Okay, I have Google Wave invites to give away and I’m bored – so I have created a contest that will give you a chance to win one of my precious invites!

Just answer the following question in a comment to this post:

Explain Twitter to Alexander Graham Bell (inventor of the telephone) in 1876.

The winner will be announced on Monday, the 16th. Good luck!

Image Credit:

• http://static.open.salon.com/files/alexander_bell1236350558.jpg

It was kind of grey and cold today here, so I stayed inside and scanned. I’m starting to figure out how to use these; poco a poco.
This is from the Alexander Graham Bell Museum in Nova Scotia, one of our favorite stops up there. Besides the telephone, Bell also experimented with boats and kites (he was interested in using them as airplanes). This is one of his large tetrahedral kites.

10. Marie Curie (1867-1934)
Chemistry

Marie Curie created the theory of radioactivity through her discovery of radium and also developed a process for isolating isotopes. These were huge advancements in chemical science which have been used in many applications, not the least of which are major advancements in the medical field. Unfortunately the discoveries she made would eventually claim her life, yet she left in indelible mark on modern science.

9. Gregor Mendel (1822-1884)
Biology

This quiet Austrian Monk would go on to develop the foundations of genetic study. Sure genetics has come a long way since then, but Mendel was the one who started it all with his ideas on inherited traits through his experiments and the idea of genotypes. Mendel’s theories were not accepted by the scientific community during his life however. It would only be later when his work was revisited and validated.

“Inventor é um homem que olha para o mundo em torno de si e não fica satisfeito com as coisas como elas são. Ele quer melhorar tudo o que vê e aperfeiçoar o mundo. É perseguido por uma idéia, possuído pelo espírito da invenção e não descansa enquanto não materializa seus projetos.”

Alexander Graham Bell

¿Sabías que… el verdadero inventor del teléfono no fue Alexander Graham Bell?

Así es, aproximadamente en el año 1854 el italiano Antonio Meucci (cuyo nombre completo era Antonio Santi Giuseppe Meucci), construyó el primer teléfono, al que llamó teletrófono, con el fin de comunicarse con su enferma esposa desde su habitación.

(fig. 01 - Antonio Santi Giuseppe Meucci, el verdadero inventor del teléfono.)

Desafortunadamente, Meucci, en el año 1860, no tenía suficiente dinero para patentar su invento y tiempo después, en 1876, su invento cayó en manos de Alexander Graham Bell, quien si lo patentó y se llevo toda la gloria, fortuna y reconocimientos… Meucci tuvo que vivir y morir con ello…

En el año 2002, el Congreso de Estados Unidos nombró a Antonio Meucci como el verdadero inventor del teléfono y no a Alexander Graham Bell. A Meucci no le debió caer muy bien que se tardaran 142 años en descubrirlo.

The invention of the steam engine was critical to the invention of the modern railroad and trains. In 1803, a man named Samuel Homfray decided to fund the development of a steam-powered vehicle to replace the horse-drawn carts on the tramways. Richard Trevithick (1771-1833) built that vehicle, the first steam engine tramway locomotive. On February 22, 1804, the locomotive hauled a load of 10 tons of iron, 70 men and five extra wagons the 9 miles between the ironworks at Pen-y-Darron in the town of Merthyr Tydfil, Wales to the bottom of the valley called Abercynnon. It took about two hours.

The telegraph had been invented in 1832 by Samuel F. B. Morse

Charles H. Durgin was named the city’s first Federal postmaster in 1846, the year the state government was inaugurated following annexation. At that time, mail was carried primarily by stagecoach or by rider on horseback, and most mail centers were located in Central, South, and East Texas. Of these, Houston was probably the busiest and most important.

The telephone was invented in March of 1876. The famous incident in which Alexander Graham Bell spilled acid on himself and called out to his assistant, Watson, not realizing his voice was being carried over the telephone was on March 10.

The first working television was invented by John Logie Baird of Helensburgh, Scotland in 1925.

Dr Martin Cooper, a former general manager for the systems division at Motorola, is considered the inventor of the first modern portable handset. Cooper made the first call on a portable cell phone in April 1973. He made the call to his rival, Joel Engel, Bell Labs head of research

The development of what we now call the Internet started in 1957 when the Soviet Union launched Sputnik 1, the first satellite, beating the United States into space. The powers behind the American military at the time became highly alarmed as this meant that the USSR could theoretically launch bombs into space, and then drop them anywhere on earth. In 1958 the concerns of people in the US military triggered the creation of the Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).

All of these thing have changed the way the world communicated and effected the global economy. The big question would be how with Social Networking or will social networking have the same effect.  Here is are some interesting things.

1. This is the first time in history that we can see what events are happening around the globe in realtime (  No government or political  intervention).

2. We can spend the whole day without speaking a word and function in society as  an internet guru, stock trader and many more

3.  Any Person can be the paparazzi ( cell Phone with camera and video)

4.   We have the ability to be a monetarily paperless society

The list could go on. I wont get started on my max headroom theory.  The big question for me is are we nearing global peace out of necessity or the fact that people can put you on the 6:00pm news with the click of a cell phone.  If we are going to be better communicator wouldn’t it stand to reason that we would need to actually speak to each other. People seem to be replacing the are to conversation with a quick  twit or tweet. It is amazing how people can actually sit next to each other and text for hour and not say a word.  I could understand if people had telepathic abilities, but the o boy would the world be a mess.

