Uhh, two of them on a whim? I'm pretty sure we had good reasons for going into Afghanistan.
When Pres Bush asked, er told, the Taliban to turn over bin Laden they asked for evidence bin Laden had anything to do with 911 but he refused and just invaded. Oh and let's not forget Bush gave the Taliban millions of US taxpayer dollars in aid before the invasion. "Bush Gives Taliban $10 Million To Fight Opium". That's $43,000,000 there. Yet the Taliban profit from the opium trade.
the US culture was famously isolationist before and during most of WWI.
The US wasn't really isolationist before WWI. The term Banana Republic comes from the early 1900s when the US, in supporting US businesses importing bananas and other fruits supported undemocratic methods of gaining control of Caribbean and Latin American nations. Teddy Roosevelt's Big Stick comes in part front his sending US Marines to Tangier, Morocco to fight against Berbers who had taken US citizens in Morocco hostage. And about 100 years before that, Thomas Jefferson sent the Marines there to fight Barbary pirates.
First of all, the word "democratic" is one of those nice-sounding words that people use all the time, and the US fits the vague concept of "democratic." However, our actual government is, and always has been, a Republic. Many states are democratic, but the US government is not.
The same reason Norway, Japan and Iceland will not cede control of their whaling to a body with land-locked countries with absolutely zero whaling history, I guess...?
Yet they're quite willing to give landlocked countries billions in aid if they vote the "right" way on whaling.
Now, do you have an opinion of why ICANN shouldn't retain control of the domain registration? Or are you simply so one dimensional that the argument "American's suck!" is all you have? Please, give me a rational, intelligent reason for changing the process that's in place with regard to domain registration and I promise you that I'll pay it sincere attention.
Being born in California I'm neither a Rebel nor a Yanky. That's besides the point though. While I prefer ICANN to be a US organization what I don't like is the Commerce Department having veto power over ICANN. For instance I think Bush's Commerce Department veto of the.xxx domain was wrong. However I can only imagine it would be much worse with the UN in control, not just could porn be censored but political speech would be too.
My real problem is with the fact that in order to make it economical for an individual, the government had to subsidize 70% of the costs, then keep paying him!
All energy used in the US is subsidized. If power generators collected to the grid weren't subsidized you'd see higher prices on electric bills as well, and on gas bills. The US is spending billions of dollars daily in Iraq subsidizing oil. Domestic drilling in the US is subsidized as well. Because of laws like the Mineral Leasing Act of 1920 companies can drill and pump oil, as well as mine for minerals, and not have to pay a fair market value in royalties to the owner of the land the US government. Then there are all of the external costs. Fact is is big companies receive billions of dollars in subsidies yet peopla make a big thing about individual taxpayers getting less than $100,000 in subsidies.
He spent the last ten(?) years of his life by himself, penniless, in a filthy hotel, feeding pidgeons. Because he wouldn't drop his grand theory that he could power an ocean liner in Japan from a giant tower in New Jersey. Even at the time he was building it, there were dozens of electrical experimenters who could have told him it's not going to happen.
Ok so Tesla died penniless, that doesn't mean he died unhappy.
Look, I love Howard Hughes. Hell's Angels is one of my favorite movies, seriously. But the simple fact of the matter is that he went crazy, pure crazy. That doesn't diminish my respect of the man before he went crazy, but you gotta face reality.
Same with Howard Hughes, what matters is if he was glad for his life when he died. My greatest fear about death is that I will die without enjoying life, which looks more and more likely to happen as my life is more like living in hell to me. The one reason I prefer death now is to end suffering. Unlike what Buddhists teach, to end desire, I have no knowledge on how to do so without dying. I look at my life as a waste, however because of the disability I so called "survived", a Traumatic Brain Injury, TBI, I know of no way to change it. I went from a college student majoring in something I wanted to do, Computer Engineering, to not being able to do many things I loved doing. Maybe it's because of my experiences but what matters to me a lot is enjoying life not making a lot of money or having a successful career. My family was told by the docs while I was in a coma that more than likely I would not live, but the fact is is I wish I had died. AND THAT"S REALITY!!!
