2013

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“Current Guidelines Classify Players As Amateurs, Prohibiting Them From Earning Compensation”

November 12, 2013 in Excerpts, Sports | Permalink

There are few more puzzling entities in American life than the NCAA, the governing body of college athletics that is supposed to maintain the “integrity” of sports but instead uses every draconian measure imaginable to keep universities wealthy and players poor. Of course, you don’t want school boosters bribing linemen or shooting guards to attend their alma mater, but the NCAA spends great effort on enforcing the minutia of rules while ignoring the bigger picture: That college sports are a gigantic industry and that the players, who often sacrifice their bodies and brains, should be paid for their work. And, no, a scholarship isn’t fair compensation for those programs that have lucrative contracts for TV, radio and video games. 

The opening of a Frontline article about a legal decision that may or may not change this one-sided arrangement:

“In a case that could fundamentally shake the economic model of college athletics, a federal judge on Friday agreed to partially certify a lawsuit challenging restrictions on how student athletes may be compensated in exchange for playing sports.

The ruling by U.S. District Judge Claudia Wilken allows a group of about 20 current and former college players to press ahead with a class action against NCAA rules that prevent athletes from sharing in licensing deals or television revenue. Current guidelines classify players as amateurs, prohibiting them from earning compensation beyond the value of their athletic scholarships.

However, the ruling also came with one major caveat: While Judge Wilken cleared a pathway for players to share in future revenues, she rejected a separate bid that would have allowed them to collect damages for the past use of their images and likenesses both on television and in video games. Had that effort succeeded, the NCAA’s legal tab could have run into the billions.

The split decision left both sides claiming victory.”

Old Print Article: “Death Of An Old Female Hermit,” Brooklyn Daily Eagle (1880)

November 12, 2013 in Old Print Articles, Urban Studies | Permalink

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An Upstate New York woman, believed to be 111 years old, who had lived as a hermit for more than 90 years, was found dead in her ramshackle house by some hunters, according to an article in the November 10, 1880 New York Times. The story:

“Neversink, N.Y.–While a party of hunters was passing through the Ulster Mountains, a few miles north-west from here, a few days ago, they discovered a small and peculiarly constructed hut. One of the hunters walked up to a front entrance and knocked. There was no response, and he knocked a second time. Still receiving no reply, he raised the latch-string and opened the door. A wretched sight met the his gaze. Lying in a filthy bed was the body of a very aged woman. She had evidently died from starvation and weakness. The hunter called his companions, when a thorough examination of the hut was made. They found no food of any kind, and the appearance of the corpse indicated that the woman had been dead for several days. Lying on a chair near the dead woman’s bed was found a small slip of paper containing these words: ‘My God! I am dying by inches from hunger. My money will be found.’ This was very poorly written with a lead pencil. The hunters then started for the nearest settlement, where they related what they had discovered. Parties returned to the mountains and identified the body as that of Mrs. Sarah Dempsey, 111 years old, who for a long time had lived the life of a hermit. She had been solitary in her habits ever since she was abandoned by a young man with whom she eloped from school when a girl. It is thought that she had money secreted about the house, but search has failed to find it.”

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“AMF Made My Job A Snap”

November 12, 2013 in Science/Tech, Sports, Videos | Permalink

Never knew this until now: In the 1970s, AMF, the sporting-goods manufacturer, sold a computer system and printer that would tabulate rankings of bowling leagues with the push of a button–the DataMagic Bowling Data Computer. It seems a stunning waste of computing power and coincided with the company going into a decline, so I doubt it was a big seller. But as this commercial makes clear, it was a declaration of war on the pencil.

“It Gave Them Both The Sense Of Righteousness They Needed To Lie”

November 11, 2013 in Excerpts, Film, Science/Tech, Sports, Urban Studies, Videos | Permalink

With Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room, Alex Gibney made one of the most heartbreaking films ever about the American Dream. In the most essential ways, it’s reminiscent of the Coen brothers’ film, Fargo, which lamented that streak of American competitiveness that says that doing well isn’t good enough–you have to dominate. As if we can somehow grow enough ego to shroud our unhappiness and fear. There are parallels in Gibney’s new film about Lance Armstrong, the cyclist who just had to be the best. From a new Economist interview with Gibney:

“Question:

The final film has a lot in common with Enron, in that it dispels a myth that people really wanted to believe in. Do you find it tough shaking people’s belief systems?

