No intelligent person would accept that statement. They make very good optics (once upon a time not so but now very good) - go buy a good telescope in the USA - it is most likely made in Mainland China or Taiwan.
They make all sorts of good electronics, do circuit fab etc at very low prices.
Over the last month I ordered more than 100 different component assemblies from 100+ different suppliers for a little project of mine - so far it all works, seems well designed etc.
Bury your head in the sand if you want but if you do then hold on tight to your butt because it is going to get steamrollered.
As an undergraduate I too would frequently find that if, as I went to sleep, I concentrated on a problem I was having trouble solving that I would wake with the answer. This happened often enough that I began to rely on it.
Slightly strtanger was something that happened in high school. I was sitting in chemistry class looking straight ahead and day dreaming when suddenly I became aware of the teacher walking away from me. I asked the guy behind me what had happened and he told me the teacher had come up to me, asked me a question on what he had been lecturing (presumably to embarrass me for not paying attention) and that I had answered him, correctly. I was completely unaware of any of this transpiring. Similar sorts of things happened on a couple of other occasions.
One of my girlfriends would tell me that I had said such and such a thing to her first thing in the morning while we were still in bed... I'd have no recollection of these conversations and it turned out that we regularly had early morning conversations that, as far a I was concerned, had never occurred but that I knew, for various reasons, she wasn't just making up. I had to institute a "conversations don't count until I've had a cup of coffee rule"
Your grandfather was absolutely right. Unfortunately many (most?) people do not get this. It is depressing how often I hear things like "Of course I support freedom of speech, but you have to have limits."
Yes there are problems created by that freedom but imho the cost of those problems is far less than the cost of not keeping this fundamental right protected.
The idea of freedom of speech being a fundamental right may be as important a development for humanity as the wheel but the last several decades have been filled with attempts to chip away at it.
" I wouldn't be caught dead buying filament bulbs because that's poor people budgeting "
That's a very sad way of thinking... maybe you should just get a tattoo on your forehead that says "I'm not poor!", then you could relax.
In the realm of scientific observation, luck is granted only to those who are prepared. - Louis Pasteur
