2011

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“Stock Markets Are Now Dangerously Short-Sighted”

March 8, 2011 in Excerpts, Urban Studies | Permalink

"Mass media, especially TV today, is so short-term that few in its audience grasp the lasting damage." (Image by Kowloonese.)

Going public on the stock exchange was traditionally a way for small businesses to raise capital to grow their companies. But what if the shortsightedness of the markets–and the media that attends them–is more injurious to a company than helpful? Facebook recently passed on going public in favor of private investors and the number of public American companies has shrunk from 7,500 to 4,100 since 1997. That means that the average person has less access to potential wealth-building opportunities while the monied few have more to gain. An excerpt from Jason Kirby’s “The Stock Market Is for Suckers” in McClean’s:

“In 2004, at the age of 92, the late Sir John Templeton, a pioneer in the world of mutual funds, issued a stark warning to investors. ‘The stock market is broken,’ he said in an interview. He went on to predict the housing bubble would spark the sort of terrible market crash we witnessed four years later. But Templeton saw a bigger problem than just the bubble then emerging. Stock markets are now dangerously short-sighted. ‘Mass media, especially TV today, is so short-term that few in its audience grasp the lasting damage and corrective impact which will continue to linger from the greatest financial crash in world history,’ he said. In the wake of that very crash, short-term thinking is as much a problem as ever before.

The stats behind investors’ amputated attention spans are astonishing, and reveal the damage caused to the wider economy. According to the New York Stock Exchange, in the 1960s the holding period for stocks was eight years. By 1990 it had fallen to two years and today the average stock is held for just nine months. As investors have shortened their time horizons, companies have been focused on each next quarter’s financial results at the expense of the next decade, say experts. Last spring, the U.S. Senate banking committee held hearings to examine the plague of short-term thinking in capital markets. Some astonishing revelations emerged. In a survey of 400 chief financial officers, 80 per cent said they’d cut research and development spending to goose short-term performance. To make matters worse, when companies do beat expectations, executives are lavished with huge paycheques and millions of stock options that dilute existing shareholders even further.”

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Slow Loris Loves Tiny Umbrella

March 8, 2011 in Urban Studies, Videos | Permalink

In case it rains. (Thanks Reddit.)

Listeria: Definition Of Five “A” Words (1912)

March 8, 2011 in Books, Excerpts, Urban Studies | Permalink

Abduction: A term for the forcible carrying off of a woman, either against her own will or the right of her legal protector. It is an offense severely punished as a felony. The abduction of an unmarried girl under sixteen is punishable as a misdemeanor even when there has been no intent of detention against the will of her parents or guardian.

Abortion: The expulsion of a fœtus from the womb before it is capable of life. Prior to the sixth month of pregnancy it is called miscarriage. It is hereditary and may be prevented, by repose, good regimen and the avoidance of constipation. If intentional it is a statutory offense and if the woman dies it is felony. In domestic animals it may be avoided by isolation, proper food and level stalls.

Alcoholism: The symptoms of alcohol poisoning. In acute alcohol-poisoning the victim’s face becomes flushed, his hands shaky, his speech rapid and incoherent, his control of his limbs uncertain and finally his entire nervous system becomes paralyzed so that he falls into a coma from which he cannot be moved. Others instead of becoming conscious grow frantic and try to injure those about them, and thus, especially after a long debauch, the most frightful crimes are committed.

Astrology: The science of discovering the past and determining the future by the movement of the stars. It was the science of sciences in olden times, but today has only a small number of adepts, besides the always numerous number of persons easily victimized by charlatans claiming to be able to read the “past, present and future.”

Automobile: The name generally applied to a self-propelled vehicle which carries its own fuel. The pleasure of moving at great speed and for great distances has made automobiles a permanent feature in modern life, thought and action, though law has not been able to control the abuse of this new force. They are coming more and more into employment for commercial purposes, and their great cleanliness in the streets is a sanitary advantage. In time they will diminish the loneliness and hardship of life upon the farm.

•Taken from the 1912 Standard Illustrated Book of Facts.

Guy With Soccer Ball Climbs Pole

March 7, 2011 in Sports, Urban Studies, Videos | Permalink

Skillz. (Thanks Live Leak.)

“McLuhan Did Not Want To Live In The Global Village. The Prospect Frightened Him.”

