2012

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About Recent Examples Of Delusional Behavior

July 31, 2012 in Misc. | Permalink

Dick Cheney: Unqualified, unprofessional, unrepentant.

Ego is blinding, and none of us are immune. But life allows some examples to be writ large.

  • Dick Cheney said this weekend that Sarah Palin wasn’t qualified to be Vice President, and who can argue? A few people in powerful positions in the media seem to think they can still make a buck off her obnoxious idiocy, though they’re pretty much alone at this point. But you know who else wasn’t prepared for the job? Dick Cheney. Because of his arrogant incompetence, thousands of our soldiers and tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of Iraqi civilians died. Yet he goes around smugly believing he’s an incredibly accomplished person, free to judge the qualifications of others. Cheney is still the textbook example of why you hire a person, not a résumé.
  • Mayor Mike Bloomberg wants to keep New Yorkers from drinking extra-large sodas, but he has said little or nothing about declaring war on toxic Wall Street products. He would probably assert that he is capable of legislating against the former but not the latter, but that argument doesn’t wash. As owner of Bloomberg News and mayor of America’s finance center, he should have been a relentless advocate for cleaning up Wall Street. Since the financial sector cratered our economy, he’s been largely silent about white-collar criminals, reducing himself to a highly selective technocrat who is oblivious to things that make him personally uncomfortable. I guess you can’t expect much more from someone who circumvented the free vote of the people and made a handshake deal with another billionaire behind closed doors to enable a third term for himself.
  • Mitt Romney thinks himself a good and moral person, but how can someone believe that while working to take health insurance away from more than 30 millions at-risk Americans? It doesn’t add up. If he gets his way, people who wouldn’t have died will die.
  • Sad to hear about Jonah Lehrer’s complete unraveling at the New Yorker. He’s obviously a bright and gifted person, but one with deep flaws of a seemingly pathological nature. I hope he figures out the bad stuff and can proceed with the good, though he needs to permanently step away from journalism. I always pause when people are lavishly rewarded at a young age, before they’ve had a chance to fail and struggle. The praise can freeze still-developing people in time, encouraging their gifts but also their flaws. Why change and grow when their behavior has led them to great heights so quickly? It seems dangerous to grant approval before time has been able to complete the growth (and vetting) process.•

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“Convergence Is Finally Here”

July 30, 2012 in Science/Tech, Urban Studies, Videos | Permalink

Perhaps the most benighted use imaginable of the new technologies was this CueCat promotion from the Einsteins at NBC during the 1990s.

“All Of The Water Will Then Be Drained From His Brain And Spinal Cord, Replaced By Pure Plastic Resin”

July 30, 2012 in Excerpts, Science/Tech, Urban Studies | Permalink

A couple of weeks ago, I posted a piece from Evan R. Goldstein’s Chronicle article about “offshoring” human brains into robot receptacles, effectively immortalizing not only human intelligence but individual personalities as well. It’s a process far beyond cryonics. Ray Kurzweil illuminates the topic further in his blog post “The Strange Neuroscience Of Immortality.” An excerpt about neuroscientist Kenneth Hayworth:

“Before becoming ‘very sick or very old,’ he’ll opt for an ‘early ‘retirement’ to the future,’ he writes. There will be a send-off party with friends and family, followed by a trip to the hospital. After Hayworth is placed under anesthesia, a cocktail of toxic chemicals will be perfused through his still-functioning vascular system, fixing every protein and lipid in his brain into place, preventing decay, and killing him instantly.

Then he will be injected with heavy-metal staining solutions to make his cell membranes visible under a microscope. All of the water will then be drained from his brain and spinal cord, replaced by pure plastic resin.

Every neuron and synapse in his central nervous system will be protected down to the nanometer level, Hayworth says, ‘the most perfectly preserved fossil imaginable.’

Using a ultramicrotome (like one developed by Hayworth, with a grant by the McKnight Endowment Fund for Neuroscience), his plastic-embedded preserved brain will eventually be cut into strips, and then imaged in an electron microscope. The physical brain will be destroyed, but in its place will be a precise map of his connectome.

In 100 years or so, Hayworth says, scientists will be able to determine the function of each neuron and synapse and build a computer simulation of the mind. And because the plastination process will have preserved his spinal nerves, the computer-generated mind can be connected to a robot body.”

••••••••••

Howard Stern investigates cryonics and the fate of Ted Williams’ frozen head:

Fuh-fuh-frozen.

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A Brief Message From The Afflictor Editor

July 30, 2012 in Misc. | Permalink

H.L. Monken.

I have to continue my late-night publishing schedule for a few more days. Then things will be back to normal. Don’t do anything rash.

