Date: Thu, 11 Oct 2001 03:12:39 -0700 From: "Ted Mittelstaedt" <tedm@toybox.placo.com> To: "Rahul Siddharthan" <rsidd@physics.iisc.ernet.in>, "Terry Lambert" <tlambert2@mindspring.com> Cc: <cjclark@alum.mit.edu>, "Salvo Bartolotta" <bartequi@neomedia.it>, "P. U. (Uli) Kruppa" <root@pukruppa.de>, <freebsd-chat@FreeBSD.ORG> Subject: RE: Use of the UNIX Trademark Message-ID: <00cb01c1523d$41a1f3e0$1401a8c0@tedm.placo.com> In-Reply-To: <20011011114819.B17422@lpt.ens.fr>
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>-----Original Message----- >From: Rahul Siddharthan [mailto:rsidd@physics.iisc.ernet.in] >Sent: Thursday, October 11, 2001 2:48 AM >To: Terry Lambert >Cc: Ted Mittelstaedt; cjclark@alum.mit.edu; Salvo Bartolotta; P. U. >(Uli) Kruppa; freebsd-chat@FreeBSD.ORG >Subject: Re: Use of the UNIX Trademark > > >I said "successfully". Would you call the US railway system >"successful"? It's a shambles, and much of the country is not covered >at all. It depends on how you define successful. the US railway system is successful for hauling lots of heavy, bulky freight, like coal, grain, etc. It's horrible for hauling people - but there's a simple reason for that - most people don't want to ride the train, they want to fly. What value is it for the US tax dollars to support a railway system that only a handful want to use? Rail has good success for people-moving in densely populated areas like the subway system in many large cities in this country. It's also got some isolated success in some downtown areas, Portland's NW area is one. But once you get the city density light enough to support space for an automotive infrastructure people will turn their back on rail and use autos. As far as moving people from city to city in the US on rail, it's not economically profitable any more. Once the Interstate highways went in, it finished off rail for interstate people hauling. The only reason people call US rail a shambles is because there's too many people that still have this romanticized view of trains as though they were 100 years ago like a sort of super Orient Express. So instead of allowing Amtrak to die a natural death, they have to keep propping it up. Today the focus is on the airlines, and I fail to see now that we are dumping 15 billion into the airline industry to keep it going that there's any reason to keep dumping money into rail. The British railway system too was privatised 10 years ago, >and it was disastrous; the controlling company, Railtrack, collapsed >very recently. For a good working railway system, try France. Even >India has a good solid railway, which doesn't have much frills and is >grossly overstressed, but still does its job. > It's different cultures there. Private auto ownership in India is drastically lower than here and France also doesen't have every spare inch paved with asphalt roads and parking lots. You would have to fundamentally change the culture in the US to make any difference. Like I said, the US population understands that car use on the public roads is a fundamental right, even if the politicians are too stupid to get it. Aside from a handful of greenies, you would have to pry the steering wheels out of their cold, dead fingers to get them to give them up. It's not like the politicians and intellectuals haven't tried it already. Ted Mittelstaedt tedm@toybox.placo.com Author of: The FreeBSD Corporate Networker's Guide Book website: http://www.freebsd-corp-net-guide.com >> FedEx has been explicitly prohibited from carring ordinary >> letters, since it was less expensive than the alternative, >> the government granted monopoly of the U.S. Postal Service. > >I doubt very much FedEx would be less expensive. I know that in India >many smaller courier services are less expensive than the Government's >"speed post" (not FedEx or DHL, though, they're much more expensive); >but none of them even approach the price point of ordinary post; I >don't think they're forbidden from doing so, it's just not >cost-effective for them to deliver to remote places all over the >country. > >In France, too, FedEx and other couriers are more expensive than the >French post's "Chronopost". Ordinary letters within France cost three >francs, or around 40 cents; I doubt any courier company could approach >that price point. > >I don't know what the USPS charges for ordinary letters. Perhaps the >government granted monopoly of the USPS is merely an inefficient one? > >> > Instead, we today have instances of multinationals trying to >> > grab patents on the healing properties of things like turmeric, >> > which have been known for centuries among traditional communities. >> >> Not patentable: herbs can not be patented; this is why so >> much funded research ignores them entirely: no return on >> investment for investigating them. > >You would know about this example if you were from India, or read the >Indian press, where it has been a major issue for a long time. It is >not the only case; there is a huge catalogue of traditional herbs >whose healing properties have been patented. > >Read >http://www.twnside.org.sg/title/tur-cn.htm >http://www.rediff.com/news/aug/23tur.htm > >The turmeric patents were rejected, but only after protracted >litigation, which most developing countries can ill afford. Other >patents still exist. > > >> > Then the countries most affected by this have to go through >> > expensive and time-consuming litigation to try and overthrow >> > the patent. >> >> That's ridiculous. > >See the above links, again. For more links, just do a search on >google, for example, for "turmeric patent" or "neem patent". > >> Realize, also, that those countries have the same vested >> interest in finding treatment protocols which never actually >> cure the disease, that the U.S. is claimed to have. > >Realize, also, that your knowledge of "those countries" is extremely >limited and gleaned from a very selective reading. > >R > To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-chat" in the body of the message
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