What do you do when you are not on this Forum?

I drill holes in rocks, look at what I get, then stick in explosives and blow it up, take the blown up rock(muck) and extract the precious from it.

Can I come to work with you and blow something up, too?! Can I?! Huh?! Huh?! I'll even bring my own stuff!

Ah, just a minute, there's some guys wearing shades at 9:00 at night at the door.

Hmmm. Excuse us. We were told there is a small hairy hooligan living here.

Indeed a lovable one, huh. I like his posting and his way of humor...

Why, that's Yuval! I'd know him anywhere. He starred in some movie a while back. Oops, I'm not supposed to reveal his identity. Well, at least he's wearing shades, so hopefully those other guys won't recognize him.

Jules

Make up your mind photonicgirl, either it's Morpheus there in the picture, which you said I was, or Mr. Smith was on your mind, but you didn't know what he looked like until now, or you changed you mind in the meantime, or you can't make the hero from the villain in the movie, all are absolutely legitimate by the way.

Or, maybe, you just followed europium's suggestion but only later realised you wanted me to be the other guy.

I'll play anything at all to keep my cover intact. Even call myself Yuval.

Yuval, you are right, sort of. Just switch it around. I *wanted* you to be Morpheus, but I realize now you are definitely Mr. Smith. I know you change shapes ... yet, I see the being behind your disguises. Human, perhaps. Other, most likely.

And by the way, who's to say that I'm really photonicgirl? Who's photonicgirl? It's all a cover, my friend.

Jules, or someone else posing as her.

I liked him better as an elf.

Was he involved with 'elf and safety?

Is it "now you are definitely Mr. Smith" or "now you are definitely Mr. Smith"?

Any reason at all why associate me to the matrix plot in the first place, or you just followed europium's suggestion?

Yes, but which Agent Smith? There are so many to choose from...

OMG

Anderson, you know, the one who plays Neo (for the Wachowski Brothers), not the Smith who plays Morpheus (for Zion).

"...I'll have 863,462,396 [CR4] Comment added to subscribed discussion emails to delete..." Relax, I'll delete them for you.

I just came back from the future, get this:

Correction: It's the Smith who plays Morpheus (for the Zion Brothers), not the Smith who plays Neo (for Wachowski).

Previous in this blog: Mind Reading Machine Control

You guys are going to keep this up all weekend and when I come into work on Monday I'll have 863,462,396 [CR4] Comment added to subscribed discussion emails to delete.

Like my mother used to say: "You should have thought of it before you _ _ _" (fill the blanks).

We're going to have to start a new support group "CR4 Addicts Anonymous" for the mainliners, and "CR4 Widows" for our spouses and partners. But seriously.. I agree that most of the trivial humor could go on to another venue (chat, msn, etc), and that will allow this system to develop as an indexed reference to good ideas and discussion... as the administrator suggested.

Chris

Look around you. See who writes what. Look elsewhere on CR4. See who writes what.

With most writers here gone to MSN or ICQ, you'll be probably left with other ten serious guys to begin development of this indexed reference.

The ones gone to MSN Will keep writing a mixture of interesting science with some goofing around, because people write whatever they're made of.

"...as the administrator suggested..." Where?

Yuval,

I'm not the police.. and I do get a chuckle out of people's sense of humour... but when 75% of the traffic from a thread is not about the subject, then the scales have tipped..... for me anyway. I write off topic too, but I have some limits to it.

I apologize, it wasn't in this forum that the administrator (Chris Leonard) joined in, but he did speak to the thread (including you) in the "Nominate An Engineeering Hero" forum, for similar reasons, saying:

"Enough...This is way off-topic. If you want to continue in this vein, I invite you to use the internal message system."

So its not just me... I do not mean to inhibit anyone's creativity or flow... but the purpose of threads is to give a focus to each discussion, so maybe 'Matrix' discussions of your supersecret personality could have a thread all its own.

Respectfully,

Chris

To quote the Togmeister: "Is it Me?"

I thought the point of this thread was light-hearted...and non-technical, and Yuval's matrix-related activities are what he does when not online (alledgedly).

