RE: For David Brin and the rest of you

2013-09-06 Thread Dan Minette
At $10/watt, this is about 4 million. How badly do you want to see this demo? I don't expect to see it, ever. But, that demo is an example of the very easy baby steps that would have to be taken very early in the project. The fact that we don't have a demo of baby steps is a very good

RE: For David Brin and the rest of you

2013-09-05 Thread Dan Minette
It looks like a combination of Skylon, a project being developed in the UK and big propulsion lasers will get the cost to under $100/kg to GEO. Do you have any vidios of lasers holding up, say, a 10kg object, for 20 minutes and keeping it under control. This would be one of the easy

Multi-talented

2013-08-29 Thread Dan Minette
I never knew the good doctor founded google until I read it in Yahoo news as part of a scandel. Alleged Affair of Google Co-Founder Brin Raises Ethical Issues Dan M. ___ http://box535.bluehost.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l_mccmedia.com

RE: Multi-talented

2013-08-29 Thread Dan Minette
I never knew the good doctor founded google until I read it in Yahoo news as part of a scandel. Maybe, but he would have had to change his name from David to Sergei. Didn't you know, David translated into Russian is Sergei, I knew a Sergei from Russia. He used Sergei when founding Google to

RE:

2013-03-13 Thread Dan Minette
Hi Debbi, I don't think you've been deleted. But we've been real quiet. Dan M. ___ http://box535.bluehost.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l_mccmedia.com

RE: Chinese ham handedness and monopolies

2012-12-04 Thread Dan Minette
I sent this to a single person instead of the list due to Killer B being changed (probably automatically) from the sender to a cc. I think this happened a couple of other times. I've gotten replies, but will not post them, because they aren't my emails. But if the sender would, or would give

RE: Power and civilization

2012-12-03 Thread Dan Minette
That's not how slow poison works. People don't die for smoking a cigarette, or for smoking 100 cigarettes a day for 30 years. But then they die in the 31st year. The difference, of course, is that there were a large number of symtoms, very statistically significant differences in longevity,

RE: Greens add to Greenhouse gasses

2012-12-01 Thread Dan Minette
If you have a better way to get humanity off fossil fuels, don't keep it to yourself. I have actions that, given historical precident, have a much better chance of suceeeding. Make a good case that it's cheaper and I will support that instead of working on power satellites and laser

RE: Greens add to Greenhouse gasses

2012-12-01 Thread Dan Minette
Of course, it would make sense to integrate water and wind plants, probably even using the wind turbines to power the pumps directly. But that's a problem with politics, not technology. I beg to differ. The obvious problem is geography. Pump storage is highly used in Switzerland, and they

RE: Greens add to Greenhouse gasses

2012-12-01 Thread Dan Minette
-Original Message- From: brin-l-boun...@mccmedia.com [mailto:brin-l-boun...@mccmedia.com] On Behalf Of Kevin O'Brien Sent: Friday, November 30, 2012 8:13 AM To: brin-l@mccmedia.com Subject: Re: Greens add to Greenhouse gasses On 11/30/2012 8:49 AM, Dan Minette wrote: So, they were

RE: Power and civilization

2012-12-01 Thread Dan Minette
Unfortunately, we already have surplus crop and other produce. In order to keep the price up, surplus is destroyed. I goggled for that in the US, and it referred to this happening during the Great Depression, when prices were so low during the deflationary era that it wasn't worth the cost of

RE: Greens add to Greenhouse gasses

2012-11-30 Thread Dan Minette
Here in Brazil, Wind is used as part of the electric grid (there is a country-wide electric grid, only some parts of the Rain Forest are outside it). It helps save water and not consume natural gas when the wind blows. So, Wind is _not_ one black swam away, it can be used complementary to other

RE: Greens add to Greenhouse gasses (Keith Henson)

2012-11-29 Thread Dan Minette
With all due respect, Keith, I've been hearing arguments like this for 50 years. That's impressive hearing considering that the big, high efficiency lasers that make this concept possible have been around for less than 5 years. This particular combination, I haven't heard for 50 years.

