OT: Space Station Fun

Obviously I do that almost all the time.

In this case you know perfectly well who I'm replying to, and what I'm replying to is your entire post, and other posts as well, which is too much to quote for a brief question.

You have an odd juxtaposition of opinions about the US, hence my question. You seem to think I was attacking you.

The US has long been the place where the most restless, maverick, outcast, and ambitious people migrate, sort of a distillation process. We get geniuses and criminals. People who can't start a business in France come here and do it.

And not just Europeans these days. The near universality of the English language helps, too. The British Empire has its good points.

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John Larkin         Highland Technology, Inc 
picosecond timing   laser drivers and controllers 

jlarkin att highlandtechnology dott com 
http://www.highlandtechnology.com

On a sunny day (Sun, 1 Mar 2015 13:22:56 -0500) it happened "Tom Del Rosso" wrote in :

No, I do not feel attacked. But you do demonstrate my case.

In case ANY doubt remains about US future, shortly after I posted that I watched this:

Yes I had some hope for the Republicans to make things better (I was naive :-)). But this cooled that hope to near absolute zero.

And this guy who won the most votes at CPAC want an ever bigger military, I think he mentions 100 % bigger at the cost of other programs. And there are some dumbos cheering him.

US would not need half the army if it learned to make peace with other countries, we do not, in this world, need an other MIC (Military Industrial Complex) feeder, If you conquer for oil then simply buying it at before Iraq invasion market prices would be cheaper than the wars you did. Then you could just pay the same amount to the generals for the difference and have them play golf.

As a war machine producer wanting war everywhere, you are just asking for an opponent to finish you of.

The Barbarians took Rome. Rome was singing hallelujah. And that was after Nero had a go at burning it...

On a sunny day (Sun, 1 Mar 2015 08:18:17 -0800 (PST)) it happened snipped-for-privacy@gmail.com wrote in :

Yes, even the bomb was Cury and then Fermi.

On a sunny day (Sun, 01 Mar 2015 09:02:44 -0800) it happened John Larkin wrote in :

mm, Europe is up about 16% FTSE over the year, China 62 %, Japan 26 %.

The Dow only 12% or so.

The Euro is a bit lower, as we have Drachi, an Italian, who like a real old Italien is really into devaluation.. He saved some Italien banks and now Italy want him for president. LOL Saved with German money. Germany is doing really well and had a POSITIVE balance this year. Something US can only dream of to happen in the far far future if no new war is started.

So...

Einstein. Tesla. Chandrasekhar.

Lately we see lots of Indians in the tech business here. I am hosting an internet startup run by a Swedish immigrant. I have employees born in China, Viet Nam, Mexico, Guatemala, and the Azores. Even one refugee from Louisiana.

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John Larkin         Highland Technology, Inc 
picosecond timing   laser drivers and controllers 

jlarkin att highlandtechnology dott com 
http://www.highlandtechnology.com

America made English universal and not the British Empire. IIRC at the peak of the Empire, French was considered the universal language.

All funny-money. Productivity is what matters.

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John Larkin         Highland Technology, Inc 
picosecond timing   laser drivers and controllers 

jlarkin att highlandtechnology dott com 
http://www.highlandtechnology.com

I'm instantly hostile towards conventional ideas, those are for you mechanics. Like that sickening crap ambient light detector using LED leakage on a PIC I/O or something- still makes me nauseous.

Well- that's certainly true, but "sellability" is not always the goal.

On a sunny day (Sun, 01 Mar 2015 11:16:48 -0800) it happened John Larkin wrote in :

If you look at the productivity issue, then China wins. This of course because US companies outsource there, like Apple making its ipods, and you your PCBs. German productivity is very high too.

I look at global economy like vessels of water connected by a pipes. Capital flows until 'wealth' and 'standard of living' equals (physics law). That means your dollars are going to China, China gets more powerful, their standard of living goes up, you have less to invest in your own infrastructure, and a smaller market to sell the rest of your products, and more competition, your standard of living goes down. China is doing much of the research for new products itself now. The same happened in Japan, say with cameras, the early cameras were copies of US or European designs, now the Japanese cameras are top of the line, and Kodak is virtually gone. I did read (but have no numbers) less and less Americans participate actively in the work force. The huge workers resource is what kept the US afloat in WW2, ship after ship was build, faster than they could be sunk by German submarines.

