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<p>Tom -</p>
<p> I have not, but then I don't have conventional TV... however
it appears I can *stream* anything I want these days... I'll look
it up!</p>
<p>- Steve</p>
<p>PS. Mary's grandfather was a full-time old-skool blacksmith in
Nebraska up into the 50s. Appropriately his surname was Strong.
He was apparently built like a dwarf. I got my start from an
Irishmen built more like a leprechaun... I had to stoop to use
his anvil but his forearms were more like Popeye's than a normal
leprechaun. He could also recite lines from myriad Irish poets
and writers. How did our generation get to be so dull?<br>
</p>
<p><br>
</p>
<blockquote type="cite"
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<div dir="ltr">Steve:<br>
<i>"
I still have a coal-fired forge and an anvil, both probably
manufactured 100 years ago, that I can shape and even temper
iron and steel with (and aluminum if I'm incredibly careful),
but I do not and never will have the skills required to do it
well, and certainly not to replace what modern industrial
processes can achieve... barring a full apocalypse, it is
merely a quaint "hobby" that might afford me the opportunity
to turn out some rustic items others would mistake for "art",
or more often, repair the various related tools I might
*use*in my forge... though in most cases a strap and some
bolts or rivets makes more sense than trying to re-weld a
broken connecting rod, or lever. " </i>
<div><i><br>
</i>
<div>Do you watch "Forged in Fire" on the History Channel?</div>
<div>TJ</div>
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<div><br>
============================================<br>
Tom Johnson - <a
href="mailto:tom@jtjohnson.com"
target="_blank"
moz-do-not-send="true">tom@jtjohnson.com</a><br>
Institute for Analytic
Journalism -- Santa
Fe, NM USA<br>
505.577.6482(c)
505.473.9646(h)<br>
<a href="http://nmfog.org"
target="_blank"
moz-do-not-send="true"><b><font
color="#0b5394">NM
Foundation for Open
Government</font></b></a><br>
<b><font color="#0000ff">Check
out <a
href="https://www.facebook.com/pages/Its-The-Peoples-Data/1599854626919671"
target="_blank"
moz-do-not-send="true">It's
The People's Data</a></font></b>
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<div>============================================</div>
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<div class="gmail_quote">
<div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Thu, Aug 13, 2020 at 12:00
PM Steve Smith <<a href="mailto:sasmyth@swcp.com"
moz-do-not-send="true">sasmyth@swcp.com</a>> wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px
0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex">
<div>
<p>I actually knew someone who lived near the Embry-Riddle
location in 2000/2001 where several of the 9/11 pilots
learned to fly well enough to do what they did. She had
friends (go figure) who worked at a strip-club who claimed
these "boys" were regulars there. It was pretty creepy
2nd order connection. <br>
</p>
<p>My uncles were both pilots in WWII but the older was
trained up on the newfangled idea of a helicopter and
proceeded to become a test pilot for Sykorski. He was
forced into retirement (chief test pilot) to a desk at
65. Nobody wanted to ground him, but "rules is rules"
and in fact his health degraded acutely and abruptly and
he died just a few years later. His family insists it was
from "heartbreak" from being grounded. <br>
</p>
<p>I have a "young" friend (now 40s) who was just finishing
up his commercial certification at Embry-Riddle Prescott
on 9/11 and claims that the bottom not only dropped out
for commercial pilots for the next couple of years, but
has "never recovered" and he has been making a living as a
bartender ever since. Perhaps it is time for him to
revisit. <br>
</p>
<p>My ex brother-in-law left his career in the Air Force to
become "a bus driver" and recently was retired (for age)
from Delta. Even 30 years ago things were incredibly
automated. I see no reason that airliners won't be
entirely automated and teleoperated in the next 20
years. The risk-profile of such things is evolving as
self-driving cars (and more aptly? Semi-tractors?)
