Letters
Letters Prisoners of War May I commend Taylor Branch for his excellent article in your August issue, “Prisoners of War-Prisoners of Peace.” He is a most perceptive young man. His portrayal...
...Edgar Kaiser, Jr., Oakland, Calif...
...6. Names and addresses of publisher, editor, and managing editor: Publisher, vacant...
...September 1972), Congressman Les Aspin remarks that “It is Congress’ job not only to control [NASA’s] overzealous selling to the public, but also to make sure it isn’t taken in by the agency’s own puffery...
...This letter will be communicated to a small set of “terminals” through a set of media (print and the mails) slow for our age...
...NASA’s $1,000 per pound applies to the costs of designing, manufacturing, and testing satellites...
...Hug11 Sidey, Potomac, Md...
...With data of uncontrolled and widely diverse form and design-distilling useful results becomes much more complex, error prone, and time consuming...
...copies each issue during preceding 12 months: A. Total no...
...9. Not applicable...
...Joseph Freitas, Jr., San Francisco, Calif...
...Frequency of issue: Monthly...
...Actual number of copies of single issue published nearest to filing date: A. Total no...
...copies printed: 28,391...
...Titlc 39...
...G. Total: 28,391...
...PKL Co...
...I . Titlc of publication: The Washington Monthly...
...All entities at I150 Connecticut Ave...
...E. Total distribution: 26,998...
...N. W., Washington, D. C. 20036...
...2. Copies distributcd to news agents, but not sold: 3,412...
...Howell is correct in saying that the $1 ,000-per-pound payload cost may be too high...
...Inc., New York, N. Y...
...In concluding his article, “The Space Shuttle...
...Philip M. Stern, Wasliiugton, D. C...
...But neither NASA, its contractors, nor its economic consultants have ever made such an assumption...
...A final consideration...
...Put strictly, he says there will be no control over content, structure, accuracy, access or size of the FBI’s data base...
...Second, Mr...
...His portrayal brought forth all the frustration, emotionalism, hopelessness and utter despair that is wrought by this tragic situation...
...Richard H. Rovere, Rhinebeck, N. Y...
...At least it will be very .expensive, very expensive...
...Extent and iiaturc of circulation: Average no...
...Conceptually, this is the principle of feedback in cybernetics-using a device’s own energy to control that device, but realistically, the way we have reacted to technological change sometimes looks more like grabbing the tiger’s tail-the feeling of control we have may be only an illusion...
...5. Location of the headquarters or generdl business offices of the publishers: same...
...Alexander Ewing, New York, N. Y...
...So, in the necessarily upcoming hiatus, it will behoove us all to start protecting our rights against misuse of the next FBI system, which may well work...
...LOUISE M. MULLIGAN Virginia Beach, Va...
...2. Date of filing: Octobcr I , 1972.3...
...W. E. Cliilton, Cliarleston, W. Va...
...The methods by which Aspin derives a grand total of at least $32.5 billion in shuttle-related costs through the 1980s are largely spurious...
...Ann L. Peretz, C;iinbridge, Mass...
...C. Total paid circulation: 25,651...
...C. Total paid circulation: 22,l 15...
...Yet he spends so much time expressing shock at NASA’s alleged public relations crimes that he fails to establish that the agency’s arguments for the shuttle are so much “puffery...
...Multiply that by 100 million-conservative considering it’s less than one-half of the population...
...as in the FBI’s system, can be propagated at close to the speed of light and, in principle, to any number of terminals...
...G. Total: 28,080...
...Carol Trueblood, Washineton...
...Louise Mulligan is the wife of Captain J. A. Mulligan, Jr., a POW in North Vietnam...
...Who Needs the Shuttle...
...morteaeees...
...N. W., Washington, D. C...
...F. Office use, left-over, unaccounted, spoiled after printing: 2,082...
...Statement of Ownership, Management and Circulation (Act of August 12, 1970: Section 3685...
...Who Needs It...
...John Rothchild, Washington, D. C...
...Aspin is irrelevant, then, to much of what is called “payload .” W. CRAIG HOWELL Washington, D. C. n e editor replies: Part of the difficulty in pinning down shuttle costs is NASA’s own uncertainty...
...2. Copies distributed to news agents, but not sold: 928...
...In the second place, Mr...
...Carole Lcc Smith, Salem, Ore...
...4. Location of known office of publication: I150 Connecticut Ave...
...Murray Kenipton, New York, N. Y...
...N. W., Washington, D. C. 20036...
...Fred J. Stanback, Jr., Salisbury, N. C...
...and 06cr security holders owning or holding I ;& cent or more of total amount of bonds, mortgeges or other securities: none...
...Peter Lisagor, Arlington, Va., Charles Petcrs, Washington, D. C...
...2. Mail subscriptions: 19,685...
