One year ago today: December 1, 2018, Deadsville, USA.
Five years ago today: December 1, 2014, sigh, Borocay.
Nine years ago today: December 1, 2010, Time magazine says . . .
Random years ago today: December 1, 1981, 150 flowers.
Nothing to report. I spent most of the day thinking. There’s your tongue-in-cheek situation. Until recently, only other times in my life I’d been in Tennessee in the summer, like driving through in 1999. There’s something paradoxical that nearing 2020 I would be standing in a back yard with a pet turtle during a December cold spell with drizzling rain, raking leaves and burning a plant native to southeast Asia. Those huge piles of bamboo stacked 15 feet high all burned down to maybe 15 shovelfuls of ash, a reminder that bamboo is a grass.
Here’s the promised view of the biggest light display at the Gaylord. The Sony acted up with a buffer overflow, so this is a series of stills re-arranged to show you the effect. I did my best to center the shots and you may see the Reb’s hat in a few. She doesn’t know it, but that is her Xmas present this year. Yep, that hat used to be mine. Come to think of it, lots of stuff around here used to be mine. And I think burning bamboo is a major deal? What’s come over me? I even used to have a set of priorities.
A warm day in Iceland.
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A nothing day means I’ve time to look into a new topic here. Digital AM radio. I like it instantly because it tackles the two main problems of static and sound quality. Did you know most talk radio is AM due to the difficulty of poor sound. Rest assured, America will fall behind the world due to our nearly insane levels of bureaucracy. Hence, I can’t stick just to the electronics because there is no doubt whatever system the US chooses, it will be politicized. There are a number of options, the one I like is the European approach which connects a small adapter to your existing equipment. No way will the US market let you get off that easy.
My prediction is that digital AM will bust up several entrenched systems that I don’t like. One is the satellite digital radio because you cannot listen to it anonymously—soon to become a huge selling point. Secondly, the range of AM means the station does not necessarily have to be located where Big Brother can stick his nose everywhere it does not belong. From what I’m reading, the digital signal needs only be a fraction of the power required for similar analog coverage. It could bring broadcasting prices down to where mere mortals can open a station.
The system will fight back—of only because I am convinced some radio stations intentionally count on interference and frequency drift. I know the bands are crowded, but it seems every good station has an opposite blasting on the same channel. I just know whatever the US adopts, it is going to cost a fortune for the receiver. The AM broadcast format hasn’t changed since day one and the number of stations has remained constant at around 13,100 for decades. The concept was that radio ”shows” should be local. But television made the audiences go national. I’ve lived in dozens of places where there was no decent station. Where I am now, well, you’ve heard what I have to say about interference on Boss Hogg AM from that monkey-talk station that cranks it up every evening.
ADDENDUM
Kudos to Lukasz, the Polish chef who grabbed the nearest weapon (a narwhal tusk) and led the charge against that slimy London Bridge terrorist. The enormous publicity and home video of the event has received very little coverage in America. The Polish government apparently gave him a medal. The guy runs toward danger to save strangers and that's the best they can do? The world needs heroes and this guy is one.
