Dave does the mailbag bit

[Dave Hsu <hsu@eneevax.umd.edu>]

Refreshing not to hear from me for a few days, isn't it?  But now that
they've removed the legionella from all our AC units, and our ethernet
is on good terms with our broadband again, it's time to pummel your
screens with more superficial comments.  What can I tell ya?  It's
finals week.

>Really-From: nessus (Doug Alan)
>This is the official narration in KB's "Breathing" as printed in the
>KBC newsletter...

Ulp.  If I turn any redder in the face, I may end up permanently
orange.  Having read the rest of the text, I concede that it does not
look that familiar after all.  Except for the bit about the initial
flash...I think somebody else used almost the same words, "far more
dazzling than any light on earth, brighter even than the sun itself"
but I still can't place it.

>Really-From: marko@elrond.CalComp.COM (D. Mark Ouellette)
>  Firstly, a couple reasons why the TK symbol appears on the
>cover of "Somewhere In Time" cover.  The Maiden members are pretty
>much all avowed Kate fans, I've read this in numerous interviews with
>various members.  As an aside I'll also toss in another unlikely Metal
>band who are Kate fans, Metallica.

Amazing what you learn in this group, isn't it?

>Really-From: bc@mit-amt.media.mit.edu (bill coderre)
>Hey Moderatorio:
>
>If you wanna drop by the Media Lab and borrow an AKAI S900 digital
>sampler, we can "unmask" the various reversed Kate-things in a matter
>of seconds. Yeah, I guess it would be easy to make a tape, too. Plenty
>of those around.
>
>The sound quality will be a lot better than some reversal cassette
>hack. Sampling time is 11 seconds at highest bandwidth (20KHz
>sampled), and goes down in relation to length.

In deference to losing a lot of skin from dragging capstans by hand, I
came up with the same solution, but using somewhat more normal hardware.
If Andrew is still collecting slowed-down versions of the "X4" message
for comparison, I could always make a tape of the passage in question at
various speeds.  The current method of choice is to sample the CD in stereo
at 50kHz, 12 bits with a Masscomp, and play it back at whatever speed I
feel like.  40k seems to be about the lowest usefully intelligible playback
speed.  Now, if only the speech recognition guys would finish up their
programs sooner...

>If that isn't long enough, then we could always record the whole
>goddam album onto 1" video tape, which plays forwards and backwards at
>any speed at all. Pretty good sound too.

Hmmm...forgot about this one.

>You may wonder why I offer if I couldn't care less about Kate Bush.
>Maybe just as a hack, maybe just to get this discussion over with...

Hey...wait a minute...

>Really-From: Dan Stewart <STEWART_SYS%uta.edu@RELAY.CS.NET>
>I'm told that according to the Times-Herald this past weekend, on Thursday,
>May 28th, there's going to be a screening of the Whole Story video at The
>Video Bar downtown in Deep Elum.  Supposedly, this will include record co. 
>people with free promo's, the press, and Kate herself!  Starts at 10:00pm.

Does this make 3 trips to the States, or 4?  And what or where is Deep
Elum (not that this Hound will be able to attend)?

>Really-From: Neil Calton <nbc@vd.rl.ac.uk>
>>From: IED0DXM%UCLAMVS.BITNET@wiscvm.wisc.edu
>>Subject: "No, I suppose not!"
>
>>The issue we face here is whether that is something to be
>>"regulated" or not. In IED's opinion, there should be ABSOLUTELY
>>NO censorship of ANYONE'S writing OF ANY KIND, NO MATTER HOW
>>"OFFENSIVE". There is no reason on earth strong enough for suppressing
>>anyone's verbal communication. 
>
>Does this mean that we should give free reign to the likes of nazis, the
>KKK, paedophiles et cetera? Surely one has to draw the line somewhere -
>though where that line is is, I admit, difficult to define.

I think we all have more or less the same thing in mind, but yes Neil,
as a matter of fact, we probably should let members of those groups you
mention (and others) speak.  Speech is hardly granting someone free
reign; any action on the listener's part is a product of that person's
free will.  With your examples, in particular, the idealized American
way to deal with the problem is to debate the issues and hopefully
enlighten onlookers, instead of silencing the speaker, and action which
usually leaves listeners as confused as ever, while lending credence or
at least legitimacy, to the speaker's cause.  I won't suggest that
we've always done such a good job putting the idea to practice, but
that's what they tell us our Constitution was designed to do.  Is that
brand of philosophical Darwinism so bad, Neil?

But that's not the problem here.  The Love-Hounds struggle with the
question of what is slanderous (under the new ECA, is it also libelous?)
and defamatory versus what is simply insulting, and what kind of due
process exists for people with gripes.  Now, could we get back to
discussing things Kate-ian?

from the metro area that gave you both Howard Stern and Tipper Gore,

-dave
-- 
David T. Hsu			Newsaholic Emeritus
ARPA:	hsu@eneevax.umd.edu	UUCP: [seismo,allegra]!mimsy!eneevax!hsu
USNAIL: soon leaving the EE Computer Facility, U of Md, College Park, MD 20742
"And in our world a heart of darkness, a firezone"