Excerpts

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“Smith Envisioned ‘A Changing Of The Guard Within The Media'”

March 25, 2013 in Excerpts, Urban Studies | Permalink

From a Tim Adams’ Guardian profile of the ever-humble Shane Smith of Vice fame, a passage that looks into the shockingly big-money operation of the formerly upstart media company, which recently garnered major attention for turning Dennis Rodman into a pierced and tatted diplomat of sorts:

“Vice has come an awful long way from its origins as a free and underground music magazine in Smith’s native Montreal 20 years ago. He created it with a couple of friends – having persuaded the city fathers to let them take over an earnest community title called the Voice. In the two decades since Vice dropped its middle ‘o’ it has grown from being a ‘hipsters’ bible,’ given away on street corners and in record stores, to a global brand with offices in 34 countries. The high-traffic online and documentary film incarnations of the Vice sensibility are about to spawn a 24-hour terrestrial news channel available in 18 countries. A documentary series in partnership with august HBO will include the Rodman and McAfee films. There is also a record label and an ad agency, Virtue, which numbers Nike and Dell among its clients. Announcing some of those departures at an industry event in Abu Dhabi last year, Smith envisioned ‘a changing of the guard within the media,’ and announced his ambition for Vice to become both the largest online media network in the world and ‘the voice of the angry youth.’

To back up this fighting talk, Spike Jonze, the disruptive intelligence behind the film Being John Malkovich and the Jackass franchise, was recently installed as creative director. Two years ago a consortium that included Sir Martin Sorrell’s WPP advertising group, and Tom Freston, founder of MTV, invested a reported $50m in Vice media. Since the company purchased Vice.com (formerly a porn site) the same year, revenues have doubled to a reported $200m in 2012, on which insiders suggest an unverified 20 per cent profit margin. Smith talks of 3,000 contributors, though the official payroll is about 850. The average age of a Vice journalist is 25, but scanning the screen-staring ranks of the magazine’s newsroom that seems on the high side. It is easy to see why, on his visit here, Rupert Murdoch might suddenly have felt all of his 82 years.“

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“Parents Should Choose Those Genes Or Choose Those States Which Will Promote A Better Life For The Child”

March 25, 2013 in Excerpts, Politics, Science/Tech, Urban Studies | Permalink

From a debate called “Making Better Babies,” a passage in which Oxford ethicist Julian Savulescu argues that is not just an option but an obligation that we genetically modify our descendants:

“So if we accept that we should treat diseases and use genetics to prevent disease in our offspring, my argument is that we should also value those traits and the genetic contributions to those traits which affect how well our lives and our children’s lives will go.

Now I have in the past controversially argued that we have a moral obligation to do this. Currently it’s legally impermissible to select these sorts of traits in Australia, and I think this is profoundly wrong. However, more strongly not only do I think that people should be able to do it, they should do it.

Why do I say that? Well, if I said to you, people should protect their children from disease, it’s uncontroversial. But if disease is only important because it makes our children’s lives worse, so too parents should choose those genes or choose those states which will promote a better life for the child. 

We have many obligations. We have an obligation to provide good diet and education to our children, to stop climate change, to alleviate global poverty. We have obligations to ourselves and our families. We have many competing obligations. One of those obligations is to try to ensure that our children have the best lives possible and the best advantage when they start life.” (Thanks Practical Ethics.)

 

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“They, After All, Had Previously Determined That He Would Not Get A Vasectomy”

March 25, 2013 in Excerpts, Science/Tech, Urban Studies | Permalink

Rob Walker, who wrote some of the best New York Times Magazine articles of recent years (like this one and this one), has a new piece in the Atlantic about a man who decided to sell shares not in a company but in himself, giving crowdsourcing a human face. The opening:

“Mike Merrill was thinking of pumping up his workout regimen with mixed-martial-arts classes and boxing lessons. The scheme would involve seven and a half hours a week at various gyms—a big commitment. So he put the matter before his 160 shareholders. They, after all, had previously determined that he would not get a vasectomy, that he would register as a Republican, and that he and the woman he’d been dating could enter into a three-month ‘Relationship Agreement.’

From microfinance to crowd-funding, tools that rely on the support of large groups have grown familiar, bordering on overexposed. Merrill’s approach to harvesting the power of the marketplace, however, is singular: he has essentially sold shares in his own life. Which raises two questions: Why on Earth would somebody offer others the right to vote on his basic life decisions? And, even more inexplicably, why would anybody pay for that right?”

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“In Armenia, Learning To Play The Grand Game Of Strategy In School Is Mandatory For Children”

March 25, 2013 in Excerpts, Science/Tech, Urban Studies | Permalink

Instruction in chess in now mandatory for third and fourth graders in Armenia the same way that obesity and texting are in American schools. From Al Jazeera:

“Yerevan, Armenia – Little Susie Hunanyan attended her favourite class in school last week, and it wasn’t drawing, crafts or sport. The seven-year-old sat studiously through an hour of chess lessons.

