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A Cool Capitalist

Posted by khalling 8 years, 8 months ago to Technology
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The Pope is recently on record for saying the West uses too much air-conditioning and it's destroying the planet. Some Indian friends want to know why the West is so anti-technology and when did that happen? Carrier was a true inventor visionary and you have to thank him for important refrigeration techniques as well as movie theaters.Ever go to a movie theater on a hot summer's day to escape the heat? that's how it all started...Hollywood :)
SOURCE URL: http://atlassociety.org/commentary/commentary-blog/3468-a-cool-capitalist?highlight=WyJjYXJyaWVyIiwiY2FycmllcidzIiwiaHVkZ2lucyIsImh1ZGdpbnMncyIsImh1ZGdpbnMnIl0%3D


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  • Posted by Zenphamy 8 years, 8 months ago
    I didn't have my first A/C till 1971. Sweltering was the rule and heat strokes were highly common.

    As a kid in NW OK, with only a hand drawn well for water, my mother would have me draw bucket after bucket of water, carry it to her, where she would toss it on the roof to try to get a little relief. At bed time she would take her ironing sprinkler and mist the sheets on the bed before we got in. That and wet sheets hung near the window with a reciprocating fan in the window were common, every day needs. About once a week, she would take all 5 of us to camp out at a spring fed creek not far from the house. The water couldn't have been much over 50 degrees and within 20 or 30 feet of the bank, it was heaven. Then back to dust, near 100 degree, and 70 to 80% humidity, and hauling more buckets of cool well water.

    Thank you Carrier for making all those profits. You earned every dime. I'd have given more.
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  • Posted by freedomforall 8 years, 8 months ago
    Good to see praise for accomplishment that REALLY made a difference for the better for mankind without any government incentive or politically correct guilt.
    That kind of accomplishment, done for his own sake (and likely for the good of his family) is something I aspire to.
    One of my best friends told me yesterday that they are about to close a deal that should improve coal fired power efficiency by about 20% (to start, and likely improving over time) while reducing pollutants by similar amounts. Someday I think there will be a similar article written about that hard work and accomplishment.
    Thanks, kh!
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  • Posted by LetsShrug 8 years, 8 months ago
    I volunteer my back yard in the month of August (az) to the Poop for him to come pitch a tent in.... and then we can discuss global warming and after that we can discuss who's ruining the planet... mystics or innovators? (We only have one rule on this property, for residents and guests......you don't enter or exit it dressed in ridiculous attire. The red shoes, the stupid pointy hat, and the flowing robe-dress ain't coming though my gate.) And any repetitive chanting gets you slapped back into reality.
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  • Posted by $ jbrenner 8 years, 8 months ago
    Carrier is my older daughter's hero. She thinks that A/C was the best invention ever. In Florida, it would be hard to disagree.
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    • Posted by Maritimus 8 years, 8 months ago
      When I came to this country, almost 50 years ago, an engineer friend told me: "Air conditioning made South livable!" Until later on, when I flew once to Miami, FL, I did not truly understand what he meant.
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      • Posted by 8 years, 8 months ago
        Martimus, where were you born?
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        • Posted by Maritimus 8 years, 8 months ago
          In Beograd, Yugoslavia, on August 1, 1935
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          • Posted by 8 years, 8 months ago
            wow. tell us the story of your immigration sometime :)
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            • Posted by Maritimus 8 years, 8 months ago
              It is a too long story for here. I have had an interesting life. Several people have urged me to write a book about it. In particular, one lady friend urged me more then once. She was known as an excellent editor. I promised her to write it, if she would agree to edit my first draft. She promised. But then she died from Lou Gehrig disease. (She had to starve herself to death because of the prohibition against assisted suicide.) The working title is "Memories of an Immigrant". There is not nearly enough work behind it, though.

              Short version. In late spring of 1966, I asked the love of my life, on a visit to where she was in college, if she would marry me. She said: "Yes". On returning home I found a message to call a friend in US. I did. He told me that GE was offering me a job in their best applied research lab (not their R&D Center) in Schenectady. We wanted to come on a boat as a honey moon trip. The consulate would not give my fiancée a visa without a marriage certificate. We anticipated the wedding and eventually, passing in the early morning by the statue of liberty, we arrived on "Raffaello" in New York harbor on Jan. 12, 1967. The friend came with his wife and U-Haul trailer and took us to his home for that first night. Next day I was on GE payroll and reimbursed for all my expenses associated with moving. With that check in hand, I went and opened the checking account that I still have. Bank ownership and size changed, but the account number survived.

