Jesse Ventura, circa 1984. (Thanks Reddit.)
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Tags: Jesse Ventura
This classic undated picture captures Jack Dempsey and Harry Houdini engaged in a mock fight for a photo op. Even though its tangential to this photo, I’ve been eager for awhile to share an insane 1930 New York Times obituary of a colorful character nicknamed “John the Barber,” who was Dempsey’s first manager. An excerpt from “Jack Dempsey’s First Manager Succumbs To Infection Of His Finger”:
“‘John the Barber,’ in private life John J. Reisler, known on Broadway for many years as a barber, fight manager and friend of the street’s great and near-great, died yesterday morning in Lebanon Hospital, the Bronx, of an infection caused by an ingrown hair on his finger. He had been in the hospital for three weeks and was surrounded by his family, including his wife, Mrs. Minnie Reisler, with whom he had been reconciled recently after a long separation. He was 53 years old.
Also at the bedside was Morris Reisler, his son, whose sentence of twenty years to life in 1923 was commuted by Governor Roosevelt last March. Morris had been sent to Sing Sing for killing his aunt, Miss Bertha Katz, whose death climaxed a family feud in which Mrs. Reisler had accused Miss Katz, her younger sister, of stealing Reisler’s affections. When Morris was released his father, whom he had seen in 1927 when he was permitted to visit the elder Reisler, who lay ill in a Bronx hospital, met him at the prison gate and escorted him back to New York.
As a prizefight manager Reisler was one of Jack Dempsey’s first managers. That was in 1915 and 1916. Although the two parted and later Reisler sued Dempsey for breach of contract, he always was proud of having known and handled Demspey in the days before he was champion.
Born in Austria, he came to New York as a young boy. He became a barber, and in that capacity shaved some of the best-known chins on Broadway. He ran several athletic clubs at various times and knew many celebrities. One of his latest fighters was Vincent Serici. Recently he had handled his three boxing sons, Johnny, Georgie and Sid.
Reisler first came into prominence, however, in 1912, when Herman Rosenthal, the gambler, was murdered early on the morning of July 16 in front of the Hotel Metropole, in Forty-third Street, east of Broadway. Reisler was one of the first on the scene, and it reached the ears of District Attorney Charles S. Whitman that he had seen something. He was subpoenaed, and told Mr. Whitman that has had seen ‘Bridgey’ Webber, one of those accused of the murder, running from the scene.
Put on the stand at Coroner Feinberg’s hearing, Reisler, who had known for years Rosenthal, Webber and others involved in the affair, recanted his story. He was fearful that gunmen in the crowd would ‘put him on the spot.’ Mr. Whitman had him arrested for perjury and after a night in a cell he decided to tell his original story. Webber, who turned informer, was freed later, as was Reisler, after his testimony. Police Lieutenant Charles A. Becker and four gunmen, ‘Gyp the Blood’ Horowitz, ‘Lefty Louie’ Rosenberg, ‘Whitey’ Lewis and ‘Dago Frank’ Cirofici, went to the electric chair for the crime.”
••••••••••
Young Dempsey demolishes a washed-up Jess Willard in 1919:
Related post:
Tags: Harry Houdni, Jack Dempsey, John J. Reisler
Piers Morgan: A hack, in more ways than one. (Image by Nan Palmero,)
Great Britain retained its title as Afflictor Nation champion during the month of July, sending more unique visitors to this site than any other foreign country. Here are the top five finishers:
- Great Britain
- Canada
- Germany
- Ukraine
- India
September 2, 1963. President Kennedy would be dead by November.
Tags: John F. Kennedy, Walter Cronkite
"He tried every method imaginable to kill the turtle."
You would imagine by virtue of their profession that taxidermists lead unusual lives, but 19th-century practitioners of this profession had especially turbulent existences. A peek into their world, courtesy of several articles from the Brooklyn Daily Eagle.
