Text 1177, 107 rader
Skriven 2004-10-26 18:55:34 av Gary Wiltshire (1:379/45)
   Kommentar till text 1174 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 23:34:18 +0100, Adam Flinton <adam@NOSPAM_softfab.com>
wrote:

> There is but there are enough rich people who would wish a 3 hour trip
> to New York & there are enough middle-poor people who would settle for
> an 8 hour trip.

No there AREN'T enough or there would be a fleet of SSTs crossing the Atlantic
now.

> Concorde was noisy & was not allowed to be sold in large numbers to
> politically dodgy countries unlike subsonic airliners which anyone with
> the cash could buy.

Even if only the US, Canada and western Europe were allowed to buy them there
would have been hundreds of them crisscrossing the Atlantic if they were
practical.  They weren't.

>
>> 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.
>>
>
> Indeed which is why it was an odd request & one which put concorde into
> the same export restriction as serious mil kit.

Military use restrictions isn't the half of it.  In-flight refueling is
DANGEROUS by commercial passenger standards.

> Yup but on most flights there are at least 2 classes of accomodation,
> attracting different prices & yet both are often full. Same speed, same
> flight, different cost.

Different accomodations making the trip variably bearable.

> The pill liberated women (& men) from unwanted pregancy. Unwanted
> pregnancy used to (& in some places still does) mean shame & various
> penalties in additon to the financial etc effects.
>
> However now unrestricted sexual congress can in many places in effect
> carry a death sentence. Both the pill & the condom protect from unwanted
> pregnancy but the pill will not help protect you from the possible death
> sentence where a condom will.

Duh.

> Indeed not. However that is to assume that all oil/(natural) gas fired
> power stations use gas turbines.

Overwhelmingly commonplace here.  They are efficient and easy to scale up in
individual small units at need with very little advance notice.

> If noone could travel over long distances or if it was slow & difficult
> there would be little need for immigration etc laws. They exist because
> of the threat of massive immigration brought about by cheap & rapid mass
> transit over long distances.

Garbage.  Illegal immigrants cross our southern border in the tens of thousands
ON FOOT.

>
> We have no problem with Dutch or French people or in extremis even
> Belgians popping over & vice versa. However an airliner can deliver
> large numbers of the world's poor in the richer places fast &
> efficiently.

Insignficant compared to our border problem where the people arrive ON FOOT.

>>> 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.
>>
>
> Ah yes the Chinese lack of scientific progress such as the printing
> press, the rocket etc.etc. gee I'll bet all those chinese had no idea
> what money was till they met men from the West.

And look how poorly either were ever utilized.  The Chinese were clueless on
implementing what little technology they had.  There is a considerable
difference between Scientific Method and what could hardly be called "science"
in China or other backward nations.  Ditto for capitalism and market economies.
 Islam, in this connection, has severely hurt the progress of the Muslim world
- won't even allow interest on loans!

> Yup. But the time & expense & danger involved in travelling between Rome
> & Constantinople then was greater than the equivalent journey between
> any 2 major cities on earth today.

That's very true, but it's still a bad comparison because the two were
essentially one bilingual culture with the western or "Roman" part largely
built upon eastern or "Greek" models.

> & that is before you factor in our common means of instant communication
> such as the phone or the internet.
>
Which will continue the spread of an essentially western global civilization.

--
Gary Wiltshire

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