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26 October 2001
Readers Speak Out
Nancy,
I'm sending this message to you mainly because I'm not sure if Shawn is in the office at the present time. I just read the past couple of Bulletins, and I noticed or at least I inferred that Shawn's plea for support brought forth the help that was needed and in an amount that will do it some good. Early last summer I wrote a lengthy note to Shawn which said, among other things, that much of the doings of SAS looked like a "club" rather than a non-profit organization; and, that this made it difficult to raise money from foundations to support SAS. At the time I felt that the membership needed to come forward with better support, itself, before SAS should expect to receive help from foundations or other organizations for its more philanthropic activities.
I see from the letters published in the Bulletin that another member has suggested something similar; towit that members donate money on a monthly basis, much the way that PBS members do. This is an excellent idea. I have sent two cheques donating funds to SAS already this year, but beginning next year I plan to send $50 or so per month. Surely there are 100 members or thereabouts who could do likewise. This would go a long way toward insuring the base operation of SAS, and it might also help show that SAS has committed membership, which, in turn, would aid SAS in procuring other grants.
It would be helpful if SAS could send a reminder to such members each month. I, for one, have a tough time noticing the change from one month to the next and I often forget to send payments.
Sincerely,
Kevin Kilty
Dear Sir,
We are from Sona college of tech, Salem, TN, INDIA. Ours is a Technical Institute, providing Engineering courses along with Management studies.
We are planning to establish an SCIENCE GALLERY on our college premises. We need Science Exhibits which may be useful to our students to realize a practical grasp of engineering concepts. If you can supply the science exhibits, please send details about your products to us through this ID.
Otherwise, if you know the suppliers, you may give their addresses. Thanking You,
yours truly,
N.Senthil kumar
LECTURER/EEE
Hi Nancy,
Just wanted to let you know that I received a package from SAS yesterday. Thanks, It was nice to get the autographed book. It was not something I would have purchased myself, though now that I have it, I will read it and probably learn a great deal. It looks very interesting!
My best to you and all theSAS folks. Keep up the fine work on the East coast. I will do what I can out here in California.
Regards,
Tim Dolan
Note: The following letter was written by Roger G. Gilbertson to the editors of Poptronics Magazine, with a copy forwarded to Shawn Carlson.
Editor:
After that stunning pile of nonsense about pyramids in the September 2001 "Poptronics", followed by outraged letters of response and your editorial retraction in the November issue, you shocked me by including yet another incredible pile of brain waste entitled "A Time-Travelers Time Line" [sic] in the November issue.
What ever someone believes does not make it true! If a million people believe a stupid thing, it is still a stupid thing! Articles like those two dig deep to undermine the differences between what we "know" and what we want to "believe." Beliefs are blindfolds. Our society desperately needs better educated citizens with greater scientific literacy and solid rational thinking abilities to remove those blindfolds, or we risk returning to the dark ages.
Hands-on experience with the tools and technology of our day gives people a solid understanding of what we "know" and how we know it, and puts them on the path to scientific literacy. Your magazine formerly empowered people to develop their abilities and understanding.
Our world has literally hundreds of exciting, cutting-edge topics worthy of your readers - shape memory alloys, piezoelectric materials, magnetostriction, electrorheological materials, electro- and magnetohydrodynamics, diamagnetism and superconducting materials, fuel cell technology - to name a few favorites.
And if you feel the need to mention human consciousness in relation to computers and electronics, the robotics and neuroscience fields abound with interesting "real world" investigations. (Von Neumann hooking up a human brain to a computer and having it "create that thought into reality" - really! Your author fell into to drug-induced flashback to the 1956 movie "Forbidden Planet.") Many cutting-edge brain studies could make interesting hobbyist projects. After all, most of your readers should have a consciousness available to investigate.
Carl Sagan's famous line needs constant repeating in your editorial offices: "extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence." Post it on your wall.
Radar invisibility in 1943? Great! Give us a circuit project makes a paper clip (or anything metal) invisible to radar.
Electric time travel machines? Fine, present a project that prints next weeks' stock market prices on a home computer. After all, how much energy does it take to send massless data back in time?
Leave the pseudoscience crap to the "National Enquirer".
Leave the science fiction to "Analog".
Leave the investigation of extraordinary beliefs to skeptic.com and "Skeptical Inquirer".
Stop debasing our future. As a society, we no longer have time to waste on nonsense. Either you're part of the solution or you're part of the problem.
We've advertised in "Poptronics" and its predecessors since 1993, but I must seriously question the value of spending our ad dollars where our message and efforts must compete with anti-scientific mental barbarity.
Another article like those two and we'll be looking elsewhere!
Roger G. Gilbertson
President Mondo-tronics, Inc. RobotStore.com
Shawn replies:
Hi Roger,
To your letter I say "here here!"
Perhaps you could modify this a little, as if you wished to call the membership's attention to this problem, and then send it to SAS (me) as a letter. If so I'd ask Sheldon to include it in an upcoming E-Bulletin.
Thanks for this and keep up the good fight!
Shawn
Hi Shawn
Thanks for your note of encouragement. Disappointingly, the magazine's Director of Advertising wrote back defending their articles, claiming that they were their best selling issues ever, and that that should translate to more customers for us, so we should be happy!
However parts of her letter were unintelligible, and it just may be the nature of that publication to work and think at in the dark. You're welcome to edit or excerpt my letter as you see fit.
Any advertising opportunities on SAS? ;-)
Thanks again!
Roger G
