Spectrum: Two Views

Explaining the type of law I practice, I reply (in a phrase of my work colleague John B.) that I`m "a public interest lawyer," because it`s my job to explain why anything my client wants is in "the public interest, convenience, and necessity." 47 U.S.C. Sec. 309(a). If pressed, I admit I`m a spectrum lawyer, which is only barely less smart-ass. So, in that light, here`s two quotes I read this week, with additional detail:

• National Review (ODT) at 7 (Dec. 31, 2005):

  Pay attention now, technically challenged readers. There are two common ways to transmit masses of information: analog and digital. Analog transmission uses waves, the information coded by varying the waves' frequency (how many times per second the wave goes from peak to trough) or amplitude (the height or depth of the peaks and troughs). Digital information is a stream of zeros and ones, offs and one. Why should you care? Because the nation's TV broadcasts will change from analog to all-digital by April 2009. If you are one of the 85 percent of Americans getting TV via cable or satellite, you're already digital-capable. If not, you can buy a converter gadget for less than $100. And guess what, Congress has passed legislation that will give you a voucher to cover most of the cost! George Will calls this "No Couch Potato Left Behind." We would like to name it the "Affirmation of Spending Insanity Act." Whatever the name, it is another illustration that the notion of fiscal restraint is now, in the minds of our legislators, as antiquated and irrelevant as the phlogieston theory of combustion.

• Albert Einstein, quoted in S. Singh, Big Bang at 359 (2004):

  You see, wire telegraph is a kind of very, very long cat. You pull his tail in New York and his head is meowing in Los Angeles. Do you understand this? And radio operates exactly the same way: you send signals here, they receive them there. The only difference is that there is no cat.

Regular posts return January 2nd. Happy New Years!