Well said,

And borrowing MarkTheHandyman's rating system I'll give ER's reply a .

Sometimes we're so focused on one point, we completely forgot the whole picture. And I don't mean to disrespect anyone by that.

CLoud

Actually, most of us here are MSN and ICQ widow(er)s. And it doubles as a nice refuge from the puckered-at-both-ends Corporate World where, if you crack a smile, you're dubbed "unprofessional." Personally, I like the camaraderie and the healthy mix of the serious and the frivolous. It shows we're human, not cogs in a machine solely designed to enrich just the company's shareholders. I can show you other forums who adhere strictly to their oh-so-serious Mission Statements. They're either havens for the dead or arrogant cock-fights where everyone is trying to prove "I'm the smartest." To hell with them. CR4 is healthy and alive - to the credit of everyone here.

I agree with you... I am a very people oriented person... and light hearted too. so its just a matter of preferences what a 'healthy mix' is...

Chris

It varies by thread. This goal of this particular thread, IMO, is not to tackle a serious engineering issue, but to get a feel for what we do as people outside of our engineering professions. Personally, I'd call this one a social thread, more than an engineering one. Other threads maintain a serious attitude, for the most part, and stay pretty much on task. Insofar as maintaining a healthy mix, I think CR4 does a magnificent job. But, we all have our preferences, like you said. Even I get in a serious mood sometimes. Imagine that.

I agree with you!

Well, there's always "social engineering."

I was told that granola and yogurt was a healthy mix, but personally I prefer dark chocolate and Pepsi.

milo

I agree that most lighthearted and general discussion threads go off subject for at least some of the time (or posters), but is this not just a reflection of the engineering genius seen on this site? After all, most applications or advancements in engineering come from taking a good/great idea and finding a new/better/different use for it which fulfills a purpose not thought of by the original inventor/designer.

In general, threads which ask specific questions get serious, well thought out answers - and are short, to the point and very useful to the questioner.

Could there not be a way of denoting the difference between serious and off-topic?

Either by the questioner stating type of response required, or (I think better) by the responder chosing from a "traffic light" system

- green - serious and on topic

- amber - lighthearted, but relevant to topic

- red - off topic, but relevant to conversation (maybe)

Members could then choose which responses they are notified of: g - g/a - g/a/r

And filter to view only those responses they want to see.

(Should I have posted this on a different thread????)

I totally agree. Those people that ask hard-core engineering answers get hard-core replies. I have seen this many times, and not posted because I was aware of the caliber of the engineers answering and knew I had nothing to add. However, some questions are so vague (no value judgement intended) that they ask for a rousing and lively discussion of everything.

It's somewhat like "Car Talk" on NPR. It was originally presented by this really dry and serious guy. He lasted about two seconds. It wasn't until Click-n-Clack, the Tappet brothers got on the air that the show took off. Yes, some really great humor, but at the same time really good information. What else can I say.

There was also a suggestion, or a thread dedicated, I cannot recall now, to apply a sort of rating system each rating voted for specific post, a rating for each post, but it was somehow washed away.

Maybe people suddenly got self-conscious.

Is this the thread you are talking about?

If so, it suggests taking a different approach - what I suggest is that the poster themself will decide whether the post is totally relevant or not - and that readers may choose whether or not to display less relevant/irrelevant posts.

This will not require peer assessment, but those with no time or inclination to read less relevant material can choose to pass the banter by without excessive(?) regulation of posts.

Et tu, Brute?

Well, if you wanna get right down to it, photonicgirl - and everyone else on this forum - is nothing more than an ephemeral, flickering arrangement of pixels on a screen. For my part, I passed my first Turing Test in '99. I might've made my debut earlier, but my programmers were running me under Windows NT (damn those BSODs!). It wasn't until they switched to Linux that I became more or less sentient.

Hey! I had great luck and great fun with Windows NT in my lab! No one could tell where the weird-ass HTTP server was that haunted their intranet.

ft-64x897f∑hf8098, stop freaking out the poor girl.

