THE MT VOID
Mt. Holz Science Fiction Society
11/19/10 -- Vol. 29, No. 21, Whole Number 1624
Frick: Mark Leeper, mleeper@optonline.net
Frack: Evelyn Leeper, eleeper@optonline.net
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Topics:
*Really* High-Definition Resolution (comments
by Evelyn C. Leeper)
Review Haikiew (comments by Mark R. Leeper)
The Complications of Technology (comments
by Evelyn C. Leeper)
The Sound of Laughter--Just the Sound, Please (comments
by Mark R. Leeper)
CRYOBURN by Lois McMaster Bujold (book review
by Joe Karpierz)
FROM HERE TO ETERNITY by Sean Carroll (book review
by Gregory Frederick)
Inside the Milky Way (television review by Greg Frederick)
Higher-Dimensional Spaces (letter of comment
by Peter Rubinstein)
Italy (letters of comment by Kip Williams and Keith F. Lynch)
This Week's Reading (ITALIAN JOURNEY, "The History of Ancient
Rome", THE CIVILIZATION OF ROME, THE EARLY HISTORY OF
ROME, MAKERS OF ROME, FALL OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC,
THE RISE OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE, THE TWELVE CAESARS,
THE ANNALS OF IMPERIAL ROME, and THE DECLINE AND FALL
OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE [abridged]) (book comments
by Evelyn C. Leeper)
==================================================================
TOPIC: *Really* High-Definition Resolution (comments by Evelyn
C. Leeper)
"[An] Italian company put online high-resolution images of "The
Birth of Venus" and five other masterpieces from the Uffizi gallery
in Florence, including works by Caravaggio and Leonardo da Vinci.
By zooming in with the click of a mouse, the smallest details can
appear--even ones that aren't typically visible when viewing
artworks at the distances required by museums for security. ...
The images have a resolution of up to 28 billion pixels, said
Vincenzo Mirarchi, CEO of the Haltadefinizione company that
digitized the paintings. That's about 3,000 times stronger than the
resolution of an average digital camera."
Full story at http://tinyurl.com/2cfyzr2.
Pictures at http://www.haltadefinizione.com.
==================================================================
TOPIC: Review Haikiew (comments by Mark R. Leeper)
It was SAW 3D.
I saw 3D, but that's all.
There's too much there there.
(Full disclosure: this haiku is based on another review. I am
expressing the sentiment of someone else without subjecting myself
to the film.) [-mrl]
==================================================================
TOPIC: The Complications of Technology (comments by Evelyn C.
Leeper)
It used to be that you could go into anyone's house and know how to
operate the TV. Even with VCRs, you could pretty much figure it
out. But with DVD players, fancy TVs, etc., it is virtually
impossible to operate anyone's set-up except your own.
Which is why, of course, that you end up watching so many movies
in which everyone is either too short and fat, or too tall and thin.
[-ecl]
==================================================================
TOPIC: The Sound of Laughter--Just the Sound, Please (comments by
Mark R. Leeper)
Today I am going to discuss one of the irritating gadflies of
television comedy, the infamous laugh track that so frequently
makes people want to throw their shoes through the screens of their
televisions.
The subject of "canned laughter" came up on a tour of the NBC
studios in Los Angeles. The guide had shown us an exhibit on the
canned laughter machine. This is a machine they use in making
situation comedies. Somehow many of these comedies seem to have a
responsive audience who laugh at jokes that somehow do not seem all
the funny to the rest of us. The canned laughter machine will give
the soundtrack just exactly the laughing reaction that the
producers were hoping for. It is not left to chance but is
actually placed in the soundtrack. First it tells the listener
that even if he/she does not find the witticism funny, there is
someone in the audience who was tickled at it enough to laugh out
loud. But it does not just say that some nonexistent person found
the last quip funny, it also has a subconscious effect to make the
joke actually seem funnier. The listener is being told that he/she
should find this funny and for some psychological reason the
listener does. But the phenomenon of contagious laughter only goes
so far and then the listener (or one with IQ above a certain level)
starts to rebel and to feel manipulated.
During the studio tour the guide showed us an actual laugh track
machine. But then I asked a question that stumped the guide.