March 7, 2011 in Excerpts, Science/Tech, Urban Studies | Permalink

From Gary Wolf’s 1993 Wired article about Marshall McLuhan, “The Wisdom of Saint Marshall, the Holy Fool”:

McLuhan did not want to live in the global village. The prospect frightened him. Print culture had produced rational man, in whom vision was the dominant sense. Print man lived in a world that was secular rather than sacred, specialized rather than holistic.

But when information travels at electronic speeds, the linear clarity of the print age is replaced by a feeling of “all-at-onceness.” Everything everywhere happens simultaneously. There is no clear order or sequence. This sudden collapse of space into a single unified field ‘dethrones the visual sense.’ This is what the global village means: we are all within reach of a single voice or the sound of tribal drums. For McLuhan, this future held a profound risk of mass terror and sudden panic.

The current idea of a global village as a place of universal harmony and industrious basket-weaving is a tourist’s fantasy. McLuhan gave in to the intoxication of this hope for a few years in the early ’60s, and it is evident throughout Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man, his most optimistic work. In that book, McLuhan sings of the furthest reaches of electronic culture, when computer technology has replaced language with instant nonverbal communication. He compares this mystical unification of humanity to the Christian Pentecost. But McLuhan soon realized that before the Pentecost comes suffering and crucifixion, and while we are all waiting for the Holy Ghost to descend, Jerusalem is likely to be scary as hell.•

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Steve Martin As “The Elephant Guy” (1981)

March 7, 2011 in Videos | Permalink

With Dan Aykroyd, Bill Murray, Lynn Redgrave, and Paul Shaffer as Jo-Jo, the Dog-Faced Boy.

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Old Print Article: “A Talking Skeleton,” Brooklyn Daily Eagle (1883)

March 7, 2011 in Old Print Articles, Science/Tech, Urban Studies | Permalink

"A more repulsive sight to any lover of the 'human form divine' it would be difficult to imagine."

Isaac Sprague was a nineteenth-century dime museum performer who was billed as the “Living Skeleton.” He had some sort of progressive muscular disease and was invited into classrooms as well as sideshows, so that medical students could study his malady. Such a visit to academia was covered by the Brooklyn Daily Eagle in truly insulting fashion in its November 25, 1883 issue. An excerpt:

“Isaac Sprague, who is usually advertised in museums or traveling shows as the living skeleton, was exhibited yesterday to the students of the Rush Medical College, and was made the subject of a lecture by Dr. Henry M. Lyman. Several hundred students filled the tiers of seats that rose above each other to the roof of the amphitheatre, and in the small semicircle below sat the skeleton. A skeleton he was, indeed, for there did not appear to be a single vestige of flesh on his body, and the skin was drawn tightly over the bones. He wore a pair of trunks, leaving his legs, chest and arms nude, and a more repulsive sight to any lover of the ‘human form divine’ it would be difficult to imagine. The man’s spine was curved to one side and there was a tremulous pulsation in the neck over the right shoulder that produced an irritating effect upon an observer’s nerves. Sprague’s face is not attenuated in comparison with his body, and his neck seems to preserve some muscular tissues, but all the remainder is a mass of living articulated bones.

The skeleton said that he was forty-two years old and had been suffering from progressive muscular atrophy for thirty years. ‘Cases such as this,’ said the lecturer, ‘generally run their course in five years, and few have been known to exceed twenty years. It is safe to say that there is no case like the present one on record.’

‘Have you suffered much?’ the doctor asked.

‘No,’ said the skeleton in a voice almost as thin as his legs. ‘I have had almost no rheumatic pains; have suffered no loss of sleep; I can eat three hearty meals a day, and have been married twice and now have three children.’

The skeleton, in conclusion, told the students that he now weighs fifty pounds, which was half what he weighed when the disease began. He said, in an incidental and humorous way, that his wife weighed 172 pounds. He himself is five feet five and one half inches in height, and his boy, weighing 125 pounds, can carry his father about like a child.”

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Recently Posted On NYC’s Craigslist

March 7, 2011 in Misc., Urban Studies | Permalink

"There is also a legend about this cactus that someone long ago saw it doing strange motions." (Image by Donar Reiskoffer.)

