Spacecraft Records 'Chorus' of Space Sounds

A NASA spacecraft captured the clearest recording yet of what space sounds like inside Earth's radiation belts. Craig Kletzing, a professor of physics and astronomy at the University of Iowa, explains what causes these eerie chirping noises, and what we can learn from them.

Copyright ? 2012 National Public Radio. For personal, noncommercial use only. See Terms of Use. For other uses, prior permission required.

(SOUNDBITE OF RADIO WAVE)

FLORA LICHTMAN, HOST:

No, that's not my cell phone. It's the sound of our space, kind of. It's a radio signal picked up by one of NASA's Radiation Storm Belt Probes. These probes are orbiting inside Earth's radiation belts, a hazardous part of space filled with high-energy particles. And these eerie, chirping noises are called chorus. Scientists have known about them for years. Ham radio operators have listened to them. But these are the clearest recordings yet.

Here to tell us more about these chorus recordings is Craig Kletzing. He's the F. Wendell Miller professor of physics and astronomy at the University of Iowa. He's also the principal investigator for one of the experiments on the Radiation Storm Belt Probes. Doctor Kletzing is joining us today from Iowa City. Welcome to the program.

CRAIG KLETZING: Thanks for having me.

LICHTMAN: So before - well, let me just start with: What did we just hear? Explain it for us.

KLETZING: So what you're hearing is a measurement that we make on our new mission. We just launched the Radiation Storm Belt Probes back in the very end of August. And we make measurements of the radio waves, and it turns out that these radio waves are in the same frequency range as human hearing. So we can take our measurement. We just turned into a WAV file or an MP3 file, and then you can listen to it.

LICHTMAN: Wow. And you have some other sounds as well, right? I think we have one ready to go.

(SOUNDBITE OF RADIO WAVE)

LICHTMAN: What's that one?

KLETZING: That's a very classic sound for people in our field. That's something called a whistler, and it's been known for a very, very long time. And it comes about when a lightning strike occurs on the surface of the Earth. And that sends out a whole broad range of various radio waves, and they go up. And some of them can make it out through the Earth's ionosphere, which tends to reflect a lot of it. And as they move along out into space, it turns out the higher frequencies, the treble pitches, move faster than the slower, basier(ph) pitches. And so when they get to our satellite and measure them, what you hear first is that high pitch, and then it sweeps downward to lower and lower and lower frequency.

LICHTMAN: I'm Flora Lichtman. This is SCIENCE FRIDAY, from NPR. Map out where these probes are picking up these sounds, first. Give me some basic landmarks, like let's take the International Space Station and maybe the moon. Where are these belts, in relation?

KLETZING: OK. Well, the space station is in what we would call a low-Earth orbit. And so the closest that our probes come in - which we call perigee, the lowest spot in the orbit - is a little bit outside of where the space station is. We come in to about 400 miles or so, and I think the space station is around 200, 250, something like that. Now, we go quite a ways out. We go out to about 35,000 miles or so.

LICHTMAN: And it - go ahead.

KLETZING: But the moon is way beyond that.

(LAUGHTER)

LICHTMAN: That's right. So this is, like, kind of a dangerous part of space, right?

KLETZING: Well, what we're flying in are what people call the Van Allen radiation belt - have to get a plug-in for Iowa, there, since Van Allen was from the University of Iowa. And this is a region of, sort of, doughnut-shaped, very energetic particles which surrounds our planet. There's actually two of them, sort of these rings around us, which are very high-energy particles. And that - when they're that high energy, we call them radiation. And this is a - this radiation can damage satellites or be unhealthy for astronauts. And so it's a region that most satellites try to avoid or spend as little time in as possible. But we want to understand how they work better, so we had to build something that could go there and live there.

LICHTMAN: And this transfer of energy in these belts is actually what's causing the noise, right?