"When you hear the laugh track, what are the people actually
laughing at?" That almost sounds existential. Like what is the
sound of one hand clapping. It is easy to think of the laughter
that one of these machines makes as abstract sound. It is just
machine-created noise to most people. It is applied to all sorts
of intended-humorous situations. Can the sound be laughter be
about something in specific? The answer is "yes." The answer I
gave, based on an old TV Guide article I read many years ago is
"Red Skelton." Many of you may be too young to remember, but one
of the famous vaudeville, burlesque, film, and TV comics was Red
Skelton. Red Skelton had a television comedy and variety program
from the early 1950s to the 1960s. Perhaps as a tribute to silent
film comedy he would do pantomime comedy sequences on stage,
frequently using his character Freddy the Freeloader. He would do
these routines silently. But the show had a live audience. And he
was funny (unlike some later situation comedies). But he made no
noise during these sketches. What was on the soundtrack of those
Red Skelton programs was nothing but the sound of audience
laughter.
An inventor named Charles "Charley" Douglass realized that those
soundtracks were really a gold mine. He was a sound engineer for
CBS. And he recognized that live audiences were unpredictable.
They might not laugh long enough at one joke, or ironically worse
they might laugh for a full minute. Live TV shows cannot take a
one-minute timeout waiting for the audience to stop laughing. The
answer to getting a perfect audience is take all those people--
unpredictable, unreliable humans--and get rid of them. Instead
Douglass listened to hundreds of hours of recorded sound of
laughter and picked out and categorized the laughs from little
titters to big belly laughs. It is not known exactly what all his
sources were even today, but the main supply was probably the Red
Skelton shows. Another possible source for some was from recorded
performances of French mime Marcel Marceau.
Once he had all that the laughter sounds could be edited into the
soundtrack like any sound effect. Somehow he made a machine that
he kept secret under a cloak of security. But it could reproduce
the sounds he needed. This was in the days before digital
recording so he used recording tape and a machine that could play
from any of what must have been dozens of tapes at an instant's
notice. Douglas apparently played the machine like an organ.
The television industry still has not recognized how unpopular is
misused laughter from a box, but it is still a big part of annoying
television situation comedies. But it might not be so much of an
irritant if you can picture who is really getting the response.
Reference:
http://tinyurl.com/canned-laughter
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canned_laughter
[-mrl]
==================================================================
TOPIC: CRYOBURN by Lois McMaster Bujold (copyright 2010, Baen
Books, $25.00, 343pp, ISBN 978-1-4391-3394) (book review by Joe
Karpierz)
So, back in 2002, when I reviewed DIPLOMATIC IMMUNITY, up until now
the most recent book in the Miles Vorkosigan saga, I wrote the
following:
I give up. For years I've been complaining about Bujold writing
nothing but "Miles Vorkosigan" books when she's writing SF. I've
complained that she's limiting herself, or that she doesn't seem to
be able to come up with any other kinds of ideas.
I give up.
Why? I guess I've decided that reading a "Miles Vorkosigan" novel
is light and fluffy enough that it's like getting together with an
old friend for awhile to talk about nothing important or
particular. You just get together and blow off a few hours while
forgetting about your troubles. When reading a Miles book, I can
get away from the super serious (and thus completely boring and
uninteresting) world that much of the currently acceptable SF has
become. I've said it before, and I'll say it again: if I wanted to
read "literatoor", I'd read that stuff that everyone says is
literatoor. With apologies to all those who've tried to bring SF
out of the ghetto, and apparently succeeded to some degree, I don't
want my SF to be literatoor. I want it to be fun and adventurous,
with the occasional *deep thought* to make me think. Literatoor is
boring--SF shouldn't be.
Well, of course Bujold left the Vorkosigan universe after that book
to work in the fantasy arena, and from all accounts she did a fine
job there (I didn't read any of her fantasy novels, as you might
suspect). As the years passed, I started to complain that I wanted
a Miles book. I really did. This from the same guy who complained
that Bujold hadn't proved that she could write anything else. Now
she has, and, back in 2008 at the Denver Worldcon she talked about
the new Miles book she was working on. I was happy as a clam.
So, the question you might be asking is, "Was the two year wait
worth it?" Well, more like the eight-year wait, but I guess the
answer is yes. Look, we all know what we're getting with a
Vorkosigan novel, and as long as we get that, I think we're okay.
We got that, and we're okay.
This time around, Miles is off to the planet Kibou-daini to check
out one of the planet's major cryocorps that wants to expand into
Barryaran space. Miles is attending a conference when that
conference is attacked and he is caught in the middle of the melee,
kidnapped, and eventually gets lost in the cryocombs below the
city.The book actually starts with Miles lost in the cryocombs
attempting to find his way out, all the while suffering
hallucinations that resulted from an allergic reaction to a drug he
was given by his captors. Miles eventually comes to his senses
after he is rescued by young Jin, and after that normal Miles chaos
ensues.
