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Bouler, it has been said that anyone can give an hour talk on any
subject, even one they know nothing at all about. But, to give an
effective 15 minute talk or to distill a complex and technical subject
down to only 5 minutes, both of which I had to do on my job, is VERY
difficult indeed.

I most appreciate the complements you extend to me on my knowledge of
cars and other things. However, there is likely far LESS here than
meets the eye, meaning that while I can speak reasonably intelligently
about all cars, not just Chrysler, I cannot speak to specifics of even
cars designed during my tenure at Chrysler. The reason I can at least
speak to most anything vehicular regardless of company or national
origin is that the basics of the vehicle product development process
from design (styling) to engineering to testing to tooling to
manufacturing and assembly is pretty much universal throughout the
world. What separates the better car companies from the 2nd and 3rd
tier crowd is how well they APPLY basic principles and how much
proprietary knowledge they can accumulate and effectively implement to
increase features, fuel economy, safety, etc. while at the same time
increasing quality, reliability, and durability (those are 3 different
things, ask if interested) at the lowest possible cost.

I think carfactories can build cars that go on for many more years, but at
the same time the're digging their own grave.

I know I burned DVDs from some History Channel episodes maybe a
year or
so ago. If I get ambitious enough, I'll try to find them but I have
made a mental note to re-record them again on my DVR. It's a dumb
coincidence that a rather long episode or two aired just last week,
I think, relating the story of Titanic's construction, it's major
structural and safety weaknesses, details of the sinking itself,
and results of the most recent dives on the wreak, which I think
began in 2002 and maybe ended a year or two later (but I'm rather
hazy about that, please help me out if you can).

Sorry Jerry I cant.

OK, if these shows come on again, I'll try to snag them and perhaps I
can mail you a DVD of something you may not have seen in The
Netherlands.

That would be nice.

Maybe I should have put in a grin or two of my own, but each of
us is gifted in different ways. Perhaps one of mine to compensate
for lack of foreign language skills is what people tell me is a
logical mind and an insatiable appetite for new information. In
fact, it has been a basic philosphy of mine back at least to my
High School days as a teen-ager that learning is a life-long
endeavor. Unfortunately, ALL of my classmates in Engineering School
were like me and I suddently found myself as a brand new freshman
in 1965 going from top 5% in my H.S. class to about the bottom
5-10% and on academic probation for 3 trimesters. One more and I'd
have flunked out. Still in all, I barely made it, I recall
something like only a 2.32 or so GPA.

Could you explain that, we have a comlete other schoolsystem, so I
don't have a clue what 2,32 GPA means.

Sorry, I did it again, damnit! GPA means Grade Point Average. We use a
4.0 grading system in community colleges and universities where 0.0 is
an E or F, 0.5 is barely passing maybe with a D-, 2.0 is a C, 3.0 is a
B and 4.0 is an A. My school, Oakland University, used a 4.3 system
where 4.3 was essentially an A+. I hope your schools at least use a
similar letter grading system.

Most schools use a decimal system from 1 till 10, of course 1 is not very
good and thats an understatement, but 10 is passing a test without mistakes.
Avrage 6 is suficcient to go to a higher class.

To recap, American schools are basically organized this way: K-6
(Kindergarten through 6th grade) is called "elementary school, grades 7
and 8 "middle school" and 9-12 "high school." Colleges and universities
are divided into "undergraduate" which means one hasn't yet earned the
most basic degree, a bachelor of science or bachelor or arts, and
"graduate" degrees which include a masters or PhD (Doctor of
Philosophy) and also MD (Medical Doctor), DDS (Doctor of Dental
Surgery), and LLD (Letter of Law Doctorate, I think, i.e., an attorney.

Schoolsystem is very different in The Netherlands since I was young and I
can hardly explain the system now.
Basisschool (children from 4 till 12), kindegarten is included but the name
does not exist anymore.
They are talking in groups, grop 1 till group 8.
After that school is a very complex system I cannot explain anymore.
University is of course the highest grade.

So, under my university's grading system, I graduated barely above the
minimum necessary, a 2.0, with what amounted to be a low C+.

My youngest daughter went always for the minimum because there were much
things nicer than school, she only worked hard when she decided to become a
maternity nurse (says my dictionary)
She looks like her father, till my 16th I did not study very hard.

The only thing thats clear is that you had to work hard to graduate,
so we can shake hands.
I completely agree that learning is a life-long endeavor, for you,
for me because we are interested in a lot of things.
Not everybody thinks the same way.

Yeah, I worked my skinny ass off, Bouler! Here's what one of my days
was like: I'd get up early, eat a breakfast of oatmeal or bacon and
eggs, finish up any homework and commute to school Go to school and
study on campus until early afternoon, return home, eat a fast dinner
and go to work in a department store from 5-9 PM to earn gas money and
money to go on dates with girls. Then, study until about midnight or
when I fell asleep at the kitchen table. On weekends, I'd date, have
fun with my friends, go cruising to try to pick up girls or maybe
engage in drag racing at night while working Saturday and Sunday 8
hours and studying in whatever time was left besides sleeping.

