Hiding in plain sight

[OuBallieParticipant @ouballie]

Ever searched for something.

[OuBallieParticipant @ouballie]

Spot the suds bottle.

Couldnt resist another thread after my episode of a few weeks ago.

Album 'Hiding in Plain Sight' created for others to add to.

I'd been using the spray bottle containing suds whilst either turning or parting off, finished and went to drill something and needed the suds.

Could I 'find' that container, could I heck, even searching everywhere.

When I did see it where I had just used it, I couldn't be bothered to have words with myself, so just shook my head in dismay and disbelieve.

Geoff – Marlow Drawbar done

Edited By OuBallie on 14/12/2014 16:25:46

[Carl Wilson 4Participant @carlwilson4]

It may interest you to know that this type of thing is called "cognitive failure". In order to become a licensed aircraft engineer it is a requirement to study a fairly sizable module on human factors. This is intended to make one mindful of one's own failings, in an attempt to prevent this sort of occurence.

[BazyleParticipant @bazyle]

I'm still looking for a clock that I got a new quartz mechanism for a few weeks ago. It was under my desk for the best part of a year before I remembered to get the part when ordering some other bits. But I had had a tidy up only a week before so now have no idea where it is. I need to lose the new part so I can find the thing it goes in.

[Thor 🇳🇴Participant @thor]

Geoff, probably something wrong with my old eyes, but aren't there two spray containers? One in front of the headstock, another (spraycan) behind the tailstock, how did you miss both?

Thor

[Mike TeamanParticipant @miketeaman64279]

My good lady would say that if you had less "stuff" it would be easier to find. A friend reported his car stolen before it was found on another floor of the multi-storey car park!

Mike

[V8EngParticipant @v8eng]

I find it simpler just to blame the resident Elves playing games.

Must say that I like your bed way protection bellows Geoff.

Edited By V8Eng on 14/12/2014 17:47:52

[davebParticipant @daveb17630]

Cognitive failure is responsible for the workshop gremlin myth. What you are looking for is actually where you expected it to be, you are simply incapable of recognizing it. It's related to invisible rat syndrome. Rats are not invisible but most people genuinely do not see them, very strange when you consider there is at least one rat within a few feet of you at any given moment. It's all to do with the brain's processing of sensory input, much of it is filtered because it does not directly relate to the task at hand. A short break and a cup of tea will usually resolve the problem.

Dave

[Carl Wilson 4Participant @carlwilson4]

Spot on that man. I was working on an aircraft once, removing a mainplane flap. The individual I was working with had set down a spanner for a moment, next to one of the flap attachment brackets. He then could not see it, and started to panic. I walked over and put my hand straight on it, picking it up. My friend could not believe it. He'd been looking directly at it for minutes, and yet his brain did not "see" it.

[Enough!Participant @enough]

Posted by daveb on 14/12/2014 18:00:29:

there is at least one rat within a few feet of you at any given moment.

There's lies, damn lies and statistics.

…. then there's abuse of statistics

[OuBallieParticipant @ouballie]

Thor,

Damn I forgot about that other one

Geoff – Well I am recuperating from the drawbar saga

V8Eng,

The bellows are from ArcEuro.

I spent hours searching for something and other than drilling, tapping, slotting and adding a bracket it's a straight fit and easy to lift out.

Protects the Leadscrew to boot.

Geoff – Time to watch 'Breaking Bad'

Edited By OuBallie on 14/12/2014 20:19:08

[Bob Brown 1Participant @bobbrown1]

Rat's, I'd hate to think how many rats to get to that figure, estimates for the number of rats in the UK is around 10 to 12 million so 6 feet is impossible, 160 + feet. Bit like the myth you can get the world population on the Isle of Wight, nope, 600,000 + at the Isle of Wight pop festival but that's not the whole population.

Bob

[martin perman 1Participant @martinperman1]

Several years ago I called my wife into the garage and waving a screwdriver in her face said have you seen this screwdriver because I cant find it any where, I'd been using it but rather than put it down held it with two of my fingers laid along my arm whilst using my thumb, index and middle finger to assemble something, my wife couldnt make her mind up whether to fetch the white coat brigade or make me a cuppa.

martin P

[Clive HartlandParticipant @clivehartland94829]

I shot 12 rats in my garden this year, they burrow through from next door and I wait until they start to emerge from the hole and shoot them. Next door he baited up and collected 16 dead rats of all sizes. I would expect at least as many dead out of sight! At the moment I have seen none for a few months. They nest under his Pergola.

Hempstead valley shopping Center, we walk down a half mile to it and I garantee seeing 1 or 2 rats on the way and some of them are big! Often they are squashed on the road nearby. The whole shopping precinct is littered with rat bait boxes so they know its ongoing.

At the back of the estate is a small wood and then arable fields and there are rats up there as well. I think that a lot of people do not see them but I look for them and see them where I expect to see them.

