conspiracy theories

[armati]

For example, the American government killed thousands by poisoning alcohol to prove its point that alcohol was bad for the general public during prohibition. This was a ‘conspiracy theory’ that went on for decades – until it was proven to be true. https://slate.com/technology/2010/02/th ... ition.html

MEDICAL EXAMINER
The Chemist’s War
The little-told story of how the U.S. government poisoned alcohol during Prohibition with deadly consequences.
By DEBORAH BLUM

https://slate.com/technology/2010/02/th ... ition.html

Ran into this when I was reading about the 911 grand jury, I always find it funny people like the expression conspiracy theory.
Tuff to accept the gov kills its own people for their own purposes I guess.

[2dimes]

[armati]

I've said for years that once we start mining space everything is pretty much free as its unlimited.
There is a planet that rains diamonds for example.

[2dimes]

The planet raining diamonds sounds interesting, and actually sounds farmiliar but I don't think I have heard/read about it.

That mining theory is a weird complex thing.

X is rare but useful so it is expensive because the people getting it want a reward so they can buy things. If suddenly there is too much X it becomes worth much less.

They need someone to go get that stuff from space if they want it and since it is so far away they need to reward those workers, then if they bring back too much there won't be a return on the investment... It might take a while after they are capable of getting diamonds and gold for them to flood the market since who would want to bring back something then make it worth less than they paid to get it.

[armati]

'Diamond rain' falls on Saturn and Jupiter
https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-24477667


It rains solid diamonds on Uranus and Neptune
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/spe ... 23c6590d87

Planetary Resources | The Asteroid Mining Company
https://www.planetaryresources.com/

Looks to me everything is going to go AI.

[2dimes]

I like the paragraphs in that BBC link where another doctor said something like, "We don't know there's diamonds unless we go there because of the helium..."

Sending probes would make sense. Elon Musk and other less well know guys are talking about sending people to Mars as soon as they can. He also claims the Tesla auto drive can correct a skid on ice better than any human.

Then again there is probably a program on 5" floppy disk that can be run by an IBM business computer, explaining how AI will be doing everything for us, by around the year 1997.

Back to conspiracy theories part of AI, some predict by 1986 they won't need a person at the checkout of the grocery store anymore. There will be a thing called a bar code on every item and a computer can scan the prices of products for purchase.
https://www.ibm.com/ibm/history/history/year_1979.html

We have definately come a long way already though. I was just watching a show about the development of polymers around 1930. Before that a fancy high tech chair had metal springs covered with horse hair and fabric. And during harvest time people would celebrate, because vegetables were fresh in the autumn. I have grown carrots twice, fresh picked and rinsed ones are still pretty amazing.

Let's get AI on growing better produce, hydroponic tomatoes can be decent.

Edit: I had not even seen the thread about food insecurities in the United Kingdom, before talking about fresh veggies.
viewtopic.php?f=8&t=229483

[mrswdk]

Back to conspiracy theories part of AI, some predict by 1986 they won't need a person at the checkout of the grocery store anymore. There will be a thing called a bar code on every item and a computer can scan the prices of products for purchase.
https://www.ibm.com/ibm/history/history/year_1979.html

Various people (including Amazon) have already trialed shops with no staff in them whatsoever (and actually, there's a staffless Amazon shop that's already fully operational).

People just always get overexcited about how quickly these things will happen (e.g. Uber's CEO saying Uber would be driverless by 2030, then later rowing back on that).

[Dukasaur]

Back to conspiracy theories part of AI, some predict by 1986 they won't need a person at the checkout of the grocery store anymore. There will be a thing called a bar code on every item and a computer can scan the prices of products for purchase.
https://www.ibm.com/ibm/history/history/year_1979.html

Various people (including Amazon) have already trialed shops with no staff in them whatsoever (and actually, there's a staffless Amazon shop that's already fully operational).

People just always get overexcited about how quickly these things will happen (e.g. Uber's CEO saying Uber would be driverless by 2030, then later rowing back on that).

The big wave tends to come quickly.

I think the first time I saw a gas pump with a card reader on in was around 1986 or 87. By 1995 they were at most major gas stations, and I think by the early 00s they were everywhere. Now, you can still find the occasional gas pump without one, but that's a statistical outlier. The wave has gone through.

[2dimes]

Whoosh, tell him about 1975 duk.

[Dukasaur]

Whoosh, tell him about 1975 duk.

Not sure I get point.

[armati]

I go to a full serve station.

Its worth 50 cents to a dollar not to pump or clean windows myself.
Especially in winter.

I give the guys tips too, they are worth it.

Not sure why so many people are so cheap, "price of everything value of nothing".

Well, not fair I guess, some people are broke, its just I think employment for people is worth a few pennies.

I think it was Bertran Russel that wrote in the early 50s that if union people only purchased from union companies everyone would be union in 20 years.

Union people refused preferring cheaper products.

[Dukasaur]

I go to a full serve station.

Its worth 50 cents to a dollar not to pump or clean windows myself.
Especially in winter.

I give the guys tips too, they are worth it.

Not sure why so many people are so cheap, "price of everything value of nothing".

Well, not fair I guess, some people are broke, its just I think employment for people is worth a few pennies.

I think it was Bertran Russel that wrote in the early 50s that if union people only purchased from union companies everyone would be union in 20 years.

Union people refused preferring cheaper products.

