I made a point that I understand the difference with monopolies, but the past track record is more abusive than not once they become ingrained. Standard oil, AT&T, and now MS. There's some. Too big, too fat, too greedy, too abusive. Can't be content with "enough", got to go to the vomitorium, reguritate the last heaping helping of cash to make room for the next ladle full. Sorry, I just don't get greed like that and chronic bungholeness.
I am more than familiar with the concepts and economics and laws involved, thanks for asking. I also am familiar with history, to see what happens, so yes, I'll stick with my over generalized opinion that monopolies usually evolve into an abusive situation, in the large and important industries anyway.
As to apple, I don't use them any longer, nor would I buy an iPod, I think it's way over priced for what it does (I am not their target demographic anyway, I get by quite fine with a cheap FM portable radio). I used to be an apple fanboy from the late 80s to the late 90s, but not now. Too expensive for what they do.
As to MS, I used to be a fanboy there as well, before I went to apple, I just stopped using them (3.11-95 era) when I saw their stuff was overpriced, insecure, buggy, and then I found out what a rat fink company they are. Their call to be nice and honest or be shady strong arm crooks,and I certainly didn't tell them to go down that path. They are convicted abusive monopolists, by various courts of laws in various jurisdictions, I think that's enough evidence to dis them and also to point out how incredibly greedy they are and that the abusive behavior never seems to end. I think some nice fat CEOs need to go to jail, but unfortunately our society concentrates on much lesser crimes when it comes to jail time. Personally, I think they should have had their corporate charter pulled long ago, along with any other company that accumulates a track record of serious large cash crimes. They'll chuck some common thief in jail after three felony convictions for *life*, yet corporations and their "leaders" seem to be able to just keep paying fines with corporate money,to the point now it's just a cost of doing business. Another example, I think whichever fatcat signed off on the sony rootkit should have faced however many thousands of counts of whatever computer hacking laws were violated in this or that area.
I just think big corporate stuff like that is wrong. I have nothing, absolutely nothing, against any honest businessmen or corporations, not a blessed thing, I just don't care for the crooks and weasels and am not even close to being shy about saying it out loud.
The article is about vista, and that has a projected cost of up to 400 bucks for the enterprise full curb feeler and chrome muffler bearings version from what I have read.
...who aren't really technically inclined are frustrated beyond belief on how fouled up their machines get even after installing anti virus and firewalls and whatnot. And the deal is, no one tells them any different, they never get exposed to anything else! The computer they buy has windows on it. They go into the local big box computer store, all windows stuff. They heard of macs maybe, but that's it. They are entirely within their consumer rights to be informed there is a viable third alternative, it's almost become a civic duty to turn people onto some more options. Then at least they can think about it and make a choice.
...if everyone gets to own it in the FOSS way. Two different beasts in this discussion, even though it's all about software. There are just so many ways to build a system now with FOSS, and with various degrees of cost from free as in beer to expensive, that it is doubtful any one system or way or pricing level will ever become dominant like MS has become, and being open, you can't get locked in, in the same manner. Here's an opportunity for europe-say-to only drop 5 billion on mass adoption of FOSS, and save the other 35 billion to use in other areas.
Open source leads to open standards as well, and that is a critical issue now, especially with governments and business. A document you make today with open standards will still be readable for free any number of years from now.
Look at that reference in the latest vista candidate article, MS will still hose any other system you have on the disk, on purpose, if you go to install it(guru tweaking not applicable, I mean for joe regular). What would they do if it was the opposite on purpose? That's the different mindset we are facing, MS is their way or the highway,their monopoly status will remain and it will be serious folding money no matter what you are talking about, or FOSS which is primarily free and Free for the most part. A monopoly (note: a monopoly does not mean 100% when speaking legally) signifies abuse in the market place, as in "costs you money" with little recourse, then it becomes an abusive monopoly and starts to get into the illegal areas, which they have been provbven to have done. and it wasn't an accident either.
That's one of the main issues if you use the word monopoly as it relates to current business practices, abusive behavior leading to your wallet getting lighter. MS is saying if you don't stick to their monopoly expensive products it will cost you serious money, that's the FUD part, because STICKING with them costs you serious folding money, and for most purposes today, there is no longer a need. For some, yes, for most, no.
Same crap when I was in high school, exactly the same, back when we had pet saber toothed badgers and rode sliderules to school, both ways, uphill in the snow. This is the US, where professional sports rule, and the schools are the tax payer funded farm teams, even though they will never admit it.
Here's the sucky part-it isn't fixable. It's been tried. Bread and circuses (the gladiator games, etc) is an established technique that keeps the plebes occupied and ye overlordes in power (helps them anyway), so it isn't going away, the fix is in. It's just not, so no sense beating yourself up over it. Work around it. The best you can do is self education as much as possible, and work with any understanding teachers (there should be a few who "get it")and groups of friends (rocket club, computer club, whatever).
As to getting your hands on tech..you own a computer, or can you get a box full of odd parts? Swell. A car (any old junker is fine) with an engine and transmission and probably a comlicated electronic system? Swell. Some radios and other odd electronic stuff? Swell.
and etc.
