Here's a little follow-up on what NOAA is doing with the nautical
charts.

The NOAA Electronic Navigational Charts (ENCs) are available for free
download over the Internet. Weekly updates are also available for free
download. About 540 of these vector-based electronic charts are
available, and more are added as NOAA finishes them. They comply with
the International Hydrographic Organization standard S-57. The
download site starts at
http://nauticalcharts.noaa.gov/MCD/enc/index.htm.

The NOAA Raster Navigational Charts (RNCs) are also available for free
download over the Internet. Cumulative updates of Notice to Mariners
corrections are available weekly at the RNC download site. Nearly all
of NOAA's 1,021 charts are available. The RNCs are in the .BSB format,
and conform to the International Hydrographic Organization standard
S-61. The download site starts at
http://nauticalcharts.noaa.gov/mcd/Raster/Index.htm.

NOAA has also posted nearly all of its charts on the Internet for free
viewing using any web browser. These posted charts are updated weekly
for all Notices to Mariners. The On-Line Viewer site starts at
www.NauticalCharts.gov/viewer. This is a new service, and NOAA has
provided a "Click Here to tell us what you think" button on the site to
solicit your comments.

For those who are GIS users, NOAA is providing a free, on-line
translator to query the ENCs for selected feature categories, and then
translate and download those feature categories in popular GIS formats.
The service is called "ENC Direct to GIS", and the Internet site
starts at http://nauticalcharts.noaa.gov/csdl/...direct_new.htm.

wrote in news:1141306157.505568.65190
@z34g2000cwc.googlegroups.com:

The NOAA Electronic Navigational Charts (ENCs) are available for free
download over the Internet.

I'd like to correct the notion behind this, Dave.....

NOAA is not providing free charts. NOAA is providing its TAXPAYERS a
SERVICE for the money that has been extracted from them by force.

NO service provided to any taxpayer, in any country, should be fee-based.
The taxpayers have already paid through-the-nose for the service or data
and should not be charged twice for its delivery or use....

It's not you, Dave. It's the entire bureaucratic establishment that thinks
it's some kind of business that needs to sell something.....

Thanks for the information on its retrieval! Nautical chart delivery has
been long overdue, I suspect because of lobbying by commercial interests
that have always sold the taxpayers the data they continue to already pay
for. Weather data was also long sold for profit, but that has busted wide
open in the past few years.

I'm with you. I pay a lot of money for charts and I have already paid
the taxes to have them made. Our government has long thought that we
are subjects when in fact, they government is subject to us. Too bad
more people don't know that they own the country and we are a
government OF the people FOR the people. Too bad people keep calling us
a democracy when in fact we're a republic - and too bad they
don't even know what a republic is!

"Da Kine" wrote in message
ups.com...
I'm with you. I pay a lot of money for charts and I have already paid
the taxes to have them made. Our government has long thought that we
are subjects when in fact, they government is subject to us. Too bad
more people don't know that they own the country and we are a
government OF the people FOR the people. Too bad people keep calling us
a democracy when in fact we're a republic - and too bad they
don't even know what a republic is!


Da Kine,
What's the difference between a republic and a democracy?

The simple difference is democracy is a system of government by the
whole population or all the eligible members of a state, typically
through elected representatives and a republic is a state in which
supreme power is held by the people and their elected representatives,
and which has an elected or nominated president rather than a monarch.
There are so many definitions in there though that most people won't
see what that really says. You need to at least know that I monarch is
a sovereign head of state and sovereign is a supreme ruler. It would
help to understand that in a republic the supreme power is held in a
creator (God) and that leaves all levels of government i.e., the ones
in power and the ones that elect, equal. It leave my rights to me with
me and not the supreme ruler! The real difference is, then, is that a
republic is a small centralized government with more power in the local
area and a belief in self ownership and a democracy is a large central
government with little power in the local area and does not support
self ownership.

If you read the Declaration of Independence and then read The United
States Constitution, (in that order) you will quickly see what the
framers were thinking and then tried to do. They were sick of a
monarchy so much so that they made titles of nobility illegal in the
states. Esquire is a title of nobility and used by most attorneys and
most politicians that clime high are attorneys so you can see where
this country went wrong!

