Bonds are considered safer because short of the US losing WWIII there is practically no way the US bonds would not pay out or lose value. US Bonds are safe and predictable, backed up by the immense military and resources of the nation.
Investing in Apple 30 years ago would net a much higher return on $5k but even Apple was considered a unsafe investment in the 90s. On the other hand, Enron was considered a safe investment by many but went bankrupt almost overnight and shares became practically worthless.
> there is practically no way the US bonds would not pay out or lose value.
Bonds can "lose value" and they did so quite strongly in 2022/23.
If you bought 20-year bonds in 2020 for $100 they are worth $60 now (and were as low as $55 in 2023). Getting $1 per year is far from compensating the loss.
They will recover gradually until they "pay out" $100 but right now they're underwater.
Today this would most likely have the same drawbacks as the inflatable kayaks we see for sale. Saves on space (and money?) and could be good as an entry into a hobby but at any intermediate to advanced level there are better options to choose from. With the high barrier to entry to flying I think most pilots would opt for the most reliable option from the start.
I would not want to be caught in inclement weather in an inflatable anything.
It would be cool, especially with advances in plastics you could layer over the steel to protect it from corrosion like what they do with soda cans.
For reference, a steel or aluminum SCUBA tank is usually filled to 3000psi and when I fill steel tanks I can hear and sometimes see the metal start to slightly balloon. This is normal because steel is not brittle but it is very strong.
There is a lot of rules put in place for safety though. A tank has to be visually checked by a professional every year and hydro statically tested every 5. The danger is any rust/corrosion weakening the metal and causing it to rupture. More often seen in aluminum tanks, which is one reason I prefer steel.
Yes, in theory steel is not the best material for a high-pressure tank.
We use it because it's cheap and well tested. But we are probably better of with a layered combination of a few different materials. Steel may not even enter it.
Steel is the best material for certain scuba applications due more to buoyancy characteristics than strength. Firefighters typically use composite tanks for SCBA now, which are stronger but too buoyant for diving.
Layers of dissimilar materials are often problematic due to galvanic corrosion, different rates of heat expansion, and water intrusion between layers.
A member of my family was applying for jobs about 9 years ago and they had very little adult work experience but needed the income and health insurance.
One of the first "employers" who gave them an interview was extremely kind and willing to pay a decent salary for her to work as a secretary, said she got the job and had her file paperwork including her SSN, full name, current and past addresses, bank information, etc.
Later she had a call from the bank about some suspicious activity, cards were activated, and a pair of expensive shoes was bought under her name. She was not the only one in the waiting room for "interviews" that day and I am sure they stole the identity of plenty of them who were just down on their luck looking for work.
The identity information is still out there in the hands of these crooks. Always vet potential employers.
Entirely possible the interviewer was hired by the bad actor to do the interviews and gather the info. Find someone with HR experience, tell them you're setting up a new office, blah blah, then they won't even feel like they're lying because they really don't even realize they are.
>Yet across America, millions of dining rooms sit empty for months at a spread, screaming to be made into something that more accurately reflects the lifestyles of their owners.
Every day, my money sits in my bank account screaming to be spent on something intangible...
Different people have different incentive structures. Owning or having access to private property is highly appealing. Its more economical and convenient to buy than rent for some things, and until prices and transactional friction decrease this will not change.
I am curious what your background or specialization is, but I can confirm the skills you learn from Linux, backups, and networking will be applicable now and in the future. The only thing they can do is help make you a better engineer.
I'm an outsider. But sometimes they see things insiders don't, or don't want to. I'm an economist, and in my reading of economic history, I have yet to hear of a skill that always stayed applicable.
Being able to do various forms of maths (e.g. geometry) has been a useful skill for literally millennia.
Being able to drive has been a useful skill for about a century. The number of people who need this skill has probably peaked in developed countries, but is rising globally.
A lot of basic computer and networking technologies have been around since the 70s or even earlier and the pace of change has slowed a lot since then.
I liked the new add to playlist feature, at least on my iphone. I press it once to like the song and double press it to add to a playlist using a checkbox on a menu, and I can choose to take the song out of my liked playlist on that menu. This eliminated a few clicks and is easier while driving. Intuitive and easy to use once I recognized what they did.
This is interesting, does anyone know why eels were chosen as a form of currency for paying rent? It would be easier to sell at the market and use the money to pay any rent/debts owed.
Eels appeared to be an alternative currency, the kind that can be "minted" by a lot more individuals compared to precious metal coins or bank notes, and can circulate in excess of legal tender authorized or issued.
Most of the rents call for even numbers of eels, but the mentioned levy of "1/2 of all the fish and eels caught there" is more like a percentage tax. It does bring to mind the possibility that fully grown eels were probably all supposed to be about the same size so they were the standard of exchange, with the remaining catch being converted locally at a variable fish-per-eel rate depending on what those other fish were like.
The data's so sketchy it could have been anything, but something looks fishy about the 13th century. How did the number of eels due skyrocket so dramatically and then pipe down to a more representative trend the very next century? Especially considering that eel-based rents were a directly declining arrangement over the centuries.
Somebody needs to audit this, there might be some kind of currency exchange manipulation or insidious devaluation responsible.
Historically eels were ubiquitous in the British isles, but not totally trivial to procure. Showing up with a stick of eels to your local market was basically proof-of-work. Since everyone else was also catching eels in similar conditions, there was immediate shared understanding of their value without having to trust any outside authority.
Not any more. They are a critically endangered species.
I grew up in the 80s, mid-way along the length of the Severn, and have very strong memories of night "fishing" for eels with my father. IIRC, the preferred method was a tangled mass of wire and standard fishing line and as many worms as we could dig up, placed in a weighted hessian sack, with holes therein. Then it was just a question of waiting. Eels went in; they could not come out.
I suppose in some small way I've contributed to their catastrophic decline. I honestly feel some guilt for that.
I wonder if any part of that was related to the fact that nobody knows how to raise eels. Or even at that time they might not have known where baby eels came from.
Not every community has easy access to money, and not everybody has time to sell stuff at the market. Why eels? My guess is they're common enough and easy to store.