Now, go tear that crap completely apart and put it back together again *better* than it was before. Not just the same, *better*. See what you can come up with, little tweaks and twists and mods and enhancements. You won't get any grades on it, but you for sure will get an education that is practical. You'll learn to think in steps and sequences, you'll get discipline and focus. That is what is important. It will carry over to about any other job you might get.
Every economic indicator shows that globalism and offshoring has hurt the economy. The proof is in the stats, and we have many years to look at now. And they even have to keep fudging them to make it look better than what it really is, I mean really, having to call burger flipping *manufacturing*? c'mon! that's a clue. We are now the largest debtor nation when before the largest creditor nation. that's a clue. The dollar keeps dropping in international value. that's a clue. We have a huge rate of bankruptcy and people staring at losing their pensions.that's a clue. Largest trade deficit ever and growing, sets new records about every quarter. That's a clue. The numbers of people with better paying jobs with benefits keeps dropping, not rising. That's a clue. Savings rates are the worst for more than a full generation. That's a clue. Ya, it started back then, and a lot of us "back then" warned that this is exactly what would happen, and it has. And that's because some of us really *had a clue*. "Back then" I warned folks-anyone who would listen-that the combination of crap built and being too greedy would bork the auto industry (I was in the UAW then). I got laughed at, ridiculed, got told in person and by proxie in print from all the "economic experts" that "it will never happen, no one will buy them cheap little cars". They were wrong, I was right. Yes, it started back then, listening to the coke addled and drunk economic experts and following the captains of industry advice as a nation. Rubbish, and it was *clear* to see, abundantly clear to anyone who can think more than two steps ahead or some years ahead and run some common sense extrapolation scenarios.. Both management and labor needed several good bashes with the clue stick back then, but they kept dodging, about the only thing they are good at.
You make money by manufacturing wealth, and having it be good quality and fair priced, not over priced ridiculous stupid crap or the cheapest possibly falling apart crap. Wealth is grown, mined, manufactured or a combination of that, everything else is wealth re arrangement or wealth service.
We have swapped making wealth to trying to just manage it and service it. Nuts! Insanity! It will not work for the long run. It can for the short run,then you'll see it starting to crumble in the medium run (now, today) and it will eventually collapse in the long run. They can run their printing presses all they want, it won't matter. It's been tried before, it doesn't matter.
We have forgotten the middle ground, the middle ground which at one time had the strongest middle class with real wealth ownership in the world, now we have the largest class of debtors ever. Only took one generation to pull that off. BUT, we sure do have a lot more billionaires now! Damn funny how that worked out....
Yep, you can show a ton of paper profit by being a tradesman and selling off your tools friday night,and getting a loan on your work truck and handing over the keys and parking it at the lot, but come monday morning you are going to be hurting. Sure, you'll seem "rich" over the weekend,you can go out and buy all sortsa stuff with that flush cash, but it won't last.
That's all we have been doing for a long time now and they are running out of options, and I don't care how much the goons at the Fed try to tweak things, eventually we won't have a dang thing that other folks want and then they'll even stop buying up your grandkids debt. Aren't you just a teeny bit ashamed that little babies not even born yet will be born into debt? Just a little?
And walmartization is a big part of it. When they first started, and I remember it clearly as well, it was buy american there, keep you and your neighbor working, and it was fine. then..well, he passed on and now it is FU america, we are gonna milk this baby out and retire multibillionaires and go pound sand. sure, they got cheap crap now, and people with some money to buy it, but it won't last. It just can't
That's what they call it anyway. Entire industries are closing in the US because of the walmart effect, and becoming just importers or almost entirely just importers. The alleged boon to the consumer will eventually backlash to a major recession. There's only so much of a perpetual balance of trade deficit any nation can handle, even the US.
As to the filing of complaints, some local governments have found they have a way to fight back-just not allowing them to build stores with zoning regs. Granted, not a perfect solution, but it's something that can be done. Say some area does it, some of the people local will still travel to the next town over. But if THAT town does the same, eventually the distance travelled means the consumers will stay put locally and use the smaller stores.
The globalist-bent economists (the ones only loyal to money and making billionaires out of millionaires) like to talk the cheaper prices, etc, but they always conveniently forget (even though they were taught this early on in biz school) that the monetary unit stays more valuable the more times it changes hands locally-in this case inside the local community then up to the national level. Over the past two decades in particular we have been swapping a number of good paying manufacturing jobs (some millions, a large number) per single lower paying retail sales job-that is unsustainable long term and rather..lame, it's just lame.
I *freely* admit it. If I don't have my net and radios I get antsy...I mean start to jones _bad_. Some guys, rodders, pilots as in the movie, got that need for speed, I got that need to know....stuff..as near to real time as possible. It doesn't matter, just stuff, got to have that stuff. Is it harmful, can it make you neglect other important issues? Can't say it has, I still get a ton of other things done, but even one day without since I have been on full time???...no way, I dreamed of something like the net back when I was a kid, it's my personal flying car that came true, to be able to instantly access all knowledge, contact people all over the planet instantly and cheaply, to be able to give back, publish, etc, it's all good.