              You could not immigrate better than we did.
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    • Posted by 8 years, 8 months ago
      you still have to deal with mold and mildew. jus sayin :)
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      • Posted by $ jbrenner 8 years, 8 months ago
        Yeah, I had to kill a tiny little bit of black algae in my pool this weekend. It's gone now. Mold is something to be ever vigilant against. At my university we lost a building to "sick building syndrome" as a result of no A/C for a couple of weeks during the hurricane year of 2004.
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        • Posted by 8 years, 8 months ago
          I do not even want to speculate on the human damage. Db and I refuse to be in a "closed" system ROTFL
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          • Posted by $ jbrenner 8 years, 8 months ago
            Three faculty members had significant health compromise.
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            • Posted by 8 years, 8 months ago
              wow. well I certainly would not wish that on anyone
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              • Posted by $ jbrenner 8 years, 8 months ago
                They are all better now, but one had an allergy that he thought would be lifelong. It went away after a couple of years. Mold is not something to be messed with. My lab was not contaminated, nor any of the items in it, but when the building was diagnosed, I had to move stuff into an off-campus lab.
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                • Posted by $ minniepuck 8 years, 8 months ago
                  Yikes. That must have been expensive for your school. I'm one of those allergic to a specific type of black mold--nausea, bloody nose, trouble breathing within a short time. Part of my husband's business handles mold remediation, so luckily I have an expert to always take care of things around here. It seems lots of people don't realize how much damage it can cause, both to structures and to a person's health. Glad no one was hurt in the long term. If you or anyone else has any questions about mold in the future, please pm and I'll get the answer.
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                  • Posted by $ jbrenner 8 years, 8 months ago
                    I had to learn a lot about mold issues myself. The incident cost the university a million dollars and me personally. My close by lab space got traded for far away lab space.
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  • Posted by $ MichaelAarethun 8 years, 8 months ago
    Those places are too cold!!! too loud!!! and too expensive!!! he said sitting in his AC'd boat with no shortage of beer and a collection of 1000 plus movies on external Hard Drive. When it's time to 'give back' you just hit the pause button.
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    • Posted by johnpe1 8 years, 8 months ago
      but if you want to Experience star wars, the theater is the place!!! -- j
      .
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      • Posted by $ MichaelAarethun 8 years, 8 months ago
        That's true and was the first time I saw the first one. Finished bought a new ticket and did it twice. But movies like that are rare enough. Years later at Disneyland I did the Star Wars ride three times in a row. One of life's better memories.

        Now it's a 14" laptop screen and a pause button.