Alex Gibney:

Yes, that’s why I originally wanted to do a redemption story. He comes back clean in 2009 and wins? How awesome would that be? The problem with both Enron and Lance was that the myth they created became too big. Both Jeff Skilling [Enron’s CEO] and Lance were motivated by this strange purity of vision; Enron couldn’t just be a successful company, it had to be the future of capitalism. Lance wasn’t just a cyclist, he was campaigning for cancer survivors. It’s noble-cause corruption. It gave them both the sense of righteousness they needed to lie.

Question:

In your interviews with Lance after the Oprah show, he admits to doping and using blood transfusions up until 2005, but not during the 2009 tour, when you were filming. Was it disappointing not to get a further confession?

Alex Gibney:

Yes, very disappointing but also revealing. I find his body language in that interview interesting. Slumped in a chair, he’s not a towering figure anymore.

Question:

You don’t think that’s theatre?

Alex Gibney:

I think it was defeat mainly.•

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“Now If I Have Stage 4 Cancer Or Need A Sex-Change Operation, I’d Be Covered”

November 11, 2013 in Excerpts, Science/Tech, Urban Studies | Permalink

I’m perplexed by the opening paragraph of a New York Times Op-Ed piece about the Affordable Care Act by psychotherapist Lori Gottlieb. It rants about the small percentage of Americans who will have their policies changed so that tens of millions can gain coverage. That’s a fair discussion, but it’s conducted strangely in this piece because Gottlieb is upset that she’s paying more for coverage of “Stage 4 cancer” that can’t be terminated or a potential “sex-change operation.” I’m not going to venture into a mental-health professional being angered by others needing sexual-reassignment surgery, but how can Gottlieb possibly think it’s bad that no one can cancel her policy if someone in her family gets cancer? And how can she believe it’s as unlikely an outcome for her or her loved ones as wanting a sex-change operation? Odd. The opening:

“LOS ANGELES — THE Anthem Blue Cross representative who answered my call told me that there was a silver lining in the cancellation of my individual P.P.O. policy and the $5,400 annual increase that I would have to pay for the Affordable Care Act-compliant option: now if I have Stage 4 cancer or need a sex-change operation, I’d be covered regardless of pre-existing conditions. Never mind that the new provider network would eliminate coverage for my and my son’s long-term doctors and hospitals.”

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Recently Posted On NYC’s Craigslist

November 11, 2013 in Misc., Urban Studies | Permalink

VAN JOHNSON’S HAIR FROM 1987 (Chelsea)

A summer day in 1987, Van Johnson arrived at my hair cutting shop for a trim – he was performing in La Cage aux Folles at the time… I recognized him, got his autograph and kept the hair that was cut. These items are now being sold to all interested parties as collectible memorabilia. These are completely authentic and a must have for any fan of Van Johnson.

“They’ve Invented This Thing–It’s Going To Change Everything”

November 11, 2013 in Film, Science/Tech | Permalink

On Marc Maron’s latest WTF podcast, his guest, Illeana Douglas, recalls how her grandfather, the legendary actor Melvyn Douglas, revealed to her that the future of technology would be personal:

“I remember the day my grandfather said to me, ‘They’ve invented this thing–it’s going to change everything. It’s called the Walkman.’ It was gigantic. It was the first–and I still have it to this day. They’d given it to him as a present on Being There.”

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“The Food Will Be Prepared On Earth And Freeze-Dried Before Being Sent Up To The Hotel”

November 11, 2013 in Excerpts, Science/Tech | Permalink

The Russian company Orbital Technologies says it’s sticking to its plans, first announced in 2011, to open a floating, boutique space hotel by 2016. Sounds very ambitious. From Wonderful Engineering:

“The rich and famous look for the most exotic places to spend their vacations. Orbital Technologies, a Russian company, has announced plans to make one of the most exotic hotel ever. Their idea to create a space hotel for commercial use is both metaphorically and literally out of this world.

The hotel, officially called Commercial Space Station, will be able to accommodate seven guests in four cabins. It will orbit the earth at a height of 350 kilometers above the earth’s surface. Guests will be able to relax in zero-gravity and can pass the time by watching TV, surfing the web, or sleeping (both horizontally and vertically). There will be no flowing water which means washing will be done using wet wipes and even the toilets will carry waste via flowing air. The waste water and air will all be filtered and recycled in the satellite and then reused by the occupants of the hotel. The food will be prepared on Earth and freeze-dried before being sent up to the hotel. Another drawback (for most customers) is the prohibition of the consumption of alcohol in the hotel.