....walk in, lay down a jackson* and some coins, walk out with a little phone with some minutes on it. Been out for quite awhile now. Granted, not in a vending machine, but a blisterpack. You can buy more minutes but it's a rip if you talk a lot, ten cents a minute. It's designed for people who have borked credit and really need a phone, or to give a cheap one to the kid or grandma so they have something to use for emergencies, or say, for trips where you don't want to chance your expensive phone, like going to the beach, etc. It's a niche product but it works. From what I have seen they are little nokias.
*that's $20 to those who don't follow dead presidents "real value" wallet sized posters closely
...this is really what occurred? That the seeds were the only cargo, that it wasn't a cover for some other sort of mission?
wheels within enigmas here....maybe....
Speaking of launches, they just introduced a new class of road mobile, fairly accurate ICBMs, the DF-31, that can be fitted with a large single or three MIRV type warheads.
AC Propulsion solved that range with an electric vehicle dilemma with the rigidly attached (it stays inline with the car, no pivoting, making it easy to backup with, etc) generator/trailer. During the commuting week, batteries only, weekends and trips, bolt the trailer on, it has a fuel driven generator, making it now a hybrid vehicle, giving you the same sort of range you would get with just a normal car. With their prototype, the total package still fits inside a normal parking space.
...saturated. Extreme low interest rates by the Fed led to an over abundance of "irrational exuberance" part two to try and bring the economy out of the mini recession caused by the dot bomb years, and any one who wanted a cheap mortgage got one, then proceeded to try their hands at flipping to make fast easy money cash. Now that that is about milked out, and a lot of people are now stuck with over priced real estate and ARMS...well...
Cars. Again, saturated with all sorts of vehicles people don't want, and they can't even make enough of what people do want, namely more hybrid options, including plug in hybrids which NO major manufacturer sells yet, more high mileage diesel options, etc. And cars just got way too expensive in the last ten years anyway. Even at zero percent, which I can see at most of the lots around here, they are still way over priced and the lots are slap full, from the street to the back fence. In twenty years we have gone from cars cost what cars should cost to now they cost what HOUSES used to cost not too long ago.
You can throw all the ads you want to at those two problems but it won't help if the fundamental aspects to those problems aren't addressed, so I imagine they are starting to notice that. and just how many-what sort of percentage-of middle man wealth transferers can any economy really take? You have wealth production, wealth service and wealth rearrangement, and only one of those types of jobs actually makes *new wealth* the others just dilute the pool to a great extent. Again, throw all the ads you want to at the non wealth producing part of the economy, it won't make it one bit better.
He built the engines, had them running in cars, that's just data. The industry in general was way committed to going to fuel injection at the time, plus he still had serious problems with emissions, something I don't think ever got worked out adequately, that and the lubrication problem, etc. That's why it never took off.
It helps pay the space bills! It's not some charity,even though she helped pay the x prize money, this is more money she is shelling out to go into space. Where's the problem? Nothing is perfect, if we *didn't* have full time man in space project, we'd have just as many people complaining that we didn't. The ISS is IT right now, let's enjoy what we have. Even in 2006, 20 million clams isn't chump change! And the more tourists, and the more different ways for there to even be "space tourists", the quicker we as humans will become a space faring society. Low earth orbit or just near orbit is a nice start, and it has taken decades, so don't negate it!
..I know I am still bullish, even at today's prices. Gold, silver, steel, lead and brass, all useful in their own ways....Oh ya, this is slashdot,so I'll throw in copper, which actually did quite nice this year.
You can buy bulk fuel(gas and diesel road/off road), but you need to live rural like on a farm and have it delivered to a bulk tank. But ya, most people don't and at most might have an extra can or two (5 or ten gallons) in the garage.
I have often wondered why we can have an OPEC for the sellers, but not the opposite for the consumers. We get shafted because we all buy tiny amounts, and have no pull. Look at walmart, they get good prices because they agree to purchase in huge quantities. So why can't our politicians do the same for us peons with fuel? The government should step in an say "OK, we offer such and such reasonable for a gigantonormous amount of fuel, the US is a huge market, you want to sell to us, OK, but no gouging, this is the price we offer for this year",along those lines anyway, then we could have stabler prices. And get rid of that middleman skimming commodities BS, that's ridiculous. We could start with all the oil that comes off of public land or public "economic zone" offshore leases, there's no reason this couldn't be earmarked for domestic consumption at a stable and reasonable and long term price structure. If some oil company don't like that, tough noogies, some other company would like to make some profit, as opposed to no profit. What we don't need are the mega profit gougers and the middleman skimmers.
To carry this a little further, I have been in food co-ops before, the working members got dang close to wholesale food prices. We should have fuel co-ops as well, negotiate our own large bulk purchases, because I answered my own question, I know the government will never do anything like that for joe middle class, it would cut into the millionaires profits too much.
