Interesting Links for 01-10-2024

[andrewducker]

1. Why Hezbollah is not hitting back harder as Israel prepares for war

(tags:Lebanon Israel war )

2. Larger and more instructable language models become less reliable

(tags:ai fail )

3. How much of Britain have we burned?

(tags:uk coal history comic )

4. Live in Edinburgh? Like cheap stuff? These local businesses are offering discounts to locals

(tags:edinburgh business money )

5. Washing machines and the debate over degrowth

(tags:washing automation poverty electricity women )

Comments

5

[danieldwilliam]

I would be willing to bet a modest sum of money that the washing machine is the single biggest driver of prosperity delivered post-world war 2.

Re: 5

[andrewducker]

Wouldn't surprise me. Probably added 30% to the workforce.

Re: 5

[nancylebov]

I've seen an argument that antibiotics were a big deal-- it meant women (mostly) no longer had as many chronically ill people to care for.

I also don't know how washing machines compare to indoor plumbing for labor reduction.

Re: 5

[danieldwilliam]

My mum was always a big fan of the economic impact of aspirin. The fever reduction more so than the pain relief.

Indoor plumbing I think is mostly pre War in most of the West - not necessarily installed in all homes but the norm in any new build.

And the spinning wheel going further back - probably worth about 4% of the available workforce just on it's own.

Re: 5

[andrewducker]

Oh goodness yes. I've worked at least 10 days in the last 18 months where without something to keep my temperature under control I'd have been lying in bed feeling awful, and instead I felt pretty competent.

Re: 5

[channelpenguin]

The aspirin thing seems utterly weird to me. I don't think we ever got any with any regularity as kids, and as an adult I think I have had 3 fevers ever (one flu in 1993, one in 2013, covid in 2023). But of course, that is utterly different if it is a dangerously high one in a small child. And my memory could be faulty about my childhood, of course.

Drinking/washing water that you don't have to fetch from a distant well is a gamechanger. Indoor toilets (which is what I think of when people say "indoor plumbing"), not a big time gain. Maybe a loss, as they take more cleaning? There was a whole indistry for removal and of course urine was a valuable resource (fertiliser, bleach etc etc).

Any form of heating that doesnt mean you have to gather, store and chop wood is a huge labour saver too! Oil fired, gas or electric are pretty much labour-free.

Re: 5

[danieldwilliam]

I think the impact of fever causing diseases was different in the late 19th and early 20th century when aspirin first appeared. I think it's the first effective anti-fever drug.

Re: 5

[rmc28]

My mother remembered her mother having to do the laundry by hand when she was a child, and was always very fierce about the importance of washing machines.

Re: 5

[nineveh_uk]

+1 My father didn't have an indoor toilet/bathroom until he was about 6, but it's the washing machine that he goes on about as hugely important, because of the sheer amount of heavy labour involved even when you've got your kitchen sink, water heater, wash tub and board, mangle etc, and can send sheets to the laundry.

Re: 5

[andrewducker]

Jane suggests that non-iron fabrics were also a major change. Men were going through multiple shirts in a day, each of which required signifcant effort to get into a business-like state.

[movingfinger]

I hope the Dutch Ph.D. candidate failed his degree on the spot, changed his name, and moved to lead a pure life of hand labor in a remote unpopulated village whose occupants have all left to live in places with electricity and washing machines.

[andrewducker]

Seems like a fair punishment.