Text 1138, 193 rader
Skriven 2004-10-25 23:04:12 av Adam Flinton (1:379/45)
   Kommentar till text 1124 av Gary Wiltshire (1:379/45)
Ärende: Re: Article on WIPO & the public good
=============================================
From: Adam Flinton <adam@NOSPAM_softfab.com>

Gary Wiltshire wrote:
> On Mon, 25 Oct 2004 01:29:03 +0100, Adam Flinton
> <adam@NOSPAM_softfab.com>  wrote:
>
>> 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.
>>
>
> You have to feed and otherwise maintain the comfort of those people for
> the long ocean trip on a ship.  The TIME of the passenger also
> represents  money to the PASSENGER.
>

Indeed which is why New York to London should take no longer than 3 hours.


>> 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.
>
>
> Too capable?  Laughable.  They were inefficient fuel wastrels.
>

&?

The TIME of the passenger also represents  money to the PASSENGER.

Their main problem was the low number built & the concurrent high costs of
maintainence not the fuel cost.


>> 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.
>
>
> A sure sign that the concorde was uneconomic.
>

Why? Is a vehicle going over 100 mph also uneconomic?


>> 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.
>
>
> Composite materials, too.
>

Yup. Not changed the world though. If anythiing the greatest advance in the
last 50 years has been plastic.

Possibly the bod in "Mrs Robinson" was right.

>> The germans had guided missiles during the war.
>
>
> Which fell almost at random.
>

The guided ones didn't. Mostly used as Anti-ship missiles.

>> 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.
>
>
> The "good old condom" is pretty fragile.
>

The pill won't protect you from aids.

>> Is this large chunk the majority?
>
>
> Second only to coal here.
>

So coal + nuke + gas/oil fired boilers pumping steam provide the majority of
the electric power around you.

>> You are talking about a weapon. Economics leave by the back door when
>> talking about weapons.
>
>
> Not totally.  A tank that gets 5mpg has a real advantage over a similar
> one that gets 2mpg.
>

Mostly a logistics problem. Both tanks get the same mpg if they've buggered up
their tracks.

>>
>> Only a few B2 were built in part because of cost & in part because
>> they  are destabilizing.
>
>
> Cost, yes.  I.e., uneconomic., i.e., impractical.
>

If that were true, you'd have a much lower defence expenditure.


>> 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).
>
>
> Those are not technological issues, but a political ones.
>

Indeed, because mass transit at high speed over long distance esp if involving
the poor is "destabilizing".


>>
>
>> 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.
>
>
> If they don't want to protect ip generated in THEIR countries, ip won't
> take off in THEIR countries.
>

Well it ain't done so so far so maybe they should follow the US model.

Oldish UK books always used to be marked "not for sale in the USA". Can you
guess why?

It worked for the US.

>>>> 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.
>>
> Mere copies of technology developed in Japan.  Likewise the Chinese
> space  program is a copy of the Russian.
>

Just as japanese tech was a copy of other tech etc. See the power of copying in
a market driven economy?

Soon Vietnamese will be copying South Koreans, the Thais will be copying the
Singaporese, the Malaysians will be copying the taiwanese etc.etc.etc.

If you were to decide to design an aircraft today, would you start by watching
birds & working it all out from first principles?


>>> 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".
>
>
> Nope.  A world civilization has been under construction for many
> decades  which will certainly have eastern flavoring, but is
> predominantly western.
>
>

So will we be conversing in Latin or Greek?

Adam

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