From the site "Letters of Note" which seems to be down at the moment:
Aberdeen, S. Dak. November 1, 1938
Federal Communications Commission Washington, D. C.
Gentlemen:
I have read considerable concerning the program of Orson Welles presented over the Columbia Broadcasting System Sunday evening. I suppose that by this time you have received many letters from numerous cranks and crack-pots who quickly became jitterbugs during the program. I was one of the thousands who heard this program and did not jump out of the window, did not attempt suicide, did not break my arm while beating a hasty retreat from my apartment, did not anticipate a horrible death, did not hear the Martians "rapping on my chamber door," did not see the monsters landing in war-like regalia in the park across the street, but sat serenely entertained no end by the fine portrayal of a fine play.
The "Mercury Theatre" has been one of the radio high-lights of the week for me this fall. The program Sunday, I felt, was one of their better programs.
Should your commission contemplate serious measures toward the Columbia Broadcasting System my suggestion would be that the "Mercury Theatre" be directed to re-broadcast this program and the reaction of all the listening audience be solicited.
In the interest of a continuation of the fine things in radio today, I am,
This intrigues me. If I build a house and then sell it the new owners are free to do whatever they want to it. They can modify it, they can rent it, they can sell it (for profit), they could even destroy it. What about movie scripts (books)? It seems to me the same things are possible and even likely to happen. Why exactly is software different? Should it be different?
I have cheap PCs running Ubuntu in remote locations for a project I am involved in. I have done "dist-upgrade"s and rebooted them remotely and it has worked just fine. However, I have seen some PCs that won't actually restart when a reboot command is given. They go through the shutdown and then just freeze. Someone has to cycle the power. I am assuming that something in the BIOS is set incorrectly or broken. It sounds like in your case someone would be able to press the power button if the machine didn't come back up.
Have you read "Good Night Mr. Holmes" by Carole Nelson Douglas? I read it when it came out years ago and really thought it was an excellent spin on the "Scandal in Bohemia" story.
You have shown incredible disrespect to a large number of hard working professional people. If any one of these people came to your work place and mocked you in this manner you would become quite upset. Please consider the following. The basic principles involved in actually understanding climate are not difficult. If you are capable of high school math and are willing to accept a few results from thermodynamics and physics in general you can actually do the math yourself. A simple model of radiative equilibrium is actually something you can write down and solve with pencil and paper, yes even including an atmosphere with "greenhouse" gases. After that, yes, it does become more complex. It turns out that the climate system contains many interconnected processes that respond to forcing in feedback loops. Computers do become necessary. However, the physics and mathematics behind it all are accessible. Please do yourself the favour of using your mind a little. You might be surprised how useful a tool it is.
True, the vikings had dairy cows on Greenland. The fact is that at the time of viking colonization Greenland was a miserable place (climate wise, I can't speak to the cultural milieu of the time) as it is now. There were only ever a few small pockets of land, in sheltered bays, on the coast, suitable for habitation by farmers. Even then their lives were not easy. They could barely make it work. People have lived on Greenland since the time of the vikings and even with modern comforts it's not an easy place to live.
I don't want any advertising at all. That may result in "free" sites like this ceasing to exist. I can accept that. I can not emphasize enough to people how much more pleasant adblock makes the World Wide Web.
Though I too do not really understand US law I think the DMCA protects encrypted works. Copyright law protects copyrighted works. This is the strange part to me. A US citizen may indeed have the right to do certain things with a DVD (for example) such as back it up but the DMCA makes it illegal to break the encryption so that the owner can legally copy it. I may however be mistaken about this.
This is true. Advertising is too annoying to do any good. And yet so many people just stare blankly at it. I wonder sometimes what those people have that passes for an internal thought process. Do they just never think? Why wasn't I trained by the thousands and thousands of hours of bad childhood TV to ignore the ads like most people seem to?
I agree completely. In fact this is something that I have spent a lot of time thinking about and don't really understand. I hate advertising. I hate it on TV. I hate it in magazines. I hate it on the radio. I also hate it on the internet. On the internet the adverting is so often truly offensive. It has obnoxious, vulgar content or it is annoyingly intrusive. However, finally, on the internet I can do something about it. I can easily fight back.