The world can certainly make their own Internet but splitting the net in two will be to the detriment of everybody, the US included. Relaxing or sharing control over domain allocation can be preferable to forcing every American website to register an extra domain at WorldNet to do business overseas.
Ah, but would it stop there? Politicians and bureaucrats have shown repeatedly that they will grab as much power as they can. If the US gives into UN control how long will it be before China, Cuba, and North Korea start yelling about censoring the net? Heck Cuba, Zimbabwe, and other nations have already said they want to censor the net, with UN control it will only get worse.
The U.S. is NOT a democracy (we're a republic, damnit, get your facts right)
Seeing as how a republic is "a government having a chief of state who is not a monarchy" a democracy can very well be a republic.
Philosophers as far back as Plato have warned against democracies and "majority rule"
Plato's teacher Socrates opposed democracy as well. That's why he was put on trial, today it would be called "Contributing to the delinquency of a minor" or "inciting to riot". Confucius also opposed anything like democracy, actually if you were to read Confucius's "Analects" and Plato's "The Republic" they say similar things.
Yep. Muscles are like solenoids. Apply some current, and they contract. With AC, your muscles have 60 chances a second to flail you around and dislodge yourself from the electrical source (in the US, anyway). With DC, you kinda just lock on...
I recall these games in penny arcades years ago with two vertical handle a foot and a half maybe 2 feet apart about waist height. The idea was to push the two handles as close together as you could, however pushing them together caused current to run through them shocking you and the closer they were the more you'd be shocked.
All electrical items with microelectronics use DC.
But that's not the point, is it? Very few electronic items use 110/220v directly?
If you tried connecting your laptop to 110v DC, bypassing the transformer/rectifier, you wouild end up with lots of magic blue smoke and quite probably a loud bang or two.
I think you're basically saying the same thing I did. Fact is is most if not all electronic equipment converts the AC they are fed into DC. Being true doesn't it make sense electricity should be delivered DC to those items that use DC and AC to those that use AC? Of course this requires buildings to be wired for both AC and DC. Many of those who build Off the Grid wire DC for many things but will include AC outlets where it is needed. For instance while some refrigerators like Sun Frost come in 12 and 24 VDC as well as 110 or 220 VAC a person may want to use an electric stove and oven or washer and dryer that uses AC.
Beaming significant power through your living room ain't gonna happen.
As I can't foretell the future I don't know if "significant power", whatever that is, will ever happen. But I do know some thought computers would never sit on a desk while others said what use would someone get out of one.
He went broke partly because that theory was completely bogus, and the investment in the tower was therefore lost.
If he enjoyed what he did there was no loss, only if he didn't enjoy it was there a loss. Of course some would say since he didn't use the money to feed the world it was wasted, and others would say because it wasn't used the way they wanted it was wasted, but really the money Tesla spent was wasted or lost only if he did not receive any satisfaction from spending the money. I bet you feel the same about your money.
Software patent lifetimes should probably get quite a bit shorter, too...
Software patents shouldn't exist at all, neither should patents for business methods. Only non obvious hardware implementations and unique solutions not already published should be patented.
San Francisco's trolleys use a moving cable under the ground! That's why they are more properly called "cable cars". The trolley just grabs the cable and lets the cable tow the car around. The cable motion is created by big turning wheels at the end points of the lines, and I don't know what motors they use to turn them. It has probably changed a few times over years, as old as they are it might not have even been electricity back in the beginning.
No, what the GO said was Tesla died broke because he spent all his money trying to create a "wireless power distribution" that made no sense.. I included it in my reply, and I don't see "idea" in it anywhere. Now if what was meant was how Tesla was trying to do it made no sense I don't know.
The whole concept of having a DC grid makes little sense in a world were every household electric device is made to run from AC power. What have they been doing for the last several decades, distributing DC and converting it to AC at the building?
