TV Stations Go All Digital

As we look out over the dreary overcast one also sees a murky horizon when it comes to Digital TV Stations because ones that came in fine a couple of days ago aren't coming in now, such as channels two, eleven, thirteen, forty, and fifty-eight. Of course this move to digital television might have taken place twenty years ago because in 1988 there was a demonstration of Japanese digital technology, but that was done in analog, so the US thought they'd just leap-frog analog alltogether and go to digital. But now if it's raining you can't get a TV signal or that tree outside your window is suddenly blocking your reception. Of course they can "degrade" the picture by putting up to eight digital stations on one carrier. Hopefully other people haven't had my negative experiences of the past couple of days. The frequencies these new TV signals transmit at are inherently less stable and given to black-outs. Some analog stations still haven't gone off the air yet but run repeats of instructions for hooking up your station converter, half the time in Spanish.

As this writer suspected President Akmadenijab of Iran won re-election with 62% of the vote. Knowing the government in Iran over the previous twenty years, it's impossible to envision it happening any other way. Other people were holding out hopes that "the will of the people" and "dissident unrest" and "opposition parties" would surely win the day and at last we would have a sane ruler of Iran, who would work for peace rather than war. No, those of you who doubt my grim astrological projections won't be getting off that easy. The probability of nuclear war or something close to it, is just as high, if not now higher than it ever was.

THE FOLLOWING WAS TYPED JUNE 12, 2009

Well, like they said in the Alcatraz movie, “When the weather starts getting colder you know summer is on its way”. This June gloom rather than attenuating, actually appears to be becoming more pronounced with hints of drizzle in the air this morning. As you may remember it rained on the last day of school in June of 1967 but then ten days later the weather was really hot. There were a lot of trips to the beach during this period, as you know. I went to the bakery before breakfast for a large coffee. It seems that the analog TV stations won’t be going off until midnight rather than twelve noon. When they do I’m going to check 9, 13, and 40. Of course commentary on the TV changeover has dominated the news cycle this past day or so.

We had corn flakes for breakfast with a fried egg and cinnamon toast and just one coffee. Drive radio featured 1983. C-Span 2 featured auto dealers being driven out of business by the Obama policies and all this bankruptcy stuff. The closure of thest Auto Dealerships violates laws in several states but they’re doing it anyhow. Meanwhile on another C-Span station we are subjected to once again these anti tobacco bills where the FDA now will obtain control of tobacco production. This to me is an utterly absurd and unwarranted intrusion of the Federal Government into the affairs of a private corporation where it lacks jourisdiction. Philip Morris, the largest of the tobacco companies likes the bill because they are the largest company and are equipped to deal with the restrictions, and if its competitors are driven out of business it’s no skin off their nose.

David Carradine did not commit suicide but was murdered. The coroner has released his findings. Of course as you know he was found tied up and nude in Thailand. This is a horrible ending to the life of a legend. We hope his memory will be vindicated.

The LA Lakers won last night. The Magic led at the half 49 to 37 so I was surprised the next time I checked that station it was 57 to 55 Lakers or something. It was a close, hard fought game from then on. Last night I had dreams about getting in arguments and shouting matches with various people, but I can’t remember the details.

Wolfram will respond if you ask for a State Capital. It’s track record isn’t real good on “unsolicited questions”. Right now it’s almost time for Bernie Sanders.

They may stop adding ammonia to cigarettes if this bill passes because Thom has used the term “free basing” to describe making the blood more alkaline to speed the nicotine to the brain faster, and they have been doing this with cigarettes since the sixties to in Hartman’s words, “to increase the addictive nature of tobacco products”.