emerge. <br>
</p>
<p>The hyperloop game is going to change long distance
rapid-transit eventually. I don't believe anyone is
planning for underground "ballistic-trajectory-velocities"
quite yet, but mag-lev-centered, evacuated tube,
zero-grade velocities could still be pretty impressive,
and energy consumption as well with magnetic
(regenerative) braking. The earliest days of
railroading involved gravity-trains often with empty
return cars being towed by animal power. Yet others used
water from the high-side source as "ballast" and if the
up/down routes were mechanically coupled, the extra weight
of water plus load would allow the empties to be returned
"for free". <br>
</p>
<p>Regarding Dave's friend's drug conviction, Denzel
Washington's (one of a series of flawed) character in the
movie Flight is a drug-addled pilot who, by implication in
the story, actually achieves a heroic manouver *because*
he's still jacked on the cocaine he snorted to lift
himself out of his alcohol hangover. The setup is that
a jackscrew controlling horizontal stablizer breaks,
forcing the nose of the plane down with no recourse...
Denzel's character quickly recognizes the futility of the
situation and the *opportunity* of rolling the dive into
an inverted orientation such that the forced "nose down"
is now "nose up".</p>
<p>Popular Mechanics (of all places) had an article on the
plausibility of the Cocaine effects supporting the story
(rather than the mechanics of inverted flying).</p>
<p>I suspect I could get work myself using my 40 year-stale
FortranIV experience on "mission critical" systems already
old at that time, but still in some sort of service. I
did a huge senior project on a FortranIV system for
simulating exo-Terran atmospheres (e.g. Mars) which might
well be still be in service? Fortunately my COBOL/RPG
experience is so slim I'd never be tempted to try that
domain.</p>
<p>I'd like to believe that the myriad "stale skill" job
opportunities (demands) we see today are going to be
yet-more-fully deprecated. I still have a coal-fired
forge and an anvil, both probably manufactured 100 years
ago, that I can shape and even temper iron and steel with
(and aluminum if I'm incredibly careful), but I do not and
never will have the skills required to do it well, and
certainly not to replace what modern industrial processes
can achieve... barring a full apocalypse, it is merely a
quaint "hobby" that might afford me the opportunity to
turn out some rustic items others would mistake for
"art", or more often, repair the various related tools I
might *use*in my forge... though in most cases a strap
and some bolts or rivets makes more sense than trying to
re-weld a broken connecting rod, or lever.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, the discussion of how our "first programming
language" defines us, I believe that my earliest
"programming" experience was more "analysis" of the
circuitry of pinball (and vending) machines in my friend's
father's workshop where he repaired them, and there were
always an array of pinball machines in various states of
repair, with all the guts open for inspection while
operating. Very much an analog/digital hybrid system
while the older vending machines were essentially all "rod
logic" (albeit simple). Later, at my first employer
(radio station) I learned the ins and outs of automated
infinite loop carousel "programming" which was a hybrid of
relay and mechanical (rod/gear/lever) logics. The
"programming" was really simplistic, involving inserting
"shorting pins" in matrices to define priorities and
timing to get the "right" mix of commercials, PSAs, and a
diversity of music played during any given period (usually
a 4 hour shift). I can't say how much it influenced my
later understanding of "computer programming" which I was
being introduced to simultaneously by our Driver's Ed
teacher who had somehow wrangled a PDP-x rack into a small
room with a teletype/paper-tape-punch. He didn't really
have a clue, he was learning BASIC along with us,
following a simple set of "sample programs" listed in what
I think was the "owners manual" for the machine.</p>
<p>Ramble,</p>
<p> - Steve<br>
</p>
<blockquote type="cite">
<div style="font-family:sans-serif">
<div style="white-space:normal">
<p dir="auto">Does it include lessons on how to land
the plane?</p>
<p dir="auto">—Barry</p>
<p dir="auto">On 12 Aug 2020, at 21:53, Frank Wimberly
wrote:</p>
<blockquote style="border-left:2px solid
rgb(119,119,119);color:rgb(119,119,119);margin:0px
0px 5px;padding-left:5px">
<p dir="auto">I just got an email from a flight
training program offering me a nine month<br>
course to get a multi engine commercial license.
They don't read the Friam<br>
listsrv, I hope. I'm too old in any case.<br>
<br>
---<br>
Frank C. Wimberly<br>
140 Calle Ojo Feliz,<br>
Santa Fe, NM 87505<br>
<br>
505 670-9918<br>
Santa Fe, NM<br>
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