I used to prefer full-service stations, until the service got so bad that it just wasn't worth it any more. Used to be automatic, at a full service station they'd check the oil and wash the windows. Then they wouldn't do that stuff automatically any more, you had to specifically ask them to do it. And then they'd do such a half-assed job you had to re-do it yourself. The guys stopped carrying rags to wipe the squeegee in between passes, so they'd pass the same slimy squeegee back and forth between passes, and it looked worse than when they started. I think the last straw was one night when I asked the guy to check the oil and he couldn't figure out how to open the hood. I think I just gave up at that point. I'm not training your staff for you and paying extra for the privilege.

[armati]

Actually I think I recall the same thing.

Full service is rare here, but the ones we have the service is pretty good.

Not as many truly unskilled labour jobs around like they used to be, maybe young people know they gotta provide service to keep their jobs?

[HitRed]

armati - Not sure why so many people are so cheap, "price of everything value of nothing".


Not sure if any of you were economically desperate before but the mind starts working very short term. Your desperate and you know it. Willing to work. Willing to do anything to change your situation.

[mookiemcgee]

He's never desperate because he holds so much value in gold... mind you he only tips in silver I've been told.

[tzor]

There is a planet that rains diamonds for example.

Diamonds are silly anyway ... it's just a particular arrangement of common carbon atoms.

[waauw]

He's never desperate because he holds so much value in gold... mind you he only tips in silver I've been told.

His gold and silver are going to be worth nothing once they starting mining them in space.

[Dukasaur]

He's never desperate because he holds so much value in gold... mind you he only tips in silver I've been told.

His gold and silver are going to be worth nothing once they starting mining them in space.

I don't know why people say things like this. It's not like there's any shortage of gold and silver under the ground, but the work required to extract them is substantial. That doesn't change with space mining. The amounts available may be vast, but enormous amounts of energy are required to go out and get it.

The cost of energy, rather than the availability of ore, is most often the limiting factor that sets the practical price of mineral extraction. That key fact doesn't change from planet to planet.

[2dimes]

Whoosh, tell him about 1975 duk.

Not sure I get point.

I linked to IBM history when they created the reader for bar codes, 1979. Then mrswdk replied to inform us about the Amazon store that opened a short time later.

If you're not willing, I'll just have to wait for him to regale us with tales of the days when the Colonel's chicken was amazing. It's finger lickin' good!

[waauw]

He's never desperate because he holds so much value in gold... mind you he only tips in silver I've been told.

His gold and silver are going to be worth nothing once they starting mining them in space.

I don't know why people say things like this. It's not like there's any shortage of gold and silver under the ground, but the work required to extract them is substantial. That doesn't change with space mining. The amounts available may be vast, but enormous amounts of energy are required to go out and get it.

The cost of energy, rather than the availability of ore, is most often the limiting factor that sets the practical price of mineral extraction. That key fact doesn't change from planet to planet.

You just could not let me take a jab, could you?

[Dukasaur]

Whoosh, tell him about 1975 duk.

Not sure I get point.

I linked to IBM history when they created the reader for bar codes, 1979. Then mrswdk replied to inform us about the Amazon store that opened a short time later.

If you're not willing, I'll just have to wait for him to regale us with tales of the days when the Colonel's chicken was amazing. It's finger lickin' good!

Still not completely sure I get the point. If it's about 1975, the only new tech that particular year was the first commecial SST, the TU-144.

Funny you should mention that Colonel's chicken, though. Just yesterday I was reading this article about Popeye's and how it has completely taken the world by storm. It's funny (talk about being a late adopter) I have seen Popeye's locations, but I have not yet entered on. I tend to drive by, think, "Hmm.... a new chicken place, I suppose I should try it some day" and then I never do. Apparently even though they both have high-tech automated fryers, KFC does all their chicken in the same fryer, while Popeye's has a different fryer for each part of the chicken, each at a slightly different temperature. By this kind of almost German attention to engineering details, Popeye's has made what many consider the perfect chicken. Myself, I couldn't give a shit. Fried chicken is fried chicken. Fills the hole, nothing to write home about. Still, one of these decades I suppose I should try Popeye's.

If it's just an anecdote you're looking for, I have lots of KFC anecdotes. One time, when I was 7 or 8, my parents fucked off for a long weekend orgy somewhere (back then people weren't all paranoid, and this bullshit that you can't leave the kids without a sitter for the weekend wasn't a consideration.) My mother made this giant pot of tripe soup for me to eat over the weekend. Tripe soup was my father's favourite thing, but it sure as hell wasn't mine. There was no way in hell I was going to eat tripe soup for a whole long weekend. So I raided my father's coin collection and went to KFC (still called Chicken Villa in those days.) I was smart enough only to take a few of each kind, but I found out later he had real silver dollars and shit from the 1890's in there. I hope I cost him a fortune! I rarely got away with stuff, but that time I got away with it. He rarely looked at his coin collection; it was years later when he first noticed that there was a bunch missing.

[2dimes]

Here it was Barney's, in Lethbridge it was Sven Erickson's. Never went to Edmonton before about 1987.

[KoolBak]

Popeyes has catfish and a damn good po'boy sanny. Never had their chicken.

Chick fil-a is the one I just do NOT get. Pop up all over the place here and the lines are around the block. WTF??

We ARE discussing fast food, right?

[2dimes]

We only got those places this century. So I can't tell you how they were in 1975.

I like them both. Chick fil-a has my favorite waffle fries, their chicken is almost as good as Carl's Jr.