So let me know your thoughts  or opinion  on this subject:

Guru out -

Inventions-Telephone

(Alexander Graham Bell)

The telephone is an instrument enabling us to converse with a person at a great distance. The word telephone is derived from two Greek terms –Tele meaning ‘At a distance’, and phone meaning ‘Sound’. In the language of saence, telephone is an arrangement to convert sound waves to electrical waves and then to convert electrical waves to sound waves again. Nowadays Telephone has become one of the important means of communication. People from near and far communicate through this instrument.

Scientists had started attempts at broadcasting the human voice as far back as in the 1800’s.It was Sir Charles Wheatstone himself, one of the inventors of the telegraph, who had initiated this search. During the course of his search, he developed the enchanted lyre, an instrument that could broadcast music from one room to another.

In those times, persons travelling in ships and trains are seated at a distance, used to talk through certain tube like device. Children of those times used to talk with each other through two tins tied at the opposite ends of a thread. Children in our countryside might have engaged in such recreations. These reference indicate that broadcast of the human voice was not a novel idea. On the contrary, the challenge faced by scientists was to invent an instrument capable of broadcast.

Alexander Graham Bell of Scotland researched on how sound could be transmitted and received. He had researched for long on the telegraph, and it was not surprising that he thought of using electricity as the conducting force of sound had struck his mind.

In fact, Bell had invented the telephone during the course of his attempts to modify the telegraph. When he started his researches for telephone in the 1870’s, nearly 30years had passed after telegraph had taken roots in society. Then, the mores code consisting of dots and dashes was the basis of telegraph. For telegraph, there was heavy loss of time for decoding the message, besides the demand for service of experts for decoding or translating. In addition, the telegraph had not the capacity of exchanging so many messages simultaneously.

Bell, in joint efforts with Thomas Watson, tried to transmit sound with the help of electricity. He had clearly understood how the human ear identified sounds, and in 1874,he explain the working principle of the telephone. In 1875, Bell and Watson jointly developed an instrument that could transmit sound. They found that variation in sound effected corresponding variations in the electric flow was developed. So they began their attempts to devise such an arrangement.

On 10th march 1876, Bell and Watson invented telephone. Earlier Telephones could be used only for exchanging conversation between people in adjacent rooms. Continued experiments by Bell and Watson enabled the distance to be enhanced by miles. In 1877, telephone wires extending up to distances of 3 miles were set up.

During 1876 – 77, some professors who conducted research in the Brown University jointly produced a telephone of a smaller size. In1877, the Bell Telephone Company was established for industrial manufacture of telephones. In 1878 the first telephone exchanges come into existence. In 1879 telephone subscribers started to be allotted 5 -digits numbers.

The field of telephones subsequently witnessed unforeseen development. Mobile cellular phones have become very common today. Besides, the videophone system, enabling the persons at both ends to see each other on a screen and to talk has become a reality.

• Después de toda esta comunicación rudimentaria aparece unos principios de comunicación eléctrica En el año 1794, cuando la revolución Francesa fue necesario inventar un nuevo sistema de comunicación fue entonces cuando Claude Chape desarrollo el Telegrafo Óptico con su propio alfabeto, que incluían como 196 caracteres. En 1750 Benjamin Franklin, con su famoso experimento de la cometa estableció la ley de conservación de la carga y determinó que debían de haber cargas positivas y negativas. En 1780 Charles Agustin de Coulomb midió fuerzas eléctricas y magnéticas utilizando una balanza de torsión que él mismo inventó. En 1801 Alejandro Volta, físico italiano, en la Academia de Ciencias de París,presenta su invento llamado “pila de Volta” . En 1875 Edison descubrió que las chispas de los interruptores eléctricos producían radiaciones, en 1885, patentó un sistema de comunicaciones utilizando antenas monopolo. En 1876 Alexander Graham Bell patenta el primer teléfono. 1894 El Italiano Marconi efectúa la transmisión de señales inalámbricas a través de una distancia de 2 millas. El inglés LODGE, en el Real Instituto de Londres, utilizando un excitador HERTZ y un cohesor Branly, establece la primera comunicación en morse a 36 metros de distancia.El 28 de marzo de 1899 Marconi asombra con la primera comunicación por radio entre Inglaterra y Francia a través del Canal de la Mancha. El 12 de Diciembre de 1901 Marconi estableció la primera -comunicación transoceánica. Entre 1930-39, se desarrollo de las microondas y el RADAR. En 1930 Walter Schottky y otros físicos descubrieron el mecanismo de los semiconductores, se invento el LED, rectificadores y celdas fotovoltaicas.

Tak seberapa dapat pendidikan formal, tetapi diajar baik oleh keluarganya dan belajar sendiri, begitulah ihwal Alexander Graham Bell penemu tilpun yang dilahirkan tahun 1847 di Edinburg, Skotlandia. Minat Bell memproduksi kembali suara vokal timbul secara wajar karena ayahnya seorang ahli dalam hal fisiologi vokal, memperbaiki pidato dan mengajar orang-orang tuli.

