Lead paragraph from PhysOrg Article

[flyguy]

I copied this just the way it was published on line.

PhysOrg.com) -- Ever since Galileo first dropped his balls off the top of the Tower of Pisa in the late 16th century, gravity has caused a major headache for mathematicians and physicists down the ages.

Sometimes Geeks are funny.

DC

[Hank Jarrett]

Re: Lead paragraph from PhysOrg Article

Nerds! NERDS!!! We are NERDS, not Geeks! Nerds are humorless techno-nuts with baggy pants, skinny ties, wingtip shoes, pocket protectors and tape on their glasses. Geeks work at the sideshow of carnivals and bite the heads off of chickens.
Hank

OK, the Nerd description is of MY generations Nerds. MODERN Nerds look just like Bill Gates or Steve Jobs. NERDS are PROUD that their IQ is a larger number than their weight.

[flyguy]

Re: Lead paragraph from PhysOrg Article

I stand corrected most honorable sir. Strange I have been one all my life and I didn't even know there was a difference. What's wrong with pocket protectors? I never used tape, I had a piece of wire where the little screw was missing. Chuckle.

[Ron Coleman]

Re: Lead paragraph from PhysOrg Article

correction please:

"live chickens"

Thank you
RonC

[flyguy]

Re: Lead paragraph from PhysOrg Article

Is that a formal definition?
Darryl

[Hank Jarrett]

Re: Lead paragraph from PhysOrg Article

No. When we daily dress and for all but high level workplace meetings we wear khaki pants, blue shirts, white socks and walking shoes with no pocket protectors. No kidding, I have been to hundreds of NASA meetings where 90% of the people are wearing khaki pants and blue shirts! Some of the "deep researchers" tend to wear sandals and socks with mission "T" shirts and pants that look like they are from the Korean War. All of us are dressed by wives who have given up on getting us to change. I must have 10 blue shirts and pants sets.
If someone really senior is coming for a face to face we wear coat and tie and lots of us have a coat and tie hanging from the back of our office doors that have never been worn. SOME DAY someone really important will come to my office and I WILL BE READY!
Hank

[Bird]

Re: Lead paragraph from PhysOrg Article

I was recently hired on a Govt site and because of the security I can't say where.
What I can say is that for every 1.3 workers (people like me that do something) there is a white hat (a boss), and the reason that I have a job (I am a tower crane operator 25 years experience), is to run around on 1 to 2 floors of the project that we are working on blowing a whistle and hollaring "OVERHEAD" to warn these bosses not to walk under a load suspended from a crane, and to act as an official signal person or flag the crane so to speak (the last time a white hat flagged a crane there, he told the operator to swing right to move away from another crane when he really meant to say swing left, both cranes were down for a week, and the boss was the only one that didn't have to take a drug test, go figure.)
These people really are nerds lol and you don't need to see the white hat to tell them apart but it sure is nice of the managenment to make them wear them.
By the way, because of them we have 2 extra crane operators for each crane making union wages and benifits just to protect them.
God I love a Govt job

[Hank Jarrett]

Re: Lead paragraph from PhysOrg Article

Got to say I have a lot more fun as a NASA contractor than I had as a Civil Servant. The "uniform of the day" usually carries over to the contractors and most of us wear a lot of blue and khaki. The "Govies" are mostly relegated to being contract monitors any more and the good ones don't like it either. The slackers love it. Being a Nerd doesn't make you competent. It just defines your sub-species. We have three kinds. Some are geniuses who forget to wear socks (or wear them with sandals or in February), some are just dumb as a box of rocks and some are truly dedicated geniuses that are a joy to work with. I smile at the rocks, avoid the ones with frozen feet and work with the good ones.
I car pool with an engineer who specializes in critical lifts and the FIRST thing you do at any lift is get EVERYONE out from under the load! If a white hard hat walks towards the load, EVERYTHING stops and whistles go off everywhere. Not sure why your crane operator was listened to the "white hat". I'm not a lift guy but when I am there for a lift (IN THE BACK with my mouth SHUT!) only ONE person tells the operators what to do, and we do a LOT of two crane lifts. The Govie in sandals can bark all the orders he wants but no one will be listening (OK there is someone listening, but the crane operator ISN'T, he's listening to the lift controller). Critical lifts with two bosses kill people, and some aren't wearing blue shirts! We have done lifts of everything from a bowling ball to a DC-9 sized airliner (we drop them at the Impact Dynamics Facility to do crash tests) but I would never say I was a lift guy. It's a very demanding specialty where people get maimed or killed if you screw up.
Those guys get a LOT of respect here, FROM THE BACK of the safety fence!
Hank

[Bird]

Re: Lead paragraph from PhysOrg Article

LOL Hank the white hat that told the operator what to do was our foreman/ Supverisor, and while we have 10 or more cranes on the job only 5 service the building and we always have loads in the air, but unlike a regular const. job where stuff is always flying as fast as the crane can do it safely each lift here has to have paperwork on it.
As a side note, I fully believe that 3/4 of these bosses would have been fired within 1 week on a regular job.

[Hank Jarrett]

Re: Lead paragraph from PhysOrg Article

At the IDF the safety people wear white hard hats and "Guests" are put in them too. Sometimes I think brown would be a more appropriate color. All of the different jobs wear different colors.
Things go best when people not needed for the operation are kept OUT of the area. I love our safety fence. I say let the pros do their job and stay out of their way. You won't get your data any faster if you are in the way.
Hank

[flyguy]

Re: Lead paragraph from PhysOrg Article

I just got around to doing a Wiki on geeks and I hereby retract my correction. Geek was exactly what I meant. The up-to-date usage. As in Computer Geek.

That is what the guys who write for PhysOrg appear to be. They don't seem to know much about science, or how to write very well either. Probably very knowledgeable about iPod, X-box 360, My space, cell phone video, and other punch-button things. Wired magazine online is even worse. A lot like some of the guys I worked with who thought they were red-hot electronic technicians because they could plug a board into a test socket and punch in test commands.

DC