Reminds me about a true story in post-WW2 Italy. Seems that a regular guy won the lottery and was now rich. The newspaper reporters all went to his apartment building to interview him. They asked him "what are you going to do with all that money?" Before he could answer, another man stepped in front of him and said: "He's a member of our local communist party, and he's going to give it to the Party!". To which the lottery winner hastilly interjected "oh no, I'm not a communist any more!"
When did they ever work? Ever read Upton Sinclair's "The Jungle"? It's sensational, biased, and entertaining, with not a shred of verifiable data in it. Yet people call it a "documentary". Steinbeck's "The Grapes of Wrath" fall into the same box.
New technology has repeatedly caused a great deal of suffering as it makes people redundant. [...] The problem is not that society is not benefitted by new technology but that the benefit is not shared around. [...] Modern Western society has long since passed the point where everyone is required to work the majority of their time to survive. The model of people doing this has long since collapsed in terms of essentials and it's only kept going by mass-consumption of goods we don't really need (mostly status oriented) and services.
I think you need to think a bit more about this, your statements are contradictory on multiple levels. How can people be "suffering" because they aren't getting goods they don't need? And what benefit would there be to the wealth being "shared around" if they don't need it?
And, of course, WHY bring the entire spacecraft back? Just have a tiny capsule and bring the people down, leave the rest in orbit. This would enable far more useful mass to be put into orbit, rather than expending all that energy to put all the wings, etc., into orbit.
Yet, why have a reusable craft if it's so hard to add reentry capability? Just have a simple sphere with a heat shield and a parachute. It's probably cheaper to throw the rest of the rocket away and build another than to try to make it reusable.
There's a big reason not to use those flourescent bulbs - they contain mercury, which goes into the environment when the bulbs fail. I've used many different brands of flourescent bulbs, and the advertised claims of long life are utter lies. They fail just as often as incandescents.
You forgot about the fuel savings from not having to drive back to the video store to return the DVD. That's probably far more fossil fuel than is in the DVD.
And that's a good thing, because they announce the title and artist of the song. I hate it when the radio plays a song I like, and it's hell trying to figure out the artist/title so I can buy it. I'd have bought a lot more records over the years if I'd been able to figure out what band performed them.
Interesting, as it seems to be getting at the idea of launching different applications based on how long you hold down a hardware button,
My car radio's preset buttons have worked like that for decades. Press briefly, and it changes the station. Press and hold, and it changes the preset. Prior art.
The student's argument only has merit if the University is selling the degree for the money. However, this is not the case. The money is for attending classes and for the educational services of the University. The money is NOT for grades or a degree. The student received the classes and the educational services, therefore the student was not deprived of anything he was entitled to for the tuition money spent. The degree is awarded for meeting the academic requirements of the University, not for paying tuition. The student, because he cheated, did not meet the academic requirements, and therefore is not entitled to a degree.
Given the US's past (present and future) trend towards rampant, unbridled, unhindered, wanton capitalism,
With ever increasing legislation and creeping socialism in this country, the trend is away from capitalism.
The stock market has corrupted the entire concept of free market and free trade, not supported it.
The stock market goes back about 400 years, and is essential to the operation of a free market. Countries without a stock market tend to have economies in the dumpster.
Where else can somebody take an ethically deplorable action, such as firing thousands to inflate quarterly profits, and be rewarded with unimaginable riches by the shareholders?
You mean I can get unimaginably rich by hiring a thousand people, then fire them? Tell me more.
Light bulb -- Thomas Edison didn't invent the light bulb, but improved it. The inventor was a Sir Humphrey Davy of England, who created the first carbon arc lamp.
Arc lights are not "light bulbs" and are completely impractical for most lighting applications.
Edison and Sir Joseph Swann DID, however, create the first incandescant lamp.
Swann's light bulb was not practical. Edison's was.
Modern light bulb: I'll give you this one. I believe that most American's credit Thomas Edison for this, but Heinrich Goebel or Joseph Swan (depending on what you define as the invention...) definitely deserve it. Edison actually did very little in this field, he invented a longer lasting filament but within a year or two Lewis Latimer improved significantly on Edison's filament.
Edison invented the first practical lightbulb. Previous "lightbulbs" were useless. That gives the nod to Edison.
