I hit reply too soon, wanted to say I like what you did with the math. It is true one job is worth 1428.57 Hz but is meaningless like the App Store math (a few developers made much larger than $16K and most made only pennies). Also illustrates selling spectrum to reduce deficit is meaningless as well.

hertz or hurtz? sorry I couldn't pass this one up. I do what you did with the math, like what someone did in article about Apple app store of $10 billion created 627,000 jobs that results in one job of $15948.96.

That makes sense though Bentley and all other UK cars are no longer UK (now owned by companies from other countries). Boeing is a US company but I was talking with someone who was familiar with the USAF tanker selection and competition. He said if a tanker from EADS will provide more US jobs because much of what Boeing has been off shored (though some of this may have reversed after 787 debacles).

Decades ago someone asked a physicist (I wonder if it was Townes) how can a laser be used as a weapon. His answer was, "throw it at your target."

There are many that create apps and have them for sale at Apple, but do they make a living from these sales? There was an article saying App store is more like a casino. House always collects revenue, almost all participants lose money but a few make some money. Article went on about how everyone has to pay $100 to submit their app to Apple Store, and most apps have little sales. Occasionally some apps have huge sales (i.e. Angry Birds) and developers make lots of money. I wonder if same like Hollywood says it creates 374,000 jobs but does that include people working at theaters making marginal income, or starving actors who occasionally get a stand-in part for $50?

I almost read the C word as communism from Soviet Russia or Chairman Mao.

I've never faked an engine noise but back in 1970s I replaced the horn from my 1971 Toyota with a horn from a Chevy, Toyota horn was a measly bleat-bleat where the GM product had more ommf to get people's attention. I see the tagline referencing a Mazda. I also remembered in that decade a friend had a rotary engine Mazda and it was a screamer. This was back in the days when small cars were small powered but with his Mazda he routinely accelerated ahead of those big American cars. But maintenance was a nightmare.

If going to fake engine noises, have a selection of vehicles from quiet Telsas to way-too-loud-for-city-streets Formula One racers. Now that would be fun to have.

And also broadband internet is essential infrastructure for businesses like good roads and schools for a successful city. If roads (and internet) are bad, many businesses are not going to set up shop in town. They will go someplace else and the city will become third-world.

True but if sending people to the Moon is the goal, then funding and work on things like a earth departure stage, lunar lander, and God knows what else will have to be done. NASA is not doing it because they don't have fundng for these items. Musk doesn't talk about it because he will have to allocate money and engineers to work on this stuff (right now their busy with developing a reusable rocket).

Mars as a goal cannot be readily challenged because it is so far into the future. There is no land rush to the Gobi desert because it is plonkingly obvious it is inhospitable to live. And it's thousand times easier to settle than on Mars. We romantize of colonies on Mars because it is so far out of touch.

I wonder if they seek advice from other countries besides US. I'm thinking of places like Bulgaria have faster internet service than most of US. Then there is the higher ups in Cuba, are they willing to delegate authority? Only big transition is from Fidel to his brother Raul. Cuba could easily do business with other countries in spite of US embargo, I heard Cuban govt is terrible at doing business with other countries.

However, it will be interesting to see some Cubans wire up their 57 Chevy with internet access as JoeyRox suggested with various homebrew gadgets. At least many are mechanically creative like fabricating parts for these old cars.

Good point made. I'm saving this for other forums.

"Core mission" is probably a poor choice of words, I don't have a MBA to properly use management terms. What I was implying is Radio Shack is a store that sells radios, stereos, TV sets, walkie-talkies, microphones, headsets, various electronic parts, power supplies, etc. though not specializing in one thing. When personal computers became the rage, RS featured the Tandy computer but it never became the central item. Tandy Radio Shack thought of selling tens of thousands, Steve Jobs and also IBM and clone makers thought of selling millions (probably a good thing RS didn't try to compete with the PC market). It seems RS focused on the cellphone rage at expense of what they were originally known for so non-cellphone items took a backseat. Tough to compete selling phones.

I don't think I recall RS being a great store, many times it seemed mediocre. But now with its demise, this will be a huge loss for the tinkerers. I occasionally go to RS to get parts for some of my homebrew projects. Though there is Frys and HSC (in Sunnyvale), RS was also convenient. You don't know what you got until you lost it. It seems root of RS downfall is them chasing the cellphone market instead of staying with their core mission.

Decline and fall of the United States will be from causes within.

Because everybody knows what a black box does even those that don't. With newer cars outfitted with recorder boxes, they call them black boxes so people know it's this thing that stores data for experts to examine later when "something" happens.