He left out health issues with car exhaust and the staggering impact that has on the economy (urban air is now colorful chunky style, there IS a health cost there), current and future impacts on the planet with a possible global warming tie-in (note-I am not maintaining that is the only reason, but it is certainly one of them) and he also left out the humongous war and military costs to keep the US in the mid east for generations now. I don't know how much more expensive gasoline would be in the figures then, but leaving that out (Trillions of dollars? Who knows?) makes all the charts and analysis in the article bogus. You can't analyse costs unless you add in *all the costs*.
...someone who lost a manufacturing job with good benefits and wage in exchange for a service job with no benefits at half the previous wage as employed. Someone who has a part time job is employed, even if it is just a few hours a week. Making burgers is now a manufacturing job.
It's nuts really, word rearrangement and spin to make things look better than what they are. As soon as the fed reserve note loses international lustre (and it is sliding that way now) the party is over. The globalists have had three decades now to prove their point that their magic theories work, and we have record deficits, record lack of savings, record budget shortfalls, pensions dropping all over, etc as the result. They can rearrange it all they want, it is still a failure unless you are in the tippy top income brackets. They tout real estate there, but what is it really? A mass of people who own *debt*, but not very much true home ownership, they own inflated mortgages, now at 30 years, or even worse, the "interest only" type mortgages, people who only own the hope that sometime some sucker will buy their property or way more than what it is really worth so they can pay off that huge mortgage and maybe show some true equity. Nuts.
I think my favorite lightweight + good features browser has to be iCab, at least back when I used to use it on mac classic OS. Unfortunately, not open source at all, not even close, and mac only. Pity. I agree with you on not many good alternative browsers out there. I currently use seamonkey, I find it better than FF, but still would like something faster, but I put up with it because it seems, to my eyes anyway, to render pages the best, which is the real bottom line on browsing. I like konq as well but it just doesn't make the pages look as nice as seamonkey.
I guess you'd have to use magnetic levitation type bearings.
That ceramic engine I think was Ford's baby way back and it disappeared. From what I recall, it didn't need piston rings! There was no or little changing of specs as the engine "warmed up", your bore stayed the same, etc. They just made close enough tolerances and it worked.
Frankly speaking,IMHO, electric motors are the way to go for the vast bulk of low weight load/short distance commuter styled transportation and for reducing costs per mile. With the addition of the rigidly attached add-on fuel generator idea like from AC Propulsion, you eliminate the one big complaint of electric vehicles, namely distance travelling. I think the new generation of small efficient diesels is pretty good for that part, especially now that we can get biodiesel and blends.
His engines used a homogenizer and a low boost turbo after the carb as well as the vaporization from heat chamber. According to what I just relooked up, he got 150 horse and 60 mpg from a two cylinder engine at 78 cubes. He said the biggest problem back then was finding good quality oil that would stand up to the engine, and all he could find was some jet engine oil at 98 dollars a quart, plus having to use some exotic materials to construct it, fine ceramics mostly. It was pretty neat for the time.
I wish the article itself was online to see the car and some better details. I remember reading it the month it came out in the dead trees version. (april 83, was the cover story)
Smokey Yunick (now somewhat recently deceased) was a real guy with *outstanding* automotive engineering cred, perhaps before your time. And as with all other advances with automotive design and performance and mileage increases, the grade A engineers are almost all in racing, because racing pays engineers what they are really worth, unlike the big car companies that pay salespeople and VPs and other sorts of management. His carb is real, as were the cars, and I have provided the references and places to go look yourself. He had several good working prototypes, all verified beyond any doubt by other outside engineers.
You can get the panasonic oxyride batteries now, hasn't been that long since they were invented.
As to battery tech in general, I can remember when all you could get were carbon zinc batteries (drycells) and that was it., now you can get NiMH, NiCad, LiIon,and the oxyrides. Tech advances...maybe not as fast as you'd like, but it advances. Heck, I own some solar PV stuff, that is pure sci fi action from when I was a kid, along with just personal computers in general.
They aren't in the oil business? And you know for a fact all the major and medium level stockholders in the auto companies don't also own energy stocks, directly or through cut outs and trusts?
Anyway, as to the miracle carburetor, smokey yunick had one, when he was mechanics editor at popular science, it worked as advertised. It was the cover story one issue and I have a photocopy copy of the patent and the article in the magazine. He made several cars with that design engine and they got *fantastic" mileage and very good power.
a little from the wikipedia entry:
"Aside from racing, Yunick's innovations include variable ratio power steering, the extended tip spark plug, reverse flow cooling systems, a high efficiency vapor carburetor, a high efficiency adiabatic engine, various engine testing devices, and a safety wall for racetracks, made of discarded tires, which France had refused to consider. He was granted twelve patents. He also experimented with synthetic oil and alternative energy sources such as hydrogen, natural gas, windmills, solar panels, as well as involving himself in developing the gold mining and petroleum industries in Ecuador"
You can google around for his adiabatic engines and cars he built, there's a few references on the web for it.
