They’re 27"×40" posters in a limited print run and on good quality paper stock. Plus, the artist promises he’ll ship as many different prints as you want at the same $10 rate. Sounds like a fair deal to me.
Fucking Stanton and Warby Parker advertised $45 for 2 pairs… But you can only actually get that price if you don’t actually need lenses. These two (and probably all others advertising similar prices) are just fucking scams.
The goal of any military is to build and maintain a technological edge over potential adversaries. Because of that, a lot of basic research happens in and around military organizations.
You mentioned the internet as one such technology and it’s a great example. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) started a project to build a communications network which would be resilient in the event of a nuclear war. Their work created ARPANet. And for a long time, it was really just intended as a US DoD thing and no one really considered its potential uses for the civilian world. It wasn’t until it was opened up to the civilian sector that its potential to change the world was recognized.
Many other technologies follow this trajectory. There is a need in the military and research is done to fulfill that need. If that research is successful, new technology can be created and may eventually move into the civilian market and be very useful. Though, as part of that technology transfer there is always pushback from the military that opening up that technology may reduce or eliminate the technological edge the military holds over potential adversaries.
An example of this would be the Global Positioning System (GPS). GPS was supposed to be a way for the military to be more accurate in the stuff it blew up. When they began opening GPS up for civilian use, there was the worry that adversaries would use GPS against US forces. And so, part of the initial opening up involved intentional inaccuracy in the GPS signal for civilian use. Over time, this has been removed; however, the US DoD does maintain the ability to introduce inaccuracies if considered tactically necessary.
you’d think some five or 6 star general would go “Yeah nah we don’t need this shit, waste of tax money just stick with what works”
So, this actually does happen. In 2013, the US Army famously said tanks, but no more tanks. And Congress overrode that request. At the same time, just “sticking with what works” is a tough thing to know ahead of time. Prior to WWII, air power was considered more of a niche thing. Useful for reconnaissance and not much else. And then the Luftwaffe adopted dive bomb tactics and started wrecking shit from the air. By the end of WWII aircraft had reworked a lot of military doctrine. For example, WWII navies were built around battleships. And then the Japanese rather definitively proved what air craft carriers were capable of (see: Pearl Harbor). Navies are now built around air craft carriers and battleships are largely museum pieces. But, this only happens when militaries are willing and funded to try new things out. Not everything works and that means a lot of money expended on failed projects. But, sometimes it pays off and a military is able to create or extend a technological edge.
So, why does the the bleeding edge tech seem to always come out of the military? It’s because they often have the reasons and resources to do the research. As much as it sucks, the world is still a dangerous place. And so, militaries the world over will always be looking to push the boundaries on technology. And they will also be the first recipients of said technology and will guard it jealously to prevent losing the technological edge it gives them. Yes, the world would be far better off, if humanity was not hanging from a cross of iron. But, thanks to assholes like Putin, here we hang.
I was on reddit since 2014. Got perma banned a few months ago. Essentially I argued with the nazi mods and they booted me. Whitepeople Twitter is a cesspool of an echo chamber. I took the perma ban happily and permanently switched to lemmy, much happier here. Fuck reddit and the nazi mods just leave and don’t look back
I got permabanned for some eat the rich comment. I made a new account with my same google account and they didn’t care. But who cares, walled gardens suck.
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