Text 1168, 121 rader
Skriven 2004-10-26 11:43:24 av Gary Wiltshire (1:379/45)
   Kommentar till text 1162 av Adam Flinton (1:379/45)
Ärende: Re: Article on WIPO & the public good
=============================================
From: "Gary Wiltshire" <gaw@sover.net>

On Tue, 26 Oct 2004 08:10:30 +0100, Adam Flinton <adam@NOSPAM_softfab.com>
wrote:

>>> 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?

Most people would very much like to have that, but as I've said speed isn't the
only factor.  There is a series of trade-offs, price for example.
>
>
> 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.

There is so much subsonic transatlantic traffic which never goes inland that
the entire trade could have been taken over by SSTs if they were practical. 
They were not - and your notion of refueling them in flight for Pacific trade,
only necessary BECAUSE they are gas guzzlers compared to 747s, would be
ludicrously dangerous.  Acceptable risks in military flight don't necessarily
translate to commercial.

>
>
>>> 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.

There is no distinct line.  It's a tradeoff between cost and time.

>
> The line always used to be means of transport exceeding 100 mph.
>
> Both the condom & a pill will protect you from pregnancy. An apricot
> generally will not.

But you weren't talking about pregnancy, you were talking about aids, which is
why I introduced an apricot among your apples and oranges.  You also lack
imagination where the possible uses of an apricot are concerned.

>
>>> 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.

Gas turbines are not "boilers pumping steam" there is not boiler and no steam.

> 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.

And we did it better.

>
>>> 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.

Your the dim sod.  Your talking about people illegally crossing our border
which has nothing to do with the economics of travel or any plot against
letting poor people travel.

> 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.

That's right and it involves absorbing such western concepts as scientific
method and capitalism.

>>> 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.

Again, depends on what you're trying to accomplish.  A working ornithopter, for
example, would have a distinct niche.

>
>>> So will we be conversing in Latin or Greek?
>>   No, Adam.  English.  AMERICAN English. <g>
>>
Increasingly the world is learning its English from us.

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

Back to apples and oranges, Adam.  Rome and Constantinople were far more
similar to each other.

--
Gary Wiltshire

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