My neighbors

[SeaCat]

My neighbors always seem to find new ways in which to surprise me.

One old guy up the street from me came over this morning to have me check out his attempt to combat the cold. Curious I walked over to his place and just about shit myself.

This guy, a retired Pediatrician, had picked up at a local store several Propane Camp Stoves. He had created covers for the stoves then rigged a hose with multiple Connectors.

He had placed these home made heaters in different rooms of his trailer and rigged the hose from a single 20 pound gas bottle to them.

I very politely asked him if he was related to Dr. Kevorkian and he looked at me as though he didn't understand. I then explained to him that while his set up was fairly interesting it would be fatal because of a little thing called Carbon Monoxide.

I now have five Camp Stoves in the back room as well as another 20 pound Propane Tank in my shed. (I can use the burners from the camp stoves.)

Oh I did send him to a local store I know that has good electric heaters. (Probably the only store in the county that has heaters right now.)

Cat

 

[Lisa Summers]

The man was a pediatrician? And went to school for his degrees?

It's too bad common sense isn't taught at schools...or homes, for that matter.

 

[jomar]

Just because your smart in one area...

They say that Henry Kissinger spend so much time in the back of limos doing work he couldn't tell you how to get home from the office.

 

[TE999]

It isn't winter in this neck of the woods without at least a dozen house fires and/or CO poisonings/suffocation's. Last winter a young couple in town were living in the back of their market in a storeroom. It became cold, they fired up a kerosene stove, closed everything and went to sleep. They never woke up. When the store didn't open the next day somebody called the cops. They broke in and found 'em. Sad.

 

[SeaCat]

The man was a pediatrician? And went to school for his degrees?

It's too bad common sense isn't taught at schools...or homes, for that matter.

Believe me it doesn't surprise me in the least. Sometimes the smartest people are also the dumbest in given situations. (I got my ass chewed because I posted about this here.) Common sense is not common.

A friend of my fathers was an Electrical Engineer. He pulled into the gas station I was working at with his car overheating. He pulled behind the shack and grabbed the hose to cool down the radiator. He then decided that if hosing down the radiator would help cool the engine on his nice new Jag then hosing down the engine with the ice cold water would cool it down even more.

I learned this when I heard a loud crack behind the shack. When I came out I saw him standing in front of his car with the hood open and oil pouring out from beneath the car. He had cracked the block.

He may have been one of the smartest Electrical Engineers in New England at the time but he had absolutely no clue when it came to mechanical engineering and the effects of cold and heat on large objects.

Cat

 

[Misty_Morning]

Sounds like total BS to me.

 

[Handley_Page]

We get them over here, too.
All too often!

 

[voluptuary_manque]

We are all subject to occasional outbreaks of DUMB. Dumb isn't a condition, it's a choice, usually based on not paying attention to what you're doing. Unfortunately, sometimes DUMB=dead!

 

[sutherngent985]

When I was in college for electronics, the dept head was this really smart (Phd in electronics from MIT), cool guy. Great teacher. But....

One time hes putting up a TV antenna on his roof (yea, long before cable). Damn thing wouldnt receive a good signal from any station he tuned to. He worked on it for a couple of days...no dice. Finally, his wife calls the TV guy. He gets there and she explains what was wrong. He went up on the roof and started laughing to beat the band. Turns out, my teacher had the thing turned the wrong way.

 

[rgraham666]

Good on you, Cat.

 

[Stella_Omega]

Believe me it doesn't surprise me in the least. Sometimes the smartest people are also the dumbest in given situations. (I got my ass chewed because I posted about this here.)

I remember-- that was a case in point. As smart as you are, you miscommunicated. You titled your post, and wrote your question in an ambiguous way that sounded like you were inviting attacks on education...

So yeah, good example.

 

[SeaCat]

Sounds like total BS to me.

Oh? And what would happen to sound like B.S. to you? Have you never seen a smart person do something stupid?

I have watched Fire Science Instructors as well as life long Fire Fighters light their grills with Gasoline. (Now that must taste good.) Or add a bit of lighter fluid to a Charcoal Grill that wasn't going to their needs.

I have seen the results after a Chemistry Professor found he didn't have enough Chlorine for his swimming pool and decided that was a good time to clean out his shed of all the remnants of different kinds of Chlorinating Agents.

Cat

 

[TE999]

I have seen the results after a Chemistry Professor found he didn't have enough Chlorine for his swimming pool and decided that was a good time to clean out his shed of all the remnants of different kinds of Chlorinating Agents.

Cat

Did his epidermis ever grow back?

Book learning and common sense are mutually exclusive.

I worked in an office full of mechanical engineers once. A bird flew in through an open door one Spring and into the office. The engineers tried to catch it with all sorts of improvised snares and traps as it flew frantically about all day shitting on everything. The cleaning crew arrived after 5:00, one of them opened a window and the bird flew out.

 

[SeaCat]

Did his epidermis ever grow back?

Book learning and common sense are mutually exclusive.