Nowhere in our constitution or any attacked documentation has our
country ever been called a democracy but those in power have been
trying to make it one for a long time. Our "Pledge of Allegiance"
does it state to the democracy. You will find it saying to the
republic!

You will find a few people here and there that understand the meaning
and importance of words on paper and these days, we're looked upon
like rebel outcasts with some sort of social disorder. The truth of the
mater is that the vast majority of our population knows nothing and
could care less so long as they have a wide screen TV and a fancy car.
The sad part is they don't even think they own themselves.

Self-ownership is a concept that is never talked about because with it
comes responsibility. Self-ownership is the key to freedom and the lack
of it is the key to Hitlerism.

If you are interested, look up the difference between Citizen and
citizen and then read your banking agreement. Ask yourself what a car
registration is, where the drivers license came from and if you really
own your car. Find out what a marriage license is and if you really
need one to be legally married. Find out the difference between signing
an agreement with your bride in front of a minister of a church that is
NOT a corporation and signing a marriage license with the state.

Its all about who owns you and what someone else has the right to do to
you, your land and your belongings.

Don't get me wrong. I don't believe in republicans much more then I
do democrats. Those titles are a smoke screen over the freedom concept
of elected official. The bottom line is always gong to be power for all
of them and less self ownership.

I re read this and should have spell checked it in something. Clime
should have been climb and attacked should read attached. There are
probably a few more but oh well - you get the idea. Somebody tell
google to put a spell checker on their beta site so I don't type so
many mistakes:-) I guess you can tell what time of day I type something
by the number of misspells there are!

Like they say, "There is no free cheese in a rat trap".
G


"Larry" wrote in message
...
wrote in news:1141306157.505568.65190
@z34g2000cwc.googlegroups.com:

The NOAA Electronic Navigational Charts (ENCs) are available for free
download over the Internet.

I'd like to correct the notion behind this, Dave.....

NOAA is not providing free charts. NOAA is providing its TAXPAYERS a
SERVICE for the money that has been extracted from them by force.

NO service provided to any taxpayer, in any country, should be fee-based.
The taxpayers have already paid through-the-nose for the service or data
and should not be charged twice for its delivery or use....

It's not you, Dave. It's the entire bureaucratic establishment that
thinks
it's some kind of business that needs to sell something.....

Thanks for the information on its retrieval! Nautical chart delivery has
been long overdue, I suspect because of lobbying by commercial interests
that have always sold the taxpayers the data they continue to already pay
for. Weather data was also long sold for profit, but that has busted wide
open in the past few years.

Uhhhhhh, Larry?????

Could you please forward this on the to good folks at CHS, Candian
Hyrdological Service (or some variant of that attempted spelling.)

The situation for Canadian charts is much differnet, and MUCH more
expensive.

While I agree with all you say, the situation state-side is much better.
At least on this particular topic.

Howard


Larry wrote:

wrote in news:1141306157.505568.65190
@z34g2000cwc.googlegroups.com:


The NOAA Electronic Navigational Charts (ENCs) are available for free
download over the Internet.


I'd like to correct the notion behind this, Dave.....

NOAA is not providing free charts. NOAA is providing its TAXPAYERS a
SERVICE for the money that has been extracted from them by force.

NO service provided to any taxpayer, in any country, should be fee-based.
The taxpayers have already paid through-the-nose for the service or data
and should not be charged twice for its delivery or use....

It's not you, Dave. It's the entire bureaucratic establishment that thinks
it's some kind of business that needs to sell something.....

Thanks for the information on its retrieval! Nautical chart delivery has
been long overdue, I suspect because of lobbying by commercial interests
that have always sold the taxpayers the data they continue to already pay
for. Weather data was also long sold for profit, but that has busted wide
open in the past few years.

I forwarded your message to my colleagues at the Canadian Hydrographic
Service. They responded that they are acting as directed by Canadian
laws.

Larry wrote:

NO service provided to any taxpayer, in any country, should be
fee-based. The taxpayers have already paid through-the-nose for the
service or data and should not be charged twice for its delivery or
use....

Where is this written? I hardly expect my non-ambulatory neighbor to pay
for my passport..

--
Good luck and good sailing.
s/v Kerry Deare of Barnegat
http://kerrydeare.comcast.net