It doesn't matter. If you think Tesla was the big loser who was somehow "destroyed" by JP Morgan, the fact remains that the age of the great industrialists was way back then. The claim was that today is the period of the great American industrial empires. To anybody with any idea of American history, that idea is preposterous. Today's companies are primarily owned by millions of grandma's via their 401K.

I happen to disagree with the assertion that Tesla was destroyed - we both know his name, despite the fact that he was more talk than action.

> The last time I checked, electrons weren't known to corrode copper.

Try hooking a battery to two wires , with the other ends in a glass of water. They'll corrode 1,000 times as fast as the same wires without the battery. The corrosion process ALSO requires oxygen, either air trapped between the copper stands when it was made or moisture which finds it's way in.

Nevertheless, I see your point.

Quite the opposite. It was during America's heyday that someone with the drive and skill of a JP Morgan, Carnegie, etc could build vast enterprises in the US. Today, merely investing your retirement savings in a company gets you punished because all those businesses building stuff are evil, don't you know. Providing products and services that people need and want is the work of the devil. Heck, eventually paying off your house through 30 years of hard work makes you a "rich bastard" who needs to have his "wealth" (family farm) redistributed to other people who blew their money on electronics while you used yours to pay off your mortgage.

> Asia is playing catch up very very fast, and before long, they might even get ahead of you guys !

Who do you think is financing all of these new government programs in the US? That's China's money we're living off of. The US is spending WAY more than we make, racking up insurmountable debt to Asia. "The borrower is slave to the lender", as the saying goes. Meaning, a larger and larger portion of our earnings are paid to China in the form of interest. The "great American companies" are largely owned by Asian owners now. They don't have to "get ahead of us", we work for them.

I don't think that's what GP said.
GP asked "where are the Europeans and Americans?", perhaps pointing out that lately the US and EU countries are only in the news for fail of various kinds.
In the fifties and again from about 1985-2000, all the big space and science news, the big new machines, etc. were all coming mainly from the US and the UK. About 15 years ago, something happened such that the US in no longer the leading nation it once was. Perhaps that's what GP is referring to.

True, and look at all the gorgeous models who date Lil Wayne:

http://m.whosdatedwho.com/p3413/lil-wayne/

Taste is hard to quantify, I suppose.

Your reasoning sounds logical. When I actually tried it, I had conversations with many women, went on dates with over a dozen, including one who looked liked a supermodel, and eventually found my AWESOME wife on mate1.com.

I'm a scrawny nerd who isn't handsome, but I did some things right, like posting action photos. There was me in my jetski, me on horseback, etc. I guess women seeing those photos consciously or subconsciously saw that dating me would mean doing fun stuff like jetsking and horseback riding, etc. Also I suppose those pics suggest I may be financially stable. Women like stability, security.

That was good for a chuckle, thanks.

The summary talks about "how attractive you are" and "supermodels". I hope the study doesn't look at it that way, because that's incorrect. The correct question is "to whom are you attractive?"

Chris Brown dated a superstar. Is he attractive? I'm a total nerd, and not particularly good looking. My wife married me and finds Chris Brown revolting. So who is more attractive, Chris Brown or me? Neither, we attract different women. On the other hand, my wife thinks Pavarotti is extremely romantic. Is Pavarotti more attractive than Lil Wayne? Each is more attractive to some some women.

If I were single, I'd date Alyssa Milano for sure. Miley Cyrus, I take pity on. I wouldn't sleep with her, I'd suggest she put her clothes back on.* So which is more attractive? A good system would match pairs likely to find each other attractive, not assign a single attractiveness score.

* okay so maybe I'd pity her AND sleep with her before I suggested she put some clothes on.

VOIP can be set to different bandwidth. A high bandwidth setting has clearer sound but is more likely to drop out. A modem or fax will work over a VOIP line that is set to about twice the bandwidth of the modem. So for example a 64K voip channel will support a modem of up to about 32K.

Where I live, the underground water and sewer lines have far more problems than the overhead cables. In the last 18 months, our water has been off for repairs three times, our cable has had no problems. That suggests to me that underground is not necessarily more reliable than overhead.

Bah. I bet you think it would be more effective for doctors to spend 20 minutes with the patient rather than 4 minutes with the patient and 16 minutes on t government paperwork.

I bet you also think eating healthy foods like vegetables and whole grains works better than eliminating $15 copays by exchanging them for $163 tax expenditures.

This document has a table of the exact numbers before and after, with links to the official sources:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/wok85h6ctfwjwam/comp1_assignment2_evaluative.odt

Indeed that is the proper question. Does outlawing guns mean that you've assured bad guys that the law-abiding citizens are now defenseless victims, or will the criminals stop commiting crimes? The UK did ban guns, so we can actually see what happens.

Comparing the five years before the ban and the five years after, violent crime doubled. Murder increased about 70%. Rape increased by about 80%, as I recall. I can link to all the exact numbers if anyone cares to see them, but the overall trend is extremely clear - you should ban guns if you want more rapes, murders, and robberies. You should support self-defense if you prefer less violent crime.

Indeed you're right. I'm not sure what I was thinking.
I compared it to SOMETHING years ago and saw it was roughly equal. Maybe a QNX distribution, not Linux, or some tiny Linux.