The vacation has only one standard package costing close to a million dollars.”

A Brief Note From 1892 About A Good Joke

November 10, 2013 in Old Print Articles, Urban Studies | Permalink

From the September 4, 1892 New York Times:

“St. Paul, Minn.–Miss Josie Letson of Minneapolis has been lying at the point of death at the Northwestern Hospital for the last six weeks, but, because of a remarkable surgical operation, will recover. She had taken nothing but liquid food for over a year and had become so weak and could not raise her head.

As a last resort, physicians, by the use of a stethoscope, located an obstruction in the esophagus about 2 inches below the clavicle, or collar bone. Miss Nelson was given an anesthetic and an incision was made on the left side of her neck about 1 1/2 inches in length.

The doctors dissected down to the aseophagus, opened it, and there found two teeth pointed downward, firmly inserted in the interior walls of the aesophagus. They almost entirely obstructed the passage.

Miss Nelson said that six years ago, while in a fit of laughter, she swallowed the two teeth, which were then attached to a triangular piece of rubber in her gums.”

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“We Have Entered Into The Age Of Peak Child!”

November 10, 2013 in Excerpts, Politics, Science/Tech, Urban Studies | Permalink

Hans Rosling, he of the famous TED Talk about washing machines, presents five reasons to be optimistic about the future of the world and its inhabitants, for the BBC Magazine. Here’s the opening entry, about population, a tricky subject that often makes fools of analysts:

“1. Fast population growth is coming to an end

It’s a largely untold story – gradually, steadily the demographic forces that drove the global population growth in the 20th Century have shifted. Fifty years ago the world average fertility rate – the number of babies born per woman – was five. Since then, this most important number in demography has dropped to 2.5 – something unprecedented in human history – and fertility is still trending downwards. It’s all thanks to a powerful combination of female education, access to contraceptives and abortion, and increased child survival.

The demographic consequences are amazing. In the last decade the global total number of children aged 0-14 has levelled off at around two billion, and UN population experts predict that it is going to stay that way throughout this century. That’s right: the amount of children in the world today is the most there will be! We have entered into the age of Peak Child! The population will continue to grow as the Peak Child generation grows up and grows old. So most probably three or four billion new adults will be added to the world population – but then in the second half of this century the fast growth of the world population will finally come to an end.”

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“Aides Quickly Set Up The Security Tent — Which Has Opaque Sides And Noise-Making Devices Inside”

November 10, 2013 in Excerpts, Politics, Science/Tech, Urban Studies | Permalink

Abraham Lincoln, an early adopter of technology, didn’t have to worry about electronic surveillance intercepting his telegraphs, but President Obama has no such luxury. The U.S. has been pilloried recently for spying on our allies, but every nation is likely doing it. You know why? Because we can. From Michael S. Schmidt and Eric Schmitt in the New York Times:

“WASHINGTON — When President Obama travels abroad, his staff packs briefing books, gifts for foreign leaders and something more closely associated with camping than diplomacy: a tent.

Even when Mr. Obama travels to allied nations, aides quickly set up the security tent — which has opaque sides and noise-making devices inside — in a room near his hotel suite. When the president needs to read a classified document or have a sensitive conversation, he ducks into the tent to shield himself from secret video cameras and listening devices.

American security officials demand that their bosses — not just the president, but members of Congress, diplomats, policy makers and military officers — take such precautions when traveling abroad because it is widely acknowledged that their hosts often have no qualms about snooping on their guests.”

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“We Are Not Done Evolving”

November 10, 2013 in Excerpts, Science/Tech | Permalink

Michigan State University evolutionary biologist Bjørn Østman just did an Ask Me Anything at Reddit on his field. A few exchanges follow.

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Question:

Will alien life be very similar to life on earth due to convergent evolution?

Bjørn Østman:

That is a viable hypothesis. Some people (e.g. Stephen J. Gould) think that nothing like humans would evolve if the we “replayed the tape of life.” However, I personally predict that if we find life on other planets, then it will resemble some species from Earth in some ways, perhaps even as much as there being creatures with 4 limbs (which I think is not coincidental, but because it is a highly versatile solution to locomotion). In other words, I think convergent evolution is a very likely outcome.

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Question:

Are different races in humans an example of slight speciation? What accounts for the differences between humans of different origins?