Operators are standing by.


Recently Posted On NYC’s Craigslist

July 30, 2012 in Misc., Urban Studies | Permalink

It had been 15 years since I smoked pot.

Then one of my clients (whom I’ve gone to bars with) gave me a little thank you weed. Very smelly, very tight, kinda sticky. Had to stop at a convenience store to get papers since I have no paraphernalia.

Has it been 15 years since you smoked pot? A suggestion: Just take 2 hits at first. See what it does. I took about 6 hits and it really hit me hard. Not overly pleasant. Took about an hour to come down to a comfortable buzz. This was Friday night, today is Thursday. I smoked some for the second time, a little bit this morning before I came to work. Has it been 15 years since you smoked pot? A suggestion: don’t smoke a little bit in the morning before you go to work. It’s 2:30 and I’m just coming out of the mild stupor it induced.

That’s all.

“Their Allegiance And Devotion To The Mysterious Man Is Total”

July 30, 2012 in Politics, Urban Studies, Videos | Permalink

L. Ron Hubbard interviewed in 1968 about his embattled tax shelter, during the period when he spent much of his time at sea.

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“Some Futurists See The Germ Of The 21st Century In Today’s Nascent ‘On-Line’ Services”

July 30, 2012 in Excerpts, Science/Tech, Urban Studies, Videos | Permalink

From a 1994 Wilson Quarterly article about Americans settling the virtual Wild West, which shows just how far we’ve come, at least technologically:

“Some futurists see the germ of the 21st century in today’s nascent ‘on-line’ services, such as America Online, Prodigy, and CompuServe. Pay a membership fee and dial up one of these services using a modem attached to your personal computer, and you can catch up on the news, check your mutual fund investments, and chat with like-minded folks on bulletin boards devoted to such specialized topics as your hometown hockey team, office etiquette, opera, or nuclear proliferation. But so far the services have attracted only a specialized clientele of affluent, highly educated, gadget-oriented users. The total subscriber base of these three top on-line services stands at less than three million, smaller than the subscriber base of Newsweek. At America Online, the hottest of the services, the largest number of pioneers actually traveling in cyberspace at any one time is only about 8,000.”

••••••••••

A decade earlier, AT&T wondered about the Information Superhighway:

“The Peace Of What Had Been Called The ‘Serene Olympics’ Was Shattered At Dawn This Morning”

July 30, 2012 in Politics, Sports, Videos | Permalink

Bob Costas protested the foolish decision by the IOC to not offer a moment of silence for the Israeli athletes who were murdered by terrorists during the 1972 Games in Munich. In 1991, Costas interviewed broadcasting legend Jim McKay, who held up (if barely) during those horrifying, exhausting hours.

“They’re all gone”:

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“Quite Often, People Are Sentenced To Prison For The Worst Thing They Have Ever Done, And Not For Being Dangerous”

July 29, 2012 in Politics, Science/Tech, Urban Studies | Permalink

At the Philosopher’s Beard, an essay about the penal system thinks very far outside the box, suggesting less incarceration and more flogging and execution. A hard sell, to be sure. But the piece has a good passage about criminal nature, which follows:

“Even if someone has committed a serious crime and deserves to be punished severely, that does not necessarily mean that they present a danger we need to be protected from. Corporate fraudsters for example can be made safe relatively easily by removing their rights to manage companies. Likewise even those who commit very serious violent crimes may not be particularly dangerous; for example women who kill abusive husbands do not go around killing other people. Quite often, people are sentenced to prison for the worst thing they have ever done, and not for being dangerous. Thus, little to no security benefits are achieved from their stay in prison. Of course there are people whose character can be said to be criminal, and who do present a risk to society for as long as they are free, but these are a small minority of those who are now sent to prison. The way we use prison now assumes that all convicts are criminal characters, which is not only false, but a very inefficient way of trying to achieve security.” (Thanks Browser.)

“On Level 3 You Chose To Shove The Very Large Person. The Very Large Person Died. The Three People Lived.”

July 29, 2012 in Urban Studies | Permalink

There’s an old-school interactive video game version of the moral puzzle known as the Trolley Problem. I can’t embed it, but go here to play (if that’s the right word). Just takes a few minutes.

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“Technology Will Soon Make Any Legislation That Limits The Availability Of Any Kinds Of Guns Ineffective”

July 29, 2012 in Excerpts, Politics, Science/Tech, Urban Studies | Permalink

With 3D printers in the offing, guns aren’t likely going anywhere and far more dangerous things are probably upon us. From Mark Gibbs at Forbes:

“Given the recent appalling events in Aurora, Colorado, there’s been a renewed call for greater gun control and a ban on assault weapons.

