Page 3 of 3

4. Multimedia Bits

Franz Liszt was a very prolific composer, and has finally come into his own. There have always been devotees and enthusiasts, and his works are voluminous. More and more, he is being exposed to the general public. Liszt "invented" the solo performance, and was the first to play to large audiences with the piano top up and himself in profile to the crowd. He was not only a great composer, he had an incredible technique, being able to sight-read and play presto pieces without error at full speed.

To purchase the music for all his published piano works would probably have cost a thousand dollars a short time ago. However, with the advent of computers, all his known piano works are available on a double-CD from CDSheetMusic.com.

I am not referring to performances, but rather the sheet music. This set comprises 3727 pages of his music, and for a student of Liszt, an absolute joy to own and play. All for under $25. I paid over that much for each of the printed editions of his works. The music is scanned and in a PDF format, best viewed with Adobe's latest viewer, Acrobat Reader 5.0, or the full Acrobat 5.0 product.

5. Bits and Pieces

Mars Reminder

On August 27, at 9:51 UTC (5:51 EDT), the planet Mars will be the closest to us in nearly 73,000 years, and will be 85 times brighter than at present and will appear six times larger than now. It will never be as close again within our lifetimes, so think about getting a telescope and camera to record this nearly once-in-an-earthtime event. More information is available at www.space.com/spacewatch/mars_preview_021108.html.

Now is the time to start tracking Mars and watch it wax.

Telemarketing Tones

Many people have written to me to report that the number of calls diminished rather rapidly after they added the anti-telemarketing tones into their message machine, as instructed.

Well, it seems that we have brought the telemarketeers out into the light.

There are two methods by which the telemarketeers can be "taught" to stop calling.

Besides the tones, some caller ID boxes allow anonymous and "out of area" caller rejection, and here in New York, Verizon has a calling feature known as Call Intercept. This feature forces the caller with an anonymous or "out of area" phone to explain the purpose of the call and to leave a return number. Only then will your phone ring, with a special ring, alerting you to the situation. Otherwise, the call never gets through and your phone never rings.

Well, recently, I have gotten calls from telemarketeers with real numbers! Yes, they are out of hiding, and while their names are "Unknown" on caller ID systems that display both the name and the number, their phone numbers are not. The few I have gotten have an area code in the 900 range. It makes it more difficult to stop them, but it makes it very easy to report them. Many states and now the Federal Government are working on a national no-call phone data base registry. See www.ftc.gov/bcp/telemark/rule.htm for some details.

And see www.ftc.gov/os/2002/05/16cfrpart310.htm for more additional information.

Fines are to be levied to repeat offenders.

Naturally, the people doing the telemarketeering are against this plan, as would be expected. However, it would seem that for those citizens who enjoy getting called during dinner Saturday evening, or who work odd hours and still enjoy getting calls when they are asleep, these individuals can subscribe to a do-call database and let the telemarketeers have a field day.

So it seems that forcing the telemarketeers to display a telephone number is a first step in being able to report them. Also, in my opinion, if one of these marketeers keeps calling you and never leaves a message, that is harassment, plain and simple. Now, you can see if the same person is ringing you and hanging up without leaving a message. If so, you can report them to the phone company, even now, and force them to stop calling.

For those who haven't downloaded the tones, here is the link.

For a complete description of how to use them, please read my December, 2002 column.

Global Warming

I received a large number of e-mails about my global warming paragraph last column, and I thank all those who wrote, regardless of their opinions, reservations, and leanings.

Apparently most missed the point—that it was more-or-less tongue-in-cheek. My concern and complaint was that if global warming enthusiasts are sincere, they shouldn't stop agitating just because the weather gets cold. That they do stop indicates that the most vocal are more emotional and seeking to engage the public on an emotional rather than an intellectual plane. I consider all emotional arguments to be fatuous and ill-conceived. Since this latest cold snap in the east, I have not heard a peep from the global warmists. That was my point. I, personally, remain unconvinced either way. There is, at present, a small increase in the average temperature of the earth, well under 1° per century, and how much of that is normal and/or natural, and how much is man-made has not been demonstrated to me. I am old enough to remember, as I have mentioned, the global iceists from the 70s, who told us that the next ice age was around the corner. I think they are the same people.

Scientifically, there is a question of defining global warming. Initially, the ocean surface temperature was used. No good. It was too variable and easily influenced by too many variables. Now, some scientists use the temperature of the ocean at some depth. Others use an average ground temperature. None, to my knowledge, make an average of the entire globe, from the core to outer space, weighted or not.

For those who wish to read further, there is www.globalwarming.org/brochure.html and gsa.confex.com/gsa/2001AM/finalprogram/abstract_28039.htm.

Bjorn Lomborg, once a Greenpeace activist and global warmist, changed his mind after looking at the data. He comes across as more of an agnostic now, admitting that there may be some problem, but it is nowhere near the magnitude stated by others. His book, The Skeptical Environmentalist: Measuring the Real State of the World, is very controversial, the more so because of his Greenpeace background.

I remain open-minded and skeptical. And when I see a TV ad stating that people who own SUVs are supporting terrorism, I cringe and move away from these people. Especially when some of these anti-SUV people secretly own them as second cars and also own private jets.

When true scientists (not journalists and not actors) have something to say, I listen. And, as I stated, I have not made up my mind. I don't think a scientist ever does, anyway. Disproving a theory is the basis of real science, not shouting slogans.

Other references:

solar-center.stanford.edu/sun-on-earth/damon.html
www.latimes.com/news/science/la-sci-glacier18nov18,0,7342429.story
www.nationalcenter.org/TP40.html
www.ocs.orst.edu/reports/wm/wm_000402.html

Milankovitch Cycles and such:

deschutes.gso.uri.edu/~rutherfo/milankovitch.html
www.ocs.orst.edu/reports/wm/wm_000402.html
www.ees.nmt.edu/~ranck/hot.html

It's not as simple as some would lead us to believe. At least, to me.

And a closing thought—actually a quote.

If you wait for perfect conditions, you will never get anything done.
-Ecc.

Send any of your thoughts and/or answers to me at the e-mail address below.

Stale or Broken Links in My Archives (disclaimer) The hyperlinks in this column, especially those in my archives, are only valid at the time of publication, and may or may not be available at a later date. Such is the norm for the Internet. And people reference my columns in their columns. It goes on and on and on. The general rule is not to trust anything you do not verify yourself. When I come across a dead link, I pick out a few words from the area of that link and do my own search. Enough material is duplicated many times over on the net that invariably I come across a working copy of the same text. One might say the same for an out-of-print book, vinyl recording, or even CD. They are also "bad links" in a way. So please don't get too upset when an old link no longer works. Think of it as the nature of the internet. As Kurt Vonnegut points out to us, "corpses are improvements."

E-mail address: gdorman@chipcenter.com

Keep those e-cards and e-letters coming.

Until next month, keep studying, learning, and playing the piano, and always enjoy. When you are obviously enjoying, it really makes your enemies angry.

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