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10. what would aleksandr solzhenitsyn have thought of putin?

This week, President George W. Bush, who watched indifferently as New Orleans sank, returned to finish the job with a rain dance.

• Old Print Articles: George Bernard Shaw was an early anti-vaxxer (1948) + Thomas Edison received celebrations at life’s end (1931).

• Grandpa F. Trump was a “whoremaster.” In retrospect, he was the classy one.

• Evan Osnos explores the meaning of Trump’s early support.

• Racist Presidential candidates shouldn’t be viewed as mere entertainment.

• Lawrence Lessig wants to clean up U.S. politics, but his scheme is quixotic.

• President George W. Bush strummed while New Orleans drowned.

• Louis Menand’s criticisms of Joan Didion’s journalism seem wrong to me.

• Buzz Aldrin is spearheading an attempt to establish Mars colonies.

• Joseph Stiglitz offers a straightforward prescription for wealth inequality.

• The Housing First initiative solves problems, yet is unpopular in the U.S.

• Uber, supposed champion of Labor, wants to get rid of all of its drivers.

• For an indeterminate length, robot drivers and human ones will share the road.

• Biomimetics has progressed remarkably in the last decade.

• The U.S. Army Research Lab sees combat being very robotized by 2050.

• Forrester Reports offers a relatively sanguine take on automation.

• Robotics could make war relatively safer, but that may not be the goal.

• Technological obstacles, as well as legal ones, are delaying autonomous cars.

• Frank Pasquale warns that algorithms that judge us must also be judged.

• Andrew McAfee argues in favor of zero-cost services, though they’re not free.

• Modern Gold Rush towns in North Dakota are unsurprisingly complex places.

• Aubrey de Grey aims to “cure aging,” is frustrated by the response to his work.

• Julian Baggini explains why ISIS attacks on antiquities are so troubling.

• As ex-NFLer Chris Borland attests, you can’t make modern football safe.

• In 1979, cinema was still the center of Jack Nicholson’s universe.

• Steve Ross rose from the funeral biz to the head of Warner Communications.

• The Zoo Zajac is Germany is the world’s largest pet store.

• A brief note from 1891 about show biz.

• A brief note from 1910 about a Texas snake farm.

• A brief note from 1895 about cowboys on bikes.

• This week’s Afflictor keyphrase searches.

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This week, Maureen Dowd, who inexplicably used her column to yuk it up with fascist combover Donald Trump, is interviewing two more amusing guys to write a snappy piece about film and food.

• Old Print Articles: “Billy” Breakenridge recalls being a lawman in 1870s Tombstone, Arizona (1929) + Julius and Ethel Rosenberg are visited on death row by their sons (1953).

• Maureen Dowd of the NYT apparently thinks Donald Trump’s racism and xenophobia are a laugh riot, treating him like an amusing character rather than the hatemonger he is. 

• Jodi Kantor and David Streitfeld outdid themselves with their Amazon profile. 

• Tesla could possibly operate an autonomous EV taxi fleet by 2025.

• Unfortunately, it’s not a sure thing robots will rise up and kill us all.

• Every American home may soon have utilize a helpful drone.

• A $15 minimum wage may speed up the automation of fast-food franchises.

• In 1999, Michael Crichton made some poor predictions about the future.

• Philosopher David Pearce wants to engineer all suffering out of existence.

• Frank Wilczek believe CERN may make a bigger discovery than Higgs-Boson.

• William Friedkin explains why so many 1970 films were singular visions.

• Unsurprisingly, Frederick Wiseman is not a Reality TV fan.

• A brief note from 1869 about an impractical invention.

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Miss me? No?!?

Should be back tomorrow. Don’t do anything rash!–Darren

Will get back to posting once things are resolved.–Darren

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

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This week, President Trump’s behavior shockingly wasn’t the ugliest thing in the country.

• Old Print Article: A robot drill instructor joins the U.S. military (1928).

• A campaign based on insult and bigotry isn’t ruined by insult and bigotry.

• As Paul Krugman reminds, GOP hopefuls were wrong about the economy.

• Sen. Claire McCaskill admits she aided Todd Akin’s Republican campaign.

• In Paul Mason’s utopian vision, governments provide basic income.

• Garry Wills thinks William F. Buckley’s political influence was overstated.

• Peter Georgescu wants to combat wealth inequality to save capitalism. 

• In a lively AMA, Jerry Kaplan discusses technological unemployment.

• The future of work will not be decided by technology alone.

