PostHeaderIcon Molyneux Got News

I just listened to this as a podcast, while walking for exercise, and I am really glad that I did:

Beyond the timely subject matter, what I got most out of it was a sense of relief, and welcome respect, for Charles Johnson and his gotnews.com website. When I first became aware of him last year, there was a lot of controversy in the online news community regarding some of his scoops, the controversial subjects he freely covered, and questioning of his sources. Then, every time I visit his site, I get a blaring warning that the site has been reported as “Untrustworthy,” and asking me if I really want to risk visiting it.

This really put me off at first; but I soon decided that it was probably his competitors upset by his reporting, not any malicious content, who were attacking his site. Still, in the back of my mind, there was always a niggling doubt about him and his site, especially since he was often the first to break news, which challenged the existing narrative on hot stories. Then, I had noticed a few times recently in Stefan’s “The Truth About …” series, where he referenced gotnews.com as a source, which somewhat surprised me.

Although I had already gotten the same data from the same source, I did somewhat question if it was reliable. I suppose I had somehow placed Johnson in the same category as Alex Jones. In other words, a lot of truth can be found on his website; but much of it is ‘way out there’  and should probably be skeptically taken with a grain of salt. This Molyneux episode has pretty much erased such doubts, simply by the quality of the conversation. His discussion of his sources and techniques for acquiring them rang true to me, and his willingness to ‘go there’ on subjects like the Bell Curve with Stefan impressed me. Thanks, Stefan… 🙂 â—„Daveâ–º

48 Responses to “Molyneux Got News”

  • Walking for exercise? How many Pokemons did you catch?

    I get the feeling the insanity of the news cycle of late finally overwhelmed the populace and they’ve all decided to go outside and hunt imaginary monsters instead of facing reality. Personally, I’m waiting until Hillary gets elected.

    • Yeah, I walk 5 mi. a day to avoid needing to take diabetes meds; but usually it is just in circles in my back yard. I am increasingly disinterested in actually meeting ignorant sheeple, face to face in public. 🙂

      Actually, that goes for online too. I don’t do Twitter or Facebook. Although I have seen frequent references to a new Pokemon craze, I have deliberately not read any stories about such nonsense. Similarly, I still don’t quite understand what a ‘Kardashian’ (sp?) is, although I am somewhat aware that it is a clan of bubble-butted female narcissists, and one of them used to be a Republican dude. By rarely turning the TV on, I get to choose what to pollute my curmudgeonly mind with, and neither of these pop culture memes made the cut. Most don’t. 😉 â—„Daveâ–º

  • That’s a good walk. I walk about 2 miles a day, but it’s chasing a 3 year old and carrying a baby.

    There’s a health blogger I like who talks a lot about the issues around the causes and prevention of diabetes. I think you might like him:
    http://raypeat.com/articles/

    • Thanks for the link Steel. I have already read a couple of his articles, and look forward to perusing more of them. Are you a stay-at-home dad, or have I been envisioning the wrong gender behind your inscrutable moniker? 😀 â—„Daveâ–º

      • I am. On the internet, no one knows you are a dog.

        I work from home now. I’m the research and development department for a large jewelry company. I’ve got a background in metalsmithing, a vision for how to meld seemingly unrelated information, and a talent for designing and troubleshooting anything from art, to machinery, to software. Currently, I’m working on a multi-year project to develop a process of using ultrafast lasers to color, texture, pattern, and cut metals. I came up with the plan, did the research, and designed a laser machine to be custom built. Now I’ve been devoting most of my spare time to figuring out what it can do and making it happen. It’s mostly new ground, and I’ve been getting spectacular results.

        I’m homeschooling the kids because our education system is a disgrace.

        • Interesting field, Steel. Any place I can go to see examples of what your laser machine does?