In Armenia, learning to play the grand game of strategy in school is mandatory for children – the only country in the world that makes chess compulsory – and the initiative has paid dividends. Armenia, a Caucasus country with a population of just three million, is a chess powerhouse. …

The chess initiative is not only meant to scout young talent but also build a better society. Armen Ashotyan, Armenia’s education minister, told Al Jazeera the project is aimed at fostering creative thinking.

‘Chess develops various skills – leadership capacities, decision-making, strategic planning, logical thinking and responsibility,’ Ashotyan said. ‘We are building these traits in our youngsters. The future of the world depends on such creative leaders who have the capacity to make the right decisions, as well as the character to take responsibility for wrong decisions.’“

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“He Has Made An Artificial Nose He Expects To Transplant Later This Year”

March 24, 2013 in Excerpts, Science/Tech | Permalink

The opening of Gautam Naik’s new Wall Street Journal article about replacement human body parts created in vitro:

“MADRID—Reaching into a stainless steel tray, Francisco Fernandez-Aviles lifted up a gray, rubbery mass the size of a fat fist.

It was a human cadaver heart that had been bathed in industrial detergents until its original cells had been washed away and all that was left was what scientists call the scaffold.

Next, said Dr. Aviles, ‘We need to make the heart come alive.’

Inside a warren of rooms buried in the basement of Gregorio Marañón hospital here, Dr. Aviles and his team are at the sharpest edge of the bioengineering revolution that has turned the science-fiction dream of building replacement parts for the human body into a reality.

Since a laboratory in North Carolina made a bladder in 1996, scientists have built increasingly more complex organs. There have been five windpipe replacements so far. A London researcher, Alex Seifalian, has transplanted lab-grown tear ducts and an artery into patients. He has made an artificial nose he expects to transplant later this year in a man who lost his nose to skin cancer.”

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“All They Do Is Hate”

March 24, 2013 in Excerpts, Politics, Science/Tech, Urban Studies | Permalink

In a customarily cogent and paranoid post, the BBC’s Adam Curtis blogs about what he calls the “fake objectivity” that obscures where the real power in society rests. An excerpt about H.L. Hunt, a wing-nut Texas oilman whose view of journalism presaged Fox News by many decades:

“The first is an odd story – with a very strange character at its heart. It is about how in the 1950s the richest man in the world, an oil billionaire in Texas, invented a new form of television journalism. It pretended to be objective and balanced but in fact it was hard core right-wing propaganda. It was way ahead of its time because, in its fake neutrality, it prefigured the rise of the ultraconservative right-wing media of the 1990s – like Fox News, with its copyrighted slogan, ‘Fair and Balanced.’

The billionaire was called H. L. Hunt – Haroldson Lafayette Hunt. He made his fortune in the early 1930s by getting hold of one of the biggest oil fields in America – in the pine forests of East Texas. He was a ruthless, driven man and from early on he became absolutely convinced that he had superhuman qualities that made him different from other humans.

From the 1920s onwards Hunt was a bigamist. He married two women and raised two families that were oblivious of each other. He told his second wife, Frania, that he was called Major Franklyn Hunt. There was a rocky moment when his picture was on the front page of all the Texas papers because of his spectacular oil deal. Frania asked Hunt if that was him – he told her no, that it was his uncle who had been so clever.

Hunt was part of a group of extreme right-wing oil men in Texas who had enormous influence because of their wealth. There is a brilliant book written about this group – The Big Rich by Bryan Burrough. Burrough describes how they had first risen up in the 1930s because they loathed President Roosevelt – ‘a nigger-loving communist,’ as one oil man called him. They were convinced that Roosevelt’s New Deal was really run by Jews and communists – or ‘social vermin’ as they politely put it.

A Texas congressman called Sam Rayburn summed up this group of right-wing oil men. ‘All they do is hate’ – he said.

After the Second World War H L Hunt did two things. He added another, third, family to his bigamist’s collection. And he also turned to the new medium of television to promote his ultraconservative views.”

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“Horse-Sized Ducks Are Out Of The Question—Mechanical Problems. A Horse That Quacks, Maybe.”

March 22, 2013 in Excerpts, Science/Tech | Permalink

Stewart Brand, the Whole Earth Catalog editor who knew what the Digital Age would bring decades before it arrived, is today heavily invested in the de-extinction movement. He just did an excellent Ask Me Anything on Reddit. A few exchanges follow.

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Question:

What species do you think would be the most valuable to bring back and why?

Stewart Brand:

“Most valuable” is an essential question, evolving as we speak. For some it would mean “most loved” or “most missed.” The ivory-billed woodpecker ranks high there. I’m interested in “most ecologically enriching.” That often means “keystone species” or “ecosystem engineer.” High ranked there is the woolly mammoth, maker of the “mammoth steppe” in the far north. Also the passenger pigeon, who enriched the entire eastern deciduous forest.

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Question:

What proportion of these species will face a major habitat problem when they’re brought back? I imagine that at least a few will be back under display-only circumstances.