••••••••••
“Tenacity of the Turtle” (September 15, 1899): “H.R. Dill, the Gardiner taxidermist who recently received a large hook bill turtle to be mounted from the game commissioners, was surprised when he commenced work on the shelled monster to find that he was alive. He tried every method imaginable to kill the turtle, but was unsuccessful until he removed its heart and placed it upon the table. In this position and pinned to the table by a knife, this organ pulsated regularly for three hours before it died.”
••••••••••
“Heart Disease or Suicide” (January 11, 1893): “William J. Kampfmueller, a taxidermist of 365 Broadway died suddenly at his home, 303 Hewes Street. His friends say that he died of heart disease, but neighbors whisper about suicide.
A month ago one of Mr. Kampfmueller’s clerks absconded with a large sum of money, and ever since the taxidermist, who was 52 years old, had been very despondent as it crippled him considerably in his business. He was seen about the place yesterday morning and was in good health. The family says that he died of natural causes and indignantly deny the theory of suicide.”
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"Cats are more frequently stuffed than any other kind of animals."
“Taxidermy and Its Profits” (August 14, 1887): “A few blocks distant from the bird fancier’s is the shop of a taxidermist. Its owner, a little old man with a very bald head, received the reporter cautiously. He said: ‘This is the best time of the year for my business. In the Spring and Summer many handsome birds are shot. These are often brought to me to stuff. Cats are more frequently stuffed than any other kind of animals. I get $5 for stuffing one, where formerly I received triple that amount. While many taxidermists use straw, I prefer cotton. Hair is sometimes used, but it is too expensive. It costs $1 to stuff a parrot. Smaller birds cost less.'”
••••••••••
“Taxidermist Fails” (August 13, 1900): “Corpus Christi, Tex.–Professor G.W. Knott, as an Englishman, employed by the British Museum as a taxidermist in Texas and Mexico, was drowned Sunday night in the bay here. Knott was landed at the Central Wharf in a yawl boat from the schooner Reliable, which brought him from Mustang Island, near this city, where he had been engaged for several months securing the specimens of all kinds of water fowl. When he landed on the wharf the professor was somewhat under the influence of liquor and fell backward into the water, drowning before he could be rescued. Professor Knott was one of the most expert taxidermists in the world.”
"You will also be asked not to interfere with music unless your choices have been cleared and approved first."
I want to hire a Boyfriend (Upper East Side)
The position only requires certain minor but specific qualities. You must be over 5’8″ tall, know proper grammar and linguistics and know when to keep your mouth shut. I would like said hired boyfriend to have his own dwelling as lodging is not offered with position. The job requires willingness to make tea and fluff pillows for girlfriend when she is not feeling well, as well as reading aloud from girlfriend’s book collection and not touching girlfriend’s photography equipment. You will also be asked not to interfere with music unless your choices have been cleared and approved first. When girlfriend is not sick the job requirements will diminish, you will have time to yourself in either case so please know what to do with such time, girlfriend is willing to meet your parents but will never ask you to meet hers because they are horrible people who are not allowed to speak to hired boyfriend, I will also want you to take walks in the park with me and enjoy frozen yogurt on hot summer nights. Willingness to meet my boss a plus, good looks also help. Health insurance not provided, and a religious streak will render you unable to apply for the job. No heavy drinkers or cigarette smokers, compensation for services depends on experience and will be discussed upon request.
Ray Bradbury voices his frustrations about space travel and politics in his 1996 Playboy interview:
“Playboy: When you talk about the future, you tend to talk about space travel. Do you really think it’s in our future?
Ray Bradbury: It must be. First of all, it’s a religious endeavor to be immortal. If the earth dies, we must be able to continue. Space travel will give us other planets to live on so we can continue to have children. It’s that simple, that great and that exciting.
Playboy: Will we really be forced to escape earth? Will we be able to in time?
Ray Bradbury: We are already on our way. We should back on the moon right now. And we should be going off to Mars immediately.
