Afflictor: Happy to know there’s at least one person who’ll actually be able to laugh at the new Kevin James comedy.
- Old Print Articles: Arizona millionaire becomes Chicago pauper (1896) + Wyoming prospector is also a snake charmer (1897) + Bearded lady dies (1862).
- Featured Videos: Rod Serling discusses TV writing with college students + Jimmy Breslin sells Grape-Nuts (1970s) + Ikea furniture assembled by robots + Braniff ad is fashionable, sexist (1960s) + Bell Labs film concerning TVs and PCs connecting us (1979) + Navy doc about SEALAB 1 (1965) + Gerontologist Aubrey de Grey is Ponce de León as a technologist + James Day interviews Hugh Hefner (1974) + Brian Eno documentary (1989) + Alpha the Robot in action (1934) + A fledgling film that is stranger and truer than Argo.
- Recently Posted on NYC’s Craigslist: We’re probably not going to have grandchildren + No dumber than the Kardashiians + I probably should get out of the neighborhood now and then + Another good use for PayPal.
- In the 1960s, Marshall McLuhan became a media star with a message.
- Catskills maître d’hôtel Irving Cohen was a matchless matchmaker.
- The current technologies aren’t the first ones to alter reading habits.
- The art of handwriting is lost. Is that a bad thing?
- William S. Burroughs imagined the intersection of sex and technology.
- Edward Glaeser thinks Wall Street dynamics can inform urban planning.
- We have an emotional disconnect from digital technology.
- Thousands of smart cars in Ann Arbor are communicating.
- Autopsies used to be performed in front of live theater audiences.
- A tidy description of Ray Bradbury’s youthful education.
- Automobiles could be used to produce, not just consume, energy.
- In the 1950s, the Air Force was building a flying saucer.
- Chinese boy born with blue eyes causes sensation.
- 3D printers will interrupt more than pure-information businesses.
- In order to save nature, we may need to rethink preservation.
- The spiny mouse may be hold the key for regenerative human medicine.
- Marek Kohn has an excellent essay in Aeon about long-range planning.
- Carny does Ask Me Anything on Reddit, gets mocked.
- Austrian daredevil Felix Baumgartner falls from space.
- The more we can explain, the more we want things beyond explanation.
- Picture of a tube-based fire escape from 1924.
- Parasites can influence behavior of host, whether it’s a bee or human.
- A brief note from 1886 about a family dinner.
- A brief note from 1875 about a baker’s arrest.
- A brief note from 1897 about a corncob.
- This week’s Afflictor keyphrase searches.