RE: Greens add to Greenhouse gasses

2012-11-29 Thread Dan Minette
Yup, oil production is not as harmless as nuclear bomb tests. It depends on how close you are to the nuclear bomb test. But, oil is generally lower in radioactivity than bananas. If you are far enough away from the test, then the radiation is so low, it's orders of magnitude below what you get

RE: Greens add to Greenhouse gasses

2012-11-29 Thread Dan Minette
-Original Message- From: brin-l-boun...@mccmedia.com [mailto:brin-l-boun...@mccmedia.com] On Behalf Of Kevin O'Brien Sent: Wednesday, November 28, 2012 9:06 AM To: brin-l@mccmedia.com Subject: Re: Greens add to Greenhouse gasses On 11/27/2012 5:18 PM, Dan Minette wrote: Really cheap

RE: Power and civilization

2012-11-29 Thread Dan Minette
The measure of a civilization could be said to be it's consumption of energy and how it uses resources. Conspicuous v. sustainable... At what point was civilization sustainable without depending on unknowable innovations in the future? It would have to be before steel, because blacksmithing

RE: Power and civilization

2012-11-29 Thread Dan Minette
-Original Message- From: brin-l-boun...@mccmedia.com [mailto:brin-l-boun...@mccmedia.com] On Behalf Of Jon Louis Mann Sent: Thursday, November 29, 2012 7:47 PM To: brin-l@mccmedia.com Subject: Power and civilization The measure of a civilization could be said to be its consumption of

RE: Greens add to Greenhouse gasses

2012-11-27 Thread Dan Minette
Really cheap power if we bootstrap by building one power satellite and use it for propulsion lasers to bring up parts for thousands. With all due respect, Keith, I've been hearing arguments like this for 50 years. One thing would help you establish credibility. Can you point to a design of

Greens add to Greenhouse gasses

2012-11-26 Thread Dan Minette
Since we don't want this list dominated by carved Norwegian tourist shop items, I thought I'd throw out an argument. I have seen Germany and Japan shutting down nuclear energy, after the Greens have suceeded in making it non-PC. They had argued that the energy will be replaced by renewaable

RE: Politeness

2012-11-25 Thread Dan Minette
I would like to clarify one thing that I said and to comment on something Johnathan Mann said. I said:   While self respect is critical, and one shouldn't put up a false front to get respect, earning the respect of those who have achieved less than you can be very beneficial.  While I

RE: Where to now?

2012-11-24 Thread Dan Minette
How about Hayek? Half of the article that I'm giving a link to talks about him. It is written by another Nobel prize winner, and gives a very interesting account how his professional and popular works differ. I like the comparison of him to Marx, it makes a lot of sense to me...partially because

RE: Where to now?

2012-11-24 Thread Dan Minette
A few will engage with you for the same unfortunate reason (to try to correct you), but then it just becomes a matter of who can be a bigger bully. I'm not sure about that. Kevin, for example never struck me as a bully. And, I've never seen a counter-argument with facts and logic as

RE: Politeness

2012-11-24 Thread Dan Minette
It is not like you are a successful politician. Why would anyone care about having your respect? I actually think this is a statement made in good faith. IMHO, you would grow if you were able to understand the answer to that question. While self respect is critical, and one shouldn't put up a

RE: Where to now?

2012-11-20 Thread Dan Minette
Perhaps the patent equivalen of GPL? Because the answer to why can't we apply the wiki idea to publishing information? was copyrights and licenses until GPL became a viable solution .. There is a difference. I have an unused trade secret in my back pocket. When I came up with it, it was a

RE: Where to now?

2012-11-20 Thread Dan Minette
BTW, my doctoral dissertation at the University of Michigan involved banking and monetary issues. One of the best lessons I learned was that people who really understand what they are talking about can say it it plain English. Well, that just makes you as suspect as the non-financial faculty of

RE: Where to now?

2012-11-20 Thread Dan Minette
BTW, my doctoral dissertation at the University of Michigan involved banking and monetary issues. One of the best lessons I learned was that people who really understand what they are talking about can say it it plain English. Which makes it ironic that you are potentially misleading people

RE: Where to now?

