Jail Zuckerberg

Frank Krygowski wrote:
On Monday, March 1, 2021 at 9:47:05 PM UTC-5, John B. wrote:

When I took the test for a U.S. commercial radio operator license
there were quite a number of questions that took a fair amount of
calculation and calculators weren't allowed.

When I took the day-long test for the Professional Engineer's license,
calculators were absolutely necessary, but only certain ones were
allowed. IIRC any calculator that had alphabetical inputs was illegal,
for some arcane reason. That meant I had to do a full day of intense
calculations with a very unfamiliar calculator. (But I did fine.)

- Frank Krygowski


Alphabetic input calculators were probably banned on the grounds that they
could be used to store formulae, text and other memory aids, in addition to
doing calculations.

On Tue, 02 Mar 2021 20:21:42 +0000, Ralph Barone scribed:


Alphabetic input calculators were probably banned on the grounds that
they could be used to store formulae, text and other memory aids, in
addition to doing calculations.

Stored programs was the reason for banning certain calculators when I did
such tests/exams.

In later minor tests, you had to 'reset' the calculator when you brought
it in, to clear any likely stored programs.

Op dinsdag 2 maart 2021 om 20:25:27 UTC+1 schreef :

My riding there was only in Amsterdam's city and a bit of suburbs, so I'm just speculating; but I suspect the reason those riding road bikes outside the city wear helmets is not their faster speeds. I strongly suspect it's because Road Bike Riders Wear Helmets. Period.

You won't see many road bike riders without a helmet except me when I am riding alone on the flats.


I suspect if you stopped and interviewed them, you'd get the usual nonsense: "I might crash and die of a brain injury" or "I have a friend who knew a guy killed by a car" or "My helmet has already saved my life three times."

Oh I didn't know that. I can assure you no one will tell that story. Riding a road bike here is pure recreational/for exercise and people don't mind wearing a helmet and give it too much thought or over analyse it.


But the real reason is different. To ride a Road Bike, you don your shorts, your riding tights, your jersey, your aero sunglasses, your proper socks, your special shoes, your gloves, just the right jacket and your helmet. If you skipped part of the ensemble, you wouldn't be properly identifying with your intended clan.

Like a said riding a road bike here is pure recreational/for exercise and it is no problem to wear clothes/shoes that are more comfortable riding such a bike. We take a shower afterwards and put on normal clothes after that. We don't commute, run errands or visit a library on a road bike. If we do that we take our utility bike and we ride 'Frank style'. Every Dutchman/woman has one without exception. When you visit the Netherlands please also look outside the big cities and pay attention.

Lou

On Tuesday, March 2, 2021 at 6:34:27 PM UTC, wrote:
On Tue, 02 Mar 2021 08:23:56 -0600, AMuzi wrote:

You have either not read or understood Gramschi. To destroy
a society, groups must be incited against other groups and
where there are not disparate groups one must invent them.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antonio_Gramsci
I haven't read any of his works. However, I understand the problem:

The first step to solving a problem is to blame someone. If nobody is
available, find someone innocent and blame them. If the size of the
problem justifies a group, contrive a conspiracy. If the designated
culprit is expected to solve the problem, find someone else. If the
designated conspirators provide an adequate defense, assign a new
(derogatory) name to the group and repeat the process. Etc...

In this case, the problem is a mandatory helmet law. The author of
the paper did a fairly good job of inflating a minor statistical
anomaly in crisis level proportions. I have the irritating habit of
annualizing numbers so that they can be prepared. Had I not done
that, I probably would have missed the authors clever manipulation of
the available numbers. While I agree that mandatory helmet laws
should be repealed, methinks some better reasons could be contrived
than claiming they are discriminatory.

Slight change of subject:
Recently, I suggested that readers of R.B.T. might be interested in
viewing some videos that involve urban planning:
https://www.youtube.com/c/NotJustBikes/videos
The results in R.B.T. were under whelming, where proponents of various
points of view immediately restated their positions without much
consideration for the videos. So, I'll try again. The author
mentioned one trivial item in one of the videos (I forgot which one).
The bicyclists in Amsterdam seem to not wear helmets. Like most
people, I assumed that this included everyone on a bicycle in
Amsterdam. Nope. In an interview with a resident, they point out in
the crowded streets, the cars are not able to travel much faster than
the bicycles. The upright or comfort bicycles used also don't lend
themselves to fast riding. The result is that cars and bicycles seem
to get along with each other in the city streets for Amsterdam. The
resident also mentioned that those outside the city, who ride on road
bikes, generally wear helmets because they ride faster.
--
Jeff Liebermann
PO Box 272 http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Ben Lomond CA 95005-0272
Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558