I’m in favor of tighter gun control and a ban on weapons that are unnecessarily powerful but I’m afraid that technology will soon make any legislation that limits the availability of any kinds of guns ineffective.

To understand why this might happen, you need to understand a technology called 3D printing.

3D printing allows you to build things that are, as the name implies, three dimensional. A few years ago 3D printers were very rare, hugely expensive, and hard to use. But as with anything that can be driven by computers, 3D printers has become cheaper and cheaper to the point where, today, you can buy a 3D printer, off the shelf, for as little $500.

Using either free or low cost computer aided drafting software you can create digital 3D models of pretty much anything you can think of and, with hardly any fuss, your 3D printer will render them as physical objects.” 

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“I Want To Say First How Much Of A Pleasure It Is To See You Back In London”

July 29, 2012 in Politics, Sports, Urban Studies, Videos | Permalink

Muhammad Ali just made an appearance in London for the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games. Here’s footage from another Ali jaunt to that great city, when he recorded a special 1974 interview program. The boxer and activist was diminished physically at this point, mostly due to two titanic bouts with Joe Frazier. Neither fighter was ever the same again.

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A Note From 1897 About Five Deserted Children

July 29, 2012 in Old Print Articles, Urban Studies | Permalink

From the September 21, 1897 Brooklyn Daily Eagle:

“Jamaica, L.I.–Five children of Frank Fleischauer, the oldest 8 years of age and the youngest a 7 months old infant, were found deserted in their house on South Street, a day or two ago. There was no fire in the house and the infant had its feet frozen and it was suffering from a lung fever. The mother was adjudged insane a week ago and is still wandering the streets as the husband has not signed the commitment papers upon which she is to be conveyed to a state hospital for the insane.”

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This Week’s Afflictor Keyphrase Searches

July 28, 2012 in Misc. | Permalink


Some search-engine keyphrases bringing traffic to Afflictor this week:

 

Highlights From Yet Another Week Of Afflictor

July 28, 2012 in Misc. | Permalink

Afflictor: Wishing Mitt Romney hadn’t tried to distract people from his lunkheaded comments about London by…

…coldcocking Prince Philip.

  • Martin Amis analyzes the nature of the 2011 London riots.

Recently Posted On NYC’s Craigslist

July 27, 2012 in Misc., Urban Studies | Permalink

“Extremely mean.”

extremely mean assertive straightforward person – $50 (Midtown)

How would you like to get paid to teach a course on being honest, straightforward, and assertive. 

The students are “push overs” who are struggling through life because they are unable to be assertive and need your help. 

“Something’s Gonna Happen Here Now–Here Comes The Spaceship”

July 27, 2012 in Science/Tech, Sports, Urban Studies, Videos | Permalink

Olympic ceremonies, now routinely treated like blockbusters and “directed” by leading filmmakers, began to grow in size and proportion when the Games were staged in 1984 (with the help of a UFO) at the home of Hollywood. 

“It Is Easier For Us To Harm Each Other Than To Benefit Each Other”

July 27, 2012 in Excerpts, Politics, Science/Tech, Urban Studies | Permalink

The opening of an argument by Julian Savulescu and Ingmar Persson at Philosophy Now in favor of using bioenhancement to develop human morality:

“For the vast majority of our 150,000 years or so on the planet, we lived in small, close-knit groups, working hard with primitive tools to scratch sufficient food and shelter from the land. Sometimes we competed with other small groups for limited resources. Thanks to evolution, we are supremely well adapted to that world, not only physically, but psychologically, socially and through our moral dispositions.

But this is no longer the world in which we live. The rapid advances of science and technology have radically altered our circumstances over just a few centuries. The population has increased a thousand times since the agricultural revolution eight thousand years ago. Human societies consist of millions of people. Where our ancestors’ tools shaped the few acres on which they lived, the technologies we use today have effects across the world, and across time, with the hangovers of climate change and nuclear disaster stretching far into the future. The pace of scientific change is exponential. But has our moral psychology kept up?

With great power comes great responsibility. However, evolutionary pressures have not developed for us a psychology that enables us to cope with the moral problems our new power creates. Our political and economic systems only exacerbate this. Industrialisation and mechanisation have enabled us to exploit natural resources so efficiently that we have over-stressed two-thirds of the most important eco-systems.

A basic fact about the human condition is that it is easier for us to harm each other than to benefit each other.” (Thanks Browser.)

