Cultural Resistance Hobbles German E-Book Market

[HappyMartin]

If you pass laws to protect the life of a fetus why not pass laws to protect innocent helpless children from the cruel stupid names inflicted on them by dum ass parents?

[QuantumIguana]

The problem with the word "resist" is that it implies they ought to adopt e-books. If Germans prefer paper books over e-books right now, that's up to them. The person buying the books is the only one who gets to determine what they ought to buy.

[Apache]

There is a man in my town who's parents named him Santa Claus. He hated it and had it legally changed when he turned 18.
My father in law's first name was Crescenzo. He was born immediately after his parents arrived in the US. When he started school the teacher had trouble pronouncing his name and gave him $.25 to go have it changed. It ended up being Chrissie and he kept the name the rest of his life.
Apache

[LuvReadin]

Originally Posted by teh603

By the same token, however, they don't have the nasty culture and subculture clashes that we have over here. Not giving examples, because if you do live here then I'm sure you can think of some.

Oh sweetie, where did you get that idea from? There are just more cultures and subcultures to choose from over this side of the pond!

[Jaden]

Originally Posted by LuvReadin

Oh sweetie, where did you get that idea from? There are just more cultures and subcultures to choose from over this side of the pond!

I don't know about "over there", but "over here" there's cultures and subcultures to choose from, too.

The beer, lederhosn and dirndl culture is only Bavaria (and mostly only for Oktoberfest).

And the US isn't the only part of the world with a groups inventing their own language. We have that, too.

Though I wouldn't know about the number of cultures to choose from in any given country. Might be there's more in the US than in Germany, but than again the US seems to be a wee bit larger than Germany, too.

And if you take all of Europe to compare to the US, then there's tons of cultures and subcultures, more than I'm sure I know of.

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by QuantumIguana

The problem with the word "resist" is that it implies they ought to adopt e-books. If Germans prefer paper books over e-books right now, that's up to them. The person buying the books is the only one who gets to determine what they ought to buy.

Oh, my.
Somebody actually noticed the thread title!


I can think of a variety of perfectly rational reasons why people might choose to read print books instead of ebooks. And a few less than rational ones, too. Starting with smell fetishists.

Not my culture so I can't really assign probability values to any of the theories. Maybe some of the locals might chip in?

[SeaKing]

Originally Posted by plib

Thanks to the various responders. I wasn't previously aware of either the existence, or the extent, of name qualifications. Still mulling whether it's a good or bad idea.

The point about SeaKings still stands though.

Well I am glad you feel enlightened on the one point about names.

On the second point about SeaKings? Well that is really a matter of what your question is.
If you mean I must be an "old salt." You are correct. In fact I am older than salt and dirt combined.
If you mean the SeaKings are outdated, then I am not so sure.
The US Mil was scheduled to take them out of service 2006.
They are still used by militarys all over the world. Actually still manufactured and remanufactured by license at 3 places. UK, Japan, Italy. As the larger militarys stop using them, they filter down to smaller militarys and civilian use.

Note that island countries like them a lot. Very practical and very reliable. The main problem might be their speed. I believe I have seen the UK Princes in them in their Air/Sea Rescue mode, and certainly in the 2011/2012 movie "The Thing" a SeaKing was delivering the heroes to their doom on the ice. There was different copter at the end chasing the ""dog???""
They were in Afghanistan after 2008 for the UK.

I flew them just before retirement to get hours on them for working with some of the gas and oil companies. My last ride on the military clock.

[SeaKing]

Originally Posted by teh603

By the same token, however, they don't have the nasty culture and subculture clashes that we have over here. Not giving examples, because if you do live here then I'm sure you can think of some.

Actually I disagree with you. European cultures can clamp down on the information more than the US. They really don't have the First Amendment protection we have.
There are more street cameras in the UK than anywhere. They are working on getting more access to online goings by the civilians than would be possible in the US.

Recently, France has had more riots and fires, the UK has more bombs. Even so, they can clamp down more on their citizenry than the US can.

[Phogg]

Originally Posted by teh603

By the same token, however, they don't have the nasty culture and subculture clashes that we have over here. Not giving examples, because if you do live here then I'm sure you can think of some.

Unawareness on your part does not equal non-existance.

[plib]

Originally Posted by SeaKing

Well I am glad you feel enlightened on the one point about names.

On the second point about SeaKings? Well that is really a matter of what your question is.

Actually on the SeaKings I was influenced by articles such as "Requiem for the Sea King", though I claim no first hand knowledge of them. Based on the article that might be a "good thing"!

P.S. Though the problems might also be because Canada seems to have issues with maintaining older military hardware.

It was just a passing light hearted comment, nothing personal. I have great respect for salt and dirt!

[SeaKing]

Originally Posted by plib

Actually on the SeaKings I was influenced by articles such as "Requiem for the Sea King", though I claim no first hand knowledge of them. Based on the article that might be a "good thing"!

P.S. Though the problems might also be because Canada seems to have issues with maintaining older military hardware.

It was just a passing light hearted comment, nothing personal. I have great respect for salt and dirt!

I am going to come back and read those articles you give.
But on a quick "swing by" I remembered an article about DC3s on the Amazon River. How they just keep them going. The one craft they were riding in for the article had a mechanic that flew with the pilot on every trip. Those old planes were and still are workhorses and have been the only real way to travel quickly in the jungle and along the river. They can land on small rough runways. Of course helicopters can too, but I guess cost effective tends toward those old planes. Carry everything from people to chickens to produce and guns.

[plib]

Originally Posted by SeaKing

But on a quick "swing by" I remembered an article about DC3s on the Amazon River.

DC3 = C47 = Dakota = Gooney Bird. Correct?

I know they were used in everything from flying the Hump, to D-Day, Arnhem and the Berlin Airlift. There are still some used by bush pilots in northern Canada I believe. They do seem to be able to keep those in the air.

Weren't DC3s also Puff The Magic Dragon in Vietnam?

[yoho]

Originally Posted by cHex

Cultural or political? From what I read, part of the problem could be that not only are book prices fixed by law, but eBooks would cost more than pBooks due to taxes.

I also find it kinda funny that scant years after eBooks sales began to accelerate anywhere on planet earth at all, this or that country is seen to "resist" eBooks. I'll bet German eBook sales aren't long in climbing up to threaten pBooks there (assuming, of course, no further political protectionism).

yes, i agree with you. the e-book has already got on the technological wheel, heading toward and defying any obstacles.

[Apache]

Originally Posted by plib

DC3 = C47 = Dakota = Gooney Bird. Correct?

I know they were used in everything from flying the Hump, to D-Day, Arnhem and the Berlin Airlift. There are still some used by bush pilots in northern Canada I believe. They do seem to be able to keep those in the air.

Weren't DC3s also Puff The Magic Dragon in Vietnam?

The Navy version was the R4D.
Apache

[HappyMartin]

While we are talking aircraft. In the various bush wars South Africa fought in the DC3 was used extensively. They flew well with holes in them was part of the reason. They were "affectionately" known as vomit comets.

I had a number of unpleasant experiences in them.