Old Timers

[GL_Storm]

There's a documentary called Fastball that you can watch for free on YouTube. It's pretty interesting and goes over a lot of the issues with measuring velocity over the years. Also, if you want to watch it, but don't want to get ads, just install an Ad blocker on your browser. I use AdGuard and it works like a charm on YouTube.

[D-train]

Walter Johnson had his fastball speed measured at a munitions factory in 1917. They clocked him at 91 MPH. He was considered the hardest thrower of the era.

I am super curious how they did that without radar! I don’t disbelieve you - quite the opposite. Maybe they had some egghead with a slide rule and a yardstick?

Boggles my mind that engineers at Boeing used to design Jet airplanes without computers. My wife's mother had a "boyfriend" in his 80s about 10-15 years ago that did just that. I tried to get him to explain it to me. Did they sit around all day drawing and making calculations with long division or what. He wasn't much help. He grew up in the depression. Odd guy. We were in line at Ivars one day and he casually told me how he lost $50k when WA MU went tits up in the 2008 crash. Didn't bother him a bit. But while he was telling me he was getting insanely frustrated because he could find the coupon in his wallet that would have save him 50 cents on a cup of clam chowder. LOL

[Case_Of_The_Runs]

Boggles my mind that engineers at Boeing used to design Jet airplanes without computers. My wife's mother had a "boyfriend" in his 80s about 10-15 years ago that did just that. I tried to get him to explain it to me. Did they sit around all day drawing and making calculations with long division or what. He wasn't much help. He grew up in the depression. Odd guy. We were in line at Ivars one day and he casually told me how he lost $50k when WA MU went tits up in the 2008 crash. Didn't bother him a bit. But while he was telling me he was getting insanely frustrated because he could find the coupon in his wallet that would have save him 50 cents on a cup of clam chowder. LOL

First of all - Ivars. Fucking yum. Their bisque is the shiznit.

Second of all - old timers. We used to have this old hardware store in town - floor to ceiling crap just stuffed in. You walk in there and ask for some random piece of hardware and he'd walk over 6 aisles and dig around on the shelves and pull out that 10 inch spanner wrench with adjustable grip and ergonomic handle. It would be there illogically between kerosene and door handles. If you wanted a 12 inch spanner wrench it would be 4 aisles over between rakes and insulation. The dude had this "logical to no one but himself" stocking system. Anyhow, my dad and I walk in there one day for something random - roofing nails, I think. He's got them in bulk, so we scoop out a pound and half of roofing nails. We go to cash out and he doesn't even use the cash register. He's doing the math in his head - 16 ounces in a pound, 32 cents an ounce times 13% sales tax...whatever. He rattles off a number.

My father insists that I check the math on my smartphone (cause holy shit, I can't do it MY head) and he's dead on. My father is impressed, and nothing impresses my father. The guy tells him he had to learn the times tables in his head to 20. Times tables! Holy shit! They don't even teach cursive in school anymore - can anyone remember doing times tables, much less to 20? My father, not to be outdone, proceeds to rattle off the first act of some Shakespeare play. My father last read Shakespeare 50 years ago in high school - and he barely got through high school cause he was too busy shooting pool. I stand there gobsmacked with my multiple worthless college degrees. They turn to me and ask me what I've got. I've got a shit load of student debt I apparently wasted since I can't quote a line of Shakespeare and the hardware guy wouldn't even hire me as a stock boy because of gross incompetence.

And if anyone on this board has actually used a slide rule, I genuflect in your general direction.

[D-train]

Boggles my mind that engineers at Boeing used to design Jet airplanes without computers. My wife's mother had a "boyfriend" in his 80s about 10-15 years ago that did just that. I tried to get him to explain it to me. Did they sit around all day drawing and making calculations with long division or what. He wasn't much help. He grew up in the depression. Odd guy. We were in line at Ivars one day and he casually told me how he lost $50k when WA MU went tits up in the 2008 crash. Didn't bother him a bit. But while he was telling me he was getting insanely frustrated because he could find the coupon in his wallet that would have save him 50 cents on a cup of clam chowder. LOL

First of all - Ivars. Fucking yum. Their bisque is the shiznit.