I worked in an office full of mechanical engineers once. A bird flew in through an open door one Spring and into the office. The engineers tried to catch it with all sorts of improvised snares and traps as it flew frantically about all day shitting on everything. The cleaning crew arrived after 5:00, one of them opened a window and the bird flew out.

ACtually he was lucky. He added the Chlorinators and closed the pump. He quickly noticed the pump getting hot and called the local Fire Department. The first on scene engine recognized what the problem was and was able to dump the entire pump into the pool. (Thankfully it was one of the old above ground pumps.) I was in the third on scene engine and had the fun of doing air monitoring for Chlorine Gas.

It's not just Book Learning, Common Sense is just not that common. I think we just notice it more when the smarter ones among us do something stupid. (And maybe we just enjoy pointing it out more too?)

Cat

 

[TE999]

ACtually he was lucky. He added the Chlorinators and closed the pump. He quickly noticed the pump getting hot and called the local Fire Department. The first on scene engine recognized what the problem was and was able to dump the entire pump into the pool. (Thankfully it was one of the old above ground pumps.) I was in the third on scene engine and had the fun of doing air monitoring for Chlorine Gas.

It's not just Book Learning, Common Sense is just not that common. I think we just notice it more when the smarter ones among us do something stupid. (And maybe we just enjoy pointing it out more too?)

Cat

He was lucky! That pump must not have been bolted down very well or somebody was awful quick with a wrench.

My pool supply guy told me to watch out accidentally combining chlorine and muriatic acid as it makes phosogene gas...that stuff eats out your lungs...it was used in WW I trench warfare by the Germans to devastating effect.

 

[Stella_Omega]

It's not just Book Learning, Common Sense is just not that common. I think we just notice it more when the smarter ones among us do something stupid. (And maybe we just enjoy pointing it out more too?)

Cat

Wonder why?

 

[SeaCat]

I remember-- that was a case in point. As smart as you are, you miscommunicated. You titled your post, and wrote your question in an ambiguous way that sounded like you were inviting attacks on education...

So yeah, good example.

Yes it is isn't it?

Cat

 

[Stella_Omega]

So, why do we enjoy poking fun at educated folk's mishaps, do you think?

Why do we take such pleasure in pointing out how educated they are, and how uncommon common sense is (present company always excluded of course)?

 

[oggbashan]

I had trouble with my modem. Whenever it stopped working I wanted to switch it off and then on again.

I couldn't see any switch so I was pulling the power lead out to turn it off.

My wife suggested that I should look at the back of the modem.

There it was. A clearly labelled On/Off switch.

I've told this story before:

In the early 1960s I was the Manager of an IBM mainframe system. The manual said that in the event of fire the duty manager (there was only me!) had to grasp the red handle on the CPU firmly and pull hard. I knew that the handle was connected to the main busbar and would rip all the wiring apart.

In the next office someone going to lunch had discarded their ashtray into a wicker wastepaper basket which had paper in it. Minutes later the smouldering mess burst into flame, set fire to the cardboard stored near the desk, then some plastic file covers and produced a large amount of smoke.

That office was evacuated, the fire alarm was sounded, and I instructed my staff to leave. They did.

I stood in the thickening smoke with my hand on the red handle waiting until the last possible moment before pulling. I knew that if I pulled that handle the computer would have to be completely rebuilt by IBM with a 3 months lead-time; the nearest alternative system was 120 miles away and heavily used and any new machine would have to come from the US by sea.

My friend who was the office manager for the office on fire returned from another building, saw the smoke and fire, grabbed a fire extinguisher and put the flames out, five minutes before the works fire unit arrived.

He then walked into the computer unit.

"What are you doing?" he asked.

"I was waiting until the last possible moment before pulling the fire handle and wrecking the system," I said.

"Why didn't you just turn it off at the mains?" He asked.

Doh!

The IBM manual was changed and the Red Handle of Death removed.

Og

PS. We were both interviewed by our managers. We were both commended but...

They sent us on a fire-fighting course. He had used a water-acid extinguisher close to live electrical equipment; I hadn't followed procedures (even though my delay had saved very expensive equipment). The week long fire-fighting course included fighting aviation fires in full Nuclear and Biological suits; fighting fire underwater in submarines; and other unpleasant scenarios.

 

[SeaCat]

So, why do we enjoy poking fun at educated folk's mishaps, do you think?

Why do we take such pleasure in pointing out how educated they are, and how uncommon common sense is (present company always excluded of course)?

Good questions of course.

First lets define just what Common Sense is. In my most humble opinion Common sense is the knowledge we have learned over time that allows us to go through life without doing something stupid. This knowledge can either be learned directly, (You only piss on a hot electric fence once to learn not to do so,) or through the knowledge passed down by others. (You know David down the street? You know how he lost those fingers? He tried to stop a spinning saw blade. You want to end up like him go ahead and try to stop a saw balde with your hand.) Again this is just my opnion.

As for why we take pleasure in pointing out when someone does something stupid, well this in my opinion can fall into a couple of catagories.

