asciilifeform: i have nfi how to convert between the 2.
asciilifeform: so i'll readily admit that i am working in a poorly defined unit. 100k of tmsr partizan money -- might buy subj. but how many 100k usg funbux buy a phuctor, or FG ?
asciilifeform: try to build just about ANYTHING in 'legit org', and 'jobsworths' show up immediately, like crows to a corpse, and before long :
asciilifeform: there's a million folx with 100k. but afaik 0 who a) give a shit b) work unmolested ( and this includes molestation that makes your table legs cost 100k each, as in entirety of 'civilized' world's 'legitimiate' laboratories )
asciilifeform: well it's $100k + pyongyang ( work unmolested by usg )
asciilifeform: idea was that this hypothetical man is the point of a spear, a spear that was broken.
asciilifeform: mircea_popescu: imho it is not a simple as 'there's a man who could, but he won't , because pissants tangled in his shoelaces.'
asciilifeform: can't seem to find link. so maybe it wasn't .
asciilifeform: was it mircea_popescu who wrote 'best thing you can do for physics is to find a respectable elderly physicist on the road, and shoot a hole in his head' ?
asciilifeform: every 'idea man' wanted to 'become edison', 'rich off patents'
asciilifeform: edison's megabux had the same 'contagious disease' influence as the success of gates/microshit in 1980s did on software industry
asciilifeform: brothers wright, incidentally, did ~same thing in ~their~ field, and more or less paralyzed it entirely for years
asciilifeform: then marconi joined in the newly-developed 'edison' tradition of patent trollage, by laying claim to EVERY subsequent improvement to radio, by others who came later..
asciilifeform: iirc the butthurt was deep ( and described in the infamous u.s. supreme court trial on subj. ) marconi got the famous '7777' patent , and pr machine cemented his reputation as 'first practical radio!' (though it was largely based on earlier work, by, e.g., lodge, tesla, others)
asciilifeform: d00d was made senator ! and then again lifted up by mussolini.
asciilifeform: d00d did in fact carry out experiments. but proved also brilliant at taking credit for the work of others.
asciilifeform: was one of many 'brute force' experimenters in 1890s.
asciilifeform: was exactly indian-cut-and-paste artist.
asciilifeform: marconi was interesting case -- i read his patents, and in a few the circuit could not work as drawn, and in fact could not have been drawn by a d00d who understood half of what he was allegedly doing ( vs cribbing )
asciilifeform: the mechanics were described, quite exactly, in 1950s . and it follows, theoretically, that you could power a city of, e.g., strontium-90 scraped off chernobyl.
asciilifeform: ( less, if access to surplus goldentoilets )
asciilifeform: and can be pursued for perhaps a few 100k $ worth of gear
asciilifeform: whereas ACTUALLY promising, and wholly noncrackpotterious direction of particle physics -- induced beta decay -- is funded to the princely sum of..☟︎
asciilifeform: and the work has exactly same methodology, and same output.
asciilifeform: the people are ~exactly same, on the receiving end of those cheques.
asciilifeform: formerly asciilifeform barfed less from $ 4B paperweight laser than 4b welfare cheques or iraqs . but -- on no small part from educative efforts of mircea_popescu -- now barfs equally
asciilifeform: 'does something' is not difficult standard. asciilifeform's 40w laser likewise 'does something'
asciilifeform: mircea_popescu: minus any fundamental result !
asciilifeform: but cataloguing, naming, imaginary ( and when unified, they will look like a quite laughable jorge borges zoo roster ) particules, is not a solution to any of it
asciilifeform: can say 'it's mature field', whatnot, but then job of practitioner is to SHRINK the textbook
asciilifeform: and the reason why asciilifeform has low opinion of ligo et al is that physics has been growing like winblowz api, like prb, like tumour, and not like growing child ( or 1600-1950 physics, for that matter )