2012-11-20 Thread Dan Minette
I didn't see this, so I'm resending it. Apologies if others had: -Original Message- From: brin-l-boun...@mccmedia.com [mailto:brin-l-boun...@mccmedia.com] On Behalf Of John Williams Sent: Tuesday, November 20, 2012 3:42 PM To: zwil...@zwilnik.com; Killer Bs (David Brin et al) Discussion

RE: Where to now?

2012-11-20 Thread Dan Minette
-Original Message- From: brin-l-boun...@mccmedia.com [mailto:brin-l-boun...@mccmedia.com] On Behalf Of John Williams Sent: Tuesday, November 20, 2012 4:06 PM To: Killer Bs (David Brin et al) Discussion Subject: Re: Where to now? On Tue, Nov 20, 2012 at 2:01 PM, Dan Minette danmine

RE: Where to now?

2012-11-20 Thread Dan Minette
OK, you found someone with a Nobel prize to follow. Why not the score of Nobel prize winners who don't believe in the gold standardsand wasn't he a cowinner of the prize with someone with strongly differing views. :-) Are you really that big a fan of deflation? An, how can you explain that

RE: Where to now?

2012-11-19 Thread Dan Minette
-Original Message- From: brin-l-boun...@mccmedia.com [mailto:brin-l-boun...@mccmedia.com] On Behalf Of Jon Louis Mann Sent: Sunday, November 18, 2012 4:34 PM To: Jonathan Louis Mann Subject: Where to now? Now that the election is past and Obama doesn't have to worry about his

RE: Where to now?

2012-11-19 Thread Dan Minette
This is largely the result of a shift to capital gains income, rather than productivity-based income among the top few percent, who have gobbled up the growing gap between productivity and income. There are two problems that face workers. First, productivity has outpaced demand. Second, the

RE: Where to now?

2012-11-19 Thread Dan Minette
Dave wrote: It's sounding more and more like I need to get a copy of Gautam's book. Well, I admit I'm very biased in this, so I think my comments need to be taken with a grain of salt. But, to have a book that considers Lincoln as a near singular example of excellence in a unfiltered leader

RE: Where to now?

2012-11-19 Thread Dan Minette
Why can't we apply the wiki idea to _engineering_? Because wikipedia is a collection of knowledge. Breakthroughs are typically done by a few people. It's seeing what no-one has seen before, not compiling all the stuff people have seen. It would be akin to having a masterpiece painted by

RE: Where to now?

2012-11-19 Thread Dan Minette
There is one and only one factor that creates jobs, and it is not wealthy people. That one factor is customers. I differ here. Not that middle class consumers are not more important than the top 0.1% getting more money, I agree with that. But, Clay's article is deeper than that. Look at all

RE: Where to now?

2012-11-19 Thread Dan Minette
Dave Land, you must buy this book! - Doris Kearns Goodwin Sounds like your interest in Lincoln has gotten connected to one of the experts on Lincoln. I'm happy for you. Dan M. ___ http://box535.bluehost.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l_mccmedia.com

RE: Where to now?

2012-11-19 Thread Dan Minette
Sounds like this, about which I first heard the inventor speak at TEDxSanJoseCA in 2011: The group I was thinking of has a slightly different biological approach. It is Joule Unlimited I really don't have a dog in the fight over which company wins, I just hope someone does. It should take

RE: Where to now?

2012-11-19 Thread Dan Minette
-Original Message- From: brin-l-boun...@mccmedia.com [mailto:brin-l-boun...@mccmedia.com] On Behalf Of Klaus Stock Sent: Monday, November 19, 2012 1:56 PM To: Killer Bs (David Brin et al) Discussion Subject: Re: Where to now? Hi, last big innovation, and are have Apple winning market

RE: Obama II

2012-11-17 Thread Dan Minette
However, the best bugs are introduced during programming, but much earlier. Catching bugs at the earliest possible time is expensive, but the ROI is immense and outweighs the cost by several orders of magnitude. Of course, any manager who was reading this dropped out at the word expensive,

RE: Obama II

2012-11-11 Thread Dan Minette
Nick wrote Sounded like a classic scalability problem. I would guess otherwise. This would be an interesting geekish debate to have. My guess is that its akin to the problem with Star Wars software, which was assumed to work first time untested. From what I read, their software did not lend

