If you use the AT&T analogy, don't forget Bellcore. When the Feds allowed AT&T to survive, they were required to spin off Bell Labs as part of the deal. And a big part of that deal was that Bell Labs' inventions had to be OPEN SOURCE. It had to freely share its discoveries with its competitors. It was a huge gift to the public. It played the leading role transforming the locked-in post war world into our modern super-competitive one:
Consider what Bell Labs achieved. For a long stretch of the 20th century, it was the most innovative scientific organization in the world. On any list of its inventions, the most notable is probably the transistor, invented in 1947, which is now the building block of all digital products and contemporary life. These tiny devices can accomplish a multitude of tasks. The most basic is the amplification of an electric signal. But with small bursts of electricity, transistors can be switched on and off, and effectively be made to represent a “bit” of information, which is digitally expressed as a 1 or 0. Billions of transistors now reside on the chips that power our phones and computers.
Bell Labs produced a startling array of other innovations, too. The silicon solar cell, the precursor of all solar-powered devices, was invented there. Two of its researchers were awarded the first patent for a laser, and colleagues built a host of early prototypes. (Every DVD player has a laser, about the size of a grain of rice, akin to the kind invented at Bell Labs.)
Bell Labs created and developed the first communications satellites; the theory and development of digital communications; and the first cellular telephone systems. What’s known as the charge-coupled device, or CCD, was created there and now forms the basis for digital photography.
Bell Labs also built the first fiber optic cable systems and subsequently created inventions to enable gigabytes of data to zip around the globe. It was no slouch in programming, either. Its computer scientists developed Unix and C, which form the basis for today’s most essential operating systems and computer languages.
And these are just a few of the practical technologies. Some Bell Labs researchers composed papers that significantly extended the boundaries of physics, chemistry, astronomy and mathematics. Other Bell Labs engineers focused on creating extraordinary new processes (rather than new products) for Ma Bell’s industrial plants. In fact, “quality control” — the statistical analysis now used around the world as a method to ensure high-quality manufactured products — was first applied by Bell Labs mathematicians.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/26/opini ... .html?_r=0So you can think of the U$hPA as the AT&T that gobbled up everything and squeezed out all competition (U.S. Hawks). They owned the transcontinental telephone network (flying sites) and required anyone using their system to buy the equipment from their subsidiary, Western Electric (insurance). Finally they were spanked by the legal system and forced to divest of things they had developed (paragliding) except communications (hang gliding). There you go.
Bob hasn't created any National hang gliding organizations. Talk about turning a mole hill into a MOUNTAIN.
No kidding. You gotta drink the kool-aid to dance on that bandwagon! But maybe they can conjure up something.
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Not Bob K that's for sure!
