23) [D) 5) 0 “ct BY op — The Dallas Post Dallas, PA Wednesday, July 26, 1995 » 5 Aslwas fayng [RENE 3 FES (TS About 20 years ago I had to *.check something with my com- pany’s data processing manager. ~ I found him in the computer room, “watching workmen tear up the floor. “What gives?” I asked. He explained that a new com- puter was due soon which would «generate so much heat that air '_duets had to be installed under- J] . neath to cool it off. That was the _ nature of early computers...bulky, (rind “such tubes were responsbile for “early radio. Without their magic “in converting the alternating cur- costly, complex, and hot. And they broke down often. It is no exaggeration to say that today, a counterpart of that an- cient design would fit in the palm of your hand. Or almost. There has been a revolution which ~'thanged our electronic machines “profoundly, and itis still going on. The biggest change is the de- ‘cline and fall of the vacuum tube. “rent of radio waves to direct, so Lod ny ili LIBRARY {| EERE NE By NANCY KOZEMCHAK i _ The Back Mountain Memorial Library Reading Game, “Solve a ‘Mystery—Read,” will end Friday, August 4 at 1:30 p.m. with the awarding of Reading Certificates and prizes, followed by refresh- ments. More than 100 children - have been involved with the read- “ng game, fe ‘summer story hours will conclude the firstweek in August. + Registration for fall story hours ..-will'be held September 5 -8 with * ,sign-up at the library. 7. * “The library has been very busy the past six weeks, with the story hours, and the summer reading program and adults also taking more books for summer reading pleasure. July has always been the busiest month of the year at Back Mountain. = Most every ‘summer we have at least one 700 _day circulation in July. The high- -est record for circulation was July Clarification The American Kennel Club standard for Akita dogs in last week's edition was incorrect. According to an arearesident who has Akitas, show quality Akitas may be any color, including white, ‘ brindle or pinto (spotted,) with LL either white or black masks on \ wv their faces. *+ The Japanese consider Akitas to be their national monument. Helen Keller brought one of the first Akitas from Japan to the ‘United States. ~~ bioak, Today's computers had amazing metamorphosis that speakers could work, there would be no radio. And vacuum tubes were the mainstay of early computers. The most well-known computer ENIAC (for Electronic Numerical Integra- tor and Computer) had 18,000 of them. It gave off such heat that tubes constantly burned out. The Army, which used ENIAC to compute artillery trajectories, put soldiers manning grocery baskets filled with tubes at strategic points around it. (ENIAC was 40' long, 20' high, and weighed more than 30 tons.) This did no good because they couldn't tell which tubes burned out at any particular time. Also, the warmth and light of the tubes attracted moths, which would cause short circuits. (Ever since the process of fixing computer problems became known as “debugging!”) ENIAC also had 70,000 resist- ers (they restrict electricity's flow) 10,000 capacitors (which absorb electricity and release itas needed) and 6000 switches. No, today, you couldn't get ENIAC's do-alike to fit on your hand, but you could come pretty close. But with transistors in- stead of tubes. Transistors are little faucets which turn current off and on to send digital signals toa computer like +1 or -2. They can amplify sound and when wired together do all sorts of complicated elec- tronic things. They call these circuits. Man had nature's circuit right under his nose in the form of a metal called germanium. Crys- tals of germanium sold in 5 and 10's during the 30s for a quarter. Hooked up to a wire coil and a pair of earphones, crystals caught radio waves and converted them to sound when tickled with a little bit of wire called a “cat’s whisker.” Engineers didn’t know why at the time. And so the first transistor was sold in the five and dime long before it was “reinvented” in 1947 by three Bell Labs engineers. Then came the portable radio, and today's wrist watches which, so- lar-powered, tell you their time at the press ofabutton. And they do actually tell you...they talk! The contrast amazes: In '64 a Sharp desktop calculator weighed 55 Ibs. and cost $4100. Today for under $10 you can buy a tiny solar-powered device which will perform rings around the Sharp. Kids' summer reading progam concludes Aug. 4 5, 1994 when 832 reading mate- rials were checked out. The pre- vious record had held since July 7, 1989 at 789. The 1995 high to date was July 5 at 654. Summer reading is great recreation. New books at the library: “Black Lightning” by John Saul is a grip- ping story of a convicted serial killer sentenced to death—and hell-bent on revenge. For five years, Seattle has been seized in the terrifying grip of a monster as black as evil itself; a sadistic se- rial killer who methodically lures ‘his victims ‘to grisly deaths to .