You're comparing the wrong things. Electronics have come down in price markedly.
A decade ago, a 1GB mp3 player cost several hundred dollars, and was heavy, bulky, and low on features. Now, a 1GB mp3 player is under $20. You can pick from dozens of models, from a thumb drive sized model to ones with video screens.
I'm old enough to remember some surprisingly bad transmissions in the 70s. My dad bought a 76 AMC Matador which was the worst car I have ever met. It broke down countless times and had at least 3 transmissions. I'm surprised the Odyssey has a weak transmission, Honda has a good reputation.
Measles has a fatality rate of 0.3% so if the entire population of the UK was not vaccinated, you could expect nearly 200k people that are currently alive to have died from it.
I can think of two offhand. Christian Scientists don't believe in medical care, and there are Kosher/Halal issues with using certain animal derived vaccines. I'm guessing the government allows religious exemption in order to avoid an expensive legal battle.
I don't personally agree with it, but if I were in charge I doubt if I'd take on the expensive legal and PR battle and instead make filing the exemption difficult and annoying and monitor compliance rates.
That sounds terrible. You should try to get your local schools to require vaccination. In my area you must provide proof of vaccination in order to attend school. There are exemptions for health and religious reasons. The vast majority of children are vaccinated, even though there is a pretty large illegal immigrant population. I am grateful for the free immunization program for poor children regardless of immigration status.
Transmissions are better designed than they used to be. The days when you could thrash things by putting it in too low of a gear are long gone. When I am coming down a mountain at 75MPH when I downshift into "1" the car doesn't try to downshift until I slow to about 60. It'll always keep the RPMs within the programmed range.
I've put about 100k miles on a 10 year old car, lots of mountain trips, and the automatic transmission is still working well. I'm still on the same brake pads, too. I downshift all the time, not only for coming down a hill but also for slowing down gradually around town.
I don't remember anyone saying the network would be faster than a local drive. It doesn't really seem possible since the other end of your network would have to store the data somehow.
I do remember people predicting that the future of computing would be less local storage and a thin client model. The thin client hasn't really taken hold, although many people do most of their work in browsers now. The thing that has changed tremendously is things like video streaming. I don't store many video sources locally any more, I just stream it. Once the network is fast enough for certain uses, there is no need to store locally anymore.
It works fine for basic tasks, although you won't be able to stream or play most flash games. I am impressed that a 10+ year old machine is still viable.
I've been selling old PII/PIII laptops on ebay, it is unbelievable but people buy them. I got $50 plus shipping for a super nice PIII with 512MB of RAM and a cd-rom. Desktops are more of a crapshoot.
Entertainment can be important. A part of why I went into engineering was Star Trek, and from talking to other students it was a popular influence.
If you stacked Tesla or Edison against the combined accomplishments of everyone who was inspired by Star Trek I am not confident the masters would prevail.
US gallons are smaller than UK gallons, but the petrol is similar. US cars tend to be heavier, larger, with more power than European cars. I'd like to buy a European car because the specs appeal to me, but the logistics are difficult.
The worst part about these privatization deals is when they socialize the costs down the road. I am certain the private owner is not doing proper maintenance of the distribution system, and in 20 years when everything starts to fail he will declare bankruptcy and the city will have to foot the bill. He'll walk away with all the profits.
Prepaid plans often are a better deal if you bring your own phone. I bought an older model Android on ebay for $50 and have a $35/month plan with unlimited (!) data.
I've mostly heard people say Somalia doesn't have an effective government. I don't keep up on it much, but there are competing factions and at least one president that some people recognize. Depending on how you define terms, total anarchy could be government. Somalia has way more than that.
Corn is about double what it was 5 years ago, around $7/bushel now. That's over a hundred ears typically, so the farmer is getting maybe a dime per ear as opposed to a nickel 5 years ago.
There are often disparaging articles and comments about trains, mass transit, and Amtrak whenever there is a crash in the US. For some reason, some people seem to hate trains and enjoy disasters involving them. The racist/xenophobic dimension of the current commentary is different, but the attitude is similar.
You're right. I am happy to see the substantial increase. I was hoping for a higher average implemented faster, but it is a major improvement in its own right.
The moon is surrounded with vacuum, and ranges from -150C to 107C, much greater than the temperature fluctuations on earth. A vacuum only insulates against convection and conduction, not infrared/radiated heat. That is why vacuum mugs are often composed of a reflective material.
Recent fuel use nationwide (2006) is 174930 million gallons. The difference between 54.5 and 60 (~9%) would be 16000 million gallons. At current prices, that would be $56 billion/year saved from higher standards. That seems like a pretty big difference to me.
Gas taxes haven't gone up since the early 90s. The high prices at the pump are due to market forces. The thieves stealing credit cards also fraudulently buy and resell at a lower price things like electronics, tools, appliances, car parts, etc. I don't think this has anything to do with taxes.
I don't have an opinion on the Tesla handling, but you are wrong that it is the batteries.
The Tesla curb weight is 2,723 lb, and a new Mustang ranges from 3300-4000 lb. My friend's Audi TT is 2900 lb, and he likes the way it handles. Obviously weight isn't the problem with Tesla handling, I don't know what exactly is your complaint.
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You're comparing the wrong things. Electronics have come down in price markedly.
A decade ago, a 1GB mp3 player cost several hundred dollars, and was heavy, bulky, and low on features. Now, a 1GB mp3 player is under $20. You can pick from dozens of models, from a thumb drive sized model to ones with video screens.
You can get a smartphone through virgin. Voice/data smartphone plans start at $35/month. They have some nice phones, too.
I'm old enough to remember some surprisingly bad transmissions in the 70s. My dad bought a 76 AMC Matador which was the worst car I have ever met. It broke down countless times and had at least 3 transmissions. I'm surprised the Odyssey has a weak transmission, Honda has a good reputation.
Lojack resides in BIOS and reinstalls itself even if you replace the hard drive. A wipe does nothing.
Measles has a fatality rate of 0.3% so if the entire population of the UK was not vaccinated, you could expect nearly 200k people that are currently alive to have died from it.
I can think of two offhand. Christian Scientists don't believe in medical care, and there are Kosher/Halal issues with using certain animal derived vaccines. I'm guessing the government allows religious exemption in order to avoid an expensive legal battle.
I don't personally agree with it, but if I were in charge I doubt if I'd take on the expensive legal and PR battle and instead make filing the exemption difficult and annoying and monitor compliance rates.
Learn about spontaneous particle creation. Your first axiom is invalid.
That sounds terrible. You should try to get your local schools to require vaccination. In my area you must provide proof of vaccination in order to attend school. There are exemptions for health and religious reasons. The vast majority of children are vaccinated, even though there is a pretty large illegal immigrant population. I am grateful for the free immunization program for poor children regardless of immigration status.
Transmissions are better designed than they used to be. The days when you could thrash things by putting it in too low of a gear are long gone. When I am coming down a mountain at 75MPH when I downshift into "1" the car doesn't try to downshift until I slow to about 60. It'll always keep the RPMs within the programmed range.
I've put about 100k miles on a 10 year old car, lots of mountain trips, and the automatic transmission is still working well. I'm still on the same brake pads, too. I downshift all the time, not only for coming down a hill but also for slowing down gradually around town.
I don't remember anyone saying the network would be faster than a local drive. It doesn't really seem possible since the other end of your network would have to store the data somehow.
I do remember people predicting that the future of computing would be less local storage and a thin client model. The thin client hasn't really taken hold, although many people do most of their work in browsers now. The thing that has changed tremendously is things like video streaming. I don't store many video sources locally any more, I just stream it. Once the network is fast enough for certain uses, there is no need to store locally anymore.
It works fine for basic tasks, although you won't be able to stream or play most flash games. I am impressed that a 10+ year old machine is still viable.
I've been selling old PII/PIII laptops on ebay, it is unbelievable but people buy them. I got $50 plus shipping for a super nice PIII with 512MB of RAM and a cd-rom. Desktops are more of a crapshoot.
Entertainment can be important. A part of why I went into engineering was Star Trek, and from talking to other students it was a popular influence.
If you stacked Tesla or Edison against the combined accomplishments of everyone who was inspired by Star Trek I am not confident the masters would prevail.
US gallons are smaller than UK gallons, but the petrol is similar. US cars tend to be heavier, larger, with more power than European cars. I'd like to buy a European car because the specs appeal to me, but the logistics are difficult.
Looks like he tried to use the enter key for line breaks. I've never had that work in slashcode, I use
tags.
The worst part about these privatization deals is when they socialize the costs down the road. I am certain the private owner is not doing proper maintenance of the distribution system, and in 20 years when everything starts to fail he will declare bankruptcy and the city will have to foot the bill. He'll walk away with all the profits.
Prepaid plans often are a better deal if you bring your own phone. I bought an older model Android on ebay for $50 and have a $35/month plan with unlimited (!) data.
I've mostly heard people say Somalia doesn't have an effective government. I don't keep up on it much, but there are competing factions and at least one president that some people recognize. Depending on how you define terms, total anarchy could be government. Somalia has way more than that.
Corn is about double what it was 5 years ago, around $7/bushel now. That's over a hundred ears typically, so the farmer is getting maybe a dime per ear as opposed to a nickel 5 years ago.
There are often disparaging articles and comments about trains, mass transit, and Amtrak whenever there is a crash in the US. For some reason, some people seem to hate trains and enjoy disasters involving them. The racist/xenophobic dimension of the current commentary is different, but the attitude is similar.
You're right. I am happy to see the substantial increase. I was hoping for a higher average implemented faster, but it is a major improvement in its own right.
The moon is surrounded with vacuum, and ranges from -150C to 107C, much greater than the temperature fluctuations on earth. A vacuum only insulates against convection and conduction, not infrared/radiated heat. That is why vacuum mugs are often composed of a reflective material.
Recent fuel use nationwide (2006) is 174930 million gallons. The difference between 54.5 and 60 (~9%) would be 16000 million gallons. At current prices, that would be $56 billion/year saved from higher standards. That seems like a pretty big difference to me.
Gas taxes haven't gone up since the early 90s. The high prices at the pump are due to market forces. The thieves stealing credit cards also fraudulently buy and resell at a lower price things like electronics, tools, appliances, car parts, etc. I don't think this has anything to do with taxes.
I don't have an opinion on the Tesla handling, but you are wrong that it is the batteries.
The Tesla curb weight is 2,723 lb, and a new Mustang ranges from 3300-4000 lb. My friend's Audi TT is 2900 lb, and he likes the way it handles. Obviously weight isn't the problem with Tesla handling, I don't know what exactly is your complaint.