Stupid people, news, etc.

[H]

A gatling gun has a revolving barrel

They make a .357 multi-barrel Magnum in a gattling format? That must really rattle gattle your hand.

[FlexibleFlier]

Hey, OldAirmail,

Thanks for teaching folks a bit about Dyslexia...I only wish those things had been recognized way back in the '40s and '50s. I meet most of the criteria you mentioned, although the mechanical ability tended to be more in the head than in the fingers. I could not manage school and barely made it through a year of college through the good graces of my academic advisor.

However, I did have a very exciting and fulfilling aviation career as a pilot: Eastern Airlines (F/O and F/E) and corporate helicopter. I suppose commitment and determination may have had something to do with it and I always struggled with the book work, learning what I needed to for the tests and forgetting most of it immediately afterwards. The saving grace was a hint I was given by one of my instructors: it's not necessary to memorize everything...just know where to look it up. Saved my butt, and career, more than once.

To this day there are people in my life who claim that if I just tried harder... They simply can't understand the problem since they can't feel it themselves, rather like someone trying to explain their acrophobia to a high-wire artist.

Wishing you all clear skies and a tailwind (except on landing, of course)

[OldAirmail]

I must have been about 8 or 9 when I was tested to find out what the problem was. I don't know if there was then, or is now, a solution to the problem.

As anything dealing with life, there are different types of Dyslexia, not to mention different levels of severity.

You probably did well in aviation, not only due to your perseverance, but to the fact that many dyslexics have a much better spatial relation and mechanical aptitude (even if not mechanically inclined with your hands) than the average person.


When I entered high school the teachers must have questioned my mental abilities too, because they had me take an IQ test. Out of curiosity, I peeked at the paper work before bringing it to the office, 120.



Although, Dyslexia, does present obvious problems, it does have it's pluses.

* I use a larger vocabulary than most people because, for what ever reason, some longer words are easier for me to spell than shorter words.


* In my previous job, we had a tricky problem. Three other techs had looked at the problem, but couldn't find a solution.

When I went there, the city official was more than a little p#@$%& off. I had a solution is less than 20 seconds, and completed the job in half an hour.

Maybe it was smarts. But I think that it was just that I was able to see it differently. Seriously. I could see the problem & solution inside my mind in 20 seconds.


* Riding down the road can be fun. What I see on billboard advertisements can be quiet different than what everyone else sees.



Having taught myself to read a word in it's entirety, rather than reading the letters that make up the word, can have it's negative side.

Often I know that a word (or more properly "word" pattern) should be there, and therefore miss the fact that the word isn't there at all.

Alternately, if I mistype a word, but the word is a correct word pattern, i.e. wood for word, I may not catch it.



I have to wonder how often Dyslexia is to blame for illiteracy and classroom disruption.

What saved me was finding a really good children's science fiction book by Andre Norton (The Time Traders).

It was only a novella, and yet it took me (I think) just over a month to read it.

I was hooked. I wanted to read.

Over time I was able to increase my reading speed. After learning to identify the pattern of a word, rather than trying to make out the letters of the words, I increased my speed significantly.

[yancovitch]

hey ...did you ever read the terry goodkind series?.....was my favorite ......haven't read anything in many years though ....more time in finding who i am through experience......

[OldAirmail]

hey ...did you ever read the terry goodkind series?.....was my favorite ......haven't read anything in many years though ....more time in finding who i am through experience......

Terry Goodkind is only two years older than I am. At that time, he may have wanted to be a writer, but I'm pretty sure that he didn't have anything out when I started to read.


My first two books were from Andre Norton.

For a French guy (With a name like Andre, he's gota be French. Right?) he was GREAT!




Next was Doc Savage




From there things tumbled out of control. I must have read as many as six or seven novellas the first year.

And once I WANTED to read, the speed of my reading gradually increased.

And the faster I read, the better I was able to keep up with the rest of the class.


And THAT is the story of how I became rich & powerful.

[yancovitch]

me....i'm poor and humble.....then again there's pride of humility .....andre in drag?....loved her stuff.....

[H]

My first two books were from Andre Norton.

I did a book report on Daybreak - 2250 A.D. (originally titled Star Man's Son); my English teacher crossed out my "her" and wrote in "his." I had to bring the book in after class and show him the write-up about the author.

[PhantomTweak]

Daybreak 2250 was a phenomenal book! I can't tell you how many times I've read it! Loved it. And Quest Crosstime, and....SO many to enjoy from Andre...
And so many other authors too! One of my Top fav's was Roger Zelazny. The Chronicle of Amber as incredible~

And David Drake, for the Combat SF fan, and Isaac Asimove, Arthur C. Clark, two amazing minds...

EE "Doc" Smith was incredibly prolific, and...and...The list is just too long...
Pat☺

[Bud Greene]

Let me get this straight... 75 percent of the people in the USA know that the Earth revolves around the Sun. 25 percent of the people think that the Sun revolves around the earth. So what about the last 25 percent of the people? Hahaha!

[mustangaroo]

Let me get this straight... 75 percent of the people in the USA know that the Earth revolves around the Sun. 25 percent of the people think that the Sun revolves around the earth. So what about the last 25 percent of the people? Hahaha!

wellll... I am right 97 percent of the time....who cares about the other 4 percent?

[OldAirmail]

Man causes three-car wreck in Oregon tunnel after fainting while holding breath



Can't we just tie the tubes of people like this?

I really don't want him breeding.

I don't want him adopting either.

[U4EA]

The most entertaining aspect of the tunnel wreck for me was the fact that the tunnel is 772' long......at 45mph that's about 14 seconds.....at 55mph (the posted speed limit) that's about 10 seconds.

Methinks the driver may have been fibbing! And short of any time to come up with any other excuse other than the one he settled on.

[logjam]

Now, if the driver was blonde, I could understand.

[OldAirmail]

Or he might have been hyperventilating in anticipation?

Personally, I find it hard to imagine anyone holding their breath long enough to black out.

[OldAirmail]

Just think about this one after watching the video.

Coca Cola uses the sun to cool drinks

In the town of Aipir, Colombia, the temperature can often get as high as 45ºC (113ºF), yet few of the residents have a reliable source of electricity.

So, pulling an ice-cold beverage out of the fridge isn't really an option. Coca Cola and the Leo Burnett Colombia advertising agency therefor devised a "Bio Cooler" for the town – it reportedly chills cans of Coke, without using electricity.

.
.

This is in the video, from a woman in a little town way out in the hot desert. The town has no electricity. No phones too, I suspect.

A very poor place, in other words.

When I was little, I saw my mom had to go to the city to get ice...

now it's my turn to go to the city and get ice for my kids.

- I leave at 4AM

and return at around 4 or 5 in the afternoon.

A 12 hour round trip.


What a heart worming story.

But, hey, if they can afford to buy a Coke they can have a nice cold drink.

Oh yeah, and cavities too, later on.

I sure hope that they find a way to pay for that dental bill six hours away.



I think that Coca Cola, or somebody, needs to think this one through a little better.