Yeah, I saw that video, but what the respondents said seemed obvious to me as a longtime admirer of the Dutch (they're equally rude to everybody but almost always on time for appointments) that it was almost tautological. Some considerations that I missed, perhaps because it seems tautological to the Dutch, perhaps just my professional predilections coming to the fore, were that a) the Dutch grew up in a cycling culture such as the US never had, and never will if one makes the effort to take even a glancing look at the sad sacks who put themselves forward as "spokesmen for bicycles," and b) the force of the law in The Netherlands is differently directed insofar as the motorist, usually the survivor, isn't in police practice taken as in the right until otherwise proven -- in fact, Dutch law in motorist-cyclist incidents makes the motorist explain why the incident happened; this is a far more logical procedure, as proved by the law of seaways which makes the motor-powered vessel avoid the sail-powered vessel. Of course, stupid or inexperienced seamen arrogant enough to believe a ship the size of a city will stop in the length of a football field deserve to be run down for the maritime equivalent of "taking the lane".

Andre Jute
Common sense is now so rare, it's in danger of becoming extinct.

On Tuesday, March 2, 2021 at 11:11:48 AM UTC-8, wrote:
On Tuesday, March 2, 2021 at 12:51:47 AM UTC-5, John B. wrote:
On Mon, 1 Mar 2021 21:52:37 -0500, Frank Krygowski wrote:

* I do think blacks are unjustly targeted in many ways. One tale that
drove that point home was when a certain physicist related after-hours
discussions at a physics conference. Every physicist there had tales of
being hassled by police. There were plenty of details, such as being
stopped and frisked when entering the laboratory building at night, etc.
Those tales astonished me. How could physicists be targets?

It turned out the conference was a gathering of black physicists. The
story was told by Neil DeGrasse Tyson.
I suggest that every minority group, except for the original WASP's
who first settled the place have been treated badly, and relatively
recently too. Certainly the French-Canadian, the Jews, the Irish, the
Italian, the Polish, the Spanish speakers, followers of other then the
major Protestant religions, and probably others that I don't remember
have all been considered second-class and treated with disdain.
I get your point and agree (except that Native Americans might not call WASPs "original"!). But the relevant difference for Blacks is the permanence of the condition. From what I can tell, other groups eventually assimilated. Blacks, being black (or at least a darker shade of brown) seem to carry that stigma forever.

I once knew a PhD professor of chemistry who was originally from India and very dark complected. He was incensed at the treatment he received when traveling in the southeast U.S. His accent was thick enough that anyone with brains should have been able to tell his ancestry, if not his intellectual qualifications. I don't know if those mistreating him didn't know, or just didn't care.

Frank, I don't think that you live around black people. Or have any interactions with them. Around here not only were blacks treated as equals, but I WATCHED white people stand up to prevent them from having to sit in the back of the bus. A great deal of the mythology of behind discrimination was limited to very select areas and people. In the Air Force, I have a black Training Instructor in Boot Camp that everyone called "SIR" and meant it. Every station I was at, blacks often were in the most valuable positions. Doing the shop work which required very large amounts of training and high intelligence.

After the war, in commercial business I didn't see them as much. This wasn't for reasons of discrimination but because they were not very interested in going into the engineering or software trades I assume for lack of growing up with relatives that were. And that was more due to most blacks growing up in lower income jobs. Most people and blacks especially want stable jobs and so are willing to work at lower income but more stable positions like chief's in restaurants, construction and that sort of thing. When that is the sort of parents and relatives you grow up around you tend to have little understanding of engineering etc. - the higher paying but a great deal less stable positions.

On Tuesday, March 2, 2021 at 9:07:02 PM UTC, wrote:
When you visit the Netherlands please also look outside the big cities and pay attention.

Lou
..
How dare you demand that Franki-boy give up his preconceptions? -- AJ

On Tuesday, March 2, 2021 at 1:25:52 PM UTC-8, Andre Jute wrote:
On Tuesday, March 2, 2021 at 9:07:02 PM UTC, wrote:
When you visit the Netherlands please also look outside the big cities and pay attention.

Lou
.
How dare you demand that Franki-boy give up his preconceptions? -- AJ
After you've seen roundabouts in Dutch cities during commute hours it is something you can never unsee. How the hell people can avoid each other at all is almost unbelievable, yet some of the lowest accident rates are there.

