Afflictor: Thinking two awful dictators have finally been forcibly removed.
- Old Print Articles: Thomas Edison’s talking machine is a hit in London (1888) + Edison’s assistant dies horribly after X-ray experimentation (1904) + Electrical jolts used as anesthesia (1908).
- Feature Videos: A demonstration of the first home-video system on What’s My Line? (1972) + Devo puts soul into a new machine on Saturday Night Live (1979) + David Letterman has fun at Tama Janowitz’s expense (1992) + Don DeLillo examines the terrorist and the novelist (1992) + Trailer for doc about Alejandro Jodorowsky’s unmade masterpiece + Table tennis champ Timo Boll faces off against a robot.
- Recently Posted on NYC’s Craigslist: Once I’m done with you, you’ll need a psychiatrist + Actually, he dreamt pretty boring + The Olympic spirit, at its finest, is spreading.
- Philosopher Nick Bostrom has a new book coming about superintelligence.
- Dr. Genevieve Bell, Intel’s chief anthropologist, wants to make you happy.
- Dick Cavett excoriates the New York Times for its Dylan Farrow article.
- Computer dating’s been around for 50 years, but Ray Kurzweil sees it shifting.
- A Peoples Temple survivor looks back at the madness of Rev. Jim Jones.
- In the 1970s, psychotherapist Saul Newton led a Manhattan cult.
- Gawker’s Nick Denton shares his ideas on journalism and the Internet.
- Somehow, understanding termite “architecture” may lead to robot navies.
- Stanford economist predicts the future of performance enhancement.
- Apple might be entering the automotive and medical sectors.
- Smart guns will, perhaps, keep us from constantly shooting each other.
- Malcolm Gladwell’s 2009 NFL concussion story was a watershed piece.
- Alex Ross considers the Voyager’s Golden Record decades after launch.
- Sid Caesar, a titanic and troubled talent, receives some tributes.
- Harrods is out of the exotic-animal biz, but private zoos and hunts continue.
- Clay Shirky looks at govt. tech-management issues, overlooks private sector.
- Freeman Dyson considers that false scientific narratives are essential.
- Idiosyncratic geneticist Svante Pääbo talks about our Neanderthal brothers.
- AI is being integrated into nature, an attempt to erase the lines that separate.
- Douglas Hofstadter says we don’t yet have true AI. Here’s a counterargument.
- An analysis of the future of computerized assistants.
- Rahm Emanuel has presided over an increasingly racially divided Chicago.
- Wealthy venture capital investors have much in common with lottery winners.
- Perhaps the number of words we hear by age three determines IQ. Perhaps.
- Can New York survive–thrive, even–as a self-sufficient and green city-state?
- A brief note from 1876 about meat production.
- A brief note from 1896 about an an oral fixation.
- This week’s Afflictor keyphrase searches.