Bell pernah ke Boston, negara bagian Massachusetts tahun 1871. Di sanalah pada tahun 1875 dia membuat percobaan-percobaan yang mengarah pada penemuan tilpun. Dia mengumpulkan paten untuk mengokohkan penemuannya di bulan Februari 1876 dan mendapat imbalan beberapa minggu kemudian. (Menarik sekali untuk dicatat bahwa seorang lain bernama Elisha Gray juga mengumpulkan paten penemuan untuk pengokohan mengenai peralatan serupa pada hari yang berbarengan dengan apa yang diperbuat Bell, hanya selisih beberapa jam saja).

Tak lama sesudah patennya diterima, Bell mempertontonkan tilpun di pameran 100 tahun kota Philadelphia. Penemuannya menarik perhatian besar publik dan mendapat penghargaan atas hasil karyanya. Tetapi, The Western Union Telegraph Company yang menawarkan uang sebesar $100.000 buat penemuan alat itu mengelak membayarnya. Karena itu, Bell dan kawan-kawannya, di bulan Juli 1877, mendirikan perusahaan sendiri, nenek moyang dari American Telephone and Telegraph Company sekarang. Tilpun dengan cepat dan besar-besaran mencapai sukses secara komersial. Sakarang ini AT & T merupakan perusahaan bisnis yang terbesar di dunia.

Bell dan istrinya yang di bulan Maret 1879 memegang 15 persen saham dari perusahaan itu tampaknya tak punya bayangan betapa akan fantastisnya keuntungan yang bakal diterima oleh perusahaan itu. Dalam tempo cuma tujuh bulan, mereka sudah jual sebagian besar saham mereka dengan harga rata-rata $250 per saham. Di bulan Nopember harganya sudah melesat naik jadi $1000 per saham! (Di bulan Maret itu isterinya-lah yang mendesak buru-buru jual karena dia khawatir harga saham tak akan sampai setinggi itu lagi!) Di tahun 1881 dengan gegabah mereka jual lagi sepertiga jumlah sisa saham yang mereka punyai. Meski begitu, toh dalam tahun 1883 mereka sudah bisa peroleh keuntungan seharga sekitar sejuta dolar.

Kendati penemuan tilpun sudah mengorbitkan Bell jadi kaya-raya, dia tak pernah berhenti meneruskan penyelidikannya, dan dia berhasil menemukan lagi pelbagai alat yang berguna walau tidak sepenting tilpun. Minatnya beraneka ragam, tetapi tujuan utamanya adalah menolong orang tuli. Istrinya sendiri tadinya gadis tuli yang dilatihnya sendiri. Empat anak, dua lelaki dua perempuan keluar berkat perkawinan tetapi keempatnya mati muda. Tahun 1882 Bell jadi warganegara Amerika Serikat dan mati tahun 1922.

Today’s Friday. School’s coming pretty soon. How fast. I wish I could get more holiday. Anyway, this morning, I’ve just realized (doesn’t mean I’ve just known) that in my ultimate Yahoo! Mail, there’re exactly 121 unread mails. No, no, they’re not from Facebook, Friendster, Twitter, whatsoever. No, no, they’re not spams. Last August no available internet connection. No wonder there’re such an abundance of unread mails. I was reading some of the random emails, and I found a lot of interesting things.

LOVE AND HATE

Let me start from a quotation.

“No one is born hating another person because of the color of
his skin, or his background, or his religion. People must
learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be
taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human
heart than its opposite.”

- Nelson Mandela

This is so interesting. When I first read this quote, this what comes to my mind: we were created from God, by God, and for God, then, since God is Love, thus, we were created from Love, by Love, and for Love. Before I move on, here’s the principle: there are only black and white, only good or bad, real or fake. Nothing in between. A man could either respect or disrespect, could either do good or do bad, (measured by inner motivations, by the way) – could only either love or hate. There is nothing in between. And this principle is the basis of this statement above: “People must learn how to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love.” To love what is good, simply teach them to hate the bad. Since there are only either good or bad, hating the bad would strengthen the love towards the good. The stronger the hatred towards evil, the stronger the love towards the good – the stronger the love towards the good, the stronger the hatred towards evil. Yes, it’s probably reversible, though for me, I would agree more to the latter one, not Nelson Mandela’s version. How to measure love? Simply measure how much you hate the opposite. Ah, done with the love-hate-thingee. Let’s move on to another interesting e-mail I got.

COMPUTER MARRIAGES

Let me quote the email:

“On August 16, 1995, Sandra and Scott Grusky were married online via computer as an NBC documentary filmed the ceremony at both sites. The couple met online and joined to write a novel about an online love affair before they decided to get married.” [© Copyright Audri and Jim Lanford. All rights reserved.]

My commentary? Two words: “Wow.” and “Weird.”

WHY “HELLO”?

Another interesting information you might not care about. First, ask yourself this question:

Why do people say “Hello” in phone calls?

