Genre Other. Page - 312

I said, "Fine, go ahead. About your resignations--"

Mel said something indistinguishable--I'd caught him on a bite of steak.

Hazel, belligerent, demanded: "Are you asking us to resign?"

Apparently I wasn't. So they stuck, and another crisis was met. Unfortunately, by then, I'd forgotten the shock and warning I got from the cat.

* * * * *

Things moved swiftly, more easily. The GG took over, becoming, in effect, my staff. They'd become more: five different extensions of me, each capable of acting correctly. As a team, they meshed beautifully.

Too beautifully, at one point. Dex and Hazel were seeing eye-to-eye, even in the dark, and I worried about the effect on the others. I might as well have worried about the effect of a light bulb on the sun. They married or some such, refused time off, and the GG functioned, if anything, better. It was almost indecent the way the five got along together.

A new problem arose: temperature. We weren't repr

ion is nothing. Besides, Jerrold found the modern taste forspectacle forming thirty years ago. In his prefaces he complains bitterlyof the preference of the public for the mechanical over the higherattractions of the art. And the satirical war he waged against actorsand managers showed that he looked back with little pleasure to the dayswhen his life was chiefly occupied with them and their affairs. It may bementioned here, that he was very shabbily treated by several people whoowed fame and fortune to his genius. I have heard a curious story about hisconnection with Davidge, manager of the Surrey,--the original, as I takeit, of his Bajazet Gay. They say that he had used Douglas very ill,--thatDouglas invoked this curse upon him,--"that he might live to keep hiscarriage, and yet not be able to ride in it,"--and that it was fulfilled,curiously, to the letter. The ancient gods, we know, took the comic poetunder their protection and avenged him. Was this a case of the kind,--orbut a flying false an

perityand safety of the inhabitants, at once by the profuseness ofembellishment in those newly erected, and by the neglect of thejealous precautions required in former days of confusion andmisrule. Thus it was with the village of Lynwood, where, amongthe cottages and farm-houses occupying a fertile valley inSomersetshire, arose the ancient Keep, built of gray stone,and strongly fortified; but the defences were kept up ratheras appendages of the owner's rank, than as requisite for hisprotection; though the moat was clear of weeds, and full ofwater, the drawbridge was so well covered with hard-troddenearth, overgrown at the edges with grass, that, in spite ofthe massive chains connecting it with the gateway, it seemedpermanently fixed on the ground. The spikes of the portcullisfrowned above in threatening array, but a wreath of ivy wastwining up the groove by which it had once descended, and thearchway, which by day stood hospitably open, was at night onlyguarded by two large oaken doors, yie

e is not known for his great strategy yet his advice to the Danken is remarkably sound. He knows things he should not and gives wise council when he has no wisdom of his own. Learn how he does this and learn of his plans."

"When I have learned what you want, what of me then?"

"Your world is your own. We can arrange for a noble seat in many cities in the south. We can re-introduce you to your cousin in Gazu Tevel. You can act as a southern ambassador and advisor to the north."

"And you?"

Jon shrugged. "I will continue to do what I have done."

#

Red clouds of dust rose from the slave pits of Gazu Kadem. They saw the clouds hours before they saw the city itself. Two deep pits, thousands of feet across and nearly a thousand feet deep lay outside the city itself. Half a million slaves carved into the rock seeking iron, coal, gold, and the treasures of the old city now buried underneath the sand and clay above.

The minerals and artifacts were only one profitable comm

ed they are in a thorny shell. The Mexican Indians gather them and peel them and sell them to travelers for six cents a dozen. It is called "tuna," and is considered very healthy. It has a very cool and pleasing taste.

From this century-plant, or cacti, the Mexicans make their beer, which they call pulque (pronounced polke). It is also used by the natives to fence in their mud houses, and forms a most picturesque and impassable surrounding.

The Indians seem cleanly enough, despite all that's been said to the contrary. Along the gutters by the railroad, they could be seen washing their few bits of wearing apparel, and bathing. Many of their homes are but holes in the ground, with a straw roof. The smoke creeps out from the doorway all day, and at night the family sleep in the ashes. They seldom lie down, but sleep sitting up like a tailor, strange to say, but they never nod nor fall over.

The whirlwinds, or sand spouts, form very pretty pictures on the barren plain. They run to th

aiting for printers, and the other half waiting for disk drives.Time is a commodity.

I can envision that little girl walking into the public library with thefollowing request:"I'm doing a school report on the Challenger disaster. I need a videoclip of the explosion, a sound bite of Richard Feynman explainingthe O-ring problem, some neat graphics from NASA, oh, andmaybe some virtual reality mock-ups of the shuttle interior. Canyou put it all on this floppy disk for me, I know it's only 15 minutesbefore you close but, gee, I had band practice." This is whypublic libraries need NREN.

We would do well to remember the words of Ranganathan, whosebasic tenets of good librarianship need just a little updating from1931:

"[Information] is for use.""Every [bit of information], its user.""Every user, [his/her bit of information].""Save the time of the [user].""A [network] is a growing organism."

And so is the public library. A promising future awaits the publiclibrary that can be proactiv

"They want this simple thing, man, perphs, peripherals. You and me, we're just parts for the machine. Aleph, which is the Al in residence, has got all these inputs--video, audio. radiation detectors, temperature sensors, satellite receivers--but they're dumb. What Aleph wants, Aleph gets--I've learned that much. He wants to use us, and that's all there is to it. Think of it as pure research."

"He? You mean Innis?"

"No, who gives a damn about lnnis? I'm talking about Aleph. Oh yeah, people will tell you Aleph's a machine, an AI, all that bullshit. Uh-uh. Aleph's a person--a weird kind of person, sure, but a definite person. Hell, Aleph's maybe a whole bunch of people."

"I'll take your word for it. Look, there's one thing I'd like to try. What do I have to do to get outside ... go for a spacewalk?"

"Easy enough. You have to get a license--that takes a three-week course in safety and operations. I can take you through it. I'm qualified as an ESA, extra-station activity instruc

ettledness in the comments of various speakers. For example, Jean BARONAS reviewed the status of several formal standards moving through committees of experts; and Clifford LYNCH encouraged the use of a new guideline for transmitting document images on Internet. Testimony from participants in the National Agricultural Library's (NAL) Text Digitization Program and LC's American Memory project highlighted some of the challenges to the actual creation or interchange of images, including difficulties in converting preservation microfilm to digital form. Donald WATERS reported on the progress of a master plan for a project at Yale University to convert books on microfilm to digital image sets, Project Open Book (POB).

The Workshop offered rather less of an imaging practicum than planned, but "how-to" hints emerge at various points, for example, throughout KENNEY's presentation and in the discussion of arcana such as thresholding and dithering offered by George THOMA and FLEISCHHAUER.

NOTES: (3) Altho

t eat Chinese food? They won't be able to go to the country and minister in all the little country churches that are so much in need of help--they can't get Western food there! They had better have stayed at home!

After a few years had passed, however, the young man mentioned above did start to do country work, and he did it very acceptably. What is more, he even came to prefer an ordinary country meal of local food to the best Western dishes that his wife could give him at home! Seeing that, I began to realize a thing that should be a comfort to all young workers who find the food or the living conditions difficult. Over a period of time familiarity not only turns difficulty to ease, but often even removes the "dis" from dislike!

The young worker goes with an older one to make a call or two. Everything is new. Everything is strange. Everything is nerve-wearing. If a seat is offered, it is uncomfortable. If food or drink is offered, either may be unpleasant. Even if he understands more