Stewart Brand:

Thanks for this question, because it comes up a lot, usually in Tragic mode—“The poor passenger pigeons will suffer because their old habitat is gone!” In most cases habitat for revived species will as good as ever or much improved from when they went extinct. The eastern woodlands have grown back ferociously since the late 1800s, when they were most deforested and the passenger pigeon was hunted to death. The north Atlantic has plenty of fish for the great auk, when it returns. Woolly mammoths will relish the boreal forests of the north, and commence turning them back into more biodiverse grasslands.

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Question:

What will you do with the animals once you bring them back to life? Put them in the wild? Zoo?

Stewart Brand:

The sequence is: lab, zoo, wild. You need the zoo for captive-breeding to generate a large enough population, with enough genetic variability, to be able to prosper in the wild. The tricky bit is that zoos are cushy for animals compared to the wild. Managing a toughening-up boot camp for lazy passenger pigeons will be interesting. “Listen up, bird. This is a falcon. He is not your friend.”

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Question:

What are the possible negative effects from your research? Has anyone/any group expressed concern regarding possible negative outcomes?

(Not looking for negatives, just wondering. I’m personally stoked about the research you all have been doing!)

Stewart Brand:

I think one valid negative is the question of whether species-revival technology can be used for species-creation. Suppose someone wants to create a duck-sized horse, for example. Or a one-eyed, one-horned flying purple people eater. Norms will emerge, I suppose. 

I should add that horse-sized ducks are out of the question—mechanical problems. A horse that quacks, maybe.

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“This Is A Revolution Not Unlike The Early Days Of Computing”

March 22, 2013 in Excerpts, Science/Tech | Permalink

The military contractor Lockheed Martin is speeding ahead into the world of quantum computing, which packs the potential to rewrite the rules of what such machines can do. From Quentin Hardy in the New York Times:

“Ray Johnson, Lockheed’s chief technical officer, said his company would use the quantum computer to create and test complex radar, space and aircraft systems. It could be possible, for example, to tell instantly how the millions of lines of software running a network of satellites would react to a solar burst or a pulse from a nuclear explosion — something that can now take weeks, if ever, to determine.

‘This is a revolution not unlike the early days of computing,’ he said. ‘It is a transformation in the way computers are thought about.’ Many others could find applications for D-Wave’s computers. Cancer researchers see a potential to move rapidly through vast amounts of genetic data. The technology could also be used to determine the behavior of proteins in the human genome, a bigger and tougher problem than sequencing the genome. Researchers at Google have worked with D-Wave on using quantum computers to recognize cars and landmarks, a critical step in managing self-driving vehicles.

Quantum computing is so much faster than traditional computing because of the unusual properties of particles at the smallest level. Instead of the precision of ones and zeros that have been used to represent data since the earliest days of computers, quantum computing relies on the fact that subatomic particles inhabit a range of states. Different relationships among the particles may coexist, as well. Those probable states can be narrowed to determine an optimal outcome among a near-infinitude of possibilities, which allows certain types of problems to be solved rapidly.”

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“I Wanted To Share With You A Look At Their Work On Creating Alternatives To Meat And Eggs”

March 21, 2013 in Excerpts, Science/Tech, Urban Studies | Permalink

The opening of Bill Gates’ self-published multimedia, slide-show piece, “The Future of Food,” in which the technologist and philanthropist is encouraged by in vitro alternatives to protein-rich meals:

“Meat consumption worldwide has doubled in the last 20 years, and it is expected to double again by 2050. This is happening in large part because economies are growing and people can afford more meat. That’s all good news. But raising meat takes a great deal of land and water and has a substantial environmental impact. Put simply, there’s no way to produce enough meat for 9 billion people. Yet we can’t ask everyone to become vegetarians. We need more options for producing meat without depleting our resources.

Over the past few years I’ve come across a few companies that are doing pioneering work on innovations that give a glimpse into possible solutions. To be sure, it’s still very early, but the work these companies are doing makes me optimistic. I wanted to share with you a look at their work on creating alternatives to meat and eggs that are just as healthful, are produced more sustainably, and taste great.”

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“Sawdust And Wood Pulp Are Converted Into Sugary Foods”

March 21, 2013 in Excerpts, Science/Tech | Permalink

In a 1950 Popular Mechanics article, Waldemar Kaempffert predicted what American life would be like in the year 2000. From a passage about the kitchen and living room of the future:

“This expansion of the frozen-food industry and the changing gastronomic habits of the nation have made it necessary to install in every home the electronic industrial stove which came out of World War II. Jane Dobson has one of these electronic stoves. In eight seconds a half-grilled frozen steak is thawed; in two minutes more it is ready to serve. It never takes Jane Dobson more than half an hour to prepare what Tottenville considers an elaborate meal of several courses.

Some of the food that Jane Dobson buys is what we miscall ‘synthetic.’ In the middle of the 20th century statisticians were predicting that the world would starve to death because the population was increasing more rapidly than the food supply. By 2000, a vast amount of research has been conducted to exploit principles that were embryonic in the first quarter of the 20th century. Thus sawdust and wood pulp are converted into sugary foods. Discarded paper table ‘linen’ and rayon underwear are bought by chemical factories to be converted into candy.

