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Bell Labs gave up its roof to patch the Statue of Liberty

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Re: Bell Labs gave up its roof to patch the Statue of Liberty

#61

Post by vineyardmike »

whoopdedo wrote: post #43
lokimedes wrote: post #31

I’m currently reading the book this site referenced, “The idea factory” a wonderful account on Bell Labs with portraits of Shockley, Shannon and the other fathers of the information age.

It's very "Bell Labs" for them to be given a vaguely defined problem (So I hear you know a lot about copper.), immediately recognize that the solution is more complicated than it was suggested (Can you artificially weather copper so it looks 100 years old?), but rather than merely reject the idea instead come up with an alternate and unexpected solution that does what they wanted in the first place but didn't know ho…

> That said, why did they go to Bell Labs rather than a building constructor in the first place?

I don’t know the real answer, to be clear, and I had the same question when reading the story. But I suspect the answer is a combination of prestige (everyone wants to work with bell labs, not John smith of idahos metallurgy shop) and connections (someone at bell labs knew a local politician who knows a guy who knows a NPS worker in that team).

That’s usually what everything is.

Re: Bell Labs gave up its roof to patch the Statue of Liberty

#62

Post by Aloha »

werdnapk wrote: post #46
thrashh wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People just hate change source: am people Not a blanket statement to say all change is good tho

I find Americans really don't like change. Still using a penny, still using dollar bills, not using the metric system, still using Fahrenheit.

Dislike of change is a worldwide constant, like gravity.

Also, all measurement systems are functionally arbitrary - be it the kings foot, a rod in a library, or some mathematical constant - all are arbitrary, ours is just a little less rational and certainly less relational than others.

Fahrenheit is just fine however thank you. (My ideal system would be a zero to 200 system, water would freeze at zero and boil at 200, gives you the best of both worlds, and less need for half degrees in measuring the weather - or other human centric temperatures.)

The US government is an original signer of the Metric Treaty, and if you deal with the federal government you're often supplying measurements in meters and weight in kilograms. The military is metric too. Just not so much anything else.

Even bolts on our cars are metric, at least mostly. Every car I've had from MY1986 on has been more metric than SAE.

In fairness however, we're not the only English speaking country using miles still. For that matter, aviation (in most of the world) still uses feet too - inventors privilege I suppose. ;-)

Most Americans are aware of the metric system and have a vague idea of how long a meter is for example, we also know the 0 is freezing in Celsius. I don't think the costs of changing the places we use customary units would pay for the benefits, our soda cans even are usually clearly labeled at 355ml.

I agree we should get rid of the penny, and probably dollar bills, but for a bunch of historical reasons americans don't like dollar coins. (Mostly the size we picked is too close to the quarter)

Re: Bell Labs gave up its roof to patch the Statue of Liberty

#63

Post by Aloha »

thrashh wrote: post #36
wkat4242 wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah I don't understand why people hate them so much either. I think they look nice too. Better than old-fashioned windmills. Where I'm from in the Netherlands there's is much less resistance to them anyway because we know the alternative is for our country to be under the sea ;)

People just hate change source: am people Not a blanket statement to say all change is good tho

Change is awful, so is a lack of change. We should hope the balance wheel of progress is kept near centered and that we get needed change, but somewhat slowly.

Re: Bell Labs gave up its roof to patch the Statue of Liberty

#64

Post by enneff »

samplatt wrote: post #60
nine_k wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not safety. It's more like extermination: domestic cats kill to play, not to eat. They have plenty of energy, compared to wild animals, and vets keep their life longer and more healthy. So the balance goes even more off. (I love cats, and keep two. They have their serving of fresh air in the fire escape.)

Mine has an enclosed back verandah, a 3x15 meter space with lots of hideyholes. She also gets (supervised) time in a backyard with long grass. Doubtless she kills lizards and rodents during this time. But it's about as good a compromise as I can give her.

Thanks for being a relatively responsible pet owner. There aren’t enough of them.

Re: Bell Labs gave up its roof to patch the Statue of Liberty

#65

Post by enneff »

runarb wrote: post #44
kevin_thibedeau wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They are obnoxious at night when a large cluster of them are all flashing their warning lights.

Here are some gif showing the effect: https://www.nrk.no/nordland/mdg-mener-vindturbin-i-vindpark-... The article is in Norwegian, but look at the pictures. It must be stressful to have all those read warning lights blinking all night.

Looks beautiful to me.

Re: Bell Labs gave up its roof to patch the Statue of Liberty

#66

Post by mulmen »

werdnapk wrote: post #46
thrashh wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People just hate change source: am people Not a blanket statement to say all change is good tho

I find Americans really don't like change. Still using a penny, still using dollar bills, not using the metric system, still using Fahrenheit.

Americans use the metric system every day. And what's wrong with a penny? Decimal currency has to retain a fundamental unit or there are some amounts that can't be created.

Re: Bell Labs gave up its roof to patch the Statue of Liberty

#67

Post by mulmen »

Aloha wrote: post #62
werdnapk wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I find Americans really don't like change. Still using a penny, still using dollar bills, not using the metric system, still using Fahrenheit.

Dislike of change is a worldwide constant, like gravity. Also, all measurement systems are functionally arbitrary - be it the kings foot, a rod in a library, or some mathematical constant - all are arbitrary, ours is just a little less rational and certainly less relational than others. Fahrenheit is just fine however thank you. (My ideal system would be a zero to 200 system, water would freeze at zero and boil at 20…

Anyone involved with chemistry uses the metric system. As does anyone who plays soccer. It's everywhere. Go look at any item in your pantry, metric units will be printed on it.

Re: Bell Labs gave up its roof to patch the Statue of Liberty

#68

Post by Animats »

This is an issue with bronze statues. Washington, D.C. has many of them. The ones at Memorial Bridge are occasionally cleaned and polished, but most of the others are not and have turned green. New York City has some statues polished, some not, depending on who owns them. The Prometheus statue at Rockefeller Center and the Charging Bull at Bowling Green are kept shined up.

Re: Bell Labs gave up its roof to patch the Statue of Liberty

#69

Post by bilekas »

Animats wrote: post #68

This is an issue with bronze statues. Washington, D.C. has many of them. The ones at Memorial Bridge are occasionally cleaned and polished, but most of the others are not and have turned green. New York City has some statues polished, some not, depending on who owns them. The Prometheus statue at Rockefeller Center and the Charging Bull at Bowling Green are kept shined up.

Isn't the oxidation of the green sometimes part of the aesthetic though ?

Re: Bell Labs gave up its roof to patch the Statue of Liberty

#70

Post by WJW »

oh_sigh wrote: post #32
NotYourLawyer wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People hated the Eiffel Tower for a long time.

It is said that Guy de Maupassant ate lunch everyday at the base of The Eiffel Tower, because it was the only place in Paris where he couldn't see it

It's a great story, but surely even at places that had a clear view of the Eiffel tower he could simply sit facing away from it?
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