This one email answers my a few-milliseconds-after-I-read-the-email curiosity. Actually Alexander Graham Bell suggested the word “Ahoy.” But later Thomas Alfa Edison suggested to the president of the Telegraph company to use the word “Hello,” instead. If you prefer the word “Ahoy” to “Hello,” let’s all blame Mr. Edison.

LEFT-HANDEDNESS

One more topic that caught my attention in my inbox. About the left-handers:

1. Picasso, Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, Alexander the Great, Babe Ruth, and Jimi Hendrix are left-handers. (Obviously, they ain’t ordinary left-handers.)
2. Left-handed students, according to SAT results, have higher math scores than right-handed student

THE IMPORTANCE OF TALKING

Let me close this one did-you-know post with another quotation, without any commentary, since it speaks by itself, I found in one of the email, too.

“Speech has allowed the communication of ideas, enabling human
beings to work together to build the impossible. Mankind’s
greatest achievements have come about by talking, and its
greatest failures by not talking. It doesn’t have to be like
this. Our greatest hopes could become reality in the future.
With the technology at our disposal, the possibilities are
unbounded. All we need to do is make sure we keep talking.“

- Stephen Hawking

”When one door closes another door opens; but we so often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door, that we do not see the ones which open for us……”

Alexander Graham Bell ( who would be laughing hysterically now if he knew people were referring to his invention as a ‘‘Blackberry” )

Proponents of Eugenics

Developing list of govts./states/countries involved in eugenics;

• North Korea (racially impure children)
• China  studies selective breeding
• Spain Down’s Syndrome
  
• Islam Darfur Genocide
  
• Peru Forced Sterilizations
• Canada
  
• Germany
• Japan
• India
• Sweden 60,000
• Norway 40,000
• Finland
• Australia
• Switzerland
• Iceland
• Czechoslovakia
• Belgium
• Soviet Union
• USA
• Panama
• Estonia
• Slovakia
  
• Netherlands
• Denmark
• Rwanda 1994 genocide
• Burundi 1972 genocide 100-200,000 murdered
• Sudan genocide & slavery
  
• Uganda Idi Amin 1971-1979 genocide 100,000 to 500,000.
  

  Idelphonse Nizeyimana captured for Rwanda genocide

more on these countries

and here

• World Bank
• WHO
  

Industries involved in Eugenics;

• Proctor & Gamble Floride, Tetanus shots & Disposable Diapers
• Spermicidal Corn & Population Control
• Monsanto

Tax payer supported non-profit;

• Eugenics Records Office
• Congress of Eugenics
• Cold Springs Harbor Laboratory & in New York Eugenics Records Office
  
• Kaiser Wilhelm Institute and Nazi Germany
• Climate warming,  environmentalism and eugenics
  
• Planned Parenthood targets blacks
• Cold Springs Harbor Laboratory Eugenics_Record_Office
• Carnegie Corporation (conveniently established in 1911, 2 years before the enactment of the income tax) “In 1904, the Carnegie Institution established a laboratory complex at Cold Spring Harbor on Long Island that stockpiled millions of index cards on ordinary Americans, as researchers carefully plotted the removal of families, bloodlines and whole peoples. “..
• Rockefeller Foundation

Individuals involved in eugenics

• Alexander Graham Bell
• John D. Rockefeller Sr.
• Margaret Sanger
• William Shockley
• Francis Galton
  
• Adolf Hitler
• John Holdren
  

Related Links:

http://educate-yourself.org/nwo/brotherhoodpart6.shtml

http://www.faqs.org/health/topics/45/Eugenics.html

http://www.infowars.com/climate-change-agenda-its-all-about-eugenics-and-depopulation/

http://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/sociopolitica/esp_sociopol_depopu33.htm

Comprehensive look at the history of eugenics(many pages)

http://www.eugenicsarchive.org/eugenics/

germ plasma

—————————————————————————————

“Sometimes we stare so long at a door that is closing that we see too late the one that is open.” – Alexander Graham Bell

Follow Me On Twitter    Browse The Blog    Yesterday’s Words

The last few weeks have brought a lot of excitement to our home through Abram Eloy who was (finally) born Sept. 10.  They’ve also brought a lot of time away from the computer for me.  You would think that with so much going on and with not having written for a while I would be teeming with posts.  Alas, I’m just not that cool.  But, in an effort to actually get something on here, here’s a quote from somebody who was that cool:

When one door closes, another open; but we often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door that we do not see the one which has opened for us  — Alexander Graham Bell (according to thinkexist.com)

And while we’re at it, how about a video from someone who was also much cooler than me:

http://www.cmu.edu/uls/journeys/randy-pausch/index.html

t happens with every American icon, the fathers of progress, the day you realize that they weren’t perfect, that they had troubles in life too.  Some of them you also realize weren’t exactly good people either.  Walt Disney hired a lot of women specifically so he could pay them less, Henry Ford was anti-Semitic, and Alexander Graham Bell was heavily into Eugenics, to name a few.  I grew up hearing about all the wonderful things Alexander Graham Bell did for society, and it can’t be denied that he was a brilliant inventor who gave us the Telephone, among other things.  He looks like such a benevolent friend in his old black and white photos, his eyes twinkling, his bushy beard lying Santa-like on his collar with his smiling family surrounding him.  Add all this up with the fact that he started a Deaf school and you start to think he was a truly great man who was a wonderful advocate for the Deaf, however  the reality lies burried deeper in the facade of his perfect-on-paper existence.  Most Deaf people today think of Alexander Graham Bell as the less evil, American version of Hitler who decimated the cultural advances of Deaf people for decades.  So, which version is true?  A little of both.