What kind, you may ask? He discovers a hidden cryofacility run
under the city by a bunch of refugees; he discovers that Jin's
mother was leading a group to expose a problem with cryofreezing
fluid that would bring the major cryocorps down; he is bribed by
the cryocorp that is making the move into Barryaran space; he is
involved in kidnapping, theft, and quiet a few other illegal
things; he drives the consul at the Barryaran consulate absolutely
mad with his schemes (it's clear the poor fellow has absolutely no
idea what Miles is like); he is described by Jin as an "insurance
auditor"; and so on, and so on, and so on.
Yeah, it's a typical Miles book. Which means it's light, fluffy,
fun, and funny (in spots).
I think that what CRYOBURN is is a practice run for Bujold to come
back to the Miles universe; it's good, not great. As I said about
DIPLOMATIC IMMUNITY, this is not a major entry in the Vorkosigan
saga. Up until the last four pages of the novel I would have said
nothing important happens at all--and then something *did* happen
that surprised the daylights out of me and I'm sure whole bunch of
other readers when they read it. I never thought I could be
surprised by a Miles novel--I guess I was wrong. I believe the
events of the last four pages will cause Bujold to take the Miles'
story in a direction that we never would have seen it going all
those years ago when she was racking up Hugo after Hugo for novels
in the series.
So, what's next, you ask? Well, I'm currently listening to THIS
IMMORTAL (otherwise known as ...CALL ME CONRAD) by Roger Zelazny,
the novel that shared the Hugo with DUNE back in 1966. A review of
that will be coming in the next week or two. Then, well, it's off
to The Land. Yep, I'm gonna take on AGAINST ALL THINGS ENDING, the
penultimate novel in the entire Thomas Covenant series. Until
then.... [-jak]
==================================================================
TOPIC: FROM ETERNITY TO HERE by Sean Carroll (book review by
Gregory Frederick)
FROM ETERNITY TO HERE by Sean Carroll is a very deep book about the
theoretical concepts and ideas concerning why our Universe started
with such a low entropy condition and then has been increasing in
entropy ever since the Big Bang. The increase in entropy is
associated with the one directional arrow of time. Carroll spends
most of the book trying to understand why time has one direction
only and how the initial conditions at the beginning of the Big
Bang had such a low entropy state. He discusses many possibly
reasons to explain the initial conditions including; a space of
states that changes with time, intrinsically irreversible dynamical
laws, a special boundary condition, a symmetric re-collapsing
universe, a bouncing Universe with and without overall time
symmetry, the Boltzmann-Lucretius scenario of fluctuations around
an eternal equilibrium state and (his favorite) a multiverse. He
eliminates some of these possible explanations for the initial low
entropy in the book. He talks about, toward the end, his favorite.
The multiverse basically states that our observable Universe
originated from the creation of a baby Universe which was a quantum
fluctuation of a false vacuum bubble in another Universe. This
baby Universe had a low entropy at its initial creation event. So,
he is trying to imagine what happened even before the Big Bang.
The problem with the multiverse concept is that it currently can't
be tested with any data which can possibly prove it to be wrong or
right. When a prediction of Einstein's theory of General
Relativity was proven correct by astronomer Sir Arthur Eddington's
solar eclipse data in 1920 his theory was on its way to being
accepted by the science community. No such test exists for the
multiverse idea to even become an accepted theory. Also, since
quantum gravity is not fully understood in an accepted theory it
makes the multiverse idea difficult to test even in a computer
simulation. I do admit though that his idea is quite interesting
and needs further study as he suggests. [-gf]
==================================================================
TOPIC: Inside the Milky Way (television review by Greg Frederick)
There was a good science show on TV last week it was a documentary
about our galaxy. It title was "Inside the Milky Way". It was on
the National Geographic channel. One really cool item was a
discussion about how dark matter completely surrounds each galaxy
and actually extends far out beyond the visible boundary of a
galaxy like the Milky Way. Dark Matter is the frame work or
scaffolding which ordinary matter clings to and builds on. So, the
Galaxies are like grapes on a grapevine of dark matter. This
explains why there are large holes in deep space with not much
there. I heard of this concept before but they explained it very
nicely. [-gf]
Mark replies:
I doubly missed out on the program being out of the country and do
not get the National Geographic Channel. Netflix knows of the
existence of the documentary and I have requested it from them if
it becomes available.