          I highly commend you for home schooling your children. Putting a child in a public school (state indoctrination facility) is an especially egregious form of child abuse. Please do them a favor, however, and enroll them in an authentic Montessori program (at least half-day), for three years from age 3 to 6. Then, commence home schooling, after they have first learned how to learn, and developed the inherent joy of learning, focusing, and concentrating. Plus, they will already be reading, writing, doing 4 figure math (+,-,x,/), and know more geography than most modern high school graduates. (See my essay, Spontaneous Minds). If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to ask… 😀 â—„Daveâ–º

        • I don’t have pictures up anywhere at the moment, but when I do, I’ll let you know.

          Good essay. I started looking into the Montessori stuff years ago after you talked about it and I have a lot of respect for their methods. I actually have a friend who teaches in one a couple blocks away. I may enroll them, but probably not. Teaching them how to learn and encouraging their desire to do so is top priority. My wife works from home too, so we are able to dedicate ourselves to being available to the kids pretty effectively. Between us we’ve got a lot of the later subjects well mastered as well. It doesn’t really bother me if they end up with some holes in their education, so long as they have to tools to fill them if need be, and I can generally pick up a new field given about six months of dedication. I’m convinced that all the way down to the neuron level, things we learn and don’t use just get forgotten anyway. We’ll mostly be learning skills as we find need for them.

          I’m sure I’ll have questions. I have one already actually. My son is almost 3. He enthusiastically puts together a hundreds board and lists off the numbers as he finds them, but he still stumbles on 6 and 9 differentiation. Any tips? I’ve noticed most of the commercially available toys use a font where the six and nine are the same, just flipped and maybe with a line under them. Is this of benefit? My best theory at this point is either to change the font to straight backed nines, or to just ditch the nines for a while and find a game that only goes up to 8 to get him used to sixes and then 9 might trigger as looking weird.

          • I wish I could convince you of the benefits to your son at this stage, of the rich learning environment in a Montessori classroom, which you simply cannot provide him at home. As for the 6/9 problem, it is important to teach a child quantity, before introducing the symbols for quantity. Since children at this age learn best with their hands, we use didactic materials like the number rods for the purpose. Once they learn to count the segments, we introduce them to the symbols for these quantities with the sandpaper numerals, which they trace with their fingers while verbalizing the associated quantity. Just as the spatial difference in the rod with six segments and the longer one with nine segments is obvious, the sensorial experience of tracing the symbol for six, is very different from that of tracing the nine. Then, they can place the symbols on the corresponding number rod. After this, they can be elegantly taught the concept of zero with the spindle boxes, which have compartments labeled 0-9 that they count the spindles into. Since zero is ‘nothing,’ they place no spindles in that compartment, and internalize that zero is a place holder without a quantity value of its own. Of course, they count six spindles into the compartment labeled ‘6’ and nine into the one labeled ‘9’ without the slightest confusion. Then, we can advance to presenting the decimal system, with the golden bead material…

            Watch this short video. Not only will you learn some of the Montessori Math concepts, you will get to see what children your son’s age are already diligently learning about it. More importantly, you might notice how incredibly rich the Montessori learning environment is, and how impractical it would be to try to duplicate it at home, even if one had the necessary floorspace. Not to mention, how expensive. One would need to spend at least $10K, just for the basic didactic materials for a Montessori classroom.

            One more comment… I suspect it is probably already too late for your son; but parents should not teach their children how to ‘say their ABC’s.’ Montessori teachers have to help them unlearn this mentally crippling mistake. If one thinks about it, the only reason we ever need or use the ‘name‘ for a symbol in the alphabet, is to spell a word out loud. In order to learn to read properly with phonics, what first comes to the mind of a child learning to read, needs to be the sound of these symbols, not their names. 🙂 â—„Daveâ–º

        • He did learn quantity first. He doesn’t have any trouble with counting, organizing things by quantity, adding or subtracting a small quantity, it’s just a difficulty with the symbols. We’re both pretty ambidextrous and I think it comes with the territory. He seems like he is guessing and then remembering his guess rather than confirming he is right first, which just leaves him not learning from success or failure. If I ask him to give me nine of something, he has no problem. He can put seven of something with the number 7, but he would be equally likely to put six of something with the number nine as six, after a hesitation that tells me he’s guessing.
          I’ve been neglecting tracing I guess. He’s still pretty shaky on the fine motion control of writing.