Of course the Dobsons have a television set. But it is connected with the telephones as well as with the radio receiver, so that when Joe Dobson and a friend in a distant city talk over the telephone they also see each other. Businessmen have television conferences. Each man is surrounded by half a dozen television screens on which he sees those taking part in the discussion. Documents are held up for examination; samples of goods are displayed. In fact, Jane Dobson does much of her shopping by television. Department stores obligingly hold up for her inspection bolts of fabric or show her new styles of clothing.”

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“Cut To A 20-Minute Oral-Sex Scene”

March 21, 2013 in Excerpts, Film, Politics, Urban Studies, Videos | Permalink

The Olivier of oral and progenitor of the pornstache, Harry Reems, the adult actor born Herbert Streicher to two very proud and well-hung parents, just passed away. In all seriousness, his work on the landmark 1972 skin-flick Deep Throat led to years of prosecution on obscenity charges. Reems ultimately was victorious, and converted to Christianity in later life. Margalit Fox, who writes lively copy about dead people, penned his obituary in the New York Times. An excerpt:

Mr. Reems, who began his career in the 1960s as a struggling stage actor, had already made dozens of pornographic films when he starred opposite Ms. Lovelace in Deep Throat.

But where his previous movies were mostly the obscure, short, grainy, plotless stag films known as loops, Deep Throat, which had set design, occasional costumes, dialogue punctuated by borscht-belt humor and an actual plot of sorts, was Cinema.

Mr. Reems played Dr. Young, a physician whose diagnostic brilliance — he locates the rare anatomical quirk that makes Ms. Lovelace’s character vastly prefer oral sex to intercourse — is matched by his capacity for tireless ministration.

“I was always the doctor,” he told New York magazine in 2005, “because I was the one that had an acting background. I would say: ‘You’re having trouble with oral sex? Well, here’s how to do it.’ Cut to a 20-minute oral-sex scene.'”•

William F. Buckley “welcomes” Reems and a wild-haired, pre-Epstein Alan Dershowitz:

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“I Believed In What We Were Doing. Now I Just Feel Used.”

March 20, 2013 in Excerpts, Politics | Permalink

As we arrive at the 10th anniversary of the disastrous American invasion of Iraq, what I think about isn’t someone incompetent like President Bush or evil like Dick Cheney, though neither of them will ever be able to wash all that blood from their hands. What I consider most is the mania that surrounded, actually supported, that awful military operation which killed five thousand of our troops and tens of thousands of innocent Iraqis. Politicians from both parties, respected journalists and well-known public figures threw in with the senselessness, some for personal gain and others from poor judgement, ignoring what was right in front of them. And those who spoke out against the lunacy were traitors and foolish and weak and disloyal. 

It was mania and it was amnesia. So many times, when defending this illicit war, Bush supporters made the argument that the President knew what he was doing because no terrorist attack had ever occurred on his watch, completely eliding the tragedy of 9/11, which was supposedly the rationale for the war.

I recall the heartbroken parents of some of the first soldiers killed, who grew understandably enraged when it was suggested that their government had lied to them, that their children had died for no reason. They would say that they couldn’t handle it if we brought the rest of the troops home and acknowledged the war had been needless. They couldn’t withstand the truth. So we continued the lies and more parents suffered the same loss.

And it will happen again. Maybe the Iraq War won’t happen all over again–hopefully not–but some incredibly wrongheaded decision will be made and the supposed best and brightest will encourage the foot soldiers to fall in line. Rational thought will be usurped, illogic will rule. Unless we work very hard to change, we will forget the lessons, and such things will remain cyclical, tragic and inevitable. 

One of the first Marines to enter Iraq just did an Ask Me Anything on Reddit. A few exchanges follow.

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Question:

After all you know now… Has your opinion of the rights and wrongs of the situation changed? 

Answer:

Definitely. I was a kid then though. When I see pics of myself then I always think what a stupid and naive asshole I used to be. I believed in what we were doing. Now I just feel used.

Question:

Thank you for such an honest answer. 

Answer:

It’s the reality of the situation. I was young and full of bravado. Now I have a daughter and I wonder how I would feel if she was going to war in the same situation.

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Question:

And for what it’s worth from some average Joe, I’m sorry that we citizens didn’t stand up to the politicians who sent many of your fellow marines to their deaths, amid other injury (both physical and mental).

Our military personnel never fail at their job, no matter what we ask of them. But we the people failed you guys when we blindly approved a war that shouldn’t have happened. I was (for a short time) among those who believed in the Iraq war. For that, I apologized. We should’ve called our reps and Sens and the White House and told them that we didn’t want that war. And I didn’t do that.

I feel so bad because it wasn’t too much to ask, especially in comparison to what we all asked of guys like you.

Again, I’m sorry. But thank you and all of your fellow marines. 

Answer:

Man, we all got caught up in it. I feel like as Americans, this is a valuable learning lesson. We all let our emotions get us wrapped up and let Fox News and CNN dictate our rage. I was the same way. As a young 17 year old kid when the towers went down, living just 100 miles outside NYC, I was furious. I signed up and went off to war. As a 29 year old, looking back I realize that we made a very big mistake and a lot of people died because of it. Here’s the good news. You can make up for it. A lot of veterans are out there and they need help. They need people to volunteer for organizations that help veterans get homes, get jobs, and get help. You can donate to them! Or, if you are not financially capable of donations, which I understand, you can just give a veteran a hug or a warm smile and a thank you for all you have done. I’ve had some rough days but they were all made better just by someone’s understanding.