What could be expected is US starting some war, and then having a draft again, mobilizing everybody to rebuild its infrastructure. But it could just as well be there is no animo, some apathy, and people rather would let the states fall apart. Rand Paul actually mentions the necessity of a big army for all states. if the states fall apart, the big army will also be gone. Are not some states bankrupt already?

But it is late...

Very late...

Hardly.

About 1/7 of the US value.

About 85% of the US value.

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John Larkin         Highland Technology, Inc 
picosecond timing   laser drivers and controllers 

jlarkin att highlandtechnology dott com 
http://www.highlandtechnology.com

On a sunny day (Sun, 01 Mar 2015 12:46:09 -0800) it happened John Larkin wrote in :

OK, but that is really close, and China is still growing fast, faster than the US:

China 7% last year, US 2.2 %. So China is in overtaking mode, and that is the point I was trying to make with the capital flow thing.

Give it some time, and China wins. China wins not only because of productivity, but also because of a better political system. If that system can persist remains to be seen, currently the Chinese president Xi fights corruption on many levels. But corruption (or rather money) makes the world go round. So some balance may happen, else indeed productivity will go down again, It is amazing how China builds its own fighter jets, space rockets, they did a robot moon landing last year. Amazing, I have these small Chinese 2 $ and 5 $ mp3 players, those run 3 hours on a battery charge, if you need more time then use more players (while the other is charging).

Now try that with ipods... So.. standard of living, in China life must be cheaper..

But you still didn't answer my rather simple question.

I don't see how.

You might not be aware that we had a bigger navy in 1930, that we stopped most ship building during the Iraq War, and that we are now cannibalizing planes for spare parts just as we did during the Carter administration.

You might not be aware that of the 160+ million killed in the 20th century, almost all were killed by our enemies.

But a large part of the human population (represented in the US by Obama's base supporters) simply denied that half that killing ever happened.

Which should make it rather obvious that we didn't do it to aquire oil. Really, really obvious.

I mean, it should be obvious anyway since we pushed for sanctions that prevented us from buying it, and France and Russia - both against the war - wanted Saddam to sell oil. It should also be obvious that if he wasn't toppled the sanctions wouldn't have lasted much longer.

And - here's the kicker - it should be obvious what he would have used the money for, once he had cash flow again. Those to whom that is not obvious are delusional. But, there are lots of people who think the aforementioned number would have been less than 160 million without the US. To think so, in spite of the fact that we opposed those who did the killing, is also delusional.

Those who see it like you do chose to pay Obama to play golf, so he can allow more crises to become supercritical in time for the next president.

But that, and your apparently somewhat open-mindedness about Conservatives, is why I asked where you live. It's a strange combination.

There you have it. They wouldn't have killed if we weren't against them.

The Barbarians didn't take Rome because their army was too big or because they were too agressive, but because they didn't care about preserving it any more.

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Been there, done that, got the patent. 

Reasonable and interesting, at least to you, is how to make a living 
without being bored to tears. 

I find unreasonable to be much more interesting and challenging than 
Burnt Sienna = 3. YMMV.

They are starting from way, way behind. That hardly suggests "overtaking." In absolute terms, a 2.2% US growth is a lot more than a

7% Chinese growth.

A lot of time. And even a high per capita GDP does not constitute "winning." Working 80 hours a week and living in a dorm might increase GDP, but it ain't happiness.

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John Larkin         Highland Technology, Inc 
picosecond timing   laser drivers and controllers 

jlarkin att highlandtechnology dott com 
http://www.highlandtechnology.com

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The trick here, since there's no way to anchor the shotgun with a 
skyhook, would be to affix the shotgun to the asteroid and then fire 
it off, as required, in accordance with Newton's third law.

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Irrelevant "The best defense is a good offense" twaddle. 

The point was that your earlier response was designed to demean 
DecadentLinuxUserNumeroUno's contribution by your pretending to 
possess a priori knowledge of the subject which, of course, you 
didn't. 

John Fields

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Your end of the boat is sinking?...

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Finally, rationality. 

John Fields