Ethel the Blog
Observations (and occasional brash opining) on science, computers, books, music and other shiny things that catch my mind's eye. There's a home page with ostensibly more permanent stuff. This is intended to be more functional than decorative. I neither intend nor want to surf on the bleeding edge, keep it real, redefine journalism or attract nyphomaniacal groupies (well, maybe a wee bit of the latter). The occasional cheap laugh, raised eyebrow or provocation of interest are all I'll plead guilty to in the matter of intent. Bene qui latuit bene vixit.

The usual copyright stuff applies, but I probably won't get enraged until I find a clone site with absolutely no attribution (which, by the way, has happened twice with some of my other stuff). Finally, if anyone's offended by anything on this site then please do notify me immediately. I like to keep track of those times when I get something right.

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"When they say, 'Gee it's an information explosion!', no, it's not an explosion, it's a disgorgement of the bowels is what it is. Every idiotic thing that anybody could possibly write or say or think can get into the body politic now, where before things would have to have some merit to go through the publishing routine, now, ANYTHING." - Harlan Ellison JOLLY OLD PALS Other stuff of mild interest to some: unusual literature scientific software blog physical oceanography glossary computer-related tutorials and texts Friday, November 12, 1999 SITINGS Saturday Night Massacre triggerman and failed Supreme Court nominee Robert Bork dissed Bush the Lesser on T. J. Walker's radio talk show on November 12. It seems that the Shrub recently used the title of Bork's Slouching Towards Gomorrah (a shrill screed about how the evils of liberalism and judicial activism are dragging the commonweal into the darkest pits of hell) while himself attempting to diss some GOP Congressmen. Bork retorted that, "He didn't read the book and I'm sure he didn't even know it was a book that he was talking about! His speechwriter put that in." But that was nothing compared to his next comment, which I'm sure cowpoke wannabe Junior will eventually refer to as "fightin' words", i.e. "I hate to tell you this, but I think Dan Quayle would have been ... is far better [than Bush] in terms of intellect and ability. I mean it, and Dan Quayle has a very undeserved reputation as a lightweight." Given that Quayle's sole claim to political or intellectual credibility is that he can look somber in a dark suit and his hair is looking more distinguished as he ages, Bork might as well have said that Dubya couldn't win a nose picking contest with a fence post. Shrubya's best strategy at this point would be to give no more speeches and answer any questions he's asked with "ka-ching ka-ching." While he may be a former cokehead and as sharp as a sack of wet mice, the $60 million of campaign swag he's got will get him plenty of respect and votes all by itself in this country, where "I'm rich" is an answer that defies rebuttal. posted by Steven Baum 11/12/1999 11:08:10 AM | link SOFTWARE A surprisingly interesting bit on /. (wow! instant street cred!) about what defines an OS leads me to the related question of how many of the things I can get my grubby paws on. I'm intellectually and emotionally involved with my Linux boxes, but there are other OSes out there deserving of an occasional mention. Cannibalizing my own stuff (i.e. another bit of shameless self promotion in the guise of content) in the Linux Software Encyclopedia yields the following (mostly) freely available offerings (all of which I think can be installed on x86-based hardware): Amoeba, a microkernel-based transparent distributed OS; AROS, an Amiga clone whose site seems to be down; Choices, an object-oriented OS written in C++; DOSEMU, a DOS emulator for Linux; eCos, an embedded, real time OS; EROS, a real time OS offering orthogonal persistence; exopc, an exokernel-based OS; FreeBSD FreeDOS, a DOS clone; HURD, the GNU microkernel-based OS; Inferno, the Lucent network OS; JOS, a Java-based OS; Mach, the microkernel on which several OSes are based; MINIX, that OS which prompted Linux to start Linux; MOSIX, Linux kernel enhancements for transparent cluster computing; NachOS, an instructional OS; NetBSD, the BSD variant that runs on a huge variety of hardware platforms; OpenBSD, the BSD variant that focuses on security and integrated cryptography; Plan 9, the famous predecessor to Inferno; RTEMS, a real time OS for embedded applications; Scout, an OS for network appliances (sort of like Inferno); SPIN, an OS that purportedly blurs the distinction between kernels and applications; 2K, a component-based network-centric OS; VSTa, a microkernel OS. Except for the BSD variants, most of the above should be considered research OSes. The hardware support will be limited, and they most likely won't be as stable as Linux and commercial UNIX variants. But, there they are, and if you've got sufficient spare time and computers and the requisite curiosity have a go. posted by Steven Baum 11/12/1999 11:02:43 AM | link SITINGS Then drug czar (and current self-appointed moral avatar of this great republic) William Bennett in 1990 on the typical American drug user: "Non-addicted users still comprise the vast bulk of our drug-involved population. There are many millions of them...Users who maintain a job and a steady income should face stiff fines...These are the users who should have their names published in local papers. They should be subject to driver's license suspension, employer notification, overnight or weekend detention, eviction from public housing, or forfeiture of the cars they drive while purchasing drugs." Bennett was apparently serious about going after white (the code phrase "users who maintain a job and a steady income") users as well as minorities (the code phrase "public housing"), as well as about targeting demand as well as supply. One can imagine the panic-stricken political apparatchiks quickly ushering Bennett into a back room and sternly lecturing him to "ixnay on the emandday idesay." Well, only until the advent of the widespread use of crack (i.e. another code phrase). posted by Steven Baum 11/12/1999 09:45:55 AM | link SITINGS One of the rhetorical flourishes used to justify the present and planned future escalation of foreign aid (a euphemism for weapons in this case) to Columbia is so it can fight "drug-financed Marxist guerrillas." Now there's a phrase that undoubtedly pushes the indicator needles off the scale in test screenings. The truth is a bit trickier. From the Contras to Noriega to the present situation in Columbia, the political right's involvement with narcotics in Central and South America goes far beyond concern for the supposed "victims of leftist narco-terrorism". They're in that swamp right up to their powder-encrusted noses, and we've been giving them guns and money (and probably lawyers) to "fight" the problem. Before you jump on the accelerating bandwagon playing the "save our chilluns by bombing the hell out of Columbian peasants" anthem, give the following a read: Juan Peron and Cocaine Politics - Robert Reed (from Consortium News) Phoney War - John Pilger (from ZNet) Washington's Role in Columbian Repression - Matthew Knoester (from ZNet) Columbia Support Network, an organization attempting to improve the human rights situation in Columbia posted by Steven Baum 11/12/1999 09:09:50 AM | link Thursday, November 11, 1999 SCIENCE (Pt. 3) Note: This is part three of the Ice Ages: Solving the Mystery review and summary. Now that the theory had caught up with the data, it was time for the data to return the favor. Milankovitch had leapfrogged the theory far beyond the available data. Up until 1950, all geological dating (there's a joke here that I'm not going to touch) was either absolute dates based on extrapolating processes assumed to be both gradual and constant, or relative dates based on positional information in the geological record. The radiocarbon dating method became generally available in 1951, but its accuracy was limited to the last 40,000 years. This allowed the most recent glacial maximum to be accurately dated, but it begged for supplemental methods, especially since those misusing it to obtain dates out of its range of validity were causing doubts to once again be cast on the validity of the astronomical theory. From the mid-1940s through the 1960s several developments led to the acquisition of a flood of new data including: the growing recognition that the remains of microscopic marine organisms contain information about oceanic conditions during their lifetimes, with certain species indicative of specific temperatures or ranges; the recognition that the remains of these organisms are buried in sediment in layers, with deeper layers meaning older sediments; Maurice Ewing recognizing their value and insisting that all Lamont Geological Observatory oceanographic cruises take piston cores every day; David Ericson instituting assembly line methods for collecting and collating data from the hundreds of cores per year collected; Cesare Emiliani's development of an independent method for estimating past temperatures based on the oxygen isotope composition of the remains of the organisms rather than their species composition; the development by John Imbrie and others of a statistical method for estimating past temperatures using an assemblage of all plankton species found in cores rather than just a few considered indicators; the study of ancient sea level oscillations by Rhodes Fairbridge (with sea level being directly connected to glaciation, i.e. more land ice means less ocean water means lower sea level); the development of new dating techniques that pushed the accuracy barrier from 40,000 years for samples containing radiocarbon to almost any age for volcanic rocks using the potassium-argon method; and the recognition that deep sea cores contain records of variations in the earth's magnetic field that are globally simultaneous and have occurred throughout the history of the earth. These advances combined to allow deep sea cores to be obtained, analyzed and dated to detail the history of the Pleistocene, i.e. the last 1.8 million years over which glacial cycles have been prominent. The organisms in the cores are analyzed for oxygen isotope fluctuations indicating both temperature and land ice fluctuations, the magnetic reversal events and potassium-argon dating are used to pin down the times of a few selected points in the core, and the calculated Milankovitch variations are fitted to the similar isotopic variations in the core. The data and the theory have been harmonized. I'm skipping many important and fascinating details that the authors cover marvelously well. The goal here has been to offer a non-dummies view of the development of one of the most interesting and significant scientific theories of the last century. Not all or even most of the questions have been answered, for instance why the glacial cycles suddenly started 1.8 million years ago (I'll attempt to cover the theories in a future entry), but the astronomical theory of the ice ages has been well established and is accepted as a fact. My only criticism (and a pathetically weak one it is) is that the book came out in 1979 and the authors haven't updated it to reflect the tremendous amount of research done in the last two decades. This book deserves the highest of honors and a wide readership - so buy it already instead of some piece of ephemeral piffle. I demand to be castigated for any part of this overview that obfuscates rather than illuminates the book. It deserves much better than me muddling up its valuable contents. But please wait until tomorrow as my mind is fading fast. posted by Steven Baum 11/11/1999 10:39:44 PM | link SCIENCE (Pt. 2) Note: This is part two of the Ice Ages: Solving the Mystery review and summary. In 1875 a former Scottish mechanic named James Croll combined the idea of changes in the tilt angle with a couple of related ideas to push the theory a bit further. The earth revolves around the sun in an elliptic rather than circular path, with eccentricity being a measure of how much a circle must be squeezed to make a given ellipse. This means that the earth is alternately closer to and further away from the sun during the year as is moves