1 JAN 2007 - 1406 CST Chris, I really enjoyed that Road & Track article. I have never really been a died-in-the-wool car freak... er fan. But I always appreciate a nice set of wheels that will get up and go down the road - without breaking my piggy bank. My wife says it's because I have driven faster toys - jet aircraft. However, that article does bring back my memories of building things like a six foot long scale model radio-controlled, Wisconsin Class, battleship; messing with a very crude jet engine that ran on white gasoline; rebuilding and modifying an adult length snow sled so I and three of my high school friends could risk our collective necks on a very steep long hill; building a tree platform (never got around to building the house part); replacing the second gear in a '49 Mercury transmission that I stripped while drag-racing; and my piece de resistance - a working Van DeGraff generator with better than a 500K volt spark capability. Most of these activities involved the use of tools and materials considered to be hazardous by today's standards. Today, some of them will never get into general circulation because of todays Tort laws and the Consumer Product Safety Commission. But in spite of the risks and incidental damage to myself (came close to burning down our single car garage while tinkering with the construction of fireworks star shells) I survived with a knowledge of how things work and self-responsibility that considerably exceeded most of my peers. Today, this curiosity and risk-taking by our children is suppressed in our culture. Instead of being nurtured, it's held down with the result that when some young people (and adults) do experiment, they do really hazardous things with no inkling of what's at stake. Rather than learning gradually, with a modicum of adult supervision, they try to replicate things they see on TV or in movies without any understanding and damn little supervision. Society's knee jerk reaction to these disasters is to outlaw the activity and/or product in a foolish effort to protect our off-spring that impedes real-world learning. Computers are great devices. But they are no substitute for hands-on work with real tools, building or modifying a real mechanical or electronic device. I agree the "three Ts" issue applies to amateur radio and is a major reason why our demographics suck. We all know it will take quite few more years to correct it. I believe the best solution is "mentoring" young people - not just providing demonstrations and license classes, but actually taking individual youngsters in hand and helping them to become active enthusiastic hams. HNY to all of you - Dick, W9GIG