"The tests not taken" & "Innovative uses for paper and paperboard"





We were still getting letters from the previous week's article, "The test not taken." They are first.

Jim

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The premise was lawyers in Congress don't have sufficient techy understanding. Neither do a lot of techies. They are often in a very narrow part of technology. Current understanding can be found on the Internet. Its consequential effects that are difficult to predict by anyone. A good example is xerographic printing. Not one large company's leaders (?) could envision the implications, even AFTER Battelle Memorial Institute had shown its feasibility. So can we really expect Congressmen who are lawyers to be any better or any worse than the rest of us? And laws apparently need to be written in legalese to cover the bases, so to speak. The result of these laws can be as unpredictable as implementing research findings. So we (all) have met the enemy and they is us (Pogo).

Here is something more specific. Dry forming paper was a hot subject not too many years ago. It was envisioned as a way to make paper to reduce the need for all that wet pressing and drying a normal paper machine does. It never seemed to get developed. Perhaps because hammermills were being used to defiber the raw materials (other reasons?). So a breakthrough method is needed to defiber or fluff pulp and waste paper to make it work. Could that breakthrough be what is described in "Fluffing Pulp (a possible new way)", a forum article posted May 2008 on the Cellulose Community, Pulp & Paper Industry website? Who will be the next Joe Wilson (the small company guy who started Xerox)?

Chuck Green
Webster, New York
USA

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Chuck

Your comments about disbelief reminds me of the Light Green Machine project (which, admittedly, is top of mind for me right now). I would bet "dollars to donuts" the concepts we will discuss at our conference on May 1st will be in place within two to five years maximum. Yet, many, many will be surprised when they appear and knock them out of business.

Jim

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Lawyers should not make laws - it is a conflict of interest. Better yet - the original Tea Party was a protest over "taxation without representation". Today, we have the opposite in "representation without taxation". Yes, I know we all pay taxes, if nothing else sales tax, alcohol tax, tobacco tax, and some poor people are going to pay tanning tax, however anyone on the government dole (and I don't mean social security since you paid into that), anyone taking government money should not be allowed to vote for the very individuals who sends you that money. As Margaret Thatcher said "socialism if fine until you run out of other people's money". The government should require taxes on handouts and require a W2. Then rather than voter registration, one should show the W2 at the polling place, if the source of money was Big Brother, then you could not vote - or vote, and it not count - or maybe weigh it in proportion to how much you contributed to society...

Larry Wells
Atlanta, Georgia
USA

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As always, Jim, thanks for your thought-provoking words. Regarding the Star Wars empty toy boxes, I have to wonder about the disappointment all those little boys (mostly) would have felt upon receiving them. Most children (and too many adults) can be assumed to crave instant gratification, so the 5% redemption rate is not too surprising. Those gifts were more like cruel jokes. Maybe it was worth it, if it helped some of those kids avoid future unpleasantness from ‘untruth in advertising’.

My second observation was inspired by the Wall Street Journal this week. I looked at a full-page Apple ad for the iPad and nearly missed the stunning irony: it was a simulated screen, rendered in ink on newsprint, attempting to convince the reader of how pleasant a reading experience would be delivered by the iPad. I’m sure the intent was to gain sales from the Kindles et al., but the fact that Apple regards a newspaper as a good way to do it is pretty funny. Funny until we start crying, that is!

Regards,

Bob Erchinger
Franklin, Massachusetts
USA

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Thanks, Bob. Yes, it was kind of like getting coal in your stocking! (The purchaser knew what they were buying). They set the coupons up so they were redeemable at the very same time a toy appeared in the store. Naturally, the kids wanted one from the store, not wanting to wait for the coupon to be mailed in and the toy to come in the mail.

Jim

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