Open up a lot of electric devices in the home and you will a lot of them converting the AC power they are fed into DC. The laptop I'm typing this on uses DC, otherwise I wouldn't be able to unplug and take it with me for use away from an outlet, the battery provides DC power. I bet my monitor, TV, DVD player, and stereo also convert the AC in DC power.
Well, like I sort-of said at in my other reply to you (but I'll repeat here in case anyone needs more clarification), there is no such thing as a "DC transformer". A transformer relies on changing (AC) current to do its transforming, it won't work at all with DC. The equivalent devices for DC are Buck (for stepping down) or Boost (for stepping up) converters, and they are much more complicated devices that need a transistor (or similar switch) to rapidly switch current on and off to an inductor to do their converting.
That's a laboratory curiosity, not a technology to stake your fortune on.
And homebrewMicrocomputers were a lab, er home, curiosity as well. If not for them there would be no/.or the web as they exists now. The point is is they are both possibilities, one realized and one needing more research which is what Tesla was doing.
There are high-voltage DC transmission lines in the US. One of the earliest ones was built in California and carries something like 3000 megawatts.
I also feel compelled to point out that all of New York's electric trains and subways still run on DC third rails. (Between 600 and 750 volts.)
Thanks, I didn't know there were high voltage DC transmission lines in the US. A previous poster pointed out the same thing about NYC's subway, do you know if San Fran's trolleys used AC or DC?
Thanks for the explanation. What I'm wondering now is if it is more efficient to use high voltage to transmit electricity long distances then step down the voltage at the point of use or transmit AC at lower voltage then convert it to DC at the point of use. I know those who build Off the Grid wire the home for DC and stock it with DC appliances because it's more efficient. However the point of electrical generation is close to use, and with a battery bank involved, inefficiencies are introduced in converting DC to AC then back again.
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Uhh, two of them on a whim? I'm pretty sure we had good reasons for going into Afghanistan.
When Pres Bush asked, er told, the Taliban to turn over bin Laden they asked for evidence bin Laden had anything to do with 911 but he refused and just invaded. Oh and let's not forget Bush gave the Taliban millions of US taxpayer dollars in aid before the invasion. "Bush Gives Taliban $10 Million To Fight Opium". That's $43,000,000 there. Yet the Taliban profit from the opium trade.
Falconthe US culture was famously isolationist before and during most of WWI.
The US wasn't really isolationist before WWI. The term Banana Republic comes from the early 1900s when the US, in supporting US businesses importing bananas and other fruits supported undemocratic methods of gaining control of Caribbean and Latin American nations. Teddy Roosevelt's Big Stick comes in part front his sending US Marines to Tangier, Morocco to fight against Berbers who had taken US citizens in Morocco hostage. And about 100 years before that, Thomas Jefferson sent the Marines there to fight Barbary pirates.
FalconAnd you missed mine.
FalconFirst of all, the word "democratic" is one of those nice-sounding words that people use all the time, and the US fits the vague concept of "democratic." However, our actual government is, and always has been, a Republic. Many states are democratic, but the US government is not.
The US is both a republic AND a democracy.
FalconThe same reason Norway, Japan and Iceland will not cede control of their whaling to a body with land-locked countries with absolutely zero whaling history, I guess...?
Yet they're quite willing to give landlocked countries billions in aid if they vote the "right" way on whaling.
FalconUnfortunately this applies to the US as well.
FalconNow, do you have an opinion of why ICANN shouldn't retain control of the domain registration? Or are you simply so one dimensional that the argument "American's suck!" is all you have? Please, give me a rational, intelligent reason for changing the process that's in place with regard to domain registration and I promise you that I'll pay it sincere attention.
Being born in California I'm neither a Rebel nor a Yanky. That's besides the point though. While I prefer ICANN to be a US organization what I don't like is the Commerce Department having veto power over ICANN. For instance I think Bush's Commerce Department veto of the .xxx domain was wrong. However I can only imagine it would be much worse with the UN in control, not just could porn be censored but political speech would be too.
FalconMy real problem is with the fact that in order to make it economical for an individual, the government had to subsidize 70% of the costs, then keep paying him!
