THE MT VOID
Mt. Holz Science Fiction Society
09/12/03 -- Vol. 22, No. 11
Big Cheese: Mark Leeper, mleeper@optonline.net
Little Cheese: Evelyn Leeper, eleeper@optonline.net
Back issues at http://www.geocities.com/evelynleeper
All material copyright by author unless otherwise noted.
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Topics:
Signs (comment by Evelyn C. Leeper)
What Time Is It? (comments by Mark R. Leeper)
CABIN FEVER (film review by Mark R. Leeper)
THE TERRIBLE HOURS by Peter Maas (book review by
Mark R. Leeper)
This Week's Reading (UNCLE PETROS & GOLDBACH'S CONJECTURE,
BEL CANTO, THE UNPLEASANTNESS AT THE BELLONA CLUB)
(book comments by Evelyn C. Leeper)
===================================================================
TOPIC: Signs (comment by Evelyn C. Leeper)
What is the purpose of a sign on a truck that says "keep back 50
feet" if you have to be within ten feet to read it? [-ecl]
===================================================================
TOPIC: What Time Is It? (comments by Mark R. Leeper)
We have been talking about my own personal bugaboo that I want
really accurate readings of the time. If you want to know why,
hey, go back and read the two previous issues.
I am pleased to say that at last there are ways to get a good quote
of the time from a reliable source. That source is the cesium
atom, atomic weight 133. The National Institute of Standards and
Technology has a device called the "Cesium Fountain Clock" in
Boulder, Colorado. It is the United States's official standard
for time.
Now the standard for time is the cesium atoms in this clock.
Let's get through the expository lump. The clock is really called
a fountain clock because it shoots up cesium atoms and then lets
them fall back by gravity. Cesium gas is put into the clock's
vacuum chamber. The force of light from six lasers forms the
cesium into a sphere. By placing light pressure on the sphere
they cause the temperature to drop to almost absolute zero,
literally freezing it with laser light. Using compression for
cooling works by the same principle a refrigerator does. Lasers
gently pop the ball of low-temperature cesium upwards like a
volleyball through a microwave-filled cylinder and then gravity
pulls it back down when the lasers are turned off. The atomic
state of the atoms changes as they warm up and they emit a very
specific frequency of light. Well, different frequencies of
microwaves generate different frequencies of light, but the
greatest amount of light from fluorescence is at the natural
resonance frequency of the cesium atom, which is 9,192,631,770
hertz. In this light 9,192,631,770 cycles equal one second.
Cesium is special because you can reliably get it to fluoresce at
a specific frequency. If you go really fast and count off
9,192,631,770 of those vibrations you will have counted off one
second. How they manage to count I don't really know. Heck, I
don't even know how they manage to put that atom in a vacuum or
make sure they form a ball, but it works. I suppose if the cesium
atom is running slow they send in a little quantum mechanic to
readjust it.
The National Institute of Standards and Technology takes these
readings, translates them into clock time readings, and makes them
available to the public. You can get a reading from the clock at
web site or
. Of course by the
time you get that screen there has been some Internet propagation
delay. There doesn't seem to be much, but there must be some. It
is probably too little to notice. For years I have set my watch
by my PC and that seems to be very accurate.
If you want more accuracy that same organization also broadcasts a
radio signal from Colorado. You can buy a clock that sets itself
at night by finding that radio signal. Two years ago these clocks
cost under $100, though not a lot under $100. But, things don't
stay expensive for long, particularly because the radio frequency
is free for anyone to use. Now you may be able to find one for
under $10. I did. Until we lick the propagation problem, this is
probably as good as I will get.
These "atomic" clocks only find the signal at night and probably
only once per night. Other than seeing when the clock first gets
the signal and suddenly becomes very accurate, the user is not
troubled with the details of when the clock synchronizes. It
seems that it is frequently enough for all practical purposes and
in between the clock is accurate enough to keep reasonably precise
time between settings. Finally I have a way to tell the time that
is dependable. [-mrl]
===================================================================
TOPIC: CABIN FEVER (film review by Mark R. Leeper)
[This review ran in the 10/25/02 issue after its screening during
the Toronto International Film Festival, but since the film is
opening in theaters this week, we are re-running it.]
CAPSULE: A flesh-eating virus wrecks a cabin party of five
college student celebrating their graduation. There are no
human villains in this one, no villains big enough to see with a
naked eye, but this is still a very disturbing little horror
film and one that is not too far from the possible. This is a
very bloody and violent film, but it is the most original horror
film we have seen in a while. Rating: 6 (0 to 10), high +1 (-4
to +4)
This is an effective horror film that derives its real scariness
not from inventing supernatural foes that are merely stories,
but from very real fears of things that already are known to
exist. With some variation the type of fearful thing that is
happening in this film has happened in other countries. This is
a horror film with a credibility that is lacking in most of what
Stephen King writes. It is a thriller that works for the same
reasons that THE CHINA SYNDROME works.
Five college friends have just graduated and are ready to go out
into the real world. For their last bash of their college years
they rent a cabin deep in the woods. After a little DELIVERANCE
style scariness as misdirection to the viewer as to where the
story is going, the group gets to their cabin. There in the
woods they come across a man who without wounds is bleeding from
all over his body. The group is terrified and wants nothing to
do with the man, but their contact is already too much. It
seems some sort of contagious flesh-eating microorganism has
infected the man. What follows is a horror story that
superficially looks like a lot of "horror in the woods" sort of
films like THE EVIL DEAD. This one is a bit different, however,
because the scare is not coming from spirits or aliens or
monsters or vampires but from things that do exist and are a
genuine a threat. This film does not so much recount a horror
story as a very possible scenario.
