2010

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Featured Video: The First Apple Store (1967)

October 15, 2010 in Urban Studies, Videos | Permalink

The Beatles in 1964, three years before they became shopkeepers.

The Beatles and Steve Jobs famously feuded over the Apple name, and the Fab Four even had an Apple store–the Apple Boutique–while Jobs was still in grade school. British Pathé was on hand for the groovy opening on Baker Street in London. George and John dropped by to mug for cameras and greet shoppers, who were adorned in everything from furs to monocles. Psychedelic fashions and inflatable furniture were for sale, and writer Kenneth Tynan was among the notables to show up. Watch it here.

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Oliver Sacks And The Identity Crisis

October 14, 2010 in Science/Tech | Permalink

"Mark," a protrait by Chuck Close, who also has face-blindness. No wonder he's spent the majority of his career painting faces.

I’ve mentioned before that I have a fair degree of face-blindness, a neurological condition that makes it difficult to recognize faces out of context, even if I know a person well. If I don’t see someone regularly or haven’t seen them in a while, it’s particularly difficult to decipher identity. Neurologist Oliver Sacks, who has face-blindness, wrote about the condition recently in the New Yorker. In addition to that article, the publication’s website has a free podcast in which Sacks discusses the condition further. Listen here.

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Old Print Article: “Antarctic Quacks–They Are Edible And Called Penguins,” Brooklyn Daily Eagle (1893)

October 14, 2010 in Old Print Articles, Science/Tech | Permalink

For some reason, a man plays bagpipes for a penguin in 1904. (Image by William S Bruce.)

This article from Popular Science Monthly, which was reprinted in the August 4, 1893 edition of the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, introduces the odd Antarctic bird known as the “penguin” to its readers–and then proceeds to describe clubbing them to death and eating them. It’s jaw-dropping by today’s standards or any standards. An excerpt:

“Penguins are the strangest creatures ever seen. They are supposedly funny as the quack and strut about with their padded feet over the snow, or, coming to a slope glide swiftly downward toboggan fashion upon their breast. If one lands on the piece of ice they are resting upon they approach fearlessly with a threatening ‘quack! quack!’ For their inquisitiveness they, too, often received the handle of the club, for it was soon found that their flesh greatly resembled that of the hare, and upon them we had many a tasty and substantial meal. The emperor penguin is very difficult to kill; he will live after his skull has been most hopelessly smashed; the best way to put an end to them is to pith them. Six of us one day set out to capture one alive, and so strong was the bird that five with difficulty got their hold, and, after he was bound with strong cords and nautical knots, he flapped his flippers and released himself.”

Recently Posted On NYC’s Craigslist

October 14, 2010 in Misc., Urban Studies | Permalink

"I would rather not compromise my dignity."

Kidney 4 Sale (Manhattan)

Young, healthy, non-smoker, athletic (jogger, tennis), educated (Bachelor of Science in Marketing), blood type A woman is looking to share my kidney with an individual/family who really needs it. I am not willing to travel outside of the continental US to have surgery. The job market has been unsympathetic to me and at this point its either sell a kidney or compromise my dignity. I would rather not compromise my dignity, besides, I would be helping to save someone’s life.

    “The Middle Class Is Over”

    October 14, 2010 in Excerpts, Science/Tech, Urban Studies | Permalink

    Novelist Douglas Coupland has come up with a list called “The Radical Pessimist’s Guide to the Next 10 Years” for Toronto’s Globe and Mail. It is a dark and dystopian list of 45 things you need to know even if you’d rather not. Here are a few choice predictions:

    43) Getting to work will provide vibrant and fun new challenges

    Gravel roads, potholes, outhouses, overcrowded buses, short-term hired bodyguards, highwaymen, kidnapping, overnight camping in fields, snaggle-toothed crazy ladies casting spells on you, frightened villagers, organ thieves, exhibitionists and lots of healthy fresh air.

    20) North America can easily fragment quickly as did the Eastern Bloc in 1989

    Quebec will decide to quietly and quite pleasantly leave Canada. California contemplates splitting into two states, fiscal and non-fiscal. Cuba becomes a Club Med with weapons. The Hate States will form a coalition.

    6) The middle class is over. It’s not coming back

    Remember travel agents? Remember how they just kind of vanished one day?