        Addition: I have gone to see movies in theaters trying for that first Star Wars thrill.... i was thinking of some of the airplane movies with FX like Flyboys and compared that to Hughes original Hells Angels. There are movies and there is film.
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        • Posted by johnpe1 8 years, 8 months ago
          I just ordered Flyboys;;; Thanks! . movies with real horsepower like
          Star Wars are incredibly rare!!! -- j
          .
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          • Posted by $ MichaelAarethun 8 years, 8 months ago
            I only have the first two and the last one.The rest got to hokey. All the Star Trek movies none of the TV show. Even with ext HD storage I get particular. A favorite is a combo of Little Shop Around The Corner and You Have Mail.
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  • Posted by Herb7734 8 years, 8 months ago
    When I was a kid, Movie thaters during the summer would open their lobby doors letting the cool air spill out onto the street so as you walked by in the swelter, you were very tempted indeed to slip on in to the cool darkness no matter what was playing. I have seen things that I didn't even think about come true and evolve to the point where I don't want to live without them. From no TV, to B&W 10" screen TV, to huge color TV. From no cooling except for a fan, to commercial buildings air conditioned, to homes air conditioned to omygawd cars air conditioned. What a century the 20th was. I'm afraid that the 21st has slipped past me and I feel like the old coger who complained about disliking all those newfangled you-name-its.
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    • Posted by johnpe1 8 years, 8 months ago
      I love the instant access to the stacks of the library, where things
      which used to be HardToFind are easy -- like the weight of the
      moon or the size of the Hindenburg. . or the current price of
      platinum, polonium or silver!!! -- j
      .
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      • Posted by Herb7734 8 years, 8 months ago
        You just reminded me of a strong memory. In Detroit there are two marble-clad buildings across the street from one another on Cass Avenue. One was the Institute of Arts, where I learned to love art, and the other, was the Main Library. They were about 4 miles from where I lived and for the cost of a dime, I could hop a bus and spend the day at both of them. The way to the stacks in the library was strictly employees only -- and me. Once I found how to get down there (it was a vast basement room) I spent many hours finding books no longer on the regular shelves. Frankenstein and Dracula, Lady Chatterly's Lover, the stories of H.P. Lovecraft were found there. In those days, I suppose they were considered to be too something-or-other for the regular shelves. Funny thing though, no one ever stopped me from checking them out.
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  • Posted by $ Stormi 8 years, 8 months ago
    The Pope is undereducated and has bought into the UN crap. Since he already likes socialism, it is not much of a leap. He seems clueless to the Gaia worship agenda. My husband is a senior tax analyst for Emerson Copeland, of the scroll compressor fame. If the Pope and UN get their way, a company that employs thousands, and keeps many other businesses active will be sidelined, resulting in massive unemployment. The UN does not want A/C, nor commercial food refrigeration.
    I grew up in New Mexico, A.C was standard, and has been in my life since. Our daughter has severe allergies, and has to be in A/C, as open windows quickly end her up in the doctors office for medication. People with COPD are what, expendable to the Pope? What about heart conditions, or asthma, or a host of other issues? Romania went that direction, now look at their lack of A./C, refrigerators and even sporadic electricity.
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  • Posted by wiggys 8 years, 8 months ago
    Try and get the washington crowd to read this article so maybe they will learn something about what benefits come from capitalists. never happen.
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  • Posted by $ minniepuck 8 years, 8 months ago
    I can certainly appreciate AC. I didn't have any until we moved to the States. Now we're in the process of moving my dad from Canada to Texas and I KNOW Mr. Negative-30degreesC-isn't-that-cold will need and cherish it.
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  • Posted by $ allosaur 8 years, 8 months ago
    khaling, you just reminded me why I went to see The Texas Chainsaw Massacre all by myself on a hot Summer afternoon around year 1983.
    I was waiting for those who ran an apartment complex to fix my air conditioning.
    The movie opened up with heat waves and decomposing bodies while I was thinking "I can relate."
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  • Posted by $ Thoritsu 8 years, 8 months ago
    Getting cool is what the "It's a Small World" ride is all about. The ride sucks. There are no lines, but it is wonderfully cool inside!
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  • Posted by $ blarman 8 years, 8 months ago
    I'm sure the Continental Congress would have been willing to shell out big bucks to have A/C during their debates. Talk about cooler heads prevailing! ;)
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  • Posted by Lucky 8 years, 8 months ago
    Edward Hudgins article dates from year 2010 but is especially timely now after recent theological pronouncements.
    You have to be very religious not to see the strong correlation across human welfare, technological advancement and the free market, dbh's thesis.

    Carrier. Now my house has a Carrier system which is waiting for a service call. It is ~40 years old, probably not as efficient as the newer systems but quite reliable. It is winter here, and the aircon also does heating so I am hoping for a door knock today. I can now get my money's worth out of the service charge by giving the technician a lecture on Willis H Carrier!
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    • Posted by DrEdwardHudgins 8 years, 8 months ago
      The Pope in his pronouncements about global warming and air conditioning couldn't be more clueless. Conservative American Catholics are really struggling with this guy. I note that his world view was shaped in Argentina, where Juan Peron, who copies his policies and government philosophy from Mussolini, and Marxists of various shades, with too few true classical liberals in sight.
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      • Posted by DrZarkov99 8 years, 8 months ago
        The Pope is Jesuit, and the "Soldiers of God" have always been strong supporters of authoritarianism, since they were created during the militant period of the church. Blind obedience to the dictates of religious authority, even when problematic or contradictory are the MO of Jesuits. By adopting the trappings of religion, environmentalist fanatics have found an ally in this Pope.
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      • Posted by term2 8 years, 8 months ago
        The pope still believes in whatever is in his 2000 year old book that some people wrote. They didnt have A/C then, so maybe thats why A/C is not popular in Europe. Its ok with me if they roast in their own juices when they dont have to...
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  • Posted by $ jdg 8 years, 8 months ago
    I can really understand why the Mexicans have the siesta. US appliances carried a huge tax there until NAFTA.
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    • Posted by 8 years, 8 months ago
      the cost for appliances is significantly higher than in the States. For air conditioning, it is unusual to have a whole house system. They have something called a mini-split that they put into individual rooms. Much more efficient.
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  • Posted by johnpe1 8 years, 8 months ago
    our two units are both Carrier, and in tennessee their first job
    is stripping the water out of the air. . we have a small forest, here,
    living off the condensation which results!!! -- j
    .
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