RE: Obama II

2012-11-11 Thread Dan Minette
On Star Wars, it worked as a bluff, but I don't think Reagan was bluffing. I think he believed. I know as a fact that the Defense Department said they would require that all programming for applications they used would have to be done in Ada (I think within 5 years) because Ada was a compiler

RE: Obama II

2012-11-11 Thread Dan Minette
I didn't realize how unclear it is whether Reagan and other top officials regarded it as a bluff or not, until I poked around a bit just now. Easy to see how they might have started off serious, then decided to re-write history and say it was all a bluff. I have some up-close and personal

RE: Obama II

2012-11-09 Thread Dan Minette
-Original Message- From: brin-l-boun...@mccmedia.com [mailto:brin-l-boun...@mccmedia.com] On Behalf Of ALBERTO VIEIRA FERREIRA MONTEIRO Sent: Friday, November 09, 2012 3:17 AM To: Killer Bs (David Brin et al) Discussion Subject: Obama II So... What about Obama's reelection? Here in

RE: Obama II

2012-11-09 Thread Dan Minette
In terms of the popular vote, as of now Obama has 61,174,297 votes, while Romney has 58,172,063 votes A difference of 3,002,234, so a fair margin and decisively winning the popular vote for Obama. The difference is going to be slighly above 2.5% and slightly above the Bush margin over Kerry, but

RE: VentureBeat article

2012-11-08 Thread Dan Minette
I forwarded this to Gautam. Tom Friedman reviewed Gautam's book in his Wednesday after the election column, when he had to meet his first deadline. But Gautam was personally unfortunate that he, I was right about how quickly Obama's victory was sealed, and by how much (I had him winning only

RE: VentureBeat article

2012-11-08 Thread Dan Minette
Thanks, Dan. I saw Friedman's column when it came out - very impressive. We'll be hearing a lot from Gautam's work, I expect. I hope so. Your column was also impressive. Dan M. ___ http://box535.bluehost.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l_mccmedia.com

RE: Job opportunity?

2012-08-29 Thread Dan Minette
-Original Message- From: brin-l-boun...@mccmedia.com [mailto:brin-l-boun...@mccmedia.com] On Behalf Of Jon Louis Mann Sent: Wednesday, August 29, 2012 5:46 PM To: brin-l@mccmedia.com Subject: Job opportunity? Huh??? Spam spam spam spam lovely spam, wonderful spam.a spambot got

RE: Time Well Spent

2012-06-20 Thread Dan Minette
you might want to pause to declaws those paws, and get a giant sand box. Well, it shouldn't turn out to be as big a problem as y'all think. The cat comes trained to go on the water and the claws make great substitutes for daggerboards. Dan M. ___

RE: Video games v. other activities

2012-06-19 Thread Dan Minette
Dave wrote: Very true, and if I fail as a parent, it is in showing too much interest in the world my son inhabits, rather than following the model of generations past and bending him to my will! My wife and I, and our grown children, have talked about how we (and in general our generation) have

RE: Time Well Spent

2012-06-18 Thread Dan Minette
David Land wrote: Yes, I know that superior people are supposed by other superior people to be above enjoying video games, but I guess I'm just not that superior. I really don't do video games much anymore because it's not something my wife enjoys; it's just the two of us, and we are on a lake.

RE: Tuesday afternoon . . .

2012-06-04 Thread Dan Minette
This morning here, Thor seems awfully annoyed about something, and the gutters are overflowing. Started just before the start of the eclipse (Moon had already gone behind the tree line as well). Supposed to do this off and on all day today and tonight and into tomorrow sometime. Hoping it

Land Wars, Revenge of the Director

2012-05-15 Thread Dan Minette
George Lucas, after being fought tooth and nail by his neighbors on his plan to bring a movie studio to his property has given up the attempt and is now planning on having affordable housing built on the property instead. He fought big high priced sub-divisions being built there, to no avail If