Huge Cactus for Sale – $500 (Suffern NY)

Huge Cactus for Sale!!!
This cactus is a nature’s wonder. You may imagine a cactus small, spiky, green, with no leaves, and with flowers on it. Well, our cactus is tall, spiky, flower less (sorry), and leafy. Also, this cactus has lived over 100 years! Anyway, that does not mean that it is useless, or dead. There is also a legend about this cactus that someone long ago saw it doing strange motions, but noone ever knew if this was true. If you are really curios, well then buy the cactus and watch over it yourself. Please, if you notice anything, give us a call. You can keep this cactus in millions of places: at home, in your business office, where ever you want. It can also be used in schools to explain to kids about such plants and their features. Also, if you prefer you can buy branches from the cactus and grow it yourself. You can donate it to a museum, or plant it straight in your garden. If you are someone that always just can’t catch fish. Well, guess what we will bring you magic. Just through a piece of cactus into the water where the fish are and ta da! The fish will all jump up and all you have to do is catch them like butterflies. If you want to buy this amazing plant, but someone else in your family disagrees, please, convince them to buy it. Come on we can’t stand another week of that cactus breaking through our ceiling.

Danish Robot Professor Smiles (A Little)

March 7, 2011 in Science/Tech, Urban Studies, Videos | Permalink

From Aaron Saenz on the Singularity Hub: “Referred to as Geminoid-DK, the robot is a replica of Henrik Sharfe of Aalborg University in Denmark. This thing is amazing looking. Unlike many previous Geminoids we’ve seen in the past, Sharfe’s robotic copy is almost real enough to pass as human.”

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Bukowski On The Dark Side Of Democracy

March 7, 2011 in Books, Excerpts | Permalink

“Law,” by Charles Bukowski:

“Look,“ he told me,
“all those little children dying in the trees.”
And I said, “What?”
He said, “look.”
And I went to the window and sure enough, there they were hanging in the trees,
dead and dying.
And I said, “What does it mean?”
He said, “I don’t know it’s authorized.”

The next day I got up and they had dogs in the trees,
hanging, dead, and dying.
I turned to my friend and I said, “What does it mean?”
And he said,
“Don’t worry about it, it’s the way of things. They took a vote. It was decided.”
The next day it was cats.
I don’t see how they caught all those cats so fast and hung them in the trees, but they did.
The next day it was horses,
and that wasn’t so good because many bad branches broke.

And after bacon and eggs the next day,
my friend pulled his pistol on me across the coffee
and said,
“Let’s go,”
and we went outside.
And here were all these men and women in the trees,
most of them dead or dying.
And he got the rope ready and I said,
“What does it mean?”
And he said, “It’s authorized, constitutional, it past the majority,”
And he tied my hands behind my back then opened the noose.
“I don’t know who’s going to hang me,” he said,
“When I get done with you.
I suppose when it finally works down
there will be just one left and he’ll have to hang himself.”
“Suppose he doesn’t,” I ask.
“He has to,” he said,
“It’s authorized.”
“Oh,” I said, “Well,
let’s get on with it.”

••••••••••

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“Did Nabokov Consciously Borrow And Quote?”

March 6, 2011 in Books, Excerpts, Urban Studies | Permalink

"Just like the old man in that book by Heinz von Lichberg" would have been the worst Police lyric ever.

The opening of Jonathan Lethem’s excellent long-form 2007 Harper’s essay, “The Ecstasy of Influence: A Plagiarism,” which looks at the way artists borrow, whether through cryptomnesia, repurposing or stealing:

“Consider this tale: a cultivated man of middle age looks back on the story of an amour fou, one beginning when, traveling abroad, he takes a room as a lodger. The moment he sees the daughter of the house, he is lost. She is a preteen, whose charms instantly enslave him. Heedless of her age, he becomes intimate with her. In the end she dies, and the narrator—marked by her forever—remains alone. The name of the girl supplies the title of the story: Lolita.

The author of the story I’ve described, Heinz von Lichberg, published his tale of Lolita in 1916, forty years before Vladimir Nabokov’s novel. Lichberg later became a prominent journalist in the Nazi era, and his youthful works faded from view. Did Nabokov, who remained in Berlin until 1937, adopt Lichberg’s tale consciously? Or did the earlier tale exist for Nabokov as a hidden, unacknowledged memory? The history of literature is not without examples of this phenomenon, called cryptomnesia. Another hypothesis is that Nabokov, knowing Lichberg’s tale perfectly well, had set himself to that art of quotation that Thomas Mann, himself a master of it, called ‘higher cribbing.’ Literature has always been a crucible in which familiar themes are continually recast. Little of what we admire in Nabokov’s Lolita is to be found in its predecessor; the former is in no way deducible from the latter. Still: did Nabokov consciously borrow and quote?” (Thanks Essayist.)

••••••••••

Vladimir Nabokov discusses Lolita in the 1950s:

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World’s Smallest Street-Legal Car

March 6, 2011 in Science/Tech, Urban Studies, Videos | Permalink

The Peel P50 weighs 132 pounds and seats two uncomfortably. (Thanks Autointhenews.)

