It's not that cars are *unserviceable* , it's the fact that cars these days are very reliable. Gone are the days when you had to change the oil and filter and check the points every 1000 miles.
What with EFI and EGO sensors, cars are pretty much self tuning and will put up with all sorts of crap. They can now run for ludicrous distances without major repairs - you can get 150,000 km from a car and only have to remember to change the oil and put on a set of tyres occasionally. The buick-derived motor in my Australian-built car has seen over 350,000 kilometers, and still contains all it's major components and doesn't blow smoke. The bits that have worn out (water pump, battery, alternator) do not require a diagnostic computer to diagnose.
Speaking as an auto electrician, yes, your company is pretty much screwed if you come across a late model volvo that's fried its crank angle sensor, and you don't have the reader to figure it out. Speaking as the person who drives their car however, it's still a damn sight better then when you had to set the mixture on your carby for winter and pull a little knob marked "choke" to get your car to start.
I saw a quote the other day (from fortune, no less), it went: "When all else fails, pour a pint of guinness into the gas tank, shout 'God Save The Queen!', and pull the starter briskly. - MG A series workshop manual"
Theoretically , you should be able to pinpoint the last known position of a repeater before it went offline, by triangulating its position from a few ground stations. All you'd really need is a low-power "save me" beacon to home in on when it hits the deck. Presuming that there is anything left when it hits the deck, of course.
Maybe someone could build a distributed client that measures signal strength and delay times to it's repeaters and (with a few other clients) triangulate positions from there. Would be good to have a webpage of 'downed wifi equipment' to trawl through... just in case.
We are talking about just a few dozon baloons. It dosn't matter where they end up.
Bzzt! Wrong answer.
Take (for example) Antartica. Seeing as scientists launch approx 9,000 balloons a year from all the antarctic bases , that's a lot of ballons left lying (or floating) around. As most ballons are made of some form of plastic , they will likely remain in the environment for at least a hundred years. Animals often confuse ballons floating around for food and die.
Personally , I don't think they've a hope in hell of providing any decent , permanent coverage from ballons... unless maybe if they were tethered.
Maybe the problem is that a lot of foreigners simply cannot accept prices that don't have a ton of zeroes tacked on?
I live in australia and recently went to indonesia on business. Presently , you get around 5,000 rupiah for an australian dollar... which makes it more than a little mind-bending :
They have 100,000 rupiah notes, and it seems everyone has a handful of them!
Calculators have 13 digit displays!
I read the paper and they're casually mentioning 40 billion rupiah figures, and they're only talking about a block of flats!
Thing is , they still use the lower end of the scale. Petrol costs around 800 rupiah per litre, a few vege's will cost 500 etc. It really freaked out our accountant - he kept saying "What!? 20,000 for pizza!? Let's get something else!" I'd have to remind him that it was only four bucks....
the chances of it whacking something I care about would be 1:1,000,000, which still isn't enough for me to pump another tax dollar into a search for tiny asteroids.
Well, yes... until an asteroid hits water instead of land.
There has been a lot of debate over how big a splash one would make if it hit ocean instead of dirt... but I'd still not like to take the chance of one landing in the pacfic ocean.
we should cut the entire funding! it's the biggest waste of time to "search the skies" for things that we will never reach in this lifetime. start worrying about problems on this planet before we go polluting others.
Yeah! why bother, when the things that we are looking for are coming to us anyway! And when a few cubic km of rock drops into the pacific at 30km/s, we can deal with the problem at home, just like we should.
I think this is one case where they could simply set up some distributed PC's (different IP's in different class C's) and just have P2P clients serving 'bad' versions of their own copyrighted music.
Somebody is already doing this,to some extent. Searches on gnutella (for just about anything) bring up hits with file names like "your search terms.MPG"... at 20k or so, I'm not interested. But still, it means somebody's written a client that replies to the P2P network with flawed data deliberately.
Peter Parker seems to be able to use his spider sense quite well. Jedi use their feeling of the force, a sense which most do not posses (but then again it does take years of training).
That's a lousy argument, seeing that both spiderman and Jedi ARE NOT REAL.
Again, I'll try to implant a small sense of reality into your head: Peter Parker can use is spider-sense well because he's NOT REAL Jedi use their feeling of force ok because they are NOT REAL
Ok, then back to the argument.
