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The March Of Technology

China debuts ‘floating’ magnetic train which could travel faster than speed of sound​

Chinese engineers have reported that their engineering marvel recently reached a record speed of 387mph on a test track- which would have broken the world speed record.
For context, Japan’s MLX01 Maglev, currently the world’s fastest train, reaches a top speed of 361mph.

But, once commercialised, engineers hope the T-flight train will reach speeds of 1,243mph, which is faster than the speed of sound and more than twice the speed of a Boeing 737 plane.

Testing took place on track roughly 1.2 miles (2 kilometres) long in a low-pressure vacuum tube, which was flattered within a 0.01-inch (0.3 millimetres) tolerance to ensure no friction could affect the train so it could reach its full potential.

In its second phase of testing, the agency aims to extend the track 60 km to allow the train to hopefully reach 621 mph.
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I’m dubious about it reaching 387mph on a track 2 kilometres long - what about distance required to come to a halt? I’m thinking it was a scaled-down model..
 
Massachusetts General Hospital for the first time transplanted a pig’s kidney into man near death from kidney failure.

Supposedly this man is doing great now.
 
Are smartphones to blame for an unhappy youth generation?

Listening now to a piece on Radio 4 talking of a 'report' investigating the causes of unhappiness and stress on the younger generation. Didn't catch the title.
It's asserting that smartphones are to blame.
Not social conditions, childhood, schools etc. etc. It's smartphones! They've got parents on campaigning to force governments to make smartphones 'safer' for kids, age restrictions etc. All well-meaning but misdirected?
I am cynical enough to think there's a huge blame transference going on here. Parenting methods, consumerism, school pressures, peer pressure, bullying ... there are so many factors that can create negative feelings in a child. But "NO - It's smartphones!"

My take is that smartphones aren't a cause. They're an access to those causes. Take smartphones away (somehow) but those pressures, those causes remain. If you feel Facebook is showing you depressing posts ... don't go on Facebook. It doesn't however take away the depressing stuff. Blaming social media, smartphones etc. for showing bad news doesn't stop the bad news.

The only news link I can find to this issue is linked here: https://www.economist.com/graphic-d...for-girls-are-rising-are-smartphones-to-blame
 
Stormkhan said:
Are smartphones to blame for an unhappy youth generation?

Listening now to a piece on Radio 4 talking of a 'report' investigating the causes of unhappiness and stress on the younger generation. Didn't catch the title.
It's asserting that smartphones are to blame.
Not social conditions, childhood, schools etc. etc. It's smartphones! They've got parents on campaigning to force governments to make smartphones 'safer' for kids, age restrictions etc. All well-meaning but misdirected?
I am cynical enough to think there's a huge blame transference going on here. Parenting methods, consumerism, school pressures, peer pressure, bullying ... there are so many factors that can create negative feelings in a child. But "NO - It's smartphones!"

My take is that smartphones aren't a cause. They're an access to those causes. Take smartphones away (somehow) but those pressures, those causes remain. If you feel Facebook is showing you depressing posts ... don't go on Facebook. It doesn't however take away the depressing stuff. Blaming social media, smartphones etc. for showing bad news doesn't stop the bad news.

The only news link I can find to this issue is linked here: https://www.economist.com/graphic-d...for-girls-are-rising-are-smartphones-to-blame
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I caught a bit of that programme. I think you [and I] have no idea what social media is like for young people of school age - It wasn’t around when we were at school. The need to fit in, peer pressure, dick pics, naked photos then sent round on TikTok or suchlike. There have been suicides as a result of these things if you’ve noticed.

Then there’s the sheer amount of time many children spend on social media & the addictive nature of it. It’s all very well saying don’t look at it but that’s not going to happen.

To dismiss it as a non-issue I’d say is wishful thinking.
 
hunck said:
I caught a bit of that programme. I think you [and I] have no idea what social media is like for young people of school age - It wasn’t around when we were at school. The need to fit in, peer pressure, dick pics, naked photos then sent round on TikTok or suchlike. There have been suicides as a result of these things if you’ve noticed.

Then there’s the sheer amount of time many children spend on social media & the addictive nature of it. It’s all very well saying don’t look at it but that’s not going to happen.

To dismiss it as a non-issue I’d say is wishful thinking.
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Kids in the 50's were being poisoned by horror comics and rock n' roll .. Kids in the 60's because of the counter culture .. some kid in America in the 70's killed himself while listening to the song 'Don't Fear The Reaper' plus they were listening to records backwards involving masking and backward phonetics .. Kids in the 80's were killing themselves because of school exam pressure, that's when they weren't sitting too close to the TV or they'd get 'square eyes' or computer games were dumbing down their brains or gory horror films were warping them .. Kids in the 90's because of the counter culture again .. I stopped paying attention and taking this stuff seriously after that.

This has been going on a long time before smart phones were invented and peer pressure has always been a thing with kids.
 