Regardless of how much Ford (the original) made cheap cars, he knew that it would mean jack if his employee's can't afford them. He hence paid his employees very well.
This is one of the dumber economic myths. Why don't you start a business and just try to make a profit by giving employees the money to buy the product from you. I wonder why they never teach that technique in business school. LOL!
The reason Ford paid his workers more was because it was boring, hard work and he had to pay more to get workers to do it. Nothing more than that. Ford's innovation to help people buy his cars was buying on the installment plan, not giving them money.
The reason for the USA's success is economic freedom. (The USSR had a huge, single market, too, but did not have a successful economy.) Any country can achieve economic greatness if they have the nerve to try economic freedom.
Anyone who thinks outsourcing is inherently bad should read up on the economic principle of comparative advantage. The good outweighs the bad, for the same reasons that we no longer live in completely self-sufficient families, making our own clothes, soap, tools, food, etc. We each do what we're best at, and trade that for everything else. Comparative advantage works on the personal, community, state, and national level.
Once they get the bill, they'll factor the cost in next time they try to ignore their limits. And when they do pay the bill, I don't see a problem with them making use of the service.
I'm amazed that you imagine that WW1 and earlier combat was "honorable". You should take a look at "The Pity of War" by Niall Ferguson to find out the truth about how the combatants treated each other in WW1. The Christmas episode you mentioned is famous because it was an aberration, not the norm. You might also want to check out "Andersonville" to deflate the fantasy that the American Civil War combatants behaved like boy scouts. Or "The Wild Frontier" by W. Osborn for how the American Indians and white settlers honorably treated each other.
War has always been about killing the other side as effectively as possible until they give up.
You need more than "ear and eye protection". You need a cement blast wall. I toured P&W's jet engine design plant once, and the engine test facility included a heavilly fortified blockhouse for the engineers. A turbine burst would be like a grenade going off with even a small engine.
I have some tape backups that lasted a lot less than that. The reason? Can't find a machine that will read the tapes anymore. I heard that google had a hard time reading some old magtapes to get the old news archives off of them (circa late '80s).
Generally, people who practice math avoidance through school are the ones who are easilly taken to the cleaners when it comes time to finance their car or their house.
Firesafes are like motorcycle helmets, they are only good for one fire/crash. A firesafe is made of a chemical that absorbs heat in an endothermic reaction. Once the chemical is used up, so goes the thermal protection. This reaction is going on even at room temperature, so firesafes gradually lose their protective ability. Be sure and read the instructions before relying on one.
The only reliable way to protect your data from fire is have offsite backups.
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Reminds me about a true story in post-WW2 Italy. Seems that a regular guy won the lottery and was now rich. The newspaper reporters all went to his apartment building to interview him. They asked him "what are you going to do with all that money?" Before he could answer, another man stepped in front of him and said: "He's a member of our local communist party, and he's going to give it to the Party!". To which the lottery winner hastilly interjected "oh no, I'm not a communist any more!"
When did they ever work? Ever read Upton Sinclair's "The Jungle"? It's sensational, biased, and entertaining, with not a shred of verifiable data in it. Yet people call it a "documentary". Steinbeck's "The Grapes of Wrath" fall into the same box.
New technology has repeatedly caused a great deal of suffering as it makes people redundant. [...] The problem is not that society is not benefitted by new technology but that the benefit is not shared around. [...] Modern Western society has long since passed the point where everyone is required to work the majority of their time to survive. The model of people doing this has long since collapsed in terms of essentials and it's only kept going by mass-consumption of goods we don't really need (mostly status oriented) and services.
I think you need to think a bit more about this, your statements are contradictory on multiple levels. How can people be "suffering" because they aren't getting goods they don't need? And what benefit would there be to the wealth being "shared around" if they don't need it?
And, of course, WHY bring the entire spacecraft back? Just have a tiny capsule and bring the people down, leave the rest in orbit. This would enable far more useful mass to be put into orbit, rather than expending all that energy to put all the wings, etc., into orbit.
Yet, why have a reusable craft if it's so hard to add reentry capability? Just have a simple sphere with a heat shield and a parachute. It's probably cheaper to throw the rest of the rocket away and build another than to try to make it reusable.
There's a big reason not to use those flourescent bulbs - they contain mercury, which goes into the environment when the bulbs fail. I've used many different brands of flourescent bulbs, and the advertised claims of long life are utter lies. They fail just as often as incandescents.
