I tend to think it's better that I (the wireless customer) pay for the convenience of having a wireless phone than ask the people who call me to do it for me

Alas, I've heard this argument 100 times. My opinion is: if you're happy to pay for incoming calls, go ahead.
But why should everybody be forced to pay for incoming calls? It's lucky for people in most other places in the world not to have to use such a freedom-restricted system.

Why should my mother with the landline phone pay an extra surcharge to call me just because I have a wireless phone? What value is she getting from my ownership of a wireless phone?

Indeed, following this argument, why should they pay to call you at all, only because you want to be reachable by phone? And why should callers have to pay long-distance charges only because some people they want to reach chose to be available only at a distant place?

But it gets worse: how can companies only in this country get away by charging for incoming SMS messages, which receivers can not refuse nor filter by caller ID?
At least, one can refuse to pick up calls (and pay for incoming minutes) if they arrive from unwanted caller IDs...

It seems to me very sad: most people in this country will do anything to rationalize a 'greatest country' syndrome, finding out all possible excuses to justify worse conditions as 'better' (ranging from the abysmal health system, to the near-illiteracy provided by most of the primary school system, to double/triple pay TV reception, to outrageous internet fiber connection prices, to gun-accident-ridden society and overfilled jails, and finally to the lack of several basic freedoms enjoyed in many other more advanced democracies...) simply because they've never tried anything else; and most of their primary school system keeps them illiterate enough to prevent any understanding of other languages, thus rendering them incapable of gaining 1st hand experience in other places... very sad.

"my real problem with European cell phones is how much is costs to call them"

It's not just European cell phones: it's prettymuch everywhere in the world except the US, since everywhere else people don't pay for incoming calls on their cellphones, which is one of the most absurd charges people are forced to pay when using a US cellphone (everywhere else, people pay the cellphone cost when they call a cellphone, and they know they are calling a cellphone because cellphones have a different area code). It's as if you were paying for incoming long-distance calls on your fixed line. Would you accept that?

Next thing, you're going to tell me you also pay a monthly to watch TV programs containing commercials.... oh, wait.

But the fact remains: why oh why do people defend a system where you're forced to pay to receive calls?

"It's fitting in a numerological sort of way"

It's fitting just because 400 years ago Galileo Galilei (same name as the observatory, see?), in 1609 began his astronomical observations, and as a direct result of that came in direct conflict with the religious establishment, since he began supporting Copernicus's heliocentric theory.

Try to explain that to the enlightened individuals who still insist nowadays that the universe is 5000-6000 years old, that dinosaur bones were placed there by some humorous deity just in order to make us wonder, or simply that Evolution is 'just a theory'...

Happy round-numbered birthday to both events, I say, or in other words: eppur si muove.

correct Italian spelling: "Telescopio Nazionale Galileo" (not 'Telescopio Nationale Galileo' as written in the story blurb)