RE: Land Wars, Revenge of the Director

2012-05-15 Thread Dan Minette
-Original Message- From: brin-l-boun...@mccmedia.com [mailto:brin-l-boun...@mccmedia.com] On Behalf Of Dave Land Sent: Tuesday, May 15, 2012 2:31 PM To: Killer Bs (David Brin et al) Discussion Subject: Re: Land Wars, Revenge of the Director On May 15, 2012, at 9:16 AM, Dan Minette wrote

RE: Brin: On Gasoline

2012-02-23 Thread Dan Minette
I think that something is missing in the charts that argue for a great drop in gasoline. If you look at the official gasoline consumption chart, it gives a very different story: http://www.eia.gov/dnav/pet/hist/LeafHandler.ashx?n=PETs=MGFUPUS1f=M There's been a 10% drop since the peak in 2007,

RE: Brin: On Gasoline

2012-02-23 Thread Dan Minette
BTW, isn't it funny that, in 2011, Brazil was a huge importer of USA's ethanol? So, the american taxpayers are financing brazilian sugar exports. Yes, it shows that that the most critical factor in determining America's interest is who wins the Iowa caucus. Dan M.

RE: ADMIN: Re: Delivery Status Notification (Failure), was Re: NightOwls Demand Equal Rights!

2011-09-19 Thread Dan Minette
Nick wrote: That's just weird.  Could you check the archive page now and then and let me know if there seems to be any pattern to what's not arriving? I've noticed that, just in the last few days, I don't see my own posts. Most of the time I get my posts just like everyone elses. Dan M.

RE: Still here (Re: Br¡n: On Fracking and Earthquakes)

2011-09-18 Thread Dan Minette
Nick wrote: One of the data points NetBase has developed is that despite Twitter, Facebook, etc., the real conversation still happens, and is increasing, in forums, list servers, etc.  Discussion tends to start in the new social media, but if it has any depth, it goes into venues where some

RE: Delivery Status Notification (Failure)

2011-09-18 Thread Dan Minette
Behalf Of Ticia And why do I keep getting this? We all do when we post. There's still a few bugs in the system. :-) Dan M. ___ http://box535.bluehost.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l_mccmedia.com

RE: Solar Bankrupcy

2011-09-15 Thread Dan Minette
Is someone now foreclosing on the Sun?! Yes, with newspaper readership down, ad rates are down, and the Sun is being foreclosed on. Even the Grey Lady is at risk. Dan M. ___ http://box535.bluehost.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l_mccmedia.com

Solar Bankrupcy

2011-09-10 Thread Dan Minette
The bankruptcy of Solyndra has now brought in the FBI. I'm sure most folks are well aware that they got about half a billion in loans from the US Department of Energy before going bankrupt. That's a fair amount of money for a company. I wonder if anyone knows if 1) It was a boilerplate

RE: Galileo was wrong!

2011-08-28 Thread Dan Minette
A few Catholics still insist Galileo was wrong - latimes.com It was a ROTFLMAO piece for me. It was really fun to see how both Notre Dame and the Vatican Observatory were in the are these guy real? mode. I gave my first paper at a high energy physics symposium at Notre Dame, and saw the head of

RE: Transparent tracking with iphone.

2011-04-22 Thread Dan Minette
License, registration, proof of insurance, and cell phone, please.: Isn't that a separate issue: unreasonable search and seizure? That said, the existence of that data in consolidated.db on iPhones (most likely as the result of an error or oversight, as it turns out, rather than nefarious

RE: Skylon/lasers/power satellites

2011-04-21 Thread Dan Minette
I don't seem to be at my brightest today. I just reread what you said in the previous digest and could not find anything related to energy much less shaving a trillion dollars. Could you explain? Sure, I've just talked about it so much here, I didn't repeat because I thought I'd bore everyone

RE: Skylon/lasers/power satellites

2011-04-20 Thread Dan Minette
Well, you sure have *my* attention if you have a way to solve the world's energy problem with $12 million. I'm just pointing out how technology has been developed. The example I gave didn't solve the world's energy problems, it just shaved slightly trillion dollars off the price of energy over

