This says it all:
http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/opinions/benson/
-----Original Message-----
From: Jim Mc Coy [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Monday, September 20, 2004 10:59 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [HP3000-L] OT: Rathergate, the conclusion?
It ain't over yet...
It is now known that CBS was coordinating the show with the Kerry
campaign
http://usatoday.printthis.clickability.com/pt/cpt?action=cpt&title=USATO
DAY.com+-+CBS+arranged+for+meeting+with+Lockhart&expire=&urlID=11703685&
fb=Y&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.usatoday.com%2Fnews%2Fpoliticselections%2Fnati
on%2Fpresident%2F2004-09-20-cbs-documents_x.htm&partnerID=1660
jm
----- Original Message -----
From: "Denys Beauchemin" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Friday, September 17, 2004 12:29 PM
Subject: Re: [HP3000-L] OT: Rathergate, the conclusion?
> I find it interesting to see otherwise highly intelligent and well
> educated people stubbornly cling to one flimsy premise when presented
> with a conundrum. I think it is the foundation for the saying: "can't
> see the forest for the trees."
>
> Wirt's assertion is that since the lines on the memos are wavy, they
> could not come from an "electronic type-setting mechanism" such as a
> laser or inkjet printer, I presume. These memos HAD to have been
> produced by a "mechanical typewriter." Irrespective of the
> overwhelming mountain of evidence showing that these memos had to come
> from an MS Word driven device, that the content was not proper for the
> Air Force and that the secretary of the time said they were bogus, as
> long as the lines of text are wavy, they could only have come from a
> mechanical typewriter.
>
> A corollary to the statement would be why did the incredibly detailed
> web page not even address this issue of wavy lines? The answer is
> simple, it is not an issue. Let me explain.
>
> The typewriter I had at home in the late sixties and early seventies
> was an Olivetti machine. I have absolutely no idea what model it was.
> It was gray and had lots of keys. It had the fonts for the letters at
> the end of long stems. I am sure there are proper names for all these
> parts; I have no idea what they are. It was a sleek machine, but it
> was all manual. There was absolutely now power assist here. :-)
>
> When I typed a text on the Olivetti, two things stood out when I
> looked at the completed product. The first one was the appearance of
> some waves in the lines of text. Closer examination of this
> phenomenon revealed that in fact these were not waves intrinsically
> built into the lines, but rather that some letters always typed at a
> position slightly above or below the others. You see, if the stems
> with the characters were just a smidgen longer or shorter than they
> should be, the printed character would be a little higher or lower.
> When viewed from above, it was interesting to see the arrangements of
> these stems. Only the middle one was straight, all the others would
> have a bend to them, more pronounced the further away from the middle
they found themselves.
>
> So, the characteristic of a mechanical typewriter would be to have
> specific letters out of step with the remainder and to varying
degrees.
> In other words, if the letter 'h' typed lower than the others, it
> would ALWAYS be lower than the others. If the letter 'k' typed a
> little higher, it would ALWAYS type a little higher.
>
> About the only time you would get a perfectly straight line was when
> you repeatedly typed the same character, as for example the underscore
> "_", because the carriage itself would not go up and down, producing
waves.
>
> If you look at the fake memos, you can readily see that the "wave" is
> not repeated for specific characters. Indeed it seems to affect
> portions of lines, including the ones above and below. This is more
> consistent with someone producing a nice output and crumpling the page
> deliberately, flattening it out and then photocopying it. Voila,
> instant old typewriter look. Unless you look closely.
>
> I am not aware of ANY mechanical typewriter as I have described with
> proportional fonts and capable of kerning or even pseudo-kerning.
>
> I am aware that electric typewriters with the 'golf ball' head had the
> capability of producing proportional fonts, but certainly not kerning.
> However, one of the great benefits of these 'golf ball' typewriters
> was they virtually eliminated the wavy text. The output they produced
> was far superior to what the mechanical ones produced and that was one
> of their main selling features.
>
> Now, by now, you probably think that I forgot to talk about the other
> characteristic of the output of a mechanical typewriter. And you
> would be wrong. Since the mechanical typewriter depended on human
> power to strike the letter, some letter would be struck more lightly
than others.
> Therefore the text would have various degrees of character definition,
> so to speak but on a letter basis. This was more pronounced with
> touch typists because certain fingers would be weaker than others. If
> you look at the fake memos, you do not see that at all.
>
> But wait a hunt and peck typist would not produce a document where the
> characters would vary in intensity. Since only one or perhaps two
> fingers would be used, the keys would all be struck with approximately
> the same force. We all know that LtCol Killian hated to type.
> Therefore he must have been the one to type the fake memos, which is
> why the secretary could state that she didn't type these memos. (Let's
> ignore the fact she called them fake also.)
>
> Fair enough, except that now, we have someone who hates to type,
> probably because he does not have the skills to do so and maybe even
> considers the task to be beneath him, (and we all remember how Wirt
> feels about Colonels, right?) producing perfectly centered and
> letter-perfect memos. Wirt has reviewed for us, and has had
> reinforced by private mail, how one can achieve such a feat with a
> typewriter. At that time I responded to Wirt, expressing my veritable
> joy at being able to agree with him that these memos were fake. I
> would have paid real money to see a Lieutenant Colonel in the Texas
> Air National Guard going through all the motions described by Wirt and
> his anonymous correspondent, to PERFECTLY center the heading of a memo
> to a subordinate and putting a fake address in the heading and
> mistyping his title at the bottom. All this without a single typo.
>
>
> Denys
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: HP-3000 Systems Discussion [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On
> Behalf Of Wirt Atmar
> Sent: Thursday, September 16, 2004 11:09 PM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: [HP3000-L] OT: Rathergate, the conclusion?
>
> Denys writes:
>
> > I found this
> >
> > http://homepage.mac.com/cfj/newcomer/index.htm
> >
> > Warning, this page falls under the heading "more than you ever
> > wanted
> to
> > know about fonts."
>
> That page contains nothing but crap. No computer produced that text.
> All you need do is look at the baseline of the letters in the images.
> They vary up and down in the manner that mechanical typewriters
produce text.
> No electronic text-setting mechanism has ever done anything like that.
>
> Wirt Atmar
>
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