Anyone willing to throw out some percentages here? I think the majority of the populace will simply take the soundbites provided by the media.

BTW, Today's my birthday, and I took the day off. Of all the things I could be doing, I printed out the Senate report and am slogging through it. I'm up to the Financial Services section, and what I've read read so far is somewhat different from what I've been reading from the mainstream media.

I consider this type of stuff to be "good reads", but I doubt most of the folks out there would consider it so.

For those of you ready to spout, "GET A LIFE", don't worry...got it covered. I'll be celebrating later today. Gonna do some "non-essential/non-prepping" shopping...have my designated driver waiting in the wings, and I'll be the designated drunk for the evening :-)

Sorry if I rambled off-topic...after reading all of this stuff to date, I have a feeling that this is going to be my last "normal" birthday for a while... - Got Evelyn Wood ?

-- Tim (pixmo@pixelquest.com), March 03, 1999

Answers

Tim, while you are reading would you PLEASE post a few observations. I thought by now Diane or someone would have started posting their findings.

Happy Birthday to You, Happy Birthday to You.......

-- Linda A. (adahi@muhlon.com), March 03, 1999.

ARGH! Need pdf associative program (adobe acrobat?) to read the toilet paper report. Where can I download? Someone give me a link...puuleeeze :)

-- Other Lisa (LisaWard2@aol.com), March 03, 1999.

Not many. Too difficult to get from PDF file.

-- Watcher (anon@anon.com), March 03, 1999.

Here's the link to Adobe's Acrobat page:

http://www.ado be.com/prodindex/acrobat/main.html

-- Tim (pixmo@pixelquest.com), March 03, 1999.

Thanx Tim!

-- Other Lisa (LisaWard2@aol.com), March 03, 1999.

Oops. :::thwaps palm on forehead::: Here's the actual DOWNLOAD PAGE http://www .adobe.com/prodindex/acrobat/readstep.html

-- Tim (pixmo@pixelquest.com), March 03, 1999.

Figure about less than 5% - mostly folks like us internet nutcases, and some emergency management/government folks that will use excerpts for their own presentations on how well their remediation efforts are coming along. In other words - bullshit - their way through a press conference by quoting parts of the senate report, and stating "We've met the criteria in the report" or some other nonsense like that.

The rest of the population will wait for CNN, Tom Brokaw, Ted Koppel, Dan Rather and other news sources to "digest" the report for us, then tell us what they want us to hear.

That will be good enough for Joe sixpack, who will reach for another brewski and flip the channel to reruns of "Home Improvement".

The slumber is deep isn't it?

-- INVAR (gundark@aol.com), March 03, 1999.

Since you asked for percentages ---- I would say certainly less than 5%, proably less than 1%. No kidding. Even those of who try have sometimes had a hard time accessing it the easy way (computer).

Who in the world is going to go out looking for a hard copy? The story is basically already done and forgotten by most, 1 day after the report was released.

-- Jon Johnson (narnia4@usa.net), March 03, 1999.

Lisa

Here is the link that I used. Good luck!

http://www.adobe.com/prodindex/acrobat/

-- Carol (cajun@bayou.com), March 03, 1999.

I too had a bit of difficulty, but only with the larger files. The one giving the greatest headache was the "Utilities" section (987K).

Interest in a text or HTML format of the report seems to be very high. Since I now have all sections of the report, including all appendices, I'll do what I can (during my rare free time) to get the report converted to one format or the other and get it posted somewhere. In lieu of a posting to a website, would a downloadable ZIP-format text file be acceptable?

Good intentions on this project .. no promises or guarantees as to my available time. Will be a best-effort basis.

Estimated target date would be sometime Friday, March 05, 1999 at the earliest. I'm swamped at the moment.

Your patience is appreciated.

Dan

-- Dan (DanTCC@Yahoo.com), March 03, 1999.

Kewl, Dan! Let us know where it is once it's ready!

-- Faze the Nation (dazed@confused.com), March 03, 1999.

Tim,

Does it have sex in it?

-- Deborah (info@wars.com), March 03, 1999.

1/2 of 1% of adult population (about 500K)

-- BigDog (BigDog@duffer.com), March 03, 1999.

Deb: No sex mentioned that I could see...however, I heard a rumor that they're stockpiling Viagra .... ;-)

-- Tim (pixmo@pixelquest.com), March 03, 1999.

Add me to the list of people who would definitely be interested in the Senate report in an html format. Webtv can't use Adobe Acrobat. Thanks!

-- karen (kfoxy@webtv.net), March 03, 1999.

This time, INVAR, you are WAY off. 5%? Not a chance. Even Big Dog may be overestimating his countryfolk with half a mil. I'd say less than 50,000 people will read it. It's already yesterday's news. Maybe that was the intent: big hubbub, then hope for boredom to set in.

-- Spidey (in@jam.com), March 03, 1999.

Well I think I remember hearing that like 5% read the Star report, and since this doesn't have sex....less than 1%.

Maybe they will sell it in England though. ;-)

-- Deborah (info@wars.com), March 03, 1999.

Sorry guys, I think even Spidey is an optimist on this one.

-- Greybear (greybear@home.com), March 03, 1999.

Happy Birthday Tim!

In answer to your question: less than 1%.

-- Gayla Dunbar (privacy@please.com), March 03, 1999.

Tim, HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

And, I doubt even .5%, even including those of us who don't even live in the US. What % has internet access? Only a small fraction of those will slog through the whole thing. More will read parts of it, more yet will read 'summaries'. But even adding all those, I doubt that it will exceed 1%.

-- Tricia the Canuck (jayles@telusplanet.net), March 03, 1999.