All energy used in the US is subsidized. If power generators collected to the grid weren't subsidized you'd see higher prices on electric bills as well, and on gas bills. The US is spending billions of dollars daily in Iraq subsidizing oil. Domestic drilling in the US is subsidized as well. Because of laws like the Mineral Leasing Act of 1920 companies can drill and pump oil, as well as mine for minerals, and not have to pay a fair market value in royalties to the owner of the land the US government. Then there are all of the external costs. Fact is is big companies receive billions of dollars in subsidies yet peopla make a big thing about individual taxpayers getting less than $100,000 in subsidies.
FalconHe spent the last ten(?) years of his life by himself, penniless, in a filthy hotel, feeding pidgeons. Because he wouldn't drop his grand theory that he could power an ocean liner in Japan from a giant tower in New Jersey. Even at the time he was building it, there were dozens of electrical experimenters who could have told him it's not going to happen.
Ok so Tesla died penniless, that doesn't mean he died unhappy.
Look, I love Howard Hughes. Hell's Angels is one of my favorite movies, seriously. But the simple fact of the matter is that he went crazy, pure crazy. That doesn't diminish my respect of the man before he went crazy, but you gotta face reality.
Same with Howard Hughes, what matters is if he was glad for his life when he died. My greatest fear about death is that I will die without enjoying life, which looks more and more likely to happen as my life is more like living in hell to me. The one reason I prefer death now is to end suffering. Unlike what Buddhists teach, to end desire, I have no knowledge on how to do so without dying. I look at my life as a waste, however because of the disability I so called "survived", a Traumatic Brain Injury, TBI, I know of no way to change it. I went from a college student majoring in something I wanted to do, Computer Engineering, to not being able to do many things I loved doing. Maybe it's because of my experiences but what matters to me a lot is enjoying life not making a lot of money or having a successful career. My family was told by the docs while I was in a coma that more than likely I would not live, but the fact is is I wish I had died. AND THAT"S REALITY!!!
FalconThe world can certainly make their own Internet but splitting the net in two will be to the detriment of everybody, the US included. Relaxing or sharing control over domain allocation can be preferable to forcing every American website to register an extra domain at WorldNet to do business overseas.
Ah, but would it stop there? Politicians and bureaucrats have shown repeatedly that they will grab as much power as they can. If the US gives into UN control how long will it be before China, Cuba, and North Korea start yelling about censoring the net? Heck Cuba, Zimbabwe, and other nations have already said they want to censor the net, with UN control it will only get worse.
FalconThe U.S. is NOT a democracy (we're a republic, damnit, get your facts right)
Seeing as how a republic is "a government having a chief of state who is not a monarchy" a democracy can very well be a republic.
Philosophers as far back as Plato have warned against democracies and "majority rule"
Plato's teacher Socrates opposed democracy as well. That's why he was put on trial, today it would be called "Contributing to the delinquency of a minor" or "inciting to riot". Confucius also opposed anything like democracy, actually if you were to read Confucius's "Analects" and Plato's "The Republic" they say similar things.
FalconYep. Muscles are like solenoids. Apply some current, and they contract. With AC, your muscles have 60 chances a second to flail you around and dislodge yourself from the electrical source (in the US, anyway). With DC, you kinda just lock on...
I recall these games in penny arcades years ago with two vertical handle a foot and a half maybe 2 feet apart about waist height. The idea was to push the two handles as close together as you could, however pushing them together caused current to run through them shocking you and the closer they were the more you'd be shocked.
FalconAll electrical items with microelectronics use DC.
But that's not the point, is it? Very few electronic items use 110/220v directly?
If you tried connecting your laptop to 110v DC, bypassing the transformer/rectifier, you wouild end up with lots of magic blue smoke and quite probably a loud bang or two.
I think you're basically saying the same thing I did. Fact is is most if not all electronic equipment converts the AC they are fed into DC. Being true doesn't it make sense electricity should be delivered DC to those items that use DC and AC to those that use AC? Of course this requires buildings to be wired for both AC and DC. Many of those who build Off the Grid wire DC for many things but will include AC outlets where it is needed. For instance while some refrigerators like Sun Frost come in 12 and 24 VDC as well as 110 or 220 VAC a person may want to use an electric stove and oven or washer and dryer that uses AC.
FalconBeaming significant power through your living room ain't gonna happen.
As I can't foretell the future I don't know if "significant power", whatever that is, will ever happen. But I do know some thought computers would never sit on a desk while others said what use would someone get out of one.
He went broke partly because that theory was completely bogus, and the investment in the tower was therefore lost.
If he enjoyed what he did there was no loss, only if he didn't enjoy it was there a loss. Of course some would say since he didn't use the money to feed the world it was wasted, and others would say because it wasn't used the way they wanted it was wasted, but really the money Tesla spent was wasted or lost only if he did not receive any satisfaction from spending the money. I bet you feel the same about your money.
FalconSoftware patent lifetimes should probably get quite a bit shorter, too...
Software patents shouldn't exist at all, neither should patents for business methods. Only non obvious hardware implementations and unique solutions not already published should be patented.
FalconYeah, except computers make sense in applications other than as a laboratory curiosity. Wireless power transmission doesn't.
Wireless power makes as much sense as WiFi, and is even more useful.
FalconSan Francisco's trolleys use a moving cable under the ground! That's why they are more properly called "cable cars". The trolley just grabs the cable and lets the cable tow the car around. The cable motion is created by big turning wheels at the end points of the lines, and I don't know what motors they use to turn them. It has probably changed a few times over years, as old as they are it might not have even been electricity back in the beginning.
Thanks for the info.
FalconThe GP poster said Tesla's idea made no sense
No, what the GO said was Tesla died broke because he spent all his money trying to create a "wireless power distribution" that made no sense.. I included it in my reply, and I don't see "idea" in it anywhere. Now if what was meant was how Tesla was trying to do it made no sense I don't know.
FalconWashington State, or Washington DC?
Washington state, wind and DC hot air.
FalconThe whole concept of having a DC grid makes little sense in a world were every household electric device is made to run from AC power. What have they been doing for the last several decades, distributing DC and converting it to AC at the building?
Open up a lot of electric devices in the home and you will a lot of them converting the AC power they are fed into DC. The laptop I'm typing this on uses DC, otherwise I wouldn't be able to unplug and take it with me for use away from an outlet, the battery provides DC power. I bet my monitor, TV, DVD player, and stereo also convert the AC in DC power.
FalconWell, like I sort-of said at in my other reply to you (but I'll repeat here in case anyone needs more clarification), there is no such thing as a "DC transformer". A transformer relies on changing (AC) current to do its transforming, it won't work at all with DC. The equivalent devices for DC are Buck (for stepping down) or Boost (for stepping up) converters, and they are much more complicated devices that need a transistor (or similar switch) to rapidly switch current on and off to an inductor to do their converting.
Ok, I can understand that better, thanks.
FalconThat's a laboratory curiosity, not a technology to stake your fortune on.
And homebrew Microcomputers were a lab, er home, curiosity as well. If not for them there would be no /.or the web as they exists now. The point is is they are both possibilities, one realized and one needing more research which is what Tesla was doing.
FalconThanks.
FalconThere are high-voltage DC transmission lines in the US. One of the earliest ones was built in California and carries something like 3000 megawatts.
I also feel compelled to point out that all of New York's electric trains and subways still run on DC third rails. (Between 600 and 750 volts.)
Thanks, I didn't know there were high voltage DC transmission lines in the US. A previous poster pointed out the same thing about NYC's subway, do you know if San Fran's trolleys used AC or DC?
FalconThanks for the explanation. What I'm wondering now is if it is more efficient to use high voltage to transmit electricity long distances then step down the voltage at the point of use or transmit AC at lower voltage then convert it to DC at the point of use. I know those who build Off the Grid wire the home for DC and stock it with DC appliances because it's more efficient. However the point of electrical generation is close to use, and with a battery bank involved, inefficiencies are introduced in converting DC to AC then back again.
Falcon