HOW TO SEE

An I-Witness Account

The World Can Tell You Many Things
Once You Know How To Look

So you're watching a sunset, and the bottom of the sun has just touched the horizon. In three minutes, the sun will be out of sight.

So you're back the next day to do it again, all ready to impress your friends with the three-minute rule. Now you're wondering how long you have until sunset.

Easy. Extend your arm fully and rotate four fingers inward. See how many fingers you can fit between the bottom of the sun and the horizon. Each finger is 15 minutes. It's reasonably accurate within three hours of sunset.

Just a couple ways the world is showing you stuff. Here are some others.

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If you see a satellite dish in North America, it is pointing south. Determine other directions from there.

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If you're wondering how deep those floodwaters are, remember the top of a stop sign is usually seven feet off the ground.

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If smoke doesn't move in the wind, the wind is less than 5 miles per hour. If you can feel the wind on your face, and see leaves move, the wind speed is 6 to 10 mph. Leaves and small branches will both be moving when the wind speed is 15 to 20 mph. Dust is kicked up and paper blown at 20-25 mph, and large tree branches begin to move above 30 mph.

Above 40 mph, you can hear whistling along wires, empty plastic containers will blow over, and walking into the wind is difficult. If whole trees are in motion, the wind is above 50 mph and it's time to go inside.

If you're looking at the aftermath of a tornado, if cars were thrown, it was at least an EF4 (168 mph). If trees are stripped of bark, winds were in excess of 200 mph (an EF5).

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Extend your arm fully and compare the size of a distant human with the size of your thumb. If they are the same size, the person is 100 yards away. This is a rough measurement, of course, like many listed here, but it is literally a rule of thumb.

If your thumb-sized human is in a crowd, extend both arms, put the tips of your forefingers together, and raise your thumbs in a football goal post shape. If all the people are in a single line, there will be about 100 people between your thumbs. Test this the next time you're in a football stadium.

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To measure the heat of warming water without a thermometer, look at the size of the bubbles. You get bubbles the size of shrimp eyes at 160, crab-size eyes at 175, and fish-size eyes at 185. At 195, you'll get string-of-pearl bubbles.

For higher altitudes, the boiling point of water drops 1 for every 500 feet of elevation. At 7,500 feet, water will boil at around 198.

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If you're driving down the road following an 18-wheeler, and you can't see the side mirrors of the cab, you're too close to stop or pass safely. If you're pulled up behind a car at a stop light and can't see the bottom of the rear tires, you're too close to turn around that vehicle without having to back up first.

SPECIAL NOTE ON PEOPLE

One of the oldest tells in spotting a liar is when someone is saying yes while shaking their head no. You can train yourself to spot this just by watching Dateline.

SPECIAL SECTION ON GAMBLING

• If you see a 2 and a 7 of different suits as your hole cards when you're playing Texas Holdem poker, fold immediately. It's the least likely combination to win.

• If you see people just betting for fun at a race track, realize it's an opportunity to take their money.

The most consistently profitable form of wagering is horse racing because the Racing Form gives you the advantage of asymmetric information over other bettors in the parimutuel pool. The corollary: if you don't know how to read a Racing Form, never bet a horse race. It's the pros versus the Joes. Don't be a Joe.

• The Gretzky Rule (you miss 100% of the shots you don't take) has a corollary in wagering. You win money every time you do not buy a lotto ticket. Lotteries are a tax on people who are bad at math.

Here's a scientifically studied reminder
to pay attention to everything.
It's called The Monkey Business Illusion.