Numbers stations…
I can’t believe I hadn’t heard of this before today:
“Numbers stations are shortwave radio stations of uncertain origin. They generally broadcast people reading streams of numbers, words, or letters (sometimes using a phonetic alphabet)…” (Via wikipedia.)
5 Responses to “Numbers stations…”
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A few books I'm reading now:
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What Got You Here Won't Get You There: How Successful People Become Even More Successful
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The Simplicity Survival Handbook: 32 Ways To Do Less And Accomplish More
A few books I'd recommend:
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Naked Economics: Undressing the Dismal Science
by Charles Wheelan -- A fantastic overview of the field of Economics. I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed this book.
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A Short History of Nearly Everything
by Bill Bryson -- a true tale of scientific thinking throughout history. You'll be amazed by how much we still don't know.
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Freakonomics [Revised and Expanded]: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything
by Steven D. Levitt, Stephen J. Dubner -- a fun read offering a somewhat different way of looking at society. Answers questions like "Why do drug dealers still live with their moms?", and what qualities in a parent matter for the success of a child later in life?
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Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity
by David Allen. I'm a bit of a GTD freak since reading this, but productivity == $$ (whether you can simply get more work done in a given time, or work less by focusing on the right tasks.)
June 15th, 2006 at 5:26 am
Depending on your level of geekiness, you might want to buy several hours worth of recordings from
http://www.irdial.com/conet.htm
June 18th, 2006 at 2:16 am
the conet project can be downloaded for free from archive.org:
http://www.archive.org/details/ird059
June 18th, 2006 at 10:27 am
Thanks for the links!! Regarding the Conet project, more can be found on Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conet_project and also downloaded from http://irdial.hyperreal.org/
June 19th, 2006 at 3:41 pm
I’ve heard them on my shortwave before. This has been going on for years. It freaked me out the first time I found one scanning the dial. One minute I was listening to deutsche welle and the next I had someone spewing “random” numbers at me.
June 26th, 2006 at 9:30 am
I guess I’ve been missing out on the shortwave scene. I grabbed a few of the Conet files though — crazy stuff. I think what I find most fascinating is how directly it points out the value of anonymous, non-regulated communication; Especially given the recent trend in the States of governmental monitoring of email, phone calls, bank transactions, etc. (Though I suppose there’s a supercomputer somewhere logging and parsing all these channels.) It’s also a nice example of it sometimes being irrelevant if the identity of the speaker is known — it’s who’s listening that matters, and it this case, the listeners’ identity is hidden by the nature of the medium. A beautiful application of technology.