Classified Material

 At some point in my military years, I got 'drafted' into a classified document search.  There were three of us in this 'search-team'.  

So, here's the odd thing....there were three lost documents, based on the original audit.  None of the three of us....worked in this 'vault' or had any relationship to the crew which were working there.  

So we walked in and immediately realized the scope of the mess.  This was a vault with around twenty-five file cabinets.  To go through each drawer....searching for the documents or the message lost....among what was literally thousands and thousands of documents or messages?  

I immediately asked for destruction records.  Looking at the age and description of two of the documents....I knew they had replacement documents arrive in the past year.  It took 15 minutes to find the first document (already destroyed) and five more minutes to find the second destroyed document.  

These people had simply failed to grasp the destruction records.  

The third one?  It had fallen in some drawer and was underneath several folders....but it would take the rest of the day to settle upon this finding.

Nothing was lost.  

Classified documents don't get lost....unless you remove them from a vaulted area or safe.  

So I look at the White House 'mess' and it's the reality that people want these documents in open areas....which aren't really treated as vaults or secure.  

Someone will go and ask for such-and-such....to read.....but the reality is....they pretend to read it and discuss it, when all they did was read the sixty-line initial summary.  The thirty-odd page real report?  Ninety percent of folks will just skip that because of the dry material.  

Four Bits of Advice

 1.  If the government says you need something.....you probably don't need it.

2.  If the government says they want to 'help' you....it's probably not the kind of help that you or I imagine.

3.  If the government makes a statement....hyping up that it's factual....there's probably enough reasons to be skeptical and disbelieve some part of the statement.

4.  If the government says it's position on something is 'safe' (actually using the word SAFE)....then it's probably 50-50 odds that it's not safe (like you or I imagine).  

Three Fascinating Facts On Charles Manson

 1.  His mother was Kathleen Manson-Bower-Cavender, (originally Maddox) (born in 1919, and died in 1973) who was fifteen-years-old at the birth, but very likely to be 14 when she got pregnant.   

The father was Colonel Walker Henderson Scott Sr. (born in 1910 and died in 1954).  I should note.....he did not serve in WW I.  The 'Colonel' rank was something he invented for himself, and had convinced Kathleen Maddox that he was distinguished.  

After the birth, Kathleen did use the court system to sue, and get some type of marginal settlement (in 1937).

Upon telling Colonel Scott of the pregnancy....the 'Colonel' announced he had Army business to attend to, and left (in the permanent sense).  He died of alcoholism at age 44.  

Scott's two primary occupations in life?  Working in a flour mill, and noted as a local con-artist.  There's some stuff there to suggest he was marginally educated, and probably serious alcoholic from his teen years on.  

2.  While in reform school in his younger years....he developed a technique that he referred to as 'the insane game'.  What he learned was....if you act insane....people don't screw with you.  

3.  In 1968, Manson found employment in a SF hospital, which happened to have a funded research project....to see how the effects of LSD worked on the human mind.  He (along with several lady friends) would sign up and get paid for their involvement in the LSD treatment.  

Coaches

 This past week, I was reading through my home-state news (Alabama) and found this interesting story over the state finding funding....to hire up 'math coaches'.  Note, we aren't talking about math teachers....we are talking about extra folks out there, who apparently will be hired to better handle crappy math education within the state of Alabama.  

Yeah, they aren't replacing math teachers....it's just that they will show up and lecture kids in some different manner....than the math teacher can present.  

Bogus situation?  Well....I will tell this story of my ninth-grade math situation from early 1970s.

We started the school year in the math class....with a new teacher.  I would say that the first four weeks were mostly a refresher episode....where half the class had forgotten most everything from the previous math 'year'.

Along about mid-September....we come to a chapter of mathematical equations....vastly different from anything of the previous year.  

There's supposed to be around 3 weeks on this chapter, with a test, and then we move onto the next chapter.

At this end-point, out of 24 students....I would estimate that five people grasp the subject, with another five who marginally understand it (me in this group), and the rest in failure mode.  The test result?  If I remember correctly....one person scored in the 90 range....two in the 80 range...two in the 70 range....the rest all in the zero to sixty range.  

The teacher basically threw out the results, then went onto roughly seven additional class days of refresher on the same subject, with another test.  That improved things slightly....there were six kids to now to get 70 or above.

The teacher threw out that result, and went to another full week of the same subject (you can figure 27 days used for a chapter that should take 15 days).  

At this point, the day prior to the test....he gave out a test (lesser in terms of problems) and we went step by step over the each of six problems. 

The next day....as the real test was handed out....it was noted quickly that it was the same test as the previous day.  I would guess out of the 24 students there....six folks still got sixty or less....the rest of us mostly got in the 70-to-80 range.  

In getting the concept across?  Neither the book or the teacher could accomplish this.  At some point, some kid asked.....how would we ever use this in regular life.  It was a pretty accurate question to ask, and the teacher (new at the profession) simply said you needed math ability in life.  

My humble belief is that these math 'coaches' will fill in this mess, and maybe make sense out of the rocket science of math.