Bjørn Østman:

Yes, I do actually think that you could call different human races “slight” speciation. We might call it incipient speciation. Some biologists will disagree, but imagine Danish and Japanese people hadn’t interbred for the next 100,000 or one million years, then perhaps they would really have become different species. The biological differences between different ethnicities likely arose from random changes that became dominant through neutral processes (genetic drift), as well as though adaptation in some cases, like skin color, where dark skin protects against the sun, and pale skin is more efficient at producing vitamin D in the sun.

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Question:

I’m fascinated by the crazy, now extinct predators that very early humans had to contend with. I’m thinking Saber Cats, Hyenadon… and what else? What amazing and epic fauna did very early humans encounter and ‘overcome’?

Bjørn Østman:

Wolves, man! I think our notion of werewolves came from the ever present danger of being eaten by wolves int he areas where they lived together. But cats everywhere. Lions, leopards, mountain lions – those are so effective predators. Without tools, I think humans would not have become the top predator, but would have lived in fear of these today.

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Question:

Are humans done evolving? Have humans gotten to the point where we adapt our surroundings to us instead of the other way around? Do you think another homo species will arise on Earth?

Bjørn Østman:

We are not done evolving. We still evolve biologically, though there are some aspects of humans life that have been taken over by cultural evolution. Just to mention one prominent aspect: medicine has alleviated many selection pressures. For much of our history a large factor in how we evolved was diseases. Diseases is a very strong selection pressure for evolving resistance. We are now resistant to many diseases that previously killed us, and yet when new ones arise today, we can fight back with medicine. For example, we don’t need to succumb to HIV/AIDS, such that only the few that by chance are lucky to be resistant will survive, while everyone else dies (which incidentally is an excellent example of how selection works). As a result in part of medicine (particularly improvements in hygiene), the human population is now as large as it is. However, most people who argue that humans have stopped evolving seem to not have understood 1) that the increase in our population size leads to an increase in genetic diversity, which is the fuel for evolution, and 2) that evolution takes time, and there will come a time (perhaps in hundreds of thousands of years, but I am not so optimistic) when things will change, and the environment will again favor some human subpopulation over others. You can read more about this from my colleague Madhusudan Katti in reply to the sad claim from David Attenborough’s that humans are no longer evolving. 

If and when humans go extinct, it could be that eventually another intelligent species would evolve. However, they would not likely be identical, and would be a different species, so not Homo sapiens.•

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“I Don’t Know If I Can Pull This Off. I’m Exhausted.”

November 10, 2013 in Excerpts, Film | Permalink

My 4 favorite Robert Altman films:

  • 3 Women
  • California Split
  • Nashville
  • McCabe and Mrs. Miller

My least favorite Altman film:

  • Quintet

Somewhere in between these extremes is Short Cuts, which is certainly an accomplished work but bothered me because I thought it used Raymond Carver’s deeply humane stories in a cruel way. But I have almost infinite love and forgiveness for Altman, who risked all in the name of art, willing to take the bruises when he fell flat. He’s recognized as one of the greatest directors ever, yet he oddly feels underrated. I have no interest in comic-book movies and I miss his work dearly–films made by an adult for other adults.

It’s the twentieth anniversary of Short Cuts and Mike Kaplan, who was an Associate Producer on that film, has made a documentary about the experience, Luck,Trust and Ketchup. From an article Kaplan wrote about the movie for the Hollywood Reporter:

“Bob and I began walking down what seemed to be a mile of maroon corridors in the Red Lion Inn, heading towards his room. ‘How are the portraits coming?’ he asked. 

Don had already completed Andie McDowell, Bruce Davison, Lily Tomlin, Frances McDormand, Peter Gallagher, Julianne Moore, Matthew Modine and Lyle Lovett and we’d have images to show him in a few days.

We talked in shorthand.

Then his voice changed — without skipping a beat in his gait. 

‘I have no idea what I’m going to shoot tomorrow,’ he announced. 

We were at his room.

He opened the door and began undressing. 

‘I don’t know if I can pull this off. I’m exhausted.’

He climbed into bed in his undershorts. 

I said something innocuous like I’m certain it will work out — worried at never hearing this tone before, Bob always the master of assurance when it came to filming.

He pulled up the covers, deep in a maze of thought, then closed his eyes.

