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It’s an age of marvels

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Re: It’s an age of marvels

#371

Post by sethammons »

tomjen3 wrote: post #80

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.

> let him by the grave yard and note the ages of the dead

Suggesting what? That people live longer? That is a modern myth. Socrates died in his 80s. The average lifespan being low was because so many children died. People have been living 70-90 years for thousands of years, likely longer.

Re: It’s an age of marvels

#372

Post by sethammons »

verisimi wrote: post #86

> An obvious winner, something sure to blow Franklin's mind is “yeah, we've sent people to the Moon to see what it was like, they left scientific instruments there and then they came back with rocks and stuff.” But that's no everyday thing, it blew everyone's mind when it happened and it still does. Some things I tell Franklin make him goggle and say “We did what?” and I shrug modestly and say yeah, it's pretty impre…

See every sports fan, political armchair pundit, etc. "what we need to do is..."

Re: It’s an age of marvels

#373

Post by throwaway11460 »

philistine wrote: post #362
pfdietz wrote: post #276

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It's very fortunate that rockets are not the only way to get stuff into space I don't see any of the alternatives ever being competitive.

It's even worse than that. A space elevator, the only thing that could conceivably replace rockets, requires materials so strong that they don't exist in our universe. Space is like the internet. You can communicate through it, but sending matter is nigh impossible.

Not true - an orbital ring doesn't require any scifi materials, though the engineering is not yet there. And you can build magnetic accelerators, that's fully possible with current knowledge of science and engineering.

Re: It’s an age of marvels

#374

Post by pfdietz »

oblio wrote: post #344
pfdietz wrote: post #270

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How old are you?

Old enough to realize that mass selling buckets of medicine isn't sane (no matter what they are, hint, Advil expires too), especially since I have doctors in my family. Also it kind of confirmed what statistics say about America being over medicated. It's just a small whiff of the disease that ends up with mass fentanyl addictions.

And not old enough to have the constant, chronic pain of old age, when your bones are grinding against each other at your worn out joints, particularly if you've had a life of physical labor. I think without the privilege of being relatively pain-free you'd change your tune.

Re: It’s an age of marvels

#375

Post by oblio »

pfdietz wrote: post #374
oblio wrote: post #344

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Old enough to realize that mass selling buckets of medicine isn't sane (no matter what they are, hint, Advil expires too), especially since I have doctors in my family. Also it kind of confirmed what statistics say about America being over medicated. It's just a small whiff of the disease that ends up with mass fentanyl addictions.

And not old enough to have the constant, chronic pain of old age, when your bones are grinding against each other at your worn out joints, particularly if you've had a life of physical labor. I think without the privilege of being relatively pain-free you'd change your tune.

I'm sure that the solution to that is not 1 ton of likely self prescribed Advil, it's proper treatment.

Re: It’s an age of marvels

#376

Post by LeChuck »

bmitc wrote: post #340
prawn wrote: post #337

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also exposed when thinking about hardware stores. If you need to build/repair part of your house and the supply chain for wood or steel is gone, are you going to wait for tall, straight trees to grow? And then if you don't have milling hardware? Know how to create and extrude steel roofing or angle iron or similar?

Yea, our supply chain fragility and dependence really scares me sometimes. I try not to think about it, to be honest.

Our supply chain is not fragile at all! It took an enormous, global pandemic to cause a disruption and even then, goods kept flowing. Don't forget, Everyone braced for an economic downturn and all of a sudden demand for transported goods shot up. That's what caused the congestion, hugely growing demand. Containers never stopped moving, demand for transport was simply greater than supply. Prices rose, sure, but that's what's supposed to happen right? After the pandemic was over prices plummeted even faster than they climbed and are now under pre-pandemic levels.

Right now containers ships have (largely) stopped transiting the Suez Canal, passing the Horn of Africa instead. Adding weeks to their transit time. This is a mayor disruption and, while freight rates are once again rising, no one notices. Goods keep flowing, stores are stocked.

I work in logistics, so I'm somewhat biased, but to me it's amazing how robust supply chains really are

Re: It’s an age of marvels

#377

Post by pfdietz »

oblio wrote: post #375
pfdietz wrote: post #374

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And not old enough to have the constant, chronic pain of old age, when your bones are grinding against each other at your worn out joints, particularly if you've had a life of physical labor. I think without the privilege of being relatively pain-free you'd change your tune.

I'm sure that the solution to that is not 1 ton of likely self prescribed Advil, it's proper treatment.

Doctor recommended ibuprofen can be at considerably higher dose rates than what's listed on the bottle at your pharmacy.

This whole "too many painkillers are prescribed" thing really annoys me. It leads to cancer patients suffering because of the risk they could become addicted. So f-ing what?

Re: It’s an age of marvels

#378

Post by pfdietz »

throwaway11460 wrote: post #373
philistine wrote: post #362

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's even worse than that. A space elevator, the only thing that could conceivably replace rockets, requires materials so strong that they don't exist in our universe. Space is like the internet. You can communicate through it, but sending matter is nigh impossible.

Not true - an orbital ring doesn't require any scifi materials, though the engineering is not yet there. And you can build magnetic accelerators, that's fully possible with current knowledge of science and engineering.

I don't see that kind of macroengineering as plausible.

Re: It’s an age of marvels

#379

Post by Kbelicius »

brigadier132 wrote: post #238
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…

I was intentionally vague and not picking sides. Extremist violent rhetoric encompasses communists and fascists and anyone else willing to kill people to tear the system down. If you think I'm talking about the Israel / Palestine thing. It was not what I was thinking about. I was thinking about the US specifically but it also applies to other nations with strong personal freedoms, rule of law, and general economic pr…

Are you aware that the system we have today needed people willing to kill to tear the then existing systems down?

Re: It’s an age of marvels

#380

Post by pfdietz »

VelesDude wrote: post #310
pfdietz wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This was then combined with the Green Revolution, where crops were modified to truly take advantage of abundant artificial fertilizer. Before that, too much nitrogen would make wheat (for example) grow so tall and top heavy it would fall over, reducing yield in a process called "lodging". The fact that would amaze Franklin is that only about 1% of Americans are farmers.

Franklin would also be puzzled that there would be many people that are nutrient deficient despite calorie abundance.

The dietary problem in the US is overconsumption of macronutrients, particularly carbohydrates, not underconsumption of micronutrients, and certainly not underconsumption (of all nutrients) as could be seen in Franklin's time.

Franklin would be amazed at how little of household budgets could go to food now.

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