through the squashed and distended parts of the ellipse whose eccentricity - like the axis tilt - is known to vary over time. They vary because the same gravitational force that exists between the earth and sun exists between the earth and all other bodies in the solar system, with these smaller influences serving to nudge the larger earth-sun system just a wee bit out of whack, e.g. causing small variations in the tilt and eccentricity. Croll found that while eccentricity variations had no effect on the heat received by the earth over a year, they did effect the amount of heat received during each season. So even if an eccentricity change couldn't cool the entire earth, it could make it cooler in, say, winter. This would favor the increased accumulation of snow, which would cause an additional loss of heat by decreasing the surface albedo (i.e. the percentage of incoming solar radiation actually absorbed at the surface). Thus, any small heat reducing variation in eccentricity resulting in increased snow would be amplified by that snow in a process now called "positive feedback." Another long-term variation in the earth's orbit causes the point on the elliptical orbit at which winter occurs to vary. This precession of the equinoxes causes, for example, winters to be warmer than usual if they occur when the earth is closest to the sun. If the earth's orbit were circular, this would have no seasonal effect, but as the eccentricity increases so does the seasonal effect. In periods when eccentricity is high, winters occurring at the most distant parts of the orbital ellipse are exceptionally cold. Croll calculated the combined effects of all the orbital variations and, assuming that glaciers only grow when winters are colder than a critical value, predicted that the last ice age ended 90,000 years ago when the orbital variations dipped below that value and haven't exceeded it since. Over the next 30 years the theory was heavily debated but ultimately lost support when the geological evidence showed the last ice age ending around 10,000 rather than 90,000 years ago, i.e. the prediction didn't agree with the evidence. This was the situation until a mathematican named Milutin Milankovitch and a climatologist named Wladimir Koeppen revisited the problem starting in the early 1920s. They found that Croll's theory wasn't wrong but that rather it was incomplete and that one of his critical assumptions was incorrect. He had failed to take into account that the variations in orbital parameters cause the amount of sunlight reaching the earth's surface to vary with latitude as well as with season. He also incorrectly assumed that maximally cold winters were most conducive to glacier formation, when minimally warm summers are the actual decisive factor. The latter inhibits melting over the summer, which increases the snow budget and leads to glacial expansion. The former doesn't have much of an effect since, if it's already cold enough for snow, making it slightly colder isn't really going to change things. Milankovitch laboriously repeated Croll's calculations and correctly predicted the end of the last glacial period being around 10,000 years ago. He produced a curve predicting glacial maximums over the last 600,000 years that agreed fairly well with the available evidence. Looks like there's going to be a third part. posted by Steven Baum 11/11/1999 04:07:41 PM | link SCIENCE (Pt. 1) That there was an ice age is an accepted fact today, with the phrase's colloquial use ("Man, it's like an ice age this winter!") indicative of its implicit acceptance even among disinterested layfolk. The massive ice sheets covering large parts of the northern hemisphere land masses reached their maximum extent around 21,000 years ago, but melted slowly back until they reached their present positions about 7000 years ago. Human memories of the event retreated as well, such that the huge glacial sediment deposits left by the glaciers - when disovered - were attributed to the great flood. This was believed well into the 18th century until a chain of events began that led to the scientific and eventual public acceptance of not only the fact of the ice ages (yes, there was more than one) but also a plausible theory explaining why they occurred. Ice Ages: Solving the Mystery by John and Katherine Palmer Imbrie - the first author a scientist heavily involved in putting together some of the final pieces of the puzzle in the 1970s and the second (his daughter) a science writer - offers an accurate and interesting account of those events. The theory that an ice age had occurred was elevated above moribund speculation by the famous geologist Louis Agassiz when - in an address to the Swiss Society of Natural Scientists in 1837 - he argued that the scratched and faceted boulders ubiquitous in the nearby Jura mountains could only be interpreted as evidence of past glaciation. Many years of furious debate followed, with the mounting evidence leading to the theory's general acceptance both scientifically and otherwise by the mid-1860s. A flood of investigators immediately began serious work on the matter, and within a decade had discovered both the extent of the ice sheets and that there had been a succession of ice ages, each obscuring the evidence of those preceding it. The "what?" part of mystery was solved, leaving the considerably more difficult "why?" part to be explained. Dozens of explanations were advanced including: cyclic decreases in the output of the sun that cool the earth; intermittently scattered concentrations of dust particles in space whose presence causes cycles of either the earth cooling due to more sunlight being reflected or the earth warming due to the particles falling into the sun and heating it up (a nice example of equal and opposite theories, that); cyclic changes in atmospheric carbon dioxide, the greenhouse gas that bedevils us today; cyclic epochs of explosive volcano eruptions that cool the earth by filling the sky with reflective dust particles; vast vertical movements of the earth's crust during which the increase in elevation would cause surface temperatures to drop; and various theories involving complex nonlinear interactions among