          • Then, I would agree with the underlined symbols, so he can correct his own errors, and would suggest you develop an exercise where you can use rapid repetition, to drill the difference into his subconscious. As for fine motor control, look into the various Exercises of Practical Life (EPL). The repetitious use of a great many of the early Montessori activities, have preparing the hand for writing, as a secondary aim. â—„Daveâ–º

        • Ok. Will do, thank you.

        • Alright, you wanted to see what I’m up to?
          This is my latest. Made these today from nothing but raw grey metal, laser light, and electrolysis. I designed it and I’ve had a heavy hand in creating the whole process.
          http://www.theallegator.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/20160724_143211.jpg

          • Interesting and pretty cool, Steel. It is probably more stunning than I can even grasp. Is it the whole thing, including the wood grain and ‘burned’ lettering, or just the flowered squares? Is each color added in a separate but automated process, or does it somehow happen all at once? Can you just scan a picture, and have it recreated etched in metal? â—„Daveâ–º

        • Just the flowered metal squares (they will be earrings). The wood is just an old wine box I stacked them on to take a picture.
          The process is pretty involved at the design side. A lot of CAD, vector files and bitmaps. On the production side, it’s one pass through the laser, an anodizing process for the flower color, one more pass through the laser, and one more anodizing for the background.

          • Very interesting, steel. I get how the laser could “texture, pattern, and cut metals” under computer control, and somewhat understand how anodizing can be used to dye metal for color; but I can’t grasp how the laser can be used to vary the shades of the coloring process. Then, I suppose that is the essential magic of your invention. 😀 â—„Daveâ–º

        • Those are really pretty Steel.
          That looks like a fun project. Is the color baked on enamel?
          I like your colors 🙂

        • Thanks (:
          It’s not magic or enamel, it’s physics. Light waves reflecting off of the surface of an oxide interferes with light reflecting off of the underlying metal. The resulting reflected waveform is, to grossly oversimplify, a different color. Basically, by controlling the thickness of the oxide, I can control the color of the metal. When you see steel heat treated up to straw or blue color, this is where the color comes from.
          https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thin-film_interference

          Most of this has been done before in various ways, I’m just bringing together a lot of different tech and developing and optimizing it to do something new.

          • What a fascinating link, Steel. I now understand what you are up to, and envy you for the practical excuse to experiment with science and technology.

            I particularly enjoyed the ‘History’ section, while reflecting on the marvel of great minds in the past, working on solving such mysteries as the nature of ‘iridescence.’ I have a reasonable working knowledge of the nature of light and how we perceive colors (or think that we do), and have had raging debates with Montessorians over it. They tend to think only in terms of mixing primary colored pigments to create secondary colors. The concept that one’s mind can perceive a color that is not actually there, escapes their sensorial based reality. 🙂

            Yet, I had never really pondered the why of shifting ‘rainbows’ in oil slicks or soap bubbles. I suppose I just assumed it was a function of refraction, without wondering about the underlying mechanism of it. I look forward to my next color debate with these sometimes pertinacious women. My argument about there being no yellow pixels on a TV screen, yet no green dots on a colored printout, while easily demonstrable with a magnifying glass, could use a little more pizazz. 😀 â—„Daveâ–º

        • Glad to be of help. Reflection, transmission, and absorption are not always so simple either. Moonstone is a translucent pale blue stone. What color is its shadow?

          Orange. Rayleigh scattering. https://c1.staticflickr.com/1/41/112909824_d4c86088e2_z.jpg

          If you look at that top picture in the wiki (the oil slick) there is a specific order of color output that is pretty universal for thin film interference. The outer edge of the oil slick is where it is thinnest. As you move towards the center you get a more bronze color, deepening to purple and then navy blue, then lightening up through pale blue, sage, yellow, up into a peach color and then fuchsia, to green, etc. This is the same order you see if you scroll down to the soap bubble.