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“We Remember The Past, We Don’t Remember The Future”

July 27, 2012 in Excerpts, Science/Tech, Videos | Permalink

From the 1964 Messenger Lecture Series at Cornell, Richard Feynman delivers a speech called “The Character of Physical Law: The Distinction Between Past and Future.”

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Old Print Article: “Dramatic Story Of A Hold-Up,” Brooklyn Daily Eagle (1902)

July 27, 2012 in Old Print Articles, Urban Studies | Permalink

“At the point of his steadily leveled revolver he has, he declares, on several occasions compelled automobilists to obey his commands.”

Horses didn’t take kindly to automobiles when the new-fangled vehicles began to join them on the road in the late 1800s, and neither did some horse owners. Just such a story of tradition at loggerheads with the future appeared in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle on June 26, 1902, when most cars were still powered by electricity and steam. An excerpt:

“Dr. William B. Gibson, one of the coroners of Suffolk County, who resides in Huntington, carries a big loaded revolver for the declared purpose of shooting down any automobilist who refuses to slow up and get to one side of the road while he passes with his spirited team, which is described as being very nettlesome and easily terrified at every noisy approach of the automatic vehicles. The doctor, who is a political power in this county, declares vehemently that in the case of the large racing road machines he insists that they be driven into the fields when he approaches, and at the point of his steadily leveled revolver he has, he declares, on several occasions compelled automobilists to obey his commands. The doctor takes the position that the roads are made for the convenience and the use of residents of the country, who in passing over them in the pursuit of their daily vocation or pleasure should not have their lives endangered by any person who may choose to operate the noisy machines propelled by steam.

The average automobilist of the racing sort not alone, declares the doctor, is utterly regardless of the fright into which he throws the horses he meets, but adds to the terrifying din of his machine by infernal noises meant to act as warnings.

‘I am compelled to use the roads on business in going to and from my patients and in attending to my duties as coroner,’ says the doctor, ‘and I do not propose to have my life endangered by any person, and there is no law of the land or the state that can compel me to desist from taking due measures toward protecting myself from being maimed or killed.’

“Now, get into the field,” yelled the doctor, “or I’ll shoot you down.”

At the recent dinner of the examining doctors of the Royal Arcanum, held in Manhattan, Dr. Gibson declared in the presence of half a dozen brother physicians that he would certainly shoot and kill any person who while controlling an automobile refuses to stop and get to one side to permit his horse or team to pass into safety and without endangering his safety.

Coroner Gibson, although an officer of the law, has secured a permit from a justice of the peace to carry a revolver, and in applying for the weapon he made a statement embodying the specific reason he had in wishing to be armed. Soon after securing the permit, the coroner, while driving along one of the country roads surrounding Huntington, was met with one of the heavy automobiles known to the country side as red devils. According to the story of the occurrence, as told by the official himself, the automobilist must have received a decidedly strong impression of the ability of the hayseeds to protect themselves.

Standing up in his carriage the doctor leveled his revolver at the approaching automobilist and loudly shouted at him to halt. The sight of the leveled pistol had its effect and when the astonished owner of the terrifying machine had obeyed the command, he further ordered him, in no uncertain language, to give more room for the passing of the frightened horses. 

‘Now, get into the field,’ yelled the doctor, ‘or I’ll shoot you down.’ The manner accompanying the order was convincing and into the field went the automobile.”

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“Humans Losing Control Of Their Own Vehicles Is A Distant Memory In The Dreams Of Transport Planners”

July 27, 2012 in Excerpts, Science/Tech, Urban Studies | Permalink

Our phones are smarter than us now, and soon our cars will be as well. From an explanation of intelligent mobility by Jamie Carter at Tech Radar:

“Intelligent mobility describes any technology that increases transport network capacity while also reducing accidents and pollution. It’s largely about collaboration, about creating both cars and cities that can communicate with each other, and react accordingly.

It starts with a car dashboard that knows about upcoming traffic jams in advance and automatically re-plots a route to avoid it, perhaps taking into account congestion zone charges.

And it reaches its zenith when cars automatically change speed to avoid each other, with the idea of ‘platooning’ when the lead car at traffic lights literally sets the exact pace of all cars behind – all networked and communicating in real-time – in an effort to get more cars through junctions as quickly as possible.

Humans losing control of their own vehicles is a distant memory in the dreams of transport planners, and while no world city is anywhere near that point, some are distinctly ‘smarter’ than others.”

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“Was It Obvious To You That Bruce Willis Was Dead The Whole Time?”

July 27, 2012 in Excerpts, Urban Studies, Videos | Permalink

A few exchanges from an Ask Me Anything on Reddit with 21-year-old female sexton, or gravedigger, from Norway.

“Question (aresef):

Do you tend to get buried in your work?