Playboy: Yet there doesn’t seem to be a rush into space anymore. NASA’s budget is being whittled away as we speak.
Ray Bradbury: How come we’re looking at our shoes instead of at the great nebula in Orion? Where did we mislay the moon and back off from Mars? The problem is, of course, our politicians, men who have no romance in their hearts or dreams in their heads. JFK, for a brief moment in his last year, challenged us to go to the moon. But even he wasn’t motivated by astronomical love. He cried, “Watch my dust!” to the Russians, and we were off. But once we reached the moon, the romance started to fade. Without that, dreams don’t last. That’s no surprise – material rewards do last, so the history of exploration on earth is about harvesting rich lodes. If NASA’s budgeters could be convinced that there are riches on Mars, we would explode overnight to stand on the rim of the Martian abyss. We need space for reasons we have not as yet discovered, and I don’t mean Tupperware.
Playboy: Tupperware?
Ray Bradbury: NASA feels it has to justify everything it does in practical terms.
And Tupperware was one of the many practical products that came out of space travel. NASA feels it has got to flimflam you to get you to spend money on space. That’s b.s. We don’t need that. Space travel is life-enhancing, and anything that’s life-enhancing is worth doing. It makes you want to live forever.”
Tags: Ray Bradbury
Pearl Bailey supports Gerald Ford for President in 1976.
More celebrity political endorsements:
- Jackie Gleason for Richard Nixon. (1968)
- Frank Sinatra for Ronald Reagan. (1980)
Tags: Gerald Ford, Pearl Bailey
Kurzweil reports on a new spying device from China:
“A new aquatic microrobot that mimics the water-walking abilities of the water strider has been developed by researchers at the Harbin Institute of Technology in China.
The robot is about the size of a quarter, with ten water-repellent, wire legs and two movable, oar-like legs propelled by two miniature motors. Because the weight of the microrobot is equal to that of about 390 water striders, one might expect that it would sink quickly when placed on the water surface. But it stands effortlessly on water surfaces and also walks and turns freely.
It imitates water striders, mosquitoes, and water spiders, who are able to walk on water due largely to their highly water-repellent (superhydrophobic) legs.”
Tags: Ray Kurzweil
Some search-engine keyphrases bringing traffic to Afflictor this week:
Afflictor: Eagerly anticipating that summer blockbuster, "Mr. Ed: 3-D," since 2009. (Image by Rachel C.)
- Old Print Articles: Americans having duels (1844-90) + Impoverished Minnesota lawyer sells his mustache (1893) + Using electrical currents and cocaine to cheat at horse racing (1900).
- Classic Photography: Roosevelt tries to recapture the White House (1912) + Flapper poses in Moscow, Idaho (1922).
- Featured Videos: Groucho Marx on Firing Line (1967) + Frank Sinatra at the Republican Convention (1980) + Hunter S. Thompson on a campus tour during the Reagan years + U.S. Military testing nukes in Nevada (1951) + MTV News report about the Internet (1995) + Young Rupert Murdoch conducting business (1968) + Marlon Brando at a NYC press conference (1965) + Robot seagull demo in Scotland + Motorcycle gangs run wild in Japan (1976) + Brain-cap technology comes of age + Typical day of air traffic in America.
- Recently Posted on NYC’s Craigslist: Guy very angry at Pathmark deli section + Selling life masks of dead celebrities + Selling genuine human skeleton, right hand missing + Cherish always the moment W. got shoes thrown at him + Need a cheap couch, free of urine, vomit and feces.
- Comments about open societies after mass terrorism by David Foster Wallace and the Norwegian Prime Minister,
- Buckminster Fuller wanted to place a dome over a large chunk of Manhattan.
- Philip K. Dick holding forth on androids and humans in 1972.
- U.S. Army working on perfecting telepathy via “thought helmets.”
- Kurt Vonnegut reviews Tom Wolfe in 1965.
- Billy Hunter freed Patty Hearst from prison.