I'd guess that it would take the same amount of time to adapt to this system as it would for children to develop their visual cortex, so what, 10 years? Depending upon how flexible your brain is at learning strange new things.
er,
Don't Wi-Fi cards output in the 20-100 milliwatt range usually? I'd presume that these lights only produce a minor amount of 2.4ghz of output or the FCC'd be all over them. The 2.4Ghz band *is* regulated still - there are limits on power output etc.
Anyway, it all depends on how it is distributed across the 2.4Ghz spectrum - I presume it's peaked being RF excitation, which normally means you're aiming for a narrow energy state in your gas. So, a single 500khz-wide peak with all output power going into it ain't going to hurt too much.
But the other extreme is also true - a few watts of energy, dispersed across the entire 2.4Ghz range will just wind up being a low-level noise.
It could do just what normal people do when faced with conflicting information. When questioned about green / orange people , say "Well , I don't know, there seems to be a lot of disagreement on the matter"
If there are more "green is good" facts in there, sway it's response towards that camp, with another comment such as ", but it seems that a lot of people think that green is good"
Until people start putting in the reasons *WHY* green is good, that's all it can say on the matter.
Think about it for a minute: how come your television can accurately display the signal, but your VCR can't accurately record it?
Because the signal on the tape does not conform to PAL / NTSC standards, that's why.
Your VCR has a lot of work to do to record and play back video. It needs precise timing and sync signals. Macrovision adds extra pulses in at the start of frames to fool the VCR's head sync circuitry, they fiddle with the colour bursts where the VCR tries to get it's average black signal, and they do a few other things (pulses at the end of each line?) that make life troublesome for your VCR.
Sadly, it also causes problems for things other than VCR's. RF modulators also tend to compound the problem , as the next in line gadget (TV, AMP with video overlay etc) has a slightly more corrupted signal to deal with.
Perhaps we should point out to all that a Macrovision video signal does not conform fully to PAL or NTSC standards (like those 'crippled' CD's) and politely ask for them to stop.
**begin rant:
I bought a cheap-o DVD player. Specifically asked store if the Macrovison could be turned off , as it played hell with the TV that I have.(Macrovision causes varying contrast , and a jolt in the vertical hold every five seconds on my TV) They said yes, but no, it turns out it couldn't be turned off. I brought it back after a week of fiddling and secret-codes etc. I brought my handheld scope and pointed out all the dancing sync pulses , and showed them an off-air broadcast signal for comparison. Case closed, money back.
I wish people would complain more. "Gee, this picture on this tape / DVD is *crap* . Oh well" - Take the damn thing back to the store and tell them that, and ask for a refund. Or an exchange, or something, but let them know that you're not happy.
Red light cameras (here in.au anyway) are wired to a set of sensor cables embedded at the entrance to the intersection.
You have to pass over them to trigger them, and the light has to be red whilst you are doing so, so if you are in the intersection and the light goes from orange to red, then you're ok.
In fact, people often set them off by being just a leeeeeeetle bit over the line where you are supposed to pull up. That's why normally they take at least 2 shots to see if you are actually moving.
You can normally tell when a camera takes a photo from the *very* bright flash used - ditto with speed cameras.
Also in.au, if you can prove (reasonably) that someone else was driving , and they are OK about copping the fine, you can sign a statutory declaration that it was somebody else, and the fine goes to them. Problem solved.
Companies/businesses who can't figure out who was driving their company cars get to pay twice the normal fine. Good if you're in cahoots with your manager;-)
You need clearance from your countries aviation authority before you do things like this, for all the obvious reasons, like launching into the underside of a 747 flying over and such.
The shuttle is acutally designated as "experimental" under the US's FAA rules. In fact, if you've got a shot of one of them, the words "experimental" are usually near the cockpit underneath the shuttle name. Not a reasurring sight for astronauts, I'm sure;-)
It all depends on his power to weight ratio. If it's only a little bit more than 1,he's in for a long trip, with lotsa fuel.
Too much and he'll be in for one hell of a trip.
If I remember my high school physics (correct me and mod me down please if this is wrong!)
Eg. Mass of 1000kg of rocket + fuel = 1,000,000 grams.
power to weight ratio of 1.1 = Net upwards force of 100kg = approx 1,000,000N thrust.