the atmosphere, ocean, ice sheets and biosphere to cause the waxing and waning of the ice sheets. All proved lacking because they either contradicted the available evidence or were untestable at the time. Then, not five years after Agassiz's address, a first and largely incorrect version of what is now called the astronomical theory was advanced. We have seasons because the earth's axis of rotation is not perpendicular to the plane containing the earth and sun. Thus, when the earth rotates around the sun, the northern and southern hemispheres alternately tilt towards and away from the sun. Tilting towards the sun results in the more direct rays of the summer months, and away in the less direct rays of the winter months. In 1842 French mathematician Joseph Adhemar theorized that since this tilting presently causes the hours of darkness in the southern hemisphere to exceed those of daylight by 168 hours each year - and that there is currently a huge glacier on Antarctica - changes in this tilt could cause the glaciers to shift to the northern hemisphere where they were located during the last ice age. It turns out that while such known changes in the axis tilt do provide part of the answer, his reasoning was wrong. Basically, both hemispheres receive the same amount of heat each year regardless of the tilt angle and the glacier on Antarctica exists for other reasons. Stay tuned for the next entry where - since I've once again run up against an apparent per-entry length limit - our story will be concluded. Really, I'm not just trying to jack up my web stats with some cheap hitwhore trick. posted by Steven Baum 11/11/1999 01:44:07 PM | link YAFL The top ten shameless moments of recent years: Clinton wagging his finger at me on national TV and telling me he didn't diddle the groupie; Henry Hyde describing his breaking up another family via diddling at age 41 as "a youthful indiscretion"; Newt Gingrich describing his resigning before being booted out by his own party (for diddling and incompetence) as an altruistic action; Bush the Lesser blowing "did I or didn't I?" smoke out his ass when queried about his youthful adventures and then claiming that this sets a good example for his draconian Holy War on Drugs stance; all the well- and over-paid pundit/whores who raked Clinton over the coals for his "I didn't inhale" bullshit and said it disqualified him from office who now aver out of the other side of their mouths that even cocaine use shouldn't disqualify a man from serving as President; the supply-side "economist"/whores who, after predicting unanimously that the tax hikes in 1993 would destroy the econony (and that the hike in the minimum wage to a level less than 1980 in equivalent dollars would do the same), still have the gall to spout it in public; the pundit/whores trashing the Morris bio of Reagan for using a fictional observer when their real gripe is with the Gipper not being nominated for godhood for living in a detached, counterfactual dreamland based on Hollywood films from the 30s and 40s; the continuous anti-government vitriol spouted by idiots west of the Rockies who would be drinking sand if the frigging gummint hadn't pushed through the largest engineering project in history to divert fresh water to their balmy desert oases; all advertisements all the time; and something relatively recent that I can't quite remember. posted by Steven Baum 11/11/1999 10:09:24 AM | link YAMMERING Never invite Harlan and Bacchus to the same party. The edge in his voice should've tipped me off. posted by Steven Baum 11/11/1999 08:59:38 AM | link Wednesday, November 10, 1999 PERSPECTIVE CORNER I'll be blunt: Mahir - con or not - is about as interesting and lasting as a flea fart in a hurricane as compared to the least talented of any of the Algonquin Round Tablers on their worst day. Since when has whining about a lack of sex (for real or otherwise) been intrinsically more interesting than anybody with real talent doing anything more onerous than wiping their ass? I won't name names (and not just because my short term memory has gone to hell) since inverse logrolling is every bit as annoying as logrolling, but shouldn't the difference between that which is substantial and that which is ephemeral be frigging obvious to people who can supposedly simultaneously walk and scratch their asses? You've got an opportunity here to impart the highlights and wisdom of a lifetime of experience - to distill the essence thereof for the edification and entertainment of others - and you choose to jump on bandwagons and engage in mutual admiration societies. As much as I hate to drag the "A"-word into it, I'll let Harlan Ellison say that, "Art should always be tough. Art should demand something of you. Art should involve foot-pounds of energy being expelled. It's not supposed to be easier, and those who want it easier should not be artists. They should be out selling public relations copy." Let's change "art" to "self expression" in the above - since it's both more accurate and a less loaded expression. Anybody can click on a "click here" link and read the same damned thing that you did, and anyone interested will find it even without your help. You read it and found it interesting. Why? Do you have a special or additional slant on it that should be heard? Is something missing that should be noted? You are supposed to be the difference between a provocative and evocative recapitulation of a news item and a Perl script that automatically extracts it. And, as far as I can tell, you are capable of this - if only because you are obviously interested. "Less is more" is not just a cliche. Tell us why YOU think something should be more well known - and not just because it's exceeded some threshold of ephemeral popularity. posted by Steven Baum 11/10/1999 11:54:25 PM | link STRANGE WIT (Part the Second) Since the Blogger software apparently has a length limit, I'll finish the previous entry here. To wit: In a more serious vein, some of the Tablers' output hasn't held up well over the years. That which still reads well includes the Lardner and Parker short stories, the Ferber novels, and some of the Benchley humor, although a good production of either