‘Turn off the lights as you leave,’ he said.”•

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“The Future Of Work Even Gets Me Thinking, More Than Usual, About What We Can Expect Of The World In 30 Years”

November 10, 2013 in Excerpts, Politics, Science/Tech, Urban Studies | Permalink

From a lively Financial Times essay by Izabella Kaminska about the next three decades before us and the disruption and challenges we’re likely to experience:

“I am in New York to participate in a ‘future of work’ inquiry. Fittingly, among the movies I digest on my United flight from Geneva is the The Internship, about a couple of forty-something salesmen who, realising they have no skills for the modern digital workplace, decide to fling themselves headfirst into a Google internship programme.

The future of work event gets me thinking, more than usual, about what we can expect of the world in 30 years. One thing most of us agree upon is that technological disruption is already having a meaningful impact on our modern definition of employment. Whether it’s The Jetsons’ two-hour working week that will soon be upon us, or a divided dystopia made up of a working underclass serving the leisure elite, depends increasingly on the choices we make today. Will my goddaughter even have a career to look forward to, let alone anything remotely resembling a job? A like-minded futurist who has some authority in employment matters convinces me it’s best to be optimistic. As the economist John Maynard Keynes predicted, technology has the potential to free mankind from the drudgery of uncreative work – providing, of course, that society finds a way to ensure that technological power doesn’t end up being overly concentrated in too few hands.”

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“Bluetooth–This Just Blew My Mind”

November 10, 2013 in Excerpts, Urban Studies | Permalink

A formerly Amish man, who quit his community at seventeen, joined the Air Force and married a non-Amish woman, just did an Ask Me Anything at Reddit about his unusual life path. A few exchanges follow.

___________________________

Question:

What is your first memory of thinking about leaving your community and what was the “final push” for you?

Answer:

I remember cutting firewood and just wishing I had a chainsaw to make it easier. I feel like I always knew I would leave but just waited until I grew older.

___________________________

Question:

When you left the Amish community what was the most shocking thing about non-Amish society?

Answer:

My family never really showed emotion or hugged, I was a little shocked by how emotional everyone is. Great question, i wasn’t sure how to answer.

___________________________

Question:

Was there a time period where you parents didn’t talk to because you left the Amish community?

Answer:

Yes almost 5yrs, I was told not to come back unless I planed to stay Amish. When my Mom was diagnosed with cancer I went to see them for the first time in years, with my wife.

Question:

Is your wife from an Amish background, too? How did your mother and wife get along when they met?

Answer:

My wife was never Amish. When she met my Mom it was in more of a group setting with my dad and uncle’s/aunts. It was very awkward, my wife feels like they might blame her even though I met her years after I left. The meeting was one where the silence was long and tense, I do believe both, Mom and my wife, were trying to just talk.

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Question:

When you say there was a lot that was unbelievable to you, what sorts of things stand out?

Answer:

Texting. Why would you type if you can call! lol, i text a lot more now and seldom call. Bluetooth–this just blew my mind.

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Question:

You said: “Amish don’t really acknowledge the existence of homosexuality.”

Could you go into that a little bit more? What do you mean they don’t acknowledge it?

What would happen if someone came out of the closet or was caught having a homosexual relationship?

Wasn’t there ever an oddly swishy and single Amish feller that you just knew was off?

Answer:

They don’t believe that you can be homosexual, or if you claimed to be homosexual they would probably say you choose to be that way, maybe you are mentally ill. If you were caught in a homosexual relationship (im guessing) you would shunned until you repented of your sins, maybe you would have to get some type of mental treatment. The Amish are usually very “manly men” and I never knew an Amish person that I would be sure was homosexual.

___________________________

Question:

Just wondering what was your location when you were Amish i have some friends whom escaped the life style in Berlin and Millersburg due to massive amounts of child molestation, they actually escaped the country to go to canada because of this. Did you ever hear of other horror stories?

Answer:

I’m from Ethridge Tennessee. I am truly saddened to hear a story like that and I hope they are ok. I only know of the one story I mentioned earlier, the person was arrested just like anyone else would be. It is hard to tell how often things like this happen that are never found out but don’t judge all Amish by the actions of one or even one community, almost every community has different rules.

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Question:

Hey! Thanks for doing this! Was there any mysterious/supernatural things that you saw go down when you were in the Amish community? If you have seen that X-Files episode, you might see why I’m asking hehehe.

