Well There It Is

In the same vein as You only have to think about it... ... When I walked back in the shop to take one more look the bender I already have was right there and the end of the welding table.

-----------------------------------

My memory and observational abilities were maxed out last weekend at a tank driving demonstration at this museum.

Their machine shop was also historically authentic, a vintage South Bend lathe etc, apparently not for show but because CNC isn't much use to copy or refurbish worn originals that had been made on German and Russian manual machine tools. I've read that the British and Europeans expected to have to hand-fit at final assembly, which caused us problems with their loose machining tolerances when we took up mass production of their designs during WW2.

Here is one like the one I already have:

-----------------------------------

I made tubing dies for mine. A half round groove is easily milled by rotating the die blank against an end mill.

Usually I can find things by using a variation of the Silva Mind Control method. It just takes a few minutes, but sometimes I begrudge those few minutes of not doing anything. I don't use it often enough to be able to trigger the waking mental state to do that almost instantly like he claimed was possible. Interesting book. I learned the method in my teens when I read his book. The first half of his book was quite good, but in the second half of his book when he was bragging about astral projection and psychic healing he totally lost me. Fortunately I learned the meditation, waking alpha state, etc before I red the second half of the book. Of course I have met people who claimed they had mastered astral projection, but I have met people who claimed the earth was flat.

I headed out yesterday afternoon to go fishing, but just before I left the McMaster metal bender arrived. The box was quite a bit bigger than I expected. When the UPS driver handed it to me I could feel it wasn't just a small part in a big box, and I commented, "Its bigger than I expected."

Without missing a beat my driver said, "That's what she said," and I quipped back, "I'm going to have to report you to HR for that one."

The look of horror that crossed his face at that moment was amusing, but I quickly let him know I was just busting his chops. I hope he doesn't start delivering my packages down the street.

Usually I can find things by using a variation of the Silva Mind Control method. It just takes a few minutes, but sometimes I begrudge those few minutes of not doing anything. I don't use it often enough to be able to trigger the waking mental state to do that almost instantly like he claimed was possible. Interesting book. I learned the method in my teens when I read his book. The first half of his book was quite good, but in the second half of his book when he was bragging about astral projection and psychic healing he totally lost me. Fortunately I learned the meditation, waking alpha state, etc before I red the second half of the book. Of course I have met people who claimed they had mastered astral projection, but I have met people who claimed the earth was flat. Bob La Londe

---------------------------------- Maybe your bender was briefly dislodged into a time wrinkle by a cosmic ray, there are some odd ones we don't understand.

The boosters of Silva I knew were all actors, whose business is largely understanding and imitating human mental aberrations, possibly prompted by their own. I thought it would be valuable to learn to adapt to people considerably different from the rational and restrained population of the science and engineering departments.

I practiced rapid relaxation to the extent of releasing a cramped muscle, but that's all since actors, artists and writers searching to understand and control their troubled selves tainted some of their philosophical wanderings for me. They tended to assume they were normal and everyone else secretly shared their problems and needed their answers. I found learning to maintain external situational awareness while remaining calm more useful.

I'm not really a Silva booster. Its not like he invented naturally enhanced mental awareness. Hunters and soldiers do it naturally and have for thousands of years. Generally I call it being in the zone, but its not lazer focused so much as fully engaged.

I think that is a function of the fact that no matter how much empathy we have we can really truly only ever see the world from our own point of view. It takes a more advanced cognitive function to know AND ACT like there is another perspective, not be mimicked, but to be understood.

I think that is a function of the fact that no matter how much empathy we have we can really truly only ever see the world from our own point of view. It takes a more advanced cognitive function to know AND ACT like there is another perspective, not be mimicked, but to be understood. Bob La Londe

------------------------------------

I had to take a few liberal arts electives in college and hoped that theatre would be less contaminated by socialism, plus it was right across the street from the Chemistry building, a consideration during NH winters. It was mainly a study of plays in which various personality types explain and try to justify their motives, notably the sociopathic Iago in Othello.

-Shylock, The Merchant of Venice

Theatre has a tradition of a character speaking their mind directly to the audience (breaking the fourth wall) more than most film and fiction.

The class was pass/fail with no written tests or quizzes. The wannabe actors and dancers feared the teacher who was also the director of plays and their casting and barely dared speak to him, so I and a few techie buddies with less to risk if wrong responded to most of the questions.

I think that is a function of the fact that no matter how much empathy we have we can really truly only ever see the world from our own point of view. It takes a more advanced cognitive function to know AND ACT like there is another perspective, not be mimicked, but to be understood.

--------------------------------- They might say "interpret" rather than "mimic", they don't copy a previous actor's performance. After I'd built the scenery I sat in the audience with the director during rehearsals to see if changes were needed. The dynamic between director and actor was very interesting, the director expects the actors to know their job and mainly coordinates the various interpretations into a unified whole that fits their plan, as well as motivating them to repeatedly give a maximum mental effort throughout a 12-14 hour work day.

Some actors have enough clout to change the script, for example in "Iron Man" Downey and Paltrow improvised all their clever dialog.

Though not a degreed engineer I've been able to contribute by greatly simplifying designs that had evolved into excessive complexity. In two cases I more than halved the required computing power by suggesting a small hardware change.

I think that is a function of the fact that no matter how much empathy we have we can really truly only ever see the world from our own point of view. It takes a more advanced cognitive function to know AND ACT like there is another perspective, not be mimicked, but to be understood.

------------------------------

That is the basis of the Method school of acting.

In community theatre I've seen examples of it from a teacher, doctor, lawyer and nurse as good as any professional actor's. The lawyer/prosecutor played the same role as Brando in A Streetcar Named Desire, and as well. The difference is they are also skilled at something productive.

I am always amazed at how celebrities can have such and outsized impact on people's opinions. They are no better than politicians. Skilled liars.

"Jim Wilkins" snipped-for-privacy@gmail.com writes: ...

City people in general. My wife was one stopped by a Mountie when driving at night. I don't know if it made any difference that the Mountie was a woman but my wife waited for a prolonged time in the car. Prolonged because the Mountie had called in for backup. Because she spotted a machete on the back seat of our car.

Very rural area. An axe, chainsaw, peavy, machete -- any woodsman's tool would be unremarkable, even in a little burb beater car. Perhaps not in Toronto or Montreal but in rural Nova Scotia, yes.

Well, they move Mounties' assigments around to give them varied experience. This one had a lesson in Being In The Back Country. :-)

I bought a Christmas Tree pruning knife many years ago. It has held up well enough so far. I've take 2 inch limbs off when able to get a GOOD swing at it. Normally I'd used the big lopers but was just carrying this knife while cutting back growth along sides of my trails. Blade is thin and flexible.

It was a good name brand item back in the day. Handle is like the Zenport K888 in this search. Nice being able to get two hands on the handle unlike most machetes.

------------------------------

I found a crosscut saw blade more useful to make structures and accessories and car mud rescue levers in the woods. I couldn't find a pocketable folding handle/sheath for a recip saw blade so I made one with an aluminum handle and sheath. The blade, sheath and handle have identical tapers and telescope very compactly. Sheet steel wrapped around and flattened to a snug fit on the blade shank thickens it to stop short in the sheath and fit the handle. The blade is held by a screw and wingnut that also serves as the finger guard. A less artsy one could be made from a thin aluminum rectangle folded into a U.

I re-filed the rip teeth into crosscut, which worked well, and ground a knife blade edge on the back which doesn't stay sharp long when whittling. The teeth may have been tempered harder, though not too much to file.

The car tool kit contains a triangular file for saw teeth and blade edges.

EMT wrapped with cord and flattened on the blade end makes a decent handle.

My goal was a folding wood or metal saw with the thin handle of the K55K knife. Having a bolted instead of pivoting blade allows substituting a steel cutting jigsaw blade. You're unlikely to need a saw as quickly available as a knife.

The hike was a Mensa event. The person who knew the location of the nearest hospital and drove me there was the head of Emergency Services at a major Boston MA hospital, but not licensed in NH. He didn't want to be associated with my primitive crutch, however the doc who saw me camped in northern Canada and appreciated it.

I've one from Stanley, Model 15-333 that Dad found somewhere a longtime ago. Still available it seems: