Text 1099, 191 rader
Skriven 2004-10-25 01:29:02 av Adam Flinton (1:379/45)
    Kommentar till text 874 av Gary Wiltshire (1:379/45)
Ärende: Re: Article on WIPO & the public good
=============================================
From: Adam Flinton <adam@NOSPAM_softfab.com>

Gary Wiltshire wrote:
>> Because it's fast. The cheapest form of transport is still shipping.
>
>
> Not for PEOPLE it's not and I was quite specific about that.
>

You can build a very large ship which can carry a great number of passengers.
You can build a number of such ships. People have mass like any other item
which needs transporting.

People fly over oceans because of the speed & lack of sea-sickness.

>> Not so. Concorde made money but it could only run on a restricted set
>> of  routes. It was taken out of use because the manufacturers did not
>> want  to keep making the parts as the low number of concordes made the
>> process  uneconomic for them.
>
>
> Wrong.  If it were really economic, more SSTs would have been built and
> would have taken over transatlantic flight.  There is a LOT of traffic
> across the Atlantic that never gets past coastal cities.
>

The problem with Concorde was that it was too capable. Sales were killed not by
a request that it not fly due to noise at the airport (an American concern),
but the request from a middle eastern country that it be fitted with a
retractable refuelling probe.

The idea was to be able to fly fast Indian Ocean<>eastern australia or across
the pacific, using tankers.

They had the oil to burn & (as usual at the time) the airline was "national"
i.e. state owned

Fine idea but....

Look at the uses to which the 707 airframe has been put by your & other
militaries. Even the Comet is still flying as a maritime patrol aircraft.

Now the concorde does mach 2+ at a nice height above the planet & outperformed
most mil aircraft. If the concorde knew the fighters were coming then only a
foxbat could catch it. Remember it cruised at mach2+ where the fighter would be
on full afterburn.

Suddenly lots & lots of countries were on a list of countries we'd not like to
see concorde sales to.

Oddly...the fuel pumped into a concorde if refueling in the air would have
cooled the airframe & replenished not just the fuel but the "heatsink".

I was always amazed the UK gov never did what others intended i.e. to have some
built as surveillance aircraft (with the air to air refueling capability).

It was probably because a luggage hold can be adapted into a weapons bay.

Still the case today. An SST is a military vehicle.


>> Bigger chemical rocket. Gee whiz.
>
>
> Better guidance, better fuels, better metallurgy and better navigation.
>

Terrific. The only real metallurgical advance was the useage of titanium. Lot's
of other little steps but compared to say bessemer & steel....? The cast
iron/steel revolution affected the entire planet deeply.

>> Which have been around since 1945.
>
>
> New and improved over time with greater accurance and more assurance of
> hitting the target.
>

The germans had guided missiles during the war.


>> They aren't that great over those of 50 years ago.
>>
>> They had condoms then & we have condoms now.
>
>
> The Pill, Adam.  Ever hear of it?
>

Yup. One of the few advances. But the pill won't keep you safe from aids etc
where the good old condom on the whole will.

>> Nuclear power stations are basically steam engines as are most forms
>> of  electricity production.
>
>
> Wrong.  A large chunk of US electrical production comes from gas
> turbines.  No steam required.
>

Is this large chunk the majority?

Coal, oil, gas & nuclear are the main ones round here.

>> Does the B52 look as archaic now as the Wright flyer would have
>> looked  in the 50'es?
>
>
> Anything which remains the most economic will survive for a long time.
>

You are talking about a weapon. Economics leave by the back door when talking
about weapons.

Aircraft such as the F111 were withdrawn in part because they were too capable
of deep strike & were thus destabilizing.

Effectively stopping production on monoplanes & reverting to biplanes because
monoplanes were too destabilizing.

Only a few B2 were built in part because of cost & in part because they are
destabilizing.

>> 20 years ago travel was faster. Now it is steadily getting slower.
>> The  move from Roman levels to dark ages levels did not happen over
>> night.
>
>
> Ah, anything imperceptible must back you up, eh?
>

It is not imperceptable, that is the point. Can you remember 20 years ago? Now
the aim appears to be to impede travel where possible (e.g. at airports in the
pursuit of natioanl security & immigration).

Here the fastest trains running from Scarborough to York this summer had
names..the Flying Scotsman & the City of Truro (one of the two was the first
passenger vehicle to exceed 100 mph).

http://www.24hourmuseum.org.uk/nwh_gfx_en/ART23259.html

http://www.24hourmuseum.org.uk/nwh_gfx_en/ART21710.html

Those trains are faster than the train which normally plies it's trade between
Scarborough & York.

That is perceptible. The mainline trains with all this time & greater tech,
only do 140 mph.

>>> Those poor countries suffer from ignorance of their own making.
>>
>>
>> Really.
>
>
> Yes, really.
>

So then it would be OK for them to drop all copyright in those countries such
that their people may learn unhindered?

After all they have no ip to protect.

>>
>>
>>> Compare  the social systems of the west versus, say, the Islamic
>>> world  and ask  yourself why so little technological innovation and
>>> publishing  happens in  the latter.
>>>
>>
>> Compare the western societies to the eastern asian ones & ask why so
>> little production occurs in the western societies.
>
>
> And what technological innovation and publishing of any note is
> happening  in, say, China?
>

Really cheap but good mini dvd players for one.

> Japan, South Korea and Taiwan, on the other hand, I would include in
> the  ranks of the "West."
>

How big of you. Maybe at some point they might return the compliment & consider
the US in the ranks of the "East".

Adam

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