"And if your kid gets bored with the Johnny Space Commander plastic mask, you can buy them our "Fun Bag 'O Glass."
Posted on 08/14/2007 11:31:18 PM PDT by TigerLikesRooster
"Low" probability?
Now tell us how you feel about the communists putting poison into pet and human food -- and then covering it up.
Point of curiosity: Do you happen to have any personal stake in "the China trade", i.e., as someone who owns or is employed by a company importing from China, or, associated with a "post-for-hire" service that represents clients with "China trade", or, as a stockholder in a company that derives significant revenue from "the China trade", etc?
Just curious, that's all. (Wouldn't be, if not for your obstinate defense of the Chinese killers.)
Does anyone have a link to the story about the Chinese generals and elites discussing the overthrow of the US?
If they are, it'd be completely consistent with their long-term agenda -- an agenda they've made NO secret of.
Some bigwigs in the PLA wrote a book called "Unrestricted Warfare", which the CIA translated to English. You can download it for free -- legally -- from several websites.
In it, they cover "asymmetrical warfare" tactics, and their strategy for using such tactics to destroy us. They intend to use anything and everything at their disposal that can be used to weaken us and defeat us.
We are a nation ruled by greedy fools.
Imagine a world in which naive western companies, accustomed to things like "contracts mean something", doing business with a communst superpower with an agenda based on 1) destroying us, and 2) wringing every last dollar out of us before destroying us.
Now, imagine that in that context, the western companies provide reams of specifications to the Chinese, who in turn say, "Yup, sure, no problem, we take care of it just like you want," and then proceed to slap together the absolute cheapest crap they can manage, all the while filling out all the "compliance paperwork" and checking the boxes, dotting the i's, crossing the t's, and so forth.
"And if your kid gets bored with the Johnny Space Commander plastic mask, you can buy them our "Fun Bag 'O Glass."
Um, the story claimed it (i.e., the reporters investigated, researched, and concluded that the Chinese had followed the directions), or, the Chinese claimed that they'd done no wrong?
If the latter, I will ask you to recall the recent problem with poisoned food (pet food, and human food), in which the Chinese adamantly protested their innocence, waxed indignant, and then lo and behold, it turned out that they were indeed lacing the food with toxins, in order to lower their costs (and, IMO, quite likely for other reasons too).
So pardon me if I take Chinese claims of having delivered quality product with a grain or two of salt.
I've heard other people say this too, and I've always scratched my head over it. We have billions of dollars of their stuff that we haven't paid for. Who is at the mercy of who here? What if we told China to go pound sand?
I think you've got it backwards. China wants its money. It's up to us whether we give it to them.
Do some researchh rather than assuming.
China owns massive amounts of US government debt.
We, on the other hand, are sitting on a few COSCO-shiploads of Chinese crap, that cost them next to nothing to produce.
When/if the "shooting war" begins, you can expect China to order those COSCO ships to turn around and return home. If they have to dump the containers into the sea, no big deal.
It'd be like the Dutch, back in the 1600s, worrying about the beads and trinkets they traded for the island of Manhattan.
Those beads and trinkets may have had high perceived value to the recipients, but to the holders, they were just... beads and trinkets.
I don't claim to be a world class economist, but frankly, your grasp of basic economic realities is tragic.
Whether or not it is government debt, you still seem to think that we have to pay it off. We don’t. We can simply default.
What kind of maniacs use neodynium magnets in toys?? I am working up a prototype product using 1/4 diameter ND magnets, and I am amazed at how dangerous they are. They have roughly 35 times the attractive power of an equivalent-sized traditional magnet. With proper support, an ND magnet the size of a dime can suspend a 3 1/2 pound drilling hammer firmly from the ceiling with no risk of falling. At the least, ND magnets can pinch the heck out of your fingers. I have old tough hands, but a small child could be seriously injured just by handling them, let alone eating them.
I was right. You really are a babe in the woods.
If the US Gov. defaults on a trillion dollar debt, it's goodbye world economy, and goodbye our economy.
