Hi - replies -

[Alan Sondheim]

Hi - just to summarize my replies quickly -

In regard to Jonathen's assertion - Well, yes and no. The digital is a
mapping on the analog; it always requires energy. If the analog simply
_is,_ the digital simply _isn't_; if the analog exists in the real, the
digital occupies the theoretical/abstract, and its mapping, which appears
digital - i.e. 0s and 1s, on the subatomic level, is entangled.

Julia asserts that all cats are allergens; that's only partially true. If
you bathe them or live with one, the two of you will get used to each
other.

Marianne, I think you totally misread me. There was no insult intended.
Sometimes I'm just too tired to think clearly - I shouldn't reply at all
in these states. Please accept my apologies; I'd like to continue the
discussion.

Richardson: I think you're wrong here. Yes, the audion was created by
Fleming, but wasn't it de Forest who brought it to fruition, with the
addition of the grid? My history is hazy. I do know that once the _idea_
of the tube was released to the world, development was rapid. It was
difficult at first with the spark gap, which stuttered across the
electromagnetic spectrum; the very concept of a tuned circuit ("syntony")
was unknown. The apparatus was so simple, the concepts so difficult!
Edison's work always capitalized on this - the light-bulb, phonograph,
motion picture - they all could have been constructed with 18th-century
technology.

May, you night have to revise the extinction rate upwards. A few years ago
it was 3-4 species / hr.; at the moment, with the opening up of new areas
for oil exploration, increased rates of global warming, etc., the
catastrophic is breathing down our neck.

Starflight, try
Do[Plot3D[ (x^3 + 4y^3)*Exp[-(x^2 + y^n)], {x, -5, 5}, {y, -5, 5},
       PlotPoints -> 80, Boxed -> False, Axes -> False,
       ViewPoint -> {1.041, 2.877, 28}, Background -> RGBColor[.2, 0, 0] ,
       ClipFill -> None], {n, 1, 10, .5} ];
- it worked for me. Do ContourPlot might be more useful in terms of
resolution; I'll try that later. I did substitute some trigonometric
functions, but they're really obdurate - they immediately dominated the
animation. Anyway, take this stuff and drop it into QT pro.

Larry - thanks for the package and INSPIRE information. I'm probably going
to build the VLF radio described. In one of the papers, the sounds of
early-morning motors is described; I'd like to record that, a town waking
up, the stirring of the power-grid itself. These lf radiations entering
space probably dominate just about anything else except perhaps what
Arecibo produces.

And finally Sharon, I've never been into sexual cutting. Splaying the body
apart, binding it, exhibitions of all sorts, liquid immersions, but
nothing that would really alter things on a more or less permanent level.
It's true I can see the advantage of inscribing a history of encounters on
the self, the degradation and abjection that would permanently accompany
one, but it also frightens me. I think the descent is irreversible; I
wouldn't be surprised if endorphins are eventually involved, with the real
possibility of bodily harm.

Thanks to everyone, and apologies for this group reply -

- Alan