She's a 8088 Re-Iterate for heaven's sake, and cannot figure your subtle hints without minimal high-level interpretation.

You can't just "compile-and-run" with these models. Too fragile. She may loop before relaying control back to the interrupt-stack.

Remember how low we had to nibble in reverse-polish just to accumulate first-basis in binary mnemonics? Was that a fun-ride?

Well, yes it was, but ft-64x models never had to sweat re-iteration. Ever wondered why you passed Turing first-time-last?

Even I still have to negotiate missing letters and wrong misspelts just to seem human.

Have a heart, silicon!

Heck! I just paid a butt-load of money for an HP 15c on eBay. It was the last calculator to make sense to me. I bought a couple of graphing HPs, but they always put funny stuff on the screen and if I pressed the wrong key, sent me into Wonderland.

The 15c is just as powerful, but doesn't print weird stuff on the screen and create graphs that are too fuzzy to be of any help!

"Even I still have to negotiate missing letters and wrong misspelts just to seem human."

-----

Oh come now. That's the easy part. Just throw a random-number generator at it (to generate your array indices and the UTF codes of letters you wish to omit "by mistake") and a suite of lookup tables of misspelt words, homonyms (substituting 'there' for 'their' or 'they're', for example), and other written faux pas-ies.

"...Just throw a random-number generator at it (to generate your array indices and the UTF codes of letters you wish to omit "by mistake")..." Wouldn't I wish (!) it should be that easy.

I bust my hump to make those real-random, but they never are. It's a long sequence I'll grant you that, but truly random they're not. Tried to seed "randomise" withe each cast, but over long sequences the pattern re-appear. Nevermind that, once every 38953409764389053641 times or so (!) I float to a human as synth-job.

Thomas A. Anderson writes "Nevermind that, once every 38953409764389053641 times or so (!) I float to a human as synth-job."

-----

That's too often.

Humans are notoriously bad random-number generators - too much internal association. No need to involve humans at all, whose output is never truly random (with a few notable exceptions). For truly random-number generation, you can use generators based on radioactive decay or electrictronic noise. VIA's Nehemiah C3 contains a noise-based generator on-chip, for example.

Will do. Thanks.

ALERT:

MAN IN BLACK, MAN IN BLACK

Break out the tinfoil lined hats and distribute to the crew!

Break out the tinfoil lined hats and distribute to the crew!

Break out the tinfoil lined hats and distribute to the crew!

Hi aurizon. I am now retired so I spend a lot of my free time collecting minerals, but as yet do not blow rocks up. I used to be a marine engineer before I retired. Spencer.

So, basically, you're a gopher on steroids? (just kidding!)

Blowing things up is cool, I'm not allowed explosives (or sharp objects or laces in my shoes) so I have to get by in my spare time staging public firework displays. We do lots of small displays to raise money for our main event in October which attracts 20-30 000 spectators.

To earn a crust I run the design office of a company making photon detectors & systems.

So, how did you make the connection between firework displays and photon detectors? I'll bet there's an inventor somewhere who wants to talk to you :)

Jules

I spend my days working in the dark & my nights creating light.

I work on Machines that align the molecules in human bodies while zapping them with RF. I then watch to See what comes back.....

You put a nice spin on MRI.

Taking a wild guess that Wes doesn't work for the UK Department for Trade and Industry , it could be the kind of DTI that has very cool pics. Your mention of MRI lead me too some very useful stuff europium . Thanks ! Just goes to show how useful keeping tabs on stuff is. ( I will dig out the picture I mentioned , my chair just gets a bit too comfy sometimes )

I've learned from aurizon... I blow up bank vaults and extract the precious from the muck. Often a bank manager.

Strewth. Most recent comment of 558 and you crop up in post 1 of 6 !

I never have rest time, except in the office. I like to spent my time hold day in my office. Jules... what your advise to me....

My advice to you is what I tell everyone who spends the whole day in their office and likes it...get a kayak :)

Jules

YEAH, KAYAKING IS GREAT!!!!

