IEEE Consultants' Network of Long Island

The Teaching Experience - John Dunn, Consultant, Ambertec, P.E., P.C.

My mother was a math teacher whose last position was at a private business school. When a family emergency arose and she had to travel to the mid-west for two weeks, I took over her two classes, one in "Business Arithmetic" and the other in "Remedial Arithmetic". Each class was one hour long and they were in quick succession in the course of the day, one right after the other.

There were no discipline problems because the students were all mature adults. There was no lesson planning problem because Mom had prepared everything in advance. All I had to do was take the attendance, follow her lesson plan directions and grade the homeworks in the evening. I didn't have to write any exams or administer them or grade them or do anything else that teachers have to do on their own time, for hours and hours on end, unpaid. Oh yes, I had it easy!

Perils of Intuition - John Dunn, Consultant, Ambertec, P.E., P.C.

Follow the instructions immediately below. Do as instructed.

Point to the upper case letters in the words below: 

 

Now point to the green letters in the words below. 

Wanted: One Neophyte - John Dunn, Consultant, Ambertec, P.E., P.C.

From a recent e-mail seeking a power supply engineer: 

Medical Misdeeds - John Dunn, Consultant, Ambertec, P.E., P.C.

At this writing on November 7, 2011, a conviction of Dr. Conrad Murray has just been rendered in the death of Michael Jackson.

Sadly, the death of Michael Jackson seems likely to me to be not the only case of its kind, only the most high profile one, so please consider the following.

I was listening to a radio interview program one morning in which there was this man, in my view, this horrifying medical fraudster, being interviewed by a sympathetic radio host. The interviewee was claiming to be a medical doctor with a specialty in "prostrate cancer".

Ghoti - John Dunn, Consultant, Ambertec, P.E., P.C.

My son once bemoaned how difficult he found it was to spell words properly. I had to sympathasize with him. After all, the words "soap" and "hope" could have been "sope" and "hoap".

Theodor Geisel, better known as Dr. Seuss, once addressed this issue with a cartoon of a hoodlum with an apparent head cold pushing a plowshare through a massive bowl of cookie dough with the caption "The tough coughs as he ploughs the dough."  with all of those "...ough" words having different pronunciations.

Bubba Meisah - John Dunn, Consultant, Ambertec, P.E., P.C.

Ever hear of the term Bubba Meisah (bubba meye-seh)? It means in Yiddish a "grandmother's story," or and old wives' tale.

Somebody once suggested looking for a particular vitamin supplement in this one particular store, so I and my wife went over there. As my wife was reading the vitamin bottle labels, I noticed a clerk who was lecturing a customer at great length about herbal supplements, holistic health care, the synergistic interactions of particular foods, the proper way to achieve a healthy life style and on and on and on and on....... while the customer stood there listening and going "I see. Uh-huh. Really! Oh, I didn't know that. and on and on and on........."

Morgan Oil - John Dunn, Consultant, Ambertec, P.E., P.C.

When our two boys were very small, my wife came down with a flu that took her temperature up to 103°F and I had to tend to her needs plus take care of the two boys. In the middle of all this, the telephone rang and when I picked up the receiver, I heard: "Hello, Mr. Dunn. This is Marcia from Morgan Oil. I'm calling...." and then I interrupted her: "Marcia, I have no time or  interest in taking this call. Do not call this number again." and I hung up the phone.

About an hour later, the phone rang again and when I picked up the receiver, I heard: "Hello, Mr. Dunn. This is Carol from Morgan Oil. I'm calling...." and then I interrupted this caller: "Carol, I already told your colleague Marcia not to call this number again and now I'm telling you. Do not call this number again." and I hung up.

ADHD for All - Dick LaRosa

I have noticed recent articles on Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), which was formerly associated with kids from ages 6 to 12. The age range has been expanded to 4 to 18. The recent articles are mainly concerned with whether and when to medicate. I have looked in vain for mention of other problems, such as dyslexia, which can cause behavior similar to ADHD when the student becomes frustrated because of inability to process printed text. In working with my grandson on this problem, I discovered that regular and special education teachers, as well as school administrators, would never use the word "dyslexia". I think that this was the result of an education law that said that all students must be taught in a manner appropriate for their respective learning abilities.

 

A Torn Retina - John Dunn, Consultant, Ambertec, P.E., P.C.

I developed a torn retina in my right eye in February 2001. I first noticed the visual abnormalities of that damage while coming into the house after a five-hour nighttime drive from Massachusetts through lots of adverse winter weather.

I seemed to see horizontal lightning strikes way up high and way down low in my field of vision and there was a very substantial increase in the number of "floaters" right in the middle.

Some years later, those floaters were imaged by my ophthalmologist:  

Queen Elizabeth II - John Dunn, Consultant, Ambertec, P.E., P.C.

When the ocean liner Queen Elizabeth II (QE2) was sent out for its first sea trial in the North Sea, turbine trouble arose, an imbalance problem which caused very severe vibration. There was some uncertainty as to whether the ship would be able to return to port without assistance, but somehow, the crew managed to accomplish that. When I read about this in the newspaper, I envisioned that it would probably be a long time before the ship would actually be put into service.

I was wrong.