Co-author and director Eli Roth does some very intelligent
things with his first feature film that previous films on the
subject of disease outbreak have missed. He never identifies
the disease that is attacking people. Roth seems to have chosen
some flesh-eating bacteria as his monster, but it could easily
have been the Ebola or Marburg viruses without a lot of
difference in the story. By not defining the disease, he avoids
technical details. We see a lot of possible clinical effects of
such a disease and it is not a pretty sight. The film deals
with issues like how to treat the infected and the emotional
impact and dilemmas of quarantine and being left to die. While
CABIN FEVER may at first brush seem aimed at horror and thrill
viewers, word of mouth could well spread interest to a more
general audience interested in the very real issues the film
raises of public health, disease control, and quarantine. One
thing that CABIN FEVER does not have is a human villain. Roth
apparently decided that the disease was a scary enough menace
without adding the menace of evil people. Roth thus
intelligently sidesteps the dramatic errors of films like THE
SATAN BUG, THE ANDROMEDA STRAIN, and OUTBREAK.
At the Toronto International Film Festival, Lion's Gate bought
the film for release in the summer of 2003. It well deserves to
be seen as an effective horror film that only gets more
disturbing the more you know about the subject. I rate CABIN
FEVER a 6 on the 0 to 10 scale and a high +1 on the -4 to +4
scale. [-mrl]
===================================================================
TOPIC: THE TERRIBLE HOURS by Peter Maas (book review by Mark
R. Leeper)
Want to read a story, a true story, of people putting their lives
on the line for a military objective? Do you want a story about
science and about engineering put to a practical use? Do you want
to read about an individualist who has to defend his ideas from a
hide-bound military bureaucracy that considers him a crackpot?
Well, skip THE TERRIBLE HOURS and go directly to THE DAM BUSTERS
by Paul Brickhill. If you have already read DAM BUSTERS you can
find many of the same virtues in THE TERRIBLE HOURS by Peter Maas,
a non-fiction writer who usually delves into true crime. THE
TERRIBLE HOURS is about Navy officer Charles "Swede" Momsen who
against resistance from his commanders revolutionized the science
of diving and especially deep sea escape and rescue procedures.
The book is really mostly about Momsen's biggest challenge. On
May 23, 1939, the US submarine Squalus, cruising off course, had a
problem with a valve, flooded, and sank in 243 feet of water in
the cold waters off New Hampshire. Squalus had no heat and no
communication, and the thirty-three men who had survived the
flooding had only hours to live unless the Navy could somehow
deduce what happened, locate the helpless submarine, and find a
way to get thirty-three men to the surface. The men on the bottom
of the sea knew only too well that no such rescue had ever been
attempted. Maas chronicles Momsen's career, the events leading to
the sinking of the Squalus, and then more vividly the sinking and
the frustrating rescue attempts. He explains the science behind
Momsen's inventions to aid in rescue. The recovery of the Squalus
and its surviving crew is considered the greatest submarine rescue
in naval history. Maas expanded this book from an article he
wrote for the "Saturday Evening Post." The organization of the
book is reminiscent of the sort of documentary article one finds
in "The New Yorker," knitting together many threads leading to the
main body of the story. It is intriguing reading, but is not as
satisfying as the Brickhill book mentioned above. [-mrl]
===================================================================
TOPIC: This Week's Reading (book comments by Evelyn C. Leeper)
Apostolos Doxiadis's UNCLE PETROS & GOLDBACH'S CONJECTURE is a
novel that started out with some intriguing characters, and I had
high hopes for it. Unfortunately, it turned into a thinly veiled
book describing Goldbach's Conjecture, the history of efforts to
solve it, and observations about mathematics in general and number
theory in particular. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, but I
would have preferred a straight non-fiction book for this purpose.
When I pick up a novel, I had a different set of expectations than
when I pick up a non-fiction book, and I had to re-adjust those
when I realized what was going on. (In science fiction jargon, I
guess you could say that the book was one massive infodump.)
Ann Patchett's BEL CANTO was chosen for our library book
discussion group. It's not something I would normally read, and I
can't really recommend it either. The basic plot is that a group
of terrorists (or freedom fighters, depending on your perspective)
storm a house in an unnamed South American country. (Unnamed, but
it is clearly Peru.) They hope to take the President of the
country hostage, but he isn't there, and they end up with dozens
of hostages--far more than they expected or can deal with. The
situation reminded me very much of Luis Bunuel's EXTERMINATING
ANGEL, with the same sort of surreal atmosphere settling over the
house, but it lacked the spark Bunuel had.
Lord Peter Wimsey is a very popular amateur detective, but reading
Dorothy Sayers's THE UNPLEASANTNESS AT THE BELLONA CLUB still
didn't make me put him up with Hercule Poirot or Miss Marple.
(Sherlock Holmes is clearly above them all, of course.) It could
be that the trendy, social set that Wimsey travels in just doesn't
fascinate me as it does some others. I'm not saying the book was
bad, but I would place Wimsey in the second rank of English
sleuths. [-ecl]
===================================================================
Mark Leeper
mleeper@optonline.net
Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity
of your own mind.
--Ralph Waldo Emerson
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