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I made a point that I understand the difference with monopolies, but the past track record is more abusive than not once they become ingrained. Standard oil, AT&T, and now MS. There's some. Too big, too fat, too greedy, too abusive. Can't be content with "enough", got to go to the vomitorium, reguritate the last heaping helping of cash to make room for the next ladle full. Sorry, I just don't get greed like that and chronic bungholeness.
I am more than familiar with the concepts and economics and laws involved, thanks for asking. I also am familiar with history, to see what happens, so yes, I'll stick with my over generalized opinion that monopolies usually evolve into an abusive situation, in the large and important industries anyway.
As to apple, I don't use them any longer, nor would I buy an iPod, I think it's way over priced for what it does (I am not their target demographic anyway, I get by quite fine with a cheap FM portable radio). I used to be an apple fanboy from the late 80s to the late 90s, but not now. Too expensive for what they do.
As to MS, I used to be a fanboy there as well, before I went to apple, I just stopped using them (3.11-95 era) when I saw their stuff was overpriced, insecure, buggy, and then I found out what a rat fink company they are. Their call to be nice and honest or be shady strong arm crooks,and I certainly didn't tell them to go down that path. They are convicted abusive monopolists, by various courts of laws in various jurisdictions, I think that's enough evidence to dis them and also to point out how incredibly greedy they are and that the abusive behavior never seems to end. I think some nice fat CEOs need to go to jail, but unfortunately our society concentrates on much lesser crimes when it comes to jail time. Personally, I think they should have had their corporate charter pulled long ago, along with any other company that accumulates a track record of serious large cash crimes. They'll chuck some common thief in jail after three felony convictions for *life*, yet corporations and their "leaders" seem to be able to just keep paying fines with corporate money,to the point now it's just a cost of doing business. Another example, I think whichever fatcat signed off on the sony rootkit should have faced however many thousands of counts of whatever computer hacking laws were violated in this or that area.
I just think big corporate stuff like that is wrong. I have nothing, absolutely nothing, against any honest businessmen or corporations, not a blessed thing, I just don't care for the crooks and weasels and am not even close to being shy about saying it out loud.
The article is about vista, and that has a projected cost of up to 400 bucks for the enterprise full curb feeler and chrome muffler bearings version from what I have read.
...who aren't really technically inclined are frustrated beyond belief on how fouled up their machines get even after installing anti virus and firewalls and whatnot. And the deal is, no one tells them any different, they never get exposed to anything else! The computer they buy has windows on it. They go into the local big box computer store, all windows stuff. They heard of macs maybe, but that's it. They are entirely within their consumer rights to be informed there is a viable third alternative, it's almost become a civic duty to turn people onto some more options. Then at least they can think about it and make a choice.
...if everyone gets to own it in the FOSS way. Two different beasts in this discussion, even though it's all about software. There are just so many ways to build a system now with FOSS, and with various degrees of cost from free as in beer to expensive, that it is doubtful any one system or way or pricing level will ever become dominant like MS has become, and being open, you can't get locked in, in the same manner. Here's an opportunity for europe-say-to only drop 5 billion on mass adoption of FOSS, and save the other 35 billion to use in other areas.
Open source leads to open standards as well, and that is a critical issue now, especially with governments and business. A document you make today with open standards will still be readable for free any number of years from now.
Look at that reference in the latest vista candidate article, MS will still hose any other system you have on the disk, on purpose, if you go to install it(guru tweaking not applicable, I mean for joe regular). What would they do if it was the opposite on purpose? That's the different mindset we are facing, MS is their way or the highway,their monopoly status will remain and it will be serious folding money no matter what you are talking about, or FOSS which is primarily free and Free for the most part. A monopoly (note: a monopoly does not mean 100% when speaking legally) signifies abuse in the market place, as in "costs you money" with little recourse, then it becomes an abusive monopoly and starts to get into the illegal areas, which they have been provbven to have done. and it wasn't an accident either.
That's one of the main issues if you use the word monopoly as it relates to current business practices, abusive behavior leading to your wallet getting lighter. MS is saying if you don't stick to their monopoly expensive products it will cost you serious money, that's the FUD part, because STICKING with them costs you serious folding money, and for most purposes today, there is no longer a need. For some, yes, for most, no.
Same crap when I was in high school, exactly the same, back when we had pet saber toothed badgers and rode sliderules to school, both ways, uphill in the snow. This is the US, where professional sports rule, and the schools are the tax payer funded farm teams, even though they will never admit it.
Here's the sucky part-it isn't fixable. It's been tried. Bread and circuses (the gladiator games, etc) is an established technique that keeps the plebes occupied and ye overlordes in power (helps them anyway), so it isn't going away, the fix is in. It's just not, so no sense beating yourself up over it. Work around it. The best you can do is self education as much as possible, and work with any understanding teachers (there should be a few who "get it")and groups of friends (rocket club, computer club, whatever).
As to getting your hands on tech..you own a computer, or can you get a box full of odd parts? Swell. A car (any old junker is fine) with an engine and transmission and probably a comlicated electronic system? Swell. Some radios and other odd electronic stuff? Swell.
and etc.