On the internet I use Adblock Plus. I tell everyone I know to use Adblock Plus. My primary motive for using Firefox is AdblockPlus. In fact I tell people to use AdblockPlus before I tell them to use Firefox. I could care less about what browser I use. As long it runs AdblockPlus (or equivalent -- I have no particular interest in the specifics of the tool, just that it works -- one hammer is as good as another) and is reasonably compliant to standards I am content. Can you tell I am fan of AdblockPlus?
Back to the content. I certainly do enjoy reading and viewing content on some sites. However, I never click on the ads. Really. I know what I am interested in. I am not particularly interested in acquisition of more goods. The ads are simply intrusive and annoying. So while the content is offered for free I will block the ads. If and when the content moves behind a paywall I will stop looking at it -- and for the most part not even miss it. The advertisers aren't making any money from me now and they won't make any money from me later. Think about the sites you frequent. What would change if you couldn't look at them any more? (Firstly, and perhaps most dramatically, you'd have a lot more free time.) I suspect that for most people the only sites they would end up paying for (unless the payments were extremely small) are sites that help them professionally. That is, content that helps them make money. What would you do if slashdot disappeared behind a paywall? Would it really matter to you?
This galaxy alone could be teaming with life. If a civilization progresses from the industrial revolution to transcendence in, say, 400 Earth years on average (and from their first radio broadcast to transcendence in, say, 200 years), there could be many thousands of cultures out there right now, and over the course of the past 13 or so billion years, many millions in this galaxy alone, and none of them would ever be detectable by us during this phase of our existence.
Fine. However, this is exactly the kind of thing that the Drake equation addresses with all of its factors. You are simply advocating for a change to one or more of the conditions in the equation. It has terms fc, the fraction of civilisations that can broadcast something detecable to space, and L, the length of time the civilisation broadcasts said emissions.
If we assume that, given the ability to master space travel, crocodile "lifestyle" would remain otherwise identical then what you suggest has merit. I suspect that however much it would be cool to see space travelling crocodiles they would no longer really be crocodiles at that point. They would probably have a much more complex civilisation with all of the attendant problems.
I never sneer at people who come to my office from out of no where to tell me they are interested and want to know more and participate. Unfortunately, almost universally, they have been flakes. It is difficult to sit with someone and listen and respond for an hour while they try to understand things that they could get out of one of a thousand books or by taking some undergraduate classes.
Really it is a waste of our time to sit and try to explain basic things to people. We have a system (in order of importance? university, the public library, the internet) that certainly has flaws but in general works. I hope those of you who don't work in a research community can understand, and I don't pretend to speak for all research people. I do try to be polite to all visitors but how much of my time should I spend on what is basically completely useless versus research and supporting grad students and undergraduates as well?
Would random visitors off of the street be tolerated for long in any professional work place out there?
Actually the building had steel plates on each floor to represent the real weight of the finishing materials and furnishings. There were a few dummy rooms with furnishing etc. Earthquakes don't look that bad from a distance. The shaking is strong though and the building has to stand up to it. Some of the forces exerted are stronger than gravity (the Northridge quake apparently exceeded 1.0 g -- up to 1.8 I think). In this case they are testing a new construction design and want to see if the real building matches their (computer) models.
Slashdot Mirror
It was called Greenland in an attempt to lure more settlers to come. It didn't really work out because it has always been a difficult place to live.
From the site "Letters of Note" which seems to be down at the moment:
Aberdeen, S. Dak.
November 1, 1938
Federal Communications Commission
Washington, D. C.
Gentlemen:
I have read considerable concerning the program of Orson Welles presented over the Columbia Broadcasting System Sunday evening. I suppose that by this time you have received many letters from numerous cranks and crack-pots who quickly became jitterbugs during the program. I was one of the thousands who heard this program and did not jump out of the window, did not attempt suicide, did not break my arm while beating a hasty retreat from my apartment, did not anticipate a horrible death, did not hear the Martians "rapping on my chamber door," did not see the monsters landing in war-like regalia in the park across the street, but sat serenely entertained no end by the fine portrayal of a fine play.
