Text 1162, 173 rader
Skriven 2004-10-26 08:10:30 av Adam Flinton (1:379/45)
   Kommentar till text 1143 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 23:04:12 +0100, Adam Flinton
> <adam@NOSPAM_softfab.com>  wrote:
>
>>>  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.
>
>
> Only if time were the ONLY factor.  However there is less QUALITATIVE
> difference between a 3 hour trip vs and 8 hour trip on the one hand and
> a  trip of many days on the other.
>

So then why don't peopel demand high speed london<>sydney or new york<>aukland?


>> Their main problem was the low number built & the concurrent high
>> costs  of maintainence not the fuel cost.
>
>
> The cost of maintenance, at least of the original design would still
> have  been prohibitive and the fuel cost is not to be sneezed at.  They
> didn't  discontinue the SST just to be mean to you.
>

Indeed. They discontinued because you could only go supersonic over water & you
had to be from a trusted country as opposed to a subsonic which can be sold to
anyone.


>> Why? Is a vehicle going over 100 mph also uneconomic?
>
>
> Total non sequitur to anything I said.
>

You were drawing an arbitary line, I was merely trying to discern where you had
placed that line.

The line always used to be means of transport exceeding 100 mph.

>> Yup. Not changed the world though. If anythiing the greatest advance
>> in  the last 50 years has been plastic.
>
>
> The composites are coming on strong now.  Also, while we're talking
> technological advance, the decoding of the genome is going to have
> major  rammifications in our lifetime.
>
>> The guided ones didn't. Mostly used as Anti-ship missiles.
>
>
> The V1s and V2s sure did.
>

Yup. The V2 was however ballistic rather than guided.

>> The pill won't protect you from aids.
>
>
> So?  Neither will an apricot.
>

Both the condom & a pill will protect you from pregnancy. An apricot generally
will not.

>> So coal + nuke + gas/oil fired boilers pumping steam provide the
>> majority of the electric power around you.
>
>
> No.  Nuke is not as important here as it is in, say, France.  I think
> it's  something the French are doing very well.  Over here the very
> word  "nuclear" invokes screaming hysterics among the chattering classes.
>

I didn't say it was as important. However steam generated electricity can be
created by just about any heat source & as such all the above are steam
engines.


>> Mostly a logistics problem. Both tanks get the same mpg if they've
>> buggered up their tracks.
>
>
> It HELPS logistics problems to be more efficient.  Supply lines can be
> longer.
>

Yup.

>> If that were true, you'd have a much lower defence expenditure.
>
>
> No we wouldn't.  We'd just have a lot more of the lower cost weapons.
>

Many weapons systems are vastly uneconomic. US & SU history is (was) littered
with them. In part the SU collapsed because the lack of economy in weapons
production.

>> Indeed, because mass transit at high speed over long distance esp if
>> involving the poor is "destabilizing".
>
>
> What are you prattling about now?  You think we have a black helicoper
> plot against letting the poor travel?
>

It's not "black helicopter" you dim sod, it's an established fact. Be poor &
from a poor country & the only way to travel is via "people smugglers" because
of this fact.


>> Just as japanese tech was a copy of other tech etc. See the power of
>> copying in a market driven economy?
>
>
> The Japanese do a lot of basic research now.  They are no longer mere
> imitators.
>

Well what a surprise. It's as if people who learn via copying then go on to
create & thus others copy them who then go on to create etc.etc.

Crikey it's almost like the way knowledge gets past from the old to the young,
generation after generation.


>> Soon Vietnamese will be copying South Koreans, the Thais will be
>> copying  the Singaporese, the Malaysians will be copying the
>> taiwanese  etc.etc.etc.
>
>
> And they will join that global culture as they do so and will produce
> their own research.
>

They will & they will both create & keep copying. Look how fast (as an example)
railways spread round the world. W/o copying Stephenson etc, no "iron horse",
no transcontinental railways etc.

>> If you were to decide to design an aircraft today, would you start by
>> watching birds & working it all out from first principles?
>
>
> That would depend on what I was trying to accomplish.
>

A working heavier than air flying machine.

>> So will we be conversing in Latin or Greek?
>
>
> No, Adam.  English.  AMERICAN English. <g>
>

Quite possibly english english but that's mostly because that's what the
Indians speak.

However your western & eastern allusions did humor, with their similarities to
various statements made a long time ago wrt Rome & Constantinople.

Adam

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