          Working with color all the way down to the level of being able to alter materials at essentially the molecular scale has changed the way I see the world. By seeing the color in that oil slick you can calculate its thickness at any point. I start wondering for a given object why it is the color it is. There are so many answers.

          In looking at everyday objects, you usually only see colors that are both present in the original light source and reflected or transmitted by the object. fluorescence is one exception. In that case, the UV light is imparting enough energy to the material to put electrons into a higher, predictable, unstable orbit. When they return to a more stable valence shell, they emit a predictable quantity of energy in the form of light of a particular color. This is actually the principle that creates lasers as well.

          With a laser I can make tiny grooves in just about anything, small as a wavelength of light. Under a microscope, I can see them, but lowering the magnification, I see instead rainbows like the surface of a DVD, even at a magnification where I know the grooves should still be visible.

          It makes you realize that we aren’t seeing the object at all, we’re seeing an aggregate of the way light from a mix of different sources was altered by contact with it. We still don’t have a straight answer for what light is, since you can make it act like a particle or wave, polarize it, divide it, combine, it, bend it, see it change color with relative velocity, make it constructively and destructively interfere with itself, and the list goes on on and on.

          The one that really blows my mind is that according to relativity, going at the speed of light reduces time from its perspective to zero. The light we see coming from stars billions of light years away, from its own perspective, exists across its entire path simultaneously. It’s the only way I can make sense of things like this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double-slit_experiment#Delayed_choice_and_quantum_eraser_variations

          • Wait… I never fully grasped the concept of time slowing down with increasing speed either; but:

            The light we see coming from stars billions of light years away, from its own perspective, exists across its entire path simultaneously.

            That is mind bending… Astronomy used to be a hobby of mine, and I owned an 8″ telescope when I lived in Hawaii. The incredible number of distant galaxies I could see with it, was phenomenal. I recall contemplating how the light I was seeing from distant stars, left the source millions of years ago, and that from my perspective, that distant sun might have already burned out many millions of years ago, yet the light was still traveling through space on its way to my eyeball. Since light waves only travel at 186Kmps, wasn’t that a valid assumption? The ripples from a pebble thrown into a still pond, don’t cease when the rock sinks and becomes motionless. I probably should go read your new wiki link, before displaying my ignorance… 😉 â—„Daveâ–º

          • Well, I read it… as best I could at this hour. I knew I was getting in over my head, when I looked up the term ‘orthogonal.’ I powered through to the end of the page anyway, and have reluctantly concluded that I know far less than I thought I did, about the nature of light; that quantum physics is destined to remain beyond my ken, and that I should just accept that I am getting too old to learn very many new tricks. That said, I still envy you your youth and fascinating field of endeavor, Steel. Do carry on, my friend. Thanks for the thought experiments… 😀 â—„Daveâ–º

        • That is fascinating stuff Steel. I see a lot of potential in that process for jewelry.

          So is each piece a little bit different and unique then?

        • Chris says:

          Contemplating such things as light, time, and distance only bolsters the notion of how ignorant we really are. We marvel at the wonderful times we live in without knowing what we don’t know. You are way ahead of the curve with your endeavors from my perspective Steel. Keep pushing. Myself I’ll still marvel over my flint and steel started fire.

        • It’s actually pretty consistent, or at least it’s as consistent as I want it to be. Technically, I could throw away my files or settings and it would be a one of a kind, though we’re getting to the point where just about anything, from music, to paintings, to guns, can just be scanned and replicated. For that matter, I was just reading that the clones of the first cloned sheep are now reaching old age and being further cloned. About all they can’t replicate these days is experience. We’re each a unique snowflake in a printable world.

        • Yes, the quote is original.

