XPost: sci.space.policy, sci.physics, sci.electronics.design   
   From: gossg@gossg.org   
      
   jimp@specsol.spam.sux.com wrote:   
      
   >How much better, faster, and cheaper has the pencil become since it's   
   >invention in the 16th century?   
      
   Pencils that don't need to be sharpened are only about a century old.   
   (Electronics company Sharp started that way.)   
      
   When I was a kid, my mother had one that cost $18 and took a minute or   
   so to withdraw a new lead into its body.  Other than lacking the   
   magnet (hers could be stuck onto stuff for convenient access), better   
   pencils are now about the price of six wooden pencils.  I haven't   
   sharpened a pencil other than on an "emergency" basis for 45 years.   
      
   Pencils were a nickel when I was a kid and a dime now.  Since I was a   
   kid, the value of that dime has decreased tenfold.  So pencils are now   
   five times cheaper than in the sixties.  I assume technology did it.   
   (Perhaps containerized TRANSPORT technology to bring us the product of   
   chinese semi-slaves.)   
   --   
   We are geeks.  Resistance is voltage over current.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)