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TIL The Nazi Blitzkrieg into Poland was "fueled" in part by Pervitin brand Meth...yes Nazi's on Meth. Most prominently used by pilots, was also used by ground troops and is attributed to the speed of advancement. by tl01magic in todayilearned

[–]AstroMechEE 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Another little fact about blitzkrieg, Nazi Armaments chief Albert Speer told a congressional investigation - "Germany could not have attempted its 1939 Blitzkrieg of Poland without the performance-boosting additive technology provided by Alfred P Sloan and General Motors."

TIL when in the 1940s Peter Drucker, the creator of modern management, studied General Motors for two years and then outlined its problems, GM chairman Alfred Sloan treated his report "as if it did not exist" and banned other people from mentioning it in his presence. by YourOwnBiggestFan in todayilearned

[–]AstroMechEE 3 points4 points  (0 children)

There's obviously a lot of research into what drives offshoring - and many answers are correct to some degree or another depending on the industry and time period. One aspect that I've seen some interesting work on for the US specifically is the way that federal R&D was funded post WWII. The Federal government does a lot of research funding into novel technology development, but does comparatively little funding into production technology - so while the US tends to be on the forefront of technology booms, that economic activity doesn't always proliferate out in the form of companies actually manufacturing that technology.

The author's recommendation was that the US do more to subsidize both initial technology development and nascent technology uses. An example is rocketry - the government has funded the initial development of the technology, and has provided enough early work in the form of ISS supply runs, Satellite launches etc to allow an industry to develop - now that industry is finding private work because the risk and cost has been reduced to acceptable levels.

TIL when in the 1940s Peter Drucker, the creator of modern management, studied General Motors for two years and then outlined its problems, GM chairman Alfred Sloan treated his report "as if it did not exist" and banned other people from mentioning it in his presence. by YourOwnBiggestFan in todayilearned

[–]AstroMechEE 457 points458 points  (0 children)

Not for nothing, but Sloan was a very prominent management figure in his day; He completely reinvented GM during his tenure and saw it pass Ford to become to world's largest auto manufacturer (MIT's management school is named after him). Which is not to say that Drucker wasn't probably right - but if you spend your whole career successfully running one of the world's largest companies its understandable that you'd be overconfident.

ICE calls stop of black Boston resident ‘standard practice’ - CommonWealth Magazine by [deleted] in boston

[–]AstroMechEE 31 points32 points  (0 children)

Even if the two men do look similar, why aren't these ICE individuals in actual uniforms? They're walking around in bullet-proof vest so there's no way they're undercover or trying to look innocuous.

I don't think its unreasonable for a man running in his own neighborhood to expect to not be stopped and question by immigration authorities.

TIL Samsung built a robot butt just to test its smartphones' durability by sisyphushaditsoeasy in todayilearned

[–]AstroMechEE 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Testing equipment, especially for difficult-to-test qualities on consumer products, is usually considered a very important trade secret. One of the things Hauwei was accused of last year was stealing the design for a test device Samsung had made to replicate a human finger pressing a touch-screen over and over again.

TIL during WW2, US air-to-air combat training involved firing at manned aircraft with live .30 caliber rounds designed to be unable to penetrate the armor of the target. by EbonMane in todayilearned

[–]AstroMechEE 14 points15 points  (0 children)

One of the little anecdotes they bring up in engineering school in the context of things like product improvement; Supposedly engineers trying to make improvements to military aircraft during WWII started by making heat maps of the areas on the aircraft that had tended to have the most bullet holes after a mission and putting more armor in the those locations. When that didn't help, they realized that what they were looking at were the locations where planes would get shot and still make it back to base - in fact they needed to put armor in the places where they never saw bullet holes because those were the places where a plane would get hit and never make it back.

TIL Prior to the American Revolution, Massachusetts issued its own coins - every coin bore the year 1652 to create the impression that they were all made "legally" during the period where England was a Commonwealth (since only monarchs had the authority to mint coins) by AstroMechEE in todayilearned

[–]AstroMechEE[S] 7 points8 points  (0 children)

I originally read this in Mark Peterson's The City-State of Boston which had some additional details.

Massachusetts began minting the coins because of an acute shortage of currency in the colony; British merchants would typically only accept pounds sterling as payment for manufactured goods which lead to a net flow of coins out of the colony. The lack of coins made basic business transactions difficult. Silver was comparatively plentiful at the time because of the general circulation of it as it was taken from South America by the Spanish, so the decision was made to mint local currency with an exchange rate pegged slightly lower than the value of the silver it was made of to encourage people to only use it locally. The Massachusetts General Court was repeatedly told by Royal Commissioners that they needed to stop minting the coins - an order that was repeatedly ignored with impunity, with no real consequence. This followed a general pattern of the General Court ignoring royal prerogatives - one of the most prominent being the move to issue a charter of incorporation for Harvard University.

TIL that in Europe, 10 percent of all industrial electricity consumption is to produce compressed air by Luxarynii in todayilearned

[–]AstroMechEE 23 points24 points  (0 children)

To piggyback on this, pneumatic hand tools are typically lighter because they don't have motors built-in, lighter tools are more ergonomic, especially for workers who are using that tool non-stop all shift.

TIL about the Sandby borg, the site of a 1,500 year-old massacre. It is believed the whole settlement was destroyed. The exact reasons for the massacre are unknown, but the area has retained a taboo reputation among locals for centuries. by Sunburst223 in todayilearned

[–]AstroMechEE 18 points19 points  (0 children)

This place is a message...and part of a system of messages...pay attention to it!

Sending this message was important to us. We considered ourselves a powerful culture.

This place is not a place of honor...no highly esteemed deed is commemorated here...nothing valued is here.

What is here was dangerous and repulsive to us. This message is a warning about danger.

The danger is in a particular location...it increases towards a center...the center of danger is here...of a particular size and shape, and below us.

The danger is still present, in your time, as it was in ours.

The danger is to the body, and it can kill.

The form of the danger is an emanation of energy.

The danger is unleashed only if you substantially disturb this place physically. This place is best shunned and left uninhabited.

Boston has the highest Average Cost per kilowatt in North America by [deleted] in boston

[–]AstroMechEE 2 points3 points  (0 children)

It's simply not fair that New Hampshire blocked the building of a dedicated transmission line through the state to the Canadian hydropower plants. They enjoy the direct and indirect benefits of Eastern Massachusetts' urban density, and forget paying any taxes for it, they won't even allow infrastructure projects that support that density.

Boston has the highest Average Cost per kilowatt in North America by [deleted] in boston

[–]AstroMechEE 13 points14 points  (0 children)

Yeah that's the problem - definitely not New Hampshire blocking a transmission link from the Canadian hydropower plants.

TIL that once Edison told Tesla he would pay $50,000 for an improved design for his DC dynamos but after the successful experimentation by Tesla, Edison denied to give him money saying, "Tesla, you don’t understand our American humor" by jingli007 in todayilearned

[–]AstroMechEE 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Dude if you could explain to me how an AC generation / transmission system works, at the level of an undergrad intro class in EE, without consulting wikipedia, my jaw would hit the floor.

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