Answer (Asexton): 

To be dead serious, no, not really.”

“Question (contraband82): 

So, I’m not sure if I’m missing something, but is embalming not practiced in Norway?

Answer (Asexton): 

No, I don’t think it’s legal. At least I have never heard about it being practiced here.”

“Question (gr9yfox):

I don’t know if such a job exists there, but at least here in Portugal there are some ladies who are hired specifically to cry at funerals. Maybe because the person was hated but they don’t want the funeral to be empty of because people can’t make it there. Have you met any of these ladies? I bet they have a whole new perspective on this subject.

Answer (Asexton): 

I have never heard about anything like that. If few people show up the funeral planners and myself attend the ceremony, help carry the coffin outside etc. We are always there, so nobody will ever have to sit alone at a funeral. It would be nice to meet these ladies though.”

“Question (gr9yfox):

Was it obvious to you that Bruce Willis was dead the whole time?

Answer (Asexton): 

As a professional, yes. I always know a dead man when I see one.”

••••••••••

“Then his sons hired three professional mourners”:

“Venues With No Obvious Long-Term Future…Were Designed To Be Dismantled Entirely”

July 27, 2012 in Excerpts, Science/Tech, Sports, Urban Studies | Permalink

Dempsey-Carpentier, Jersey City, 1921.

Hugh Pearman’s Wall Street Journal piece, “These Knock-Down, Shrinkable Games,” looks at the transient structures that are making the London Games fiscally sensible. It reminded me that wooden insta-stadia capable of seating 50,000 to 100,000 were routinely built in a couple of months nearly a century ago for major prizefights. They were razed soon after the bout. Tex Rickard built just such a momentary edifice for Jack Dempsey’s defense of the heavyweight title against Georges Carpentier on July 2, 1921. Two excerpts follow, one from Pearman and one about the ’21 Dempsey fight stadium:

From Pearman’s WSJ piece: “Some hankered after a flashier stadium to rival Beijing’s, but a firm policy was established once the bid was won in 2005: Mindful of the legacy of neglect common among many earlier Olympic-host cities, no white-elephant buildings were allowed for London. This was to be the knock-down Games: Venues with no obvious long-term future—such as the Olympic Stadium—were designed to be dismantled entirely, while others were to be shrinkable once the huge audiences for the Games dispersed.”

From the April 26, 1921 New York Times: “Although the plot embraces thirty-four acres the particular land Rickard has contracted for includes only about six-and-one-half acres. Upon this stretch of ground the promoter will erect his giant arena with its proposed seating capacity of over 50,000. The start will be made on the arena just as soon as the ground is levelled. Rickard expects that the arena will be completed within fifty days, without rushing the workmen or necessitating overtime. It is estimated that 100 carloads of lumber will be used in its construction.”

••••••••••

Great footage of the stadium at the outset of this video:

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“Prototype Upper Body For A Child Robot”

July 26, 2012 in Science/Tech, Urban Studies, Videos | Permalink

Baby in hoodie. Nice hoodie, baby.

“When He Designed The Khalsa Heritage Centre, In The Indian Holy City Of Anandpur Sahib, He Studied The Sikh Religion For Two Years”

July 26, 2012 in Excerpts, Science/Tech, Urban Studies | Permalink

Architect Moshe Safdie became a sensation while in his twenties when his Habitats tiny-box buildings wowed the world at Expo ’67 in Montreal. He landed on the cover of Newsweek just a few years later. John Heilpern recently interviewed Safdie for a Vanity Fair piece, revealing him to be something of a Method architect. An excerpt:

“While his own work can be spectacular, Mr. Safdie’s school of architecture amounts to an artless art when compared with the showy geometry of the fashionable starchitect. He’s constantly asking what the purpose of a building actually is—as his early mentor, Louis I. Kahn, once asked, ‘What does a building want to be?’

‘We live in a complicated, oppressive world with enormous cities and vast populations, and I try to contribute by making it more light and open and calm,’ Mr. Safdie said. ‘I try firstly to make buildings humane. Countries and places have a history, a story, and a culture. I want my buildings to take root and look as if they’ve always been there.’

It’s why, when he designed the Khalsa Heritage Centre, in the Indian holy city of Anandpur Sahib, he studied the Sikh religion for two years and wanted the contemporary museum to look as if it had been built 300 years ago.

‘It isn’t about pastiche or adapting what’s already there,’ he added. ‘It’s about trying to blend the future and the past.’

He has seen the future and it doesn’t always work. Soulless malls masquerading as new village squares, glass-box skylines, Trump taste, postmodern froufrou, and the Bilbao effect are all anathema to him.”

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