advertisement


Big changes in your lifetime?

Slide rules went hand in hand with log tables at school for me. Hand operated adding machines was a skill that could be learnt during lunch-times, just like chess in the chess club etc..
ICI was inordinately proud of its mainframe (fed with punch-cards) when I started work, but all it did was stock control and the wages - something more than easily handled by Excel today.

Who knows what a Vernier is and how it works, without looking for help on Wikipedia? The word gets used in lieu of caliper where I work and I get laughter and disbelief when I explain the nonsense that they are talking when used in that way - no-one under something like 40-45 will have ever used a Vernier in all probability, let alone understand how it works (one of life's very simplest but most elegant bits of maths/science).

The biggest disaster of all - mind-numbingly good healthcare and support across the world, even in the back end of beyond in very many cases, not coupled with sensible birth control.
 
Shops open on a Sunday, what a relief to find you need something and be able to go out and buy it, rather than wait until the next weekend to complete a job.

Pete, two vernier owner and user.
 
Big Changes...

Well, I still remember how cold it was in the outside lavatory with a paraffin hurricane lamp for lighting, batting away the gad-flies with newspaper that was the toilet tissue. (one has to crumple up the square of newspaper before usage, otherwise a paper cut on the arsehole is 50/50)

I used a slate board and chalk at my first school, (infants in old money) the g-kids do not believe me.

On a lighter note, the decline of Christianity has been spectacular.
 
Satellites - the proliferation and different sizes of these things is stupendous.
Little would happen back on earth without them..
That little invention that apparently had zero use - Light Amplification (by the) Stimulated Emmision of Radiation. - now used in so many things from medical to astronomical - did away with my plumb line a while ago (although the spirit level still lives - just) Mr Goldfinger found a use for one though :)
 
It is the dafter things, the minutiae of life and how people observe and interpret them, that really make life worth living.

PFM has some admirably good observers, and I thank them for their contributions. Long may the contributions and you continue.
 
For certain the biggest changes I have observed in my 57 years is that people used to be more happy go lucky in the old days, and that political correctness was invented.

You could never have adverts like these on prime time television today!



Every single short add is funny, and yes, I am against people being "nudged" out of smoking. The evidence is there for all to find out, but it is no business of government to "nudge" people\s behaviour if the only consequence is a foreshortening of their own life.

Best wishes from George
 
Only consequence?
Don’t they undergo surgery and lengthy spells in hospital for smoking induced diseases?
Secondary smoking diseases not a consequence?
Children’s health not a consequence of people smoking inside?

Heart disease deaths have plummeted since govts started “nudging” people away from smoking.
 
If you are a smoker I am glad you are no longer allowed to poison whole aircraft, trains, restaurants, theatres, bars and workplaces whilst exercising your “rights”.
I did not say you should not be able to poison yourself as you wish.
But you should certainly be stopped from inflicting the consequences of your habit on others.
I merely pointed out the nonsense of your claim that smoking had no consequences on any but the smoker.
 
Dear Bob,

You make a large assumption here!

I was taught that it was bad manners to smoke while others ate. And I never have!

If the Law banned smoking in restaurants then I would [and did, if tacitly,] support the move, but what one does in the security of one's own home is not a question that should concern "government" at all. Provided that no other un-consenting adult is involved.

It is a rule in my house that my smoking friends should feel free to enjoy a smoke if they so wish. I want no interference in that from the nanny state.

As regards dying from it, then think of life as a sexually transmitted disease that is absolutely fatal, however you go about it.

One could be a puritan all your life and still fall under a bus aged 37!

Best wishes from George
 
I chose, for reasons of meekness concerning the environment, never to have children. There are now over seven billion humans on Earth. When I made that decision there were between three and four billion. No reason why my genes should survive!

No children visit me which is pleasant, because I find them even less nice that pre-house-trained puppy-dogs.

For non-smoking guests, I refrain till they leave!

Best wishes from George
 
GPS. Now that is clever. Measuring changes in in the earth's surface and sea levels to mm accuracy, completely changing the way surveys are done, and satnav in cars, of course. Oddly, free to use.

But what always blows my mind is my little wristwatch can show my position and speed, where I've been, what gradient etc. And Garmin / Strava map where I've been on my hikes, runs or bike rides over days weeks or (presumably) decades. All based on tiny differences in timing of arrival of light speed signals and some no doubt complex algorithms. And it just looks like a nice discrete watch with analogue hands. Unbelievable.
 
I remember a time before the f-word was used every 5 minutes in TV dramas etc.
I see it’s a more accurate reflection of daily speech and I use it fairly f****** frequently myself, it still makes me slightly uncomfortable though (and it’s not the worst one!).
 
If you are a smoker I am glad you are no longer allowed to poison whole aircraft, trains, restaurants, theatres, bars and workplaces whilst exercising your “rights”.
I did not say you should not be able to poison yourself as you wish.
But you should certainly be stopped from inflicting the consequences of your habit on others.
I merely pointed out the nonsense of your claim that smoking had no consequences on any but the smoker.

You think thats air your breathing now ? Living in a large town or city is the equivalent of smoking 10 a day, office workers are endlessly breathing in carcinogenic ink particles everyday, but no, your right, if only us pesky smokers stoped poluting the air, everyone would live forever.
 
The attitude towards smoking is a big shift & one that is welcomed. Difficult to defend really even though I don't mind it in the open air.
 


advertisement


Back
Top