          The thing about physics is that the way it can be explained varies quite a bit depending on your frame of reference. Your thrown pebble in the pond creates waves on the pond that remain after the pebble is sitting motionless on the bottom, but what is that wave? If you look are a water molecule somewhere along it, you just notice that things get more crowded and then less crowded. It’s a domino effect from all the molecules trying to regain their personal space (with electromagnet force, which is much like light) after being mashed together, and then their outward velocity leaves an area of lower pressure behind. The waves aren’t really a single thing any more than the wind rustling through trees.

          I think where light seems really different is that when they talk about the speed of light, they mean in a vacuum. The light from a distant star is energy unimpeded by time and space. It could be that at that level, and from its perspective, there is little to no time or space between the star and your retina.

          One of my favorite theories of the universe is that we are living inside of a simulation. Not that people are computer programs, but that it is a simulation at the subatomic level. When something moves through time and space, is there a minimum possible unit of either? In a snapshot of a single moment in time, there is no motion. In the smallest possible next instant, things have now moved to another location without having ever occupied an intermediate space. Whether the universe has pixels or not, I don’t know, but it certainly starts feeling like computation.

          On an unrelated note, my son woke up this morning with his sixes and nines figured out. He can name everything on the hundreds board without trouble now, which ought to expand his horizons a bit.

  • Yes when I saw Johnson on Stefan’s show I immediately related to how clandestine information starts to flow your way once people trust you.

    Once my activist group started to become known in the mid 90’s I was sent all kinds to whistle blower stuff. It took a lot of my time to research and interesting how much was dead on accurate. I even had people inside the government who would give me inside information on causes I was spearheading.

    That was when I ran smack into how corrupt the government was getting. I was absolutely stunned.

    So much for mom, America and apple pie. 🙂

  • just about anything, from music, to paintings, to guns, can just be scanned and replicated.

    Sounds like we are headed into an even more fake world 🙁

    I would hate to think the lampwork beads that take me hours to create can be cloned … that would be a bummer 😉

    • Now that is fantastic. I don’t think a printer is replicating that any time soon. I think it could be done, but some things are just too hard to mass produce without cheapening them.

      I did a lot of stained glass work in my youth, but haven’t done any lampworking.
      http://www.theallegator.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/OWL.jpg

      • Thank you 😉

        I did stain glass when I was young too. Many of the doors in my home are pocket doors with stain glass insets in them. After the fact it was not my very best idea because the lead and glass make the panels very heavy. I was lucky to have a good cabinet maker build the frames for me but even so they are hard on the track hardware. Heaven forbid should they no longer be level.

        When I went to lampwork I became an instant addict. There is something about working with red hot glass that has a mind of its own. That particular bead is close to 2″ across.

        Every once in a while I create something that I really love.

        This large (9″ across) free form flower neck piece is one of those:
        http://founders-party.com/flower-lampwork-necklace.jpg

        Not all beads are small and round 😉

        • Wow! That is exquisite, CT! You two are sure talented. The closest I have ever come to attempting art is wordsmithing. 😀 â—„Daveâ–º

        • Chris says:

          Welcome to my world Dave. The closest thing I come to any art is a freakish understanding of things mechanical. When it comes to creating things that appeal to the senses I fail miserably. A tin ear and no eye what so ever for any kind of art. Even in things like home decor I have learned to default to a better opinion which can come from anybody. I have often envied those with a creative eye like CT and Steel. Always wished to be musically inclined as well but as hard as I tried I just never really got it. Good thing we all have the ability to work with what we got.

  • Thank you Dave and Chris … indeed we are all individually blessed snowflakes. Where would we all be without the wordsmith (historians) and those with the technical skill to create, build and use a mechanical plan?

    Who can not admire the story and life of Temple Grandin?
    https://youtu.be/cpkN0JdXRpM
    What an amazing woman!

    Art keeps me sane in this Political world of madness we experience daily … lol
    Creating something even if it is a dozen jars of canned chicken gives me something to look at tangible for my hours spend.