The "Mercury Theatre" has been one of the radio high-lights of the week for me this fall. The program Sunday, I felt, was one of their better programs.
Should your commission contemplate serious measures toward the Columbia Broadcasting System my suggestion would be that the "Mercury Theatre" be directed to re-broadcast this program and the reaction of all the listening audience be solicited.
In the interest of a continuation of the fine things in radio today, I am,
Very respectfully yours,
(Signed)
J. V. Yaukey
This intrigues me. If I build a house and then sell it the new owners are free to do whatever they want to it. They can modify it, they can rent it, they can sell it (for profit), they could even destroy it. What about movie scripts (books)? It seems to me the same things are possible and even likely to happen. Why exactly is software different? Should it be different?
I have cheap PCs running Ubuntu in remote locations for a project I am involved in. I have done "dist-upgrade"s and rebooted them remotely and it has worked just fine. However, I have seen some PCs that won't actually restart when a reboot command is given. They go through the shutdown and then just freeze. Someone has to cycle the power. I am assuming that something in the BIOS is set incorrectly or broken. It sounds like in your case someone would be able to press the power button if the machine didn't come back up.
It's fun though, isn't it?
Did you ever see How to Write Good?
Netherlands ...
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1533248/Is-this-the-end-of-the-road-for-traffic-lights.html
While I agree with you, this video from India shows how it can work. It seems to a be a case of "critical mass".
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RjrEQaG5jPM
There's also a town in the Netherlands with no traffic signals.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1533248/Is-this-the-end-of-the-road-for-traffic-lights.html
Personally I feel like traffic signals are a good thing but who knows? Maybe it would all work better without them.
I usually try to stay out of the correction game but this has been making me crazy as well.
Have you read "Good Night Mr. Holmes" by Carole Nelson Douglas? I read it when it came out years ago and really thought it was an excellent spin on the "Scandal in Bohemia" story.
I agree with you about spin. I really enjoyed it and found it quite surprising which is rare. However, don't bother with the sequel.
Aren't those compound nouns?
Dear Fellow Human,
You have shown incredible disrespect to a large number of hard working professional people. If any one of these people came to your work place and mocked you in this manner you would become quite upset. Please consider the following. The basic principles involved in actually understanding climate are not difficult. If you are capable of high school math and are willing to accept a few results from thermodynamics and physics in general you can actually do the math yourself. A simple model of radiative equilibrium is actually something you can write down and solve with pencil and paper, yes even including an atmosphere with "greenhouse" gases. After that, yes, it does become more complex. It turns out that the climate system contains many interconnected processes that respond to forcing in feedback loops. Computers do become necessary. However, the physics and mathematics behind it all are accessible. Please do yourself the favour of using your mind a little. You might be surprised how useful a tool it is.
True, the vikings had dairy cows on Greenland. The fact is that at the time of viking colonization Greenland was a miserable place (climate wise, I can't speak to the cultural milieu of the time) as it is now. There were only ever a few small pockets of land, in sheltered bays, on the coast, suitable for habitation by farmers. Even then their lives were not easy. They could barely make it work. People have lived on Greenland since the time of the vikings and even with modern comforts it's not an easy place to live.
I don't want any advertising at all. That may result in "free" sites like this ceasing to exist. I can accept that. I can not emphasize enough to people how much more pleasant adblock makes the World Wide Web.
Though I too do not really understand US law I think the DMCA protects encrypted works. Copyright law protects copyrighted works. This is the strange part to me. A US citizen may indeed have the right to do certain things with a DVD (for example) such as back it up but the DMCA makes it illegal to break the encryption so that the owner can legally copy it. I may however be mistaken about this.
This is true. Advertising is too annoying to do any good. And yet so many people just stare blankly at it. I wonder sometimes what those people have that passes for an internal thought process. Do they just never think? Why wasn't I trained by the thousands and thousands of hours of bad childhood TV to ignore the ads like most people seem to?
