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“A Word That Sounds A Lot Like ‘Huh?’ Gets The Job Done”

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

Huh?

Huh?

If you had asked me what word or phase is universally understood, I wouldn’t have guessed “huh?” would be it. It’s not a word I ever use. Maybe that’s why I’m so misunderstood. From Karen Hopkin at Scientific American:

“So they eavesdropped on nearly 200 conversations in 10 different tongues, from Italian to Icelandic. And they found that, in language after language, a word that sounds a lot like ‘huh?’ gets the job done. For example, [international huhs]. It’s short and sweet so it’s likely to stop the speaker before the listener gets too lost. And it sounds like a question [more international huhs], so it warrants a response. 

The sound appears not to be innate. Babies don’t use it before they say mama. But most five-year-olds are masters of ‘huh?’ No matter where they come from.”

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“Many A 2 And 3-Car Garage Is Being Transformed Into A Workshop Or Small Store”

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

Duing the ’80s and ’90s, dire predictions said that violent crime in America was going to grow far worse, even as the rate was beginning to plummet. Could the same be true of traffic, which we seem to accept will only become more severe? Ownership of cars and motorcycles declined even before the Great Recession, as personal technology became more important to young Americans. They “drive” in their smartphones now. But for people who’ve always known congestion and jams, it’s difficult to imagine this brave new world. I think some points in “What Happened to Traffic?” David Levinson’s retrofuturist post at the Transportationist blog are too hopeful, but it’s a piece very worth reading. An excerpt:

“Workers no longer ‘go’ to work 6 days a week. Workers got Saturday off in the mid-20th Century. Getting every-other Friday off (the 5/4 schedule) became standard by 2015, establishing the 3-day weekend every other week as the norm. By 2020, this was every weekend, as people moved to a 9 hour day, 4 days per week at the office, and the other 4 hours were ‘at home’ work – checking email on the long weekend, erasing once strict separation of home and work. By 2025 taking every-other Monday off (the 4/3 schedule) was established in most large employers. Today we are seeing half-days on Wednesdays for many office workers, with only Tuesdays, Wednesday, and Thursdays as interactive collaboration days. The ‘flipped’ office, where people were expected to do “work” at home on their own computers, and only show up for meetings is now standard.

The empty office buildings across the landscape led to the famous Skyscraper Crash, the Real Estate Office – fueled recession of 2021. Many of those empty buildings were converted to apartments, as we had about twice as much office space as we needed with the new work arrangements. Some cities were virtually abandoned by business in this process. This helped undercut new residential construction in the suburbs, and suburban land prices fell, attracting lower income immigrants, who subdivided large tract mansions into housing for large extended families, and leading to a measurable ‘white-flight’ back to the center city. So while the suburbs were now less expensive, some actually gained population. Lower income residents still own cars, but not as many, and many a 2 and 3-car garage is being transformed into a workshop or small store.”

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“You’d Think the Thrill Might Wear Off This Whole Renewable Energy Investing Thing After A While”

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

When I suggested recently that Google and Amazon should own their own solar farms so that they could control costs and hopefully sell carbon-neutral energy they way they do cloud space, I wasn’t aware that the Page-Brin company was already in the business and about to invest in solar in an even bigger way. From Shan Li at Los Angeles Times:

“Google Inc. plans to invest $80 million in six utility-scale solar facilities in California and Arizona as the tech behemoth continues to put money toward alternative energy projects.

The Mountain View, Calif., company will partner with solar developer Recurrent Energy and private equity firm KKR & Co. on the projects, which are estimated to generate enough combined electricity to power more than 17,000 homes, Google said in a blog post.

‘You’d think the thrill might wear off this whole renewable energy investing thing after a while,’ Google wrote on its official blog. ‘Nope — we’re still as into it as ever, which is why we’re so pleased to announce our 14th investment.’

In 2011, Google hooked up with KKR and Recurrent on four solar facilities south of Sacramento that have since started generating power. The tech giant said it has committed more than $1 billion in total on green energy projects around the globe.”