RE: Skylon/lasers/power satellites

2011-04-20 Thread Dan Minette
it just shaved slightly trillion should be it just shaved slightly 1 trillion Dan M. ___ http://box535.bluehost.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l_mccmedia.com ___

RE: Skylon/lasers/power satellites

2011-04-19 Thread Dan Minette
Any thoughts? Yes, their website looks like vaporware. I tried to find how many hundreds of millions of income their inventions are generatingor at least hardware that incorporates their inventions as one of two or three components generates. It's not that high of a hurdle, after all...for

Technology, science, and ideas who's time has come

2011-04-19 Thread Dan Minette
I was thinking, after my response, how many of the biggest revolutionary new companies started small. HP and Apple both started in the proverbial garage. Gates founded DOS on software he bought for $3000. Walton started with a single store and expanded to overcome the giants of K-Mart, Penney's

Long Time Old Brin-Ler finally gets a real job.

2011-02-14 Thread Dan Minette
I thought a few old timers might be interested in the news that Gautam has just gotten an offer of a professorship at Harvard Business School. It does sound like a mis-match, his PhD was in international affairs and security studies. But, his dissertation was on leadership, and it applies very

RE: Brin: Why we still use rockets . . .

2011-02-12 Thread Dan Minette
The truth seems to be between these two arguments. I think that's valid. Rockets were a technology who's time had come. I think the fact that delivering 1000 bombs could destroy a nation had something to do with how quickly they were developed at first, but in a world that had a jet starting

RE: Autism and MMR Vaccine Study an 'Elaborate Fraud'

2011-02-10 Thread Dan Minette
Oh, I see, Wikipedia. I am now totally convinced of your standing as a eminent public health epidemiologist. Just to get the population. The critical documentation was that they _did_ exclude the Fallujah area and that their techniques came up with 200k deaths in that region which, if true,

RE: Autism and MMR Vaccine Study an 'Elaborate Fraud'

2011-02-09 Thread Dan Minette
I think there have been discussions here previously about vaccines, and while there might well be some people, especially children, who can have difficulty with multiple vaccines, the issue of vaccination causing autism is particularly fear-inducing. But the 1998 'study' has been judged

RE: Autism and MMR Vaccine Study an 'Elaborate Fraud'

2011-02-09 Thread Dan Minette
Martin wrote To start with, this is not a study on US induced deaths in Iraq. More importantly, this story about the Fallujah cluster is something you have simply made up. Are you saying that Fallujah wasn't excluded because of problems with the results there? Seriously? Or are you saying I'm

RE: Autism and MMR Vaccine Study an 'Elaborate Fraud'

2011-02-09 Thread Dan Minette
I'm really suppose to be working, but this took me 5 minutes to find: From http://www.iraqanalysis.org/local/041101lancetpmos.html Which argued for the Lancet article and against the British government response and I quote: quote Had the Fallujah sample been included, the survey's estimate

RE: Facebook is evil, why it must be eradicated [was: Wikileaks?]

2010-12-07 Thread Dan Minette
Only a sociopath and pervert can think that breastfeeding is pornography. It's disrespectful to breastfeeding (and to pornography too, but wfc?) All the billions that g*vernments invest all the time to make mothers breastfeed, and those sociopaths and perverts create a Social Network that

RE: RE: Facebook is evil, why it must be eradicated [was: Wikileaks?]

2010-12-07 Thread Dan Minette
A business decision that injures public health. Were facebook the internet, you might have something. But, I just typed breastfeeding videos into google, and got a zillion hits, checked the first one, and found a site with over a score of videos. Some had nothing to do with public health;

RE: Wikileaks

2010-12-01 Thread Dan Minette
What if this happened 70 years ago and Manhattan Project was leaked to the nazis (or even the soviets)? It was leaked to the Soviets. While Joe McCarthy was able to find 100% of the communist activists working for the Soviet Union in the United States (names kept in his locked briefcase),

RE: Wikileaks

2010-12-01 Thread Dan Minette
I'm generally for transparency and haven't heard of anything yet that is beyond mildly embarrassing to the U. S. government. I do think where the safety of our troops is concerned confidentially is important, but that government secrets should have a relatively short shelf life in all cases.

RE: Posturing...