Answer:

I don’t remember anything mysterious or supernatural. What was the X-Files about? Is it worth looking up and watching?•

“It’s Going To Be Priced The Same As Junk Food, Basically”

November 10, 2013 in Excerpts, Urban Studies | Permalink

Former Trader Joe’s president Doug Rauch is realizing a tremendous idea: He’s opening a non-profit store in a working-class Boston neighborhood that will sell expired and overstock healthy food items at junk-food prices. He was featured recently on NPR, and here’s the opening of his New York Times Q&A which was conducted by Hope Reeves:

“Question:

You’re opening a store called Daily Table early next year. It’s going to sell food that’s past its sell-by date. Can you elaborate? 

Doug Rauch:

Yes, and food that’s cosmetically blemished or food that is excess — like fish that is perfectly wholesome, but not the fish they were going out to catch. We’re going to grab all of this stuff, bring it on-site, cook prepared meals with it and also offer milk, eggs, bread and produce. It’s going to be priced the same as junk food, basically.

Question:

And junk food is so cheap. 

Doug Rauch:

If you’re on food stamps, the average family has about $3 to spend on dinner. For that you can get about 3,700 calories’ worth of soda, crackers, cookies and snacks, or you can get 300 or 320 calories of fruits and vegetables. It’s economically rational to feed your kids junk.”

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Recently Posted On NYC’s Craigslist

November 10, 2013 in Misc., Urban Studies | Permalink

Doctor talk fetish (Chinatown / Lit Italy)

Tell me about getting your temperature taken in your butt by doctor or nurse, how your pants were pulled down and the rectal thermometer stuck in.

This Week’s Afflictor Keyphrase Searches

November 9, 2013 in Misc. | Permalink

 

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

  1. fast, cheap and out of control dvd
  2. est founder werner erhard driving race cars
  3. what is it like to work as a paparazzi?
  4. wernher von braun contributions to nasa
  5. joan didion how can i tell them there’s nothing left
  6. sell my extra nuvigil on campus street price
  7. who did walter cronkite call an idiot?
  8. terry southern story about larry flynt
  9. studs terkel interview with stewardess terry mason
  10. I went to the window and sure enough, there they were hanging in the trees

Highlights From Yet Another Week Of Afflictor

November 9, 2013 in Misc. | Permalink

Afflictor: Thinking 60 minutes has done stellar work reporting on the...

Afflictor: Thinking 60 Minutes has done stellar work linking…

...Hillary Clinton...

…Hillary Clinton…

Bengay murders.

…to the Bengay murders.

  • Luc Sante has written 35 short descriptions of his heroes.
  • Privacy as we knew it isn’t, of course, returning.
  • E-books are driving British publishers out of business.

A Brief Note From 1907 About An Aftershock

November 9, 2013 in Old Print Articles, Urban Studies | Permalink

From the May 3, 1907 New York Times:

“Milan–Arcangelo Rossi, the tenor, who was with the Conried Opera Company in San Francisco at the time of the earthquake and who, as a result of the fright he experienced, has not since been well, endeavored to commit suicide here to-day.

Recently he lose his voice. This calamity weighed so deeply on his mind that he became insane, and, to-day he cut out his tongue with a pair of scissors. He was taken to a hospital in critical condition.”

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“I Think Our Planet’s Immune System Is Trying To Get Rid Of Us And Should”

November 8, 2013 in Books, Science/Tech, Videos | Permalink

Kurt Vonnegut, who was pained by the inequalities of life–both the natural and man-made varieties–raises the specter of mass extinction during a 2005 interview with Jon Stewart. 

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“Mourning Them Is Like Mourning Some Big, Dumb Robot That Has Succumbed To Rust”

November 8, 2013 in Excerpts, Film, Science/Tech, Urban Studies | Permalink

Retail outlets have always vanished, but they were usually pushed out by others like them that were simply run better. Now they disappear into a computer screen, into a smartphone. It’s progress and it’s better, but there’s still something vertiginous about the speed of it all. From “Blockbuster Video: 1985-2013,” Alex Pappademas’ smart Grantland postmortem about a chain store we all hated and maybe secretly loved to hate:

“Even now, it’s hard to feel warm feelings for a Blockbuster. The company was a Borg-cube dedicated to pushing big-time Hollywood product. They frowned on NC-17 movies and foreign films and employees with long hair. If you wanted those things, you could go somewhere else, until you couldn’t, because Blockbuster also frowned on sharing any marketplace with a ‘somewhere else.’ They transformed the home-video business by plowing under the competition, then failed to adapt fast enough as that business continued to change. Mourning them is like mourning some big, dumb robot that has succumbed to rust after standing all night in the rain.

