Live data from Hacker News

Stephanie L. Kwolek, Inventor of Kevlar, Is Dead at 90

nytimes.com

41–48 of 48 posts

Re: Stephanie L. Kwolek, Inventor of Kevlar, Is Dead at 90

#41
post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Probably will mirror the experience Britain had once the pound lost its reserve status.

The US dollar isn't losing it's reserve status. What would replace it? The day the Chinese Yuan floats freely might be a small step in that direction, but then we've also got "able to exchange any world currency into it" and "China has a growth rate which is realistically maintainable". You don't get negative interest rates because people don't want to hold US dollars.

I don't think it's axiomatic it's status can't end in, say, the medium term, or that it would be replaced per se. As a hypothetical, suppose the Federal government decided to liquidate its debts the Weimar Republic/Zimbabwe way.

You are of course correct about the current situation, including the PRC; I interpret it as the US dollar being one of the "least worst" places to put your money. I'm of course looking beyond this period ... which still doesn't necessarily equal people not wanting to hold US dollars, as we saw in the '70s when things got quite ugly.

I'm just implicitly pointing out there's a whole lot being built on the current reality of the Federal government being able to borrow essentially for free, and that I expect the latter to end, with bad consequences for the former.

Re: Stephanie L. Kwolek, Inventor of Kevlar, Is Dead at 90

#42
post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I do hope that you have enough moral consistency that if or when things get nasty, you don't pester your "gun nut" and "prepper" acquaintances but accept the fate your unpreparedness would normally dictate. What are you talking about? If Armageddon comes, we're obviously going to murder you and take all your supplies. I mean, "moral consistency" is nice and everything, but it's nothing weighed against the survival…

" If Armageddon comes, we're obviously going to murder you and take all your supplies. " And how will you accomplish this when we have the guns, and you don't? Who's going to bell the cat? "Armageddon" will very likely kill me due to disruptions in pharmaceutical supply (I'm 53 with a chronic medical condition). That you assume I'm " eagerly anticipating [civilization's] downfall ", and doing nothing in the meanwhile…

>And how will you accomplish this when we have the guns, and you don't?

Well, people who pile on guns for such situations, usually aren't the smartest apples in the orchard, so to speak. So it should be quite easy to take those from them.

Re: Stephanie L. Kwolek, Inventor of Kevlar, Is Dead at 90

#43
post #42
post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

" If Armageddon comes, we're obviously going to murder you and take all your supplies. " And how will you accomplish this when we have the guns, and you don't? Who's going to bell the cat? "Armageddon" will very likely kill me due to disruptions in pharmaceutical supply (I'm 53 with a chronic medical condition). That you assume I'm " eagerly anticipating [civilization's] downfall ", and doing nothing in the meanwhile…

> And how will you accomplish this when we have the guns, and you don't? Well, people who pile on guns for such situations, usually aren't the smartest apples in the orchard, so to speak. So it should be quite easy to take those from them.

"people who pile on guns for such situations, usually aren't the smartest apples in the orchard, so to speak"

And you know this how?

Are all these people openly expressing contempt of me and mine, of preparing oneself for bad things and bad times, demonstrating that they are smart?

I also wonder how you divined "pile on" from this discussion. You can infer from it that I and my father each own at least one gun, but beyond that?

Re: Stephanie L. Kwolek, Inventor of Kevlar, Is Dead at 90

#44
post #24
post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> my next vest will be made from that Holly molly, do you live in Iraq or Syria, or some other war zone?

Just how peaceful do you think the US will remain after e.g. we no longer can borrow "a trillion dollars a year" at negative real interest rates? Wars on arithmetic eventually fail, and I expect our's to in my lifetime. Note that I don't currently wear it when I go outdoors, currently don't even carry as many spare magazines as I perhaps should when I do. It's one of the logical things to do after you buy and train u…

Wouldn't it be better just to prepare to flee the US quickly (rather than preparing for staying and trying to survive the mayhem)?

Re: Stephanie L. Kwolek, Inventor of Kevlar, Is Dead at 90

#45
post #44
post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just how peaceful do you think the US will remain after e.g. we no longer can borrow "a trillion dollars a year" at negative real interest rates? Wars on arithmetic eventually fail, and I expect our's to in my lifetime. Note that I don't currently wear it when I go outdoors, currently don't even carry as many spare magazines as I perhaps should when I do. It's one of the logical things to do after you buy and train u…

Wouldn't it be better just to prepare to flee the US quickly (rather than preparing for staying and trying to survive the mayhem)?

For me that neither makes sense nor would be practical; it might not even be possible. I also have a number of obligations in the US, family in particular.

There's also many, many practical issues with the very concept. How do you know when to flee before it's too late? And to where? How will such a crisis affect other parts of the world?

Re: Stephanie L. Kwolek, Inventor of Kevlar, Is Dead at 90

#46
post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

noja 4 hours ago | link | parent | flag Ironically he was stabbed to death while wearing a kevlar vest. You need to work on your reading comprehension: Stephanie L. Kwolek Stephanie L. Stephanie Stephanie is literally the first word in the title and article.

Both men and women are called "Stephanie", although in the US it is mostly a female name. http://www.babynames.it/boyname/Stephanie-meaning.htm The mistake was to assume a male. It doesn't matter what the name was.

That pages looks auto-generated and awfully spammy. Apparently Elizabeth is a boys name, too [1].

[1] http://www.babynames.it/boyname/Elizabeth-meaning.htm

Re: Stephanie L. Kwolek, Inventor of Kevlar, Is Dead at 90

#47
post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Both men and women are called "Stephanie", although in the US it is mostly a female name. http://www.babynames.it/boyname/Stephanie-meaning.htm The mistake was to assume a male. It doesn't matter what the name was.

That pages looks auto-generated and awfully spammy. Apparently Elizabeth is a boys name, too [1]. [1] http://www.babynames.it/boyname/Elizabeth-meaning.htm

Here's a less spammy site.

http://www.ssa.gov/oact/babynames/decades/names1890s.html

I don't see what the problem is. "Elizabeth" is a boys name for a tiny number of boys. Both sites mention the tiny number and the old dates, clearly.

(This is one of the things Google fails at, I think. "Stephanie" is unlikely to be a name for a man i. english speaking nations, but Google pretty much only returns me English results. Perhaps they need a switch to "allow whole world www results" rather than locking me out of all those other languages.

Re: Stephanie L. Kwolek, Inventor of Kevlar, Is Dead at 90

#48
post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That pages looks auto-generated and awfully spammy. Apparently Elizabeth is a boys name, too [1]. [1] http://www.babynames.it/boyname/Elizabeth-meaning.htm

Here's a less spammy site. http://www.ssa.gov/oact/babynames/decades/names1890s.html I don't see what the problem is. "Elizabeth" is a boys name for a tiny number of boys. Both sites mention the tiny number and the old dates, clearly. (This is one of the things Google fails at, I think. "Stephanie" is unlikely to be a name for a man i. english speaking nations, but Google pretty much only returns me English results.…

That page doesn't load for me but I take it on face value that what you say is there.

I personally feel it's more likely that Elizabeth is universally a girl's name and data from the 1890's is not inputted into electronic systems with 100% accuracy.

Post reply on HN