I agree completely. In fact this is something that I have spent a lot of time thinking about and don't really understand. I hate advertising. I hate it on TV. I hate it in magazines. I hate it on the radio. I also hate it on the internet. On the internet the adverting is so often truly offensive. It has obnoxious, vulgar content or it is annoyingly intrusive. However, finally, on the internet I can do something about it. I can easily fight back.
On the internet I use Adblock Plus. I tell everyone I know to use Adblock Plus. My primary motive for using Firefox is AdblockPlus. In fact I tell people to use AdblockPlus before I tell them to use Firefox. I could care less about what browser I use. As long it runs AdblockPlus (or equivalent -- I have no particular interest in the specifics of the tool, just that it works -- one hammer is as good as another) and is reasonably compliant to standards I am content. Can you tell I am fan of AdblockPlus?
Back to the content. I certainly do enjoy reading and viewing content on some sites. However, I never click on the ads. Really. I know what I am interested in. I am not particularly interested in acquisition of more goods. The ads are simply intrusive and annoying. So while the content is offered for free I will block the ads. If and when the content moves behind a paywall I will stop looking at it -- and for the most part not even miss it. The advertisers aren't making any money from me now and they won't make any money from me later. Think about the sites you frequent. What would change if you couldn't look at them any more? (Firstly, and perhaps most dramatically, you'd have a lot more free time.) I suspect that for most people the only sites they would end up paying for (unless the payments were extremely small) are sites that help them professionally. That is, content that helps them make money. What would you do if slashdot disappeared behind a paywall? Would it really matter to you?
This galaxy alone could be teaming with life. If a civilization progresses from the industrial revolution to transcendence in, say, 400 Earth years on average (and from their first radio broadcast to transcendence in, say, 200 years), there could be many thousands of cultures out there right now, and over the course of the past 13 or so billion years, many millions in this galaxy alone, and none of them would ever be detectable by us during this phase of our existence.
Fine. However, this is exactly the kind of thing that the Drake equation addresses with all of its factors. You are simply advocating for a change to one or more of the conditions in the equation. It has terms fc, the fraction of civilisations that can broadcast something detecable to space, and L, the length of time the civilisation broadcasts said emissions.
If we assume that, given the ability to master space travel, crocodile "lifestyle" would remain otherwise identical then what you suggest has merit. I suspect that however much it would be cool to see space travelling crocodiles they would no longer really be crocodiles at that point. They would probably have a much more complex civilisation with all of the attendant problems.
Don't forget that all species alive today are good survivors and probably for the most part equivalently good survivors. Except for pandas.
Well done sir. I happened to be rereading that book lately.
I agree. It is not a good example of anything except perhaps how extreme year to year variability can be.
I never sneer at people who come to my office from out of no where to tell me they are interested and want to know more and participate. Unfortunately, almost universally, they have been flakes. It is difficult to sit with someone and listen and respond for an hour while they try to understand things that they could get out of one of a thousand books or by taking some undergraduate classes.
Really it is a waste of our time to sit and try to explain basic things to people. We have a system (in order of importance? university, the public library, the internet) that certainly has flaws but in general works. I hope those of you who don't work in a research community can understand, and I don't pretend to speak for all research people. I do try to be polite to all visitors but how much of my time should I spend on what is basically completely useless versus research and supporting grad students and undergraduates as well?
Would random visitors off of the street be tolerated for long in any professional work place out there?
Two houses. One reinforced. Shaken at the same time.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kc652Zp5qWk
Actually the building had steel plates on each floor to represent the real weight of the finishing materials and furnishings. There were a few dummy rooms with furnishing etc. Earthquakes don't look that bad from a distance. The shaking is strong though and the building has to stand up to it. Some of the forces exerted are stronger than gravity (the Northridge quake apparently exceeded 1.0 g -- up to 1.8 I think). In this case they are testing a new construction design and want to see if the real building matches their (computer) models.