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Question:

What contact did you have with Iraqis? How do you feel about them? 

Answer:

I interacted with Iraqi’s every day of every deployment. There was always an IP (iraqi Police) training or humanitarian mission. At the time I saw them as less human than us. Like because they lived in the dirt they were more like dogs. I saw them as a dumb culture. Now I just feel bad. You are a product of your environment and I just got lucky in being born in a rich powerful country

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Question:

What about Iraqis lives that were destroyed, including myself? I’m honestly very sorry for everything that has happened to the Iraqi people. You have to understand I was not out to kill brown people or destroy a nation. I signed up for a job and did a bad thing based off bad intel.

Answer:

I’m honestly very sorry for everything that has happened to the Iraqi people. You have to understand I was not out to kill brown people or destroy a nation. I signed up for a job and did a bad thing based off bad intel.

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Question:

Why the fuck hasn’t a major network interviewed vets like you?

Answer:

Eh, I guess I’m not that interesting.

“He Regularly Runs All Day Eating Only Wild Berries And Drinking Only From Streams”

March 20, 2013 in Excerpts, Science/Tech, Sports | Permalink

From “Creating the All-Terrain Human,” Christopher Solomon’s New York Times profile of Kilian Jornet Burgada, an ultra-athlete whose body operates more as machine than human:

“Kilian Jornet Burgada is the most dominating endurance athlete of his generation. In just eight years, Jornet has won more than 80 races, claimed some 16 titles and set at least a dozen speed records, many of them in distances that would require the rest of us to purchase an airplane ticket. He has run across entire landmasses­ (Corsica) and mountain ranges (the Pyrenees), nearly without pause. He regularly runs all day eating only wild berries and drinking only from streams. On summer mornings he will set off from his apartment door at the foot of Mont Blanc and run nearly two and a half vertical miles up to Europe’s roof — over cracked glaciers, past Gore-Tex’d climbers, into the thin air at 15,781 feet — and back home again in less than seven hours, a trip that mountaineers can spend days to complete. A few years ago Jornet ran the 165-mile Tahoe Rim Trail and stopped just twice to sleep on the ground for a total of about 90 minutes. In the middle of the night he took a wrong turn, which added perhaps six miles to his run. He still finished in 38 hours 32 minutes, beating the record of Tim Twietmeyer, a legend in the world of ultrarunning, by more than seven hours. When he reached the finish line, he looked as if he’d just won the local turkey trot.” (Thanks Browser.)

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“She Gave Birth To Something Resembling A Liverless Cat”

March 20, 2013 in Excerpts, Science/Tech, Urban Studies | Permalink

In 1726 England, a servant woman claimed she’d given birth to a litter of bunny rabbits–and managed to convince a large swath of her nation that the fantastic tale was true. The first two paragraphs from Niki Russell’s fascinating Public Domain Review article about the sensation:

“In September 1726, news reached the court of King George I of the alleged birth of several rabbits to Mary Toft (1703-1763) of Godalming, near Guildford, in Surrey. Mary was a twenty-five year old illiterate servant, married to Joshua Toft, a journeyman clothier. According to reports, despite having had a miscarriage just a month earlier in August 1726, Mary had still appeared to be pregnant. On September 27th, she went into labour and was attended initially by her neighbour Mary Gill, and then her mother in law Ann Toft. She gave birth to something resembling a liverless cat.

The family decided to call on the help of Guildford obstetrician John Howard. He visited Mary the next day where he was presented with more animal parts which Ann Toft said she had taken from Mary during the night. The following day, Howard returned and helped deliver yet more animal parts. Over the next month Howard recorded that she began producing a rabbit’s head, the legs of a cat and in a single day, nine dead baby rabbits.”

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“They Quickly Recognized Him As Kind Of A Savant”

March 20, 2013 in Excerpts, Film, Videos | Permalink

The recently deceased cinema savant Ric Menello existed on the fringes of the film world–of society, actually–yet some chance meetings gave him an unlikely Hollywood career. From Richard Brody’s appropriately all-over-the-place New Yorker blog post, a segment about the director James Gray remembering his first interaction with the man who would become his most eccentric collaborator:

“I got a phone call—this is about 1996, I think, late ’96, somewhere around there—from Rick Rubin, who, along with Russell Simmons, started Def Jam Records. And Rick said [deepening his voice in impersonation], ‘I have somebody on the phone I want you to talk to.’ You know, he had made a three-way call.

I said, ‘Hello?’

[Adopts a nasal voice] ‘Hello?’ ‘Who’s this?’

[Shrill voice] ‘Who’s this?’

‘This is James Gray.’

‘Did you direct Little Odessa?‘

‘Yes.’

‘Ah, that wasn’t too good.’

‘Who is this?’

‘This is Ric Menello.’

