I'd like to believe there is a secret rag tag bunch of 60-70 year old, retired Engineers out there working on some cool tech.
If we have 60-70 year old's running for president, moving the markets on wall st and robbing diamonds there just have to be a few greybeards dying of cancer working on perpetual motion or something.
I mean this is the generation that built the first rockets and computers with fucking slide rules. I am sure a few lurk around here. What are you busybodies upto?
60+ become candidates because of accumulated wealth, accumulated critical mass of professional and political connections, and a bit of end-of-life ego.
As for what old STEM people do, my father started to learn C++ at 66, learned Python at 68, modified and invented variations of heat pipes for energy efficient home cooling, designed and built a home-brew control system (before weenie arduino stuff), mastered the art of the perfect grilled pork burrito, and learned to play jazz clarinet. Really miss that cranky old geezer. RIP, Dad.
Is anybody else really, really tired of the focus on their age? I feel like every British media outlet has been churning out the same low-hanging fruit for months now: "Old school gangsters" going after "one last job". I vaguely remember the actual 6 o'clock BBC news making some gag about zimmer frames or hip replacements. Two of them were in their forties for one thing...
I sincerely hope that when I'm of a certain vintage the only remark on any of my achievements* won't be "check out how OLD he is".
*Hesitant to call a robbery an achievement, but in a sense it is.
The rumour is that it was masterminded by a well-known career criminal who was subsequently murdered in his garden by a hit man - possibly because the point of the raid was to find some incriminating evidence that was being kept in the vault, and the gold and shiny stuff was a useful bonus.
They did indeed overdo it in the article, but I would say that its a relevant angle - the article actually repeats various quotes from the different criminals saying that their ages were important to put the police off the scent.
Generally I dislike age based stories especially ones that imply that older people should have a different standard of behaviour, or be more intelligent, mature etc. Often I suspect these arguments to come from young people who view those older as more different than themselves. The truth of the matter appears to me to be that people don't become more smarter as they age from middle age to old age, and they don't get any more mature or emotionally more intelligent, however you would imagine that time passed may give a little bit more wisdom in certain aspects (e.g. dealing with grief and personal vanity)
Their age is unimportant. They made the same mistakes that all criminals make when they can't keep their mouths shut. Socialising together is stupid.
My father worked in Scotland Yard. He once told me that their are villians and professionals. They never catch the professionals. They always catch the villians through loose talk.
The hardest thing isn't the theft, it's the fencing of the goods, and then hiding the proceeds from the taxman. You can't just start driving around in a Bentley and buying houses.
These guys were always going to get caught however old they were.
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[ 3.1 ms ] story [ 44.3 ms ] threadIf we have 60-70 year old's running for president, moving the markets on wall st and robbing diamonds there just have to be a few greybeards dying of cancer working on perpetual motion or something. I mean this is the generation that built the first rockets and computers with fucking slide rules. I am sure a few lurk around here. What are you busybodies upto?
As for what old STEM people do, my father started to learn C++ at 66, learned Python at 68, modified and invented variations of heat pipes for energy efficient home cooling, designed and built a home-brew control system (before weenie arduino stuff), mastered the art of the perfect grilled pork burrito, and learned to play jazz clarinet. Really miss that cranky old geezer. RIP, Dad.
P.S. Can you (pretty please) pass on the secret for the burrito?
I sincerely hope that when I'm of a certain vintage the only remark on any of my achievements* won't be "check out how OLD he is".
*Hesitant to call a robbery an achievement, but in a sense it is.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3484924/Was-Goldfing...
This is the Daily Mail, so credibility isn't guaranteed - but still an interesting angle.
Generally I dislike age based stories especially ones that imply that older people should have a different standard of behaviour, or be more intelligent, mature etc. Often I suspect these arguments to come from young people who view those older as more different than themselves. The truth of the matter appears to me to be that people don't become more smarter as they age from middle age to old age, and they don't get any more mature or emotionally more intelligent, however you would imagine that time passed may give a little bit more wisdom in certain aspects (e.g. dealing with grief and personal vanity)
My father worked in Scotland Yard. He once told me that their are villians and professionals. They never catch the professionals. They always catch the villians through loose talk.
The hardest thing isn't the theft, it's the fencing of the goods, and then hiding the proceeds from the taxman. You can't just start driving around in a Bentley and buying houses.
These guys were always going to get caught however old they were.