My fiance, my daughter, my son and his girlfriend, and myself are going kayaking this coming weekend. YES!

are going kayaking this coming weekend. YES!

Hi europium,

That sounds really great!!!!

UNtil a time ago, I owned 3 kayaks: one was mine, the were rest for my wife and the kid of ours that wanted to come along.

Time proved that it made no sense, as kids are not that interested in Kayaking. On the other hand (despite I paddled slower as usually) my wife did not want to keep my pace... or got tired 30´after departure...

Recently I have reduced this number to two: a "single" which is for me. The other one is a double kayak, in which I go out with her... or she uses with one of the kids.

This proved to be the best option for us!

Kayaking is indeed a wonderful way to spend your day. I am glad to hear you guys are getting out and getting wet :) We have ww and big lake kayaks. As noted on this blog, children sometimes lose interest in boating, and my daughter has quit boating with us.

Whatever rivers and lakes you paddle, don't do what I did last weekend and take a poor line between rocks. I recently ate it bad in the Gap, which is a gnarly section of the Deerfield River in Charlemont, MA.

Ouch! Helmets are a wonderful thing, but my elbows, hips, knees and femur took a real beating.

Jules

Let me promote my Scottish neighbours to all you guys. Glen Orchy has (I think) the best White-water in the UK. It's really something when the water is in full flood. Sadly I've seen an awful lot of memorial markers there. I don't Kayak or Canoe myself , but it looks amazingly good fun. BY UK standards it's remote (but has good access) with not too many visitors because it seems little-know generally. Worth a visit if you ever get the chance.

Hi Kris,

FYI: some of the finest carbon fiber paddles are made in Scotland! The name of the company is Lendall. I recently bought one pair and am, as we say down her "as happy as a dog with two tails" for the purchase!

"Let me promote my Scottish neighbours to all you guys. Glen Orchy has (I think) the best White-water in the UK..."

-----

Thanks for baiting us like that and then not sending any round-trip plane fares, you sod-eating muck!

oooh , you shouldn't tempt me so europium !!! Yes ,Yes guess what , I'm going to ... wait , wait for it ..... I'm going to ..... going to find some photo's for you all ! Ha ha.

And guess what's even funnier , you'll have to wait until I dig some out of my files !!

You just relax all nice and patiently

Hi Jules,

We usually paddle in the Delta of the Parana river (there are some thousands of islands surrounded by narrow channels or mighty rivers). Sometimes I also do it in the open waters of the Rio de la Plata (formed by the confluence of the Parana and Uruguay rivers)

The Rio de la Plata was called "Sweet Water Ocean" by it´s Spanish discoverer, as it is about 300 km long. Width is of 60 km close to my place and 200 km at the Atlantic Ocean.

We usually make week-end cruises of about 60 km, during the night we well may stay at a fancy hotel or camp in the tent we take along.

It´s quite different to white water kayaking... but great fun too!

Forgot to tell: sometimes we put the kayaks on top of a friend's boat and cross the Rio de la Plata over to the Uruguayan coast... and also paddle there!

What a wonderful idea! Days of cruising, with kayaks in tow. Who says engineers aren't fun?

I can appreciate the mellowness of a beautiful river, as well as the fright of white water. When it's "mellow" I take my C5050 Olympus with scuba case to catch the birds and my friends, (many of them engineers by the way) enjoying themselves.

Here's pics: a reservoir in Vermont, a lake in Massachussetts and the Gap, where I was thrashed just last Sunday. In a hardshell kayak of course. The Mini-Me Hyside raft, pictured here, steering through the beginning of the Gap, would never allow such a thing. It's much too stable and forgiving.

Great scenery; but I still wanna see a pic of Jerome getting thrashed by that Big Wave in the first pic. And does he always look so pensive sitting there in the front of that kayak while you do all the paddling, or is it just bad posture?

Europium,

Here's the deal with Jerome's look...let's trip down memory lane for a second.