At first glance, Alec (as his family called him) looks like he should be a great Deaf advocate.  Alec’s mother was deaf, and this made a huge impression on him.  He would sit near her when they had company and fingerspell to her so she knew what was going on, and he started his experiments in sound after he realized that she could feel the vibrations of his speech when he talked into her forehead.  Speech and sound was also the family business: Alec’s uncles and father were all Elocutionists, and his father had invented Bell’s Visible Speech, a set of phonetic characters by which it was thought that Deaf people would be able to learn to speak quickly and easily.  The family toured Europe, America, and Canada promoting Bell’s Visible Speech, which was later found to not work very well.  Still, Alec capitalized on his family’s association with Deaf people and founded a Deaf school in Boston which focused only on the Oral method.  He took private pupils as well and married one of them, Mabel Hubbard, with whom he had 2 gorgeous little girls, both hearing.  A well known figure in the Deaf community, Alec even had a book dedicated to him by Helen Keller.  Doesn’t he seem like the perfect Deaf advocate?

The truth is a little more complicated.  In reality, Alec’s mother was a woman who couldn’t admit to being deaf.  She insisted on being called Hard of Hearing, carried around an ear trumpet, and painstakingly learned to play a piano she couldn’t hear in denial of her deafness. This unfortunate attitude probably colored Alec’s perspective of deaf ideas, making him think that all deaf people felt badly about being that way and wanted to be hearing, a false idea still perpetuated today.  By insisting on using the oral method only in his school Alec created a situation in which the Deaf were as isolated from each other as they were from the hearing world.  He would sometimes have children’s hands tied behind their backs for hours if they continued to communicate in the only way they knew how, by signing.  Worse still, his foray into Eugenics produced a heap of debilitating ideas about Deafness that are still in widespread use 100 years later.  Alec railed against America letting in “undesirable foreigners” to procreate with the perfect American race, and insisted that English be made the national language, even at the expense of Sign Language which he claimed was not a real language anyway.  Though Alec didn’t promote forced sterilization himself, he belonged to plenty of organizations that did.  Instead, he  advocated for Deaf people being kept completely apart from one another.  He reasoned that if they could never meet, they would never marry, and would not have Deaf children.  The myth that most Deaf people have Deaf children is another one of the misconceptions still being refuted today.  I always feel a little melancholy for Alec’s deaf wife Mabel.  She must have lived a completely solitary existence, ensconced in her hearing family, denying her deafness.  Alec’s invention of the Telephone only made things worse for Deaf people.  He suddenly had an enormous pulpit of fame and influence from which to shout his damaging ideas, and he made sure to do it.  His ideas ushered in an era in which sign language was almost lost, Deaf people were isolated from each other, and many were denied employment. 

If you asked Alexander Graham Bell if he was a friend or a foe, undoubtedly he would have said friend.  He thought that he was providing deaf people with an important opportunity to be more like hearing people, even though it was something they didn’t want.  I’m sure he also would argue that his Eugenic ideas, if not popular, were at least creating a stronger human race.  While his intentions may have been harmless, there is no denying the damage he did to deaf equality for more than 100 years.  The ideas that deaf people can be easily taught to speak, that they almost always have deaf children, that they don’t want to be deaf, and that American Sign Language isn’t really a language, are all myths that were started by Bell and are still believed by a vast amount of hearing people.  The myths he perpetuated and the quest he started to keep deaf people from each other clearly place Alexander Graham Bell in the foe category.  I personally think deaf people are right to abhor everything Bell stands for, and I think if more hearing people knew about the negative impact he had on deaf society, they would abhor that too.  Perhaps being raised in the family business of Elocution made it inevitable that Bell would be on the wrong side of the issue.  It’s sad he couldn’t put aside his preconceived notions and listen to the deaf community all around him.

TELEPON yang pernah menjadi idaman setiap keluarga  di Indonesia, pada suatu hari nanti, agaknya segera  akan tersisih.  Lebih  dan  lebih banyak  di  antara  penduduk   Indonesia  yang  berusia separuh baya, kini,  tiada  lagi  menggunakan temuan Philipp Reis yang dikembangkan Alexan­der  Graham  Bell di tahun 1862 itu.  Mereka  tiada  lagi sering  menggunakan telepon untuk berbicara dengan  saha­bat,  bercinta  dengan kekasih atau pun  berjanji  dengan relasi.  Telepon  sudah mulai mereka  tinggalkan.  Mereka  menggantinya dengan pemancar radio.