• Mariana Mazzucato says Silicon Valley is indebted to the public sector.

• Automation is complicating things for Indian Prime Minister Modi.

• Autonomous cars will likely end the frustrating search for parking spots.

• Gill Pratt of DARPA thinks robotics may soon have a Cambrian moment.

• Ron Rosenbaum writes of E.L. Doctorow’s Singularity fears.

• David Foster Wallace was flawed, but at least he didn’t write Less Than Zero.

• Pico Iyer explains Japanese indifference toward architectural preservation.

• Iyer examines Las Vegas and Pyongyang, two cities rooted in fantasy.

• In 1963, Hugo Gernsback predicted “instant newspapers.”

• In 1971, Charles Eames curated a Manhattan computer expo.

• Global fertility rates seem to be on a steep decline. The implications are many.

• Frank Gifford’s death reminded of Fred Exley’s connection to him.

• Some transhumanist ideas about prison reform seem criminal.

• U.S. police forces are introducing facial-recognition systems.

• We might be able to limit autonomous weapons, at least for now.

• The water crisis, not terrorism, is likely the biggest threat to global peace.

• In 1949, Robert Heinlein took Americans on a test run to the moon.

• Physicist Gerard O’Neill inspired psychedelic space-colony designs.

• Astronauts are growing vegetables in microgravity environments.

• A brief note from 1857 about an overdose.

• A brief note from 1911 about hair tonic.

• This week’s Afflictor keyphrase searches.

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7. father yod los angeles cult leader
8. attack on the pieta by laszlo toth
9. genetic supermarket
10. william s. burroughs and scientology

This week, President Trump, who suggested Megyn Kelly was menstruating during the GOP debate, tried to win back women voters with a new campaign poster featuring female supporters.

• Old Print Articles: Ernest Hemingway, clearly compensating, discusses big-game hunting. (1934)

• Recently Posted on NYC’s Craigslist: Free housing and free Tupperware? I bet there’s a catch. + Are you a well-groomed young professional who resembles a scrotum?

• Donald Trump tripped at the GOP debate, but it’s a short fall from the gutter.

• Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz thinks he understands politics.

• It might not end for Nikki Finke the way it did for Gaddafi. Time will tell.

• Barbara Ehrenreich points out that many poverty reporters are impoverished.

• Radical gerontologist Aubrey de Grey believes we’re close to a-mortality.

• Dwight Garner reviews a new bio of poet-pimp Iceberg Slim.

• Before Digital Revolution abundance, there will probably be turbulence.

• David Amsden explores the privatization of French Quarter policing.

• Christopher Mims says the transformative experience of VR is near. 

• Rachel Nuwer of the BBC wonders how many jobs machines will take.

• Anna Nicolaou and Paul Solman investigate Labor’s new reality.

• Louis Hyman says we shouldn’t fight tech progress, but prepare for it.

• Jerry Kaplan believes women will fare better in an automated world. Perhaps.

• Dave Berreby opines on those strange moments when AI seems like ET.

• Data almost certainly contains biases, knowingly or not.

• Mikhail Gorbachev holds America responsible for the continuing nuclear reality.

• By 2030, California will no longer sell fossil-fuel cars.

• NFL running back Arian Foster discusses being an atheist in the Bible Belt.

• Humane Society CEO Wayne Pacelle examines the movement’s history.

• In 2001, Clive Thompson wrote about Cyc, an attempt at true AI.

• NYC is increasingly hostile to working-class and poor people.

• Top-down urban developments are usually disappointingly non-Utopian.

• In a posthumous piece, James Salter writes of the Wright brothers.

• The future of rail travel might not look much different than the present.

• Stephen Petranek thinks some of us will live on Mars in 20 years.

• Smithsonian spacesuit curator Cathleen Lewis did an AMA.

• In 1975, Businessweek imagined the office of the future.

• It is rumored the New Yorker is profiling TMZ. Sounds fun.

• A brief note from 1910 about a talking dog.

• A brief note from 1859 about an innocent plea.

• A brief note from 1886 about Jules Verne.

• This week’s Afflictor keyphrase searches.

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6. atheist madalyn murray o’hair prayer in space
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10. all watched over by machines of loving grace

This week, Donald Trump appeared much more Presidential after his son Donnie Boy Jr. cut off Dad’s vestigial tail.

Now you look less like a donkey and Satan, Pops.

Good. I don’t need more bad publicity.

• Old Print Articles: NYC millionaires barricade their mansions (1905) + “Professor” Alphonse King tries to walk across Niagara River on tin shoes (1886).