    That’s where all the other jobs that once made us middle-class are going – to that same, magical, class-killing, job-sucking wormhole into which travel-agency jobs vanished, never to return. However, this won’t stop people from self-identifying as middle-class, and as the years pass we’ll be entering a replay of the antebellum South, when people defined themselves by the social status of their ancestors three generations back. Enjoy the new monoclass!

    3) The future is going to happen no matter what we do. The future will feel even faster than it does now

    The next sets of triumphing technologies are going to happen, no matter who invents them or where or how. Not that technology alone dictates the future, but in the end it always leaves its mark. The only unknown factor is the pace at which new technologies will appear. This technological determinism, with its sense of constantly awaiting a new era-changing technology every day, is one of the hallmarks of the next decade.

    1) It’s going to get worse

    No silver linings and no lemonade. The elevator only goes down. The bright note is that the elevator will, at some point, stop.

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    “Why Didn’t Blockbuster Evolve More Quickly?”

    October 13, 2010 in Excerpts, Urban Studies | Permalink

    Small selection, late fees, lousy staff, etc. (Image by Stu pendousmat.)

    Netflix is great and Blockbuster sucked is the simple reason why the latter had to file for Chapter 11. But why didn’t Blockbuster change its ways and use its capital to become a leaner and smoother operation? According to the New Yorker‘s James Surowiecki, it’s because large, successful companies tend to double down on their core strategies during times of stress, even when those strategies obviously no longer work. An excerpt:

    “Why didn’t Blockbuster evolve more quickly? In part, it was because of what you could call the ‘internal constituency’ problem: the company was full of people who had been there when bricks-and-mortar stores were hugely profitable, and who couldn’t believe that those days were gone for good. Blockbuster treated its thousands of stores as if they were a protective moat, when in fact they were the business equivalent of the Maginot Line. The familiar sunk-cost fallacy made things worse. Myriad studies have shown that, once decision-makers invest in a project, they’re likely to keep doing so, because of the money already at stake. Rather than dramatically shrinking both the size and the number of its stores, Blockbuster just kept throwing good money after bad.”

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    Featured Video: Dianne Rochenski Loves Rats

    October 13, 2010 in Urban Studies, Videos | Permalink

    A New York Daily News article about Manhattan mom Dianne Rochenski, who loves pet rats, notes that the rodents “eat almost anything and can grow to up to a foot.” Sounds ideal. But keeping dead rats in the apartment for a month sounds iffyat best to me. (Thanks to Dangerous Minds.)

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    Recently Posted On NYC’s Craigslist

    October 12, 2010 in Misc., Urban Studies | Permalink

    specimen for taxidermy

    i am an amateur taxidermist in need of more practice, but as i live in the city, the discovery of fallen/deceased wildlife happens rarely, stunting my growth in the craft.

    so i am writing this post to request assistance. if you happen to find a freshly deceased specimen (if it smells, it’s too late) along your daily routine, please reply to my post with directions to the find.

    i am particularly interested in birds & small mammals (with exception to sewer rats & pigeons, unfortunately the majority of nyc “wildlife”).

    thank you.

    Predicting The Next Ten Years In Technology

    October 12, 2010 in Excerpts, Science/Tech, Urban Studies | Permalink

    Money with ringtones. (Image by Sakartvelo.)

    Don Dodge of Mircosoft and Google fame has a post on his blog in which he predicts the most significant tech developments of the next ten years. He won’t be proved right in every case, but I’d be surprised if the prediction I’ve excerpted below didn’t pan out. (Thanks to Newmark’s Door.)

    “Cell phone as payment device – Your credit card is just a piece of plastic that can do nothing by itself. The magnetic strip on the back must be read by a card reader and transmitted digitally to a server in the cloud. How quaint credit cards will seem 10 years from now. Your cell phone is already digitally connected to the cloud. You can authenticate yourself in a variety of ways. Your cell phone is with you all the time, even more so than your credit cards. Other countries are already using cell phones as payment devices. The USA will catch up in the next decade, and develop many new uses.”

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    “In Rome Now, People Are Living Like Rats.”

    October 12, 2010 in Excerpts, Urban Studies | Permalink

    "A shower and a loo behind a folding door."

    The real estate market may have crashed in most places around the world, but the Croatian Times has an article about a centrally located miniature apartment in Rome that’s been listed for 50,000 Euros ($70,000). It’s not quite 54 square feet. Let the bidding begin. (Thanks to Fortean Times and Boing Boing.) An excerpt:

    “Described as a ‘compact bedsit’ the property is in one of the city’s smartest districts right next to the ancient Pantheon and with Italy’s billionaire Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi as one of your neighbours.