Swifty said:
Kids in the 50's were being poisoned by horror comics and rock n' roll .. Kids in the 60's because of the counter culture .. some kid in America in the 70's killed himself while listening to the song 'Don't Fear The Reaper' plus they were listening to records backwards involving masking and backward phonetics .. Kids in the 80's were killing themselves because of school exam pressure, that's when they weren't sitting too close to the TV or they'd get 'square eyes' or computer games were dumbing down their brains or gory horror films were warping them .. Kids in the 90's because of the counter culture again .. I stopped paying attention and taking this stuff seriously after that.

This has been going on a long time before smart phones were invented and peer pressure has always been a thing with kids.
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Yeah, you invent a really useful fire for cooking your mammoth and the little buggers start playing with it.
 
Mythopoeika said:
Yes, but I do think the phones and Internet amplify things somewhat.
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I think it's the same thing happening again but just through a different medium this time in this era. In another 30 years time, they'll still be screwing up but with new technology again being blamed. It's just part of kids growing up and going through the same time old difficulties doing that.
 
Swifty said:
I think it's the same thing happening again but just through a different medium this time in this era. In another 30 years time, they'll still be screwing up but with new technology again being blamed. It's just part of kids growing up and going through the same time old difficulties doing that.
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During my school days (late 50's & 60's) we had a bit of a wow factor of having a metal-machining class. One of my school mates at that time managed to design and make a tiny hand pistol, then he got hold of a couple of point 22 bullets and shot himself in the head and died! That was mostly down to living in an unloved unwanted home.
Talk about today's kids being zombied with affixed eyes forever locked into social media - I've seen more evidence of adults today totally unaware of their surroundings, that can't be good for anyone either!
 
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Swifty said:
Kids in the 50's were being poisoned by horror comics and rock n' roll .. Kids in the 60's because of the counter culture .. some kid in America in the 70's killed himself while listening to the song 'Don't Fear The Reaper' plus they were listening to records backwards involving masking and backward phonetics .. Kids in the 80's were killing themselves because of school exam pressure, that's when they weren't sitting too close to the TV or they'd get 'square eyes' or computer games were dumbing down their brains or gory horror films were warping them .. Kids in the 90's because of the counter culture again .. I stopped paying attention and taking this stuff seriously after that.

This has been going on a long time before smart phones were invented and peer pressure has always been a thing with kids.
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Certainly peer pressure etc has always gone on but I don’t think you can really compare comics, tv, music, horror films etc from the past to the range of stuff available now to anyone with a smartphone. Porn for just one thing - from what I’ve heard that has had repercussions on how boys treat girls & what becomes accepted as a ’norm’.

Children have died, lured into doing ridiculous TikTok viral challenges.

Let’s face it - everyone here is too old to have a handle on the reality of social media for school kids or what effect it’s having on some at a vulnerable/formative age.
 
hunck said:
To dismiss it as a non-issue I’d say is wishful thinking.
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I agree.
I don't dismiss the pressure, but I question the cause of the pressure, the pressure isn't being created by smartphones or social media - they give access to that pressure. Perhaps people should question how and why children have developed such anxiety. Who told them that they should look or behave in a certain way? Why should people who don't have XYZ are somehow inferior and therefore right to bully?
I 'took away' from the radio piece that it was a blame game.
Where did the 'horror' or stress come from? Social media might be a contributing factor ... but banning some media doesn't make it go away.
 
Stormkhan said:
Are smartphones to blame for an unhappy youth generation?

Listening now to a piece on Radio 4 talking of a 'report' investigating the causes of unhappiness and stress on the younger generation. Didn't catch the title.
It's asserting that smartphones are to blame.
Not social conditions, childhood, schools etc. etc. It's smartphones! They've got parents on campaigning to force governments to make smartphones 'safer' for kids, age restrictions etc. All well-meaning but misdirected?
I am cynical enough to think there's a huge blame transference going on here. Parenting methods, consumerism, school pressures, peer pressure, bullying ... there are so many factors that can create negative feelings in a child. But "NO - It's smartphones!"

My take is that smartphones aren't a cause. They're an access to those causes. Take smartphones away (somehow) but those pressures, those causes remain. If you feel Facebook is showing you depressing posts ... don't go on Facebook. It doesn't however take away the depressing stuff. Blaming social media, smartphones etc. for showing bad news doesn't stop the bad news.

The only news link I can find to this issue is linked here: https://www.economist.com/graphic-d...for-girls-are-rising-are-smartphones-to-blame
Click to expand...
I don't want to sound like an old fart going on about 'kids today', but phone use is perhaps getting a bit excessive.

In fact I came a cross an interesting article very recently. Apparently young people are developing bone spurs on the back of their skulls. This is being put down to the habit of holding the head forward and looking down while perusing the phone. Spend enough hours doing this and it puts tension on the tendons at the back of the neck. The skull responds to this long term tension by developing a spur.

This reminds me of archaeologists looking at skeletons and being able to identify archers by looking at the muscle attachment sites on the bones of the right arm, or studies of tooth wear in women suggesting that Stone Age women were in the habit of chewing leather to soften it. What you spend your days doing ends up reflected in your bones.

So future archaeologists will be able to glance at the back of a skull and say "Ah yes, early twenty first century phone user..."

Pretty amazing, really.

https://www.news.com.au/technology/...d/news-story/246c5dfb45d39c8200c9052b4a841c6e

spur.jpg
 
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