Clive

[davebParticipant @daveb17630]

Clive, exactly! If you look, you will see them. Bob, you may be right, the trouble is that the people who are supposed to count the rats cannot see them. I explained all this to my wife several years ago when she told me she had never seen a rat, she has no trouble seeing them now. She went to the town centre shopping precinct recently and saw a large rat walking about in the supermarket, there were a lot of people in there but none of them seemed to notice it. I was not intending to make an issue of rats, I just used them as an example of one of the things we do not see. It's just the way our brains work. If the rats were spiders or snakes, we would have no difficulty in seeing them at all. Bandersnatch, go outside and look left or right or straight ahead, it may even be behind you but it's there!

Has anyone else noticed something odd about cats? Their mouths being bigger than their heads and their clawmarks being three times the size of their feet for example?

Dave

[Ady1Participant @ady1]

I find things a lot easier to spot in the workshop if they are a primary colour like red or yellow

[Enough!Participant @enough]

Posted by daveb on 14/12/2014 23:24:16:

Bandersnatch, go outside and look left or right or straight ahead, it may even be behind you but it's there!

Sure, I've seen rats. I dont deny they're around in sizeable numbers. It was your method of interpreting some statistics that I was commenting on – the common (and erroneous) practice of using mass statistics in individual cases.

"there is at least one rat within a few feet of you at any given moment"

gives the same statistical weight to my living room as it does to any rat-infested sewer; the same statistical weight to a square mile at the south pole as to the most flea-bitten third world country. It takes the total number of rats and divides it by the total land area of the earth and the result is then quoted in various forms on the internet (where they manage to get a different result on each "authoritative" site).

If you want to spend a little more time on this, find a deserted parking lot somewhere; draw a circle of "a few feet" radius; stand in the centre of the circle; count the rats in the circle.

Edited By Bandersnatch on 15/12/2014 01:05:06

[Enough!Participant @enough]

Posted by Ady1 on 15/12/2014 00:39:14:

I find things a lot easier to spot in the workshop if they are a primary colour like red or yellow

I don't think rats come in those colours, Ady.

[Bob Brown 1Participant @bobbrown1]

When I put things down I usually remember where I left them that is until someone moves it or puts it away then it gets a bit tricky to find as the last place to look is the obvious one of where it lives.

Rat's, was greeted by a young rat (5 to 6" with out the tail ) this morning as a present from one of our three cats fortunately dead on the floor, where there is one there is more so more presents to come. Fully grown ones may be too big for the cats are more of a job for the dog but I doubt our young Spaniel will know what to do with one more a job for a Jack Russell.

Bob

Edited By Bob Brown 1 on 15/12/2014 08:28:09

[Gordon WParticipant @gordonw]

Would not worry too much, I've been loosing stuff for donkies years , so it's not just old age.I find the best way to find a dropped item is just to drop something else about the same size, just a bit of scrap 'caus that will then be lost. Rats, definetley within 6 ft, our cats won't go near a grown rat, but will kill and bring home a stoat.

[OuBallieParticipant @ouballie]

Yesterday evening just before going on her nursing shift, other half asked where her glasses where.

I looked at her and then pointedly at the top of her head where they sat, and where she has put them not a minute earlier. I try my best not to laugh, but sometimes just cannot stop myself, to which in response I get 'that look'

Why can't we do that look I wonder?

MartinP,

ROFL

Have you lived that episode down yet?

Dave,

Why the difference in recognising spiders and snakes?

Perception of danger or the way they move?

Must admit I have no problem spotting the rodents in the garden, but none for years now. That snake must have something to do with that, and to thank. The poison I put down in the shed has only now been touched, so snakey no doubt hibernating.

Geoff – Monday is i-device backup and Garage cleanup day

[Carl Wilson 4Participant @carlwilson4]

OK…so now we've established that we have to paint rats red or yellow….

Right, I know we haven't established that…just pointing out another element of cognitive failure. It happens here all the time and the thread goes off on a tangent…the original question gets muddied because a reply makes a statement which is then assumed to be a valid part of the original enquiry.

[BazyleParticipant @bazyle]

What was the original enquiry? I don't seem to be able to see the first post.

[V8EngParticipant @v8eng]

I've decided to stay with the mischievious Elves theory it is so much easier and, even the wife blames them for things she cannot find now.

As for Rats, I leave them to the neighbours super hunter cat, which also sorts out Sqirrels and, has even attacked an odd Fox or two!

Edited By V8Eng on 15/12/2014 10:46:07

[davebParticipant @daveb17630]

For those who lost the thread and think it's gone OT (and this is a perfect example of what was being discussed), some of us were trying to shed light on why we do not see things. Geoff, spiders and snakes get our full attention because we immediately identify them as a threat. I have to admit, knowing all this does not stop me losing things. Dave

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