Model Forum / General / Railroads / March 2008

Don't confuse me with a Gore supporter but, the misrepresentation of his
statement is tiresome.  See (among other articles I just picked the first
one in a Google search):

  http://www.perkel.com/politics/gore/internet.htm

   Gore never claimed that he "invented" the Internet, which implies that
   he engineered the technology. The invention occurred in the seventies
   and allowed scientists in the Defense Department to communicate with
   each other. In a March 1999 interview with Wolf Blitzer, Gore said,
   "During my service in the United States Congress, I took the initiative
   in creating the Internet."

   Taken in context, the sentence, despite some initial ambiguity, means
   that as a congressman Gore promoted the system we enjoy today, not that
   he could patent the science, though that's how the quotation has been
   manipulated. Hence the disingenuous substitution of "inventing" for the
   actual language.

   ...

   To his credit, Bush scrapped the commercial before it aired. But as I
   write, his campaign is unloading a new commercial, featuring a sneer at
   the fragment from the Internet claim, again implying that Gore had nothing
   to do with the Internet's creation. At least they got the words right; it
   would be dangerous to doctor the tape.

   But the real question is what, if anything, did Gore actually do to create
   the modern Internet? According to Vincent Cerf, a senior vice president
   with MCI Worldcom who's been called the Father of the Internet, "The
   Internet would not be where it is in the United States without the strong
   support given to it and related research areas by the Vice President in
   his current role and in his earlier role as Senator."

   The inventor of the Mosaic Browser, Marc Andreesen, credits Gore with
   making his work possible. He received a federal grant through Gore's High
   Performance Computing Act. The University of Pennsylvania's Dave Ferber
   says that without Gore the Internet "would not be where it is today."

   Joseph E. Traub, a computer science professor at Columbia University,
   claims that Gore "was perhaps the first political leader to grasp the
   importance of networking the country. Could we perhaps see an end to
   cheap shots from politicians and pundits about inventing the Internet?"

Paul

Diseasels with Marzipan lights?

Is butter plastic-compatible?

Can a lapping compound be made by melting butter, adding flour and
cooking until it starts to smell and turn brown?

Puckdropper