Sy and DF,
You two are very correct to question the claims in the aerospace industry. I worked in the industry and many times what was called cutting edge was old as far as many other industries were concerned. Don't forget it has to fly and everything has to be proven and approved before that happens and that takes plenty of time. Materials are stuck in process specifications and any new material or idea has to go through such a process cutting edge is a misnomer at best. Not to say that new things aren't going on and development is constant at the upper level of a Lockheed or Northrup but by the time anything is in production it isn't close to new. Perhaps the electronics in satellite technology or space exploration would be cutting edge but not most aerospace related to planes, even stealth is more of an application of materials more than anything else. Me ex-partner did the wing layout and cockpit on the development models for the B2. I got a few on the side phone calls about that and how to do something. But the guy from "Men In Black", erased my memory!
You two are very correct to question the claims in the aerospace industry. I worked in the industry and many times what was called cutting edge was old as far as many other industries were concerned. Don't forget it has to fly and everything has to be proven and approved before that happens and that takes plenty of time. Materials are stuck in process specifications and any new material or idea has to go through such a process cutting edge is a misnomer at best. Not to say that new things aren't going on and development is constant at the upper level of a Lockheed or Northrup but by the time anything is in production it isn't close to new. Perhaps the electronics in satellite technology or space exploration would be cutting edge but not most aerospace related to planes, even stealth is more of an application of materials more than anything else. Me ex-partner did the wing layout and cockpit on the development models for the B2. I got a few on the side phone calls about that and how to do something. But the guy from "Men In Black", erased my memory!
Actually, many of the most interesting practical advances in physics come from the military. They are the only ones with both the interest and the revenue stream to pursue it. Jack and I found papers on Cryogenics of materials with military references going back to WW1. The problem with this 'black' world is that it is virtually all classified, at least for a dozen or more years or so. It would drive me crazy not to be able to talk to others what I discovered, over the last 50 years. Jack Bybee left Hughes to return to the university to get his PhD, since it always nagged him, by the treatment of real PhD's that he sometimes had to work with. Interestingly, on a flight before he got to the university, he met someone on the plane who made him an offer that he could not refuse, and he became VP for another known company, who offered him big bucks and a life in Japan and the Philippines, for the most part, due to the nature of the work. It was military service related and he had to be near where the troops were stationed.
Later, he retired to the LA area and raced boats as a hobby, almost killing himself. At the same time he created an Auto Chip upgrade company which he successfully sold later, to move to the SF Bay Area.
Once in the SF Bay Area he got bored with retirement, so he started making Quantum purifiers, from obsolete components, but he was ONLY allowed to do so, if he encased them in solid granite like modules. This was about 20 years ago. Most of the modules that I use in my personal hi fi system come from that time.
Later, these devices changed to smaller and smaller, less obtrusive parts that could be easily integrated into audio equipment, rather than attached externally to the power line, for example. It has always been a problem with exposing the product to the public and describing how it works, or what it even does.
And even IF measurements are done, as they have been, by an independent laboratory, they are dismissed here is impractical or impossible. Besides, as is also true with low distortion levels, nobody believes that it could possibly be important.
I really try to not mention what Bybee makes or sells here, on this website, but I am continually drawn into it by a question or a cheap shot regarding Jack Bybee. Since I am not in a position to actively and completely respond, why don't we forget about Jack Bybee? At least here on this website.
Later, he retired to the LA area and raced boats as a hobby, almost killing himself. At the same time he created an Auto Chip upgrade company which he successfully sold later, to move to the SF Bay Area.
Once in the SF Bay Area he got bored with retirement, so he started making Quantum purifiers, from obsolete components, but he was ONLY allowed to do so, if he encased them in solid granite like modules. This was about 20 years ago. Most of the modules that I use in my personal hi fi system come from that time.
Later, these devices changed to smaller and smaller, less obtrusive parts that could be easily integrated into audio equipment, rather than attached externally to the power line, for example. It has always been a problem with exposing the product to the public and describing how it works, or what it even does.
And even IF measurements are done, as they have been, by an independent laboratory, they are dismissed here is impractical or impossible. Besides, as is also true with low distortion levels, nobody believes that it could possibly be important.
I really try to not mention what Bybee makes or sells here, on this website, but I am continually drawn into it by a question or a cheap shot regarding Jack Bybee. Since I am not in a position to actively and completely respond, why don't we forget about Jack Bybee? At least here on this website.
Kindhornman, there is a level that is above Lockheed in the military itself. And they DO have their equivalent of 'men in black' that monitor information leakage. You must know that. Jack is always pressed between talking about new things and the 'Men in Black'. Problems have come up on the internet once in a while, when someone gets too 'nosey' and takes these components literally apart and seeks out the manufacturers.