    Speaking of plans my brother sent me plans for a “tesla generator” to power my house. He understands electricity I DO NOT! He said it should work … he has solar I DO NOT! So he wants me to build it and see how it works. Too hot here to get out and make this thing right now. Easy with simple copper wire, electrical conduit etc. Maybe under $50 in material. Certainly worth a try since my electric bill is pushing $400 in a month this summer.

    Anyone else here interested or tried this yet?

    I did one of these “tesla generators” a few years back. It was tiny (mounted on a 3″ by 4″ circuit board) but it did power my electric toothbrush … LOL

    I have to say working with converters, batteries and electrical currant is clearly above my mechanical pay grade … but my brother insists it is not likely I will permanently frizz my hair.

    I keep reminding him he is talking to the sister who stuck her finger in the open light socket hanging in the chicken coop as a kid. Lucky it knocked me off the step stool I climbed on to reach it.

    Things you never tell your mom or in this case grandma … LOL

    Not sure if that enhanced my mental ability or knocked out half of it early on. 🙂

    • Chris says:

      Not sure if that enhanced my mental ability or knocked out half of it early on.

      Hehe who hasn’t done something like that. I wouldn’t worry about any ill effects to your obviously in tact grey matter CT. Thing about electricity is that all it seeks is ground. It always takes the shortest and easiest route there. Therefore when sticking your finger in a socket the route taken is through your arm, down your body, and out your feet. That leaves everything above your shoulder with the only effect of saying ouch I won’t do that again.

      Ok funny story time. In a past life I was an auto and truck mechanic. I was famous for being able to hold the end of a spark plug wire of a running engine. I used to do it then bet anybody they couldn’t. I always won. What they failed to notice was that whenever I did it I was careful to make sure no part of my body was touching the vehicle with one exception. The wrist of the hand that was holding the wire was always resting on a metal part in the engine compartment. What this did was cause the current to pass only through my fingers and hand and ground at my wrist. No big deal. Could hardly feel it. Then they would grab the wire and take the full jolt through their whole body and drop the wire. They never did figure it out. One guy was able to do it but I think he peed himself a little when he did. It was worth the loss just watching him. Odd the things that amuse when your young.

      I have done some cursory research on the Tesla coil. From what I can gather he was on to something. Thing is there has been a lot of research since then and if it were viable it would be more common. I think there has been success on the very low voltage level but it doesn’t scale up. Certainly not enough to run a house. That said I don’t by any means mean to discourage your experimentation. Like I said, he was on to something. Maybe that right combination just hasn’t been found.

      • I am skeptical Chris but am bent on giving it a try anyway … it would make me happy to give Edison the middle finger just for drill.

        I will try this out when it cools off. It is far too hot right now to be working out in the hot sun trying to make this thing. It will be about 10 feet of copper coil suspended on poles 60 inches above ground.
        There are 3 grounds pounded into the ground about 24 inches under it. My brother says it should work but how much energy will it generate is the question … lol

        He said if I build 2 coils then theoretically I would have 220 … lol
        If that is the case I could run my big kiln for free …. YESSSS!!

        We will see … lol

        • Chris says:

          Running a kiln is quite ambitious an endeavor.When dealing with electric voltage is only part of the math. Think about amperage as the push that gets the job done. I look forward to hearing about your results. If it’s good send me those plans. I’ll be building one tomorrow.

          BTW if that coil is generating enough at 220 volts to fire your kiln I wouldn’t want to get too close to it. Be careful.

        • I will be careful Chris.

          It all does sound to good to be true. I guess I am the test subject for this family. My brother who is the most competent for this task says I have the perfect setup and he does not. The generator is less than 5 feet from my breaker box. His is about 20 and he already has solar so not so motivated.

          My motivation is a $400 a month summer power bill and rising. The triple digit heat is my block for a job less than perhaps 5 hours. Maybe I should just drag all this stuff into my den and put it together in the cool of the air conditioning … LOL

          I am soooo out of my element in this project … LOL … but if it works you can certainly have the plans.