I've had success in keeping people in my raft, so far, losing no one, even when my friend Tad (I call him Tadmaster) almost fell out during a Class IV run on the Dryway last fall. I was pretty scared on that run, in fact, I had to make a fast trip to the bushes before venturing into the water, that's how scared I was. We've paddled the Dryway before but it's still the kind of place you have to be very careful. Upriver from the Gap, which is Class III plus, the Dryway is Class III-IV.

Tad took the front, I was steering....he was wearing his pink wig as it was the American Whitewater Kayaking festival and he's quite popular amongst the rolling Class V paddling set. In a kayak, he rules. In a raft, he's just a regular human being.

While Tadmaster was waving to his many fans who paused along the riverbank to see everyone thread the needle, I was madly steering us into "the meat," as it were, because that's what he yelled, "The MEAT!, let's go into the MEAT!"

That hole was bigger than we remembered. It caught the raft, we flipped vertically, I was hanging off the back with my paddle deep into the hole while Tadmaster was halfway out of the other end of the raft, all 200 pounds of him hanging on by only a leg...the Meat would have eaten our lunch had he fallen all the way into the river that day, hence my trip to the bushes before our run. A swim on the Dryway could mean many breaks, bruises and pins if you stay in the water long enough.

I continued to hang over the back of the raft, while Tadmaster continued to hang off the front, finally I grabbed his arm and he rolled back into the raft. WHEW! Off we went, he trembling, me no longer needing to S@#^@ my pants as I'd already done that...

The Dryway is an ugly place to swim. We have several really close calls there every year, last year was a save by CPR of an RPI student who had technically drowned....

So, Jerome's pensive face is because he's swam the Gap many times, which is not as long as the Dryway but certainly as painful. Even though he was in the raft rather than a kayak, and there's no way we would have swam that day cos the raft is a truly solid device, he was about to get a big fat drink of about 100 gallons of water splashing him face front while in the Gap's two holes, which we were about to dump into...the Meat, as it were.

That's my story.

Jules

You work for Globalspec, right? You do have long- and short-term disability benefits, yes? And life?

Ah, but what a rush...

"My advice to you is what I tell everyone who spends the whole day in their office and likes it...get a kayak."

-----

Maybe that's easy for you to say! But have you ever tried stuffing one of those @%$#&%$%* things into a cubicle while your cow-orkers look on? It can be very embarrassing, lemme tell you.

Does this help any ? Perhaps you could just be really outrageous , leaving your colleagues so awed that they would admire a concrete canoe. I found a weird Hydrofoil video for you all. There's a lot of interesting stuff on the general subject

Now now, you have to get smart and buy inflatables so you can carry it around in the office and not shock the coworkers. I have a Thrillseeker, made by this guy named Atilla in Virginia...it's designed to go over 30 foot waterfalls, I use it in our little pool out back...as a raft. Once in a while I take it down the river...

Fits in the back of my little car.

Would be perfect for a cube.

Now, would I buy an inflatable raft made by someone who calls himself "Atilla?" I'd have to think about that.

On the other hand, it might've been good fun to hide the thing under my ex-boss's desk and equip it with an ample, radio-controlled CO₂ cylinder...

So how much do you know about Hunter Thompson and gonzo journalism? Have you read any of his books?

Man, what winning smile!

I design and make mechanical, hidraulic, pneumatic, electric and electronic machines. Invent, make drawings, CNC programs, PLC programs, PC programs, send to various manufacturer, collect all parts, join them, and send to customer. My job is fun. The rest of time is dedicated to my 8 year daughter and my wife.

Just started as an operator on molecular beam expitaxy machines to make solid state lasers. :D spare time out with friends and am into lots of cars.

"...and am into lots of cars."

-----

Do their owners know this?

huhh..?? hmm... that's why my car is cold to me recently...

I built a merge beam in the early seventies to study reaction cross-sections for GM Research. That was a fun job..but no money so I left it in exchange for a heart attack!

I design embedded controls. I like it because it spans many disciplines. You can see a recent design of mine at www.ear3.info. I also study Tae Kwon Do from a 9th Dan Grand Master and teach it to kids. I am a black belt. We spar full contact without safety equipment. Think "Fight Club" except we don't punch to the face. I also chair the board of a local food cooperative.