- satisfy a twisted passion. This is “ra novel as electrifying as a jagged bolt from a pitch-dark sky. “True Crime” by Andrew Klavan is a novel that races with the almost unbearable tension that results when the impulse to turn away from a tragic human fate is matched by the irresistible urge to know what will happen next. There are 18 hours until mid- night. In those hours, Frank Beachum is going to be pushed to the very limits of his faith, looking over the edge into a nightmare. Sidewalk Sales! July 27,28, & 29 All Wicker & Baskets 10% Off All Hallmark Cards & Paper Products 50% Off Steve Everett is going to risk eve- rything, even his own life. “Twister” by Barbara Block is the second appearance of the hip outrageous redhead, Robin Light—an amateur sleuth with a soft spot for puppies, parkeets, bunnies and boas...and a knack for finding herself at the scene of the crime. She is just getting her pet shop into its new digs in the wake of a disastrous fire. She has more on her mind than finding a missing dog and boarding a pet tarantula. Then Lynn Gordon appears with a blood-stained suit. “*“Mystique™ by Amanda Quick is a'tantalizing tale of a'legendary knight, a headstrong lady, and a daring quest for a dazzling crystal...In the shadows of the great hall, Lady Alice approached the fearsome warrior who had swept into Lingwood Manor like a storm. Dark and forbidding, with hair as black as midnight and eyes of molten amber, Hugh the Relentless seemed aptly named. However, he seemed not someone to dread, but the answer to dreams. John W. Johnson A good friend of mine—who enjoys the odd intellectual joust— and who remains more hopeful than many 60's children who've seen the ideals of that age prosti- tuted on the street corner of crass materialism, simply stopped the conversation recently and said: “O.K.,you'reright...nowwhat.” I had been—and quite simplis- tically—skewering the Democrats for this country’s attitudinal shifts away from the freedom to fail, from capitalism as it is defined literally, and from the idea that one is responsible for one’s self. He couldn't quite grasp the notion that ‘politics’, and as poli- tics provides public dollars for, in turn, shaping public attitude, the Democrats therefore cannot be divorced from new developed be- liefs, i.e., that citizens have eco- nomic rights and ‘entitlements’, a concept which tortures rational . attempts to function in the free enterprise system. He countered that the issue goes beyond Democrat or Repub- lican (he likes to think of himself as a Whig) and that the country’s economic woes are more in need of revolutionary changes within the entire society than simply not being obstructionist as the now Republican controlled House of Representatives—they hold the purse strings—attempts some fiscal responsibility. I still believe he’s missing the forest for the trees (perhaps his Whig has fallen into his eyes), but his challenge of “now what” has caused me to think beyond the simplistic labeling of Democrats as the demon. So here goes..... We need to sustain and in- crease the builddown of the mili- tary/industrial complex;’ a na- tion, indeed, a world dependent on the tools of war to sustain economic growth, is doomed to destruction. ,Jooked at the for- mer Soviet Union lately? The alternative is to spend those resources in joint efforts to bring our world back into some envi- ronmental sanity, to replace our aging public infrastructure, i.e., roads and bridges, and to create new frontiers for the non con- formists and aberrants among us with an all-out effort to reach beyond this tiny planet to the stars beyond. Back here on earth, and while we still have corporate America in place to effect economic changes, we need to change our entire S0GCSE PLUS Opening July 31 177 Main Street, Luzerne 288-3440 ol A KING’S | KING'S C Dorirait of XL Weekend Accelerated Degree Bachelor of Science in Business Adminis Working professionals who wish to earn a B.S. degree in business admi take advantage of King’s new weekend accelerated degree program. With a graduate courses to select from, either Saturday all day or Sunday afternoon adult learners the opportunity to plan a course of study compatible with wo individual lifestyle schedules. Fall classes begin August 26. For more information contact King’s College Center for Lifelong Learning at 717-826-5865. COLLEGE vel WILKES-BARRE, PENNSYLVANIA