KLETZING: Exactly so. It's quite an interesting process. The waves are kind of like a - almost like a catalyst or a carrier of the energy. So they come about out of lower energy electrons, we know, and the grow up. And then they give their energy up as they fade away into higher energy electrons, which become the energetic particles that we called the radiation belts. So they kind of are a transport mechanism, if you will, from low energy to high energy, and thereby help create the radiation belts.

LICHTMAN: And where does the energy come from in the first place that feeds these belts?

KLETZING: Well, the overall energy source for all of this is that big ball that we see every day, the sun.

LICHTMAN: Oh, that thing.

KLETZING: Yeah, that thing.

(LAUGHTER)

KLETZING: But the sun is moderately variable. And every now and then, it'll send out an extra stream, a strong stream of particles that we call the solar wind. And that when that comes along and encounters our planet, we have a magnetic field, and so that acts as sort of a barrier, but it still puts energy in. And when all that energy comes in, it goes into these particles. And then this is one of the mechanisms whereby things get transferred into the very high-energy particles that make the radiation belts.

LICHTMAN: I read that the Van Allen belts were discovered accidentally. Is that a myth or reality?

KLETZING: Well, I wouldn't say exactly accidentally. I mean, the story, of course, is that back in 1958, you know, Sputnik had gone up and people - the U.S. was sort of, oh, my goodness. How could the Russians get into space before us? And so very rapidly, we start looking around, and the U.S. wanted to find something they could put up. And Van Allen, at that time, had been flying a series of rockets that actually went up on balloons first and then would go off. They were called rockoons. And so he had the kind of hardware that you would need that could make a measurement. And so he teamed up with Pickering and von Braun, and they launched Explorer 1.

And sort of the accidental part of this was - what they expected to see were just cosmic rays, which are a fairly low level of intensity. And you would just sort of see some counts as you went along in his detector. What they found instead was as this thing was orbiting around the Earth, suddenly the count rate started to climb, and then it went to zero.

LICHTMAN: And that's the famous quote, "space is radioactive," right?

KLETZING: Yup. And then, suddenly, it came back, and then it went back down. And they scratched their heads for quite a while. And finally, what they realized is that there was so much radiation there that it was doing what's called saturating the detector. So it just couldn't count anymore. It was just overwhelmed. And then when they would go out of the radiation belts, it would come back down to a reasonable level that it was designed for, and it would start counting again. And so it took them a little while to figure that out. But once they did, that was the discovery of the radiation belts.

LICHTMAN: And now we have the probes to follow up. Thanks, Craig Kletzing, for joining us today.

KLETZING: You're very welcome. Thanks for having me.

LICHTMAN: Craig Kletzing is a professor of physics and astronomy at the University of Iowa.

Copyright ? 2012 National Public Radio. All rights reserved. No quotes from the materials contained herein may be used in any media without attribution to National Public Radio. This transcript is provided for personal, noncommercial use only, pursuant to our Terms of Use. Any other use requires NPR's prior permission. Visit our permissions page for further information.

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Source: http://www.npr.org/2012/10/19/163245524/spacecraft-records-chorus-of-space-sounds?ft=1&f=1007

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Corrections

Photograph by Gabriela Insuratelu.

In an Oct. 17 "Slatest" post, Josh Voorhees misstated the percentage of respondents in a CNN survey who scored the town hall debate for Mitt Romney. Thirty-nine percent said the GOP challenger gave the stronger performance, not 36 percent.

An Oct. 15 "Culturebox," by Holly Allen, David Haglund, Katie Kilkenny, Chris Kirk, and Forrest Wickman, misspelled the surname of fictional president Josiah Bartlet.

In an Oct. 15 "Explainer," Brian Palmer wrote that the red panda is the giant panda's closest living relative. They are not directly related.

In an Oct. 15 ?Hive,? S.T. VanAirsdale incorrectly identified Jason Scott as a backer of the Open Locksport Kickstarter. He also stated that Schuyler Towne edited his own Wikipedia entry; Towne says that friends edited it but he did not.

