THE ABQ CORRESPONDENT

ISSN 1087-2302 Online Edition Number 154......November 2008
Published since 1985 for clients and contacts of
ABQ Communications Corporation, the focus of
The ABQ Correspondent is "the impact of new
technology on society." If you'd like to receive e-mail
notification when each monthly issue is posted, please
let us know. Reach us at: correspo at swcp dot com
...and our Skype ID, not surprisingly, is: Correspo

STEADY AS A ROCK...OR NOT
It’s comforting to know that we’ve figured out certain facts, and can use those facts confidently to predict what will happen under a given set of circumstances. One fact in which we have considerable confidence is that radioactive decay occurs at a statistically reliable, steady rate, and the half-life of a radioactive element is so predictable that you can set your watch by it. True there is some disagreement over the decay rates of such isotopes as titanium-44, silicon-32, and cesium-137, but measuring techniques and equipment do tend to vary somewhat, so we’re not surprised by such differences of opinion. Recently, however, some folks have discovered, to their surprise, and probably annoyance, that the decay rates of silicon-32 and radium-226 seem to vary when they are measured at different times over many years. Even more interesting is the discovery that the variations in decay rate of the two elements occur in synchrony, making one wonder how many, if not all, other radioactive materials will show the same effect when we begin to look at them closely. Even more...the changes appear to correlate with the distance of Earth from the sun at the time of measurement. The fellows have come up with a few thoughts about causes for this effect... neutron flux from the sun that might affect nuclear decay, or even the presence of a field surrounding the sun that affects the nature of things within its sphere of influence. Earth is certainly within that sphere. Mighty intriguing. Nobody mentioned in the report we saw just how big the variation was, presumably “not very,” and our measuring capabilities improve steadily. This item caught our attention especially because of a long remembered comment of Iben Browning’s that the decay rate of one isotope... technetium, if memory serves, and we can no longer ask Iben...can be affected chemically. He thought that was rather peculiar. Those of us with limited grasp of these matters may be vastly reassured to hear that some of the facts we think we know about physics are not reliably factual. It means we have lots more exciting things to discover and revel in.

THE INVENTIVE SPIRIT REIGNS
Some will recall Meredith Edwards, who planned her wedding date around the availability of a baboon who reliably throws flower petals at people. The beast’s managers wisely backed out at the last second, but disappointed wedding attendees were offered forklift operating lessons instead, maintaining the tone of the affair. See her outdated website. Recently, Meredith passed on this news:
“I've been wanting a semi-strong mini vacuum to suck all the dirt and dust out of felt monkey parts. Today, having received the latest DUSTY-DIRTY-FACED MONKEY from the UK, I was once again determined to acquire this piece of highly-specialized equipment. I spent several hours poring over GOOGLE and the internet looking for exactly what I wanted. FINALLY - TA-DAH!!! The VACUUPIPHANY!! Using parts I already had on hand!!
PARTS LIST:
1) My late 70's 3.9 HP Kenmore Model 1162839080 Canister Vacuum Cleaner
2) the Crevice Tool to fore-mentioned vacuum, pre-precision-chewed to exact specifications by BooBoo as a puppy (note the tiny teeth marks and missing section) This particular part is now discontinued at Sears so, alas, cannot be immediately replaced except by some serendipitous score at the flea market or a thrift store. This particular crevice tool was a replacement THEN STILL AVAILABLE at Sears after I ran over the original late-70's tool with my car.
3) A 4 foot length of flexible vinyl tubing from my "assorted bits of tubing that might one day come in handy" drawer - Was this fish aquarium tubing abandoned by a previous tenant? Or was it some tubing I found that was part of an oxygen-intake for an emphysema sufferer? I don't know for sure, I had both...
4) a several-inches-long piece of FREE - DELIVERED RIGHT TO MY HOUSE - PRIORITY MAIL TAPE. Should you choose to inform on me to the USPS that their priority supplies were not used for postal business, I shall have to hope that my (or someone's??) creative problem-solving brain will kick in once again to keep me out of the federal pen. (Postal crimes are federal, right? So GOLF COURSES are a possibility? Too bad, I don't golf.)
ASSEMBLY: SECRET!!!! The photo shuld be self-explanatory, although I will probably have to supply detailed technical drawings to the US PATENT OFFICE.
RESULTS: the vacuum through the vinyl tube was strong enough to suck out a sufficient amount (perhaps 50?? 60?? years worth) of accumulated dust and dirt on the molded felt features of this monkey's face, so that the areas that had been PREVIOUSLY CLEANED (ie - surface scoured by MOTHS) are now virtually un-detectable and blended in with the surrounding areas. (See BEFORE and AFTER pics)
OK, go back to whatever you were doing.”
Is this not also reassuring?

