Just a moment

The local radio station seems to like themes for their weekends; the one this last weekend was “time”. Mostly songs with the word “time” in the title …

Just before I was leaving for work Saturday (yes, retail doesn’t get Saturdays off) the song was “One Moment in Time” by Whitney Houston. Seems to me like she had more than one such moment …

Actually, I suppose I’ve had several such moments myself. Let’s see. certainly when I took the JETS test, the National High School Math Exam, the SAT, but also things like that time in 1973 when I realized I couldn’t really get lost or perhaps a dozen others.

Let’s start with 1973. I was a 10 year old kid bicycling with my family where we came across a playground. It was a nice playground, so I was thinking I’d have to remember where it was so we could come back some time. But then I realized I knew exactly how we got there and while it was a longer bike ride (say, maybe half an hour) I could do it again any time because I wouldn’t forget – and I could reverse it to get back home.

Come to think of it, I guess there were 3 before that. That time in kindergarten when Mom overslept so I decided to walk home – a mile and a half outside town. The cops picked me up at the freeway overpass and I was giving them directions to take me home when I saw our car coming and said “That’s my mommy!” so they turned around and pulled her over to turn me over to her. Then I was helping my older sister with her third grade Math homework (still in kindergarten – it was “What’s the next number?” questions). And I recall being in my first grade classroom during recess once and deciding to count backwards from 100 by 2s since I was bored – I was surprised that I got all the way to 0 without messing up.

The NHSME was in grades 9 and 10; that when I realized I was nothing like the other kids in my little school. I placed 126th out of roughly 30,000 kids in the state who took the test (in grade 9, and 93rd in grade 10) – including juniors and seniors. Unfortunately the teacher who organized that test for our school retired, so I never took it as a junior or senior. Grade 10 was also where my teacher decided I was asking questions that were too hard for the rest of my class, and therefore transferred me straight to the senior level class. Oh, and that time in grade 9 when the science teacher asked my permission to grade the semester exams on a curve comes to mind – the exams had been scheduled for the day the Blizzard of ’78 hit. When they finally cleared the roads 2 weeks later, I was the only student prepared for the exam to be that day, and hence was the only one who got what would normally be a passing grade. I doubt Mr. Swazick really needed my permission, he just wanted me to know that he recognized I’d earned a legitimate A and he wasn’t trying to cheapen that by raising everyone else’s score.

The Junior Engineering Technical Society test? That’s when I learned it didn’t even matter if I knew the material. The JETS is a contest, each school picks people for the available topics and each participant can take 2 topics. Of course I was my school’s person for Math. As Physics wasn’t even offered until Senior year at our school they had no Juniors for that topic and asked if I’d consider it. I did okay on the Math test (not like the top 1% I’d gotten on the NHSME, but still respectable). The Physics … I didn’t know more than half a dozen of the answers. But it was a multiple choice test, so I used reverse psychology to figure out the answers. There were a few cases where only one answer had the correct units (as in, the answer should be a volume and only one answer was cubic centimeters) or otherwise made sense. Most of them were answers in scientific notation where 3 had the same decimal part and 2 had the same exponent, so I picked the answer with that decimal part and exponent. Since I wasn’t calculating anything I was the first person finished, and I ended up in 3rd place overall.

Since I mentioned the SAT, I guess I have to tell you that one too. Prior to my year the SAT only had a 2-part score (Science and English, I believe), but they had decided they really needed to break it down more. My year was when they introduced an “Analytical” score, but labeled as “experimental” and not really to be considered (since they had no basis of comparison yet). English I got a respectable enough score on, 690 or some such. Math and Science I got 790 (maximum possible is 800), so just about as high as you can get, Analytical? I broke the test, got a perfect 800 on it.

I can go on, but I think this is getting a bit long already. Okay, my moments are generally things you couldn’t even imagine. Well, that is kind of the point isn’t it? I’m sure you must have plenty of experiences I couldn’t imagine some of which you’d consider to be “peak moments” as they’re often called. Maybe not placing in the top half a percentile on a test or competition, but just some time when you knew you’d done something significant even if only to you. I feel sure most people have had more than one already, and will have more opportunities to come. I mean, I’ve had 3 so far this year – my 60th birthday, my 15th year with my current employer and a monthly “Best in team” back in June – so why stop now?

The return of The Week …?

As it is only just starting, perhaps not, but the forecast indicates we may be in for another week similar to this one. Not that bad temperature-wise, but possibly more snow. It’s early yet …

People can get somewhat crazy when there’s more than a couple of inches of snow in the forecast. Currently they are predicting just over 12 inches between late Wednesday and early Friday. From the reaction of people in the store you’d think they were expecting to be stuck at home for a couple of weeks. (Not totally impossible – that happened during the Blizzard of 1978 – but that was a lot more than a mere foot of snow.)