Invest in a wheelbarrow, in that case, so that you'll be able to cart enough dollars to town to buy a loaf of bread.
I'm through discussing this with you. You have an ungainly combination of ignorance of the topic, and arrogance of your assumptions, which renders intelligent discourse impossible, and the effort pointless.
So forget I said anything. Have a fun time.
No more buying chinese products! Damn the politicians who favored increased commerce with china.
____________________________________________________
Purchase products that are 100% MADE IN THE USA!
Continue to take a stand and be a voice for our pets and our loved ones! Do everything you can to boycott goods made by China and this includes ingredients made in China, Chinese plant processing and Chinese exporting!
Our animals couldn’t speak for themselves.
Were they the canaries of the food chain?
We have to protect our families now.
BOYCOTT CHINA!!!!!!
Maybe it would, maybe it wouldn't. Countries have defaulted on debt before, and as recently as ten or fifteen years ago, there was a serious debate in this country about defaulting on debt.
But you're right about one thing--when you stubbornly refuse to consider all of the possible options, as you are doing, intelligent debate is not possible.
They really are amazing little things.
If they ever do manage to build a Heinlein-style "rail-gun" launch system (see "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress", in which it was used to launch ore from the Moon to Earth), I suspect it'll be based on these type magnets.
A linear motor based on a series of "supermagnets" would be a very impressive thing to behold. Instead of using massive amounts of electricity (in short supply in places like "space"), rare-earth magnets could supply the raw force, and a relatively small power supply could neutralize each one, in series (as the "car" passed by), via precisely timed capacitive discharge.
You can "blip" a rare earth magnet for a fraction of a second using a fairly trivial amount of power. It was either Olympus or Canon who used this as the basis for their electronic shutter (I forget which, it's been ~20 years since I've worked on anything like that).
Prior to that development, the standard for electronic shutters was a solenoid that held a pawl/sprag/etc., which, while actuated, held the shutter open.
The longer the exposure, the more current that would be drained out of the battery.
The new design used a combination piece -- a small solenoid combined with a tiny sliver of rare-earth magnet. When the shutter was wound, the solenoid would be closed, and the magnet would hold it closed.
When it was time to open the solenoid (i.e., to release the second curtain), the electronics would send a very short "blip" to the solenoid, with a polarity opposite that of the magnet's polarity. Net result was the magnet being negated, and the solenoid opening as the magnet's power disappeared. It only disappeared for a fraction of a second, but that was all it needed, in order to release the shutter.
So, batteries lasted much longer, and the length of exposure was no longer a major determining factor regarding battery life, because the battery wasn't required to supply a large amount of current to brute-force hold the shutter open.
Now, take that concept, and translate it to a linear motor. Powerful permanent magnets, lined up in sequence, with a coil mated to each one, and a computer timed to turn each one off, in sequence, right when it was time to release it to the next magnet.
These are amazing little things, but they are NOT the stuff of kids toys. Not unless someone doesn't give a damn about killing "other people's kids", and money means more than having even the rudiments of a conscience, and "ethics" means "whatever you can get away with."
Boy, I'd go far in China, wouldn't I. :) (all the way to the organ donor pile, LOL!)
At least, I hope we do...
Don't be an ass.
You were wrong.
Be an adult and say, "I was wrong."
“Every time I have ever shoved a magnet toward another magnet, the other magnet was repelled. Every time I have shoved a magnet toward a ordinary piece of metal they were forcefully attracted to each other. Those are the facts that I have witnessed.”
OMG...Mr Wizard is rolling over in his grave.
So your factory has just spent a year producing 18 million toys and shipped them and now here they are all back at your shipping dock. That’s 18 million toys piled up in the front yard and no customers. The profit margin has to suck right then.
I hate the Chinese government as much as anyone, but this stuff does seem to be blown out of proportion.
Expect power struggle to heat up at many board rooms and Chinese Politburo. After all, somebody should take the blame.
Interesting. Thanks for the inside perspective. I've had some exposure to product liability issues with a manufacturing company. It's paranoia versus common sense, and paranoia often wins out.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.