2010-11-13 Thread Dan Minette
I wonder if the reason the USSR was engaging in brinkmanship was less for imperialism and exporting communism, than from fear of the U.S. threat. Wouldn't a reasonable person analyze the stated US policy towards the Soviet Union since about '48, and look at the history between '48 and

RE: the Cold War

2010-11-12 Thread Dan Minette
The biggest fallacy regarding it was the Soviet threat which was always exaggerated. Neither militarily nor politically did the soviet Union (or China and other 'communist allied') ever pose an existential threat to the U.S. So, if the US didn't fight the cold war, let it's military expenditures

RE: the Cold War

2010-11-12 Thread Dan Minette
-Original Message- From: brin-l-boun...@mccmedia.com [mailto:brin-l-boun...@mccmedia.com] On Behalf Of Euan Ritchie Sent: Friday, November 12, 2010 7:10 PM To: Killer Bs (David Brin et al) Discussion Subject: Re: the Cold War So, if the US didn't fight the cold war, let it's military

RE: the Cold War

2010-11-12 Thread Dan Minette
Euan wrote: I understand the problem. Context doesn't travel or easily survive in these written forums. By posturing I was refering to the military deployments in Europe as an existential threat (meaning the liklihood of them being used in an invasion of Western, or Eastern, Europe). Ah, quite

RE: Underwater mortgages and the economy

2010-11-07 Thread Dan Minette
But the second; I'd suggest the US is in this war for the benefit of several corporations, and that they still can and will benefit. There was never any possibility these wars would benefit the country, anyway; it always has been about providing opportunity for Halliburton, et al. Such wars also

RE: Underwater mortgages and the economy

2010-11-04 Thread Dan Minette
Charlie wrote: ...and judging by GDP figures, the USA is still fighting the Cold War. Hmmm, I looked it up, and military outlays under GWB as a % of GDP were less than they were under Carter, around 4% or a bit less. vs. Carter's 5%+. And he said that the US was going to have to increase

RE: Underwater mortgages and the economy

2010-11-03 Thread Dan Minette
It is quite possible that we falter over the next two years, sliding back into depression.  One of the most depressing figures is that the average GDP growth rate for the last 30 years will result in unemployment increasing, since we need 3%/year growth to tread water. Not what I meant,

RE: Underwater mortgages and the economy

2010-11-03 Thread Dan Minette
-Original Message- From: brin-l-boun...@mccmedia.com [mailto:brin-l-boun...@mccmedia.com] On Behalf Of Doug Pensinger Sent: Wednesday, November 03, 2010 9:49 PM To: Killer Bs (David Brin et al) Discussion Subject: Re: Underwater mortgages and the economy Dan wrote: Well, the US did

RE: Underwater mortgages and the economy (Dan Minette)

2010-11-02 Thread Dan Minette
-Original Message- From: brin-l-boun...@mccmedia.com [mailto:brin-l-boun...@mccmedia.com] On Behalf Of Doug Pensinger Sent: Tuesday, November 02, 2010 12:25 AM To: Killer Bs (David Brin et al) Discussion Subject: Re: Underwater mortgages and the economy (Dan Minette) Keith wrote

RE: Underwater mortgages and the economy

2010-11-02 Thread Dan Minette
Doug wrote: Or a negative black swan, pardon me for pointing out what might happen. The blackest of black swans. It is quite possible that we falter over the next two years, sliding back into depression. One of the most depressing figures is that the average GDP growth rate for the last 30

RE: Energy projects was Underwater mortgages and the economy

2010-11-02 Thread Dan Minette
-Original Message- From: brin-l-boun...@mccmedia.com [mailto:brin-l-boun...@mccmedia.com] On Behalf Of Keith Henson Sent: Tuesday, November 02, 2010 2:28 PM To: brin-l@mccmedia.com Subject: Energy projects was Underwater mortgages and the economy On Tue, Nov 2, 2010 at 11:00 AM, Dan

RE: Energy projects was Underwater mortgages and the economy

2010-11-02 Thread Dan Minette
High pulse energy, high repetition rate diode-pumped solid state lasers now have an efficiency of around 10%. OK, that's a lot better than when I was kicking around inertia fusion. Factors of 5-10 (it might have been as much as 2% efficient back in 1980) every 30 years is nothing to sneeze at,