Dulu,  di tahun 1876, ketika telepon pertama  kali dipamerkan Bell dalam Pameran Seratus Tahun di  Philadel­phia,  Amerika  Serikat,1  ia memang  masih  menarik  dan mengundang  sensasi.  Kaisar muda dari  Brazil  Pedro  ll bahkan sempat keheran-heranan ketika mencobanya, “Astaga­ firullah, benda ini dapat berbicara!”2

Namun, kini, seratus tiga belas tahun telah berla­lu. Kalau saja sang Kaisar masih hidup dan sempat  mampir di Indonesia, ia tentu tak lagi dapat berseru seperti itu bila  melihat nasib telepon. Perkembangan pemancar  radio yang  membanjiri negeri ini sejak pertengahan 1979  tentu lebih  mengherankannya. Kalaupun ia  mencoba  menggunakan  pemancar,  mungkin  sambil melirik telepon,  sang  Kaisar akan   berkata,   “Astaganaga,  ho…ho…ho…ho…. Telepon malang, pemancar bukan saja dapat berbicara, tapi  juga sudah dapat menggantikanmu!”

Memang,  pemancar tampaknya mulai menggeser tele­pon. Malah, bagi penggemarnya, pemancar sudah pula  mirip telepon. Bedanya cuma sedikit. Dengan telepon, komunikasi dimulai setelah mendengar deringan atau bunyi tert…tert…tert…tert….Dengan pemancar,  komunikasi dimulai  setelah melihat indikator bergoyang-goyang  atau  cukup menanti panggilan di waktu tertentu. Tentunya, yang   hendak  berkomunikasi telah mengadakan perjanjian.  Sepa­kat.

Sentot tahu Mimi datang memanggil setelah  melihat indikator dapat pemancar bergoyang-goyang tiga kali  pada pukul  24.00 setiap menjelang pagi. Lantas,  kalau  sudah  ada  sign  seperti  itu, dengan  segera  pemuda  tersebut  melompat  dari  tempat tidur  dan  cepat-cepat  menyambar mikrofon.  Ia membesarkan volume, “Hai,”  sapanya.  Maka,  kisah  cinta  pun segera dimulai. Episode  demi  episode, selama berjam-jam, bahkan sering sampai menjelang  fajar, mereka ngebrik sambil bisik-bisik.

Sedangkan Anwar lain lagi. Setiap pulang  sekolah,  ia selalu on the air dengan teratur. Soalnya, ayah  Anwar  di  kantor  biasa muncul di frekuensi tepat  pukul  13.00  sesudah  waktu makan siang. Kepada Anwar, ia selalu  men­yampaikan message. Antara lain, “A’an, bilang Mami,  Papi  sore  nanti langsung ke Mandarin. Ada dinner  bersama  di  sana.  Kalau mau, kamu dan Mami nyusul saja.  Suruh  Udin  mengantar.  Ingat, jangan ngebut. Pakai mobil  yang  mana  saja boleh. Asal jangan pakai Peugeot milik Papi, okay?”

Pembicaraan  selanjutnya,  bisa  saja berkembang  kemana  suka. Terserah kepada Anwar dan  ayahnya. Kadang  kala, pembicaraan hanya singkat saja. Namun, mirip Sentot dan Mimi, obrolan Anwar dan ayahnya bisa juga berjam-jam. Mereka asyik ngebrik sambil tertawa hi…hi…hi.

Fungsi  pemancar  tampaknya sudah  tumpang  tindih  dengan telepon. Apa boleh buat. Dari segi biaya,  menggu­nakan  pemancar  sebagai  alat  komunikasi  memang  lebih hemat.  Dengan pemancar yang kini rata-rata  Rp.350.000,- per  buah,  seseorang dapat  berbicara  berjam-jam  tanpa  kuatir soal biaya. Sedangkan dengan  telepon,—khususnya  telepon  genggam — belum apa-apa, mungkin  sudah  harus berpikir sepuluh kali.

Bandingkan.  Jika telepon umum Rp. 100,- per  enam menit,  sejam  Rp. 1.000,- Kalau makhluk  seperti  Sentot menggunakannya untuk in the mood enam jam sehari, mau tak mau,   sudah   keluar   biaya   Rp. 6.000,-. Sebulan  Rp.180.000,.

Katakan tarif untuk pelanggan seperti Sentot  cuma separuh tarif telepon umum maka ia akan mengeluarkan  Rp. 90.000,- per bulan. Bila dibandingkan dengan tarif  meng­gunakan  pemancar berdaya 75 watt per bulan, ternyata  21kali  lebih mahal. Percobaan menunjukkan,  sebelum  tarif  listrik naik 25% pada Mei 1989, dengan mengudara enam jam sehari  seperti Sentot, rekening literik hanya  naik  Rp. 4.250,- per bulan.