[In the deep voice of Rick Rubin] ‘This is my friend Ric Menello. He knows much more about movies than you do.’

And all of a sudden I started talking to the guy. And, of course, I immediately liked him because he disparaged my work. And I realized that Rick Rubin was absolutely correct: he knew everything. He was working at the desk of the dorm—Weinstein dorm at N.Y.U.—when Rubin met him. And he would hold court talking about movies, and they quickly recognized him as kind of a savant, and they befriended him.”

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Menello directed the “Going Back to Cali” video in 1989:

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“The Sleek Final Product Held Much Less Interest”

March 19, 2013 in Excerpts, Science/Tech, Urban Studies | Permalink

Futurists have a need to always live for tomorrow, enjoying their predictions that come true for about as long as a child in enraptured by a new toy. It’s nice being right, sure, but what about the next tomorrow? From Veronique Greenwood’s new Aeon essay, “I Grew Up in the Future“:

“In 2004, the year I went to college, one of Forbes’ top tech trends was that consumers were beginning to buy more laptops than desktops. I took a laptop with me, of course — we’d had one or two around the house for years, and I think we bought three more that summer — but I also took a video phone. It was a silvery chunk of plastic with a handset on a cord, a dialpad, and a four-inch screen on a hinge on which I could see my family every week or so. It was the way of the future, and my mom wrote an article about using it to keep up family ties across long distances. The next year, when my sister went away to college, she did not take one. That fateful Skype release had occurred in the intervening 12 months, and the days of dedicated hardware were through.

Strangely enough, after the video revolution came, it no longer seemed to interest my mom. I had not fully grasped it until that point, but her interest was in premature things — full of potential, hampered by bizarre deformities, in need of her talents. Unlike almost every consumer of technology, for her, and for a few others like her, the sleek final product held much less interest, except as a sign that their instincts had been correct.

The bugs, in other words, were more than just bugs. They were opportunities. And without people who have this affinity for the half-formed, we might not get anywhere much at all.”

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“I Think They May Encourage Psychotics”

March 18, 2013 in Excerpts, Film, Science/Tech, Urban Studies, Videos | Permalink

Last week I put up a post about Steven Pinker’s assertion that violent video games have become popular in an era when we’ve seen a marked decrease in violence perpetrated by young males, the group most devoted to them. But is it possible that such fare encourages a particular type of shocking violence (mass shootings) that gets lost in the larger statistics? Perhaps blood-soaked video games have little effect on the average youth–maybe it even helps him work through impulses virtually that would manifest themselves actually without the games. But it’s possible the most damaged among us are inspired by such bloody visions. Even if it’s so, do we want to live in a society in which our culture is governed by a very small minority of crazies? There was long the thought that pornography would encourage viewers to become sex criminals, but the preponderance of online pornography has coincided with a steep decrease in sex crimes. Just correlation? Perhaps, but I would guess causation. Violent culture may serve the same function (for most of us).

Orson Welles briefly talking about the supposed link between violent entertainment and actual violence.

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“The Potential For Oppressive Uses Is Undeniable”

March 18, 2013 in Excerpts, Politics, Science/Tech, Urban Studies | Permalink

It’s a scary world and everyone wants a brother–even if it’s Big Brother. So we’ve opened up our hearts and minds (and smartphones) in a way that allows government and corporations unparalleled access into our habits, our desires. No military intervention, no daunting dictators are necessary if we all willingly transform from citizens into consumers. But something tells me that a decentralized media and the people using it are too difficult to control–and will only grow more so as time goes on. From Damien Walter’s new Guardian article, “Future Tech: Big Brother, Big Data or Creator Culture?“

“Today we perhaps have less to fear from the iron fist of Big Brother (although force is never far out of the picture) than from the insidious manipulation of big data. Viktor Mayer-Schonberger and Kenneth Cukier’s new book (Big Data: A Revolution) cracks open one of the most revolutionary aspects of modern technology – the huge amount of data on our behavior it gives us access to. Technology that we take for granted, from smartphones to social networks, harvest a vast array of data on the minutiae of our lives. What we buy. Where we go. Who we talk to. What we believe. Why we believe it. And the bulk of this data is delivered, unquestioningly, in to the hands of a just a few technology providers – Google and Facebook being the market leaders.

Big data has many positive applications, but the potential for oppressive uses is undeniable. Whether it’s manufacturing consent for an election campaign to deliver the right candidate, or developing consumer products so perfectly targeted to our psychological weaknesses that we can barely resist buying them, the data is now there to facilitate unparalleled levels of control over the public. And it’s for sale, an explicit and ever more profitable part of the business of modern technology companies.”

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“A Philosophy Like That Is Immune To Empiricism”

March 18, 2013 in Excerpts, Politics | Permalink

Jonathan Chait, the excellent political writer for New York, is doing an Ask Me Anything at Reddit. A few exchanges follow.

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Question:

Taking down Paul Ryan’s budgets is consistently your Sistine Chapel. Having spent so much time examining the guy, do you think the waves of non partisan analysis of his proposals could ever shake his Randian foundation?

Jonathan Chait:

No, of course not. A philosophy like that is immune to empiricism.

