Retro- rafro-rasta-
Over here Mrs D is talking about retrofitting- and it makes me want to talk about pressure.
As an engineer, I look at the world and I see pressure. Pressure is an interesting thing. Pressure turns carbon into diamonds, bursts dams, moves mountains. And as strong as geological pressure is, the pressure created by humans is infinitely stronger.
Pressure, if not adequately contained, will cause flow from an area of high pressure to an area of low pressure. For instance: When prohibition was forced upon the Americas, it took seconds before people started thinking of ways to get alcohol into one another’s hands. A thriving industry grew out of the need for the average American to have a brew, or a snort, or a nice glass of gin. That industry, because it was by nature illegal, was operated by criminals, and bankrolled a criminal enterprise that continues today. One of many examples of people who had the best of intentions creating a clusterfuck. Before prohibition, lots of people drinking. After prohibition, lots of people drinking AND an incredibly powerful mob. The same is true of drugs today- and while I’m not a fan of legalization of recreational drugs, I frankly wish the “war on drugs” money was being spent on other things.
The bottomline, as far as this post is concerned, is that it doesn’t matter what you sell, if someone wants it, they will find a way to get it. And if you have bricks of gold you’re selling for nine cents a pound and nobody wants them, your business will turn belly up. If the government makes guns illegal, then people who want them will still find ways to buy/make/steal them, and nothing will ever stop that; in fact, it will, like drugs and prohibition, create an entire criminal subclass which did not exist before. And they won’t be the kind of fine sportsmen and shooters who currently hold the vast majority of firearms in the country. Where unwanted things- like Air America- have to be propped up in order to survive, the Rush Limbaughs of the world aren’t enough.
The internet- and the airwaves before it (yes, Ham was the ORIGINAL internet) will always provide a media, and it cannot be silenced, no matter how hard anyone tries. While it can be legislated out of existence, like free speech is being, little by little, it cannot be done away with. We’re out here, we’re embedded now, and we aren’t about to stop. Now that I’ve brought you from Mrs D, go read what the Mr has to say here
I may not be an engineer Honorable Og, but I am an engineer’s son. Engineering attitudes and approaches are bone deep with me. As a result my take on the war on drugs? Ninety-four years of glorious failure. The only measurable results from the war are massive expenditures and erosion of our civil liberties.
I see actually see legalization as the toughest approach. If stupid people want to do stupid things, let the idiots self destruct.
One of the most important parts of the engineering mindset is being able to recognize when something DOES NOT WORK.
Well put indeed, Charles.
Well said, on several levels. Human desires will not go unfulfilled, regardless of government fiats.
Speaking of legislating things out of existence, there’s a reason totalitarian regimes don’t allow free access to this Intraweb thingy, or radio transmitters (or even receivers), but then I suspect you already know that. Assuming the Sun doesn’t throw the 2012 hissy-fit the Mayans predicted and destroy both the ionosphere and all planetary electronics, some of us hams will still be around just in case we’re needed for what may be coming down the pike.
OTOH, if an ARRL report I read the other day is true, most of us seem to be going the way of the crew-cut and slide-rule crowd mentioned in a previous thread…and not being replaced…but that’s a subject for another day’s rant.
I couldn’t agree more, og.
My daughter’s high school is in the middle of cornfields in po-dunk Ohi-ya.
Meth, heroin, pot, X, it’s all there.
The two arguements are:
A. It if a battle not worth the costs in dollars and civil liberties, or
B. We just need more time and tax money to win.
I’ll go with fuckin-A on that list…
“I frankly wish the “war on drugs†money was being spent on other things.”
I wish it wasn’t spent on anything, & we could have some of OUR money back.
Just this weekend I saw an old antenna tower truss alongside a house, and wondered if there were any hammers left anymore, or if all those keys have long since been silenced, and the last QSL card had been postmarked.
Used to be, whenever there was a natural disaster or human uprising, it was ham radio that got the word out first. You can have a seaside wiped out, and there’s the news story about that one tough old surviving ham operator s.o.b. banging out his morse code report of the situation in his area. If I remember right, there were even some space missions that partly involved ham field day participants communicating with a temporary space “country.”
One of my best Christmas presents was a shortwave radio I got when I was thirteen. Nine bands of fun, especially with the Cold War at its height. Radio Moscow, Radio Free Europe, numbers stations, the popcorn machine sound of radio jamming, and the correct time. Although it looked interesting, I never got into the ham aspect. Now, you turn on the TV and get a satellite program from Poland if you want. The world in your living room on the big screen. Back then, it was the crackling ghost of a signal that reminded you of how huge, barely understandable, and foreboding the world really is.