Do we know what we "need" anymore?

Lakeland catalogue goes straight in the bin. Don't even open it anymore. Mops in broom cupboard definitely planning their escape route.

Sorry for the jerky thinking Bags.

Anyone else worried about mobile phones and conflict mining?
People in Indonesia are dying from mining tin, and the four minerals mined in the Congo have armed forces battling over them, again people dying so there can be more mobile phones in Britain than there are people.

Diamonds – little ones have industrial purposes, but the bigger ones ones that are cut and faceted are certainly not necessary. Their price is maintained at an artificially high level by cartels and like the minerals that durhamjen mentioned, mining them has made many people's lives a misery and caused endless conflicts.

Re cars going faster (i.e. better engines), isn't it (or wasn't it) Rolls Royce engines that fly aeroplanes?

People invent stuff because that's what people do. They use their imaginations. Out of that comes inventions. Some of it is good and immediately, obviously useful. Some of it doesn't appear useful. Out of imaginations comes art too and we all have personal interpretations of what is good art so variety is great.

jings, never apologise for being a jerky thinker! Jerky thinkers unite, I say.
I'm one too. I thought it was me who was being told off on that other thread. You thought it was you. I expect it was both of us. Fortunately we stood up for ourselves and our thought processes.

I've been told off for it on GN before, you see, by name even.

Never been told off for it anywhere else. Funny that. Maybe it's something chat forums encourage.

I find the obsession of MiL and Mother with all things gadgety positively scary, and less prevalent among those of my own generation. I wonder if it was because they were so deprived of them as young housewives - my mother says that potato mashers didn't exist when she first married. I just think of them all as clutter.

Anyway, to get back to RR car engines. Case in point. I don't suppose they were thinking of powering aeroplanes when they made the car engines more powerful.

A potato masher (a hand one presumably) is a tool that makes a certain kind of job easier. What's wrong with that? and if you have lost strength in your hands or shoulders, an electric one is a good idea. What's wrong with that? It's only clutter if you don't use it.

But that was a long, long, long time ago, before Jeremy Clarkson was born.

I don't think modern technology has contributed to war. People were fighting wars before weapons got better.

Yes, Absent, you never really hear much about conflict diamonds any more, not since that film with Leonardo di Caprio, I think it was, Blood Diamonds(?).
A film called Black Gold made Starbucks think about their coffee, but not about the fact that they should pay their taxes properly.

So what, absent? The principle hasn't changed. And it won't change when JC is dead either.

Greggs coffee is all fairtrade. Just sayin'.

Tastes nicer than Starbucks too

Stirrups – new technology at the time – was what gave the Normans the edge at the Battle of Hastings.

But were they invented for war use or for more efficient riding generally?

Actually, that has made me think, isn't it more probable, likely even, that war has contributed to inventiveness, rather than the other way round?

We are a warlike species. Getting less so though, some argue.

Do I want it, do I love it, do I need it? it was my friend's question when she was downsizing from a house to a flat. I should do the same around this house. However, not buying anything I don't need any more just because I like it.
There are many people who cannot get what they need, whereas others have so much.
Has always been thus, things don't seem to get better.

I was having a violent agreement with you bags.

Just making it clear to others

I'm with King Lear.

Amazing to think that King Arthur and his knights didn't have stirrups! How did they stay on?

Worrying about the mining and mobile phones. Son smashed his screen last week. Glad he got a repair only.

On the other hand things get invented quicker during wartime, necessity being the mother of invention and all that. I bet more things were invented round about the two world wars than at any other time in history. Problem with inventing things is that they're invented most of the time to make money. If only mankind would put it's intelligence into just making the world a better place instead of finding ways to repair the damage being caused .

Nuclear power and nuclear warfare go hand in hand. Wish they didn't.
Wouldn't have Teflon if it wasn't for space exploration. Is that a good thing or a bad thing?