By the end of this year, 2,800 Blockbuster employees will lose their jobs. There is no other aspect of Blockbuster’s passing you could really call ‘sad,’ unless you’re like me and you feel a weird chill each time you live through the disappearance of that which was once ubiquitous, especially in the physical-media-retail sector.

Time only moves in one direction, and my daughter will never set foot in a Tower Records. Or a Waldenbooks, or a Coconuts, or even a Borders. All those chains were gone by 2011, victims of Amazon and Netflix and iTunes and our hunger for convenience, which is almost always the force that makes technology’s wrecking ball swing.”

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“The Internet As We Know It Came About Through The Monetization Of Metadata”

November 8, 2013 in Excerpts, Politics, Science/Tech, Urban Studies | Permalink

Privacy as we knew it is gone, and no amount of legislation will change that–not for nations, corporations or individuals. It’s sort of like outlawing hammers in a kingdom of nails.  And it was all done out in the open. We agreed to it, at least tacitly.

The opening of “Privacy Isn’t a Right,” Josh Klein’s Slate essay about the way it is now:

“Privacy isn’t your right anymore. We sold it for pictures of cats and the ability to tell anyone in the free world what we had for breakfast.

I’m not saying it was a bad trade, either. The Internet as we know it came about through the monetization of metadata—information about us—instead of by replicating traditional models of content sales. As a result the Internet exploded into a plethora of useful services and platforms of every shape, size, and description. What’s more, it was a great leveler—nobody had more valuable personal information than anybody else, so everyone was able to trade it in for the same kinds of services. 

The problem with all this is that ‘privacy’ as a notion was abdicated the instant you clicked ‘agree’ to the online services agreement you didn’t read. And yet most consumers haven’t yet realized that their date has left the restaurant and they’re stuck with the bill.”

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“There Are Probably Very Few Inventions In The Auto Industry That Started 100 Years Ago And Are Still Here Today”

November 8, 2013 in Excerpts, Science/Tech, Urban Studies | Permalink

Ford assembly line, 1913.

From a New York Times article by Bill Vlasic about the centennial of the assembly line, Henry Ford’s enduring gift to the manufacturing world, which has been updated but never abandoned:

“Updating the assembly line is a big part of the ‘One Ford’ corporate strategy that has helped the nation’s second-biggest automaker lead the recent recovery of the American auto industry.

‘There are probably very few inventions in the auto industry that started 100 years ago and are still here today,’ said John Fleming, Ford’s executive vice president for global manufacturing.

So much has changed in the industry since Mr. Ford installed the first, rudimentary assembly line at his company’s Model T plant in Highland Park, Mich., in October 1913.

But automakers around the world use essentially the same basic method of mass production, turning a bare automotive chassis at one end of the line into a finished car at the other.

In the beginning, the line was a critical step toward ensuring that the same processes were repeated over and over to manufacture one specific model of the highest quality. Now, the modern assembly line produces a wide variety of vehicles that are virtually custom-built at a moment’s notice for customers in far-flung markets.”

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The World Premiere Of Revenge Of The Mekons

November 8, 2013 in Film | Permalink

I’ve told you many times about Joe Angio’s new documentary, Revenge of the Mekons, an exciting look at one of the most iconic bands in history of rock. The filmmaker just announced that the movie will premiere on November 15 in NYC. Get ticket info here. Learn more about the project on The Facebook.

From Angio:

I’m excited to tell you that Revenge of the Mekons, the documentary I’ve been working on for the past six years, will make its world premiere at the DOC NYC film festival on Friday, November 15. 

The film—which Spin magazine touted as one of the “next big rock docs”—chronicles the uncharted course of the Mekons, “the band that took punk ideology most seriously,” as writer Greil Marcus described them, and reveals how, four decades into an unpredictable and still-evolving career, the group continues to make original, genre-defying music. 

Please join me, co-producer Jessica Wolfson and editor Jane Rizzo, along with special guests Jon Langford, Sally Timms, Steve Goulding and Rico Bell of the Mekons, at the screening. 

Friday, Nov. 15. at 9:45pm

SVA Theatre

333 W. 23rd St, between 8th & 9th Aves

For ticket information, go to: http://www.docnyc.net/film/revenge-of-the-mekons

I hope to see you at the premiere!

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