So non-flat-earthers - what do you think of those who accept a flat earth? (page 5)

stillajwexelder

The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century is a best-selling book by Thomas L. Friedman analyzing the progress of globalization with an emphasis on the early 21st century. It was first released in 2005 and was later released as an "updated and expanded" edition in 2006.

stillajwexelder

Overview

Friedman suggests that the world is "flat" in the sense that the competitive playing fields between industrial and emerging market countries are leveling. Friedman recounts many examples in which companies in India and China are becoming part of large global complex supply chains that extend across oceans through a process called outsourcing, providing everything from service representatives and X-ray interpretation to component manufacturing. He recalls seeing such major American companies as Dell, AOL, and Microsoft using Eastern teleoperators who are paid much less than their counterparts in the West. He describes how these changes were made possible through intersecting technologies, particularly the Internet, fiber-optics, and the PC.

Friedman lists ten "flatteners" that have leveled the global playing field:

#1: Collapse of Berlin Wall-11/9: Friedman attributes the collapse of the Berlin Wall as the starting point for leveling the global playing field. The event not only symbolized the end of the Cold war, it allowed people from other side of the wall to join the economic mainstream. (11/09/1989)

#2: Netscape: Netscape and the Web broadened the audience for the Internet from its roots as a communications medium used primarily by scientists (8/9/1995)

#3: Workflow software: The ability of machines to talk to other machines with no humans involved. Friedman believes these first three forces have become a “crude foundation of a whole new global platform for collaboration.”

#4: Open sourcing: Communities uploading and collaborating on online projects. Examples include open source software, blogs, and Wikipedia. Friedman considers the phenomenon "the most disruptive force of all".

#5: Outsourcing: Friedman argues that outsourcing has allowed companies to split service and manufacturing activities into components, with each component performed in most efficient, cost-effective way.

#6: Offshoring: Offshoring, the manufacturing equivalent of outsourcing.

#7: Supply chaining: Friedman compares the modern retail supply chain to a river, and points to Wal-Mart as the best example of a company using technology to streamline item sales, distribution, and shipping.

#8: Insourcing: Friedman uses UPS as a prime example for insourcing, in which the company's employees perform services--beyond shipping--on behalf of another company. For example, UPS itself repairs Toshiba computers on behalf of Toshiba. The work is done at the UPS hub, by UPS employees.

#9: In-forming: Google and other search engines are the prime example. "Never before in the history of the planet have so many people-on their own-had the ability to find so much information about so many things and about so many other people", writes Friedman.

#10: "The Steroids": Personal digital equipment like mobile phones, iPods, personal digital assistants, instant messaging, and voice over IP or VOIP

wednesday

Alan

Discussion is good. That is one of the reasons I left the org. b/c no discussion was allowed. Some of the new posters , just leaving the org. can be a little touchy. They are not used to discussion, as the org. does not allow it. I do take offense at name calling and other childish things. As you know, if you don't agree with something, don't attack the person, attack the reasoning.

Some subjects are difficult however. UFO's, or those who believe and practice new age spirituality, ghosts, demons. all those things. It is very hard to attack the argument without reverting to name calling, questioning their mental health, or IQ,, educational status, etc. That seems like an assault to me.

Some things are hard to prove, and just b/c you can't see it does not mean it does not exist.

Sad emo

Ok a serious question here, I tried Googling etc but can't find it and I've always wondered:

Why isn't Australia upside down? (or anywhere else I suppose, depending on the time of year and day)

Please can someone put me out of my misery and give me the answer or point me to a website.

stillajwexelder

Why is 0 longtitude go through Greenwich CONVENTION

Why is the International Date Line where it is? CONVENTION

Answer by convention -so your question Why isn't Australia upside down? (or anywhere else I suppose, depending on the time of year and day)

Historical from our Northern Hemisphere Bias - why is our hemisphere even called North -who decided? CONVENTION

stillajwexelder

Why are there 60 minutes in an hour and not a hundred? CONVENTION

Sad emo

I was asking a serious question...

leave Australia out of the equation then. Why don't any inhabitants of a spherical planet ever experience/have the sensation of being upside down?

Warlock

Why are there 60 minutes in an hour and not a hundred? CONVENTION

In order to keep a clock or watch round, you must have 60 minutes in an hour. If you put 100 minutes in an hour, all clocks would have to be flat. Warlock

John Doe

sad emo, what constitutes up and what constitutes down? When you are in a plane doing a tight loop de loop, why do you never feel upside down?

Twitch

Why don't any inhabitants of a spherical planet ever experience/have the sensation of being upside down?

Gravity of a sphere attracts objects toward it from all directions and assuming equal density and mass distributed within the sphere, it will attract equally in all directions

And up is always up, no matter where you are on the surface, coz it's just so damn big,...

So non-flat-earthers - what do you think of those who accept a flat earth?

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