    • I had never heard of Temple Grandin. Now I am going to have to look into her life and works. â—„Daveâ–º

      • Temple Grandin is probably one of the most inspiring stories I have ever heard about.

        When you look at what some have had to overcome it certainly puts into perspective the trivia I have had to face.

  • Chris says:

    I don’t know how this thread got so far off topic but it’s nice. Three months to go and I’m so over it it’s making me sick.

    • Don’t worry about the original topic, Chris. Shocking memories will do, if it keeps a conversation going. 😀

      My dad was an electrician, and he taught me not to fear it at an early age. I remember in the 5th grade, getting the kids to pay me a dime to watch me die, by sticking a paperclip into an electric socket at school. Of course, the wider slot is the neutral wire, which is already grounded, and has no potential. Even if it had been wired backwards, with wooden floors I still wouldn’t have felt anything by only touching one wire.

      I remember one incident when I was in the 8th grade, and living on Grand Island, NY (in the middle of the Niagara River, just before it went over the Falls). We had an intricately sculpted aluminum screen/storm door, which a new puppy was ruining by scratching it, whenever it wanted back in the house. My dad wired it to 110v, and wet down the concreate entry porch. This soon taught the poor little guy not to scratch on the door; but before it did Dad got me good too.

      Wearing rubber soled sneakers, I could go in and out all day without feeling a thing. There was an articulating sprinkler watering the front lawn. As I was coming in, and had the door half open, Dad called out asking me to turn off the sprinkler. Sure… I reached down and grabbed the faucet. Boom! It knocked me head over heels, out in the middle of the yard, where the still operating sprinkler soaked me. Of course, my dad was laughing his butt off; but I didn’t find it at all funny. 😉

      I still will stick my finger in a light socket to see if the circuit is working. The body’s reaction to electricity is to contract muscles. This naturally pulls one’s arm away from the socket, and the little shock is brief. It answers the question immediately, and saves time fussing around. Of course, one needs to be sure that the elbow is in the clear, so it doesn’t strike something, and hurt itself. Most injuries from electricity, are incidental to a relatively harmless shock. 🙂

      My trick with spark plug wires, was to balance on a rubber fender protector, with my feet off the floor and touching no metal. I felt nothing, because there was no path to ground. Then, I would ask someone to hand me a wrench. When he did, he provided the ground path and felt the shock, not me. 😀

      My first entrepreneurial business, after dropping out of my corporate EE/computer career back in ’73, was as an electrical contractor (oddly enough, in Fresno, CT). When one has dry calloused hands, one can lightly touch a hot circuit and just feel a light tingle. I used that technique almost daily, to avoid having to go back to the truck for a voltmeter. Checking for 220v this way is obvious, since it stings instead of just tingling.

      FWIW, I think it would be easier, cheaper, and far more effective, to just by-pass the electric meter, than try to capture enough electricity to run a home out of the ether. 😉 â—„Daveâ–º

      • Chris says:

        Ok now you got me rolling on the floor laughing. Your screen door story reminded me of a time I convinced my ex she was absolutely insane. She told me that the screen door was giving her a shock. I told her she was nuts. I never felt it and how the heck could it be? Well it took me a while to figure it out but here’s the deal. First off I ALWAYS wear shoes. She was in the habit of walking bare foot unless she was going somewhere so if she went outside to just get the mail or do something outside without going somewhere she would get the shock. She never made the connection between shoes and no shoes so the shocks seemed random to her. She was afraid to go out the door because she never knew if she would get a shock. Well once I figured that out I had to find out why. The house had received a new aluminum siding treatment a year earlier. I remembered there used to be a light that was positioned next to the door that was no longer there. They had removed the light and covered over the electrical box. I also recalled that the light had a switch just inside the door. Time to experiment. The switch was in the on position. I shut it off and waited to see the results. Sure enough the shocks stopped. Now it was game on. I had control. It took me darn near three years to get around to removing the siding and properly capping off the box. For three years whenever I was displeased I had the pleasure of hearing her yell obscenities over a figment of her imagination.

