piner@pur-phy.UUCP (Richard Piner) (07/27/85)
A couple of months ago I started posting news from the American Physical Society. It seems that none of the articles got off campus because the out-going news links were down. I am told that those links have been repaired, so I am going to try again. Would someone on one of the coast please post a note letting me know if this is getting there. I plan to post the last fours weeks of news. News that is older than that can be read in "Physics Today". I will now include the text of my original article explaining what the APS news is all about. Rich Piner piner@pur-phy.UUCP Starting last fall, the American Physical Society began an experimental program called "What's New". The Society post electronic news from Washington each week. This news is received by subscribers such as myself via telenet. I have ask for and received permission from the Society to post this news to USENET. The following is the body of the letter introducing "What's New": ---- Welcome to our experiment, "What's New". When the American Physical Society took the step of opening a Washington Office, it was not to "lobby for physics." Individual physicists have never been noticeably timid about making their views known. It was felt, however, that physicists could make their case more effectively if they had current information on physics-related events in Washington. The Office of Public Affairs therefore sees a major part of its role as keeping the members of APS informed. One way of doing this has been to work closely with Physics Today Washington Editor Irwin Goodwin, with whom we share offices. Physics Today, however is a monthly publication and the time frame for Washington events is often shorter than this. We have therefore decided to experiment with a weekly electronic bulletin. We are anxious to have your reactions on the content and format, and above all, on the usefulness of such a bulletin. ---- As the letter says, most of the news is political in nature. Given that most physics is funded by the government, this should not be surprising. I am posting this news to net.physics because it is news that is mostly of interest to people who follow physics. If any of these articles spark debate, then we may want to do our debating in net.politics. I don't know enough about net etiquette to say. In any case, this posting of "What's New" to USENET is also an experiment. If people outside the USA object to this sort of news from the states, then let me know, and I will restrict the distribution to the USA. Since what goes on in Washington effects physics world wide, I don't expect there will be a need to limit distribution. If anyone has any comments pro or con about posting of "What's New" please feel free to send them to me via e-mail. For reference, I will include the author's name and address at the bottom. If you have comments about the content of "What's New" that you believe would be useful, you may send them to me or to Bob Park the author. Comments about USENET related issues of course should be sent to me. I will begin posting these articles starting next week, unless I hear overwhelming objections from the net. I have copies of the articles from the beginning of the program, if I get enough request, I might also post back issues. Rich Piner Purdue Physics Dept. West Lafayette, IN 47907 piner@pur-phy.UUCP The address of the author is: Robert Park The American Physical Society Suite 739, Joseph Henry Building 2100 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W. Washington, D.C. 20037
fred@mnetor.UUCP (Fred Williams) (07/29/85)
In article <1815@pur-phy.UUCP> piner@pur-phy.UUCP (Richard Piner) writes: > As the letter says, most of the news is political in nature. >Given that most physics is funded by the government, this should >not be surprising. I am posting this news to net.physics because >it is news that is mostly of interest to people who follow physics. >If any of these articles spark debate, then we may want to do our >debating in net.politics. I don't know enough about net etiquette >to say. In any case, this posting of "What's New" to USENET is also >an experiment. If people outside the USA object to this sort of >news from the states, then let me know, and I will restrict the >distribution to the USA. Since what goes on in Washington effects >physics world wide, I don't expect there will be a need to limit >distribution. This is the sort of thing that a lot of the world feels insulted about. Why do you presume, without a second thought that the US is the center of the universe? There has been debate about this for a few weeks now on net.politics. Perhaps we might be interested in some major announcement about SDI or such, but there can't be many of that importance. If there were technical announcements, or articles, then that would be interesting. However if you're just going to post listings of contract awards, etc. please save us the phone bills of forwarding such 'stuff'. It's just not that interesting. Cheers, Fred Williams