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Question:

Do you see any way democrats could take back the House of Representatives in 2014? How big a structural handicap do they have?

Jonathan Chait: 

Enormous. I believe they’d need to win by 7% to carry the House — a nearly insurmountable obstacle while they hold the presidency and during an off year election when the electorate is disproportionately old and white.

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Question:

You specialize in hilarious and brutal takedowns, but do you think that limits you in some way? In other words, did you ever make the career choice not to be an Ezra Klein type reporter who stays “nice” in tone and gets rewarded with lots of access and chatter with the other side?

Jonathan Chait:

So many kind questions. Well, I respect Ezra a lot. He does amazing work. But, yes, I always saw myself as a blunt critic. I don’t like reporting much anyway. I think the onll real limit is that I’ve made a lot of enemies within the journalistic world.

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“The Car Will Make A Decision To Hit The Brakes And Avoid The Accident”

March 18, 2013 in Excerpts, Science/Tech, Urban Studies | Permalink

When autos “speak” to one another and to the highways, what will it mean? From Fredric Paul at Readwrite.com:

“Intelligent stoplights, for example, would know if there were 10 cars waiting in one direction but only 1 in the other, and adjust light timing to keep traffic moving. Along straight routes, [Maciej] Kranz said, they can build ‘green waves’ of traffic signals to keep lanes flowing efficiently.

There’s also the idea that if one car knows what other vehicles. traffic lights and other road infrastructure are doing, they can all adjust more efficiently. For example, if your car knows that the car in front is about to make a turn or start braking, it can begin reacting even before it actually senses the action.

Cisco estimates this could lead to 7.5% less time wasted in traffic congestion and 4% lower costs for vehicle fuel, repairs and insurance. The benefits are particularly obvious in fleet settings, Kanz said. For example, a company with 10,000 delivery trucks would find it very valuable to be able to use connected technology to schedule preventive maintenance.

As for preventing accidents, vehicle-to-vehicle communications could enable a connected car to alert you if you get too close to the vehicle in front of you. If you don’t respond, Kanz said, ‘at some point the car will make a decision to hit the brakes and avoid the accident.’

Cisco estimatd 8% fewer accidents, 10% lower road costs and a 3% drop in carbon dioxide emissions.”

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“MySpace Is Well On The Way To Becoming What Economists Call A ‘Natural Monopoly'”

March 17, 2013 in Excerpts, Science/Tech | Permalink

Can there truly be a monopoly in the unfettered, ever-changing online world? Can anyone really control anything? Are monopolies still possible but with remarkably brief lifespans, as disposable as hardware now is? From “Will MySpace Ever Lose Its Monopoly?” a 2007 Guardian article:

“Aristotle distinguished between friendships based on communal interests and those of soulmates who bonded out of mutual affection. The vast majority of people signed up for MySpace, Rupert Murdoch’s phenomenally successful networking site, fall into the former category. But on present showing that won’t stop its continuing expansion which, as the MySpace generation goes into employment, could eventually extend Murdoch’s influence in ways that would make his grip on satellite television seem parochial.

It was said at the time of purchase that if Murdoch tried to mess with MySpace’s ‘sharing’ culture by commercialising it, punters would simply switch to one of the dozens of clones it has spawned from Bebo.com to the upwardly mobile Cyworld.com, which has taken South Korea by storm and is now taking the battle into MySpace’s backyard in the US. Cyworld points to research showing that MySpace is a ‘rites-of-passage’ site that kids will grow out of while Cyworld is a ‘real you’ experience. It is an interesting, almost Aristotelian, distinction but some argue it may already be too late for competitors to dislodge MySpace, except in niche markets.

John Barrett of TechNewsWorld claims that MySpace is well on the way to becoming what economists call a ‘natural monopoly.’ Users have invested so much social capital in putting up data about themselves it is not worth their changing sites, especially since every new user that MySpace attracts adds to its value as a network of interacting people.”

“The Technology To Bring Humans From Mars Back To Earth Simply Does Not Exist Yet”

March 17, 2013 in Excerpts | Permalink

There’s good news from the CBC for those of you who’ve always dreamed of dying on Mars:

“The man behind the private space project dubbed Mars One is looking for people to travel to Mars, but he’s not offering a return ticket.

‘The technology to get humans to Mars and keep them alive there exists,’ Bas Lansdorp told Day 6 host Brent Bambury in an interview that aired this week on CBC Radio.

‘The technology to bring humans from Mars back to Earth simply does not exist yet.'”

“The Family’s Personalized Home Newspaper…Is Being Printed By Laser-Jet Printer Off The Home Computer”

March 17, 2013 in Excerpts, Science/Tech, Urban Studies | Permalink

“L.A. 2013,” a 1988 Los Angeles Times feature that imagined life in the future for a family of four–and their robots–dreamed too big in some cases and not big enough in others. An excerpt:

“6 A.M.