Now, go tear that crap completely apart and put it back together again *better* than it was before. Not just the same, *better*. See what you can come up with, little tweaks and twists and mods and enhancements. You won't get any grades on it, but you for sure will get an education that is practical. You'll learn to think in steps and sequences, you'll get discipline and focus. That is what is important. It will carry over to about any other job you might get.
Every economic indicator shows that globalism and offshoring has hurt the economy. The proof is in the stats, and we have many years to look at now. And they even have to keep fudging them to make it look better than what it really is, I mean really, having to call burger flipping *manufacturing*? c'mon! that's a clue. We are now the largest debtor nation when before the largest creditor nation. that's a clue. The dollar keeps dropping in international value. that's a clue. We have a huge rate of bankruptcy and people staring at losing their pensions.that's a clue. Largest trade deficit ever and growing, sets new records about every quarter. That's a clue. The numbers of people with better paying jobs with benefits keeps dropping, not rising. That's a clue. Savings rates are the worst for more than a full generation. That's a clue. Ya, it started back then, and a lot of us "back then" warned that this is exactly what would happen, and it has. And that's because some of us really *had a clue*. "Back then" I warned folks-anyone who would listen-that the combination of crap built and being too greedy would bork the auto industry (I was in the UAW then). I got laughed at, ridiculed, got told in person and by proxie in print from all the "economic experts" that "it will never happen, no one will buy them cheap little cars". They were wrong, I was right. Yes, it started back then, listening to the coke addled and drunk economic experts and following the captains of industry advice as a nation. Rubbish, and it was *clear* to see, abundantly clear to anyone who can think more than two steps ahead or some years ahead and run some common sense extrapolation scenarios.. Both management and labor needed several good bashes with the clue stick back then, but they kept dodging, about the only thing they are good at.
You make money by manufacturing wealth, and having it be good quality and fair priced, not over priced ridiculous stupid crap or the cheapest possibly falling apart crap. Wealth is grown, mined, manufactured or a combination of that, everything else is wealth re arrangement or wealth service.
We have swapped making wealth to trying to just manage it and service it. Nuts! Insanity! It will not work for the long run. It can for the short run,then you'll see it starting to crumble in the medium run (now, today) and it will eventually collapse in the long run. They can run their printing presses all they want, it won't matter. It's been tried before, it doesn't matter.
We have forgotten the middle ground, the middle ground which at one time had the strongest middle class with real wealth ownership in the world, now we have the largest class of debtors ever. Only took one generation to pull that off. BUT, we sure do have a lot more billionaires now! Damn funny how that worked out....
Yep, you can show a ton of paper profit by being a tradesman and selling off your tools friday night,and getting a loan on your work truck and handing over the keys and parking it at the lot, but come monday morning you are going to be hurting. Sure, you'll seem "rich" over the weekend,you can go out and buy all sortsa stuff with that flush cash, but it won't last.
That's all we have been doing for a long time now and they are running out of options, and I don't care how much the goons at the Fed try to tweak things, eventually we won't have a dang thing that other folks want and then they'll even stop buying up your grandkids debt. Aren't you just a teeny bit ashamed that little babies not even born yet will be born into debt? Just a little?
And walmartization is a big part of it. When they first started, and I remember it clearly as well, it was buy american there, keep you and your neighbor working, and it was fine. then..well, he passed on and now it is FU america, we are gonna milk this baby out and retire multibillionaires and go pound sand. sure, they got cheap crap now, and people with some money to buy it, but it won't last. It just can't
That's what they call it anyway. Entire industries are closing in the US because of the walmart effect, and becoming just importers or almost entirely just importers. The alleged boon to the consumer will eventually backlash to a major recession. There's only so much of a perpetual balance of trade deficit any nation can handle, even the US.
As to the filing of complaints, some local governments have found they have a way to fight back-just not allowing them to build stores with zoning regs. Granted, not a perfect solution, but it's something that can be done. Say some area does it, some of the people local will still travel to the next town over. But if THAT town does the same, eventually the distance travelled means the consumers will stay put locally and use the smaller stores.
The globalist-bent economists (the ones only loyal to money and making billionaires out of millionaires) like to talk the cheaper prices, etc, but they always conveniently forget (even though they were taught this early on in biz school) that the monetary unit stays more valuable the more times it changes hands locally-in this case inside the local community then up to the national level. Over the past two decades in particular we have been swapping a number of good paying manufacturing jobs (some millions, a large number) per single lower paying retail sales job-that is unsustainable long term and rather..lame, it's just lame.
I *freely* admit it. If I don't have my net and radios I get antsy...I mean start to jones _bad_. Some guys, rodders, pilots as in the movie, got that need for speed, I got that need to know....stuff..as near to real time as possible. It doesn't matter, just stuff, got to have that stuff. Is it harmful, can it make you neglect other important issues? Can't say it has, I still get a ton of other things done, but even one day without since I have been on full time??? ...no way, I dreamed of something like the net back when I was a kid, it's my personal flying car that came true, to be able to instantly access all knowledge, contact people all over the planet instantly and cheaply, to be able to give back, publish, etc, it's all good.