Kaufman play can push back the encroaching gloomies for an appreciable length of time. Okay, to be truthful, even bad productions of "You Can't" have done me just right. posted by Steven Baum 11/10/1999 11:38:41 PM | link STRANGE WIT The group of wits called the Algonquin Round Table was named for a large round table around which they convened in the Algonquin Hotel in New York City throughout the wild 1920s, trading barbs about each other and the other celebrities of the day. The key players in this circle were: Franklin Pierce Adams (1881-1960), considered the founder of the group and the author of the column "The Conning Tower" that appeared in three New York newspapers over a 30 year period; Robert Benchley (1889-1945), a long-time drama critic and writer of humorous prose who's perhaps best known today as the father of the author of "Jaws"; Heywood Broun (1888-1939), a newspaper columnist noted for being a crusader against social injustice; George S. Kaufman (1889-1961), the author of more than forty plays and music comedies, with two of them - "Of Thee I Sing" written with Morrie Ryskind and "You Can't Take It With You"" written with Moss Hart - winning Pulitzer Prizes; Ring Lardner (1885-1933), who started out as a sports writer and ended up as one of the foremost American short story writers; Dorothy Parker (1893-1967), who divided her time between literary criticism and writing short stories and poetry and was probably the sharpest wit in the bunch; Alexander Woollcott (1887-1943), a literary and drama critic as well as an essayist on manners of taste and fashion; and Edna Ferber, novelist ("Giant") and playwright. The less regular members of the group included Harold Ross (legendary editor of "The New Yorker"), Art Samuels (editor of "Harper's Bazaar"), Frank Crowninshield (editor of "Vanity Fair"), Herman Mankiewicz (a press agent at the time but later a famed Hollywood producer), Harpo Marx, Paul Robeson, Noel Coward, Alfred Lunt, Tallulah Bankhead, Lynn Fontanne and Charles McArthur (humorist and playwright). To bastardize a political anecdote I can only partially remember, when they convened there was more literary talent concentrated in a single room since the last time Johnson and Boswell dined (i.e. boozed) together. A sprinkling of the bon mots collected by Robert Drennan in The Algonquin Wits (1968, but apparently coming back to print in a new edition in 1999) include: When Woollcott obtained a first-edition of one of his books and exclaimed, "Ah, what is so rare as a Woollcoott first edition?," Adams replied, "A Woollcott second edition." Benchley described a Broadway show as, "one of those plays in which all the actors unfortunately enunciated very clearly." "It took me fifteen years to discover that I had no talent for writing, but I couldn't give it up because by that time I was too famous." - Benchley Broun to Tallulah Bankhead during the run of one of her Broadway shows, "Don't look now, Tallulah, but your show's slipping." Broun remarking on his mother's right wing tendencies (as opposed to his leftist sympathies), "When the revolution comes it's going to be a tough problem what to do with her. We will either have to shoot her or make her a commissar. In the meantime we still dine together." Kaufman after perusing a lousy poker hand, "I have been traydeuced." Lardner upon meeting an ostentatious actor with dramatic hair in a theater district nightclub, "How do you look when I'm sober?" Parker reporting on a Yale prom, "If all those sweet young things present were laid end to end, I wouldn't be at all surprised." Parker upon hearing that Calvin Coolidge was dead, "How can you tell?" When told that a group of party guests were "ducking for apples," Parker commented that, "There, but for a typographical error, is the story of my life." When told that Clare Booth Luce was invariably kind to her inferiors, Parker asked, "And where does she find them?" Woollcott at a party to a woman guest, "You are married to a cuckold." In addition to the Table, there was an ongoing Saturday night poker game in the Algonquin called the Thanatopsis Literary and Inside Straight Club. Harpo Marx was the most and Alexander Woollcott the least proficient at this. An anecdote concerning this has Harold Ross winning $25,000 to start a magazine he'd been dreaming of editing for years. Anyone who needs the denouement of this to be spelled out will sit in the corner for 10 minutes. Needless to say, when I finish my Wayback Machine the first thing I'm going to do (even before heading back to the early Phanerozoic to snag some badly needed temperature measurements) is head for the Round Table so I can trade (at least half) wits with them and do my best to lure Dorothy Parker back to my place to peruse my etchings. posted by Steven Baum 11/10/1999 09:59:27 PM | link YAFL The Top 100 Languages by Population can be found in the 13th edition of Ethnologue, which has many other nice features including searching, language name and family indexes, descriptions of 6703 languages (ranging from excruciatingly detailed to maddeningly sparse), and sections for languages of special interest (those related by factors other than or in addition to linguistic or geographical similarities) including gypsy, Jewish, creole and pidgin, and deaf sign languages. The phrase "nearly extinct" occurs with disturbing frequency in the descriptions. posted by Steven Baum 11/10/1999 03:15:30 PM | link SITINGS One wonders just which bonehead politician - after hearing the word hemp and grabbing a quick martini to calm the hysteria - pulled the trigger on the August 9 DEA seizure of a truckload of sterilized Canadian hemp seed being imported for use in birdseed blends. And - in addition to the seizure (both that of the bonehead and the truck) - the DEA and U.S. Customs are threatening $500,000 in fines if Kenex - Canada's largest producer of industrial hemp products - doesn't recall previous shipments of other hemp products including oil, granola bars, horse bedding and animal feed. All the substances in question are exempt under the U.S. Controlled Substances Act and, indeed, there has never been a time when sterilized hemp seed was illegal. The seeds do not