One of the quickest ways to determine if someone is talking out of his ass is to look for new definitions of existing terms.

"The Golden Quarter?" Check.

It's also expedient to find contradictory, poorly-understood concepts paraded as fact.

Chernobyl killing "only dozens?" Check.

The Expert Group concluded that there may be up to 4 000 additional cancer deaths among the three highest exposed groups over their lifetime (240 000 liquidators; 116 000 evacuees and the 270 000 residents of the SCZs). Since more than 120 000 people in these three groups may eventually die of cancer, the additional cancer deaths from radiation exposure correspond to 3-4% above the normal incidence of cancers from all causes.

I'll be honest - lately I've become hypersensitive to "Rule Britannia bullshit" because all of my historical reading has led me to believe that the British deservedly assed themselves out of the 20th Century for perpetuating the same imperialist bullshit they've been guilty of since fuckin' Henry VIII. So when I see someone whinging about the Concord and Babbage's difference engine, I know I'm reading a stupid limey fuck trying to reconcile himself to the fact that his nation's greatest exports of his generation are Amy Winehouse and Gordon Ramsay. But hey. That's not their fault and I'd be bitter, too.

So rather than shit all over this in a truly annoying and unreadable fashion, allow me to simply point out that it's called the "Golden age of Capitalism" for a reason, that being that feeding the world's economy steroids is gonna be great until it develops acne, boobs and inappropriate facial hair then suddenly starts acting aggressive and beats up the 3rd world.

The "war on cancer" was a brand name created by the Laskerites in defiance of the majority of the scientific community. Yes, drugs take longer to come to market these days but that also helps prevent another thalidomide or Vioxx. My own aunt is alive now, where she wouldn't have been in 1971, because Hodgkin's Lymphoma was essentially untreatable until 1974.

"Golden rice?" Please. The fact of the matter is the world food system has been stretched to the breaking point ever since the green revolution. Hedgerow to Hedgerow wasn't about progress it was about economic warfare against the USSR. Which is gone, by the way. And the developing world is doing way the fuck better now than in 1971. Thailand is the hard drive capital of the world. Wanna see Kuala Lumpur in 1971?

And I love, by the way, that he brings up curing smallpox but not chicken pox, hepatitis or malaria.

I'm as cranky a futurist as anyone. Crankier than most, in fact. But whenever I see someone bitching about the Concorde no longer flying I know I'm listening to someone who has never internalized the fact that British Airways couldn't find enough people to pay $14k per seat to keep it in the air. And that most countries wouldn't allow overflights because they were noisy enough to break windows. I mean, I own this. and with it, the entire sales package Boeing was using to sell the 2707 to airliners. And I gotta say: from an engineering standpoint, supersonic transport makes a shit ton of sense when gas is damn near free and noise standards don't exist.

But we don't live in that world anymore. We never really did, once you get rid of the externalities and start accounting for true costs.

The British Empire was pretty shitty for most of the non-British world. And I understand that it sucks being British these days. I wouldn't live there.

But it's no reason to bitch about the kids on your lawn.

On a free, worldwide communication system that updates instantly and is searchable via plaintext from a computer small enough to fit in your pocket.

That you bought for less than the cost of a transatlantic flight.

Which has dropped in real cost by a factor of two since that magic era you're lamenting.