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Mar. 18th, 2004 02:12 amMy mother volunteers for this library program that teaches illiterates to read. They decided that they weren't getting as many pupils as they thought that they should be, based on their estimates of illiteracy rates in the community. They decided to do the all-American thing, and advertise their program, so that the people who needed it could find out about it. Sounds good so far, eh?
The county library runs the program, so they were in charge of the advertising. How'd they spend their advertising budget? Big text banners to hang on the front of the libraries, and printed bookmarks.
It seems that they've caught the villainous Beltway Sniper. I'm a bit nonplussed, as until recently I really didn't believe there *was* a sniper. I thought it was probably just teenagers out shooting for fun, not realizing that they were hitting cars.
I'm currently reading 'The Underground City' by Jules Verne. One of the wonders of the internet is that you can get stuff that you just wouldn't find in print anymore. It's an SF novel from 1877 about a man who revolutionizes coal mining by using electricity for light, heating, communications and motive power. There's a nice subplot about an orphan girl raised in an abandoned mine by a maniac and his trained attack-Owl. I love Victorian novels.
Much of what goes on seems commonplace to modern eyes, but if you can manage to see it through the eyes of 1877, it's good hardcore techie SF. Electric lights, heaters and motors were cutting edge back then, more curiosities for geeks than practical devices. Cleveland had just installed electric (arc-discharge) street lamps that year, the first city in the world to do so. The Edison filament lamp wouldn't be invented for two years yet. It'd be 1882 before Edison Labs thought of decorating a Christmas tree with electric lights (and spinning it with an electric motor at the same time).
The county library runs the program, so they were in charge of the advertising. How'd they spend their advertising budget? Big text banners to hang on the front of the libraries, and printed bookmarks.
It seems that they've caught the villainous Beltway Sniper. I'm a bit nonplussed, as until recently I really didn't believe there *was* a sniper. I thought it was probably just teenagers out shooting for fun, not realizing that they were hitting cars.
I'm currently reading 'The Underground City' by Jules Verne. One of the wonders of the internet is that you can get stuff that you just wouldn't find in print anymore. It's an SF novel from 1877 about a man who revolutionizes coal mining by using electricity for light, heating, communications and motive power. There's a nice subplot about an orphan girl raised in an abandoned mine by a maniac and his trained attack-Owl. I love Victorian novels.
Much of what goes on seems commonplace to modern eyes, but if you can manage to see it through the eyes of 1877, it's good hardcore techie SF. Electric lights, heaters and motors were cutting edge back then, more curiosities for geeks than practical devices. Cleveland had just installed electric (arc-discharge) street lamps that year, the first city in the world to do so. The Edison filament lamp wouldn't be invented for two years yet. It'd be 1882 before Edison Labs thought of decorating a Christmas tree with electric lights (and spinning it with an electric motor at the same time).