contain any THC, the psychoactive component of marijuna, and the THC content in the fibers, leaves or flowers of industrial hemp is less than 1% as opposed to 10% in the hybrids raised for other uses. Kenex hasn't been provided with any legal basis for the seizure despite repeated requests to the DEA for clarification on the matter. So what gives? Are the Holy Drug Warriors worried that America's livestock is taking that first, inevitable step towards crack whoredom? Are they having visions of crazed, drug-starved hippies stealing social security checks from the elderly and lunch money from our sacred children so they can buy enough birdseed to join Tweetee in happy cartoon land? Have they discovered that the pedophiles who control the Internet are using hemp-based horse bedding in their cells to further debase the thousands of children being held hostage to their sick, prurient fantasies? Or are they just hopelessly strung out from mainlining anti-drug hysteria, having long ago crossed the line separating reality from surreality and craving just one more euphoric rush from gravely intoning tough-on-drugs rhetoric? posted by Steven Baum 11/10/1999 11:23:17 AM | link SITINGS Early Canadiana Online is a "project to provide enhanced access to Canada's published heritage." It provides the full text (in high quality scanned images) of over 3000 books (some English and some French) and pamphlets documenting Canadian history. It claims to be "particularly strong in literature, women's history, native studies, travel and exploration, and the history of French Canada." Although the pages are scans, you can search by full text in addition to the usual author, title, etc. You can also browse by author and title. Entertaining titles include: The Intellectual Development of the Canadian People (1881) A Fraud Unmasked: The Career of Mrs. Margaret L. Shepherd, "Ex-Romanist," "Ex-Nun," "Ex-Penitent," and Bigamist: Her Own Confessions Attested by Most Reliable Witnesses (1893) The History of the Five Indian Nations of Canada (1747) The Glory of the Age, the Atlantic Cable: A Poem on the Wondrous Achievements of Science (1866) The Indian's Side of the Indian Question (1887) Hairbreadth Escapes of Major Mendax (1889) Manual of Obstetrics, Gynaecology and Pediatrics (1889) posted by Steven Baum 11/10/1999 09:53:12 AM | link Tuesday, November 09, 1999 STRANGE LIT Karl Kraus (1874-1936) was a legendary and scathing Viennese critic who achieved notoriety and influence in his time despite being almost completely ignored by the popular press. This invisibility is understandable in the context of his opinion of the press of his day being "the goiter of the world." He felt that the standards of writing were plummeting - that journalism was full of cliches and plagiarism and overwhelmed the reader with propaganda rather than information. His displeasure with the lowered standards and the restrictions placed on his writing for various publications led to his establishing his own publication in 1899. "Die Fackel"' (The Torch) was an immediate sensation and success, with the original press run of a few hundred copies having to be supplemented with ten thousand more within a few days of publication. In the 37 volumes and over 30,000 pages of that publication (which accepted no advertising after first couple of volumes) he established his reputation by attacking other publications, politicians, artists, authors and even his readers. He was probably best known for the aphorisms liberally sprinkled through "Die Fackel," with WWI providing a clear demarcation between those from early aesthetic and erotic period and his much darker post-war witticisms. Examples include: My public and I understand each other very well: it does not hear what I say, and I do not say what it would like to hear. If I knew for a fact that I might have to share immortality with certain people, I would prefer a separate oblivion. Jealousy is a dog's barking that attracks thieves. Why do some people write? Because they do not have enough character not to write. A love affair that did not remain without consequences. He presented a work to the world. The secret of the demagogue is to appear as stupid as his audience so that it can believe itself to be as smart as he. Kraus also wrote much poetry later in his life as well as the epic drama "The Last Days of Mankind." The latter was written during the war years and builds to an apocalyptic warning of impending world doom. The text is largely quotations woven into scenes of both wicked satire and utter horror, combining for one of the most powerful denunciations of war ever written. There have been several translations of Kraus into English, although a significant problem is that much of his writing is just untranslatable. In the original German they featured clever plays on words, double meanings and special connotations of words and phrases. He also used many untranslatable German terms describing the structures of Austrian/German society, systems of government, social customs and the like. Nonetheless, what has been translated is well worth a read, and what hasn't is perhaps as good a reason as any to learn German. posted by Steven Baum 11/9/1999 11:06:03 PM | link SITINGS In a piece called The Growth Concensus Unravels on AlterNet, Jonathan Rowe (of Dollars and Sense magazine) explains how growth as defined by the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) isn't necessarily a good thing. The goods and services defined by economists are value-free, i.e. anything defined as such adds to the GDP and constitutes growth. Thus the $21 billion spent per year to advertise food (not exactly something you have to force people to buy) and the $32 billion spent on the diet and weight loss industry combine to add $53 billion of growth to the economy. Former surgeon general Koop estimated that 70% of medical expenses are lifestyle-induced, with the increases in medical expenses producing growth indistinguishable from the growth produced by the lifestyle choices. Rowe comments that "It is a grueling cycle of indulgence and repentance, binge and purge. Yet each stage of this miserable experience, viewed through the pollyanic lens of