...In the meantime, we’ll get some useful publicity from the crash of the FBI’s system...
...Taylor Branch, Washington, D. C...
...N. Y.: John D. Rockefeller IV, Charlesion, ‘W...
...We’ll have to make use of technological advances like computers in order to control technological advances in their impact on us...
...Owners of I per cent or more of shares of Tlie Washington Monthly Limited Partnership: Warreri E. Buffet, Omaha, Neb...
...B. Paid circulation: 1. Sales througli dealers arid carriers, street vendors, and counter sales: 2,430...
...Howard W. Young, Washington, D. C...
...F. Office use, left-over, unaccounted, spoiled after printing: 142...
...In the last year, as Congress has grown more dubious, NASA’s estimates have miraculously shrunk by almost half...
...Jr..New York...
...Carol Trueblood...
...Editors, Taylor Branch, Wasliington, D. C. and Jo11n Rotlichild, Washington, D. C. I . Owner: Tlie Washington Monthly Co., an unincorporated joint venture of Tlie Washington Monthly Limited Partneisliip, of which The Washington Montlily Publisliing Corporation is sole general partner, and The Washington Monthly Corp...
...Consider how much data each of us generates in a year-10 years-and remember that the attempt here is to capture as much of that as possible...
...In the first place, though he does not say so in this article, he assumes that any possible shuttle savings are contingent upon the shuttle taking a full load (up to 65,000 pounds) into orbit on every trip...
...Processing expense is determined by the size and complexity of the data base...
...It moves into the impossible when the data base becomes extremely large...
...James C. Thomson, Jr., Cambridge, Mass...
...Gene Gordon, Bethesda, Md.;Robert Hellawell, Demarest, N. J...
...That is a data processing disaster...
...Owners of 1 per cent or more of sliarcs of The Washington Monthly Publishing Corp.: Alfred C. Clark, New York, N. Y...
...Suzannah Lessard, Washington, D. C...
...To answer Mr...
...copies printed (net press run): 28,080...
...D. C. 8. Known bondholders...
...Sidney S. Saclis, Wasliington, D. C...
...D. Free distribution by mail, carrier or other means: 1. Samples, complimentary, and other free copies: 1,471...
...But as often as not the bulk of the pounds “orbited” by the shuttle will be relatively massive rockets designed to take a satellite from the shuttle’s low orbit of a few hundred miles to geosynchronous, or stationary, orbit 22,300 miles above the earth...
...Editor, Charles Peters, 5025 V St...
...The Big Brother Computer If it’s any comfort to Michael Sorkin“The FBI’s Big Brother Computer” [September] -the system he describes will almost certainly break down if it is as wildly out of control as he says...
...Stuart W. Tliayer, New York, N. Y...
...With terminals in 95 per cent of the nation’s police stations alone, the number of inquiries and inputs that will have to be processed daily will be immense and will require a considerable communication network...
...Whatever comfort can be derived from these considerations will, of necessity, be short-lived...
...United States Code...
...Carol Trueblood, Washington, D. C. Owners of 1 per cent or more of sliares of the Washington Montlily Corp.: Timothy J. Adanis, Washington, D. C...
...2. Mail subscriptions: 24,213...
...Howell’s points: first, if the shuttles are not going up full, why do we need them at all-or need them at the SO-launch-per-year rate now predicted...
...E. Total distribution: 28,249...
...Aspin naively applies “NASA’s conservative estimate of $1,000 per pound” of “payload cost” to his inflated estimate of 20 million pounds of payload to get $20 billion in total payload costs through the next decade...
...Fiona F.’ Rust, Sdn Francisco, Calif...
...Roger S. Kuhn, Bcthesda, Md.;JosepIi Roseufield, Des Moines, Iowa...
...I certify that the statements made by me above are correct and complete...
...Louis Marx...
...B. Paid circulation: I. Sales through dealers and carriers, street vendors, and counter sales: 1,438...
...as each of these problems is aggravated, the possibility of merely keeping the system going vanishes...
...But if the payload cost turns out to be cheaper than we estimated, the saving will be the kind you get qn cut-rate SST tires: worthwhile if you believe in the whole package...
...Letters Prisoners of War May I commend Taylor Branch for his excellent article in your August issue, “Prisoners of War-Prisoners of Peace...
...Not applicable...
...Electronid data...
...Joseph D. Crowley, New Haven, Conn...
...Richard Ottingcr, Washington, D. C...
...EDWARD J. WALSH University City, Mo...
...The $1,000 figure referred to by Mr...
...D. Free distribution by mail, carrier, or oilier means: I . Samples, complimentary, and other free copies: 1,670...
...Few have the capacity to perceive or understand it...
...A bad experience with the lack of control and bad design of the data base will start a slow but ultimately successful drive to rid the system of at least the most outrageous stupidities...
Vol. 4 • November 1972 • No. 9