This is the first time I am hearing this dark matter theory. It is
fairly non-intuitive. Do you know what evidence there is for the
scaffolding explanation? That seems to imply that there are far
longer continua of dark matter than of anything in visible matter.
On a grape vine you can find a point in a grape and there is not
far away you can get from it in the same grape. On the other hand,
an ant crawling on just the vine could get to points on the same
vine that are yards away. The vine really allows the ant to travel
with some ease from grape to grape. To further mix the metaphor
the vine is a sort of highway system connecting grapes. Getting
from one grape to another is not easy, but pulling yourself along
the vine would make it a lot easier. By pulling ourselves along or
pushing against the dark matter, could we possibly find an easier
way to get from galaxy to galaxy? I have no idea, but it is an
intriguing idea. [-mrl]
==================================================================
TOPIC: Higher-Dimensional Spaces (letter of comment by Peter
Rubinstein)
In response to Mark's comments on higher-dimensional spaces in the
11/12/10 issue of the MT VOID, Peter Rubinstein writes, "Perhaps I
misunderstood the question. The answer I came up with was about
2.41421. The circle you come up with is tangential to the four
circles, but so is the one I came up with. True, the four circles
are internal to mine, but I don't think that impacts their
tangential quality." [-pr]
Mark responds, "I knew not having a figure would get me. Yes, I
meant the fifth circle to be internally tangent. Hopefully people
will be able to pick up I am talking about the internally tangent
circle." [-mrl]
==================================================================
TOPIC: Italy (letters of comment by Kip Williams and Keith
F. Lynch)
In response to Evelyn's comments on books about Italy in the
11/12/10 issue of the MT VOID, Kip Williams writes:
Florence was a great place to have visited, but while we were
there, all I kept noticing was that it didn't pay to look anywhere
but at the ground where you would take your next step. Dogs seem
to have been there. It was great to see the Academy, where I
searched for one end of the Vasari Corridor and never found it.
Just as we were leaving, I stumbled on an exhibit on the discovery
of perspective, complete with cameras obscura and illusionistic
room setups. I raced frantically through it, trying to see as much
as possible of the fantastic stuff (which I'd have gladly
sacrificed a lot of other material for). Lucky for me there was a
book. The pictures are great, and I only have to learn Italian to
read it.
The other great thing, for me, was the Pianta carvings in the
ground floor of Saint Roch's School in Venice (I'm carefully using
English terms so I won't make a clumsy error in Italian). These
occupied a dimension between fully three-dimensional and flat,
using ingenious methods to make the items real. Of special
interest were shelves of carved wooden books, with a pair of
reading spectacles (also of wood) carelessly left on top. I
started taking pictures, then saw a sign forbidding it. I should
have ignored it like everybody else.
I have at least another paragraph of petty irritations, irrelevant
to everything. Let these sentences stand in for it. [-kw]
This led Keith F. Lynch to respond, "Did you take a picture of the
sign? :-) Did you see a sign saying to obey all signs? I saw such
a sign here in Virginia last Thursday. But I don't know if it
applied to signs in Italy." [-kfl]
==================================================================
TOPIC: This Week's Reading (book comments by Evelyn C. Leeper)
And wrapping up my comments on my readings for Italy...
I read the first half of ITALIAN JOURNEY by J. W. von Goethe (in
SELECTED WORKS) (ISBN 0-375-41044-9) since that covered the areas
we were visiting. Goethe may have traveled to Italy over two
hundred years ago, but some things have not changed. Goethe talks
about picking up bits of Roman mosaics as souvenirs (!), and
complains about other tourists. But he was so eager to get to Rome
that he apparently spent only a few hours in Florence, a decision
that seems insane given Florence's history of art.
We also listened to The Teaching Company's course, "The History of
Ancient Rome", and so I read several books in conjunction with
that. This course covers the period from the earliest inhabitants
of Italy to 476 C.E., the date traditionally given as the date of
the "fall" of the (Western) Roman Empire. (The Eastern Roman
Empire, a.k.a. the Byzantine Empire, based at
Constantinople/Byzantium, lasted until 1453.)
THE CIVILIZATION OF ROME by Donald R. Dudley (no ISBN) wasn't on
the Teaching Company course recommended list, but it seemed to go
well as an adjunct, and we had it already. But I also read a lot
of primary sources, all in the Penguin editions.
THE EARLY HISTORY OF ROME by Livy (translated by Aubrey de
Selincourt) (ISBN 0-14-044104-2) is listed in the Teaching
Company's materials as "Recommended Reading". (We don't actually
read all the "Recommended Reading" for the courses we take, in part
because many are not easily available at reasonable prices.) This
covered the period from the founding of Rome to right before the
First Punic War (264 B.C.E.), and it was far more readable and
engaging that a lot of the modern books on the Road Scholar list.