From the basic equation, Force (newtons) = mass (grams) * acceleration (meters/second ) this gives : Acceleration (meters/second) = force (newtons) / mass (grams)
= 1,000,000 / 1,000,000 Resulting in 1m/s upwards acceleration.
not counting other effects , you can then find out the time to reach 30km:
V = u + at = 0 + 1 m/ss *244 seconds = 244m/s = 878 km/h
Then you get the dynamic effects such as friction from the air, which decreases with altitude, but increases with speed and the fact that his vehicle is getting lighter as he burns more fuel. Sure hope he's done his sums right. (and he double checks the parachutes)
These hackers are unlikely to be able to compromise root, I've got a > 25 characters in length password of upper+lowercase+alphanumeric+numbers
Troll,
You don't have to figure out your root password once they're in.
They just have to bend/break one of your daemons running as root, or a higher privelige than what they've got, and they are out of that users account, and installing their own backdoor somewhere as root. That's why rootkits are called rootkits
Anyone,
Who was that person that saw a intruder get in, install rootkit in 7 seconds and then get in through his newly installed backdoor later?
Luckily he had a modified a few system programs to log all data to a file, otherwise he would have been screwed, as the intruder tidied up the system logs and all on his way out.
One of our computers here has some sort of problem and corrupts word documents to the point that when you open them on another computer, word locks up.
I had a particular one today that somehow managed to get two lines of text formatted in such a way that each character was allegedly on a separate page, but the two lines displayed perfectly on screem. Only the page counter in the status bar gave it away. Any attempt to open it in Word (97 - 2002) resulted in endless repaginating.
Staroffice 5.2 however read it fine, and was able to save it back as a word document, good as new.
This sort of corruption has happend a few times, and SO 5.2 has always managed to open the file fine.
I guess sometimes it helps to use an import filter.
You're half right - Actually the ballast is also there to limit the current flowing through the tube.
What (roughly) happens is:
You turn the power on. The starter heats the two filaments, via the ballast, at either end of the tube for a few seconds, and then breaks that circuit. Since there was current flowing through the ballast , and the ballast is inductive (well, the old types) a high voltage kick is produced, which is placed across the tube, which fires it. That great. Except that the problem is that the voltage required to maintain the arc inside the tube is a lot less than the voltage to start the arc, so you need to regulate the current through the tube to stop it from blowing up. The ballast, being inductive, presents a nice resistance at the mains frequency of 50/60Hz, which limits the tube current under normal operating conditions.
Anyways, that's how I remember it.
Those new-fangled solid state ones might as well be magic - they have the same effect, but how is a different matter.
Some people do not want or have a need for the modern medicine that a hospital or clinic would provide.
I think that the "some people" that you refer to are in the minority.
I understand that 'some people' may not want modern medicine due to various reasons. Of course, 'some people' would prefer to die in agony from a burst appendix than get medical help. 'Some people' get a nice case of lockjaw from the tetanus infection they got from a cut. 'Some people' walk with a limp from that leg that they broke when they were six. 'Some people' just plain lose all their teeth by the time they are 35, presuming that they live that long.
But I'm sure 'most people' would rather have a hospital or clinic nearby. And, when it comes down to it, most people are pretty flexible about issues such as their personal beliefs conflicting with urgent medical treatment.
The fact of the matter is that it's our duty to provide opportunities for those who are less fortunate than us to improve themselves. That hosptial or clinic full of modern medicine has to be there on the off-chance that it might save a few lives and improve their quality of living. If pedal-powered LED lights gets it there, well I'm all for it.
If you can get a population that is healthy , they can get on with improving their situation. If they're so busy fighting to keep alive, well improvement takes a back seat.
This has turned into a bit of a rant. But having visited places where "upper class" living means having a toilet (which may be flushed with a bucket), it kinda stirs me up a bit.
Slashdot Mirror
It's not that cars are *unserviceable* , it's the fact that cars these days are very reliable. Gone are the days when you had to change the oil and filter and check the points every 1000 miles.
:
What with EFI and EGO sensors, cars are pretty much self tuning and will put up with all sorts of crap. They can now run for ludicrous distances without major repairs - you can get 150,000 km from a car and only have to remember to change the oil and put on a set of tyres occasionally. The buick-derived motor in my Australian-built car has seen over 350,000 kilometers, and still contains all it's major components and doesn't blow smoke. The bits that have worn out (water pump, battery, alternator) do not require a diagnostic computer to diagnose.
Speaking as an auto electrician, yes, your company is pretty much screwed if you come across a late model volvo that's fried its crank angle sensor, and you don't have the reader to figure it out. Speaking as the person who drives their car however, it's still a damn sight better then when you had to set the mixture on your carby for winter and pull a little knob marked "choke" to get your car to start.