RE: Underwater mortgages and the economy

2010-11-01 Thread Dan Minette
Interesting perspective in the LA Times. But a bigger problem may turn out to be the millions of Americans who are still faithfully paying their mortgages, but on houses worth far less than before the bubble burst. It's not that these homeowners will stop making their payments. It's just the

RE: Underwater mortgages and the economy

2010-11-01 Thread Dan Minette
No question, either extreme is bad.  But how to manage the volatility is the billion - or is that trillion? - dollar question. There are several things to consider here. First is the obvious. We require real truth in selling, and for the sellers to know what they are selling. Along with this

RE: Lots of people are having problems with loan modifications

2010-10-29 Thread Dan Minette
Charlie wrote: Define current??? FFS I feel your pain. Any lease that's live that is legal and still has +6 months to run should be enough, no matter how old it is. I was wondering about that too. For example, we're renting now with a legal lease. But, the lease technically says month to month

RE: Can Honerable People Have Mortgages?

2010-10-26 Thread Dan Minette
Or, look at it this way: you are being honorable if you pay all the debt, as long as you can do so physically (not financially, which is all the law seems to require). OK, so two parties sign a contract. Shouldn't both parties know what is in the contract? In particular, shouldn't a big bank

RE: Loan modifications (was Re: Starting Engineer's Salaries)

2010-10-22 Thread Dan Minette
I answered this in another post, but I'll explain a little bit differently here. I see the mortgage insurance as insurance against the borrower being UNABLE to pay back the money, not just choosing to default. Well you can see things however you wish, that is your prerogative. However, if you

RE: Loan modifications (was Re: Starting Engineer's Salaries)

2010-10-21 Thread Dan Minette
Nick, Your clarification makes things sound quite different to me. I'll agree that being off by 2% on a payment due to a misunderstanding is not reasonable grounds for breaking a deal especially if they fouled up substantially. If all you are asking is for an interest rate that matches the

Can Honerable People Have Mortgages?

2010-10-21 Thread Dan Minette
John Williams wrote: Only if you consider honesty and keeping your word to be ridiculous. An honorable person would not agree to borrow money from anyone, even a loan shark, if they thought that there was any possibility that they would not be able to honor their agreement and pay back the

RE: Can Honerable People Have Mortgages?

2010-10-21 Thread Dan Minette
This is reposted, since the original response went to just Brad, since he was first on the reply list, which included Brin-L I really wouldn't feed the troll any more, if I were you... I think I have a narrower definition of troll than you do. I accept that folks can have understandings of the

RE: Can Honerable People Have Mortgages?

2010-10-21 Thread Dan Minette
I really wouldn't feed the troll any more, if I were you... I think I have a narrower definition of troll than you do. I accept that folks can have understandings of the world that I see has having internal inconsistencies. I think that John is not putting forth a false front; I think he posts

RE: Can Honorable People Have Mortgages?

2010-10-21 Thread Dan Minette
John and Brad wrote: If by loan modification, you mean getting someone else to pay back some of the money that you borrowed, you might want to consider that it is likely that it will ultimately be average taxpayers footing the bill, and whether it is fair that taxpayers who did not agree to your

RE: Can Honorable People Have Mortgages?

2010-10-21 Thread Dan Minette
John wrote: Heh, very funny. Sure, you can assume I do not disagree with everyone in the world. And you can likely draw some typically erroneous conclusions from your assumptions. It would help it if you didn't dodge facts and direct questions that poke holes in your arguments. We all have

RE: Loan modifications (was Re: Starting Engineer's Salaries)

2010-10-21 Thread Dan Minette
-Original Message- From: brin-l-boun...@mccmedia.com [mailto:brin-l-boun...@mccmedia.com] On Behalf Of John Williams Sent: Thursday, October 21, 2010 3:34 PM To: Killer Bs (David Brin et al) Discussion Subject: Re: Loan modifications (was Re: Starting Engineer's Salaries) On Thu, Oct

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