economics, becomes growth and therefore good. The problem here goes far beyond the old critique of how the consumer culture cultivates feelings of inadequacy, lack and need so people will buy and buy again. Now this culture actually makes life worse, in order to sell solutions that purport to make it better." He calls this the economic conundrum of our age, with the cost side of the growth ledger counting towards economic growth every bit as much as the benefits. He also notes that the GDP ignores the economic contributions of both the natural environment and the social structure. Thus if the oceans and lakes are polluted and people have to join private swimming clubs, or if people have to buy services from the market rather than getting help from their neighbors, the economy supposedly grows, when "all that has [really] grown is the need to buy commoditized substitutes for things we used to have for free." Basically, the GDP needs to be redefined if we're going to equate "growth" defined in such a way with "good." I'm reminded of Edward Abbey's line, "Growth for the sake of growth is the motto of the cancer cell." posted by Steven Baum 11/9/1999 04:02:24 PM | link SCIENCE LIT The Samizdat Press offers several geophysical monographs and course note collections in PostScript format including: Geodesy and Gravity by John Wahr Theoretical Geomechanics by Marian Ivan Greek Seismology by Christopher Liner A Guided Tour of Mathematical Physics by Roel Snieder Inverse Problems in Geophysics by Roel Snieder and Jeannot Trampert A Physics Formulary by J.C.A. Wevers Theoretical Seismology by Martin Smith Theory of Seismic Imaging by John Scales Continuum Mechanics by George Backus Continuum Mechanics by Brian Kennett Similar offerings can be found at Claerbout's Classroom including: Geophysical Estimation by Example Basic Earth Imaging Imaging the Earth's Interior Fundamentals of Geophysical Data Processing All of these were written by Jon Claerbout, a giant in the field of geophysical data analysis. The Samizdat books are also written by well-known researchers in their fields. All these books are technically advanced but they can also be rewarding for the interested and diligent amateur. posted by Steven Baum 11/9/1999 01:44:50 PM | link YAMMERING Thinking of boycotting the local Barnes and Noble. After dinner last night, we headed over to B&N to find the usual situation, i.e. every chair and table in the place was taken by students studying. Matt wondered how they kept from being distracted by all the books, to which Bill countered that these people were uninterested in books other than the ones they had to read for classes. The store tried "This section reserved for our non-studying customers" signs for a while, but it seems they've given up on that since the freeloaders just ignored them. There's a touch of irony given that the students at Texas A&M traditionally vote 95% GOP, with rants about welfare bums a common occurrence. So why do they do this? The university just spent millions doubling the size of the library, with the addition built specifically for supplying additional studying space. The only difference is that they'd have to walk a little further at the university and that the chairs would be a little less comfy. The ones I've seen leaving "study hall" have yet to purchase even a bookmark. I should suggest to the management to informally keep track of this and take appropriate action. It's not alienating customers when they don't buy anything. Is it this bad elsewhere? posted by Steven Baum 11/9/1999 08:54:37 AM | link Monday, November 08, 1999 YAFL The march towards the top 100 top 100 continues with a whole passel of lists at the HARTBEAT! site. They've got 8 top 100 albums lists, 15 singles lists, and 8 B-sides lists. They lean towards "punk, power pop, garage rock, beat, rock 'n' roll and psychedelic music beyond the mainstream from the 60s to today." More interesting than most such lists, especially since they include the Monks' Black Monk Time on one of the lists. A related item finds a Jon Pareles review of a Monks reunion show in today's (11/8/99) New York Times. posted by Steven Baum 11/8/1999 05:01:21 PM | link SITINGS A front-page article in today's (11/8/99) New York Times ("Acoustic music, live from the living room" by Neil Strauss) meshes nicely with recent experience. Over 300 homeowners nationwide have turned their living rooms into part-time concert venues, providing an alternative to commercial venues for musical artists whose shows usually attract from a few dozen to perhaps 80 people. The reasons given for the increasing popularity of such shows include other performance outlets drying up due to hostility from the police and community groups, people hungry for community and looking for ways to get together that aren't heavily commercialized, and the Internet. The web allows those who hold the concerts to promote them at little or no cost, keep in contact with each other, and to locate the mostly acoustic musicians amenable to such venues (who are themselves increasingly establishing Internet presences). Just a couple of Fridays ago I attended a local (Bryan, Texas) house concert featuring Darcie Deaville, an impressive multi-instrumentalist and singer/songwriter from Austin. This concert had its genesis in a local commercial venue's cancellation of a scheduled show with only three days notice. It was a most enjoyable evening of good music, the sort of cool evening breeze that's all too rare here in Texas, and some reasonably good scotch. The house (with a generous deck in the back) and graciousness of our host Gary also served to enhance the evening. The only possible dark cloud on the house concert horizon might involve legal difficulties. Since most houses aren't zoned for commercial purposes, officially charging admission is technically illegal. But, given the low profitability (or no profitability given the number of local venues that've opened and closed in recent years) of such shows, the police probably won't get pressured by Chamber of Commerce types to get medieval on the house owners. Several of those involved say as much in the article. About 90 of the places around the country giving house