I saw a quote the other day (from fortune, no less), it went
"When all else fails, pour a pint of guinness into the gas tank, shout 'God Save The Queen!', and pull the starter briskly.
- MG A series workshop manual"
It think it still sums it up nicely.
I wonder *how* remote.
Theoretically , you should be able to pinpoint the last known position of a repeater before it went offline, by triangulating its position from a few ground stations. All you'd really need is a low-power "save me" beacon to home in on when it hits the deck. Presuming that there is anything left when it hits the deck, of course.
Maybe someone could build a distributed client that measures signal strength and delay times to it's repeaters and (with a few other clients) triangulate positions from there. Would be good to have a webpage of 'downed wifi equipment' to trawl through... just in case.
We are talking about just a few dozon baloons. It dosn't matter where they end up.
Bzzt! Wrong answer.
Take (for example) Antartica. Seeing as scientists launch approx 9,000 balloons a year from all the antarctic bases , that's a lot of ballons left lying (or floating) around. As most ballons are made of some form of plastic , they will likely remain in the environment for at least a hundred years. Animals often confuse ballons floating around for food and die.
Personally , I don't think they've a hope in hell of providing any decent , permanent coverage from ballons... unless maybe if they were tethered.
Maybe the problem is that a lot of foreigners simply cannot accept prices that don't have a ton of zeroes tacked on?
....
I live in australia and recently went to indonesia on business.
Presently , you get around 5,000 rupiah for an australian dollar... which makes it more than a little mind-bending :
They have 100,000 rupiah notes, and it seems everyone has a handful of them!
Calculators have 13 digit displays!
I read the paper and they're casually mentioning 40 billion rupiah figures, and they're only talking about a block of flats!
Thing is , they still use the lower end of the scale. Petrol costs around 800 rupiah per litre,
a few vege's will cost 500 etc. It really freaked out our accountant - he kept saying "What!? 20,000 for pizza!? Let's get something else!" I'd have to remind him that it was only four bucks
the chances of it whacking something I care about would be 1:1,000,000, which still isn't enough for me to pump another tax dollar into a search for tiny asteroids.
... but I'd still not like to take the chance of one landing in the pacfic ocean.
Well, yes... until an asteroid hits water instead of land.
There has been a lot of debate over how big a splash one would make if it hit ocean instead of dirt
we should cut the entire funding! it's the biggest waste of time to "search the skies" for things that we will never reach in this lifetime. start worrying about problems on this planet before we go polluting others.
Yeah! why bother, when the things that we are looking for are coming to us anyway!
And when a few cubic km of rock drops into the pacific at 30km/s, we can deal with the problem at home, just like we should.
I think this is one case where they could simply set up some distributed PC's (different IP's in different class C's) and just have P2P clients serving 'bad' versions of their own copyrighted music.
,to some extent. ... at 20k or so, I'm not interested. But still, it means somebody's written a client that replies to the P2P network with flawed data deliberately.
Somebody is already doing this
Searches on gnutella (for just about anything) bring up hits with file names like "your search terms.MPG"
It doesn't come on CD does it?
Use virtual CD to make as virtual CD of virtual CD!
Oh, the *irony* !
:-)
Here's the argument for...
:
Peter Parker seems to be able to use his spider sense quite well.
Jedi use their feeling of the force, a sense which most do not posses (but then again it does take years of training).
That's a lousy argument, seeing that both spiderman and Jedi ARE NOT REAL.
Again, I'll try to implant a small sense of reality into your head
Peter Parker can use is spider-sense well because he's NOT REAL
Jedi use their feeling of force ok because they are NOT REAL
Ok, then back to the argument.
I'd guess that it would take the same amount of time to adapt to this system as it would for children to develop their visual cortex, so what, 10 years? Depending upon how flexible your brain is at learning strange new things.
What with slashdot spelling and all, maybe they were aiming for inciteful.
er,
Don't Wi-Fi cards output in the 20-100 milliwatt range usually? I'd presume that these lights only produce a minor amount of 2.4ghz of output or the FCC'd be all over them. The 2.4Ghz band *is* regulated still - there are limits on power output etc.
Anyway, it all depends on how it is distributed across the 2.4Ghz spectrum - I presume it's peaked being RF excitation, which normally means you're aiming for a narrow energy state in your gas. So, a single 500khz-wide peak with all output power going into it ain't going to hurt too much.
