[OL-Forum] Digest Number 656

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There are 3 messages in this issue.

Topics in this digest:

      1. Leonids
           From: Steve Davis <w2sgd@juno...>
      2. Green patriotism
           From: "John M. McMahon" <mcmahon@mail....edu>
      3. Crime prevention?
           From: "John M. McMahon" <mcmahon@mail....edu>


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Message: 1
   Date: Wed, 20 Nov 2002 08:13:11 -0500
   From: Steve Davis <w2sgd@juno...>
Subject: Leonids

The heavy cloud cover broke but rolled back in and spoiled it all
for both peaks.  With the clouds and the snow on the ground, the
LP level is truly amazing.  What goes up; comes back down.
Then it bounces up and down like multi-hop transatlantic radio
wave propagation or photon ping pong balls. -sd

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Message: 2
   Date: Wed, 20 Nov 2002 19:54:31 -0500
   From: "John M. McMahon" <mcmahon@mail....edu>
Subject: Green patriotism

Is there any other kind?

>From *CSM* 11/21/02

"Proud, patriotic & green"

"The nation's green movement is taking on shades of red,
white, and blue. In ads, articles, and websites,
environmentalists have pulled a page from President Bush's
patriotic playbook, selling their cause of energy
conservation against a backdrop of national security.

One online video, created for Greenpeace by cartoonist Mark
Fiore, plays the Marines' Hymn while flashing scratchy
images of US government posters from World War II. "When you
drive alone, you drive with Hitler," admonishes one. The
video then cuts to a modern cartoon character slapping a
flag on his SUV before driving away from home, water
running, lights blazing.*" 

(*note obligatory lp content)

Full text:

http://www.csmonitor.com/2002/1121/p15s01-sten.html

John McMahon


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Message: 3
   Date: Wed, 20 Nov 2002 23:54:15 -0500
   From: "John M. McMahon" <mcmahon@mail....edu>
Subject: Crime prevention?

This just in ... on tonight's 11 o'clock local Syracuse, NY
TV news (such as it is):

Last night at c. 11:25 PM a man was robbed at an A-Plus Mart
in the city. He was pumpimg gas *under a lighted canopy*
(you know the kind) when a pair of individuals got out of an
SUV, put a gun to his head, and demanded money. They settled
for his cell phone, but beat him up when he refused to give
them his coat. I'm not making this up, really; both the
larceny *and* the "news" coverage is petty. (Consider this
as well: Why they didn't force him to fill their SUV while
they were at it? That'd probably gotten them more value than
the stupid cell phone.)

Anyway, when the local reporter was being taped "live on the
scene"  ... of *last* night's crime (boy, we're really on
top of things here), one could see the camera image fade
into a fogged glare as it panned over the parking lot
fixtures and wall pack lights on the buildings, then go
completly white for a split second until the camera image
adjusted as they close-upped the canopy and its unbearbly
bright fixtures where the crime occurred. The piece ended
with the usual comment that police are looking for clues and
asked for the public's help. Hunh? All that light ... and a
crime was committed with *no* clues? 

OK, so anecdotal evidence about how really ineffective
lights are in actually stopping crime ought not be
considered definitive ... I guess, but how can these claims
about any of the crime-deterring properties of lighting
*still* be made by the industry?  I mean, they did not
*stop* the robbery and may very well have made it easier ...
nor did they do anything to help anyone -- the police
included -- to identify the suspects. Suspects, in fact, who
may be the same ones, it was mentioned, who *also* stole
items earlier from a vehicle parked in front of a local
restaurant in another area of the city. The tape of that
crime scene was similary fogged out from the parade of acorn
fixtures along the sidewalk. (It was all nice and uniformly
lit, btw; just like they teach in the books.) 

Some safety and security. I don't get it. (Of course, the
light-blasters would argue that w/o those lights there'd be
more crime, so we should be thankful.) 

John McMahon


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