Bear in mind, some of the early forecasts were for 2-4 feet of snow and 35 mph (60 kph) winds. That would be a real mess. But a foot of snow and 20 mph winds? That’s not so bad. But even if the original forecast had been correct, all the roads would certainly have been cleared by Monday at the latest, even the more remote ones out in the county. Here in town? 2 days at most.

I’m supposed to be off tomorrow, though if people are as crazy as today the store will call me to come help. I’ll keep you updated throughout the next couple of days at least. (Yes, we sold all the milk, eggs and bread we had in the store today.)

Gift cards

Time was gift cards were a great Christmas gift. Now? Well, let me tell you …

For Christmas this year, my brother got me one of those $50 Visa gift cards. Usable anywhere Visa is accepted – in the U.S. that is, but I’m sure there’s some small shops and cafes that don’t want to deal with cards. So good idea, right? Depends …

I didn’t try to use it right away, I was trying to think of something I’d want as a gift to spend it on. I mean, if you’re spending it on something you would have bought anyway, then it’s not really something special. So about 10 days later I make up my mind, but the card doesn’t work. I try again a few days later, same thing. So I go back and find the materials that came with the card to see what I can find out.

They list a website that you can check your balance and even transaction history on, I go there and see the card has not $50 but $1 on it. Someone cloned the card (created a card with the same data on its magnetic stripe) and spent the other $49 at a Target in California.

My brother’s guess is that someone in the store copied the information and sold it online. Sorry, only the cashier can see the number on the card (at least, unless my brother was a complete idiot and bought one with the tab removed) and can he surreptitiously write that down while you’re standing in line? Okay, either of those amount to “My brother is an idiot”, but there’s a third possibility.

You remember that website you can use to check your balance? If someone has a general idea what range of numbers are used on these cards, they could simply try guessing numbers until they find one that works. For you and me probably not a good strategy – after some number of tries they’d ban your IP so you couldn’t try more – but if you happen to have a botnet you could have 1000 different computers each try 20 different numbers for you (or whatever number is small enough not to get banned) and eventually find one. Or if their security is bad, someone hacked their system and got the number that way, or an employee sold it … all amounts to the same thing.

Store/merchant gift cards wouldn’t be so much of a target since they are only good at that store (not that it is hard to find a Walmart or McDonald’s anywhere, but that’s still only 1/1000th of the places a Visa gift card is valid at). And if you actually have to check the balance in the store rather than online, then they couldn’t brute force the numbers like I described above (even if having such a website is a major convenience for users).

Of course, what they really need is something harder to clone. A chipped card or at least something with additional numbers not used on the website … that is, the card has 16 digits and the website also requires the 3 digit security code, but if the stripe had some extra digits you couldn’t see on the website that would make it harder. That’s why regular cards do have a chip. Until these gift cards do have better security, I’d say you’re better off just giving cash.

The big lie

If you live in this country, you probably saw it. Maybe some of the right-wing media didn’t even mention it. I mean, the story didn’t deserve to be international headlines, but it was. But the real travesty was the headline they put on it in this country.

You know the story. A man here in Ohio in intensive care with COVID-19. Not sure how far she had to go to find one, but the wife found a doctor who would prescribe Ivermectin as a treatment. But the hospital wasn’t willing to follow the prescription, so the wife went to a judge to force them to do so. Then the hospital went to another judge who said no, they didn’t have to after all.

Let me state a few things here. Ivermectin is available as a medicine for treating parasitic infections. There is a version used to treat human parasitic infections which the FDA has found safe and effective for that use. There is a different formulation used to treat farm animals (aka “livestock”) which is stronger and not approved for use on humans. Certain people believe Ivermectin can be used as a treatment for COVID – mostly because former President Trump suggested it – but no tests have found any effect.

I chanced across The Guardian’s coverage of the first judge’s ruling, I thought it was reasonably accurate, though as it was just a story of a judge ordering a hospital to follow a doctor’s prescription it really didn’t deserve international coverage. And The Guardian did use the name Ivermectin in their headline, which makes them better than our papers here. I didn’t look to see if they had anything to say about the second decision.

As those of you who haven’t seen coverage in the U.S. media should have figured out from how I phrased that last paragraph, in this country the headline didn’t use the name “Ivermectin”. Instead they said “livestock dewormer”. Twice – in the articles on both judges’ rulings. No, the judge did not rule to force the hospital to use the livestock medicine on the man; no, the doctor did not prescribe the livestock medicine for him. Most people just call it sensationalism, but it is more than that. First of all, it is irresponsible because they are saying that both a doctor and judge declared it was reasonable to use the livestock medicine on a human. We have too much of that going on already without the idiots putting words in other people’s mouths saying it is okay. Secondly it is slanderous, and it would serve them right if the doctor and/or judge sue.