- An argument that Borders going out of business is good for the book business.
- Jewish journalist John Sack was invited to a Holocaust deniers convention in 2001.
- James Surowiecki explains why being under the gun is bad for negotiators.
- Aircraft made by a 3-D printer takes flight.
- Clive Thompson predicts electric bicycles will soon become huge.
- Solar power and the growth of cities in the near future.
- Are crowds visiting a giraffe proof that Ciudad Juarez has grown safer?
- Two brothers going to develop the same video game their whole lives.
- How urban environments cause evolutionary changes.
- Barbara Ehrenreich didn’t see beneath John Edwards’ slick surface.
- Ivan Illich was wary of technology.
- This week’s Afflictor keyphrase searches.
From a new New York Times article about smart cities comes this recollection about Buckminster Fuller, that dreamer, who somehow thought it would be good idea to build a geodesic dome over a large swath of Manhattan:
“At a time before urban planning was formally taught in universities, Mr. Fuller — a Harvard dropout turned inventor, engineer, architect and philosopher — directed his attention to cities.
He perfected and popularized the geodesic dome, and after building several smaller ones in the 1950s, he teamed up with the architect Shoji Sadao in 1960 to propose a dome with a width of two miles, or 3.2 kilometers, above Midtown Manhattan. The dome would have covered the island from the East River to the Hudson River, with one axis running along 42nd Street. It would have reached from 21st Street to 64th Street, covering the southern lip of Central Park.
During a time when air-conditioning was coming to many U.S. homes and businesses, Mr. Fuller said the giant dome would greatly reduce cooling costs in summer and heating costs in winter by reducing the ratio of surface to volume. Instead of each building’s having to be heated or cooled separately, the entire dome would be kept at a ‘very moderate temperature level’ throughout the year.
The glass would be threaded by a heating wire — much like the rear window of many cars — so that snow and ice accumulation would not become a problem. Melted snow and rain would be collected in catch basins and used for things like irrigation and cleaning.
The scalable dome, according to Mr. Fuller, became stronger and sturdier as it was built larger.”
••••••••••
Six minutes of non-stop, unabashed Bucky Fuller:
Tags: Buckminster Fuller
Theodore Roosevelt stumps for votes, 1912.
This classic 1912 picture of Theodore Roosevelt on the stump originally appeared in the New York Times, though the photographer is unknown. Roosevelt was trying to regain the White House, as he split from the Republicans and formed the Bull-Moose Party. His efforts, of course, failed.
With the upturned hat on the table, Roosevelt gives the impression of a magician. Some critics, however, wanted the politician and his domineering personality to disappear. Mark Twain was one such detractor, and he wrote the following text in 1908 when Roosevelt was exiting the White House:
“Astronomers assure us that the attraction of gravitation on the surface of the sun is twenty-eight times as powerful as is the force at the earth’s surface, and that the object which weights 217 pounds elsewhere would weight 6,000 pounds there.
For seven years this country has lain smothering under a burden like that, the incubus representing, in the person of President Roosevelt, the difference between 217 pounds and 6,000. Thanks be we got rid of this disastrous burden day before yesterday, at last. Forever? Probably not. Probably for only a brief breathing spell, wherein, under Mr. Taft, we may hope to get back some of our health – four years. We may expect to have Mr. Roosevelt sitting on us again, with his twenty-eight times the weight of any other Presidential burden that a hostile Providence could impose upon us for our sins.
Our people have adored this showy charlatan as perhaps no impostor of his brood has been adored since the Golden Calf, so it is to be expected that the Nation will want him back again after he is done hunting other wild animals heroically in Africa, with the safeguard and advertising equipment of a park of artillery and a brass band.”
••••••••••
Silent clip of Roosevelt with some fellow Rough Riders:
Tags: Mark Twain, Theodore Roosevelt
'Intended for medical research only."
Human skeleton – $2500 (westchester)
Natural Human Bone Skeleton in excellent condition – stands apx 4’9″ tall. Fully articulated. Her only defect is a right hand missing.
