Double Dissenter

To the Editors of the CRIMSON:

I am very much surprised at all the commotion about Captain Carlsen. It was his duty to stay with his ship and he did it. Is it so rare nowadays that a man do his duty that he should be treated as a hero in acknowledgement? Acts of heroism happen every day on a much higher level where men risk their lives to save others and remain for the most part unknown. After all, Captain Carlsen only tried to save a ship and the few hundred thousand dollars worth of cargo it was carrying. And I fail to see what else he could have done without risking to lose his job. All the newspapers, including the CRIMSON, had a front page article on Captain Carlsen, but the fact that such a hero as General Delattre De Tassigny was dying, was almost unnoticed. It is to be desired that newspapers, at least the better ones, stop looking for the spectacular and sensational and turn their attention to the important news.

I would like to add the following comments on Mr. Blumenfeld's letter which was printed in the CRIMSON:

Fluorescent lights, when operating properly 1) are not "a general nuisance." On the contrary, they provide pleasant diffused light. 2) do not irritate the eyes: a fluorescent tube has a luminance of approximately 1 candle/cm 2, whereas a frosted bulb has a luminance of about 5 c/cm 2. To use a favorite American expression, doctors recommend that the eyes should not be subjected to a luminance of more than 2 c/cm. 2. 3) do not hum unless the ballast is defective. 4) do not flicker. But even if fluorescent lights had all those defects, I do not see how they could possibly make anyone wear bifocals. A certain number of students who can be seen from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. in Lamont Library apparently agree with me. Jacques Paryske '54