concerts are listed at houseconcerts.com, a site run by the same folks running the "Flowers in the Desert" concert series in Brenham, Texas (about 45 minutes away from here and otherwise famous for Bluebell ice cream). posted by Steven Baum 11/8/1999 03:16:24 PM | link YAFL The Globe and Mail - not wanting to miss out on the Lisztomania portending the coming apocalypse - offers the Millenium 100, their take on the most influential people of the millenium. This one was compiled from lists of 20 submitted by over 1000 readers. posted by Steven Baum 11/8/1999 01:48:25 PM | link SITINGS Being prone to the appropriately abbreviated S.A.D. - with my move to south-central Texas from Ohio in the early 80s nearly justified by that alone - I couldn't help but enjoy a piece called Escape from November by Brian Kellow in the Globe and Mail. He describes the methods he and his friends use to combat the effects of the gloomy nasties in the final months of the year in Toronto (a period Bill assures me is indeed dismally dark). The strategies include more trips to the gym (works for me, too), reading Jane Austen and listening to Mozart, and - Kellow's panacea - listening to Schubert, drinking sherry in the afternoon, and reading Miss Read (pronounced like the color). Miss Read (aka Dora Saint) wrote a series of novels about the fictional Cotswold villages of Fairacre and Thrush Green, starting with the introductory Village School in the mid-1950s. She wrote about 30 related novels over the next several decades in which - in anticipation of the Seinfeld leitmotif - nothing much actually happens. The crowning moment of mining this thematic ore was a novel-length dispute over building a ramp or concrete steps for the new home for the elderly. Kellow's column is a joy to read, and his writing style reminds me why I should stick to these sorts of terse and dry synopses rather than let my reach exceed my grasp (or is that the other way around?). posted by Steven Baum 11/8/1999 11:07:13 AM | link SITINGS Looking for some elusive statistic to elevate an argument above the "blowing smoke out your arse" stage? Mickey's Place in the Sun is chock full of statistics and research resources on just about every topic on which you might want to pontificate. He's got sections on all the hot button topics like abuse, crime, drugs, economics, education, homelessness, immigration and public opinion. Keep in mind that for every statistic there is a counter-statistic which may or may not be equal. Numbers can lie just as readily as words, a point well illustrated in Darrell Huff's classic How to Lie With Statistics (first published in the 1930s so this ain't exactly late-breaking news). Even maps aren't innocent, as is demonstrated in the like-titled How to Lie With Maps by Mark Monmonier and H. J. DeBlij. An even bigger problem than deliberate misuse is the ignorant use of statistics, although I'm not getting the opener near that can of worms. posted by Steven Baum 11/8/1999 10:14:34 AM | link SPORT And in the world of sport, two chaps from India have broken the world record in cricket for a one-day international partnership, putting on 331 runs against a woefully overmatched New Zealand. Sachin Tendulkar (who was unbeaten after a 186 containing 19 fours and four sixes) and Rahul Dravid (who hit 15 fours and two sixes on his way to 153 in the second wicket partnership) reached a final total of 376 for two, the highest score ever by India in a one-day international. They were particularly brutal on a couple of Kiwis named Chris - Cairns, who conceded 73 in ten overs, and Drum, who they beat like his name for 85 off nine. Tendulkar especially had his way with Drum, plundering 28 runs in one all-boundary over, including a huge pulled six and five fours. I only wish that I'd been there and also that I had the slightest idea what the hell all those spiffy terms mean. I'll have to add learning about cricket to my list of potential time sinks. posted by Steven Baum 11/8/1999 09:05:36 AM | link Sunday, November 07, 1999 STRANGE LIT While idly browsing through an antique shop connected to a cafe after lunch at the latter (the downtown section of most small towns in Texas consisting of not much more than antique shops these days), I spied a copy of Doctor and Son by Richard Gordon acting as filler between a set of rather pricey bookends. It had no price, so I took it to the checkout counter and was quoted a price of $10, for which I bought it immediately what with any of the Doctor series being tricky to find these days. Upon closer scrutiny it's turned out to be a 1st (British) edition from 1959, and in very good condition. According to the Library of Congress, these are the Doctor novels penned by the pseudonymous Richard Gordon (i.e. G. Ostlere): Doctor in the House (1952) Doctor at Sea (1953) Doctor at Large (1955) Doctor in Love (1957) Doctor and Son (1959) Doctor in Clover (1960) Doctor in the Swim (1962) Doctor on the Boil (1970) Doctor on the Brain (1972) Doctor in the Nest (1979) Doctor in the Soup (1986) Movies versions followed soon after the publication of the first book. According to the Internet Movie Database, the Doctor movies are: Doctor in the House (1954) Doctor at Sea (1955) Doctor at Large (1957) Doctor in Love (1960) Doctor in Distress (1963) Doctor in Clover (1966) Doctor in Trouble (1970) The first three star the inimitable Dirk Bogarde as Simon and later Dr. Sparrow. The good Doctor hasn't escaped the notice of the telly, either. According to the Definitive UK Sitcom List, the related TV shows are: Doctor in the House (1969-70) Doctor at Large (1971) Doctor in Charge (1972-73) Doctor at Sea (1974) Doctor on the Go (1975-77) Doctor Down Under (1979-80) (Australian) Doctor's Daughters (1981) Doctor at the Top (1991) The obligatory Monty Python connection has Graham Chapman and John Cleese co-writing the first episode of the first TV series in 1969. Chapman co-wrote nine more episodes that year, and both he and Cleese would separately write several more episodes over the years. Chapman also appeared as Roddy in the 1970 "Doctor in Trouble" film. posted by Steven Baum 11/7/1999 11:47:03 AM | link

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