Short stories of human inventions
Economic
Economic Invention
The Evolution of Invention & Discovery Speaks Volumes of Modern Prosperity
Recently I was ambling around the internet, researching lecture and article topics. I stumbled onto a Wikipedia site that at first seemed quite banal: Timeline of Historic Inventions. This link offered a chronological listing of historic inventions from the Paleolithic period, through the time of Christ, the Dark Ages, Middle- Ages and on to modern times. Perusal of the listing of inventors and their inventions was interesting on several levels.First was the attribution that could be applied by geography for the specific inventions. Cement in Egypt, rice in India, the Trebuchet in China and hundreds more hugely important inventions could be assigned as having originated in specific ancient lands. Many of these geographic locales are recognizable today, while many others, though identified, have been lost with the passage time and the disappearance of their historical importance.Second, many of the inventors are identifiable by name, even many of the most ancient ones. Attribution for creation of the encyclopedia is given to Speusippus, the odometer to Archimedes, the kite to Lu Ban, linguistics to Panini, and plastic surgery to Shushruta.Third, and most interesting, is the sheer volume of inventions, most of great import
The History Of T-Shirts And Their Importance (Still) To The American Economy (And A Little Trivia)
And You Thought T-Shirts Were Not An Important Part Of American HistoryNine-one percent of Americans claim they own a “favorite T-Shirt”.That, of course is no big deal…I have a favorite pair of socks, shoes, even salad fork.But there’s more to the T-Shirt than meets the eye. There’s important history and economics.The first promotional tshirt for a movie was printed in 1939. That movie was “The Wizard Of Oz”. Like the movie, the tee did quite well. We make our own version of a Wizard Of Oz tee, I imagine a bit different than that first image, which shows a cartoon of the gang walking down the yellow brick road and Toto is lifting a hind leg. The caption reads, “How the yellow brick road got it’s name.” But I digress.T-Shirts account for important American economics. Cotton is still a huge industry in this country, particularly in the southern states. It takes six miles of yarn to make one T-shirt. An acre of cotton is enough to produce 1200 tees.Ever wonder if the T-Shirt business is a viable one? How about this for a statistic? About two billion tees are sold annually
The Effects of Silk on the World’s Economy
Silk has been known for years to be an overwhelming economic impact on the world of finance in many ways, beginning with the China connection back one thousand years.We know of many facets of financial woes because of this fine fabric. It may be because of the dynasty’s that have come to have a real say in the monetary value of silk, but we all know that many countries have had their hand in manufacturing this fabric. The economy of China has benefited largely from the sheer numbers of factories in the provinces of this Asian nation. At one time 28% of its gross domestic product was silk export. Up to half of Japans export was Silk at one time as well. Of course with many nations getting into the act of manufacturing this fine material, times have changed.Widely known for its upper echelon clientele, silk, currently, has more average folks, purchasing clothes, made of silk now than ever before. In the United States, silk apparel poses a true threat to cotton, which for many years had a wide spread in the purchase of clothes. Silk exporters have many opportunities to
The Greatest Economic Legislation of the Last Century
As nations try to emerge from the most devastating global recession since the Second World War, policymakers, business communities, academia, and governments will be looking at ways to accelerate growth and competitiveness. Many at the right will continue their propositions that governments should be left out of business, while those at the left will emphasize that governments must play central roles in shaping commerce and industry.The reality is that governments do matter and a single legislation could have impacts that can redesign a nation’s economic destiny. Globalization makes it so important that nations must compete not just on technologies, but on policies upon which those technologies are developed and commercialized.This makes it possible that two universities in two separate nations can develop similar technologies with one creating Fortune 500 companies within a decade and another having the idea locked up in a cabinet. In other words, the policies or legislations made by congress or parliament on what happens to inventions supported by government funds matter.In 1980, a United States legislation dealing with intellectual property emanating from federal government-funded research was implemented. The legislature called Bayh-Dole Act (after two Senators Birch Bayh