Everything else is in great condition. It has a stamp that reads “Clay Adams Parsippany, NJ.”
This item is intended for medical research only.
As noted on Ray Kurzweil’s site, a small but fiunctional aircraft was created for the first time using a 3-D printer:
“Engineers at the University of Southampton have designed and flown the world’s first ‘printed’ aircraft, which could revolutionize the economics of aircraft design, the engineers say.
The SULSA (Southampton University Laser Sintered Aircraft) plane is an unmanned air vehicle (UAV), with its entire structure printed. This includes wings, integral control surfaces, and access hatches. It was printed on an EOS EOSINT P730 nylon laser sintering machine, which fabricates plastic or metal objects, building up the item layer-by-layer.
It took only 48 hours to print. No fasteners were used and all equipment was attached using ‘snap fit’techniques so the entire airframe could be put together without tools in about 30 seconds, according to Prof. Andy Keane. The aircraft took around 8 person weeks. It passed tests for speed, maneuverability, and climb rates.”
••••••••••
Getting airborne:
Tags: Ray Kurzweil
Hunter S. Thompson’s campus tour during the Gipper administration.
More Hunter S. Thompson posts:
- Hunter S. Thompson political ad. (1970)
Tags: Hunter S. Thompson, Ronald Reagan
"Hunter insisted on meeting an imprisoned Hearst, the granddaughter of newspaper publisher William Randolph Hearst."
On Grantland, Jonathan Abrams profiles current NBA players’ union executive director Billy Hunter, who enjoyed a fascinating legal career even before being at loggerheads with league commisioner David Stern:
“President Jimmy Carter appointed Hunter as the U.S. Attorney for Northern California in 1977. He was one of the youngest lawyers to ever hold the position and became entangled in several historic moments. He brought the first major federal cases against the Hells Angels and Black Panther Party.
Hunter also prosecuted the surviving members who aided Jim Jones’ cult after the mass suicide of more than 900 people in Jonestown, Guyana, in 1978. Hunter visited Jonestown following the assassination of U.S. Rep. Leo Ryan.
‘We got there just on the eve of the Guyanese Army evacuating all the bodies,’ Hunter said. ‘The bodies had blown up because of the heat and all the bodies up there. It’s hot as hell there.’
Hunter also recommended Patty Hearst’s sentence be commuted and visited Hearst while she was imprisoned. At first, Hunter perceived that his bosses simply wanted him to sign off on the decision. Hunter insisted on meeting an imprisoned Hearst, the granddaughter of newspaper publisher William Randolph Hearst, who was first kidnapped by the Symbionese Liberation Army and later sympathized with the militant group.
They talked about life, and Hunter noted the irony of how he, a poor kid from New Jersey, was holding the key to the freedom of one of the country’s most wealthy heiresses. At the end of the three-hour conversation, Hearst plainly asked Hunter of his intentions. ‘I told her that I would recommend getting her out of here.'”
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The SLA has a gunfight with the LAPD the year before Hearst’s arrest:
Tags: Billy Hunter, Patty Hearst
"Upon the first fire Cochrane was shot in the forehead--the ball ripping up a portion of his skull, and scattering a teaspoon full of the brain."
The most famous duel in American history was the Aaron Burr-Alexander Hamilton tragedy that played out in Weehawken, New Jersey, in 1804. But plenty of other gun-and-sword battles occurred in this country in the 19th century. The following are several stories about duels that appeared in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle.
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“Duel Near Washington” (February 19, 1844) “A duel was fought near Washington on Friday last, between a couple of young men named Julian May, a lawyer and student of medicine, and Joseph Cochrane, brother to John F. Cochrane, Esq., of the War Department. They fought with rifles, at fifty paces, and upon the first fire Cochrane was shot in the forehead–the ball ripping up a portion of his skull, and scattering a teaspoon full of the brain. The wound is considered mortal. The quarrel originated in a billiard room, between friends of the parties, and ultimately led to a discussion touching their bravery. Until dueling shall be branded and punished as murder, we must expect to hear of such brutalities.”
