesn't even own a gun not that he is against it he just never had a place to keep one while out on the road. He doesn't fish says he can't swim and won't get in water over ankle deep, maybe a story there about aqua-phobia but I think he is more talk than anything else. the only thing he has to do around his house is to watch the grass grow or try to coach a pecan tree out of the ground. He is not a carpenter by any stretch of anyone's imagination. I taught him how to weld a little about 20 years ago. but there is a huge difference in being able to weld and being able to fabricate something from nothing more than an idea so if he happens to think of something he would like I usually have to build it for him. even though he had his own welding machines plural. After being retired for a few years ha has found himself at a loss watching grass grow or waiting for a pecan to sprout had in his words driven him bonkers. SO he has gone back to driving this time not as an over the road long haul trucker but a passenger van delivering Railroad crews. Not all that much money but at first he said the time on the road was a therapy for him. Now after a few months the lure of the highway is waning which means he is getting tired of it but his prospects of doing nothing again does not sit well for him.
I have told him that what he should do is to is to figure out what it is he would like to do more than anything else then pursue that thought. I know he likes to do light mechanic work and is not all that bad of a mechanic if he really wants to He has a 5000 lb tool chest chock full of most any hand tool or impact wrench he could ever need But busting wrenches again is not something he says he wants to start doing. OK I said you said that you used to work part time in a wood turning shop you like running a wood lathe do that.
Well I don't have a shop to work out of and it would take a long time to build one.
Any suggestion that I came up with,He would have a counter as to the reason, my thinking of it as an excuse why not tot so this or do that.
So he asked me why my retirement seemed that I was always too busy to get everything done.
that's easy I said I'm married which by virtue of a single document makes me an indentured servant even if I wasn't married I would still be a slave to something.the animals that need watered and fed every day the place always has something that needs mending or cleaned up or mowed fences to repair because of neighbors live stock or the old house can always use more attention than I have the time tend to it. or there is my shop that I am wanting to get built so I don't have to do my work under a tent or out of a trailer,
I told him I retired from the established work force only to become so busy that today I cannot for the life of me figure out how I ever had time for a job
Just when I get started in one project and really want tot concentrate on its completion something will interrupt me Like you've been standing on that ladder long enough it is time to take a break. Or the lawnmower wont start come start it for me, or we might need bread in a couple of days so we need ot go to town.
For the past week I have been rebuilding an add on room on the back of the house that I tore down to the studs 3 years ago to get rid of mold that had been there when we got the place It has taken this long to get back to working on it I now have it dried in with the siding back on and the roof in felt the door has been relocated and 2 3 ft by 6 ft windows installed on their sides giving me a 12 ft long window should have been at worst a 2 or possibly 3 day job to do a 12 by 16 room but I still have the trim the soffit and fascia to put on then insulate the inside and either drywall it or sheet it with something else plus the lighting.
The only thing is now that it is dried in it may be another 2 years before I finish it

**MeJasonT** · Nov 7, 2018, 03:55 AM

Frank - Id like to be all colonial and say the ingenuity was transferred from England when you left to make a better life but we have observed and learnt as much as you took with you. As you accurately state the inventiveness of man goes much further back. We may have had machines and tried to computerise them but it was good old Yankee inventiveness that built the world of CNC - I do feel we played a small part as Babbage invented the computer as we know it today (excluding bean counters like Abacus). Our close connection, mainly family and blood line (there are many Irish and Scottish Americans out there, funny few say they are related to English). There were many Europeans who colonised the Americas but they don't appear to have the ingenious streak in them to the extent of the English brethren. What does impress me is the reverse engineering talents of the Chinese but much greater than that is the talent of Russia and the Baltic states. There materials are very poor but they only have to look at something before they go away and produce their own, very much like the guys on this site who use it as inspiration. The Rusky's had a space shuttle and Concorde - they saw one so they built it. The space station must be fun to work in, having worked around some Russian engineering it has a tendency of being very agricultural (American stuff being very big and Brit stuff being more finite and fit for purpose in comparison). I had a little sensation of saying well done lads when I saw the Russian Carrier leave for the Syrian conflict when every one else was saying look at that old smoke puffing thing. Having served in the RN on an old steam queen i appreciate the blood sweat tears and work that go in to simply keeping the bloody ship afloat. The cans of grey liquid we held on-board (ladies make-up is i liked to call it - like lipstick on an old sow) painted on to make the thing look respectable, having great metal fusing properties to keep the rust appearing as though it had magically disappeared. was my ship any better. their academia has come on leaps and bounds in the last two decades i find myself coming across more and more technical papers from Russia and the Baltic states on google searches than i used to. (that's when google searches work, is it me or are they horrendous these days). Its sad that Inventiveness is not encouraged in the workplace to such an extent that the skills are leaving the corporate world - the profit first attitude and using academia as a source of talent instead of real raw talent wont get fixed any time soon - not until they WAKE UP. There is a tendency of confusing qualification with experience, they are definitely two different things. Whats this STEM thing anyways, did we not always teach Science,Technology & Math.
oh i see its a new idea. This should be a good starting point for kicking off the new idea and inventiveness thread.
I watched an Attenborough wildlife program a month or so ago about Gorillas, This one Gorilla had picked up a rang of rocks and sticks which he had chosen to do various tasks (like cracking coconuts), he kept them all gathered together and used the same tool for the same task every time - oh ****, i've seen Planet of the Apes.
its looks like the inventiveness gene has passed to our Primates even though some of us have suspected this for a long time (i've worked with a few neanderthals). perhaps Darwin is a topic for another thread also. Although i hate to admit it the internet has certainly expanded mans education and inventiveness, (man as in species). we are conversing on issues which 50 years ago would certainly never have been discussed at a minion level.