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It’s an age of marvels

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Re: It’s an age of marvels

#291

Post by sanderjd »

> The Internet? Well, again yes, but no. The complicated engineering details are complicated engineering, but again the basic idea is easily within the reach of the 18th century and is not all that astounding.

I get that this is a set-up to the more astounding inventions discussed further on, but I think this one is a stretch. I buy the paragraph as a description for why telegraphs would not have been astounding, but I think there are a few step-changes from there to the global broadband packet-switched internet that exists today. I don't think this is the same "basic idea" as telegraphs.

Re: It’s an age of marvels

#292

Post by ToValueFunfetti »

bumby wrote: post #271
ToValueFunfetti wrote: post #240

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sometimes you actually do need to rewrite the whole project in a new language. FORTRAN just isn't the tool for the job anymore. But you'd still benefit a good deal from being highly suspicious that any person suggesting that course of action is naive to how much time and suffering it will entail. Arguably, the American revolution wasn't even necessary. A lot of people died as a result. England would have potentially…

> FORTRAN just isn't the tool for the job anymore. This underscores the problem with generalities. I know of some applications that would be considered high-speed (both literally and figuratively, since they are related to rocket testing) that still rely on FORTRAN. So I think your statement needs some qualifies (what kinds of jobs?)

I guess I should have put quotes around that. It was intended as a specific example of when that decision might make sense; you're using the wrong language for the job because it was the best choice when you started the project decades ago. I didn't mean to suggest that FORTRAN is not the tool for any job.

Re: It’s an age of marvels

#293

Post by marcosdumay »

toss1 wrote: post #282
brightball wrote: post #264

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People used to tell stories of visiting Russia and having people try to buy their blue jeans off of them while walking down the street.

Yes, can confirm. I personally know multiple people who have had that exact experience; one just mentioned it last weekend. If they knew in advance they traveled with an extra suitcase full of jeans to sell, not so much for the money, but to make/help friends. It was also not uncommon for Soviet residents to queue up for whatever anyone was selling when it became available — Size 14 galoshes that will not even close…

> I've also been in situations with live hyperinflation, like 10% per week.

I don't know if it's because I have experienced it, but 10%/week inflation doesn't sound anything near as bleak as "basic necessities are only available every other month".

Re: It’s an age of marvels

#294

Post by dingnuts »

marcosdumay wrote: post #293
toss1 wrote: post #282

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, can confirm. I personally know multiple people who have had that exact experience; one just mentioned it last weekend. If they knew in advance they traveled with an extra suitcase full of jeans to sell, not so much for the money, but to make/help friends. It was also not uncommon for Soviet residents to queue up for whatever anyone was selling when it became available — Size 14 galoshes that will not even close…

> I've also been in situations with live hyperinflation, like 10% per week. I don't know if it's because I have experienced it, but 10%/week inflation doesn't sound anything near as bleak as "basic necessities are only available every other month".

maybe it's because cash is just one asset.. at least if goods exist, you can barter for them, if the cash isn't any good

if the necessities just aren't there because, oh I don't know, you took the farms from the farmers because they owned land and owning property was deemed evil, and then the crops failed[1], then they just aren't available and it doesn't matter how much money or gold or any other commodity you might have to exchange for them

1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holodomor

Re: It’s an age of marvels

#295

Post by dingnuts »

chasd00 wrote: post #250
rmccue wrote: post #237

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As someone who’s not American, I’m unclear; is going to a butcher not an option? Have they been competed out of the market by supermarkets?

from a google search: "A 7 bone steak is a cut of beef from the chuck section of a cow's front shoulder, which is considered a tough area of the animal.". You're not going to find that in a regular grocery store because not many people will buy it. You will find every other cut of beef, pork, and poultry considered edible though. You can go to a butcher but they're less common than a regular grocery store. Also, butc…

lol Dallas is the only major city in Texas where "going to the store" doesn't almost always means HEB, too

also, complaining that you can't find Thing unless you go to a Mexican meat market is a weird way to boast that your area has specialty grocery stores.

Re: It’s an age of marvels

#296

Post by mistermann »

afthonos wrote: post #90
keybored wrote: post #53

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. 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…

As far as I use the term, extremists are people who advocate for tearing the system down via revolution and rebuilding from scratch. They have no idea what it takes to build this modern world, but they love the idea of guillotines.

What do you call people who attach speculative pejorative labels to those who dare to suggest that action should be considered because the status quo may be similarly risky?

Don't forget: the status quo is what got us into our various pickles in the first place.

Re: It’s an age of marvels

#297

Post by PaulDavisThe1st »

NateEag wrote: post #165
metadat wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And why would bread be full of sand and grit?

Because using millstones to grind grains into flour leaves traces of sand and stone grit in the flour. It's really hard on the teeth long-term, IIUC.

Keeps the ol' colon moving right along tho'

Re: It’s an age of marvels

#298

Post by toss1 »

marcosdumay wrote: post #293
toss1 wrote: post #282

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, can confirm. I personally know multiple people who have had that exact experience; one just mentioned it last weekend. If they knew in advance they traveled with an extra suitcase full of jeans to sell, not so much for the money, but to make/help friends. It was also not uncommon for Soviet residents to queue up for whatever anyone was selling when it became available — Size 14 galoshes that will not even close…

> I've also been in situations with live hyperinflation, like 10% per week. I don't know if it's because I have experienced it, but 10%/week inflation doesn't sound anything near as bleak as "basic necessities are only available every other month".

Yes, while I did not go to the USSR, the accounts I've heard from friends definitely sounded worse than hyperinflation. While hyperinflaion did rapidly make necessities rather difficult and required daily juggling, I didn't see the kinds of deprivation I repeatedly heard reported from USSR. Heck, even today, 20% of Russians have no indoor plumbing, as in they have to use outhouses [0]

[0] https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2019/04/02/indoor-plumbing-st...

Re: It’s an age of marvels

#299

Post by credit_guy »

That's nothing.

The thing Benjamin Franklin would have marveled at is how many things we refuse to do.

If you told Franklin that within 9 months of us getting hit by a new virus we would start mass-producing a vaccine, he would be impressed, but not all that much. But if you told him hundreds of millions of people refused to take the vaccine, he'd then be truly astonished.

If you told Franklin that only 65 years after first flying an airplane we landed humans on the Moon, he would give an appreciative nod. If you told him we built and tested a thermal nuclear rocket engine and it was working better than one could hope, and then we completely shelved the project, he will admit that his brain is too small to comprehend that.

Make sure you do not mention GMOs to Ben Franklin.

Re: It’s an age of marvels

#300

Post by taneq »

marcosdumay wrote: post #293
toss1 wrote: post #282

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, can confirm. I personally know multiple people who have had that exact experience; one just mentioned it last weekend. If they knew in advance they traveled with an extra suitcase full of jeans to sell, not so much for the money, but to make/help friends. It was also not uncommon for Soviet residents to queue up for whatever anyone was selling when it became available — Size 14 galoshes that will not even close…

> I've also been in situations with live hyperinflation, like 10% per week. I don't know if it's because I have experienced it, but 10%/week inflation doesn't sound anything near as bleak as "basic necessities are only available every other month".

Give it six months and you’ll understand. Basic necessities are available for money, until they aren’t because money stops working.

Edit: Six months of 10%/wk hyperinflation, I meant, not that some crazy hyperinflation is going to hit you personally within six months.

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