jpexg@mit-hermes.ARPA (John Purbrick) (10/30/84)
References: <1717@sdccs6.UUCP>, <479@tty3b.UUCP> <803@eisx.UUCP> <292@whuxl.UUCP> <364@fisher.UUCP> <2197@mit-hermes.ARPA> I changed the title on this--it used to be about defending W. Europe against Russian attack, but see refs above if you're interested. My posting basically suggested that we should flaunt our wealth at the Warsaw Pact and dare them to let it corrupt their soldiers. Someone sent me mail pointing out that in East Germany, they can get W. German TV programs, and this leads to the following techno-political snippet: Western Europe uses the German PAL color TV standard, except for France, which uses the homebrew SECAM system (we use the older--and worse-- NTSC method). A signal encoded in one format is played back on an incompatible TV set as only black-and-white. Now, rather than deal with West Germany, the East bloc bought SECAM from France, so while East Germany can indeed see West German TV, it comes in as b&w. So in East Germany, the government heavily subsidizes the sale of (SECAM) color TV's, the idea being, if you want to watch color TV, you can do it cheaply, but it has to be East German! I don't know whether any ingenious French people go to East Germany to buy cheap TV sets....