Second of all - old timers. We used to have this old hardware store in town - floor to ceiling crap just stuffed in. You walk in there and ask for some random piece of hardware and he'd walk over 6 aisles and dig around on the shelves and pull out that 10 inch spanner wrench with adjustable grip and ergonomic handle. It would be there illogically between kerosene and door handles. If you wanted a 12 inch spanner wrench it would be 4 aisles over between rakes and insulation. The dude had this "logical to no one but himself" stocking system. Anyhow, my dad and I walk in there one day for something random - roofing nails, I think. He's got them in bulk, so we scoop out a pound and half of roofing nails. We go to cash out and he doesn't even use the cash register. He's doing the math in his head - 16 ounces in a pound, 32 cents an ounce times 13% sales tax...whatever. He rattles off a number.

My father insists that I check the math on my smartphone (cause holy shit, I can't do it MY head) and he's dead on. My father is impressed, and nothing impresses my father. The guy tells him he had to learn the times tables in his head to 20. Times tables! Holy shit! They don't even teach cursive in school anymore - can anyone remember doing times tables, much less to 20? My father, not to be outdone, proceeds to rattle off the first act of some Shakespeare play. My father last read Shakespeare 50 years ago in high school - and he barely got through high school cause he was too busy shooting pool. I stand there gobsmacked with my multiple worthless college degrees. They turn to me and ask me what I've got. I've got a shit load of student debt I apparently wasted since I can't quote a line of Shakespeare and the hardware guy wouldn't even hire me as a stock boy because of gross incompetence.

And if anyone on this board has actually used a slide rule, I genuflect in your general direction.

I laid awake one night as a kid and correctly calculated in my head how many seconds in a year....lol

[Captain 97]

Walter Johnson had his fastball speed measured at a munitions factory in 1917. They clocked him at 91 MPH. He was considered the hardest thrower of the era.

I am super curious how they did that without radar! I don’t disbelieve you - quite the opposite. Maybe they had some egghead with a slide rule and a yardstick?

https://www.mercurynews.com/2017/03/28/ ... torcycles/

[Bil522]

Boggles my mind that engineers at Boeing used to design Jet airplanes without computers. My wife's mother had a "boyfriend" in his 80s about 10-15 years ago that did just that. I tried to get him to explain it to me. Did they sit around all day drawing and making calculations with long division or what. He wasn't much help. He grew up in the depression. Odd guy. We were in line at Ivars one day and he casually told me how he lost $50k when WA MU went tits up in the 2008 crash. Didn't bother him a bit. But while he was telling me he was getting insanely frustrated because he could find the coupon in his wallet that would have save him 50 cents on a cup of clam chowder. LOL

First of all - Ivars. Fucking yum. Their bisque is the shiznit.

Second of all - old timers. We used to have this old hardware store in town - floor to ceiling crap just stuffed in. You walk in there and ask for some random piece of hardware and he'd walk over 6 aisles and dig around on the shelves and pull out that 10 inch spanner wrench with adjustable grip and ergonomic handle. It would be there illogically between kerosene and door handles. If you wanted a 12 inch spanner wrench it would be 4 aisles over between rakes and insulation. The dude had this "logical to no one but himself" stocking system. Anyhow, my dad and I walk in there one day for something random - roofing nails, I think. He's got them in bulk, so we scoop out a pound and half of roofing nails. We go to cash out and he doesn't even use the cash register. He's doing the math in his head - 16 ounces in a pound, 32 cents an ounce times 13% sales tax...whatever. He rattles off a number.

My father insists that I check the math on my smartphone (cause holy shit, I can't do it MY head) and he's dead on. My father is impressed, and nothing impresses my father. The guy tells him he had to learn the times tables in his head to 20. Times tables! Holy shit! They don't even teach cursive in school anymore - can anyone remember doing times tables, much less to 20? My father, not to be outdone, proceeds to rattle off the first act of some Shakespeare play. My father last read Shakespeare 50 years ago in high school - and he barely got through high school cause he was too busy shooting pool. I stand there gobsmacked with my multiple worthless college degrees. They turn to me and ask me what I've got. I've got a shit load of student debt I apparently wasted since I can't quote a line of Shakespeare and the hardware guy wouldn't even hire me as a stock boy because of gross incompetence.

And if anyone on this board has actually used a slide rule, I genuflect in your general direction.