But what do you and I expect to happen? Well, nothing, they will continue their sensationalist “business as usual” because it’s the equivalent of clickbait – it gets you to read their article.

(And just to be clear, I do not believe Ivermectin would have helped the man in question – or anyone else with COVID-19. A virus is not a parasite – it isn’t even technically alive. But presuming the doctor prescribed a safe dosage, it also would not have hurt him, so I see no real reason the hospital shouldn’t have honored the prescription – as long as they make it clear insurance won’t be covering the cost of course. That last would probably have stopped this whole thing if they had mentioned it, but if the family had the money to cover it and there was no danger then indulge them.)

Asymptomatic

I don’t really get sick, so I guess it’s not really a surprise.

A friend of mine had been hiding out, trying to avoid COVID-19 (under doctor’s orders). Still, she got it from her granddaughter when they came for Christmas. I saw her a few days later – she sounded terrible but didn’t want to see the doctor (I’ve never understood why people are afraid of doctors). She tells me her granddaughter called her back the next day, but somehow I had to call her to find out. By then I already knew.

Mind you, all I had was a cough, runny nose, and a weird headache. I’m used to sinus headaches – while I get them regularly I don’t take medicine. I’ve found that if I relax certain muscles it causes my sinuses to drain and the headache goes away. This was different – it was in the sides of my head. I’ve decided since that it must be related to the swelling of the brain COVID causes. I didn’t know it then, I just knew it was a weird headache so I must be coming down with something – and in this year we all could guess what.

So here I am, a week later and not supposed to go anywhere. And all the rest of it? Well, no, that’s really all the symptoms I’ve had. I did get tested so I know my first guess was correct, but as far as it goes if I hadn’t said anything I could have gone to work and done my job. No nausea, vomiting, difficulty breathing, none of this sleeping 14 hours a day I’ve heard from several sources; I’m not even certain I had a fever of 100F (I was actually low the day I got tested, but I might have had one Monday – or not).

Almost another week to go on my quarantine. Needless to say bored, but I’m trying to do this right.

Best Guess

Something of a historical nature today.

When I was a kid in school, multiple choice tests were popular. I presume they still are just because they are so easy to grade – either you selected the right answer or you didn’t. They even had electronic “scantron” systems that could grade it for you. Yet when I was teaching later I never used them…

It was common for kids to refer to them as “multiple guess tests”. Me, I generally didn’t guess. I had the highest IQ my small local school had ever seen and at one point I’d read the entire Encyclopedia Britannica; if I had to guess no one there knew the answer.

But I did say “generally”. With my IQ, the school wanted me to participate in every contest they could find, even as a sophomore (grade 10 if you don’t use that term for high school). Of course the ACT, SAT and PSAT, but even ASVAB (armed services vocational aptitude battery), National High School Math Exam (twice, as a sophomore and a junior) and anything else they could.

One of those contests was called the Junior Engineering Technical Society test. You could actually take two subjects – of course I was taking Math as one. The other … for reasons of not having anyone else who wanted to take it in that subject they suggested I take it in Physics, though actually Physics was a senior level class at that school and I was a junior. I had been exceptional in General Science 2 years earlier and I liked books about physics, so I figured it couldn’t be too bad, right?

Well, the contest in this region was held at BGSU on a Saturday, and the Math test was first. I felt pretty good about that one, though my school didn’t have any Advanced Placement courses so I wasn’t really spectacular. I got done in time and did good, that’s about it.

Physics … turns out I had no idea how to do most of the questions. While I understood the concepts, I didn’t have the formulas to compute the answers they wanted. Well, I wasn’t going to sit there for 2 hours just to leave the test blank, so I started looking for patterns in the answers.

Years later I actually had classes in designing multiple choice tests. The idea is to have 3 or 4 reasonable answers (answers you might get if you made some small error in the computations) and then one or two “distractors”. I didn’t actually know it at the time of this test, though it was pretty easy to spot. They’d have answers that were multiples of each other – one twice the other, one with a different exponent (of course they were in scientific notation) … so it made sense to pick the one that had the most common exponent with the most common decimal part. Of course they weren’t all like that – there was one where they were trying to see if you could figure out what units the answer should be in, for example. I did know that – I could tell the question required an answer that was a volume and only one answer had the right units.

Needless to say, since I wasn’t doing any of the calculations I actually got done first. Anything that I didn’t have a clue on I guessed, so nothing was blank, but I couldn’t say at the time how I did.