In the first it's the Dumb Fuck down the street. (We all have them in our neighborhood.) We watch them do stupid things and chuckle to ourselves because we feel that we are above them. We are smarter, stronger etc. than them. (You hear what Billy down the street did? That dumb fuck kept popping his fuses so he put in a penny instead. Damn near burned down his house. Even my kids are smart enough to know you don't put a penny in the fuse holder.)

In the second it's the normal guy or gal. We see them do something that goes against our version of common sense and have to laugh because we also see ourselves doing something just as stupid. It also makes us feel slightly better than them. (You hear about Jane? She was trying to get something out of a cabinet and couldn't reach it. She climbed up on a chair and it tipped over on her. I almost did that a while back but I had the common sense to get the step stool.

In the third and last it's because of the perception we have of those with higher education. (A perception we have been taught as we grew up.) They are the best in class. They have the most brains, the most education and the most learning. They are the ones who are at the top of the heap. (A very few of them will make sure to point this out to us.) They are the leaders in our society. They are above us and they can do no wrong. Because of this when they do something we consider to be stupid we feel vindicated. They are brought down to the level of the common man for at least that moment in time. How often have we heard about someone with a higher education doing something and the comment is made, "They should have known better"?

Again this is all my own opinion.

As for me, well I do have a higher education and yet I somehow still manage to do stupid things. I also point out when people of all classes do stupid things. Sometimes I'll point out a persons higher education just to make the point a bit more poignant.

In the original post of this thread I pointed out that the person making the heating system was a retired Pediatrician. Here was a person who has dealt with the many and varied dangers faced by children. He has no doubt seen children killed by any number of things including Carbon Monoxide Poisoning. He has also no doubt heard of deaths and injuries caused by Carbon Monoxide Poisoning as it is not uncommon down here on a yearly basis. He is a very intelligent man and one I enjoy talking with yet somehow in his need or haste to provide heat and comfort for himself and his wife he overlooked something that to someone like me is common sense. I found it amusing just as I found it somewhat educational.

Cat

 

[stephen55]

The intelligence of Einstein

This is one of my favorite stories about Albert Einstein and yes, it is likely apocryphal.

During his early days at Princeton's Institute for Advanced Studies, he lived in a house heated by a coal burning furnace. One fall day the local coal company phoned to ask how much coal he wanted delivered for the coming winter. Einstein didn't have a clue and said he would call back. Then he proceeded to calculate the amount of coal by figuring out how much heat was released by a kilogram of coal, estimating the thermal efficiency of the furnace, inside surface area of his house, insulation factors, heat transfer co-efficients, average climate during the winter, etc.

Mrs. Einstein came home and Albert explained what he was doing. Mrs. Einstein picked up the phone and called the coal company.

"Hello, this is Mrs. Einstein, wife of the world's greatest physicist. My neighbor thinks we are in for a cold winter, so send over about one and a half times what you delivered last year."

 

[SeaCat]

Last night a younger gent I know had a minor problem with his dehumidifier.

Somehow, probably from vibration, the two screws holding the control panel to the top section backed out and the control panel fell into the case and was hanging by the wires.

Well he decided that because the machine wasn't running he didn't need to go to the trouble of disconnecting the machine from the power supply before pulling the control panel back out of the machine. Instead he reached in and gingerly grabbed the main switch with two fingers.

Unfortunately this left his other fingers hanging out in the air. Also unfortunately just as he grabbed the switch the machine turned on. Of course the first thing that happens when the dehumidifier turns on is a good sized high speed fan turns on.

By the time this young gent had enough time to react three fan blades moving at an impressive speed had impacted the end/tip of his ring finger leaving three short but nicely deep slashes in his finger tip. (One went down to the bone.)

The cuts were of course cleaned out with copious amounts of running water and Hydrogen Peroxide before being cleaned out even more with rubbing alcohol. They were then treated with large amounts of topical Anti-Biotics then Steri Stripped closed before being dressed. (Yes he should have gone for a couple of stitches but he refused.) His language as the cuts were cleaned out was impressive to say the least.

Oh and the person who did this painfully educational yet more than slightly amusing Oops was none other than myself. (Yes I should have known better and yes I can laugh at myself even when I do something stupid.)

Cat

 

[kodos9000]

We are all subject to occasional outbreaks of DUMB. Dumb isn't a condition, it's a choice, usually based on not paying attention to what you're doing. Unfortunately, sometimes DUMB=dead!

It's this reason alone that made possible the Darwin awards. I love the books.
Although I have to say it's damn frightning, some of the conclusions people come to when trying to over come problems.

I'll admit I've needed a slap from the stupid stick once or twice.

 

[MagicaPractica]

Believe me it doesn't surprise me in the least. Sometimes the smartest people are also the dumbest in given situations. (I got my ass chewed because I posted about this here.) Common sense is not common.

Amen. Had a college roommate who was a straight A pre-med student who did some of the stupidest things I ever saw. On one occasion I had to take her to the hospital, she wasn't going to go. She ended up with some skin grafts.

 

[unregistered]