[extropy-chat] European Free State Project

[Mike Lorrey]

--- Brett Paatsch <bpaatsch at bigpond.net.au> wrote:
> Mike Lorrey wrote:
> 
> > http://europeanfreestate.org/
> > 
> > The FSP has apparently spawned a bunch of efforts using similar
> names.
> > There is the Swing State Project, the Free Arms Project, I have
> heard
> > rumors of a 'Green State Project', and now European Libertarians
> have
> > launched a European Free State Project to establish a similarly
> > libertarian free state within the European Union.
> > 
> > The only thing that will shock me would be if one got started in
> > China... ;)
> 
> Or Libya maybe.
> 
> How is the original Free State Project going Mike? I think you said
> you were/are a New Hampshire native.  

It's going well. After the post-election shakedown, where members that
had opted out of NH as a state they were willing to move to could
choose to opt back in or leave the organization, our membership dropped
initially to 4500 but now is back up to 5,200+.

We are engaging in some creative advertising campaigns, running local
ads in areas of the country where and when egregious violations of
civil rights by federal, state, and local government occur. We had one
this past week in South Carolina where police did an early morning raid
on a junior high school, groping and stripping students, and coming up
totally empty. This ad campaign got national coverage, with AP articles
appearing.

I recently appeared on a radio talk show as the Grafton County
Representative of the organization, and this show has been rebroadcast
several times on both AM and FM frequencies the station operates (don't
have an mp3, sorry).

We are now in the planning stages for a Freedom Fest to be held in
June. Likely this will be located in Plymouth or someplace central in
the state, and is expected to attract 500-1000 attendees. There will be
some libertarian seminars as well as tours of the state for job and
real estate hunting.

> 
> I was getting sick of a few things about life in Australia the other
> day and started wondering if life in New Hampshire might be better.
> My understanding of New Hampshire is pretty limited but I realise it
> only has a small population and I don't know what sort of high tech
> companies it has. 

The FSP website has lots of research on NH that members have done. Here
are a few links to check out...
http://www.freestateproject.org/community/nh_info.jsp
http://www.state.nh.us

Let me know if you have any specific questions. I've lived here since
age 9, outside of several years in the Air Force and developing
business in Seattle.

> 
> My googling on biotech firms in New Hampshire didn't find much but 
> could be I was just googling badly.  

There are a number of biotech firms. In Lebanon there are several that
are offshoots of work done at Dartmouth Medical School and Darthmouth
Hitchcock Medical Center's Norris Cotton Cancer Center.

http://www.nhbiotech.com/

This is a good link to start off with.

> 
> Does NH have any good universities? Much of a biotech/infotech/
> nanotech presence? Venture capital co's? What sort of laws if any 
> on GMO's, therapeutic cloning etc? 

University of New Hampshire is well known for its engineering school,
its political science department, among other things. Dartmouth College
features the Tuck Business School, the Thayer School of Engineering,
and the Kiewit Computer Center. Dartmouth was featured in Wired last
year as having a town-wide Wi-Fi network open to the public. Franklin
Pierce College has a good law school that specializes in IP law.
Plymouth State University is considered to have the best undergrad
business school in the country.

NH is rife with VC for such a rural state, UNH Center for Venture
Research lists seven such firms native to the state. 

http://www.unh.edu/cvr/

There are, so far as I am aware, no state laws against any
technological development.

In 1998 the legislature enacted a law exempting Qualified Investment
Capital Companies from the business profits tax. This exemption also
applies to any investments made in QICC's by other businesses, in that
any monies invested by a business in a QICC is not considered to be
taxable profit monies.

Finding actual nanotech companies is a bit of work, as the word has
become a new buzzword, and I've found a number of companies using the
term only as a term to describe the precision of their laser or other
machining processes. In fact, there are a number of laser machining
companies in NH.

Also:
http://www.camis.unh.edu/
http://www.unh.edu/apl/nprc.htm

=====
Mike Lorrey
"Live Free or Die, Death is not the Worst of Evils."
                                       - Gen. John Stark
"Fascists are objectively pro-pacifist..."
                                       - Mike Lorrey
Do not label me, I am an ism of one...
Sado-Mikeyism: http://mikeysoft.zblogger.com

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