Op dinsdag 2 maart 2021 om 22:29:29 UTC+1 schreef :
On Tuesday, March 2, 2021 at 1:25:52 PM UTC-8, Andre Jute wrote:
On Tuesday, March 2, 2021 at 9:07:02 PM UTC, wrote:
When you visit the Netherlands please also look outside the big cities and pay attention.

Lou
.
How dare you demand that Franki-boy give up his preconceptions? -- AJ
After you've seen roundabouts in Dutch cities during commute hours it is something you can never unsee. How the hell people can avoid each other at all is almost unbelievable, yet some of the lowest accident rates are there.

Like me when I visited Vietnam and oversaw a big roundabout in Saigon/Ho Chi Minh city and was wondering 'how does this work?'.

Lou

On Tue, 2 Mar 2021 13:45:22 -0800 (PST), Lou Holtman
wrote:

Op dinsdag 2 maart 2021 om 22:29:29 UTC+1 schreef :
On Tuesday, March 2, 2021 at 1:25:52 PM UTC-8, Andre Jute wrote:
On Tuesday, March 2, 2021 at 9:07:02 PM UTC, wrote:
When you visit the Netherlands please also look outside the big cities and pay attention.

Lou
.
How dare you demand that Franki-boy give up his preconceptions? -- AJ
After you've seen roundabouts in Dutch cities during commute hours it is something you can never unsee. How the hell people can avoid each other at all is almost unbelievable, yet some of the lowest accident rates are there.

Like me when I visited Vietnam and oversaw a big roundabout in Saigon/Ho Chi Minh city and was wondering 'how does this work?'.

Lou

Easy, you just turn left :-)
--
Cheers,

John B.

On Tue, 2 Mar 2021 11:11:46 -0800 (PST), Frank Krygowski
wrote:

On Tuesday, March 2, 2021 at 12:51:47 AM UTC-5, John B. wrote:
On Mon, 1 Mar 2021 21:52:37 -0500, Frank Krygowski wrote:

* I do think blacks are unjustly targeted in many ways. One tale that
drove that point home was when a certain physicist related after-hours
discussions at a physics conference. Every physicist there had tales of
being hassled by police. There were plenty of details, such as being
stopped and frisked when entering the laboratory building at night, etc.
Those tales astonished me. How could physicists be targets?

It turned out the conference was a gathering of black physicists. The
story was told by Neil DeGrasse Tyson.
I suggest that every minority group, except for the original WASP's
who first settled the place have been treated badly, and relatively
recently too. Certainly the French-Canadian, the Jews, the Irish, the
Italian, the Polish, the Spanish speakers, followers of other then the
major Protestant religions, and probably others that I don't remember
have all been considered second-class and treated with disdain.

I get your point and agree (except that Native Americans might
not call WASPs "original"!). But the relevant difference for Blacks is
the permanence of the condition. From what I can tell, other groups
eventually assimilated. Blacks, being black (or at least a darker
shade of brown) seem to carry that stigma forever.

I once knew a PhD professor of chemistry who was originally
from India and very dark complected. He was incensed at the treatment
he received when traveling in the southeast U.S. His accent was thick
enough that anyone with brains should have been able to tell his
ancestry, if not his intellectual qualifications. I don't know if
those mistreating him didn't know, or just didn't care.

- Frank Krygowski

Yes. racial minorities did assimilate. They educated their kids and
got a job and "made something of themselves" to quote my grandmother.
The Jewish Mother ,mentioning, "My son the dentist" for instance. The
Irish, of course went into politics and were successful. It is sort of
difficult to sneer at a guy living in white house in Washington. The
French-Canadians, at least in the little New England town I grew up
in, simply out bred the White Folks. When more then half of your
customers have funny names like Couture, LeBlanc and Dubuque it is
really difficult not to be respectful... else they'll go to the other
shop for their groceries.

The Black's on the other hand... In a country with free education
nearly 12% of Blacks do not have a high school education today.

And the argument that they are held back simply because they are Black
lacks credence. After all the U.S. has had a "Black" president. There
has been a Black Chairman of the Joint Chief's of Staff (the head of
the military), two Black Secretary of State, 4 Ambassadors to the
U.N., and you have mentioned Black's with advanced education.
Clinton's Cabinet was 4% Black and I believe even Johnson had one.

It probably also should be mentioned that some 40% of those presently
in prison are Black.

--
Cheers,

John B.