You forgot about the fuel savings from not having to drive back to the video store to return the DVD. That's probably far more fossil fuel than is in the DVD.
And that's a good thing, because they announce the title and artist of the song. I hate it when the radio plays a song I like, and it's hell trying to figure out the artist/title so I can buy it. I'd have bought a lot more records over the years if I'd been able to figure out what band performed them.
Interesting, as it seems to be getting at the idea of launching different applications based on how long you hold down a hardware button,
My car radio's preset buttons have worked like that for decades. Press briefly, and it changes the station. Press and hold, and it changes the preset. Prior art.
The student's argument only has merit if the University is selling the degree for the money. However, this is not the case. The money is for attending classes and for the educational services of the University. The money is NOT for grades or a degree. The student received the classes and the educational services, therefore the student was not deprived of anything he was entitled to for the tuition money spent. The degree is awarded for meeting the academic requirements of the University, not for paying tuition. The student, because he cheated, did not meet the academic requirements, and therefore is not entitled to a degree.
The university also can, and should, withdraw an awarded degree even years later if it was discovered that the student cheated.
With ever increasing legislation and creeping socialism in this country, the trend is away from capitalism.
The stock market has corrupted the entire concept of free market and free trade, not supported it.
The stock market goes back about 400 years, and is essential to the operation of a free market. Countries without a stock market tend to have economies in the dumpster.
Where else can somebody take an ethically deplorable action, such as firing thousands to inflate quarterly profits, and be rewarded with unimaginable riches by the shareholders?
You mean I can get unimaginably rich by hiring a thousand people, then fire them? Tell me more.
Arc lights are not "light bulbs" and are completely impractical for most lighting applications.
Edison and Sir Joseph Swann DID, however, create the first incandescant lamp.
Swann's light bulb was not practical. Edison's was.
Edison invented the first practical lightbulb. Previous "lightbulbs" were useless. That gives the nod to Edison.
This is one of the dumber economic myths. Why don't you start a business and just try to make a profit by giving employees the money to buy the product from you. I wonder why they never teach that technique in business school. LOL! The reason Ford paid his workers more was because it was boring, hard work and he had to pay more to get workers to do it. Nothing more than that. Ford's innovation to help people buy his cars was buying on the installment plan, not giving them money.
The reason for the USA's success is economic freedom. (The USSR had a huge, single market, too, but did not have a successful economy.) Any country can achieve economic greatness if they have the nerve to try economic freedom.
Refrigeration - I don't know (benefit of doubt to America then). Several key inventions were required, from many countries including America
Automobiles - Germany.
Television - Britain. Philo Farnsworth was American
Computers - Britain. Eniac was American
Space travel - Russia (or more accurately, competeting sets of Germans working in Russia and America after WWII).
The Internet - America. algore
Transistor - American
Microcomputer - American
Lightbulb - American
Electric power generation - American
Petroleum industry - American
Vulcanization of rubber - American
Bessemer steel process - American
Laser - American
Antibiotics - American
Nylon - American
Aluminum refining - American
Anyone who thinks outsourcing is inherently bad should read up on the economic principle of comparative advantage. The good outweighs the bad, for the same reasons that we no longer live in completely self-sufficient families, making our own clothes, soap, tools, food, etc. We each do what we're best at, and trade that for everything else. Comparative advantage works on the personal, community, state, and national level.
Once they get the bill, they'll factor the cost in next time they try to ignore their limits. And when they do pay the bill, I don't see a problem with them making use of the service.
The solution to that problem is to present a bill for the extraction to those people.
War has always been about killing the other side as effectively as possible until they give up.
You need more than "ear and eye protection". You need a cement blast wall. I toured P&W's jet engine design plant once, and the engine test facility included a heavilly fortified blockhouse for the engineers. A turbine burst would be like a grenade going off with even a small engine.
I have some tape backups that lasted a lot less than that. The reason? Can't find a machine that will read the tapes anymore. I heard that google had a hard time reading some old magtapes to get the old news archives off of them (circa late '80s).
Generally, people who practice math avoidance through school are the ones who are easilly taken to the cleaners when it comes time to finance their car or their house.
The only reliable way to protect your data from fire is have offsite backups.