Karena itu, menggunakan pemancar lebih hemat  dari  pada  telepon. Cukup bayar listerik saja.  Apalagi,  bila daya  pemancar di bawah 75  Watt seperti  yang  digunakan Sentot maka tarif listerik  akan lebih murah. Kurang dari Rp.  4.250,-  per bulan. Tak heran orang  lebih  menyukai  pemancar  dari  pada telepon.  Terutama,  bila  langganan telepon, meski tak menggunakan, pelanggan wajib membayar. Atau, yang paling menjengkelkan, orang lain yang  menggu­       nakan, pelanggan yang bayar. Hal ini tak mungkin  terjadi        kalau menggunakan pemancar. Bila tidak mengudara, lister­ik  jelas tak perlu dibayar. Dan kisah sedih  membayarkan   orang  lain  pun  tak mungkin terjadi.  Siapa  pula  yang  menyadap  frekuensi sehingga dia yang  menggunakan,  Anda  yang membayar?

Itulah  beda prinsip antara telepon dengan  peman­car.  Telepon menggunakan kabel yang dapat  disadap.  Se­hingga,  pemasangannya  pun, telepon  jauh  lebih  sulit.        Kabelnya  berbelit-belit mirip birokrasi ketika  mengurus permohonannya  meski hanya seharga tujuh ratus  ribu  ru­piah.

Di  sisi  lain, menggunakan  pemancar  jauh  lebih tenang  dari pada telepon. Telepon, umumnya,  masih  dia­nggap  milik  serumah.  Milik  keluarga.  Pemancar  lebih  bersifat  personal.  Milik pribadi. Karena  itu,  ngebrik bisa  jauh lebih bebas dan nyaman, apalagi  mesti  sampai   pagi.  Di  saat berkomunikasi,  mikrofon  bisa  diletakan   begitu  saja.  Tidak melelahkan seperti  telepon:  kopnya mesti selalu ditempelkan di telinga.

Sementara, yang paling penting, telepon tak  dapat di-brik  kalau sedang dipergunakan. Anwar, kalau  menele­ pon  ayahnya, harus tahan diri dulu bila setelah  memutar  nomor,  terdengar bunyi: tit…tit…tit….   Itu  tanda  telepon  di meja sang Direktur sedang  dipakai.  Mungkin,  ayah  Anwar  sedang menghubungi relasi  untuk  mengetahui  perkembangan  terakhir  devisa  non  migas  atau   sedang        menghubungi isteri keduanya yang tinggal di Pondok  Gede.  Sementara, di rumah, Anwar kebingungan karena ibunya lagi   anvaal.   Dia   putar   lagi   nomor   telepon   ayahnya: tit….tit….tit….  Ternyata, masih dipakai.

Itu hanya satu bukti kelemahan telepon. Hal terse­but tak akan terjadi andaikan ayahnya lagi ngebrik.  Toh,  Anwar  bisa langsung menyela, “Brik! Brik dong, Pap.  Ini  Anwar,  Mami lagi anvaal!” Pembicaraan  sepenting  apapun yang sedang dilakukan ayahnya pasti dapat segera dihenti­kan.

Jadi,  sekali  lagi,  pemancar  memang cenderung  dipilih  siapapun  dalam kondisi semacam  itu.  Akibatnya tentu mempengaruhi pihak yang mengelola bisnis telepon di negeri  ini. Tahun 1985, di Bali, produksi pulsa  telepon   menurun drastis. Kata Erlangga Suryadarma, penduduk pulau Dewata  itu  ternyata lebih sering  menggunakan  pemancar  radio  untuk berkomunikasi dari pada telepon.  Akibatnya,        Perumtel di sana menderita kerugian. Demikian di  ungkap­kannya ketika hendak ke Auckland, Selandia Baru, mewakili  Organisasi Amatir Radio Indonesia (Orari) dalam pertemuan ke 6 Badan Internasional Amatir Radio Wilayah lll, Asean-Oceania, 17 Nopember 1985.

Selain itu, pelayanan pihak Perumtel sendiri dapat mendorong konsumen melarikan diri dari telepon. Tanggapan Perumtel  terhadap  keluhan konsumen  mengenai  pengajuan    pemasangan  dan perbaikan kerusakan, paling tidak,  masih  sangat  buruk sekali. Konsumen dapat  menunggu  tanggapan  Perumtel  berminggu-minggu,  berbulan-bulan  dan   bahkan   mungkin bartahun-tahun.

Hal-hal semacam itu yang agaknya memperkuat  peri­laku  masyarakat Bali berpaling ke pemancar  radio.  Bisa diperkirakan, berapa besar kerugian Perumtel bila perila­ku  semacam itu  diikuti pula masyarakat di  pulau  lain,  terutama  di pulau-pulau terpencil yang  belum  dijangkau  telepon ?

Kini,  selayaknyalah Perumtel  menyediakan  payung  sebelum  hujan. Coba sekali-kali hubungi pihak  langganan dengan  telepon.  Tanyakan, “Hello, sudah  beli  pemancar  atau belum ?”

