00. By mistake the printed notice for Jan reprinted the Dec message. The emailing had the correct message. The Jan message is on the website; most items will appear in the Speaker.

0. We are currently operating at a deficit mainly because we are publishing a volume in 18 months and charging as if in 12 (fixed monthly expenses are eating us up). At the Exec meeting we voted to make the BASS quarterly starting immediately, and will cut back the fixed expenses by stopping all printed meeting notices unless the recipient notifies us that they wish to continue.

1. E. Brad Meyer has posted WCES material on our website.

2. Fifty Million Frenchmen Dept.-- On the last page of the Nov 98 Home Theater ("a CurtCo Freedom Publication") is a "Sweet and Sour" section. Under "Sweet": "Harry Pearson--This legendary/infamous publisher/editor has revived his magazine The Absolute Sound, and we're happy to report that it's as joyously self-indulgent as ever.... Under "Sour": Tom Nousaine--The latest "scientific test" from this "audio writer" "proves there's no difference in sound between an old receiver and the best high-end audio gear. So Krell, Madrigal, B&K, Sunfire, ADA, Rotel, Adcom and countless other companies have just been wasting their time all these years, huh? Why is this guy being published?" [So he's a black hat? The byline is BB, Brent Butterworth, who should know better--demeaning a serious audio scientist like Nousaine only makes BB look very small--DBH]

3. Birdwatcher viewers of the CBS sports golf tournament on TV were delighted to hear the song of the white-throated sparrow in Colorado. The next weekend the same bird turned up at a tournament in Michigan. It shouldn't be in either place. The chatsite for birdwatchers was full of cluck-clucking. It turned out CBS was using recorded birdsongs, a practice which it has now discontinued. A source at CBS says technicians now sometimes spread birdseed around the grounds to generate real ambience when the birds don't cooperate. [NYT Sep 00]

4. Widescreen Review (Vol 8 No 5) gives a moderately favorable review to the Quantum Life's Symphony power line conditioner. It conects to the AC line via a wall wart (with no other connection to your system) and purports to improve the sound. To quote Quantum Life: "[Quantum Resonance Technology] neutralizes a fundamental disorder in material structures by exposing them to a 'sustained resonance' of a high degree of order [meaning] that the structures [are caused to] vibrate at a frequency natural to them. As a result, the efficiency and performance of the material structures increase...this 'proprietary' technology makes coherent the random, chaotic motion of the electrons. Once made coherent, the electrons remain that way. As a result they do not become subject to random field effects such as radiated or induced EMFs, and can also sustain the flow of information at the quantum level".
[I am speechless that the reviewer can quote such gobbledegook with a straight face--DBH].