    Mind you, all you can see from the one tiny window is an alley, and only after you have climbed up a ladder to get to the sleeping platform and then crawled across the bed to get there.

    Downstairs is a standing-room only bathroom with a shower, sink and a loo behind a folding door.

    Local media commentators have been shocked by the price ==even in the city’s inflated property market. Newspaper Il Giornale said: ‘In Rome now, people are living like rats.’

    The owner, however, refuses to budge on the price. He claimed: ‘People seem to like it. I’m getting three or four calls a day about it.'”

    Head Cold Drops Blogger Like Sack Of Dirt

    October 12, 2010 in Misc. | Permalink

    You can't be too careful when reading Afflictor. (Image by Diego Cupolo.)

    Sorry for the lack of posts on Monday. Bad head cold. I’ll be back Tuesday.

    Old Print Article: “Coney Island Dances,” Brooklyn Daily Eagle (1897)

    October 11, 2010 in Old Print Articles, Urban Studies | Permalink

    "The chief offender down there is a flabby woman."

    I think most physicians agree that dancing is the leading cause of syphilis, but there was one particularly outrageous dance being performed at Coney Island in the 1890s. It was called the “coucheee-couchee.” In its August 10, 1897 issue, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle took aim at this wicked piece of choreaography and incidentally revealed not only a puritan streak but a racist one as well. An excerpt:

    “District Attorney Backus says he intends to break up the immoral dances and shows at Coney Island. Justice Lemon, who is holding court at the Island, says there are shows positively suggestive of immorality which should be repressed by the strong arm of the law. And so it is likely that the vile couchee-couchee dance, driven out of Chicago, New York, old Brooklyn and every city in the civilized world will not be permitted even at Coney Island. This is the vulgar Turkish dance which a roving minister in amazing simplicity recently characterized as ‘a religious dance,’ a dance which has been viewed in Brooklyn only behind locked doors, after precautions were taken against a descent by the police. In commenting upon the too-sweet-to-be-wholesome innocence of this unattached clergyman’s indorsement of the vulgar dance a county official said to the writer of this column:

    "And so it is likely that the vile couchee-couchee dance, driven out of Chicago, New York, old Brooklyn and every city in the civilized world will not be permitted even at Coney Island."

    ‘I do not think that the authorities should place Puritanical restrictions on Coney Island shows, but they should insist on decency. There is no prudishness in insisting that a dance which would not be tolerated for one minute in public by the New York police, or anywhere within the limits of the old city of Brooklyn, shall be repressed at Coney Island. The chief offender down there is a flabby woman who would have been indicted, as were the Seeley dinner dancers, if the police had caught her at performances which she gave  privately before a party of half drunken men. The proprietor of the theater at which she appears recently promised that the couchee-couchee would be abandoned, but with his recentl clerical indorsement he doubtless felt it would be safe to go ahead with the dance again. But Captain Collins will arrest her if it is repeated. Unfortunately for the Turk, many ministers and private citizens of good repute have demanded that the district attorney shall prosecute if he again violates the law. The New York press agents of the immoral shows at Coney Island will have to work hard to earn their salaries during the remainder of the summer season.

    A police official or any newspaper man who desires to repress or expose the immoralities of Coney Island, will see little or nothing of the evils which disgrace this resort if he goes down there and discloses his identity. The couchee-couchee woman suddenly becomes as demure as a demi mondaine at a christening; the proprietor of a saloon in which blacks and whites of both sexes usually meet on free and easy terms appears as a stern enforcer of order and morality; the skin bagatelle tables are thrown aside; gambling games cannot be found; the confidence men and pickpockets as a matter of course do not make themselves known to the visitors, and the proprietors of bagnios are on their guard. The district attorney has a stack of affidavits made by responsible citizens, which clearly indicate the character of evils which have flourished at the Island. He is on the right track, and will meet with popular approval, no matter what indorsements may be given to the other dance house dives to which young loafers and criminals hunt for victims.”

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    Feaured Video: “I Met The Walrus” (1969/2007)

    October 10, 2010 in Politics, Videos | Permalink

    Jerry Levitan was a 14-year-old Toronto kid in 1969 who sneaked past hotel security and managed to interview John Lennon with a reel-to reel tape recorder. At the time, John and Yoko were using beds and bags to agitate for peace and understanding, while parrying with U.S. immigration officials who wanted the Beatle to stay out of the country. In 2007, Levitan produced “I Met the Walrus,” an animated five-minute movie that uses the audio from the interview. Lennon would have turned 70 this past Saturday.

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    New DVD: Forbidden Lies

    October 10, 2010 in Film | Permalink

    Norma Khouri's book, "Forbidden Love," has been reclassified as a novel.

    Scandals about non-fiction bestsellers of dubious veracity are neither new nor even so rare, but few are as jaw-dropping as the one that Norma Khouri perpetrated with her 2003 memoir, Forbidden Love. That book purported to tell the story about the author’s best friend, Dalia, who supposedly was brutally murdered by her Jordanian family because she fell in love with a man outside her religion. In the wake of 9/11, with suspicion of all things Middle Eastern at fever pitch, the book became a sensation and Khouri a literary star. But people eventually began to ask whether it was true.

    It was not. Subsequently caught in a web of lies by an Australian journalist, Khouri held tight to her bogus claims and even fully participated in Anna Broinowski’s documentary about her to clear her name. Bad idea. As filmmaker and subject bound from Jordan to Chicago to Sydney, the story unravels further and further and Khouri begins to shift her lies to fit whatever situation presents itself. Pretty soon it’s obvious that she’s actually a Windy City con artist who did not spend most of her life in Jordan. As excruciating details of Khouri’s life emerge, what forms is a fascinating extreme psychological portrait of a person who will travel halfway around the world to tell ridiculous lies. Broinowski doggedly hangs on for what’s a wild ride but certainly no joyride.

    The film ultimately becomes as much an exploration into Khouri’s odd mindset as a literary investigation, and the inveterate liar ultimately tries to defend her behavior by painting herself as a victim of her shifty family and friends. She has evidence to back up some of these claims, but the truth has been trampled underfoot so thoroughly by film’s end, it’s all but unrecognizable. (Available from Netflix and other outlets.)

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    Recently Posted On NYC’s Craigslist

    October 10, 2010 in Misc., Urban Studies | Permalink

    "Pickles is my thing." (Image by Aaron.)

    Jersey Shore Talking Bobble Head-Snooki – $49 (New Jersey)

    Collect All 3 for yourself or a friends. Head to the Jersey Shore with your favorite Guidos and Guidettes

    The diminutive queen of MTVs breakout series Jersey Shore gets the bobble head treatment. Jersey Shore Nicole Snooki Talking Bobble Head. This collectible Nicole “Snooki” wobbler stands approximately 6-inches tall and speaks the following phrases subject to change:

    • “Pickles is my thing.”
    • “The Snooks… is out.”
    • “Im not trashy… unless I drink too much.”\

    Jersey Shore Mike The Situation Talking Bobble Head speaks the following phrases subject to change:

    • This is “The Situation” right here… my abs are so ripped up, its… we call it “The Situation.””
    • “Everybody loves me… babies, dogs, you know, hot girls, cougars. I just have unbelievable mass appeal.”
    • “I check out the mirror and like… woooh, todays gonna be a good day.”

    Jersey Shore DJ Pauly D Talking Bobble Head speaks the following phrases subject to change:

    • “You gotta stay fresh-to-death, I call it…fresh outfit, fresh haircut, fresh tan; just stay fresh.”
    • “Nooo way I’m goin’ to Jersey without my hair gel; can’t leave without my gel.”
    • “The party’s in Pauly D’s pants tonight.”

    Acceptable payments: Paypal,Money Order, Checks checks have to clear before item is shipped out.

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    Miscellaneous Media: Postcard To Mr. And Mrs. Frank Houston, Cincinnati, Ohio, 45242. (1976)

    October 9, 2010 in Misc., Urban Studies | Permalink

    "Mauna Kea. Hilo, Hawaii."

    (Postcard purchased for 25 cents at a Brooklyn flea market.)

    “Dear Birdie,

    Hope you are completely recovered from your eye operation. We are back fine and keeping busy. Sal is hunting this a.m. Wish you could taste wild sheep. It is delicious.

    Our best wishes to all.

    Miss you,

    Sal and Lidia.”