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"One received a sword thrust through the breast."
“Fought A Duel With Swords” (December 17, 1886): “Chicago–A duel with swords was fought early yesterday morning in Humboldt Park. A little before 7 o’clock closed carriages entered the park, each carriage contained a principal, with his second and a surgeon. They drove to the western end, where they alighted and concealed themselves behind a clump of trees. The arrangements being completed, the principals each drew a saber and the contest began. Soon both were wounded. One received a sword thrust through the breast and his opponent was cut across the face.
With the drawing of blood the duelists seemed satisfied, for they were quickly put in their carriages, and rapidly driven to Frerksen’s drug store, at the corner of North and California Avenues. There the wounds were dressed. Then the men were carried to their carriages and rapidly driven away. So quickly was the duel fought that the park policeman who saw the carriages go out of the park was not aware of what had occurred, nor were several people who saw them drive up to the drug store and away again. The only witnesses of the duel besides those immediately interested were some boys who were skating in the park. The boys say one of the men was large and fully bearded, with a military bearing. The other was younger. Mr. Frerksen, the druggist, was very reticent about the matter, though he admitted that a duel had been fought and that the participants were the editor of a pharmaceutical journal and a young medical man. It is said the affair was over the hand and favor of a young lady.”
••••••••••
“Duel Between Father And Son” (December 11, 1890): “Gainesville, Tex.–A fatal duel took place last night in Paine’s Valley between Senator Samuel Paul, of the Chicasaw legislature, and his son, Joe Paul, in which Joe received a bullet wound to the back and one in the breast, and the father received a dangerous wound in the thigh, made by a pistol ball fired by the son. Reports from Paine’s Valley state that the young man died of his wounds this evening, but that the father will recover. It is said that the difficulty grew out of a quarrel over a woman of bad repute. Deputy Marshal Thomas left Gainesville this evening to place the senator under arrest and take him before a United States commissioner for preliminary trial.”
Tags: Abraham Lincoln, Ikeelas Dodge
What did Sandra Bullock and Coolio and Newt Gingrich think? (Thanks Reddit.)
Cover of November 1968 "Esquire": "Jean Genet, William Burroughs, Terry Southern, John Sack--Chicago."
Late literary journalism legend John Sack filed a report for Esquire in 2001 about a California convention of Holocaust deniers, which he was invited to despite being Jewish and having a far firmer grasp on history than his hosts. An excerpt from “Daniel in the Deniers Den“:
“I’m sure many antisemites say the Holocaust didn’t happen (even as they take delight that it really did) but I met none that weekend. The only debatably antisemitic comment that I heard was on Friday night, when I dined in the downstairs restaurant with a prominent denier in a NO HOLES? NO HOLOCAUST! shirt, an Alabama man whose name is Dr. Robert Countess. A gangling scholar of Classical Greek and Classical Hebrew, he had taught history at the University of Alabama and had retired to a farm outside of Huntsville, where he played major-league ping-pong and he collected old Peugeots—he had twenty-two, some dating back to the Crash. While scarcely cranky, he had a cranky-sounding voice, and in the open-aired restaurant he was practically grinding gears as he discoursed on the Septuagint and as I, not Countess, brought up the Jewish sacred scrolls the Talmud. ‘What’s called the Talmud,’ Countess lectured, ‘Talmud being the participle form of lamad, in Hebrew learn, developed in Babylonia as rabbis reflected on certain passages in the Torah. Some of these rabbis engaged in a syncretism, a bringing together, of Babylonian paganism with the religion of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. So if you read much of the Talmud, and Elda will tell you her favorite story—’
‘No,’ said Elda, Countess’s wife, who was dining with us.
‘It’s unbelievable, but it’s in the Talmud,’ said Countess.
