Anyone heard from David Weaver?

[george wilson]

Thanks,Jim. I didn't know what a spiff was!

I think David just uses his phone for a camera. That might explain some of the bad video techniques. These new phones are wonders!

There are issues here that I'd best not mention that are the cause of David leaving. 3 or 4 times I persuaded him to stay,but he decided enough was enough.

[Moses Yoder]

I have been thinking about this. Lets say I am educated in astronomy and I say the moon is covered in space dust. (Just imagining). The guy beside me is a gynecologist and he claims the moon is covered in cheese. At this point, these are both opinions; no "facts" have been presented to demonstrate the validity of the opinion, therefore both opinions are equally valid and neither can be discounted based on our impression of the person presenting them. In order to discount either opinion we must examine the evidence for ourselves. The fact is that we often accept an opinion from an educated person based simply on our trust of them, and not based on any facts. In most people's opinion, if a person holds an opinion about something they have a degree in then their opinion is regarded as having more validity than the person who does not have a degree, and they hold a higher opinion of the educated person regardless of whether they have examined the facts themselves.

I think I understand what you're saying, but I differ with you on this point: just because one has a right to hold/express an opinion, doesnt make his/her opinion equally VALID. Depends on topic, context, training, experience, etc. (The doctor/gardner example, above illustrates what Im saying.)

[Tony Shea]

So how do I go about searching David's videos on youtube? I can't seem to come up with them.

[Hilton Ralphs]

So how do I go about searching David's videos on youtube? I can't seem to come up with them.

Go here Tony.

[Shawn Pixley]

It seems a little strange to me that someone would come to a technical site just for entertainment.

I don't find that strange at all. I read books on math analysis and number theory just for entertainment. If that isn't obtuse and technical... Of course, I am continuously told that my brain doesn't work like others.

[Art Mann]

I don't find that strange at all. I read books on math analysis and number theory just for entertainment. If that isn't obtuse and technical... Of course, I am continuously told that my brain doesn't work like others.

Shawn, you do realize that yesterday, 3.14, was National Pi day and 15:09 was Pi minute?

[Steve Rozmiarek]

Shawn, you do realize that yesterday, 3.14, was National Pi day and 15:09 was Pi minute?

By coincidence my wife and I shared a slice of pie to celebrate actually, thought we were the only nerds out there! We were off on the minutes though.

[ian maybury]

+3 here on the matter of less than mainstream 'interests'… (and no, i don't mean that sort…)

At risk of sounding presumptuous, and regardless of whatever circumstance led to DW pulling back for a while. He's more than done his bit by way of contribution, and there's yards of posts up there setting out his thinking. My advice to those hauling out the sackcloth and ashes is to just get on with it - there's every resource possible there, and others who will fill the gap/interpret if needed. He's under no obligation to function as an unpaid advice centre. Any more than that any of us is entitled to treat another as same. Or for that matter that it's healthy for a forum to slide into group think, or for some sort of techno pecking order to get established, or that there is in fact some single objective truth in these maters to be revered as the holy grail and passed on through the generations...

Next thing it gets like the famous musician whose fan base holds him prisoner because every time he/she tries to move on musically they dump on him..

It'd be nice if he drops in again, but as a person to engage in some constructive and healthy debate with, and to have some fun with...

[Dan Hintz]

Of course, I am continuously told that my brain doesn't work like others.

A number of us are told that... we're just not numerous enough to make it commonplace. But we're out there... <raises glass> Cheers!

[Sean Hughto]

No, Moses, that's just not rational. It may make ignorant people feel better to claim that facts and experience do not exist until they themselves have gathered their own experience, but it is just narcissistic denial. Facts exist and experience counts before you've verified it personally.

For example, if you need heart surgery, are you going to go to med school before you get it? You know, to verify the surgeons diagnosis and surgical plan. Or if your trash collector has some opinions and thinks he might be able to pull it off, will you let him?

[ian maybury]

As ever Sean it's surely about balance and good judgement? If it was a case of your surgeon clinging tightly to the ways of his predecessors (and there's more than enough doing that in a negative way already) you'd be told there was nothing to be done, or more likely (since the former wouldn't generate any income) he'd bring out the leeches and the bleeding gear. (or even a hacksaw, and crew of heavies to hold you down) Which wouldn't be a whole lot better than the other polarity - our mythical surgeon who decided yesterday that he was going to be one, and who bound by some daft ideology refuses to take other's experience on board and is making it up as he goes along.

Of course there's good solutions and bad solutions, and of course there's expertise that we all do well to draw upon. The trouble though is that there's lots of crap and deceit about too - plus what's good practice changes over time. Yet in life (medicine very much included) we're often blinded by our conditioning into accepting the expertise of some dude by virtue of his e.g. position, certification/papers, image, social standing or other cue (that he's screwed lots out of their money and got rich in doing so is a common one) rather than any real track record in the topic of interest to you. Much less that he has any genuine interest in helping you out.

Suspend your disbelief/set aside your personal judgement and critical faculties for one moment and stop taking responsibility for yourself and you can be pretty certain that you'll be quickly sold a pup.

Out of medicine (and this is very much based on long and hard personal experience) surgeons - while they truly heal nothing - may not be the best example. The nature of the discipline and the clear linkage of cause and consequence is such that if they get it wrong people die and they end up in court getting the hell sued out of them. Which is far from the case with the vast majority of medicine that deals in more obscure and less well understood conditions where the smoke and mirrors are much more effective...

[george wilson]

Shawn: I want you to google "Tony Griffiths Engineering". It is the World's largest site on lathe and milling machine information,and other associated machinery. I went to England to visit Tony,in addition to touring museums there.

I have read every single machine that is listed there,and have left a few machinist tricks of the trade. Now,THAT'S being a techno Nerd. I also subscribe to "Science News" magazine,and "Smithsonian".

[Sean Hughto]

Ian, there are always ignorant people who do not want to feel inferior. They resent more educated folks telling them what to do or telling them about facts as it highlights their own ignorance. They take knowledge as an offense because it makes them feel less than. As a defense mechanism for protecting their egos, they essentially assert that their ignorance is as good as your knowledge (to paraphrase Asimov). They are suspicious that the educated are looking down on them, so they try to deny that knowledge is real, and claim their "feelings" or "opinions" are just as good as an expert's empiraclly proven facts or years of real world experience. The fee fees of the ignorant are delicate indeed.

[Malcolm Schweizer]

And to think all this started with "Hey, has anyone heard from David Weaver?"

[Tony Zaffuto]

Well, have any of you heard from David????