Re: PC--What is it good for?

On Dec 14, 12:36 pm, "Ken from Chicago" <kwicker1b_nos...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
wrote:
> <rja.carne...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in message
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>
news:1e5ac08a-0f99-4628-a9a8-616c199f406a@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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>
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> > On Dec 14, 1:23 am, "Ken from Chicago" <kwicker1b_nos...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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> > wrote:
> >> "Nate Edel" <archm...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in message
>
> >>news:g0n835x351.ln2@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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> >> > In rec.arts.sf.written C.O. Jones <ap...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
> >> >> Jasper Janssen <jas...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
> >> >> > >One word: Humvee.
>
> >> >> > >Trickle-down tech is almost inevitable.
>
> >> >> > play at going across rough terrain, but not do anything when
they
> >> >> > get
> >> >> > where they're going). The H2 Hummer on the other hand is a
minivan
> >> >> > with
> >> >> > a
> >> >> > bodykit. It's no closer a relation than the relevant Dinky Toy
is to
> >> >> > the
> >> >> > HMMWV.
>
> >> >> Are you seriously missing the point? Do you understand the phrase
> >> >> "trickle down tech?" Trickle down tech is the Civilian Hummer.
What
> >> >> you
> >> >> are talking is military surplus. BIG difference.
>
> >> > Except for the H1, there is no "trickle down tech," just
trickle-down
> >> > marketing.
>
> >> WWII radiophones became walkie talkies and cell phones.
>
> >> Tanks became armored limos.
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> >> And of course military firearms become civilian firearms.
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> >> -- Ken from Chicago
>
> > Am I missing a joke?  I don't think cell phones are relatives of
> > walkie-talkies,
>
> http://www.nextel.com/en/services/walkietalkie/overview.shtml

That looks like cell phones emulating walkie talkies.

Now, the art of ****table radio communications gear probably was driven
by military needs - I'll give you that.  And the walkie talkie is
really a military tool.  But I haven't seen yet that cell radio,
handset to base to network to base to handset country/world wide, is
military.  Military communications is to the squad on the other side
of the river or between squad and command.  They probably have cell
phones /now/.

>  an armoured limousine is a limousine with armour
>
> > incor****ated,
>
> A tank is an automobile with armor (and guns) incor****ated.

No.  A tank is about as similar to an automobile as it is to a
locomotive.  A locomotive needs rails, a car pretty much needs road, a
tank works on any solid ground.  You could have started from an
armoured car, but there were civilian cars - and for that matter
armour - before there were armoured cars or tanks, out of which I
think armoured cars came last, i.e. where infrastructure development
and military aviation meant that it was likely you'd be somewhere you
could drive on wheels and with a risk of being shot at and you needed
a vehicle designed accordingly.  Automobiles started out as fairly
useless toys for rich folks - junk that you wouldn't /want/ to take to
war.  Hmm...  I must admit that the Great War had aeroplanes.  But
they weren't very reliable, as I understand.  And neither were the
tanks.  Trucks and cars, they did have, too - but not close to the
trenches.

> > and only a few specific professions such as organised
> > crime require military-type weapons.
>
> And firearms are only sold to civilians are for jobs?

Society frowns on recreational use of military-specification
ordnance.  Since deer do not drive armoured cars.

The other main recreational use of big guns that I am aware of is to
have an attractive young woman in swimming costume fire the thing
while you watch what that does to the swimming costume, and while I
recognise the charm of this, it doesn't really have to be authentic
equipment or pointed anywhere in particular - although I suppose
actual veterans might disagree on that point, and demand that the same
model weapon that they themselves slept with every night of their tour
of duty should be used.

In other words, you tell me.

> Btw, muskets used to be for musketeers but are now sold to civilians as
> shotguns.

That's not trickle, it's glacial.  Anyway, the British government is
going the other way, /banning/ the trade in replica samurai swords.