Walking Across The Brooklyn Bridge (1905)

March 6, 2011 in Photography, Urban Studies | Permalink

Pedestrians make their way across the Brooklyn Bridge some time around 1905. Hats weren't mandatory, but they were welcome.

The Brooklyn Bridge, completed in 1883, essentially made is fate accompli that Kingsborough would eventually become incorporated into New York Cite  and the modern NYC that we know today would be formed. It is one of the oldest suspension bridges in the U.S. and a marvel of engineering. But it it lacks a tavern. It didn’t have to be the way, though, since one crazy visionary back on the day petitioned for the right to open a bar on the bridge. An excerpt from a story in the June 13, 1893 Brooklyn Daily Eagle:

“The Brooklyn Bridge has long been a point of pilgrimage for ambitious cranks. The man who aspired to open a beer saloon at the nearer tower is by no means alone in extravagant ambition. Time is not distant since a woman philanthropist wanted to turn the structure into a nursery. Another charitable individual of the gentler sex proposed to raise a fund for the relief of deserving Hottentots by starting roof gardens on the summits of the granite piers. Professional jumpers and unprofessional suicides have given the swinging span a measure of grewsome notoriety that contrasts sternly with the more generous projects proposed. It only remains to ask the use of the roadway for a horse race or the promenade for a baseball match in order to realize the novelty of which the bridge is capable.

From the standpoint of conservative administration the trustees did right to reject the petition for a saloon franchise. They should not, however, feel too harshly toward the misguided man who submitted it. There are so few drinking places in these cities, especially in the neighborhood of the approaches, that the petitioner undoubtedly supposed he was entering on a project of mercy. There is visible a certain benevolence in his scheme to supply the gurgle of amber beer, the sparkle of delicious cocktails and the aroma of seductive juleps in a region bereft, down to date, of facilities for providing cooling and stimulating drinks.”

••••••••••

Brooklyn Bridge trolley crossing, 1899:

Recently Posted On NYC’s Craigslist

March 6, 2011 in Misc., Urban Studies | Permalink

"Ain't that a Will'y."

 

Television for the Aged

Me neighbor needs a free TV. She has a TV but cannot adjust channel to #3 to watch it. She is 84 yrs old and forgets things. Her friends appear to be in the same condition. Her remote has been missing. I’m not saying someone took it home but. I don’t know.

I’m in Williamsburg no transportation but I do have an old lady in need..

As we get older we get abandoned by our kids. Ain’t that a Will’y

Help this lady.

Please

 

Mister Brainwash In Fine Form

March 6, 2011 in Urban Studies, Videos | Permalink

A truly spectacular idiot.

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What Really Sends A Bad Message To Children…

March 6, 2011 in Politics, Urban Studies | Permalink

President Mike: Jesus rode a dinosaur. (Image by David Ball.)

…is having a former Presidential candidate and a talking head on a major cable outlet who believes that the Earth is 5,000 years old and that Creationism and not Evolution tells the story of humankind.

Monkey ancestor: But how can you deny evolutionary science? It's quite convincing.

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Robot Fish To Lead Real Fish

March 6, 2011 in Science/Tech, Urban Studies | Permalink

RoboFish. (Image by Polytechnic Institute of New York University.)

Live Science has an article about Rome-born NYU professor, Dr. Maurizio Porfiri, who has created robot fish that can lead schools of real fish away from natural and man-made disasters. The real ones respond well to their bot brothers because the fake fish have a remarkable capacity to mirror movements seen in nature. An excerpt:

“Porfiri posited that if he could enforce leadership by an external member—in this case, a robot that actively engages the group—he could influence the direction and behavior of schooling fish. This could prove a life-saving advantage for marine populations in the event of oil or chemical spills or other natural disasters. Porfiri also envisions the ability to lead fish away from man-made dangers like turbines.”

••••••••••

No video footage yet of Dr. Porfiri’s fish in action, but scientists at Essex University are also working on robot fish:

Did Lincoln Encourage Freed Slaves To Leave America?

March 6, 2011 in Excerpts, Urban Studies | Permalink

"Lincoln urged a White House audience of 'free blacks' to leave the US and settle in Central America."

Documents uncovered by historians at George Mason suggest that Abraham Lincoln was much more committed to seeing that freed American slaves relocated to Central America and started their own new nation. The more you study history, the thornier it gets. An excerpt from Matthew Barakat’s story on the topic from the Independent:

“It claims, among other things, that in 1862 Lincoln urged a White House audience of ‘free blacks’ to leave the US and settle in Central America. He told them: ‘For the sake of your race, you should sacrifice something of your present comfort for the purpose of being as grand in that respect as the white people.’ He went on to say that those who envisioned a permanent life in the US were being ‘selfish’ and he promoted Central America as an ideal location ‘especially because of the similarity of climate with your native land – thus being suited to your physical condition.'”

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British Headbanging Enthusiasts (1980)

March 6, 2011 in Urban Studies, Videos | Permalink

Subcultures are wonderful. (Thanks Documentarian.)

Recently Posted On NYC’s Craigslist

March 6, 2011 in Misc., Urban Studies | Permalink

"You rock my boat."

Panties & Slips size medium – $1 (Upper West Side)

OK here’s the weird, though practical post of the week on Craigslist. My mother passed away leaving behind many clothes, (can you believe 73 belts) and her large panty collection. I have donated all the clothes to Housing Works but they don’t take panties. SO I have 7 white slips, 4 black, 27 black panties, 19 white,3 blue, 2 brown, 1 orange, 1 purple, 1 pink,1 frilly and 1 red one that says “you rock my boat” on the front of it. Mom was a piece of work. These are NOT fancy Victoria’s Secret panties. Seems like a shame to toss these when they should have some useful life left. Does anyone want all of these for $30? If I don’t get any response then I will offer them for free in few days and if no response then to the landfill they go.

Amazing Chinese Street Dancer

March 6, 2011 in Urban Studies, Videos | Permalink

A new twist, literally. Also: video of a New York breakdancer from 1898.

This Week’s Afflictor Keyphrase Searches

March 5, 2011 in Misc. | Permalink

 

 

February Traffic Report (the most popular searches on Afflictor according to category):

Top 5 Famous People

  1. Muhammad Ali
  2. Truman Capote
  3. David Soul
  4. Serge Gainsbourg
  5. Chuck Close

Top 5 Non-Human Creatures

  1. Moth
  2. Tuatara
  3. Skunk
  4. Polar bear
  5. Elephant

Top 5 Inaminate Objects

  1. Dymaxion house
  2. Breadsticks
  3. Stretch Armstrong doll
  4. IBM PC
  5. Old trains

Top 5 Obscene Terms

  1. Japanese school girl panties
  2. Midgets with fat asses
  3. Transformers girls boob and ass inflation
  4. Snooki has to shit her pants
  5. Stripper photo with beagles painted on her chest

“Highlights” From Another Week Of Afflictor Crap

March 5, 2011 in Misc. | Permalink

Afflictor: Surprising Salvador Dali and his puddy cat since 2009.

 

  • Is this thing the future of government buildings?

Apple And The Post-PC Universe

March 5, 2011 in Excerpts, Science/Tech, Urban Studies | Permalink

"Without that key component of sheer delight, the road for them is long and hard." (Image by Glenn Fleishman.)

Joshua Topolsky has an interesting post on Endgadget that looks at Apple’s attempt, with its category-defining iPad, to steer the conversation of computing into a Post-PC world. My biggest complaint about the iPad being the future of computing is that its minuscule size and touch keypad–amazing though they are–reduce the act of writing to an afterthought. It’s like we’re headed for a society in which sounds and flashes and glyphs supplant sentences–and we may very well be. An excerpt from Topolsky’s piece about the perils facing Apple’s competitors:

“But right now — in the tablet space at least — the problem for Motorola, Samsung, HP, RIM, and anyone else who is challenging Apple becomes infinitely more difficult. Almost any company could put together a more powerful or spec-heavy tablet, but all the horsepower in the world can’t help you if you don’t find a way to delight the average consumer. Those other tablet makers may have superior hardware (and in the case of the Xoom, some superior software as well), but without that key component of sheer delight, the road for them is long and hard. HP is getting close by touting features like Touch-to-Share, but against experiences like the new GarageBand for iOS and the 65,000 apps (and counting) that currently exist, it’s hard to see a clear path to sizable competition. That goes for Google and RIM as well.”

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Listeria: Seven Wonders Of The Modern World (1917)

March 5, 2011 in Science/Tech, Urban Studies | Permalink

"Aeroplane."

  1. Telephone
  2. Wireless
  3. Aeroplane
  4. Radium
  5. Antiseptics and Antitoxins
  6. Spectrum Analysis
  7. X-rays

•Taken from the 1917 World Almanac.

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