Tag Archives: ignorance

Food for Thought for American Conservatives

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More good content floating around the Web.

This morning, @derekcbart tweeted a link to a site with the below-quoted content. I’m trying to find the source and the closest I seem to get is this post on reddit.

The author of this put a lot of thought into it. Although his grammar leaves a bit to be desired, and his original title is sure to turn off anyone who actually is a conservative (which is why I edited it), he’s 100% correct in his statements. I’m reposting it here as some food for thought. (If you are the author of this post and would like it removed or would like attribution, please contact me.)

I AM AN AMERICAN CONSERVATIVE [REDACTED]

this morning I was awoken by my alarm clock powered by electricity generated by the public power monopoly regulated by the US department of energy. I then took a shower in the clean water provided by the municipal water utility. After that, I turned on the TV to one of the FCC regulated channels to see what the national weather service of the national oceanographic and atmospheric administration determined the weather was going to be like using satellites designed, built, and launched by the national aeronautics and space administration. I watched this while eating my breakfast of US department of agriculture inspected food and taking the drugs which have been determined as safe by the food and drug administration.

At the appropriate time as regulated by the US congress and kept accurate by the national institute of standards and technology and the US naval observatory, I get into my national highway traffic safety administration approved automobile and set out to work on the roads build by the local, state, and federal departments of transportation, possibly stopping to purchase additional fuel of a quality level determined by the environmental protection agency, using legal tender issed by the federal reserve bank. On the way out the door I deposit any mail I have to be sent out via the US postal service and drop the kids off at the public school.

After spending another day not being maimed or killed at work thanks to the workplace regulations imposed by the department of labor and the occupational safety and health administration, enjoying another two meals which again do not kill me because of the USDA, I drive my NHTSA car back home on the DOT roads, to ny house which has not burned down in my absence because of the state and local building codes and fire marshal’s inspection, and which has not been plundered of all it’s valuables thanks to the local police department.

I then log on to the internet which was developed by the defense advanced research projects administration and post on freerepublic.com and fox news forums about how SOCIALISM in medicine is BAD because the government can’t do anything right.

As an American with empathy for those struggling against the odds to survive in financial hard times, I think health care reform will provide relief to many, many people. Please understand that the reform proposed by the Obama administration is nothing like the socialized medicine the NeoCons want you to think it is.

And if anyone knows the real source of this passage, please use the comments to share it. Do not use the comments to share untruths meant to scare the public; they will not appear on this blog.

Not Ready for Solo?

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This one is too absurd to pass up without comment.

I was going through the NTSB reports for helicopters today, looking for a specific accident in Arizona that hasn’t yet been listed on NTSB.gov. I did, however find this report that seems to indicate a training problem with a solo student pilot that has 64 hours of helicopter flight time:

According to the pilot, she departed Frederick Municipal Airport (FDK), Frederick, Maryland, about 0745, with an intended destination of Lancaster Airport (LNS), Lancaster, Pennsylvania. The pilot reported that she conducted the cruise portion of the flight at an altitude of 3,000 feet above mean sea level (msl), at an airspeed of approximately 110 knots. After she established communications with the LNS air traffic control tower, and was getting ready to begin her descent to the airport, the pilot noticed that the vertical speed indicator was indicating a descent of approximately 1,000 feet per minute, and that the airspeed was approximately 120 knots. The pilot “raised the collective” pitch control in an effort to reduce or stop the descent, but the helicopter did not respond as the pilot expected, and the descent continued. She determined that she would not be able to reach LNS, and selected a field suitable for a landing. The helicopter landed hard in a soybean field approximately 8 miles west-southwest of LNS. It remained upright, and the engine continued to run after touchdown, until the pilot shut it down using normal shutdown procedures.

The preliminary report goes on to say that when investigators tested the aircraft’s engine, they didn’t find anything wrong with it. It was up to date on all maintenance, the fuel samples were clear, and there was no evidence of a problem.

Is it me or is the problem as simple as what can be gleaned from the above-quoted paragraph? Let’s review:

  • The helicopter was descending at 1000 feet per minute, which is pretty quick, but not nearly as quick as an autorotation or a steep descent from altitude. (I commonly descend at at least 1500 feet per minute when coming off the Weaver Mountains (4500 feet) to Congress (3000 feet) toward Wickenburg (2400 feet).)
  • The helicopter’s airspeed was up to 120 knots from 110 knots. That’s fast, even for an R44. I normally cruise at 110 knots when alone; I have to push pretty hard to get it up to 120 knots without adding power or beginning a descent.
  • The pilot “raised the collective.” Helicopter Flying 101 says that when you pull pitch (raise collective) on a helicopter with a governor or a correlator (or both, as this helicopter has), you’re increasing power.

So the pilot is already zooming through the sky, but she adds power to stop the descent? Doesn’t she understand how the cyclic works? Pull it back to slow down. If you keep your power setting the same, you should also slow your descent rate.

Here’s what I think happened, based on the information provided in the preliminary report and a little research. The pilot was cruising at 3,000 feet. She was “getting ready to begin her descent” to an airport at an elevation of 403 — a required descent of 2600 feet. What she didn’t realize is that she had already begun the descent. Possibly with the airport in sight, she’d pushed the cyclic forward, perhaps to adjust the sight picture of the horizon before her. (This is something I recall doing more than once when I was a new pilot descending from altitude, so I can understand how she might do it, too.) The net result of a forward movement of the cyclic without a power change is to speed up and descend — which is exactly what happened. With a power setting of 18 to 20 inches of manifold pressure, she could easily get into this situation.

Rather than attempt to slow down by pulling the cyclic back, she elected to arrest descent by adding power. This would only make the problem worse if she didn’t add aft cyclic. It was probably a flare near the bottom — perhaps drilled into her by numerous practice autorotations — that slowed her down and enabled her to touch down without slamming any harder into the ground.

What should she have done? As soon as she realized she was going so fast and descending, she should have added aft cyclic. This should both slow her down and reduce her descent rate. It doesn’t matter how much power is available; if the rotors are not stalling, the helicopter will fly. Gentle aft cyclic should enable her to get a better idea of what the problem is — if there is indeed a problem.

But it’s hard to imagine a power problem if there’s no loss of RPM or yawing to the right — neither of which is mentioned as a symptom of the problem. And believe me, if a Robinson has low rotor RPM, you’ll know it — the damn horn starts blaring at 97% RPM; she would have had enough power to fly with RPM as low as 85% (or probably lower).

What do I take away from this? This solo student pilot was not prepared for her solo flight. She evidently did not understand how the controls work together to manage airspeed and climb or descent rates. (This may have something to do with her experience as an airplane pilot.) When she noticed the descent rate and high speed, she possibly panicked and did the first thing that came into her mind: raise the collective to stop the descent. But if she had been properly trained and knew what was going on, she would have reacted properly by simply pulling the cyclic back to slow down and reduce the descent rate.

As a result, a helicopter is destroyed, the NTSB is required to waste time and resources to investigate, and a student pilot, although lucky to be alive, has an accident on her record.

No Child Left Behind?

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Sure, they can pass tests. But can they tell time?

I had a heavy shock today in the Safeway Supermarket in Wickenburg, AZ when I witnessed the following exchange between a cashier/manager and the teenage clerk who was bagging groceries at her register.

Girl: Do I get a break today?

Cashier (after studying a break sheet): Yes. You have lunch at 3 o’clock.

Girl: What time is it now?

Cashier (pointing to the clock on the wall): Look at the clock.

Girl (laughing): I can’t tell time on that.

I looked at the clock. It was a typical wall clock — you know, the round kind with two hands and a bunch of numbers. It read 1:35 PM.

Me (to the girl): You can’t tell time on a regular clock?

Girl (still laughing): No.

Teenage Guy behind me on line: I can’t either.

Me (to the girl): And you think that’s funny? What school did you go to?

Girl (still laughing but now moved to the end of the next register; I think I was scaring her): Wickenburg.

We’ll cut the conversation here, mostly because I became outraged and had to be calmed by the cashier, who is about my age. I reminded her that I learned how to tell time when I was 5 and I’m sure she was about the same age.

The point of all this is the fact that today’s kids apparently lack basic skills that they need to get by in life. How can an 18-year-old girl not know how to tell time on a standard analog clock? What else does she not know how to do? Read? Write in full sentences? Spell the words that might appear on a job application?

How the hell does she expect to get anywhere in life? Or is her highest aspiration to be a bagger in a grocery store? No offense to folks with challenged kids, but mentally retarded people can do that.

Yet apparently, this kid can pass the tests she needs to graduate high school.

No child left behind? Sure.

You Can’t Fix Stupid

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Quote of the day.

If you follow this blog, you may have read about my Quincy Golf Course RV Park Internet woes. I thought I had them licked before I went away to Pateros on June 26, but when I returned on July 7, it was down again.

Recap

Let me review the situation:

  • The Internet people put an antenna on the roof of the Golf Course Pro Shop building.
  • The antenna points to another antenna about a half mile away to pick up an Internet signal.
  • The Internet people put a WiFi router in the Pro Shop and connected it to the antenna.
  • The WiFi setup operates at normal WiFi frequencies.
  • The Pro Shop has a Toro irrigation system which uses an antenna on the building to turn various sprinklers on or off based on a computer schedule and manual inputs on a radio.
  • The Toro system operates on a completely different frequency in a different range.
  • The irrigation guy is convinced that the Internet system conflicts with the irrigation system.
  • The Internet people moved the antenna and ran extensive tests with the irrigation guy to assure that his system continued to work. There was no conflict at that time or any other time that the Internet people were here.

That’s where things were on June 26 when I left town for 10 days. When I got back, the Internet was disconnected and the router was missing — although all the other equipment was in place and even powered up.

Evidently, while I was gone, the irrigation system failed again. Coincidentally, there was also a power failure here — I know this because my microwave’s clock was reset. But the irrigation guy — who I think I’m going to rechristen the irritation guy — is certain that the failure is due to the Internet setup. And now he’s convinced management.

So they won’t let me reconnect the system.

So I don’t have full-time Internet anymore. Again.

And I’m out the $70 I paid for two months of Internet service.

And I’m working on a book for a software product that attempts to connect to the Internet every third time I click a button or choose a menu command.

Stupid is as Stupid Does

I’ve spoken to numerous people about this situation. People who know more about the technical aspects of wireless operations than I ever will. All have agreed that there should not be a conflict.

I talked directly to Toro technical support. They told me there should not be a conflict.

During the troubleshooting process, I disconnected the entire Internet system and asked the irritation guy to test it. He claimed it wouldn’t work. When I pointed out that nothing was connected, he admitted that his radio transmitter battery was low and that could have caused the problem.

Every single time the Internet people were here to test the system with the irritation guy, the irrigation system worked flawlessly.

Yet the first time it doesn’t work properly, the irritation guy blames the Internet and disconnects part of the system. He gets it to work and assumes that the problem is the Internet — not whatever else he did to get it to work.

When I recited these details to my editor, Megg, she gave me a quote from her husband: “You can’t fix stupid.” I had to write it down. It fits this situation perfectly.

Stupid is not a word I use lightly. I prefer the word ignorant, which has a very different meaning. Ignorant means uninformed. Or, more specifically, from the New Oxford American Dictionary in the Dictionary application in Mac OS X:

lacking knowledge or awareness in general; uneducated or unsophisticated

I wanted to think that the irritation guy was just ignorant. He’s not technically savvy. Heck, he had to have his daughter come out and help him disconnect an Ethernet cable from a computer! All he knows about the irrigation computer is what the setup guy told him. He doesn’t touch it without assistance from the local support person. So, obviously he’s not informed about how computers work.

But when several people go through the exercise of testing the system with him to prove that it works and multiple people explain that the two systems are on different frequency ranges so there shouldn’t be any conflict and he still refuses to believe, I have to start applying the stupid label to him.

And you can’t fix stupid.

It’s Not Just Sand

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I have to explain to passengers that the desert is more than sand dunes.

I had some passengers on a helicopter flight a few weeks back who were just visiting the Phoenix area from somewhere back east. At sometime during the flight, they told me they were hoping to see the real desert.

My DesertI was confused. Wickenburg sits in the Sonoran desert. That’s the desert with the big saguaro cacti all over the place. It rains, on average, less than 8 inches a year. The desert can’t get any more real than that.

My passenger clarified. “Well, where’s the sand?”

The sand, unfortunately, is all over the place. In washes, in my front yard, in my shoes and cars, and in my hair and eyes during a dust storm. Sand (and dust) is a part of life here.

But not the kind of sand my passenger was thinking about. He was thinking of sand dunes. You know. Like the kind in movies that take place in the Sahara desert.

I began to understand. His mental picture of the desert included the rolling sand dunes from the movies. The same sand dunes that had hazards like quicksand and oasises with palm trees and ponds of water.

I explained that there were sand dunes in the southwest desert, but they were only part of the desert landscape — not the whole thing. I told him about the big sand dunes west of Yuma on I-8, and the small sand dunes west of Blythe off of I-10 (I’m not even sure if you can see those from the road, but I see them from the helicopter when I fly that way), and the medium sized sand dunes in Death Valley.

Then I put on my tour conductor voice and gave him a summary description of the Sonoran desert landscape, including information about its cacti, trees, animal life, and other features.

Of course, all this has me wondering how many people think the desert is just a big sand dune.

Monument ValleyOne of the things I love about the desert is its diversity. There are so many kinds of desert, each with their own little ecosystem. Drive 50 or 100 miles in any direction and you’re likely to be in a whole different kind of desert. For example, if you drive up route 93 from Wickenburg, you’ll enter another kind of desert where there are no saguaro cacti, but plenty of Joshua trees. Drive up to Monument Valley and you’ll see the layers of underlying rock exposed in magnificent formations, with scrubby trees and bushes hanging on for life in the fine red sand.

Just don’t go down to Phoenix. There isn’t much of the desert left down there, with all the asphalt, golf courses, non-native plants (like palm trees, for heaven’s sake!), and irrigation.