In an Oct. 15 ?Politics,? David Weigel misspelled the name of the town of Tomah, Wis.

In an Oct. 15 ?XX Factor? blog post, Amanda Hess misattributed two quotes to Christopher Bailey. It was Jason Fetner who said, ?Until the laws in this country catch up to technology, we?re going to continue to see these types of problems.? Fetner also said that police will continue to rely on members of Internet forums ?looking out? for offenders.

Source: http://feeds.slate.com/click.phdo?i=40ffcfa40d5845cbe97a00a95d224f69

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Hines Ward Extortion Plot: Joshua Van Auker Arrested Over Alleged Attempt To Extort Ex-Steelers Star

PITTSBURGH -- Authorities say a man who tried to extort $15,000 from retired Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver Hines Ward has been arrested.

Allegheny County prosecutors say 26-year-old Joshua Van Auker was arrested Thursday after trying to extort the money through one of Ward's personal assistants. They say Van Auker threatened to release information alleging Ward had paid women for sex.

An affidavit says the assistant gave Van Auker money provided by law enforcement.

Van Auker was arrested by Allegheny County detectives. He's awaiting arraignment. It's unclear if he has an attorney. No telephone listing for him can be found.

Ward was MVP when the Steelers won the Super Bowl in 2006. He retired in March after 14 seasons with Pittsburgh.

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/19/hines-ward-extortion-joshua-van-auker-arrested_n_1983891.html

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Cardinals Beat Giants 3-1 In NLCS Game 3 After Long Rain Delay

ST. LOUIS ? Carlos Beltran limped to the trainer's room, taking the St. Louis Cardinals' biggest clutch October bat with him.

Turns out they had the perfect substitute.

Matt Carpenter hit a two-run homer after subbing for Beltran and the Cardinals chased Matt Cain before a 3 1/2-hour rain delay in the seventh inning of a 3-1 victory over the San Francisco Giants on Wednesday night for a 2-1 NL championship series lead.

Beltran strained his left knee running out a double-play ball in the first innings and the Cardinals said he was day to day.

Kyle Lohse worked around a season-worst five walks in 5 2-3 innings. Mitchell Boggs struck out Hunter Pence and Brandon Belt with two on to end the seventh. Jason Motte earned the first two-inning save of his career to reward what remained of a sellout crowd of 45,850 ? perhaps a third ? that stuck around for a game that lasted 3 hours, 2 minutes, about a half-hour shorter than the delay.

"They said if we didn't score I was going to go out there. I was in the clubhouse running around, I've never really had to sit around like that," Motte said. "It was probably the most nervous I've ever been."

Giants second baseman Marco Scutaro had two hits and a clean game in the field, two days after Matt Holliday rammed him breaking up a double-play ball. Manager Bruce Bochy had said there would be no retaliation, and Game 3 was collision-free.

The big winners in a delay that featured about a half-hour without rain while officials awaited a second, smaller front: Beer vendors, by a single out. Alcohol sales are cut off after the seventh inning in all stadiums.

Cain lost for the second time this postseason, giving up three runs on five hits in 6 1-3 innings. The Giants, who entered the game batting just .217 in the postseason, were 0 for 7 with runners in scoring position.

The Cardinals snapped the Giants' five-game road winning streak in the postseason, three of them this year. Game 4 is in St. Louis on Thursday night, with Adam Wainwright pitching for the Cardinals. Tim Lincecum will start for the Giants.

"He's a guy we want out there. He's been throwing the ball well," Bochy said. "We've got to bounce back."

Carpenter followed Jon Jay's two-out single with a homer off Cain in his first at-bat of the NLCS.

Beltran is batting .400 in the postseason with three homers and six RBIs, but Carpenter had big numbers against Cain. He was 4 for 4 for his career against Cain, all four of the regular-season hits for singles.

"He's a really good pitcher obviously," Carpenter. I've had some success. I just go up there and try to battle, get a good pitch to hit."

This one was a much bigger deal, a drive on a 2-2 count that soared over the Cardinals bullpen in right field and was estimated at 421 feet.

Carpenter entered the game 1 for 5 in the postseason, all five pinch-hit appearances. He had an RBI single in the wild-card playoff against Atlanta. He got 14 of his 46 RBIs in April as the primary sub at first base for injured Lance Berkman.

On Tuesday, Carpenter was among a group of seldom-used hitters trying to stay sharp by facing Jake Westbrook in a simulated game. The rest of the team had the day off.

Umpires called for the tarpaulin right after the Cardinals made it 3-1 on a run-scoring single by Shane Robinson and Cain was lifted.

It was the third game delayed by rain this postseason and a fourth, Game 4 of the Yankees-Tigers ALCS, was postponed later Wednesday night. Two games between the Yankees and Orioles in Baltimore began late because of inclement weather.

The rain intensified less than 10 minutes after the field was covered, chasing most fans who had remained in their seats up to that point. Spotters for the National Weather Service reported 60 mph winds in nearby St. Charles County.

A highlight of the delay was a Pac-Man style chase. Ushers pursued and finally apprehended a fan who jumped out of the stands to get a baseball near the warning track in left field, and then jutted in and out of aisles to elude several ushers who had been closing in.

The storm had been widely anticipated. Some forecasts called for a 70 percent chance of rain. Both managers fielded questions Tuesday and Wednesday about whether the probability of precipitation would affect their selection of the starting pitcher.

Both said they couldn't worry about the weather, and the starters combined for 208 pitches.

"I've been caught before where you try to predict what's going to happen with the rain and started," Bochy said. "Just a couple years ago I started a pitcher thinking the same thing and it didn't rain for four or five innings. Then I put my starter in and then it started raining, and so it came back to bite me."

Lohse is 2-1 with a 1.96 ERA this postseason despite uncustomary control woes. He was among the majors' best control pitchers this season, averaging 1.62 walks per nine innings.

The Giants entered 70-22 when scoring first, including the postseason, and took the lead in the third on Pablo Sandoval's run-scoring groundout after leadoff hits by Angel Pagan and Scutaro, whose legs looked just fine on an opposite-field double flared just over first baseman Allen Craig's glove.

Beltran leads all players with eight extra-base hits in the 2012 playoffs and is a career .375 hitter in the postseason, highest ever among players with a minimum of 100 at-bats.

NOTES: Danny Cox, who pitched for Cardinals World Series teams in 1985 and 1987, threw a perfect strike on the first pitch. ... According to STATS LLC, Lohse walked two batters in the same inning four times in 2012. ... Jay, who was hit by a pitch to start the game, was plunked 15 times in the regular season. ... Matheny had 122 lineups during the regular season but has stuck with the same eight throughout the postseason. ... The Cardinals are 9-2 in Game 3 of the NLCS, the lone losses coming in 2004 and '05 at Houston. This win ended a streak of scoring at least six runs in the last eight postseason victories dating to Game 3 of the World Series last year, the longest streak of its kind in postseason history. St. Louis entered averaging 7.6 runs in 16 wins the last two postseasons and just 2.3 runs in the 10 losses. ... The Cardinals have played in eight best-of-seven series in which they were tied 1-1 and played Game 3 at home, and have won all of them. They won six of the previous seven series, according to STATS LLC

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/17/cardinals-giants-3-1-nlcs-game-3-rain-delay_n_1976351.html

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Mathematics Journal Approves Paper Filled With Computer-Generated Gibberish Equations [Science]

It turns out that not every single paper submitted to scientific journals gets thoroughly proofed before it's approved for publication. Shocking, right? The creators of an online tool called Mathgen that automatically generates research papers full of mathematical nonsense wanted to test just how believable the random creations were. More »

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/GfIcpmjDwdM/mathematics-journal-approves-paper-filled-with-computer+generated-gibberish-equations

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UPDATE 1-YOUR PRACTICE: Charitable giving in unclear tax times ...

Thu Oct 18, 2012 3:27pm EDT

By Jennifer Hoyt Cummings

Oct 18 (Reuters) ? Hurry up and wait ? that?s what some
financial advisers are telling their clients as an uncertain tax
environment makes it tough to plan charitable giving in 2012.

Some clients may want to give big now because the charitable
gift tax write-off is among the deductions that may become a
casualty of tax reform. But tax rates for the wealthy could jump
next year, in which case they?d want to set aside deductions for
2013, when the deductions potentially would be worth more.

Given the uncertainty, it?s a good idea to have clients hold
off on big gifts until late in the year in hopes that there will
be more clarity after the elections, tax experts say.

?Why not have all the best information before you make a
significant decision?? suggested Mark Blumenthal, chairman of
the family office practice at Plante Moran, a Midwest regional
accounting firm.

Still, there are things that should be done now to lighten
your workload for the last few weeks of the year.

HYPOTHETICALS

First, map out four or five strategies for charitable
clients, built around possible election results.

The election comes just before the Bush-era tax cuts are set
to expire, unless Congress decides to extend them. T his means
the rates for all income tax paying Americans would increase at
year end. Additionally, those who make about $177,000 and up
would also see their itemized tax deductions cut.

President Barack Obama supports maintaining ordinary income
tax rates for families making less than $250,000 annually. For
incomes above that level, he favors raising the top two tax
brackets to 36 percent and 39.6 percent. Those rates are now at
33 percent and 35 percent. He?d also like to cap itemized
deductions at 28 percent of adjusted gross income for wealthy
families.

Republican Mitt Romney has promised a 20 percent income tax
cut for all Americans, a move he said would be revenue-neutral
because he?d offset it with caps on deductions. He has floated
the idea of a cap ranging from $17,000 to $50,000.

Of course, it?s not just a matter of who takes the White
House. You also have to factor in which party wins control of
Congress and the chance that an agreement on taxes will be
reached in a lame duck session.

Mapping out your clients? alternatives could include
scenarios for what they could do if the Democrats win the White
House but lose control of Congress, and vice versa. The same
holds for the Republicans.

This is essentially what Brian Wodar, national director of
nonprofit advisory services at Bernstein Global Wealth
Management, did after a client said he?d hold off on giving his
church a six-figure gift in expectation of getting a bigger tax
benefit next year.

After Bernstein and the client?s tax adviser explained it
wasn?t a given that he?d get a bigger benefit by waiting, the
man decided to split the gift across this year and next.

?All we can do is provide them the landscape within which
they can make that choice,? Wodar said.

TAKING ACTION NOW

Start setting the groundwork for your clients? gifts now.

Everyone involved ?can make better decisions with two months
to go, t han with two days to go at the end of the year,? said
Ken Nopar, a philanthropic consultant to wealth advisers.

Help clients earmark the assets they?d like to donate . After
this year?s stock run-up, appreciated equity holdings are a good
choice as they allow the donor to avoid capital gains taxes.

Also identify clients whose yearly incomes were higher than
usual, like those who sold a business. Tell them that,
regardless of the election, this is a good year for them to take
a big deduction because of their higher income.

If you have clients who need more time to chose the best
places to give, help them set up a donor-advised fund. These
individual accounts give donors a current-year tax deduction on
contributions but release funds on the donor?s timetable.

Though it takes less than a day to set up one of these
funds, do it now so it?s ready to go if things get hectic at
year end. The accounts, which often require an opening deposit
of around $5, 000 to $10 ,000, can be established through
providers like Fidelity Charitable, Schwab Charitable and
Vanguard Charitable and also through community foundations.

Another tip: introduce yourself to the director of gift
planning at a community foundation now, before he or she is
inundated with calls at the end of the year, suggested Jason
Baxendale, director of gift planning with The Chicago Community
Trust. The foundation can help you identify good places for your
clients to donate their money.

Overall there?s no excuse to procrastinate, said Bernstein?s
Wodar.

?Putting it off until we have some kind of certainty with
taxes may literally mean you never ever do planning,? he said.

Source: http://g7finance.com/g7finance-news/update-1-your-practice-charitable-giving-in-unclear-tax-times/

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After uproar, Ga. officials back off archives plan

In this Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2012 photo, Georgia State Archivist Chris Davidson walks through shelves housing documents at the Georgia State Archives in Morrow, Ga. The Georgia State Archives will remain open to the public two days a week after an uproar over plans to limit access to appointments only for six days a month, state officials said Thursday, Oct. 18, 2012. Gov. Nathan Deal and Secretary of State Brian Kemp said $125,000 of a planned $733,000 cut in funding would be restored. (AP Photo/John Bazemore)

In this Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2012 photo, Georgia State Archivist Chris Davidson walks through shelves housing documents at the Georgia State Archives in Morrow, Ga. The Georgia State Archives will remain open to the public two days a week after an uproar over plans to limit access to appointments only for six days a month, state officials said Thursday, Oct. 18, 2012. Gov. Nathan Deal and Secretary of State Brian Kemp said $125,000 of a planned $733,000 cut in funding would be restored. (AP Photo/John Bazemore)

In this Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2012 photo, Georgia State Archivist Chris Davidson looks over the Georgia Constitution from 1798 at the Georgia State Archives in Morrow, Ga. The Georgia State Archives will remain open to the public two days a week after an uproar over plans to limit access to appointments only for six days a month, state officials said Thursday, Oct. 18, 2012. Gov. Nathan Deal and Secretary of State Brian Kemp said $125,000 of a planned $733,000 cut in funding would be restored. (AP Photo/John Bazemore)

In this Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2012 photo, Archivist Amanda Mros files microfilm at the Georgia State Archives in Morrow, Ga. The Georgia State Archives will remain open to the public two days a week after an uproar over plans to limit access to appointments only for six days a month, state officials said Thursday, Oct. 18, 2012. Gov. Nathan Deal and Secretary of State Brian Kemp said $125,000 of a planned $733,000 cut in funding would be restored. (AP Photo/John Bazemore)

In this Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2012 photo, bond letters are stored at the Georgia State Archives in Morrow, Ga. The Georgia State Archives will remain open to the public two days a week after an uproar over plans to limit access to appointments only for six days a month, state officials said Thursday, Oct. 18, 2012. Gov. Nathan Deal and Secretary of State Brian Kemp said $125,000 of a planned $733,000 cut in funding would be restored. (AP Photo/John Bazemore)

In this Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2012 photo, Georgia Archivist Chris Davidson talks in at the Georgia State Archives in Morrow, Ga. The Georgia State Archives will remain open to the public two days a week after an uproar over plans to limit access to appointments only for six days a month, state officials said Thursday, Oct. 18, 2012. Gov. Nathan Deal and Secretary of State Brian Kemp said $125,000 of a planned $733,000 cut in funding would be restored. (AP Photo/John Bazemore)

MORROW, Ga. (AP) ? When Georgia officials announced plans to severely restrict public access to its state archives, it set off a firestorm not only among scholars and people tracing their family roots, but national historical groups.

Archives supporters expressed outrage at plans to limit access to appointments-only on six days a month to view some of the state's most valuable papers, from the fading parchment of the 1798 Georgia state constitution to Jimmy Carter's 1976 statement of candidacy. They collected more than 17,000 signatures on an online petition, rallied at the State Capitol and hired a lobbyist.

On Thursday, Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal and Secretary of State Brian Kemp backed off of the plan ? sort of. Deal announced that he was restoring $125,000 of a $733,000 budget cut so that the archives could remain open two days a week and visitors could view records without making an appointment.

"Georgia's Archives are a showcase of our state's rich history and a source of great pride," Deal said in a statement, which did not address the fate of seven workers who recently received pink slips effective Nov. 1. Three other employees ? new archives director Chris Davidson, an archivist and a building manager ? will definitely stay.

The controversy focused national attention on shrinking funding for state archives at a time when they're processing, preserving and digitizing far more records than just a few years ago.

Georgia's cost-cutting move was "a continuation of a trend we see at the federal level," said Lee White of the National Coalition for History in Washington. "It's not something we want to see spread to the states."

While most states have had to slash their budgets in recent years, making layoffs almost routine, the proposal to slash the Georgia Archives' budget struck a nerve in the Peach State, which celebrates a rich history from the Civil War to the civil rights movement.

Deal, a Republican, had ordered agencies to their cut spending during the current budget year by 3 percent. Kemp imposed the entire cut for his department on the state archives. His spokesman acknowledged that it was a "brutal cut" but necessary given past funding reductions for the secretary of state's office, which is also responsible for elections, professional licensing, business regulation and the State Capitol.

The agency is already struggling to keep pace with more stringent ID requirements for professional licenses, part of a new law aimed at cracking down on illegal immigration in Georgia.

But archives supporters pushed back.

"We've complained for years" about budget cuts that whittled down the archives staff from more than 50 to 10 and reduced public access from five days a week," said Kaye Lanning Minchew of the Coalition to Preserve the Georgia Archives. "It takes a near disaster to get more attention."

Activists were soon joined by groups such as the National Coalition for History and the Council of State Archivists.

Vicki Walch, the council's executive director, said the number of workers at state archives has declined 20 percent since 2004 as the volume of processed paper records has increased from 2.4 million to 3.4 million linear square feet over the same period.

She said many archivists were surprised that Georgia had been hit so hard because the archives, located south of Atlanta in a 10-year-old complex next to a National Archives satellite facility, was regarded as a premier program. It has a relationship with Clayton State University, which offers a degree in archival studies.

"To have this happen has just sent a shock wave throughout the community because if it can happen in Georgia, what's going to happen someplace else?" Walch said earlier this week.

Archivists complained that no serious research could be conducted during two-hour periods. The archives contains 260 million documents, 1.5 million land grants and plats, and 100,000 photographs.

Archives backers also lamented that people wouldn't be able to easily leaf through important documents such as the 1798 Georgia state constitution ? kept in a green bound volume in a secure, climate-controlled room ? or Georgia's Royal Charter.

"I think any archivist will tell you that an archive should be open at least five days a week, if not one weekend day, because our mission is to serve the broadest possible constituency we can, said Sarah Quigley, manuscript archivist at Emory University.

In Thursday's announcement, Deal said he would propose that the archives be placed under the University System of Georgia, effective July 1. The state Legislature must approve the change.

Jared Thomas, a spokesman for Secretary of State Kemp, said his boss supported the changes and would be determining the effect on the laid-off employees, including those in charge of preservation, conservation and reference.

"We don't know yet," he said. "We're still working through the issue. The current level of public access will be maintained.

If the staff cuts remain, Walch is concerned that three staff members won't be able to handle the workload of processing new documents. On a recent weekday, stacked boxes of donated papers from the architectural firm Robert and Company sat near a door awaiting processing.

"The real shortsighted part of this is without that processing, you'll have access to things processed years ago but the things coming in now that just get shelved won't be open to anybody," she said.

Minchew said she was "delighted" by the governor's decision to restore some funds and not require appointments, but agreed that staffing is a concern. "Now we want to hear more details."

___

Online:

http://www.sos.ga.gov/archives/

Associated Press writer Ray Henry contributed to this report from Atlanta.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2012-10-18-Georgia-State%20Archives/id-f69a5d9832f341e69e30030197d075df

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