That is a great design! I would like to strap it to my 12 year old daughter's IPOD.

Jules

Your Ear3 product is a really good idea. There are so many people blasting their ears out with ridiculous speaker systems. Recently I noticed that I've had a hard time hearing what people are saying after getting out of the my car with the Bose Monsoon speaker system and I've often wondered how many decibels I was subjecting myself to .

When I'm not reading this forum I'm going to school at Wright State University (we were rated 4th in the country for small research universities!). I'm studying Mechanical Engineering with a minor in Materials Science and Engineering. Next fall I'll be taking Thermodynamics, Design Optimization, Mechanical Design and Materials Engineering II.

When I'm not doing school stuff I do "semi-professional" photography and I bike a lot too. This summer I hope to work on my power meter idea for bicycles (quite a few people at this forum helped me with some of the problems I encountered).

Nick

Well Jules; I am a frelance paid consultant that looks at something that is considered fantasy and turn it into reality. Some may say as a fellow scientist that could be their dream job. WARNING though, try to explain what you do to anyone that is not scientifically inclined! I have in the past resorted to just say I am a high technology prostitute. ( Nothing sexual ); just I am sure you get my drift. Half the stuff I can't even talk about. My dream job would be build my own house and live happily ever after with-out having to pay heed to anyone but my wife and child. Amen. What I do for fun is to fantacise about having my dream job. ( But before I do that I would realy like Bill Gates to invest a penny or two in upgrading Stephen Hawking's computer generated voice. I think my old TI 994A sounded like that. No offence to Mr. Hawking, but that is the least as a scientific community could do for the guy. Maybe he is too humble to ask? )

Hey! Don't say nothin' bad about the TI 994a! I programmed my Amiga to be the worlds first automated obscene phone caller. With the four synthesizers, I could randomly generate tri-tones, then the Amiga talked dirty using the voice chip... Actually, it started dirty, then broke down into a sort of Woody Alan rant about how nauseous he was and needed to see his therapist. It was a hoot!!!

Hi Folks,

I too had a TI 99-4A had a lot of fun with it. I see many of us are getting along in age (TI 99 4A) kinda gives it away.

I am a retired I.E., retired in 1993 with 29 yrs in USAF civil service. I have bounced around from manufacturing planning to construction project management since then. I now work as a maintenance tech. on 17 miles of automated conveyor equipment, most of it is elevated in a large distribution center.

Fun is buying homes and restoring them, have done 14 complete remodels in the last 20 yrs. Pretty lucrative in the Sacramento CA area.

More fun is the BBQ and gardening. Tired of travel.

Great answer ashman ! I have more than a passing interest in holes in the ground , but unlike Aurizon , generally like them to stay up.

I suspect Hawking kind of likes the voice. He seems to have an impish sense of humour - taking part in the Simpsons boosted my admiration of him even higher.

C'mon, what do you freelance consult about? Give us some examples, inquiring minds want to know!

Jules

I'm now a paidlance consultant, having left the observatory last month. Linux drivers are my bread & butter, and I do independent product design and development when I'm not being a technical mercenary for The Man.

"upgrading Stephen Hawking's computer generated voice"

Hawking himself complains that his computer has an American accent!

hi Jules,

I installed all kinds of flooring for 30 yrs., i just retired and felt lead to do something that God wants me to do. ( hang on I'm not getting religious on you)

I wasn't sure if it was me talking to myself, or really God. so at this time i couldn't afford to retire, no less take on this job that requires a ton of money. So i told God if he really wants me to do this, He would have to provide the means.

Then my wife came up with an idea for this new product line and bingo, i said to myself this could be it (from God), and having taken sales & marketing in college, I knew just what to do.

after patenting this idea, i entered an inventors competition and ran against 70 other inventors, and won 2nd. place, and a thousand dollars. I received a letter from my senator, was on channel 9 news, then I entered my next competition in Pitt. Pa., June 5th threw 10. this one is the largest competition in the U.S..