But the other extreme is also true - a few watts of energy, dispersed across the entire 2.4Ghz range will just wind up being a low-level noise.
It could do just what normal people do when faced with conflicting information.
When questioned about green / orange people
, say "Well , I don't know, there seems to be a lot of disagreement on the matter"
If there are more "green is good" facts in there, sway it's response towards that camp, with another comment such as ", but it seems that a lot of people think that green is good"
Until people start putting in the reasons *WHY* green is good, that's all it can say on the matter.
Think about it for a minute: how come your television can accurately display the signal, but your VCR can't accurately record it?
Because the signal on the tape does not conform to PAL / NTSC standards, that's why.
Your VCR has a lot of work to do to record and play back video. It needs precise timing and sync signals. Macrovision adds extra pulses in at the start of frames to fool the VCR's head sync circuitry, they fiddle with the colour bursts where the VCR tries to get it's average black signal, and they do a few other things (pulses at the end of each line?) that make life troublesome for your VCR.
Sadly, it also causes problems for things other than VCR's. RF modulators also tend to compound the problem , as the next in line gadget (TV, AMP with video overlay etc) has a slightly more corrupted signal to deal with.
Perhaps we should point out to all that a Macrovision video signal does not conform fully to PAL or NTSC standards (like those 'crippled' CD's) and politely ask for them to stop.
**begin rant:
I bought a cheap-o DVD player. Specifically asked store if the Macrovison could be turned off , as it played hell with the TV that I have.(Macrovision causes varying contrast , and a jolt in the vertical hold every five seconds on my TV) They said yes, but no, it turns out it couldn't be turned off. I brought it back after a week of fiddling and secret-codes etc. I brought my handheld scope and pointed out all the dancing sync pulses , and showed them an off-air broadcast signal for comparison. Case closed, money back.
I wish people would complain more. "Gee, this picture on this tape / DVD is *crap* . Oh well" - Take the damn thing back to the store and tell them that, and ask for a refund. Or an exchange, or something, but let them know that you're not happy.
**end rant
Red light cameras (here in .au anyway) are wired to a set of sensor cables embedded at the entrance to the intersection.
.au, if you can prove (reasonably) that someone else was driving , and they are OK about copping the fine, you can sign a statutory declaration that it was somebody else, and the fine goes to them. Problem solved.
;-)
You have to pass over them to trigger them, and the light has to be red whilst you are doing so, so if you are in the intersection and the light goes from orange to red, then you're ok.
In fact, people often set them off by being just a leeeeeeetle bit over the line where you are supposed to pull up. That's why normally they take at least 2 shots to see if you are actually moving.
You can normally tell when a camera takes a photo from the *very* bright flash used - ditto with speed cameras.
Also in
Companies/businesses who can't figure out who was driving their company cars get to pay twice the normal fine. Good if you're in cahoots with your manager
Heh,
one of the early phillips demo CD's did this to demonstrate the new-fangled CD players dynamic range... it went like this..
Orchestra playing softly....
Orchestra playing softly....
Orchestra playing softly....
Orchestra playing soft *********FUCKING BIG CANNON!************
As I recall, a lot of audiophile's speakers were replaced after the cones practically leapt across the room.
You need clearance from your countries aviation authority before you do things like this, for all the obvious reasons, like launching into the underside of a 747 flying over and such.
;-)
The shuttle is acutally designated as "experimental" under the US's FAA rules.
In fact, if you've got a shot of one of them, the words "experimental" are usually near the cockpit underneath the shuttle name. Not a reasurring sight for astronauts, I'm sure
All he wants to do is get to 30km up.
,he's in for a long trip, with lotsa fuel.
/second ) /second) = force (newtons) / mass (grams)
:
It all depends on his power to weight ratio.
If it's only a little bit more than 1
Too much and he'll be in for one hell of a trip.
If I remember my high school physics (correct me and mod me down please if this is wrong!)
Eg.
Mass of 1000kg of rocket + fuel = 1,000,000 grams.
power to weight ratio of 1.1 =
Net upwards force of 100kg = approx 1,000,000N thrust.
