Backward cousins

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ooh er, let em try. :blackknight: :blackknight: :blackknight: :blackknight:

our Internet
A good lie down is indicated here, Pearl. The Internet was never "our" Internet. It was created for and by the US military and large research institutions. It is essentially subsidized by the US taxpayer, through its funding of those bodies. This campaign is rather like those foolish souls who believe that the water that comes out of the tap in their kitchen should be free, since the rain falls freely from the sky, rather than having to pay a utility company to provide the collection (dams) and infratructure (pipes) capacity that delivers the rainwater to their kitchen

then they come for the Gypsies ! (Edith)

Admit it, Pearl, you're just jealous because they always come for me.

rather like those foolish souls who believe that the water that comes out of the tap in their kitchen should be free, since the rain falls freely from the sky, rather than having to pay a utility company to provide the collection (dams) and infratructure (pipes) capacity that delivers the rainwater to their kitchen

And don't forget, recycling what we flush down the loo.

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The US Government's attempts to control the internet in the past have included the requirement that everything that passes over the highway should be decipherable by their agents (human and otherwise).

This is directly comparable to Metternich's attempts to get all the post of Europe to pass through a steam laundry in Vienna. It wouldn't wash then and it won't wash now.

This is directly comparable to Metternich's attempts to get all the post of Europe to pass through a steam laundry in ViennaI'm sure a good sociologist like yourself, NorthStar, will be able to point us to the exact reference that a Google of "metternich steam laundry" was unable to supply. I was however somewhat taken by the link to the US State Department that Google turned up - http://foia.state.gov/MMS/postrpt/pr_vi ... ntryID=101 (http://foia.state.gov/MMS/postrpt/pr_view_all.asp?CntryID=101) plus

As a schulekind I had a highly interactive dominie of history who taught us about Count Metternich's wicked plan to route all the diplomatic post of Europe through Vienna so that he could steam the missives open. Whether this was to have happened in a Chinese laundry was never entirely clear.

I believe this (http://www.diplomatie.gouv.fr/en/ministry_158/embassies-and-consulates_2052/multilateral-diplomacy_1581.html) link may have something to say about Metternich's postal scheme.

I see a strong analogy between that and the recent attempts of the US Administration to limit degrees of encrytion on the internet to only those that their (software) agents are capable of cracking.


I think the concept that all the knowledge of the world is one day going to be accessible by a google search is flawed by a misunderstanding of the nature of knowledge.

Finally, I would never claim to be a sociologist as I have not taken the trouble to find out exactly what the word means. Maybe I'll have a look at it's entry in't the Wicked Wiki - maybe not.

[cottmann]

...This is directly comparable to Metternich's attempts to get all the post of Europe to pass through a steam laundry in Vienna. It wouldn't wash then and it won't wash now.

While I do not know about all of Europe's post or the steam laundry, Metternich's administration was famous - or infamous - for reading the correspondence of diplomatic missions in Vienna. His "black chamber" or secret room in the post office was reputed to be the most efficient of all such chambers maintained by the governments of Europe. The sacks of diplomatic mail would arrive at 7 a.m., the letters would be unsealed and read, the important parts would be copied, sometimes by dictation, the letters would be replaced and resealed and sent to the embassies by 9:30AM. Unfortunately, Metternich's employees sometimes made mistakes and on one occasion when His Britannic Majesty's ambassador in Austria complained that he was getting copies instead of originals, Metternich coolly and calmy replied, "How clumsy these people are!" Such "black chambers," of course, still exist and the US proposals are nothing new.

Such "black chambers," of course, still exist and the US proposals are nothing new.

Exactly my point Cottman. Of course, it's comforting to note that we can trust the organs of the US administrations to work in our best interests to the same degree as the agents of Count Metternich. Happily modern software robots and data miners are much more efficient than the Counts bewigged buffoons, but there is more mail.

There seems to be a minor flaw in the "design" of the internet though in that it seems that not all e-mail is being routed through the continental United States. No doubt that'll be fixed in time.