WITH A BARELY perceptible click, the Morrow house turns itself on, as it has every morning since the family had it retrofitted with the Smart House system of wiring five years ago. Within seconds, warm air whooshes out of heating ducts in the three bedrooms, while the water heater checks to make sure there’s plenty of hot water. In the kitchen, the coffee maker begins dripping at the same time the oven switches itself on to bake a fresh batch of cinnamon rolls. Next door in the study, the family’s personalized home newspaper, featuring articles on the subjects that interest them, such as financial news and stories about their community, is being printed by laser-jet printer off the home computer–all while the family sleeps.

6:30 A.M.

With a twitch, ‘Billy Rae,’ the Morrows’ mobile home robot, unplugs himself from the kitchen wall outlet–where he has been recharging for the past six hours–then wheels out of the kitchen and down the hall toward the master bedroom for his first task of the day. Raising one metallic arm, Billy Rae gently knocks on the door, calling out the Morrows’ names and the time in a pleasant, if Southern drawl: ‘Hey, y’all–rise an’ shine!’

On the other side of the door, Alma Morrow, a 44- year- old information specialist. Pulling on some sweats, Alma heads for the tiny home gym, where she slips a credit–card-size X–ER Script–her personal exercise prescription–into a slot by the door. Electronic weights come out of the wall, and Alma begins her 20-minute workout.

Meanwhile, her husband, Bill, 45, a senior executive at a Los Angeles–based multinational corporation, is having a harder time. He’s still feeling exhausted from the night before, when his 70-year-old mother, Camille, who lives with the family, accidentally fell asleep with a lighted cigarette. Minutes after the house smoke detector notified them of a potential hazard, firefighters from the local station were pounding on the front door. Camille, one of the last of the old–time smokers, had blamed the accident on these ‘newfangled Indian cigarettes’ she’s been forced to buy since India has overtaken the United States in cigarette production. Luckily, she only singed a pillow- case–and her considerable pride. Bill, however, had been unable to fall back asleep and had spent a couple of hours in the study at the personal computer, teleconferring with his counterparts in the firm’s Tokyo office. But this morning, he can’t afford to be late. With a grunt, he rolls out of bed and heads for the bathroom, where he swishes and swallows Denturinse–much easier and more effective than toothbrushing–and then hurries to get dressed. As he does, the video intercom buzzes. Camille’s collagen-improved face appears on the video screen, her gravelly voice booming over the speaker. Bill clicks off the camera on his side so Camille can’t see him in his boxer shorts, then talks to her. She tells him she wants him to drive her downtown to finalize her retirement plan with her attorney. Knowing this will make him late, he suggests that Alma could drop Camille off at the law firm’s branch office in the Granada Hills Community Center. Camille reluctantly agrees– much to Alma’s chagrin–then buzzes off. When the couple heads for the kitchen, they leave the bed unmade: Billy Rae can change the sheets.”

“The Rate, However, Isn’t Slow Enough For Humans To Take Blood From An Amber-Encased Mosquito And Clone Dinosaurs”

March 15, 2013 in Excerpts, Science/Tech | Permalink

Via Amber Williams at PopSci, daunting news for those who wish to use DNA to reanimate dinosaurs, so that they can kill us all:

“DNA is a sturdy molecule; it can hang around for a long time in fossilized plants and animals. To find out just how long, an international team of scientists decided to determine its rate of decay—the length of time it takes half of its bonds to break.

First, the scientists extracted and measured the amount of DNA in 158 tibiotarsus leg bones of extinct moa, 12-foot, flightless birds that once roamed New Zealand. Next, they used radiocarbon dating to calculate the ages of the bones, which ranged from about 650 years old to 7,000 years old. With that data, the scientists calculated the hereditary molecule’s half-life: about 521 years.

The rate, however, isn’t slow enough for humans to take blood from an amber-encased mosquito and clone dinosaurs, like in Jurassic Park.”

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“We Are Seeing An Expanding Array Of Sizes, Shapes, And Forms, Some Inspired By Nature”

March 15, 2013 in Excerpts, Politics, Science/Tech, Urban Studies | Permalink

P.W. Singer, author of Wired for War, gets to the essence of the future of drones in a new Foreign Policy article: size matters. When an unmanned system is the size of a bird–the size of a flea–privacy, borders and security may be all but over. An excerpt:

“What really matters is not just the proliferation to an ever greater number of countries, but the proliferating makeup and uses of the technology itself. The first generation of unmanned systems was much like the manned systems they were replacing — some models actually had cockpits that were just painted over. Now, we are seeing an expanding array of sizes, shapes, and forms, some inspired by nature.

Within this trend, the size issue is important to discussions of armed drones. It is not just that drones are becoming smaller, but they are also carrying smaller and smaller munitions. So, if you want, for example, to carry out a targeted killing, do you need to send a MQ-9 Reaper carrying a JDAM or a set of Hellfire missiles? Or would a guided missile the size of a rolled up magazine, or a tiny bomb the size of a beer can that is equipped with GPS (both already tested out at China Lake) fit the bill instead, especially if it comes with less collateral damage? And if that smaller weapon is all that you need, do you need a drone the size of an F-16 to carry it?

While the discussion of the proliferation of armed drones has focused on those countries that field large systems, we will soon have to address those that have smaller systems.”

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