Eye protection in the days of Covid.

[George N. M.]

Not using PPE is pure Darwinian natural selection.  Stupidity is not a survival trait.  Unfortunately, the stupidity is not severe enough to take them out of the gene pool before they breed.

That said, we can all have moments of less than optimal survival behavior.  We can just hope to avoid them and keep the intervals between as long as possible.

"By hammer and hand all arts do stand."

[Irondragon Forge ClayWorks]

At 78 years old, I still have moments of less than optimal survival behavior and have the scars to remind me to wear PPE even for small projects.

[P Dee]

3 hours ago, George N. M. said:

Stupidity is not a survival trait

Of course stupidity is a survival trait.  It absolutely is. For society as a whole, not necessarily the individual and their odds.

Someone once was the first to poke a wild boar with a stick to feed his starving family, and later one day someone even more foolish decided to get on a leaky assemblage of wooden boards and take it across oceans. My personal favorite, and unknown person of the millennium, is the guy who was fist in deciding to drink that stuff of rotting barley left in some water - and then declared "this is good".  Beer was born.

I've also heard that playing with fire is dangerous, thus supposedly for fools. Any opinion on that derring do style bit of folly?  

My reference to forging being a "Manly art" didn't hit what I thought was an obvious point.  It was a dig at the machismo that men tend to get up to.  It's informative how many jumped at the chance to clear up any possible denigration of female ability.

I conclude there are many long married men here. (another point not to be taken with the wrong humor) 

[Deimos]

I think this in some way sums up it up pretty good.

“You can't give her that!' she screamed. 'It's not safe!'
IT'S A SWORD, said the Hogfather. THEY'RE NOT MEANT TO BE SAFE.
'She's a child!' shouted Crumley.
IT'S EDUCATIONAL.
'What if she cuts herself?'
THAT WILL BE AN IMPORTANT LESSON.”
― Terry Pratchett, Hogfather

[ThomasPowers]

Just finished "Hogfather"; I  thought rereading it would be a good Christmas read. (Along with "The Sword and the Crucible".)

Of course my Factory experience was 30+ years ago.   I won't say I'm longed married yet; only 36 years so far! We're still enjoying cuddling up in our unheated bedroom.

(One of the workers there who hassled me a lot there once told me that they would never see their jobs disappear across the border.  I did a back of an envelope calculation using the wage differentials we'd been quoted and saw that such a move would save the company at least a million a week.  I managed to find a much better job before the plant shutdown was announced...) 

 

[George N. M.]

Actually, it is the first person who did something successfully is who advances the species and the culture.  If Ugh poked a sleeping cave bear and got eaten for his trouble the reaction is, "Ugh stupid." and reinforces the idea of not poking cave bears.  But if Mugh pokes a cave bear more effectively and comes home with a nice bear skin cloak the reaction is, "Mugh smart." And cave bears have moved from the predator to prey column.  And the first person(s) to build a leaky raft or boat and make it out to the island and back are the ones who are remembered and emulated, not their predecessors who were unsuccessful in making a round trip.

That said, the stupid pave the way for the successful by being good bad examples.  Even here, stories about the consequences of not wearing PPE can motivate others to avoid the misfortunes of those who have been injured and wear the PPE and be successful at the craft.

"By hammer and hand all arts do stand."   

[SLAG]

For all the folks that unsuccessfully came before us and died trying.  to honor them and warn off all others, they instituted the Darwin Awards.

Sincerely,

SLAG.

[George N. M.]

To modify a famous aphorism, "We are dwarves, standing on the shoulders of idiots."

"By hammer and hand all arts do stand.

[SLAG]

Counselor George,

You do Sir Isaac Newton one better with your modified quote.

SLAG.

[George N. M.]

While often attributed to Sir Issac, I originally heard of it attributed to Bernard of Chartres (12th Century) when Martha and I took a seminar called "Love and Duty in the 12th Century" almost 40 years ago.  Looking at Wiki it appears to have an even more venerable history than that.

Leave it to you, Slag, to have that attribution at your fingertips.  Well played, sir.

"By hammer and hand all arts do stand." 

[Deimos]

7 hours ago, ThomasPowers said:

Just finished "Hogfather"; I  thought rereading it would be a good Christmas read. (Along with "The Sword and the Crucible".)

Have you ever seen the Tv movie? 

 

6 hours ago, George N. M. said:

That said, the stupid pave the way for the successful by being good bad examples.  Even here, stories about the consequences of not wearing PPE can motivate others to avoid the misfortunes of those who have been injured and wear the PPE and be successful at the craft.

True, pretty hard being successful when you are 6ft underground, or missing 50% of either eyes, hands or other body parts that come in two. The problem is that a lot of people just go "that won't happen to me" when you tell them stories of near accidents, or show them the scars caused by being hasty/ignorant. 

 

[George N. M.]

My experience in industrial environments (steel mills and mines) is that the 2 most dangerous groups to work around are the new guys, who are unfamiliar with the hazards an how to work safely, and the old guys, who have been around the hazards for years and have become too casual about them.  Surprisingly, the old guys often have scars or are missing bits which you think would make them more cautious but they seem to think that lightning will not strike twice in the same place and that accidents are not the result of their own action or inaction but just a random occurrence that just happens to anyone.  There are certainly exceptions to this generalization but I think that it is true enough to have some validity.

I also think that overconfidence plays a part.  There is an attitude that I have been doing this for so long and not been hurt that I never will be.  That is probably a hardwired human reaction.  I think one of the reasons I have never been badly hurt is that I am still as afraid, particularly of power tools, as I was years ago.

"By hammer and hand all arts do stand."

[ThomasPowers]

Deimos; we don't watch TV; after years of on again/off again we did a final drop of it when  they converted to digital transmission here in the USA---we never got a converter box.  We do watch DVDs on our old TV. Very refreshing with no commercials!  One of our kids gave us their TV when they went even larger; I call it "the eye of Sauron".  Instead we have bookcases in every room in the house and some of the closets too!

[Deimos]

1 hour ago, ThomasPowers said:

Deimos; we don't watch TV; 

Good to know we are not the only ones then, I will watch DVD's and streaming services, but I threw out our TV service years ago, I just can not stand commercials (over here they even do commercials with banners, so you will get your 5 min of commercials 4 times and hour and then between that there will be banner commercials with F1 cars of soccer players covering 40% of the screen). If you ever find the DVD from one of the Terry Pratchett movies (Hogfather, Going Postal and Good Omens) I highly recommend them, they follow the book to the letter.

 

2 hours ago, George N. M. said:

I think one of the reasons I have never been badly hurt is that I am still as afraid, particularly of power tools, as I was years ago.

 Being afraid keeps you alive, for as long as I live I will always disconnect any type of grinder when I change a disk, always measure twice when working with electricity and for everything else I will think twice and do once. In 14 years I only got cuts and burns, and I like to keep it that way. Way to many "macho" (got another word for it but that would get me reported) fools out there who think they are a boss for welding without PPE, or changing their power tools "because it is easier that way" or "I always do it like that, never once went wrong". 

[ThomasPowers]

I just sent "The Colour of Magic" to my Daughter in Okinawa; as she mentioned being interested in reading the Pratchet Discworld series   I have more than 1 shelf of them so far. They are also good as there isn't a problem with my grandsons, 4 (12-3 years old), reading them.

[M.J.Lampert]

i wipe my snowboard glasses with a thin coat of vinigar that usually last 3-10 full day trips and then i repeat it

M.J.Lampert