One thing one discovers reading it is that some things never
change. The patricians fought against every attempt to give the
plebians more power and also complained about all the taxes they
had to pay. The plebians complained that they had to do all the
fighting ("rich man's war, poor man's fight"), and how they had no
relief from debt slavery when they were conscripted. (They would
be conscripted and have to go off to fight, so could not work their
farms to pay their debts; then when they returned, their creditors
seized them as slaves.) When at one point the Senate decided to
pay the army, those who had previously served complained that they
hadn't been paid, and now their taxes were going to pay other
people. (This sounds like the problems of Social Security in
reverse--people now complain if any cut-backs are made, they will
have paid taxes that won't benefit themselves.)
MAKERS OF ROME (ISBN 978-0-14-044158-1) and FALL OF THE ROMAN
REPUBLIC (ISBN 978-0-14-044934-1) by Plutarch (both translated by
Rex Warner) are two volumes of the Penguin set of selections from
Plutarch's LIVES divided by topic. Again, many of the anecdotes
seem very contemporary.
THE RISE OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE by Polybius (translated by Ian Scott-
Kilvert) (ISBN 978-0-14-044362-2) covers 220 B.C.E. to 146 B.C.E.
Since Polybius died in 118 B.C.E., what he is calling the Roman
Empire clearly is distinct from "Imperial Rome", the time of the
emperors covered by Suetonius, Tacitus, and Gibbon.
THE TWELVE CAESARS by Suetonius (ISBN 978-0-14-045516-8) was the
basis for Robert Graves's (and hence the BBC'S) I, CLAUDIUS and
covers the period from 100 B.C.E. to 96 C.E. (The "Twelve Caesars"
are Julius Caesar, Augustus, Tiberius, Gaius (Caligula), Claudius,
Nero, Galba, Otho, Vitellius, Vespasian, Titus, and Domitian.) And
in fact, Robert Graves did the Penguin translation. This is
probably the most popular of the classical works, because Suetonius
was much more like, say, "People" magazine in the sorts of stories
he tells than are the other authors. (Or maybe it is that there
just are many more such stories about the emperors than about the
various consuls of the Roman Republic.)
THE ANNALS OF IMPERIAL ROME by Tacitus (translated by Michael
Grant) (ISBN 978-0-14-044060-7) covers an even shorter period, from
14 C.E. to 68 C.E. Unfortunately, I ran out of time before getting
to this, but I mention it for completeness' sake.
THE DECLINE AND FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE by Edward Gibbon
(abridged, ISBN 978-0-14-043764-5) covers a much longer period,
98 C.E. to 1453 C.E., but I concentrated only on the first part,
through 476 C.E. Again, a lot of what was going on then seems
similar to what is going on now. For example, Gibbon says of
Julian the Apostate, "He extended to all the inhabitants of the
Roman world, the benefits of a free and equal toleration; and the
only hardship which he inflicted on the Christians, was to deprive
them of the power of tormenting their fellow-subjects, whom they
stigmatised with the odious titles of idolaters and heretics," and,
"As soon as the emnity of Julian deprived the clergy of the
privileges which had been conferred by the favour of Constantine,
they complained of the most cruel oppression; and the free
toleration of idolaters and heretics was a subject of grief and
scandal to the orthodox party." The latter particularly sounds
familiar, as I hear various people complaining that their inability
to have their religion's prayers led by teachers in public schools
constitutes oppression.
However, Gibbon also falls prey to bias when he says, "According a
principle, pregnant with mischief and oppression, the emperor
[Julian] transferred, to the pontiffs of his own religion, the
management of the liberal allowances from the public revenue, which
had been granted to the church by the piety of Constantine and his
sons." When the Christians got public money, it was piety; when
the pagans got it, it was mischief and oppression.
Well, that about wraps it up for Italy for books. I also listened
to Teaching Company courses on Ancient Rome and the Italian
Renaissance and a UC Berkeley course on Ancient Rome, and watched a
Teaching Company course on Michelangelo. (Yes, maybe I did go a
little overboard for a two-week trip.) I have to say I will be
happy to be able to spend more time on other topics now. [-ecl]
==================================================================
Mark Leeper
mleeper@optonline.net
Nowadays most men lead lives of noisy desperation.
-- James Thurber, Further Fables for Our Time