• In 2007, Lynn Hirschberg wrote knowingly of the new celebrity culture.

• Elon Musk is interesting, from his space helmet down to his feet of clay.

• President Trump is turning the GOP into even more of a clown car.

• Nicholas Carr wryly tackles Amazon’s new scheme of paying authors.

• In 1961, Hunter S. Thompson wrote of Henry Miller in Big Sur.

• In 1997, Thompson considered the impact of the Internet.

• The Buckley-Vidal feud was more entertainment than journalism.

• Camille Paglia says some stuff about Bill Cosby and Bill Clinton.

• In 2014, Nick Denton said the Internet is a “secret-spilling machine.”

• Margaret Atwood imagines future scenarios climate change may bring.

• It’s difficult to put a dollar figure on climate-change catastrophe.

• In Choire Sicha’s Cli-Fi apocalypse, Wikipedia might reboot civilization.

• Companies are using non-traditional data to judge potential customers.

• CVS will be using technology to track customer health.

• Surveillance of student performance is being experimented with.

• Despite being bad for Labor, Uber outmaneuvered Mayor de Blasio.

• NASA thinks it can radically reduce the cost of a moon colony.

• If we lived to 150, how would our careers be different?

• There are relatively few female futurists. Why?

• The BBC considers the factors delaying driverless cars.

• Protests against AI warfare might work–at least for now.

• A female sprinter with a high natural T-level is cleared to compete.

• Juliet Macur examines the thorny issue of determining gender in sports.

• Robotics will likely become an important part of athletics.

• Certain news brands have become attractive purchases.

• Macroeconomics might have outlived its usefulness.

• In 2003, Jim Holt addressed Bill McKibben’s robot nightmares.

• A new Marlon Brando doc utilizes his 3-D doppelganger.

• A brief note from 1898 about tattooed dogs.

• A brief note from 1885 about a headless chicken.

• This week’s Afflictor keyphrase searches.

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This week, President Trump had to be concerned when another American with similar views began to steal attention from him.

• Old Print Articles: Budapest boasts a successful telephone-newspaper (1902) + The Widow Houdini fails to conjure her husband (1936/47).

• Donald Trump will go away, but the angry mob will remain.

• The 2 worst parts about David Brooks’ op-ed about Ta-Nehisi Coates.

• A.O. Scott visits Comic-Con, America’s soul in some ways.

• Being an “Instagram comedian” doesn’t necessarily mean you’re funny.

• 10 things that happened since Chuck Todd said Obama was “over.”

• Spiegel asks Julian Assange about the “digital colonization of the world.”

• Tim Harford considers how quickly ideas spread now.

• Reid Hoffman thinks through the future of networked cars.

• Cloning science has made a serious impression in the sport of polo.

• Making machines that are ethical will be a grand challenge.

• Vivek Wadhwa believes tech progress will require political solutions.

• Despite what Gov. Cuomo says, Uber is not good for Labor.

• Hotel jobs may soon be shifted from humans to AI.

• Technological change, as well as social change, may be accelerating.

• The meaning of the word “computer” will continue to change.

• China may be industrialization’s final success story.

• Transforming Beijing into a city of 130 million isn’t easy.

• Kevin Kelly expects homes and cities to look the same in 1,000 years.

• John Markoff looks at the history of AI and Intelligence Augmentation.

• In 1970, Shakey the robot was considered the “first electronic person.”

• If we do discover alien life in space, then what?

• The Internet of Things will bring with it serious security concerns.

• Ai Weiwei considers the intersection of technology and art.

• E.L. Doctorow was a literary great and commercial success.

• A brief note from 1911 about President Taft.

• A brief note from 1924 about a fly farmer.

• A brief note from 1911 about a gigantic flea.

• Recently Posted on NYC’s Craigslist: Steve Jobs’ vision is still improving lives + And now a word from our sponsor Afrin Nasal Spray.

• This week’s Afflictor keyphrase searches.

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

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6. google x and bell labs
7. they’re fucking broke george carlin
8. alvin toffler’s ideas about education
9. virtual assistants will have enormous power
10. was donald trump fired from the apprentice?

This week, President Trump stated that John McCain “was a war hero because he was captured and I like people who weren’t captured.” That’s harsh, but let’s remember that time Trump bravely refused to hide in a bunker.

• Old Print Articles: An amphibious automobile is successfully tested in NYC (1907) + A look back a nude colonial American wedding (1934).