I laid awake one night as a kid and correctly calculated in my head how many seconds in a year....lol

Yep....multiplication tables to 20 by 8th grade
Yep....use of a slide rule in Mr. Rosendaal's Advanced Math class my senior year.....got an A- in that class.....it is still my greatest academic achievement to date...that includes college
Yep....to memorizing Hamlet's Siloloquy
Yep.....to memorizing the Gettysburg Address
Yep....to knowing every M's player number through the's 1986 season
Yep..... to remembering my phone number and 50+ other ones (Only the older guys will get this....remember when your phone number had both letters and numbers? If you still remember yours those make for great passwords now days especially if you use the hyphen example FW4-8342)

[D-train]

Yep my home # was PR8-1533 lol

[AT Funchal-Madeira]

Augustine was a reformed drunk who turned into a religious zealot around 30. He memorized the entire Bible so he wouldn't be "totally ignorant" of it. Clinton, Wilson, and Carter all had IQ's above Abraham Lincoln but they were terrible presidents, imo... William Shakespeare might have been one of the most intelligent people who ever lived with an estimated IQ of 210. I think he was amazing and one thing is for certain, if he were alive today, he would never have to work, just live off the royalties from his 45 plays. Marilyn vos Savant is often listed as the person with highest recorded IQ of 228 although in another test she only reach 182. And I don't know of anything significant she contributed to the world in which she was born into. She was born 3 days before me, August 11, 1946. Will Rogers often said, "we are all ignorant, just on different subjects."

[Case_Of_The_Runs]

Augustine was a reformed drunk who turned into a religious zealot around 30. He memorized the entire Bible so he wouldn't be "totally ignorant" of it. Clinton, Wilson, and Carter all had IQ's above Abraham Lincoln but they were terrible presidents, imo... William Shakespeare might have been one of the most intelligent people who ever lived with an estimated IQ of 210. I think he was amazing and one thing is for certain, if he were alive today, he would never have to work, just live off the royalties from his 45 plays. Marilyn vos Savant is often listed as the person with highest recorded IQ of 228 although in another test she only reach 182. And I don't know of anything significant she contributed to the world in which she was born into. She was born 3 days before me, August 11, 1946. Will Rogers often said, "we are all ignorant, just on different subjects."

Earlier in this thread I mentioned Stephen Jay Gould - completely brilliant on a range of topics. In a book he wrote called the Mismeasure of Man, he argues that IQ tests - in addition to being culturally biased from their inception and therefore historically inaccurate - argued that it is impossible to measure something as complex and multidimensional as intelligence and then put it on a simple linear scale.

If you have ever seen footage of Kim Peek (a savant with profound FG Syndrome) - he could tell you what day of the week any date in history fell on. He memorized zip codes for shits and giggles. He read books by scanning left pages with his left eye and right pages with his right. He could read a book in an hour and could accurately recall the contents of over 12,000 books. Find him on YouTube - it’s amazing.

But his father has to dress him each day, and his measured IQ was something like 83.

Education moves forward. Calculators replaced slide rules just as slide rules replaced the abacus (I’m exaggerating a bit). I don’t think we teach times tables anymore - not like we used to. We are no longer teaching cursive in many schools. I still write in cursive, I still recall a few of my times tables and I know snippets of prose I read in high school. But students I tutor today speak 3 languages, are doing calculus as high school juniors, are publishing articles in peer reviewed journals and play 3 sports. But if you took away their cell phones and gave them a Thomas Guide, put them in a 1999 Tercel and dropped them in the middle of Kansas, they’d starve to death before they found a 7-11. And god forbid you ask them to engage in a face to face conversation!

[Donn Beach]

Walter Johnson had his fastball speed measured at a munitions factory in 1917. They clocked him at 91 MPH. He was considered the hardest thrower of the era.

I am super curious how they did that without radar! I don’t disbelieve you - quite the opposite. Maybe they had some egghead with a slide rule and a yardstick?

Boggles my mind that engineers at Boeing used to design Jet airplanes without computers. My wife's mother had a "boyfriend" in his 80s about 10-15 years ago that did just that. I tried to get him to explain it to me. Did they sit around all day drawing and making calculations with long division or what. He wasn't much help. He grew up in the depression. Odd guy. We were in line at Ivars one day and he casually told me how he lost $50k when WA MU went tits up in the 2008 crash. Didn't bother him a bit. But while he was telling me he was getting insanely frustrated because he could find the coupon in his wallet that would have save him 50 cents on a cup of clam chowder. LOL

Went to the moon without computers