Follow the money if you want to work (on cool things, or really much of anything else). Where is it today? Defense and medical. By comparison the number of jobs in academia and commercial R&D is small.
Consumer audio electronics has become mostly about fashion. Even the operating head of Beats admitted this recently, as they now strongly dominate the headphone business and make a terrific margin doing it, even as the products are panned by critical listeners. They have become fashion accessories, worn around people's necks.
A guy I used to work with told me that the company behind Beats plans on dominating all of consumer audio. I agree they might, for a while, particularly as other companies keep taking deadly aim at their own feet.
One could become cynical about all of this, but remember: this too shall pass.
Consumer audio electronics has become mostly about fashion. Even the operating head of Beats admitted this recently, as they now strongly dominate the headphone business and make a terrific margin doing it, even as the products are panned by critical listeners. They have become fashion accessories, worn around people's necks.
A guy I used to work with told me that the company behind Beats plans on dominating all of consumer audio. I agree they might, for a while, particularly as other companies keep taking deadly aim at their own feet.
One could become cynical about all of this, but remember: this too shall pass.
I dont think most of you have a clue about secret information. How it is handled, communicated and secured. I held and required a 'Q' clearance for more than 20 years. That's above Top Secret and is the highest in the land. You dont get and keep it unless you have a need to know. you cant talk to your wife. cant leave the country without gov OK for more than a decade after your work has ended. People who know me think i am a quiet person... actually its just a habit. Can we get back to serious here?
Least of all a guy who claims that he's selling hifi gadgets based on secret defense information. Or the guy who promotes that sort of fraud in exchange for some expensive lunches and rides in a Bentley.
Didn't they tell you in your briefing that you aren't supposed to mention your clearance in public?
I have a friend who worked for TRW on a high-power chemical laser many years ago. He in essence saved the contract by figuring out why the thing only barely worked, and fixing it. His boss was introduced to me at a 1979 SPIE meeting about astronomical instrumentation, and within minutes (my friend having walked away somewhere) and despite my de rigueur academic garb of ponytail, hiking boots, and flannel shirt, told me that they "couldn't live with him and couldn't live without him". He refused to work full time and be a real company man, insisting on pursuing another degree, one in music.Least of all a guy who claims that he's selling hifi gadgets based on secret defense information. Or the guy who promotes that sort of fraud in exchange for some expensive lunches and rides in a Bentley.
Didn't they tell you in your briefing that you aren't supposed to mention your clearance in public?
He also had a cavalier attitude about secrecy, and I ended up concluding that the company told him that something was not to be disclosed when they wanted spies to take it seriously!
Jack Bybee does NOT live on any income that he may make in audio. He was independently wealthy more than 20 years ago, before he retired. He does this audio stuff, because he needs a hobby, and he can never just relax and forget it. He did NOT buy his Bentley with audio earnings. In fact, I suspect that he barely breaks even with it, considering the hours that he puts in, and the high cost of raw materials in his products. I would not do it. I would rather sit around and input here. '-)
The ear does react to the US energy by turning the gain down. And, the effect is exactly as you describe it..a feeling to be kind of deaf, ears plugged.
My experience was that the background noise would drop significantly when the US was turned on, and return when US was off.
I don't. The practical application of superconductors is not a trivial thing, nor are all the problems obvious. Even "simple" solder joints can cause millions of dollars worth of damage. CERN for example, the cost was 50 million in hardware, 50 million in labor. And soon, a 2 year shutdown to fix 10,000 joints.
jn
Possibly. Company spying and National Security spying are not the same thing. excpet when a company is working on something secret for the government. But higher levels are not done by contractors anyway.... we have National Labs for those things. 'Q' level spying will land you in prison for life in some hell-hole in a foreign country and forgotten about. Such a person would not be given a clearance at a serious level and would have been terminated. My clearnace took a year by FBI and CIA -- interviewing old neighbors and employers and school teachers and what your grandparents did for a living... all the places you lived and the like for character as well. One childhood friend I had not seen in many years, later told me 'they' came into his place of work and asked questions about what kind of person I was. I couldnt even find where this long ago person had moved to let alone where he worked. And, then you are monitored. Anyway-- were's the audio in this? Thx-RNM
Just about a (pseudo ?) scientist making fraudulent hifi gadgets whose effects can not be measured and manufacturing kept secret because it use some secret defense material directly issued from ET space vehicles. The kind of thing that I firmly believe in.
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