The sixth iPhone! The iPhone 5! Pretty funny. I like where "Bob Mansfield" comes on. Clearly illegitimate son of Duke's Provost.
Nod to Angry Alex
Showing posts with label phone call for Dr. Pangloss. Show all posts
Showing posts with label phone call for Dr. Pangloss. Show all posts
Tuesday, September 18, 2012
Wednesday, August 29, 2012
Mr. Bad Example
RJ Gordon has written a "new" paper. It's basically The Great Stagnation (with no cite) without the happy bits.
In it, he gives, and Paul Krugman repeats, a very weird example:
A thought experiment helps to illustrate the fundamental importance of the inventions of IR #2 compared to the subset of IR #3 inventions that have occurred since 2002. You are required to make a choice between option A and option B. With option A you are allowed to keep 2002 electronic technology, including your Windows 98 laptop accessing Amazon, and you can keep running water and indoor toilets; but you can’t use anything invented since 2002. Option B is that you get everything invented in the past decade right up to Facebook, Twitter, and the iPad, but you have to give up running water and indoor toilets. You have to haul the water into your dwelling and carry out the waste. Even at 3am on a rainy night, your only toilet option is a wet and perhaps muddy walk to the outhouse. Which option do you choose?
There you have it people. Case closed. We are all doomed because....we have already solved the fundamental problems facing humanity (at least for the top 80% of people in developed countries)??
Really? That's supposed to make me feel bad about the current era? I get the meat & potatoes and the carmel frappacino too?
Boo-hoo!
Just turn this around and you can see how dumb it is. Suppose we had the internet of today but no running water. How long do you think it would take to invent it? An hour? A day? Then we'd get its implementation funded on kickstarter in no time flat.
Our only real snags would be the decades of environmental studies required by the government and the protests of the United Brotherhood of Night Soil Workers.
What Gordon's paper does for me is remind me that we in the rich world should (yes, I said should) be more focussed than we are on our fellow humans who still live without "the great inventions".
In it, he gives, and Paul Krugman repeats, a very weird example:
A thought experiment helps to illustrate the fundamental importance of the inventions of IR #2 compared to the subset of IR #3 inventions that have occurred since 2002. You are required to make a choice between option A and option B. With option A you are allowed to keep 2002 electronic technology, including your Windows 98 laptop accessing Amazon, and you can keep running water and indoor toilets; but you can’t use anything invented since 2002. Option B is that you get everything invented in the past decade right up to Facebook, Twitter, and the iPad, but you have to give up running water and indoor toilets. You have to haul the water into your dwelling and carry out the waste. Even at 3am on a rainy night, your only toilet option is a wet and perhaps muddy walk to the outhouse. Which option do you choose?
There you have it people. Case closed. We are all doomed because....we have already solved the fundamental problems facing humanity (at least for the top 80% of people in developed countries)??
Really? That's supposed to make me feel bad about the current era? I get the meat & potatoes and the carmel frappacino too?
Boo-hoo!
Just turn this around and you can see how dumb it is. Suppose we had the internet of today but no running water. How long do you think it would take to invent it? An hour? A day? Then we'd get its implementation funded on kickstarter in no time flat.
Our only real snags would be the decades of environmental studies required by the government and the protests of the United Brotherhood of Night Soil Workers.
What Gordon's paper does for me is remind me that we in the rich world should (yes, I said should) be more focussed than we are on our fellow humans who still live without "the great inventions".
Monday, August 27, 2012
MIE/TCTIJ/TINGS*
Yes people it's the LeBron tripleheader. Markets in Everything, The Culture that is Japan, & There is no Great Stagnation all in one post.
Without further ado, I give you the Japanese Toilet Motorcycle!
Without further ado, I give you the Japanese Toilet Motorcycle!
Tuesday, July 17, 2012
There is no Great Stagnation
Wow. Turns out that Eduardo Saverin didn't really have to renounce his US citizenship to live in Singapore after all, because 7-11 mashed potato & gravy Slurpees are now available in the USA.
This, people, truly is the best of all possible worlds.
You put your cup (mouth?) under the spigot, press the "mashed potatoes" button and out they come. Then hit the "gravy" button and mix it right in.
These little miracles have been available in Singapore since 2009, which makes me wonder how the USA has any citizens left at all.
This, people, truly is the best of all possible worlds.
You put your cup (mouth?) under the spigot, press the "mashed potatoes" button and out they come. Then hit the "gravy" button and mix it right in.
These little miracles have been available in Singapore since 2009, which makes me wonder how the USA has any citizens left at all.
Tuesday, July 03, 2012
Marital Advice
Some quick marital advice: I will celebrate 26 years of being with the LMM, on Thursday! Hooray! She is somewhat less excited.
It may be because she just got a new iPhone. And then she could not get the voice mail set up on her iPhone. She was more than a bit miffed about this.
So I set it up, with the following message, using my voice: "This is [LMM's] phone. She is digitally challenged, and so could not get her own voice on this greeting. But if you leave a message, I promise that she will accidentally delete it and then yell at me."
For some reason, the LMM was MUCH more than miffed about this. Now she is hearing my actual voice say, "It was just a little joke, sweetie! Sweetie?"
Anyway, the advice. Don't try this at home. I am TRAINED. Sweetie?
It may be because she just got a new iPhone. And then she could not get the voice mail set up on her iPhone. She was more than a bit miffed about this.
So I set it up, with the following message, using my voice: "This is [LMM's] phone. She is digitally challenged, and so could not get her own voice on this greeting. But if you leave a message, I promise that she will accidentally delete it and then yell at me."
For some reason, the LMM was MUCH more than miffed about this. Now she is hearing my actual voice say, "It was just a little joke, sweetie! Sweetie?"
Anyway, the advice. Don't try this at home. I am TRAINED. Sweetie?
Saturday, January 28, 2012
Kraft hates America
Did you know there were green tea Oreos? Mango & orange Oreos? Hollow, straw shaped Oreos you can use to drink milk?
Well there are, but they are not sold in the USA. They were developed in China (by Kraft) and have spread throughout Asia, even into Canada.
Look here dammit. I want a mango & orange Oreo and I want it now!
ps. better make it gluten-free though
Well there are, but they are not sold in the USA. They were developed in China (by Kraft) and have spread throughout Asia, even into Canada.
Look here dammit. I want a mango & orange Oreo and I want it now!
ps. better make it gluten-free though
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