....walk in, lay down a jackson* and some coins, walk out with a little phone with some minutes on it. Been out for quite awhile now. Granted, not in a vending machine, but a blisterpack. You can buy more minutes but it's a rip if you talk a lot, ten cents a minute. It's designed for people who have borked credit and really need a phone, or to give a cheap one to the kid or grandma so they have something to use for emergencies, or say, for trips where you don't want to chance your expensive phone, like going to the beach, etc. It's a niche product but it works. From what I have seen they are little nokias.
*that's $20 to those who don't follow dead presidents "real value" wallet sized posters closely
...this is really what occurred? That the seeds were the only cargo, that it wasn't a cover for some other sort of mission?
wheels within enigmas here....maybe....
Speaking of launches, they just introduced a new class of road mobile, fairly accurate ICBMs, the DF-31, that can be fitted with a large single or three MIRV type warheads.
AC Propulsion solved that range with an electric vehicle dilemma with the rigidly attached (it stays inline with the car, no pivoting, making it easy to backup with, etc) generator/trailer. During the commuting week, batteries only, weekends and trips, bolt the trailer on, it has a fuel driven generator, making it now a hybrid vehicle, giving you the same sort of range you would get with just a normal car. With their prototype, the total package still fits inside a normal parking space.
...saturated. Extreme low interest rates by the Fed led to an over abundance of "irrational exuberance" part two to try and bring the economy out of the mini recession caused by the dot bomb years, and any one who wanted a cheap mortgage got one, then proceeded to try their hands at flipping to make fast easy money cash. Now that that is about milked out, and a lot of people are now stuck with over priced real estate and ARMS...well...
Cars. Again, saturated with all sorts of vehicles people don't want, and they can't even make enough of what people do want, namely more hybrid options, including plug in hybrids which NO major manufacturer sells yet, more high mileage diesel options, etc. And cars just got way too expensive in the last ten years anyway. Even at zero percent, which I can see at most of the lots around here, they are still way over priced and the lots are slap full, from the street to the back fence. In twenty years we have gone from cars cost what cars should cost to now they cost what HOUSES used to cost not too long ago.
You can throw all the ads you want to at those two problems but it won't help if the fundamental aspects to those problems aren't addressed, so I imagine they are starting to notice that. and just how many-what sort of percentage-of middle man wealth transferers can any economy really take? You have wealth production, wealth service and wealth rearrangement, and only one of those types of jobs actually makes *new wealth* the others just dilute the pool to a great extent. Again, throw all the ads you want to at the non wealth producing part of the economy, it won't make it one bit better.
He built the engines, had them running in cars, that's just data. The industry in general was way committed to going to fuel injection at the time, plus he still had serious problems with emissions, something I don't think ever got worked out adequately, that and the lubrication problem, etc. That's why it never took off.
It helps pay the space bills! It's not some charity,even though she helped pay the x prize money, this is more money she is shelling out to go into space. Where's the problem? Nothing is perfect, if we *didn't* have full time man in space project, we'd have just as many people complaining that we didn't. The ISS is IT right now, let's enjoy what we have. Even in 2006, 20 million clams isn't chump change! And the more tourists, and the more different ways for there to even be "space tourists", the quicker we as humans will become a space faring society. Low earth orbit or just near orbit is a nice start, and it has taken decades, so don't negate it!
..I know I am still bullish, even at today's prices. Gold, silver, steel, lead and brass, all useful in their own ways....Oh ya, this is slashdot,so I'll throw in copper, which actually did quite nice this year.
The federal reserve is...neither!
You can buy bulk fuel(gas and diesel road/off road), but you need to live rural like on a farm and have it delivered to a bulk tank. But ya, most people don't and at most might have an extra can or two (5 or ten gallons) in the garage.
I have often wondered why we can have an OPEC for the sellers, but not the opposite for the consumers. We get shafted because we all buy tiny amounts, and have no pull. Look at walmart, they get good prices because they agree to purchase in huge quantities. So why can't our politicians do the same for us peons with fuel? The government should step in an say "OK, we offer such and such reasonable for a gigantonormous amount of fuel, the US is a huge market, you want to sell to us, OK, but no gouging, this is the price we offer for this year",along those lines anyway, then we could have stabler prices. And get rid of that middleman skimming commodities BS, that's ridiculous. We could start with all the oil that comes off of public land or public "economic zone" offshore leases, there's no reason this couldn't be earmarked for domestic consumption at a stable and reasonable and long term price structure. If some oil company don't like that, tough noogies, some other company would like to make some profit, as opposed to no profit. What we don't need are the mega profit gougers and the middleman skimmers.
To carry this a little further, I have been in food co-ops before, the working members got dang close to wholesale food prices. We should have fuel co-ops as well, negotiate our own large bulk purchases, because I answered my own question, I know the government will never do anything like that for joe middle class, it would cut into the millionaires profits too much.
