The Straight Dope 12/19/2003

The Straight Dope -- By Cecil Adams
http://www.straightdope.com

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THE STRAIGHT DOPE 12/19/2003

Dear Cecil:

Lately I've been hearing that the difference between the
haves and have-nots in the U.S. has been increasing, and
that unequal distribution of incomes has been approaching
that of the Gilded Age. Is this literally true? While I
understand that Bill Gates and corporate CEOs and such are
taking home some serious cash, are we really seeing a
return to the era of the robber barons, when a tiny
percentage of the population controlled a huge chunk of
the national wealth? --Betsy Schorsch, Chicago

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Cecil replies:

Questions like this always irritate the man of science
(and no doubt the woman too) because the answer depends
on how the issue is framed. Is the degree of inequality
in the distribution of income "approaching" that of
the Gilded Age? Sure. If I take one step south I'm
approaching Patagonia, too. Doesn't mean I'm necessarily
close. So let's tighten things up a bit. On November 20,
2003, the New York Review of Books contained the
following statement by Paul Krugman: "Recent statistics
confirm that income inequality in the United States has
returned to Gilded Age levels." Krugman, a New York Times
columnist and Princeton economics professor, has been a
leading publicist of the idea that we're not merely
returning to the Gilded Age, we're already there.
But are we?

Right off the bat we run into more ambiguity: What do we
mean by "Gilded Age"? 

For more, see:
http://www.straightdope.com/columns/031219.html

STAFF REPORT

Dear Straight Dope:

How does closed-captioning--the dialogue that appears on
a television screen to assist the hearing-impaired in
their quest to be as dumb-downed as the rest of us--work
for live broadcasts? I understand how it would be no
problem for a pre-recorded show, like a History Channel
narrative or a prime-time sitcom. But when I watch local
news or a sports broadcast, for example, I notice a
considerable delay between hearing the words and seeing
them appear on-screen. Even then, many words are
misspelled, and sometimes words or even whole sentences are
missing. Is this done with some kind of not-yet-quite-
perfect voice-recognition technology, or is some poor
schlep furiously typing away at a keyboard in some dark
closet at the station? Such a person would receive my
sympathy (not that there's any reward in that). The job
seems second only to air traffic controllers for stress!
--Richard Mancini, Washougal, Washington 

SDSTAFF Q.E.D. replies:

First, a little background. Closed captioning was first 
introduced in 1971. Originally, the National Standards
Bureau (now known as NIST) wanted to embed a time stamp
from the Boulder, Colorado atomic clock in television
signals, but the idea was abandoned. The ABC network
thought that a modification of the proposed scheme could
be used to carry captions, i.e., a typed transcript of 
the show's audio, which hearing-impaired users could
decode using a special set-top box. This was considered
an improvement over the alternative, an inset picture of
someone transcribing the audio using sign language, as 
was done from time to time. By 1980 CBS, ABC, NBC and PBS
were all broadcasting at least some programming with
closed captions. In 1990 the Television Decoder Circuitry
Act required that all TV sets built for sale in the U.S.
with screens 13 inches or larger have a built-in closed
caption decoder. These days almost every program on TV
has closed captions.

For more, see: 
http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mclosedcaption.html

STRAIGHT DOPE CLASSIC - 12/26/1997

Dear Cecil: 

I am 47 years old. Some of my friends on the Straight
Dope Message Board say there is no Santa Claus. 
JKFabian says, "If you see it in the Straight Dope it's
so." Please tell me the truth. Is there a Santa Claus?
--Ranger Jeff, The Idol of American Youth 

Dear Jeff: 

Let's just say his existence can't be definitely ruled out. 

For more, see:
http://www.straightdope.com/classics/971226.html

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