• Recently Posted on NYC’s Craigslist: Here’s one phone call I hope the NSA is recording.

• Douglas Coupland sees our future as a deluge of data.

• John Markoff tries to make sense of a robotic, automated tomorrow.

• Paul Mason thinks information technology will end capitalism.

• The Internet of Things eventually will be the Internet of NO Things.

• Babies engineered for higher IQs are probably inevitable.

• Michael Graziano tries to make an artificial brain aware of a tennis ball.

• In 1994, Marvin Minsky wondered if robots would inherit the Earth.

• Japan’s new robot hotel does not need any human workers.

• The airport of the future will likely be filled with robots and sensors.

• In 2005, Tim Weiner wrote about the future of the robot soldier.

• Minus commercial airlines, we’d be the 1950s with the Internet.

• In 1966, Gene Shalit’s mustache investigated the world of computer dating.

• Peter Diamandis thinks we will soon have a “world of perfect knowledge.”

• Some folks still believe Uber cares about Labor. It does not.

• The Hyperloop might work better on Mars, but it was intended for our planet.

• Radical life extension would change the very nature of marriage.

• Is there a link between mental illness and economic development?

• Donald Trump is the price the GOP pays for no immigration reform.

• Noam Scheiber argues that economy’s Uberization began in the ’70s.

• Against all odds, Vladimir Nabokov wrote a Great American Novel.

• Spiegel managed to interview a rare member of ISIS captured alive.

• Slavoj Žižek believes modern China an experiment that might explode.

• Johann-Dietrich Woerner of the European Space Agency wants a moon colony.

• We should probably already be thinking about smart-city problems.

• Corporate “space states” could eventually become a reality.

• Royal College of Art students rethink car design for the driverless age.

• The late Hollywood agent Jerry Weintraub possessed amazing access.

• In 1970, Chip Oliver left the NFL to join a commune.

• In 1974, John Newcombe gave tennis lessons via LP record.

• A brief note from 1943 about Zorita the snake girl.

• A brief note from 1909 about a thirsty burro.

• A brief note from 1954 about telephone watches.

• This week’s Afflictor keyphrase searches.

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6. tom brokaw interviewing joan didion
7. the death of walter winchell
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10. 130-year-old former slave watching moon landing

This week, President Trump said he’ll never stand idly by as Obama recently did while an act of domestic terrorism was being committed.

Why does this cruller taste like Minnie Mouse took a crap on it?

• Old Print Articles: British scientist W.D. Verschoyle wanted to shoot people through the sky in giant bullets (1928) + Friedrich Nietzsche dies, is mocked (1900).

• Recently Posted on NYC’s Craigslist: Ultimately, Shasta and her husband couldn’t make it work.

• Tim & Eric’s Zone Theory is a book that will improve your diarrhea.

• In the 1960s, Oriana Fallaci profiled Federico Fellini and Alfred Hitchcock.

• Ai Weiwei discusses his state of mind and the surveillance state.

• NASA is considering having robots terraform a piece of the moon.

• There may be a shadow biosphere, but we’re not really looking for it.

• Some aspects of the Sharing Economy are exciting, but there are issues.

• Five years on, Kevin Kelly’s What Technology Wants is a classic.

• Jobs behind the wheels of buses, taxis and trucks could disappear quickly.

• Autonomous vehicles might already be a cost-effective alternative to taxis.

• “Labor champion” and Uber CEO Travis Kalanick wants driverless cars.

• Some Uber drivers wouldn’t be able to afford to work for the company FT.

• One Japanese airport is turning to robot laborers.

• Agricultural drones will make farming more efficient, replace human workers. 

• The Chicago open-outcry trading pits are disrupted by technology.

• Some mega-rich people are concerned about wealth inequality.

• The economics of the minimum wage are puzzling and often partisan.

• The Economist looks at Elon Musk and the modern tech-hero culture.

• In the wake of the Hacking Team hack, John McAfee defends the Dark Net.

• The Rework America think-tank tries to make sense of the new economy.

• George Packer thinks we need better revolutionary “pamphleteers.”

• Algorithms, like people, can have intended and unintended biases.

• The desire to deny death can lead us down dangerous paths.

• ISIS brutality has more to do with being human than being Muslim.

• Shopping catalogs, like Taylor Swift, are selling fantasy lifestyles.

• “Short-sleepers” have more time for life than you and me.

• A brief note from 1927 about a stroller.

• A brief note from 1864 about the new hangman.

• A brief note from 1901 about chicken theft.

• This week’s Afflictor keyphrase searches.