    More Miscellaneous Media:

  • Postcard to Mrs. Frank Houston, Cincinnati, 1986.
  • Christmas postcard to Mrs. Frank Houston, Cincinnati, 1985.
  • Brochure from Rio Motel in Wildwood, New Jersey. (2004)
  • Jim Otto 1965 Topps football card.
  • Miniature Aircraft Quarterly. (1998)
  • Howeird Stern 50 Ways to Rank Your Mother LP. (1982)
  • A Knight’s Hard Day. (1964)
  • The Lowbrow Reader remembers Ol’ Dirty Bastard. (2004)
  • LP record about the 1972 Oakland A’s.
  • Madison Square Garden professional wrestling program. (1981)
  • Spy magazine. (1989)
  • Artis Gilmore ABA basketball card. (1973-74)
  • San Francisco cable car ticket stub. (1990s)
  • Bronx high school newspaper. (1947)
  • Mad magazine. (1966)
  • Vancouver Blazers hockey guide. (1974-75)
  • John Hummer NBA card. (1973)
  • Carolina Cougars ABA Yearbook. (1970)
  • The Washington Senators MLB Yearbook. (1968)
  • Ugandan currency with Idi Amin’s picture. (1973)
  • Tom Van Arsdale basketball card. (1970)
  • “Okie from Muskogee” sheet music. (1969)
  • California Golden Seals hockey magazine. (1972)
  • Beatles Film Festival Magazine (1978)
  • ABA Pictorial (1968-69)
  • Tom Seaver’s Baseball Is My Life. (1973)
  • Hockey Digest (1973)
  • World’s Fair Guide (1964)
  • World’s Fair Guide (1939)
  • Buffalo Braves Yearbook (1972-73)
  • New York Nets Yearbook (1976-77)
  • “Tom Dooley” sheet music.

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    “Highlights” From Another Week Of Afflictor Crap

    October 8, 2010 in Misc. | Permalink

    Afflictor: Making America beam like a happy little girl since 2009. (Image by William M. Vander Weyde.)

    Science/Tech: The Emergence Of Rat-Bots

    October 8, 2010 in Science/Tech | Permalink

    According to this Wired piece, cyberneticist Kevin Warwick and his researchers at the University of Reading in the UK have transplanted brain cells from rats into robots. The cells are alive and can form new connections, so the bots can apparently learn. That rat-bots have are all able to avoid bumping into walls, but they each exhibit different behavior patterns as real mice would. Spooky and just in time for Halloween! (Thanks to Marginal Revolution.)

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    Strange, Small & Forgotten Films: The Bothersome Man (2006)

    October 8, 2010 in Film | Permalink

    A dark comic fantasy about a suicide victim awakening to life in a seemingly idyllic city that may actually be nothing more than an alluring dystopia, Norwegian director Jens Liens’ The Bothersome Man is visionary, provocative and occasionally hilarious.

    Lonely and despondent, Andreas (Trond Fausa Aurvaag) leaps in front of a speeding train to end it all, but it’s only the beginning for his sensitive, tortured soul. He enters some sort of new realm in a beautiful if banal city where people spend far more time thinking about flawless interior design than messy emotions. Andreas reports to a new job that pays well and demands little. It leaves him plenty of time for eating bland food at dinner parties and having all the perfunctory sex he wants with his gorgeous new girlfriend (Petronella Barker) and the hot blond mistress (Birgitte Larsen) nobody cares he’s seeing. But Andreas is a man of passion and cool perfection is as much a burden to him as the cruel world that led to his blood on the tracks.

    Making matters more complicated is that the doomed man finds a small fissure in the wall of a basement that may be a portal that can transport him back to a world of bright colors, pungent odors and complicated feelings. But no matter where it leads Andreas, it will likely lead to no good, since his utter humanness makes it hard for him to be satisfied with what he’s got, no matter what that happens to be.•

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    “I Headed South, A Middle-Aged Dropout, Dazzled By Visions Of Blue Waves And Waving Palms”

    October 7, 2010 in Excerpts | Permalink

    John Brooke rescued his life in San Diego in surprising ways. (Image by John Sullivan.)

    The always useful Instapaper pointed me toward a great article, “The Gentle Art of Poverty,” that was published in The Atlantic in 1977. It was written by former high-flying magazine editor John Brooke, who was 60, divorced, aimless, impoverished and seeking a rebirth in San Diego. Luckily, Brooke soon stumbled upon unlikely fortune and wisdom that helped him remake his shattered life. An excerpt:

    “I am an old man in his sixtieth year. I have entered that decade of life which destroys the last illusion and beyond which lies death, swift or lingering, actuarial or real. I am also poor, incontrovertibly, humiliatingly poor, for the first time in my life. My total annual income, from a modest pension ($1980) and the interest ($168.75) from an equally modest savings account, is 6 percent of what I earned in my prime-and less than two thirds of the property tax I once paid on a five-bedroom home with swimming pool in Westchester County, New York. I am divorced and living alone in an alien city of 800,000 strangers. My aging body betrays me day by day; the ground I am losing now I lose forever.

    So I perceived myself, at any rate, when the plane from a foreign country dropped me in San Diego one night seven months ago. Behind me stretched an aimless, six-year, expatriate trail through the South Seas, Asia, and Latin America that began when divorce and its inevitable byproducts-second thoughts, solitude, and the taste of ashes in the mouth-spread a shadow over every corner of my life and seduced me with a lie: that the sun had stopped shining where I was and that I must go seek it elsewhere. The wounded drift downhill, and so did I. I headed south, a middle-aged dropout, dazzled by visions of healing blue waves and waving palms. On one alien strand and then another, and another, the waves broke and the palms waved and my capital dwindled. The memory of those Wandervogel years has faded badly. About all I remember now are too many cold beers on hot tropical nights, too many bottles of guaro and arak beras, and an endless procession of hollow days, one just like the other, while I waited, with mounting agitation, for the sun to burst through the clouds that I had brought along with me.

    The decision to return to my homeland was surrender.”

    Featured Video: “Terminal Bar” (2003)

    October 7, 2010 in Urban Studies, Videos | Permalink

    Stefan Nadelman’s short 2003 documentary, “Terminal Bar,” covers a decade in the life an erstwhile midtown Manhattan dive bar. The director’s father, Sheldon, was a bartender at the dump from 1972-1982; he was also a shutterbug who took thousands of black-and-white photos of the colorful patrons. It’s a catalog of urban grit like few others. (The bar was located where the New York Times swank headquarters now stand.) The entire film is only available for purchase, but above is a representative three-minute clip.

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    Old Print Article: “The Balloon Wedding,” Brooklyn Daily Eagle (1865)

    October 7, 2010 in Old Print Articles, Urban Studies | Permalink

    "There was some difficulty about gas inflating the balloon...Professor Lowe had to 'make his own gas,' a feat he is very competent to perform."

    Journalists at the Brooklyn Daily Eagle in the latter half of the 19th-century weren’t exactly bleeding hearts, but I don’t think I’ve ever come across a more insulting article than this story from the November 9, 1865 edition. It recounts a wedding ceremony in Central Park that revolved around the betrothed signing their marriage contract while taking a ride in a hot-air balloon. Apparently this was an outrage at the time and everyone involved needed to be mocked. An excerpt:

    “The balloon wedding came off yesterday according to announcement, and appears to have been a rather comical affair. The bridegroom was a fat old widower of about 50, his bride a lady of 25. There was some difficulty about gas inflating the balloon, which delayed the ascension, and the public are informed that Professor Lowe had to ‘make his own gas,’ a feat he is very competent to perform. Owing to the deficiency of the gas, or the weight of the bridegroom, the regular bridesmaid (a stepdaughter of the bride) could not be taken up, and a lighter damsel had to be substituted.

    The marriage ceremony was not performed up in the air, the officiating clergyman objecting to venture in the flesh so near Heaven. The marriage was done on terra firma, only the marriage contract was to be signed in mid-air. The balloon ascended from Central Park, in the presence of a group of gaping idlers, who amused themselves with making vulgar remarks and jokes at the expense of the bride and groom. The party descended in Yonkers in half-frozen condition. The affair would have been simply ridiculous were it not for the association with a holy ordinance which made the exhibition disgusting to every right-minded person; but as there were none such present on the occasion, excepting, perhaps, for reporters, no feelings may have been outraged.”

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    Recently Posted On NYC’s Craigslist

    October 7, 2010 in Misc., Urban Studies | Permalink

    "Get rid of clutter as well as incriminating/embarrassing old writing."

