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It’s an age of marvels

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Re: It’s an age of marvels

#71

Post by nradov »

brigadier132 wrote: post #29
ertgbnm wrote: post #23

More than anything else, I think the modern American super market would blow the minds of anyone born before 1900 more than any other marvel that exists. You have blueberries for sale in January??? A variety box of tea from 7 different countries? A wall of spices? Pineapples? Packaging made from aluminum that is just thrown away? The bread isn't full of sand and grit? And it's sliced!!! All relatively affordable and…

It really is amazing, that's why we really need to appreciate and protect what we have. The incredible abundance we currently have is not the norm. It was not even 100 years ago that people were starving in the US during the great depression. Think about this every time someone promotes extremist violent rhetoric.

The Haber–Bosch process also played a major role there. It was around 100 years ago that cheap nitrogen fertilizer manufactured from fossil fuels started to become widely available. That greatly reduced starvation, at least in countries with functional governments.

Re: It’s an age of marvels

#72

Post by pixl97 »

naasking wrote: post #43
Rinzler89 wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, racism and discrimination still exists among genpop today, even if on paper it's outlawed. These kind of biases are impossible to remove just with laws.

Right, but I'm not saying that these people believe racism still exists somewhere out there, I'm saying they believe that racism is in every person's heart . That would seem to make it ineliminable, which seemingly deflates the purpose to care about racism. Ironically, such people claim to care the most about racism.

I mean, every able bodied person is capable of murder, we cannot get rid of it, and yet we spend a lot of time and effort to make sure people aren't out there doing it.

Re: It’s an age of marvels

#73

Post by kybernetikos »

MisterTea wrote: post #59
qlm wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The quantity of chocolate for sale in bulk certainly is surprising. Unfortunately I find American chocolate to be borderline inedible.

You're thinking of the cheap stuff like Hershey and other candy bar crap. It's all sugar.

I don't think it's just the sugar, Hershey uses butyric acid in its process and some other manufacturers copy them because that's the taste US consumers associate with chocolate. To people used to chocolate made without butyric acid, it tastes like vomit.

Re: It’s an age of marvels

#74

Post by bee_rider »

boxed wrote: post #45
CooCooCaCha wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But at what cost? How much should we sacrifice so that blueberries exist year round?

What is the cost we are paying that you imply is too high?

Shipping blueberries around the world can’t be great for the environment.

Re: It’s an age of marvels

#75

Post by brigadier132 »

keybored wrote: post #53
brigadier132 wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It really is amazing, that's why we really need to appreciate and protect what we have. The incredible abundance we currently have is not the norm. It was not even 100 years ago that people were starving in the US during the great depression. Think about this every time someone promotes extremist violent rhetoric.

> It really is amazing, that's why we really need to appreciate and protect what we have. The incredible abundance we currently have is not the norm. It was not even 100 years ago that people were starving in the US during the great depression. This is fine and a good exercise (like a gratitude journal). The problem is that this is often used to tell people indirectly that they should stop with their political compla…

> The problem is that this is often used to tell people indirectly that they should stop with their political complaints

It's a tell that you conflate political complaints with extremist violent rhetoric.

Re: It’s an age of marvels

#76

Post by more_corn »

ertgbnm wrote: post #23

More than anything else, I think the modern American super market would blow the minds of anyone born before 1900 more than any other marvel that exists. You have blueberries for sale in January??? A variety box of tea from 7 different countries? A wall of spices? Pineapples? Packaging made from aluminum that is just thrown away? The bread isn't full of sand and grit? And it's sliced!!! All relatively affordable and…

And yet a lot of people go hungry in this age of marvels. We have enough homes to house all the homeless, we have agencies, money, social workers. And yet we somehow can’t seem to figure it out.

Re: It’s an age of marvels

#77

Post by pushcx »

I think this post is right that Franklin would've been impressed by GPS. The author doesn't call it out, but the Longitude Problem was a significant area of scientific and engineering inquiry in Franklin's lifetime, with special focus on the difficulty of doing so at sea. I haven't looked into it, but given his research mapping the Gulf Stream it seems likely he spent time on the problem himself.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_longitude

Re: It’s an age of marvels

#78

Post by goodgoblin »

blacksqr wrote: post #5

Medicine is magical and magical is art Think of the boy in the bubble And the baby with the baboon heart And I believe These are the days of lasers in the jungle Lasers in the jungle somewhere Staccato signals of constant information A loose affiliation of millionaires And billionaires and baby These are the days of miracle and wonder

I also appreciate the marvelous rhythm of the modern world, more miracles per square foot than the life of any saint.

Re: It’s an age of marvels

#79

Post by criddell »

qlm wrote: post #35
Rinzler89 wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>I think the modern American super market would blow the minds of anyone born before 1900 more than any other marvel that exists Mate, the 7-Eleven Big Gulp, the Walmart 5-gallon bucket of Snickers and the giant Costco bulk bag of peanut butter M&Ms blows my present day European mind, let alone someone from 1900.

The quantity of chocolate for sale in bulk certainly is surprising. Unfortunately I find American chocolate to be borderline inedible.

That's like saying you don't like American beer because you tried Bud Light, Coors Light, and Miller Lite and didn't like any of them.

There are a lot of great chocolate makers in the US.

Re: It’s an age of marvels

#80

Post by tomjen3 »

You also need to take into account what isn't there: How do you think Franklin would take it that we went to every single corner of the earth and killed Smallpox dead?

Like every tiny hamlet in India?

In fact, let him by the grave yard and note the ages of the dead.

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