        • lol… You sound as sadistic as my father was, Chris. Your damsel needed rescuing. 😉

          Speaking of enjoying the pleasure of hearing yelps of pain… As far as I know, there weren’t any leash laws back then, and neighborhood dogs roamed at will. Dad used the same technique to train them not to ‘mark’ his bushes. â—„Daveâ–º

        • Chris says:

          Sadistic? Maybe. 🙂 Hey if I were perfect my name would end with a T. I think of it more as being appreciative of what little pleasures life has to offer.

  • Oh my goodness you guys have provided me some good laughs today.

    Well Dave Fresno inspired odd young people behavior in them ole days 😉

    What fun to be jogged down memory lane where life was not nearly so chaotic.

    The hot wire stuff reminds me of the kids (boys) back on the farm deciding to pee simultaneously on the hot wire that surrounded the cow pasture. My brother and cousin were both game. Back then we girls just thought it was drop dead funny. Mind you it was a one try experience. Who actually is not well known … the object was to see who was more accurate. My brother had his hand on Tommy’s shoulder to steady himself and you can guess the rest.

    We girls (4 of us) were sent into reels of laughter for days to come. Again parents never got told … lol

    As age and sanity set in I look back at those growing up trials and the behaviorist in me causes me to wonder why those vie for the Darwin Award.

    I have decided it is like a mass hypnosis of being revved on by a crowd no matter the size. LOL

    I experienced that first hand when I found myself at a group session led by a Yoga master teaching the group how to steel your body using only your mind and focus. At the end of this little session they had prepared a giant flat of hot coals. They spread this pile into about 8 feet wide by 12 feet long.

    All participants were INVITED to have a go at steeling your mind to walk over them. We were assured we would not be burned.

    OH YAH RIGHT! … was my thought then NOT ME DUDE!

    My cousin Lorna was the one who dragged us all to this function. Me, my brother and her brother David. The boys were definite NOT ME. My firefighter cousin David said NO WAY those coals will be over 2,000 degrees.

    Lorna was game and talked me into just standing in line until it was her turn. OKAY BUT NO FIRE WALK! for me.

    So here we were in a line of about 50 participants everyone game except for me, a guy in a wheel chair and my brother and firefighter David. The sane ones of the bunch.

    Lorna and I were at the end of the line pretty much. The routine was one of the helpers was at the front of the line … he handed the victim off and they walked across the bed and another helper took their arm at the end and stepped the person into a wet sloppy mud pit a few feet away.

    It appeared all were indeed fire resistant. No one was leaping around on that bed of coals like cats on a hot tin roof at least.

    Finally it was Lorna’s turn and I had been a great supporter … she did not chicken out. Then before I knew it the helper grabbed me by my hand and gave me a little shove and there I was treading quickly across those coals too. At the end the guy grabbed my hand and led me to the mud pit. I will never forget what he said to me. “DO YOU REALIZE THE SIGNIFICANCE OF WHAT YOU JUST DID?” my answer was “YES never be stupid enough to do this again!”

    I must have been the only one NOT MENTALLY FIT … because I got one tiny burn where a hot coal stuck between my little toe and foot. About the size of a tiny pea. I was shocked it was not really bad. Lorna? Not one burn. NONE, NADA!
    The rest of the group? NONE, NADA! that they fessed up to at least.

    From that point on we teased our brothers that they were the wimps and WE WERE THE FAMILY FIRE-WALKERS.

    It was much later when I realized what the helper asked me as he took my hand. That incident certainly did shore up my ability to stand strong when challenges were sent my way. After all if I could walk through fire I could do most things … lol

    How many times since have I said to myself I AM A FIRE-WALKER before a challenge 😉

    And I do have a VHS tape of the 2 of us walking through that bed of hot coals for proof … LOL

    Oh my it is a wonder any of us survived childhood with all of the antics we pulled on one another.

    After-all there was no TV back then.

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