OT Genesis: Spaceflightnow abuse of English

From Spaceflightnow:

"A small spacecraft carrying priceless samples of the sun crashed into
the Utah desert today [...], bringing an [end to an] innovative $264 million
mission [...].

It's not easy to contradict yourself in the first sentence alone, but they
managed. [Priceless, in english, means "impossible to put a price tag on".
However, this is exactly what they did in the second part of the sentence.]

Lou Scheffer

On 8 Sep 2004 15:54:25 -0700, Louis Scheffer wrote:

From Spaceflightnow:

"A small spacecraft carrying priceless samples of the sun crashed into
the Utah desert today [...], bringing an [end to an] innovative $264
million
mission [...].

It's not easy to contradict yourself in the first sentence alone, but
they
managed. [Priceless, in english, means "impossible to put a price tag
on".
However, this is exactly what they did in the second part of the
sentence.]

Lou Scheffer




Not really. The samples are priceless. The mission cost $264M.
Just like the cost of mining diamonds doesn't give you the price of the
diamond.
The demand for the diamonds determine what people are wiling to pay..

--
Using M2, Opera's revolutionary e-mail client: http://www.opera.com/m2/

On 9 Sep 2004 00:16:05 -0700, Louis Scheffer wrote:

New companies will enter the field, and the price will eventually settle
out
at the cost to mine them + some profit for the miners. And in fact
diamonds
are not priceless - you can go to any one of a thousand jewelers and they
will have them on display, with prices, and you can take one home today
if you so desire.

So in a capitalist society, the only things that are priceless are those
where you can't get another one no matter how much you are willing to
pay.
So a work by a dead artist, or a one of a kind fossil, might be
priceless.

So you think the price Microsofts software pays for what it costs to
produce it?
Wake up! There is a reason he is the worlds richest man..
No, price is regulated by what peaple are willing to pay.


--
Using M2, Opera's revolutionary e-mail client: http://www.opera.com/m2/

Althoughstad wrote:

On 9 Sep 2004 00:16:05 -0700, Louis Scheffer wrote:

New companies will enter the field, and the price will eventually settle
out
at the cost to mine them + some profit for the miners. And in fact
diamonds
are not priceless - you can go to any one of a thousand jewelers and they
will have them on display, with prices, and you can take one home today
if you so desire.

So in a capitalist society, the only things that are priceless are those
where you can't get another one no matter how much you are willing to
pay.
So a work by a dead artist, or a one of a kind fossil, might be
priceless.

So you think the price Microsofts software pays for what it costs to
produce it?
Wake up! There is a reason he is the worlds richest man..
No, price is regulated by what peaple are willing to pay.


In fact, you can push the economics even further. Microsoft is a
quasi-monopoly[1], so they can set the price to whatever they want. New
software is a highly needed commodity, demand being driven by bugs and lack
of features in previous versions...

People are willing to pay hundreds of $ for versions of Microsoft software
for economics principles too: The apparent time and other ressources
envisioned by them as needed for learning and adapt to other tools out
there, such as Linux, outweighs the immediate relief of paying the price
set by Microsoft to continue using their products instead.

This trend is eroding in Asia, where universal Microsoft software pirating
and spreading use of Linux and other technologies drive Microsoft to offer
real cheap versions of WinXP for as little as 30$...

[1] Whenever a competing product goes against Microsoft, either MS
"includes" the "features" in it's next product iteration, or offers the
same functions freely... Like Internet Explorer, Windows Media Player, and
soon enough some type of Googlish search engine embedded and integrated in
the OS... More open doors to vulnerabilities if you ask me...

Remy Villeneuve wrote:

In fact, you can push the economics even further. Microsoft is a
quasi-monopoly[1], so they can set the price to whatever they want.

No, they can't. Push the price too high and folks simply won't
upgrade. (Their recent increase in license prices have already caused
companies to not upgrade for example.)

D.
--
Touch-twice life. Eat. Drink. Laugh.

In article ,
Louis Scheffer wrote:
But in fact the cost of mining diamonds *does* determine their price,
assuming capitalism works.

Actually a bad example, because diamond prices are largely set by cartel
manipulations rather than by actual cost. (The geological conditions that
yield significant numbers of gem-quality diamonds are scarce, and a few
companies control all major sources.)

If there is a big demand for diamonds, willing
to pay more than it costs to mine them, then there is a potential for profit.
New companies will enter the field, and the price will eventually settle out
at the cost to mine them + some profit for the miners.

Only if you assume that the new companies can negotiate mineral rights at
suitable sites. That assumption falls down when suitable sites are rare
enough that it is possible to achieve monopoly/oligopoly control of them
and simply refuse to admit new companies.

So in a capitalist society, the only things that are priceless are those
where you can't get another one no matter how much you are willing to pay.

Bear in mind that while that was the *original* meaning of the word, for
many years now it has had a secondary meaning of "precious or unusually
valuable". Quibbling about this is silly.
--
"Think outside the box -- the box isn't our friend." | Henry Spencer
-- George Herbert |