He left out health issues with car exhaust and the staggering impact that has on the economy (urban air is now colorful chunky style, there IS a health cost there), current and future impacts on the planet with a possible global warming tie-in (note-I am not maintaining that is the only reason, but it is certainly one of them) and he also left out the humongous war and military costs to keep the US in the mid east for generations now. I don't know how much more expensive gasoline would be in the figures then, but leaving that out (Trillions of dollars? Who knows?) makes all the charts and analysis in the article bogus. You can't analyse costs unless you add in *all the costs*.
...someone who lost a manufacturing job with good benefits and wage in exchange for a service job with no benefits at half the previous wage as employed. Someone who has a part time job is employed, even if it is just a few hours a week. Making burgers is now a manufacturing job.
It's nuts really, word rearrangement and spin to make things look better than what they are. As soon as the fed reserve note loses international lustre (and it is sliding that way now) the party is over. The globalists have had three decades now to prove their point that their magic theories work, and we have record deficits, record lack of savings, record budget shortfalls, pensions dropping all over, etc as the result. They can rearrange it all they want, it is still a failure unless you are in the tippy top income brackets. They tout real estate there, but what is it really? A mass of people who own *debt*, but not very much true home ownership, they own inflated mortgages, now at 30 years, or even worse, the "interest only" type mortgages, people who only own the hope that sometime some sucker will buy their property or way more than what it is really worth so they can pay off that huge mortgage and maybe show some true equity. Nuts.
I think my favorite lightweight + good features browser has to be iCab, at least back when I used to use it on mac classic OS. Unfortunately, not open source at all, not even close, and mac only. Pity. I agree with you on not many good alternative browsers out there. I currently use seamonkey, I find it better than FF, but still would like something faster, but I put up with it because it seems, to my eyes anyway, to render pages the best, which is the real bottom line on browsing. I like konq as well but it just doesn't make the pages look as nice as seamonkey.
Opera won't fit in your light and fast category?
I guess you'd have to use magnetic levitation type bearings.
That ceramic engine I think was Ford's baby way back and it disappeared. From what I recall, it didn't need piston rings! There was no or little changing of specs as the engine "warmed up", your bore stayed the same, etc. They just made close enough tolerances and it worked.
Frankly speaking,IMHO, electric motors are the way to go for the vast bulk of low weight load/short distance commuter styled transportation and for reducing costs per mile. With the addition of the rigidly attached add-on fuel generator idea like from AC Propulsion, you eliminate the one big complaint of electric vehicles, namely distance travelling. I think the new generation of small efficient diesels is pretty good for that part, especially now that we can get biodiesel and blends.
His engines used a homogenizer and a low boost turbo after the carb as well as the vaporization from heat chamber. According to what I just relooked up, he got 150 horse and 60 mpg from a two cylinder engine at 78 cubes. He said the biggest problem back then was finding good quality oil that would stand up to the engine, and all he could find was some jet engine oil at 98 dollars a quart, plus having to use some exotic materials to construct it, fine ceramics mostly. It was pretty neat for the time.
here's the patent
http://www.delphion.com/details?pn=US04862859__
I wish the article itself was online to see the car and some better details. I remember reading it the month it came out in the dead trees version. (april 83, was the cover story)
Smokey Yunick (now somewhat recently deceased) was a real guy with *outstanding* automotive engineering cred, perhaps before your time. And as with all other advances with automotive design and performance and mileage increases, the grade A engineers are almost all in racing, because racing pays engineers what they are really worth, unlike the big car companies that pay salespeople and VPs and other sorts of management. His carb is real, as were the cars, and I have provided the references and places to go look yourself. He had several good working prototypes, all verified beyond any doubt by other outside engineers.
You can get the panasonic oxyride batteries now, hasn't been that long since they were invented.
As to battery tech in general, I can remember when all you could get were carbon zinc batteries (drycells) and that was it., now you can get NiMH, NiCad, LiIon,and the oxyrides. Tech advances...maybe not as fast as you'd like, but it advances. Heck, I own some solar PV stuff, that is pure sci fi action from when I was a kid, along with just personal computers in general.
They aren't in the oil business? And you know for a fact all the major and medium level stockholders in the auto companies don't also own energy stocks, directly or through cut outs and trusts?
Anyway, as to the miracle carburetor, smokey yunick had one, when he was mechanics editor at popular science, it worked as advertised. It was the cover story one issue and I have a photocopy copy of the patent and the article in the magazine. He made several cars with that design engine and they got *fantastic" mileage and very good power.
a little from the wikipedia entry:
"Aside from racing, Yunick's innovations include variable ratio power steering, the extended tip spark plug, reverse flow cooling systems, a high efficiency vapor carburetor, a high efficiency adiabatic engine, various engine testing devices, and a safety wall for racetracks, made of discarded tires, which France had refused to consider. He was granted twelve patents. He also experimented with synthetic oil and alternative energy sources such as hydrogen, natural gas, windmills, solar panels, as well as involving himself in developing the gold mining and petroleum industries in Ecuador"
You can google around for his adiabatic engines and cars he built, there's a few references on the web for it.