‘No no. I don’t want to tell it,’ said Elda, embarrassed.
‘Go ahead and tell it,’ Countess entreated.
‘Well,’ said Elda, blushing, ‘iit’s in the Talmud that if a Jewish man’s repairing the roof, and if his sister-in-law is down below, and if he falls onto her and she becomes pregnant—’
‘He falls off the roof in such a way—’ Countess laughed.
‘Can you picture it? Then the child won’t be a bastard,’ said Elda. The tale would be antisemitic rubbish if it weren’t indeed in the Talmud (in Yebamoth, and again in Baba Kama) and if the Countesses were just amused and not also appalled. ‘You and I laugh about this,’ said Countess, ‘but I sit in stark amazement saying, Jews aren’t stupid people! How can they go along with this?’
‘The answer is, We don’t,’ I explained. By bedtime on Friday, my impression of the Countesses was like my impression of UFO devotees. Everyone in America believes in one or another ridiculous thing. Me, I belong to the International Society for Cryptozoology and I firmly believe that in Lake Tele, in the heart of the Congo, there is a living, breathing dinosaur. Fifteen years ago, I even went there to photograph it—I didn’t, I didn’t even see it, but I still believe in it. Other people believe other things, and the Countesses and the other deniers believe that the Holocaust didn’t happen. Like me in the Congo, they’re wrong, wrong, wrong, but to say that emphatically isn’t to say (as some people do) that they’re odious, contemptible, despicable. To say that they’re rats (as does the author of Denying the Holocaust) is no more correct than to say it of people who, in their ignorance, believe the less pernicious fallacy that Oswald didn’t kill Kennedy. Oh, did I hit a sore spot there?'”
Tags: Dr. Robert Countess, John Sack
In a new article in Wired, Clive Thompson interviews Microsoft’s principal researcher, Bill Buxton, about the “long nose” theory, which holds forth that innovations that seemingly come out of nowhere are actually incubated for a long time. At the piece’s conclusion, Thompson predicts which technology is ready to dominate in the next decade. An excerpt:
“Using a ‘long nose’ analysis, I have a prediction of my own. I bet electric vehicles are going to become huge—specifically, electric bicycles. Battery technology has been improving for decades, and the planet is urbanizing rapidly. The nose is already poking out: Electric bikes are incredibly popular in China and becoming common in the US among takeout/delivery people, who haul them inside their shops each night to plug them in. (Pennies per charge, and no complicated rewiring of the grid necessary.) I predict a design firm will introduce the iPhone of electric bikes and whoa: It’ll seem revolutionary!”
••••••••••
Prodeco Technologies introduces the next generation of electric bikes:
Tags: Bill Buxton, Clive Thompson
The Prime Minister of Norway refuses to overreact to shocking politicized violence. From the New York Times:
“‘It’s absolutely possible to have an open, democratic, inclusive society, and at the same time have security measures and not be naive,’ Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg told reporters in Oslo. ‘I think what we have seen is that there is going to be one Norway before and one Norway after July 22,’ he said. ‘But I hope and also believe that the Norway we will see after will be more open, a more tolerant society than what we had before.’”
•
David Foster Wallace, completely unburdened by political office, took things a step further in response to 9/11. From the Atlantic in 2007:
“Are some things still worth dying for? Is the American idea one such thing? Are you up for a thought experiment? What if we chose to regard the 2,973 innocents killed in the atrocities of 9/11 not as victims but as democratic martyrs, ‘sacrifices on the altar of freedom’? In other words, what if we decided that a certain baseline vulnerability to terrorism is part of the price of the American idea? And, thus, that ours is a generation of Americans called to make great sacrifices in order to preserve our democratic way of life—sacrifices not just of our soldiers and money but of our personal safety and comfort?
In still other words, what if we chose to accept the fact that every few years, despite all reasonable precautions, some hundreds or thousands of us may die in the sort of ghastly terrorist attack that a democratic republic cannot 100-percent protect itself from without subverting the very principles that make it worth protecting?
