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[spike]

>... On Behalf Of spike
...


>>...Most of us on this list are in a very privileged position. Bright,
well-educated, no money worries...  BillK

>...BillK I agree with your notion that most of us reading here are in a
very privileged position, but being well fed, warm and safe are only part of
it.
The real blessing we have is that we have access to mathematical tools that
few in history have had, and information in unlimited supply.  Our task is
to use our math and engineering skills to filter the good information from
the piles and piles of worthless noise...spike 


Here is a good example of noise, one which you can detect easily.  View this
video with the appropriate sense of humor, and the observation that the news
reporters apparently have not the basic grasp of physics to understand why
we cannot run a car from the electricity generated by a wind-driven turbine
on the front of the car:

http://video.foxnews.com/v/1642893401001/wind-powered-car-turns-heads?intcmp
=features

Disregard for a moment the silliness, and note the size of the vehicle.
With that in mind, recognize what I was commenting on yesterday, a
frustration I sometimes feel with a particular paradigm we have for road
vehicles: we drive these sturdy metal shells, heavy beasts all.  This is
quite necessary for safety, since the road is filled with heavy metal shells
hurtling about.  So we need a heavy metal shell to protect ourselves in a
collision with heavy metal shells.

In recent memory, China's streets were filled with bicycles and light
scooters.  But more recently, some Chinese began to get cars, which created
a new risk to the bicycles and scooters.  This problem was solved by the
former bicycle and scooter riders by getting cars to protect the drivers
from the other cars.

Note in the video the microcar running on the same street with the bus.  For
decades we have heard the drumbeat droning from the mass-transit-istas how
wonderful it is if everyone uses city buses.  But the first step in making
the road safe for microcars might be to get rid of all buses, for these
introduce a still greater safety risk with their inherently limited driver
visibility.  After all the jaw ratcheting, the city bus might be the problem
rather than the solution.

spike