Because I was studyïng in a boardingschool we studied 6 days of the week and
had specific studyhours and you did not get a chance to miss them, the
punishment was most of the time staying in school the whole weekend.
We had not much choice we simply had to.
No time to earn some money and not much time to have fun, exept when you
were doïng something cultural so me and my friends played in a band, were
singing in a lot of choirs, we did everything possible to get out of the
building to make fun and of course with girls.
Sometimes it was dangerous because you could be send home and never
graduate.
4 times I was very near but I came away with it.
I did not choose the school for earning a lot of money, I wanted to educate
children and pass my knowledge to them.
After all it was not payïng bad an we had lots of holidays;-)

The goal for me was two-fold: earn a degree that would enable me to try
for a high-paying job (which is why I chose engineering which is still
the highest paying job with a B.S. degree, the most I hoped to attain)
and stay out of the Army and a rice paddy in Viet Nam at least long
enough to earn my degree. Our draft system believed that having a
college degree, especially a technical one, was an important asset
militarily even if one did not become an officer (I was an enlisted
man, coming out a sergeant with 3 stripes after 20 months), so we had a
system of student deferrments that allowed only 4 years for college.
So, I HAD to get it done. I started work the next day after
commencement and fought the draft for about a year and lost. But, as it
turned out while Army life was hardly fun at the time, I DID get a
chance to tour much of southern Europe and the experience of being
completely on my own matured me greatly and turned out to be quite
useful in my later career.

Lots of pretty
smart men and women go to engineering school and the admissions
process we used here prior to affirmative action initiatives
guaranteed that only the best of the best got in.

Thats life Jerry, for my school to study for teacher there were 120
people that want that study at that specific school, after a
starting examination only 48, the maximum the school could handle
got that chance I I was one of them.

I did not have to take the standard testing of the day, such as the SAT
(Scholasitic Appitude Test) as a senior in High School, but my grades
and a recommendation from my counselor, principle, and at least one
teacher were required. Then, I had to compete against all other
applicants based on the number of freshman class openings. Once
accepted, I spent two entire days of mathematics and English aptitude
written testing, one day for each. Talk about difficult! Wow! My
English scores were OK but my math score was barely passing. My advisor
told me that if I actually cut it and graduated I would be the first in
his experience with a math aptitude that low. That sobered me up -
fast! He helped me a great deal through the many tank traps along the
way such as scheduling conflicts and getting me into the lesser
difficulty liberal arts classes that were required beyond what were
called "core curriculum" for my engineering school degree.

I don't know what the numbers were at my college as I didn't have
access to the number of applicants nor the number who failed to make
the cut on the 2-day testing gig, but I would suspect it was similary
to your experience. My engineering class itself was small, maybe 40 or
50 (I've always wished that OU had a yearbook, but they didn't) and I
think they all managed to graduate. That I know of, my ranking was 4th
from the bottom, or maybe 5th, but no higher. The class was divided
along lines of intelligence and grades informally. The smart guys
studied together and refusted to help us not so smart guys because they
wanted us to get lousy grades so the "curve", or statistical grading
system to decide the numeric score you're probably familiary with is
helped by the number of people on a test that score below the
statistical median or mean and skew the grade distribution to the low
end making it easier to earn a 3.0 or 4.0.

We helped each other a lot, maybe because teaching each other is a way of
learning too.
I still heve many contacts from that time and we had several reunions.
Next year again a reunion because its than 45 years ago we graduated.

Very smart after all;-)
Nobody knows 100% of something is my humble opinion.
A specialist is someone who knows almost everything about almost
nothing.

I agree. Just like the gun slinger days of the old American West,
where there was ALWAYS someone faster on the draw, there is always
someone smarter than you and wealthier than you. But, there is also
at least one person dumber and poorer than you, also! grin here,
no insult intended Seriously, one of my favorite saying from the
Dirty Harry cop movies is "a man's GOT to know his limitations",
that is, be humble one can NEVER know it all, no matter how hard or
long one tries, because the colllective body of knowledge on even a
narrow subject is exploding so fast.

I think that was the best Dirty Harry ever said and I agree
completely. Yes I know those movies from Clint Eastwood, I think he
is in politics now. Now I think I need some sleep, its 4.30 AM;-)

Most people like his other quotes, basically "this is a .44 Magnum and
will blow you head clean off, now do you feel lucky? well, do you,
punk?" Yeah, that's OK, but I liked the other one because it was useful
in real-life and not just cop movies. It is interestint that you are
familiar with the Dirty Harry series. It was a money maker but not an
award-winning movie. I often use movies to illustrate things to you and
others and I wonder a lot if my international friends know what the
hell I'm talking about! grin

Guns in America and guns in The Netherlands is world of difference.
Not many people have guns here and its even forbidden exept for policeman
and guards.
I think there are to many guns in the states.
--
Greetings
Bouler (The Netherlands)