OT; Corning technology

[Bill Campbell]

On Tue, Mar 08, 2011, Richard Kreiss wrote:
>
>> From: filepro-list-bounces+rkreiss=verizon.net at lists.celestial.com
>> [mailto:filepro-list-bounces+rkreiss=verizon.net at lists.celestial.com] On
>> Behalf Of Kenneth Brody
>> Sent: Tuesday, March 08, 2011 8:56 AM
>> To: Mike Schwartz
>> Cc: 'filePro Mailing List'
>> Subject: Re: OT; Corning technology
>> 
>> On 3/8/2011 8:28 AM, Mike Schwartz wrote:
>> [...]
>> >       If we can put a man on the moon, we should be able to do all
>> > this stuff in glass.  We just have to make it a priority.
>> 
>> Unfortunately, we can't put a man on the Moon today.  We could 40 years
>> ago, but not any more.
>
>A long time ago, and I don't remember where, it had been said that the
>ancient glass makers could make glass as strong as steel.  
>
>If I recall correctly one of the big guns barrel on the Battleship Missouri
>blew up or was damaged during the Vietnam War.  We did not have the ability
>to make a new one.  Both the machinery and the skills necessary had
>disappeared (died off).

Or been killed off by government schools.  The majority of high
school graduates today are mathematical illiterates with very
poor reading skills.  Literacy rates in the U.S. were considerably
higher in the 19th and early 20th centuries than they are today.

For an excellent book that goes into the reasons for this, see
John Taylor Gatto's "The Underground History of Amercan
Education".

Or as John Dewey said:

     The children who know how to think for themselves spoil the
     harmony of the collective society that is coming, where
     everyone would be interdependent.  1899

     Independent self-reliant people would be a counterproductive
     anachronism in the collective society of the future where
     people will be defined by their associations.  1896

>That is the problem sometimes.  When older technology is no longer" needed"
>the skills involved disappear until some individual decides that they want
>to know how it works and tries to recreate the technology.

I read a fascinating book several years ago on Brunelleschi's
Dome in Florence Italy.  He had to do extensive research to
rediscover techniques used in Greece, Rome, and the middle east.

Bill
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Instead of giving money to found colleges to promote learning, why don't
they pass a constitutional amendment prohibiting anybody from learning
anything?  If it works as good as the Prohibition one did, why, in five
years we would have the smartest race of people on earth.
    -- The Best of Will Rogers