Oleh Mohammad Fauzy

1. Reader’s Digest Almanac and Yearsbook 1968, The  Read­er’s Digest Association, Inc., New York 1968, h. 710.
2. Egon Larsen, Kisah Penemuan dari Masa ke Masa, Djamba­tan, Jakarta, 1979, h. 39

]]> http://jenthepen.wordpress.com/2009/08/25/scotlands-contribution-to-science/ Tue, 25 Aug 2009 20:31:19 +0000 Jen http://jenthepen.wordpress.com/2009/08/25/scotlands-contribution-to-science/

This started off begged, borrowed and stolen from a colleague. PT Science originally told me that the Faculty wanted to reintroduce an old investigation on famous scientists, which later turned into Scottish scientists, which further transmogrified into “Scotland’s scientific contribution to the world” to allow scientists whose work took place in scotland too. Not that we’re grabby or anything

Anyway, said colleague was also pursuing a similar path last term and used it for her final uni assignment. Very straightforward, using the “I see, I think, I wonder” routine from Project Zero at Harvard, along with a photo and a name. I’ve used exactly the same idea (because it totally makes sense as an introduction), but at least I never saw any of her original worksheets, so I can claim a smidgeon of originality – a minute smidgeon.

However, I’ve thoroughly enjoyed the classes so far. I’ve a picture of Fleming that I use as a practice example for the whole class, and wow, have they come through.

• There have been philosophical discussions about why the photographs / portraits have been taken in the first place, leading us rapidly from “That’s a old guy in a bow tie” to  “He must be famous – what for?”
• A couple have identified that Fleming is holding a petrie dish, while others have hypothesised what might be in it (fossils? samples? bacteria?).
• The clothing has been examined to identify a rough time period. Others noted his spectacles and used them as evidence.
• Pupils have tried to guess a location using the somewhat non-descript background.

It’s altogether fabulous and exciting. A small fly in the ointment is that when the class start on their own scientists / inventors / engineers / etc, pupils working on the better known people, particularly Alexander Graham Bell, find working through See, Think, Wonder incredibly difficult, because THEY KNOW. To their minds, there isn’t anything to wonder about, even when you point out how little they actually know. Shame really, because Bell did so much more than “inventing” the telephone.

Doubly unfortunate, because the better known people also have much more written about them.

I would also love to have more women involved, but I’m still working on that. So far, I’ve only got Sophia Jex-Blake.

Anyway, it’s fun watching the pupils extrapolate from the photos. The second period, gathering information, has so far throw up all the usual problems: insufficient resources, too much copying, and over avoidance of writing anything down. Changing these bad habits will take longer than the six years of their secondary education.

The following period, creation of posters etc, should prove interesting again, as this is when the class generally realises they should have done more work in the previous period.

And the best period, when they report to their classmates, I will miss out on again, as the LRC timetable is sooooooo busy.

So I am really happy to get to introduce the whole thing, and timetabling nightmares or not, I want to hang on to it.

Tonight’s Book and a Chat was saved by the Alexander Graham Bell, actually more like Saved by JD Glasscock. Yes that is his real name, so please don’t try and put any weird French accent o silence letters as one might have a silent P as in bath.

My original guest though I checked up about 2/3 hours before the show with their agent if they were able to be a guest (having already dropped once before) dropped out with illness about 45minutes before tonight’s program.

Many anxious emails, face book entries and twitters later, April Robbins the guiding light behind Red River Writers put me in touch with me guest JD Glasscock.

JD has just brought out a book entitled “Street Hymns to the Disconnected” a compilation of some of his better poems and lyrics out of my ten chapbooks as well as some of his short films and an excerpt from one of his feature films.

JD was formally a front man for the band Sofa King for many years as well as a music promoter and a slam poet. He quit all that three years ago to focus on film/novels, he had writing over 19 years, since starting out as a slam poet in 1990.

Listen to another enjoyable thirty minute as JD and Barry discuss things from the real orange County and tattoo’s o his journey though creative writing to this release of his book “Street Hymns to the Disconnected”

Listen and enjoy a fun thirty minutes at…

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/Across-the-Pond

or else at my blog at

http://acrossthepond-storyheart.blogspot.com

Author of Young Adult Romance/Fiction book
“Across the Pond”

Image via Wikipedia

Seriously, friendships are hard.

After two weeks Melody and I did the smart thing and decided to remain friends. There are reasons why of course, but this isn’t anything like the Michelle break-up, thank goodness. But we had our first relationship fight…as friends.

Weird, I know. And it was a stupid arguement and frankly I started it. Like most minor spats, it ended with us laughing and being ok.

It started over phone calls. Long time readers know my hatred for the telephone.

Oh, you don’t? Well, I do. When I build my time machine, I will traveling back in time and punch Alexander Graham Bell in the junk. I don’t like the phone, hate the cell phone, and really hate text messaging.

But all are neccessary evils in this day and age. But I hate being on the phone all day. However, Melody likes to call a lot and expects me to drop whatever I’m doing – even if I’m working or with family – and talk to her. Even though we’re just keeping things as friends, the amount of calls has not decreased.

She called this evening and I wasn’t able to answer. Instead of leaving a voicemail or waiting to call me later, she called back two minutes later. This time I chose not to answer. I do this with a lot of people actually. Pres. Barack Obama could call and ask for my thoughts on health care and if I didn’t want to talk, I just wouldn’t answer.

She called a third time and left me an angry voicemail. Several minutes later she called and I finally answered and unleashed a tirade against her multiple calls and the phone in general.

It got ugly after that, but as I said, it ended with us apologetic and joking.

Friendships are hard.

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