Usable Dimensions

What you want is simple, easy to understand comparisons, that are relatable and comprehensible, to explain some of the mind numbing numbers that are being bandied about....How about this one, if atoms were the size of cherries, and we filled the Earth with them, the Earth would represent an apple in size comparison to the atoms....

I don't know why that got a GA, the price of gas is not a decision that can be made, it is driven by the market, the Pentagon purchase is/was a decision.

I think it got a GA for two reasons. 1. It points out the irrelevance of the comment that buying 7 fewer F-35s can buy 1st graders some piece of electronic gadgetry that would have little practical use for them in the classroom. You could say the same about any type of government spending -- including those bleedingly obvious social studies that cost 10s of millions of dollars and prove nothing. So my pears-to-oranges comparison is equally valid as their apples-to-oranges. [Even leaving aside the silly notion that the government ought to be buying handheld computer tablets for 6-year-olds.]

And 2. It points out how much money is lost to the average American due to the cost of gasoline being so high -- that every 3 days Americans are spending $930 million MORE for gasoline now than they did 4 years ago. Fix THAT problem and you'll fix a lot of the problems with the American economy.

Btw, I partially disagree that the price of gas is not a decision that can be made. The Obama administration refused for a very long time to re-open the oil wells in the Gulf of Mexico following the BP oil leak - which turned out not to be anywhere near the environmental disaster it was projected to be. Likewise the Administration has refused to approve the Keystone XL pipeline. Part of the reason for the price of oil is due to scarcity speculation. If a higher supply is anticipated, even if a few years out, oil prices fall. It has happened before.

Amen

Do we really want to give computer tablets(certainly not ipads) to first grade children...My grandchildren are teenagers and they go thru laptops and cell phones so fast I can't keep track...