NELS MUSES
Item:
Last month we mentioned a film we’d produced for Sandia Labs (then part of the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission...AEC) forty-some years ago, about a self-organizing system for laying out circuit boards. Jim Mitchell, since retired as head of PR for Sandia, responded with a couple of remarks on the project, prompting this recollection: In about 1968, I got a phone call in California from a guy at the AEC in Washington, asking if we still had a script of the ACCEL movie. Well, yeah, I did have a production script, full of typos...that is, even more full of typos in those pre-wordprocessor days...all covered with my scribbled production notes, bloodstains, etc... I wasn’t eager to retype it, but figured I could copy what I had on a newfangled Xerox machine if necessary. Why? Well, the Polish Atomic Energy Commission had a copy of the film, and wanted to translate the narration. They figured it would be easier from a script than from the audio track of the film. AEC was glad to accommodate them, if they could obtain a copy of the script. I xeroxed it, and sent it. All these years, I've been charmed by the notion that somewhere in Warsaw, and presumably somewhere in Moscow or Akademgorok, copies of that script are neatly filed with comments about the difficulty of making sense of the mess.

Item:
A note from Yoshii Enoki, Jr. announced significant recognition of the team of location managers of which he is a member for the TV show “24." Good for Yosh...and, stimulated to learn about the work of location managers by rummaging around the web, we found a list of historic restaurants in L.A....at the top of which was the Musso and Frank Grill, not far from the Chinese Theater on Hollywood Blvd. Charming. I’m pleased to say that I have an historic link with Musso and Frank's. It's the last place I was carded for a beer. The year was 1962. I was at M&F's with my dad for lunch, and I ordered a beer. The waiter carded me, and Dad laughed so hard, they almost threw us out. "Look at him," said the waiter indignantly. "Look at him! he could be eighteen!" I was 28. They let me have the beer. As a matter of fact, I remember also the first time I was carded for a hamburger. It was at a Carl's Jr. in Carlsbad, California. The young lady taking my order seemed a bit embarrassed when she said, "I have to ask you something rather personal." "Really? What could that be?" "Well, are you 55 yet?" "Not for another couple of months." "Oh, well, I'll give you the senior discount, anyway." "Thank you." See? History is just people doing things.
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ITEM FROM THE PAST
The Correspo’s comments a couple of months ago
about the way robots become increasingly unsettling
as they become ever more humanoid (as do CG movie
images of people) evoked more than usual response,
and brought to mind this item from 1985, which dealt,
twenty-three years ago, with our emotional interaction
with artificial critters

ROBOTS GOOD FOR SOMETHING
Robert Simison has observed in the Wall Street Journal that personal robots don't yet do much. Prominent display of this sensible observation has upset some of the fainter-hearted in the nascent personal robot industry. To feel better, they might look closely at what Dr. K.G.Englehardt and her associates at the Palo Alto VA Medical Center are doing experimentally with robots for the handicapped. Skeptical A.B. Quist comments: "I had not grasped the value of existing robots in this field until K.G. hit me over the head with her commentary. People don't feel embarrassed about asking machines for help. Even a slow, clumsy, thickwitted robot is a tool that handicapped people gladly use to do things otherwise impractical for them...like fetching a glass of water." Doing such a chore is an accomplishment for the person, not just for the robot, and it's immensely rewarding. Robots have crossed the threshold, and we are improving now on an already-practical base.

Well, we weren’t really improving all that fast. The
field today still features interesting, big, bold projects
...robots that can carry you while walking up stairs,
for example...but not a whole lot in the way of clever
little interactive systems that anticipate your needs,
and do your bidding with no fuss. It’s the fuss that
concerns us here. There are practical concerns, of course.
Few of us want to be near a sturdy mechanical arm that
may twitch violently if lightning a hundred miles away
puts a surge into the power line. Apart from that, people
act downright peculiar in dealing with robots. Jake
Mendelsson was, many years ago, in the “show robot”
business, with a couple of remotely controlled not-too-
humanoid machines that he’d operate at events for
entertainment. He found that some people had a compulsion
to torment the robots, even slugging them...presumably to
show their superiority to these pretentious machines. Jake
never knew quite why people behaved that way. He’d just
fix his machines, and move on. Just another indication that
effective robot design may involve more than clever mechanics.

Ancient Silver Birds is a warm recollection of the feeder airline business in the 1950's, when the DC3 was Queen of the Skies...written, narrated, and...well, lived...by Nels Winkless, with music and dogs by Jeff Winkless. Entertaining tales of a time fifty years gone by. Tailspin Tommy Harnish said “I expected a bunch of rowdy, thigh-slapping pilot stories, but this is Garrison Keillor material... great.” Now, instead of just sending off for the CD, you can download the whole album in MP3 format...and the distributor, CD Baby, may blessings on them fall, will send along a JPEG of the album cover and files of all the album notes. And the price (since we don’t have to copy, print, wrap, ship, and all that) is only $9.95 Go to www.cdbaby.com/winkless to look, listen, and order.