There was a break for lunch then they announced the winners. I wasn’t mentioned in the Math results – I wasn’t in the top 3; that’s all I know there. Physics … turns out I was second. I knew nothing at all about the subject, and only one person did better.

There are books and even short classes in “test taking”, obviously I’d figured it out on my own from all the other tests I’d taken before that. Though also obviously after that I had no respect for multiple choice tests at all.

El Paso

I’m sure everyone’s heard by now. Most of you probably know more about it than I do, as I don’t watch TV or read the papers.

Last Saturday, a gunman entered the Cielo Vista mall in El Paso, Texas. When all was said and done he had killed 20 people and injured 26 more. They found a 4 page rant online attributed to the shooter, seems he thought the Mexicans were taking over the country and decided to do something about it. Though note, last I heard the hosting company had taken down the site (8Chan), but I’m sure every newspaper in the world probably has a copy somewhere. And for the record, it is not so much that he posted it there as that people there were supporting it.

But honestly, all this is old hat. How many other shootings or bombings have there been targeting Jews or blacks or whatever other group you choose? Too many of course. So how is this any different?

Well, the difference for me is that it is actually someplace I used to live. I’ve been through Denver once on vacation, but not long enough to say I actually know the place. But I spent 5 years in El Paso. Mind you I was closer to the Sunland Park mall – Cielo Vista was on the far side of the Davis Mountains from me. I think I visited that mall exactly twice in my 5 years, though I did buy a duster there on clearance that I was rather fond of.

My first observation was that the shooter was not from El Paso. When 80% of the town is Hispanic (not Mexican – they were born here) it’s a little hard to hate Hispanics. And of course, you can’t tell the natives from the real Mexicans unless you see the license plate on their car. The people from Juarez just across the river drove like crazy people always running red lights; the ones from further in Mexico were more careful drivers.

My next observation is that Cielo Vista is about as far from the border as you can get and still be in El Paso. I could actually see the border and the river. They were on the other side of the mountains from it. If he was looking for people actually from Mexico, he was in the wrong place.

But then again, he wasn’t looking for that anyway. He should know by now that acts of violence only result in people ridiculing your ideas, not giving them any serious consideration. Really it’s all about his own ego and nothing else.

Don’t get me wrong, I am a conservative. I am in favor of securing our borders – that wasn’t even a strange sentiment in El Paso. And I’m talking about 20 years ago, when Clinton was in office. We were talking about the border “wall” that long ago. I have no use for his segregationist ideas, though if he wants to live somewhere where Hispanics won’t bother him I’m sure he could. I doubt he’d find many in Death Valley, for example.

You’ll have to forgive me, I’m just “processing”. That’s pop psych for saying trying to figure out how I really feel, deep down. Besides the general overall disgust with crazy idiots who resort to violence, of course

Crazy people

I just don’t understand people these days …

As I was leaving today, I saw an ambulance just outside the front door, then a police car pulled up. I glanced around but didn’t see any accident. Whatever it was, I didn’t think I could help and didn’t want to get in the way (and definitely wasn’t a witness to whatever happened), so I headed for my car. On my way there, the cart pusher told me what he’d seen – two cars had parked next to each other, the people got out and argued over something, then as one turned to walk away the other started hitting her. (Apparently both were women.)

I don’t know what it was about, but it is hard for me to imagine that violence was warranted in that situation. And the cart pusher described it as “Awesome”? Not a word I would use.

The media and politicians are constantly talking about “gun violence”. Terrible as things like school shootings are, I can’t say that violence in general is a good thing. Nobody got shot today, but that doesn’t make it acceptable. But do you think there’ll be even 20 people around here saying that tomorrow? You think there’ll be that many people who even care? That is what is wrong with society today.

The sign you can’t see

Seems kind of silly to me. They have a wall behind the store, but almost no one can see the mural painted on it.

Wall behind store

We are on the west side of the freeway facing North, and anyone can see the store. But from there the freeway crosses the river, and so south of us it is as high as the roof of the store. So the only side of the freeway that could see it is the closer lanes – or perhaps some truckers in the farther lanes, a car would not be tall enough. But the closer lanes would be southbound and therefore at best would see it in their rearview mirror. So really, no one on the freeway except the construction workers will ever see it.

And anyone driving along Howard Avenue (commonly referred to as “north river road”) can’t see it because of the trees. So the only way to see it is on foot.

If you’re wondering, I decided to use a picture of the mural as my blog header, but thought it deserved some explanation. It is a real sign here in town, though don’t expect to see it if you’re just driving around. Last year they even repainted it, though I can’t say why. Yeah, it was getting old, but no one can see it anyway.