Start economic reform by playing with real money approach to financial manage- ment. We are currently function- ing with not-of-the-real-world management. Accountants, trained in classi- cal ‘count-the-beans’ thinking, do little to provide meaningful and realistic financial data tools for corporate managers, i.e., classi- cal financial management de- mands earnings per share num- bers—the bottom line—when such numbers are a misleading assess- ment of a company’s underlying economic activity or its current and potential value. Left out of the accountant’s equation, for example, is the people asset, and that only one measurement of current or future value. Senior corporate management, on the other hand, and with compensation plans for them- selves tied to (guess what) earn- ings-per-share numbers, are re- luctant to seek or apply relevant financial data. Instead, near maniacal methods or achieving the short-term quarterly earnings per share growth are used, i.e., shipping unordered goods to companies, even private citizens. The objective in doing sois to then be able to report increased quar- terly sales/income...even if the long-term and overall picture is much darker. In short, many American cor- porations are gorging themselves on a diet of antique and manipu- lative financial tools, cooked in a literally rusting corporate infra- structure—average age of a U.S. plant and equipment is 20 years; average in Japan is 10 years— while drinking the lifeblood of its economy with even smaller con- centric circles of quarterly report, short-term thinking and method- ology. “Now what?” ..... my friend asked. In addition to the forego- ing, we must stop the manipulat- ive quarterly, annual, weekly meeting-before-I-have-to-catch-a- plane numbers games. We must begin playing with real money. 4 1] H ht We must stop the Rte carping about foreign competi- tion and devise ways to deliver (as opposed to discuss) creative fi- nancing. We must begin again the teach- ing of our young people about free enterprise (and that includes a balanced view of how the shaping of public policy effects free enter- prise). We must teach our chil- dren about the mother of it all; about a proud, energetic people and a superior system ‘which, when purely stated and practi- cally applies, permits endless enthusiasm to wrap itself in boundless opportunity againt the chill of want and the cold of need. And, finally, we must do some- thing to bring trade and budget deficits under control. In brief, the U.S. dollar is on the rocks. Measured against the mark ‘and the yen over the last 10 years, the dollar has lost halfits value. Most international money users, be they multinational corporations or foreign governments, now prefer to do business, and establish wealth, in something other than greenbacks. Still, the U.S. (with its dake and budget deficits) keeps pour- ing dollars into the world econ- omy—an economy which is now doing us an economic favor by accepting them. And ifthere is, in fact, a world-wide panic away from the dollar, then a global economic depression is likely. Remember Mexico? Well the monetary situation is now so precarious that the relatively minor monetary tremor of Mex- ico’srecent devaluation of the peso sent the dollar into a swan dive. We must do something to re- duce both trade and budget defi- cits. So....if 'we do all of this, the pursuit of happiness (and a pur- suit is all that is promised by the constitution); indeed, life, liberty, justice for all...and stock prices...will take care oF them: selves. ; 1ent S Is your old gas or electric water heater a basket case? be 4 \' er 3 Bea i Parker Plumbing & Heating Co. Serving Northeastern PA for over 30 years * | RD 6, Box 23, Dallas A 675-4949 or 675-1155 high ida aio them fit the appropriate size. Please make U5by7 0QO8by10 Date photo appeared: You can have a photo that has appeared in The Dallas Post. It's easy and inexpensive." Any photo taken by a Post photographer may be = reproduced in permanent glossy form. If you would like to order a photo, stop by the office, send in the form below, or call for details. SIZES and PRICES: an 5" by 7" $5 8"by 10" $10 11" by 14" $16 16" by 20" $22 Note: All photos are black and white. Not all photos can be" reproduced in larger sizes, so we reserve the right to make Photo Order (qty.) copies in this size: Q 11 by 14 4 16 by 20 Page #: Brief description: Name Address City Phone # State ___ Zip Please enclose payment with order. Send to: The Dallas Post, P.O. Box 366, Dallas, PA 18612 Call 675-5211 if you have questions. Jia w% 2 Awwmdrngra Tet R'E & Ek LEE VR 2 tax... Ra. Xx kK KE RR KK RX KK Sl
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