From the basic equation,
Force (newtons) = mass (grams) * acceleration (meters
this gives :
Acceleration (meters
= 1,000,000 / 1,000,000
Resulting in 1m/s upwards acceleration.
not counting other effects , you can then find out the time to reach 30km
s = ut + 1/2 at^2 (u= initial speed, presumably zero)
30,000 = 0 + 1/2 *1 * T^2
T^2 = 30,000 / 0.5
= 244 seconds.
And what the hell , his velocity at this point is
V = u + at
= 0 + 1 m/ss *244 seconds
= 244m/s
= 878 km/h
Then you get the dynamic effects such as friction from the air, which decreases with altitude, but increases with speed and the fact that his vehicle is getting lighter as he burns more fuel. Sure hope he's done his sums right.
(and he double checks the parachutes)
I think if it was done right 64 megs would be more then enough for most television type applications.
Be careful there - wild statements like that tend to come back to haunt you years later.
Besides, 640K should be enough for anybody.
I'll submit an article whenever Microsoft releases a hotfix!
No you won't - slashdot has a timer that stops you from submitting that often.
(sorry)
i mean mp3 is a good start i guess but IM not going to pay for lossy music
/. audiophiles)
Better start buying concert tickets, because if it ain't from their mouth straight to your ears, it's "lossy".
(ducks and runs for cover from the
These hackers are unlikely to be able to compromise root, I've got a > 25 characters in length password of upper+lowercase+alphanumeric+numbers
Troll,
You don't have to figure out your root password once they're in.
They just have to bend/break one of your daemons running as root, or a higher privelige than what they've got, and they are out of that users account, and installing their own backdoor somewhere as root. That's why rootkits are called rootkits
Anyone,
Who was that person that saw a intruder get in, install rootkit in 7 seconds and then get in through his newly installed backdoor later?
Luckily he had a modified a few system programs to log all data to a file, otherwise he would have been screwed, as the intruder tidied up the system logs and all on his way out.
One of our computers here has some sort of problem and corrupts word documents to the point that when you open them on another computer, word locks up.
I had a particular one today that somehow managed to get two lines of text formatted in such a way that each character was allegedly on a separate page, but the two lines displayed perfectly on screem. Only the page counter in the status bar gave it away. Any attempt to open it in Word (97 - 2002) resulted in endless repaginating.
Staroffice 5.2 however read it fine, and was able to save it back as a word document, good as new.
This sort of corruption has happend a few times, and SO 5.2 has always managed to open the file fine.
I guess sometimes it helps to use an import filter.
Ever heard of pulleys or gears?
You're half right - Actually the ballast is also there to limit the current flowing through the tube.
What (roughly) happens is:
You turn the power on.
The starter heats the two filaments, via the ballast, at either end of the tube for a few seconds, and then breaks that circuit. Since there was current flowing through the ballast , and the ballast is inductive (well, the old types)
a high voltage kick is produced, which is placed across the tube, which fires it.
That great.
Except that the problem is that the voltage required to maintain the arc inside the tube is a lot less than the voltage to start the arc, so you need to regulate the current through the tube to stop it from blowing up. The ballast, being inductive, presents a nice resistance at the mains frequency of 50/60Hz, which limits the tube current under normal operating conditions.
Anyways, that's how I remember it.
Those new-fangled solid state ones might as well be magic - they have the same effect, but how is a different matter.
Some people do not want or have a need for the modern medicine that a hospital or clinic would provide.
I think that the "some people" that you refer to are in the minority.
I understand that 'some people' may not want modern medicine due to various reasons. Of course, 'some people' would prefer to die in agony from a burst appendix than get medical help. 'Some people' get a nice case of lockjaw from the tetanus infection they got from a cut. 'Some people' walk with a limp from that leg that they broke when they were six. 'Some people' just plain lose all their teeth by the time they are 35, presuming that they live that long.
But I'm sure 'most people' would rather have a hospital or clinic nearby. And, when it comes down to it, most people are pretty flexible about issues such as their personal beliefs conflicting with urgent medical treatment.
The fact of the matter is that it's our duty to provide opportunities for those who are less fortunate than us to improve themselves. That hosptial or clinic full of modern medicine has to be there on the off-chance that it might save a few lives and improve their quality of living. If pedal-powered LED lights gets it there, well I'm all for it.
If you can get a population that is healthy , they can get on with improving their situation. If they're so busy fighting to keep alive, well improvement takes a back seat.
This has turned into a bit of a rant. But having visited places where "upper class" living means having a toilet (which may be flushed with a bucket), it kinda stirs me up a bit.