Date: Thu, 18 Mar 93 11:13:34 PST Reply-To: Return-Path: Message-ID: Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain From: surfpunk@osc.versant.com (na betna bs yrsgvfg ncbpnylcgvp pnhfrf) To: surfpunk@osc.versant.com (SURFPUNK Technical Journal) Subject: [surfpunk-0064] MEDIA: SciAm Speaks! ... a cyberculture invasion? ||||||||||||| Well, by and large, "Reproductive Strategies of Frogs," ||||||||||||| by William E. Duellman [Scientific American, July 1992], is ||||||||||||| the most disgusting damned thing I have ever seen. ||||||||||||| -- J. A. Nunley, Milpitas Calif The availability of uncensored, unedited forums in the internet has given a global voice to those once silenced by the media. Although people have been writing letters to editors and publishing their own pamphlets for centuries, I do believe that the fine art of the widely- disseminated rant was perfected on the internet. Newsgroups like "net.flame", "talk.bizarre" and "alt.rant" have developed a culture that you can begin to recognize in other media. Perhaps someone has more insights whether this postmodern phenomenon is cyber-specific or whether it would have arisen without the net. One of _Mondo_2000_'s favorite features has been publishing rants to the editor. Now the respectable _Scientific_American_ has caught the virus. The following are Letters to the Editor from the current (April 93) issue. strick ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ When will you publishers top propagandizing for speculative ideas such as the big bang and black holes? When they are discovered not to exist, what rationale will you use, since you plastered your magazine full of this nonsense? You are the publicity agents for birdbrain professors of physics. I give you till the end of the year to publish the fact that the observable universe is the last electron of plutonium. Ludwig Plutonium White River Junction, Vt ________________________________________________________________________ I hope you see some merit in my process for mass-manufacturing diamonds with subterranean nuclear explosions. One day in the not too distant future I may get to push a button and blow a coal mine in West Virginia all over creation. In the rubble will be diamonds you can pick up with a scoop loader. Unless you are sure for some reason that the process cannot work, I do not understand why _Scientific_American_ will not report on the possibilities of this process. I have already met the expected red tape in Washington, but that is something persistence and being right have always overcome. I will continue to keep you informed of the progress of this project. I am very sure somebody would like to be there when the button is pushed. James W Linck Lenner, La ________________________________________________________________________ In regard to the failure of the Hubble Space Telescope: Yet again a very large amount of money has been lost probing the universe. The mirror makers, who are supposedly the best on earth, have been blamed for the poor pictures taken by the telescope. There may, however, be another explanation. Beyond the solar system there is nothing real! There is only a set of illusory images created by the boundless void in which the solar system is encased and reflected, as in a virtual spherical mirror. We are totally alone! There seems to be a need to refute this theory before squandering further terrestrial resources. Shafi Ahmed London ________________________________________________________________________ In 1876 the entire membership of the American Society of Civil Engineers voted to use metric units only. It was internationally agreed in Paris in 1901 that mass is quantity of matter and that weight is force acting on mass. Yet there are universities, colleges, magazines and other entities that continue to use as units of measure the unsafe pound or the unsafe kilogram. Net mass is required for fair trade; "net weight" is a government lie! The Olympic sport is masslifting, not weightlifting. A fat person is overmass, not overweight, and should lose mass if he wants to be thinner. How long can "educators" expect to fool the public with unsafe words and unsafe units? You are just as fat on the moon, but only one sixth the weight! R C Gercke Los Angeles, Calif ________________________________________________________________________ For 30 years, I enjoyed, devoured and carefully stored _Scientific_ _American_ for reference. Now all is bleak 'round the battlements. Alas, "my" _Scientific_American_ is dead, replaced by a pale surrogate, an organ of leftist apocalyptic causes. This editorial swing leftward was expectable, considering the inexorable dilution of your once excellent staff by women. Loring Emery Hamburg Pa ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ The SURFPUNK Technical Journal is a dangerous multinational hacker zine originating near BARRNET in the fashionable western arm of the northern California matrix. Quantum Californians appear in one of two states, spin surf or spin punk. Undetected, we are both, or might be neither. ________________________________________________________________________ Send postings to , subscription requests to . MIME encouraged. Xanalogical archive access soon. Squandering further terrestrial resources. ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ $ look phen phenol phenolic phenomena phenomenal phenomenology phenomenon phenotype phenyl phenylalanine $