[GreenKeys] - Off topic -

[Don Robert House]

All of the respondents make excellent comments and all are from  
different points of view.
However, methinks I started something that best be discussed in other  
forums.

While this has been an interesting exchange of views, we should get  
back to the topic of our common interest.

RTTY and Teletypewriters in general.

Sorry,  I know it is hard to get the smoke back into the components!

All the best to all of you,

Don

Don R. House, K9TTY
Currently in Ringwood, Illinois USA
23 degrees F
20 mph winds
blowing snow

"Oh carry me back to Southern California"



On 16 Nov 2005, at 7:26 PM, Mark Richards wrote:

>> It is my opinion that the Internet is a USA invention, and should  
>> stay
under the control of the US.

It all makes perfect sense and I think you've kicked off some great  
ideas.
Let me advance them.

An Italian (or debatably a Serbian, Telsa) invented radio.  Therefore  
our
hobby should be regulated and owned by Italy or Hungary.  They can
justifiably say, "we invented it.  You have to go through us, first.   
Sorry.
Its-a our-a way or the high-a-way".

The telephone was invented by a Scottish immigrant, but Antonio Santi
Giuseppe Meucci is generally credited with first demonstrating the
principles.  Like Marconi, Meucci is Italian, too.  Perhaps the  
invention
should be re-claimed by his native land and all phone numbers be  
delegated
through Rome.  It could be called the RETRO (Rome Exchange Telephone
Regulatory Organization) .

E-bay is against taxation, but because it is viewed as putting an  
"unfair
burden" on them to collect it.  E-bay however does not claim that  
it's an
unfair burden to collect their fee.  The amount of computing power and
administrivia to add 5% to a purchase and wire-transfer funds to a state
government must be enormous.

Many of the E-U countries now require collection of a VAT for any E-Bay
transaction and many states are considering laws that would require
collection of basic sales taxes for internet purchases.  Most  
purchases in
our state (which has a 5% sales tax) require us to pay on purchases  
through
the internet when goods are delivered here, and most reputable  
businesses
collect it.  I don't have a problem with taxes.  I do have a severe  
problem
with what they're used for.

Commerce it not a US invention.  It first began in the prehistoric  
times of
150,000 years ago when bartering for sides of antelope, a knit hat  
and an
iPod was deemed better than just clubbing someone over the skull for it.
Then came currency around 2000 BC in the middle east, and there followed
wars over the control of wealth, land, and power, with wars over  
pride and
ego a close second.  Now we have advanced to the clubbing.  Since  
currency
was first seen in the Mideast, perhaps we should relegate control of our
currency to the largest middle-eastern power, Saudi Arabia.   
Debatably, we
already have, and some time ago.

Osama is dead.  He died around December 2001, most likely of acute renal
failure.  Most of the media in other nations have the story.  Americans,
needing a boogeyman to bring excitement into their otherwise droll and
vacuous lives, continue to deny it.

Enjoying, respectfully,

Mark Richards
K1MGY

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