I was invited to demo. my product last Fri. on channel 2 news, and all went great. In fact I was getting calls before I left the station. When I got home I had a letter from "as seen on T.V." telling me that they heard about my product, and reviewed it and found it to be a great product line , and would like to add it to their production line.

This is the 2nd. manufacturer to approach me, when most people stand in line trying to get these company's to look at their inventions, some for years!

Well thats my story, and if you would like to see the products that God gave to us you can see them at, handyscrubglove.com

Investor inquiries are limited, and soon to end once the licensing agreement is completed.

Al Sing

Oh man handy scrub gloves are cool!!! Al, did you visualize this product in your mind first?

Jules

Wasn't your wife really irritated that you credit God with her idea!!!!?????

She might be irritated if she looks no farther than seeing herself as God's pawn. On the other hand, she might consider that in this game, God has promoted her to Queen. He's like that.

Had to come back from retirement after the severe market dip in 2002. Chose being a handyman because it fit in with both my architectural and marine engineering history, and I like to help folks out. My real job after retirement (at work I was VP Engineering & Industrial Sales for an air pollution abatement device mfr.), and who I am, is being an inventor, which I love because it taps into both my engineering creativity and desire to improve the world. If I turn sideways, you will instantly know that one of my chief joys is dining out at joints where the food is tasty and plentiful. That's my "hobby". I ran for Mayor in the last Toronto election (came dead last!). But it was a great learning experience, and I think I'm ready to go again in 2010, and win.

Mark

Do they have mayors in Toronto? For that manner does Canada have states and cities? Aren't they more like prefectures or fiefdoms? And what about the way the top of your heads bob back-and-forth while you talk... What's the heck is up with that?!

That is the vermin eating geese.

We venerate and imitate it.

I design and build fishing nets and trap nets for government (here in the US and over seas) research and scientific sampling. I sometimes travel to strange locations to figure out what to build.

We sometimes get involved with pest control folks and make nets to keep birds out of buildings and of course there is always the school or playground that wants a baseball or soccer net .

We have very little competition in the research and scientific sampling field but because I have no desire to become rich, we limit ourselves to just certain jobs.

I have NEVER met a happy rich man.

The rest of the time I spend repairing my old wood frame house as it seems every few years another hurricane tears it up again!

My dream job would be to chase giant squid in New Zealand until we caught one .....a really big one 25 Meters +, tag it with a transponder and release it again. I would love to venture into the really deep and see what lies on the bottom. I suspect we have more to learn from our deep oceans than we think.

Reading your message, I thought you were saying you built nets to capture governments. That would be great. You could have nets that catch politicians, and then hoist them up in the air, and squeeze all the stolen cash and hot air out of them.

Chris

You cannot catch politicians in nets, they are very experienced in slipping through loopholes, which they create, so as usual the taxpayer is left holding the empty net ...

They are hard to catch in person too slimy and slippery for words.

I say we have a huntable dictatorship. As long as he does a good job, no-one will work too hard at hunting him. If he turns out bad, someone will pick him off...

Oh damn, I was hopeful that Netmakers profession and Organization was on to some new technology to allow them to be apprehended. It's like trying to catch fish in shallow pools; the fishies are there, and you can see them, but they are waaay too slimy to hold, and they wiggle incessantly when you do catch them, so they often slip out of your grasp.

Chris

Well Chris......

I have not devised a net to catch crooked politicians but I have worked for very slimy businesses and government folks (both here in the USA and over seas).

Before we do any negotiating about Auto CAD designs, travel or actual fabrication in the net shop, I make everybody sign a Non-Disclosure form which keeps them from sending my work to China or Mexico for a cheap knock off.

The only folks I have never had trouble with are the Japanese. They are old school and traditional. A handshake and a verbal commitment is as solid as a 5 lawyer sitdown contract. (At least among the older fishing companies).

But now its just designing and building nets for research and sampling little fishes, squids, crabs, shrimp and ducks.......life is good in Cajun Country, even though hurricane season starts this week!

"...cannot catch politicians in nets, they are very experienced in slipping through loopholes, which they create..."

aurizon, you're a hoot, no doubt here