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Generational Dynamics Web Log for 13-Sep-04
Whoever forged the CBS documents is an idiot, about 20-25 years old

Web Log - September, 2004

Whoever forged the CBS documents is an idiot, about 20-25 years old

I worked for IBM in the early 1970s, and we had Selectric typewriters all over the place. Even the computer terminal I used to write mainframe software on was a specially modified Selectric typewriter.

How was the superscript "th" produced?

How was the superscript "th" produced?

Selectric typewriters are in the news today, because they're providing the explanation for how someone could have produced a superscript "th" as shown on the adjoining graphic in a 1973 memo. The memo is one of four documents exhibited by CBS News in a news story indicating George W. Bush failed to meet Texas Air National Guard standards. (For PDF copies of the documents, click here.)

Now, I typed many memos myself on Selectric typewriters, so I know that the superscript effect is indeed possible. What you would have had to do is this: You go along typing your memo, until you've typed the "187." Then you remove the type ball from the Selectric, and replace it with a type ball in a font having a smaller point size. Then you physically rotate the platen so that paper slides down. Then you type the "th." Then you rotate the platen back. Then you remove the typeball with the smaller font size and replace it with the original type ball. Then you go on typing.

So it's possible, but nobody in the world would ever go to that much trouble. You just type "187th" and be done with it. Who cares?

That's why I'll be very amazed if it turns out that these memos are real.

So why do I say that the forger is an idiot, about 20-25 years old?

Well, first off, he's never used a real typewriter, or he'd know that no one would ever bother with all that. That's why he's 20-25 years old.

In fact, it's pretty obvious he's used word processors his whole life, and it never even occurred to him that a memo produced by a typewriter would look different from a memo produced by a word processor. That's why he's an idiot.

This incident is relevant to the subject matter of this web site, because it shows how little people know about life and history before they were born. It's a rare college kid today who can even tell you what the 1991 Gulf War was about, since today's college kids were too young to know what's going on.

That's why the generational paradigm works. That's why countries walk into violent, genocidal crisis wars on a regular 70-90 year cycle: Because it happens when the generation of people who remember the last crisis war all disappear (retire or die), all at the same time. That's what's happening around the world today to the generation of people who lived through World War II, and that's why we're headed for a "clash of civilizations" world war.

It's always surprising to compare something like a Selectric typewriter to a world war, but the principle is the same. Let's see how the CBS document scandal pans out. (13-Sep-04) Permanent Link
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Generational Dynamics Web Log for 13-Sep-04 Whoever forged the CBS documents is an idiot, about 20-25 years old

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Generational Dynamics Web Log for 13-Sep-04
Whoever forged the CBS documents is an idiot, about 20-25 years old