Is this thought experiment monstrous? Would it be monstrous to refer to the 40,000-plus domestic highway deaths we accept each year because the mobility and autonomy of the car are evidently worth that high price? Is monstrousness why no serious public figure now will speak of the delusory trade-off of liberty for safety that Ben Franklin warned about more than 200 years ago? What exactly has changed between Franklin’s time and ours? Why now can we not have a serious national conversation about sacrifice, the inevitability of sacrifice—either of (a) some portion of safety or (b) some portion of the rights and protections that make the American idea so incalculably precious?”
As the narrative goes, postwar Japan rebuilt itself through discipline and transistors. That’s largely true–apart from the motorcycle gangs and brawling. From 1976. (Thanks Documentarian.)
Tags: Mitsuo Yanagimachi
"He is also loaded with facile junk, as all personal journalists have to be."
In 1965, when he was still known as Kurt Vonnegut Jr., the sci-fi novelist wrote, “Infarcted! Tabescent!” for the New York Times, a review of Tom Wolfe’s The Kandy-Colored Tangerine Flake Streamline Baby. An excerpt:
“Wolfe comes on like a barbarian (as Mark Twain did), like a sixth Beatle (Murray the K being the fifth), but he is entitled to call himself ‘Doctor Wolfe,’ if he wants to. He has a Ph.D. in American studies from Yale, and he knows everything. I do not mean he thinks he knows everything. He knows all the stuff that Arthur Schlesinger Jr., knows, keeps picking up brand new, ultra-contemporary stuff that nobody else knows, and arrives at zonky conclusions couched in scholarly terms. I wish he had headed the Warren Commission. We might then have caught a glimpse of our nation.
He is also loaded with facile junk, as all personal journalists have to be–otherwise, how can they write so amusingly and fast? His language is admired, but a Wolfe chrestomathy would drive one nuts with repetitions, with glissandi and tin drummings that don’t help much. The words ‘tabescent’ and ‘infarcted’ appear again and again, and, upon investigation, turn out to be not especially useful or piquant. Young breasts (‘Mary Poppins’)–point upward again and again like antiaircraft batteries, and women’s eyes are very often like decals, and transistors are very often plugged into skulls; and feet very often wear winkle-picker shoes.
Then again, America is like that. And maybe the only sort of person who can tell us the truth about it any more is a Ph.D. who barks and struts himself like Murray the K, the most offensive of all disk jockeys, while feeding us information. Advanced persons in religion have been trying this approach for some time. Who can complain if journalists follow?”
••••••••••
Vonnegut profiled in the 1970s:
More Tom Wolfe posts:
- Wolfe explains New Journalism. (1972)
Tags: Kurt Vonnegut, Tom Wolfe
"Exclusive blend of white cement and USG casting plaster."
authentic faces of famous people – $30 (Long Island)
A life mask is taken when the person is alive. What you see is their actual face, life size, with every detail, just as it was the day they sat for the life mask.
These are original, limited edition casts and will make a prized addition to any home theater, media room, or memorabilia collection. In 2000 these life masks officially became museum quality.
Casts measures approximately 13″ high x 5″ wide x 4″ deep
Each cast is from a Limited Edition and is numbered.
Mask is cast in UltraStone (an exclusive blend of white cement and USG casting plaster) with a sturdy wire hanger on the back for secure wall mounting.
Finished with an exclusive 5 color coat process by a retired prop builder with over 50 years experience, this original system is often imitated, but never duplicated. Each mask is sealed, multistage painted, then sealed again to last a lifetime
Each life mask is a unique, single and original work of fine art, not to be confused with mass produced imitations.
ALFRED HITCHCOCK (very famous profile)
JACK NICHOLSON (SOLD)
GEORGE REEVES (the original Superman from the 1950’s TV show)
CLARK GABLE (Gone with the Wind)
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“Liz Learmont, Life Mask Sculptor”: