Courage and Honor

Don't forget this little doozy;

Ted Novak TRA#5512 IEAS#75

Yep, that's a classic rmr moment.

Here's a fun quote, from a Chinese spammer:

"Newest moving is stored , the price is low , capacity is large , can be according to the needs of yours the wanton size of adjustment capacity. This kind of equipment is to move a hard disk of boxes. Moving the box appearance of the hard disk exquisitly, succeed through alloy material, anti-vibration is designed , to dispel the heat is good, little volume, easy to hold under the arm and bring and to install is convenient, Namely insert and use USB interface promptly, price is."

------------------ This next one is from the instruction sheet which came with a string of Christmas lights:

"You will plug and invert. Sparking is badness."

------------------ Then there's these classic gems from the 1962 Honda Cub Instruction Manual:

"1. At the rise of the hand by Policeman, stop rapidly. Do not pass him by or otherwise disrespect him.

1. When a passenger of the foot, hooves in sight, tootle the horn trumpet melodiously at first. If he still obstacles your passage, tootle him with vigor and express by word of mouth, warning Hi, Hi.
2. Beware of the wandering horse that he shall not take fright as you pass him. Do not explode the exhaust box at him. Go soothingly by.
3. Give big space to the festive dog that makes sport in roadway. Avoid entanglement of dog with wheel spokes.
4. Go soothingly on the grease mud, as there lurks the skid demon. Press the brake foot as you roll around the corners, and save the collapse and tie up."

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

This is one of my favorite quotes:

"Transported to a surreal landscape, a young girl kills a woman, and then teams up with three strangers to kill again." - TV listing for THE WIZARD OF OZ in the Marin, Ca. newspaper

:)

Some more fun quotes, by Jack Handey (Deep Thoughts):

"When I die, I want to go peacefully in my sleep like Grandpa did, not screaming like the passengers in his car."

"If tree could scream, would we be so cavalier about cutting them down? Maybe, if they screamed all the time for no reason."

"When a kid asks where rain comes from, I think a cute thing to tell him is, 'God is crying'. And if he asks why God is crying, another cute thing to tell him is, 'Probably because of something you did.'"

"Instead of trying to build newer and bigger weapons of destruction, mankind should be thinking about getting more use out of the weapons we already have."

"As the light changed from red to green to yellow and back to red again, I sat there thinking about life. Was it nothing more than a bunch of honking and yelling? Sometimes it seemed that way."

"How come the dove gets to be the peace symbol? Why not the pillow? It has more feathers than the dove, and doesn't have that dangerous beak."

"I wish a robot would get elected President. That way, when he came to town we could all take a shot at him and not feel too bad."

"When you go for a job interview, I think a good thing to ask is if they ever press charges."

"You know what would make a good story? Something about a clown who makes people happy, but inside he's real sad. Also, he has severe diarrhea."

"Instead of having 'answers' on a math test, we should just call them 'impressions, and if you got a different 'impression', so what? Can't we all be brothers?"

Now that's what I mean. Bravo!

Weaseling out of things is important to learn. It's what separates us from the animals. Except the weasels. - Homer Simpson

It's better to ask forgiveness than to ask for permission. - jerry (the weasel) irvine

Well, Fred, I do in fact have a bias, a bias in favor of civility. What's past is past and digging it up time and time again serves no useful purpose that I can see. Why hammer away at JI? What good will it do? Is there some course of action you want him to take that can only be achieved by repeatedly dredging up past grievances or actions and publishing them all over again? Is there some concern that he might be getting away with something and it's up to the good folks to rat him out? Certainly it can't be to inform us because anyone who has been on this board for more than a year has seen it all. This stuff smells just like the old John Cato threads back in the mid 90s and I can't see that it serves any real purpose. Of course, it's a free country and you are free to publish all the vitriol you want but I was hoping that perhaps we just might be able to benefit more from each other's positive creativity for a change.

The John Cato attacks eventually drove John off the board and pretty much out of rocketry all together. We all lost on that one. John was a very creative guy who frequently had some very interesting ideas and now, because of all of the nasty back-biting and name calling, we have lost that input. I think we are less for it, not better. So, that's why I said what I said. The constant negativity is a wet blanket on the fire of camaraderie so I was hoping it just might diminish a tad if folks stopped to think about it.

Although you make a good point, I think the problem here is that Jerry is constantly giving misinformation that could create legal problems for unsuspecting victims.

Also, he isn't even close to being an innocent bystander in what you describe.

You make a fair point Phil. To be frank, I'm not trying to paint either side as innocent or guilty. I have heard most of the story and still can't sort out what is and what isn't fact nor do I honestly care to. My point is that the matter is getting tired and has become nothing short of name calling and nastiness. The forum has taken on an air reminiscent of a school yard full of he-said, she-said, na na na na junk. It's wearisome and paints an unflattering picture of the hobby and its members.

When one of us hands out unsound or unsafe advice, the information in question needs to be challenged. That being said, the individual involved need not be nor should he be, publicly castigated. Attack the message not the messenger. It's not that hard to do really if one is willing to put personal feelings aside. This is and has been a great hobby. Unfortunately, we as a people, and I mean Americans as a whole, are tending toward incivility; especially so on the internet due to its anonymity. We should do all that we can to try and minimize the effects of a devolving social fabric and set a higher standard for ourselves as individuals and collectively as a group. We have everything to gain in doing so and absolutely nothing to lose.

One of my favorites, "If you ever gave $20 to a friend and never saw them again, it was probably worth it."

; )

Randy

snip

You make many good points Reese. I've been calling rmr a "sandbox" since about the 1st week I found it back in late 1996.

I started reading for the rocket info and occasionally trying to help a newbie but the school yard is as accurate as you can be. There have been dozens of people to post here that reminded me of someone I knew in school. I think maybe there are only so many personalities to go around and after a while nature repeats it's self.

; )

Randy

They won't stop Reece and you can't make them. But what CAN you do? Don't join in. Add them to the filters and hit ignore the thread when 'others' reply to their messages. Most importantly, don't reply to them even if they do have "a good point". There are several moderated forums where you don't have to put up with it at all. You do have to put up with the censorship, which is a small price if you'd rather discuss rockets.

If the new reader sees only 5 people bickering instead of seemingly hundreds, they won't be so inclined to paint with such a broad brush,...

Great post. In principle, I could not agree more. Possibly Jerry could take the advise and the level of vitriol and frequency would subside. I hate to admit it, but responding to Jerry's rants about TRA, DOT, and all the past fiascoes, he brings up, have become a big joke, at least to me. I keep hoping he will come up with something new or just leave it alone. On the other hand, there are a couple of subjects, that when he brings them up, (he knows what they are), I may always respond to as I feel the need.

Other than what I just wrote, you didn't answer my question...(;-)

Fred

Reece Talley wrote:

The problem is that it often comes down to credibility. Jerry's credibility falls apart when his history of lies and fraud are presented. That's not an attack on Jerry, it's a defense of the truth. r

In article snipped-for-privacy@corp.supernews.com, Jerry Irvine at snipped-for-privacy@gte.net wrote on 5/27/05 1:44 PM:

"You can look for this."

I forgot exactly where that one came from but here's another of my favorites:

"The motor starts up with a crackling hiss that deepens quickly. The brilliant exhaust jet is studded by "mach diamonds" - the dramatic mark of high engine efficiency. In the plasma-like exhaust, they stand out like pearls on a string. Just before burnout the diamonds crowd together and disappear one by one back up the nozzle."

- Larry Brown

Gary

I present one more for your consideration.

"Your speaches leave the impression of an army of pompous phrases moving over the landscape in search of an idea; sometimes these meandering words would actually capture a straggling thought and bear it triumphantly, a prisoner in their midst, until it died of servitude and overwork."

- William Gibbs McAdoo

TK