    CASH 4 DIARIES – We pay cash for old diary & journal – $100 (Brooklyn)

    CASH 4 DIARIES will pay you $10 cash for your FILLED OUT, personal diary or journal. It doesn’t matter what you wrote, or who it’s about. Feel free to black out all people’s names (although this will lower its value), but leave the story intact otherwise it’s worthless. Diaries must be hand-written, authentic thoughts/musings/logs on any subject at all, from love to business and anything in between. Get up to $100 for your diary and get rid of clutter as well as incriminating/embarrassing old writing.

    Please bookmark or highlight the most interesting parts so we can quickly appraise your diary’s worth.

    Please DO NOT submit diaries unless they belong to you, and please do not “spice up” your existing diary by adding on to it; our appraisers will be able to tell and you will make the entire diary worthless.

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    George F. Cram’s Life Of War And Atlases

    October 6, 2010 in Books, Excerpts, Urban Studies | Permalink

    Click once on the map to make it larger and then again to make it grande.

    Jason Kottke has, per usual, an excellent post, this one about Cram’s Unrivaled Family Atlas of the World, an 1884 reference book that contained a map of the planet’s tallest buildings or “Diagram of the Principal High Buildings of the World.” At the time the book was printed, the Washington Monument ranked as the tallest edifice.

    Some background on the book’s publisher: George F. Cram (1842-1928) served in the U.S. Army and marched with General William Tecumseh Sherman during the Civil War, before joining the map business in Illinois with his uncle Rufus Blanchard. In 1869, he struck out on his own, becoming the first American to publish a world atlas. The George F. Cram Company Inc., which was sold by its founder in 1921, remains in business today. Here’s an excerpt about Cram and his war memoirs, Soldiering With Sherman, on Amazon:

    William Tecumseh Sherman: Known throughout the North for his incredibly itchy left breast.

    “Rare among Civil War correspondence, the collection of Union Sergeant George F. Cram’s letters reveals an educated young man’s experiences as part of Sherman’s army. Advancing through the Confederacy with the 105th Illinois Infantry Regiment, Cram engaged in a number of key conflicts, such as Resaca, Peachtree Creek, Kennesaw, and Sherman’s ‘march to the sea.’

    A highly literate college student who carried a copy of Shakespeare in his knapsack, Cram wrote candid letters that convey insights into the social dimensions of America’s Civil War. With a piercing objectivity, optimism, and a dry sense of humor, Cram conscientiously reported the details of camp life. His vivid depictions of the campaigns throughout Alabama, Georgia, and the Carolinas contribute new insights into the battle scenes and key Union leaders.

    Cram and several of his compatriots adhered to a principled code of personal conduct (no smoking, swearing, drinking, or gambling), striving to maintain integrity and honor in the face of war’s hardships and temptations. Influenced by the abolitionist values of his community and college, Cram’s observations on the effects of slavery and on the poverty of many of the Southerners are especially illuminating.”

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    Google And The Cycle-Powered Monorail

    October 6, 2010 in Excerpts, Science/Tech, Urban Studies | Permalink

    "The Shweeb train could be a solution to the crowded streets in big cities like New York, Shanghai or Hong Kong." (Image by Schweeb.)

    If Google is going to dominate the world and plant chips in our brains, the least they can do is invest some of the company’s vast wealth on fun and ridiculous projects. And that’s apparently what they’re doing. According to an article in Spiegel, Google has poured a cool million into the New Zealand company Shweeb, which has developed a cycle-powered monorail. Pedal-powered recumbent bicycles hung from a monorail track? Sign me up. Here’s an excerpt from Holger Dambeck’s Spiegel piece:

    “Shweeb’s inventor, Geoff Barnett, is already looking beyond the park though. In his opinion the Shweeb train could be a solution to the crowded streets in big cities like New York, Shanghai or Hong Kong. Barnett took his concept to Google’s Project 10100 (10 to the power of 100). Google was looking for ideas that could change the world by helping as many people as possible. Out of 150,000 entries, 16 were chosen. After this Google users were able to decide which five ideas should be given money by Google. Shweeb was one of the winners.

    Barnett got the idea for the pedal-powered monorail when he was living in Tokyo. He was impressed by the crowds of people, the punctual trains, the ubiquitous vending machines and the capsule hotels, where guests stayed over night in what were basically glorified cupboards. On the Shweeb website, Barnett says that: ‘The idea of riding above the traffic jams on multi-level rails seemed to me the only possible way that Tokyo’s millions of residents could move around the city quickly and safely.'”

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