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“Game Theory Says That When You Are Last To Bid, You Should Bid One Dollar More Than The Highest Bidder”

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

In his Slate piece, “Winning on The Price Is Right,” Ben Blatt explains how game theory can make a contestant a winner on the popular TV show even if that person has never been shopping in his or her life:

“In one instance, when Margie was the last contestant to bid, she guessed the retail price of an oven was $1,150. There had already been one bid for $1,200 and another for $1,050. She therefore could only win if the actual price was between $1,150 and $1,200. Since she was the last to bid, she could have guessed $1051, expanding her range by almost $100 (any price from $1051 to $1199 would have made her a winner), with no downside. What she really should have done, however, is bid $1,201. Game theory says that when you are last to bid, you should bid one dollar more than the highest bidder. You obviously won’t win every time, but in the last 1,500 Contestants’ Rows to have aired, had final bidders committed to this strategy, they would have won 54 percent of the time. Instead, last bidders too often rely on their intuition, or on suggestions called out by delirious audience members. As a result, they have won only 35 percent of the time. Contestants in this sample of 1,500 who guessed a value between the highest and second-highest current guesses, as Margie did, win only 20 percent of the time. In this instance, the oven cost $1,999. Margie lost again.”

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“Do We Make Too Much Of The PEDs?”

November 15, 2013 in Excerpts, Film, Science/Tech, Sports, Videos | Permalink

There are reasons to dislike Lance Armstrong. For instance, he’s a bully and a liar. That’s enough. But while he broke the rules of his sport with PEDs, labeling him a cheat is problematic. It’s even hypocritical. From students to classical musicians to truck drivers, people are using drugs to aid them in their endeavors. But for some reason, athletes are held to a higher standard. In fact, in sometimes they’re denied legitimate medical treatments because the rules of their games are so arbitrary. We’ll all be relying on enhanced performance more and more in the future, so perhaps we should have an honest discussion about what “cheating” means. I think we avoid that conversation in the name of maintaining some sense of “purity” that never existed. Athletes have always cheated and so have the rest of us. For some reason, some of it is considered permissible and some isn’t. We need to sort that out.

From an excellent interview that Grantland’s Bill Simmons conducted with Alex Gibney, The Armstrong Lie director:

“Bill Simmons:

What about the part when people talk about what is cheating and what isn’t cheating and what is performance enhancement and what isn’t? So, I’m a pitcher, I blow out my arm, they pull a ligament out of some dead guy, they sew it into my arm and I can pitch again. That’s legal. I can’t write anything in the morning unless I have 20 ounces of coffee. Caffeine. That’s legal. That’s fine. We like coffee, all of us like coffee. Let’s say Lance takes HGH which is given from patients aged 60 and older to help them recover faster from surgeries or just feel better, whatever.

Alex Gibney:

Well, they use to give EPO to cancer patients to regenerate blood cells.

Bill Simmons:

Right, these are things given to people to make them feel better, but with athletes we draw the line. No, they can’t do that. That’s bad, they can’t do that. If Lance blew out his knee, he could put a dead guy’s ligament in his knee and that’s fine. Think about it. We’ve never really made sense of what makes sense and we doesn’t make sense.

Alex Gibney:

That’s what led somebody like [Armstrong’s coach Michele] Ferrari to be totally cynical. They keep making up these rules. You can sleep in an altitude tent, but you can’t take EPO. What’s sense does that make? But on the other hand, I think we can say that cheating is breaking the rules.”

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Old Print Article: “Man With Two Brains,” Brooklyn Daily Eagle (1901)

November 15, 2013 in Old Print Articles, Science/Tech, Urban Studies | Permalink

"There seem to be no limitation upon his ability to do wonders in arithmetic."

“There seem to be no limitation upon his ability to do wonders in arithmetic.”

So-called “Lightning Calculators” were sideshow performers more than a century ago who could solve complicated mathematical problems in their heads in front of live audiences. Few had the facility for numbers displayed by Jacques Inaudi (1867-1950), an Italian who toured extensively with vaudeville shows demonstrating his prodigious abilities. The Brooklyn Daily Eagle profiled the math man on October 15, 1901 (and misidentified his nationality). An excerpt:

“To make a real hit, mathematics in vaudeville have to be of a sensational character. The old time lightning calculator, with his demonstrations and short processes, would depreciate to the vanishing point if compared with Jacques Inaudi, ‘the man with the double brain,’ at the Orpheum this week. Inaudi is a Frenchman and his English is limited but there seem to be no limitation upon his ability to do wonders in arithmetic.

One blackboard isn’t enough for him; so his assistant operates five in a row. Ordinary examples apparently bore him; so, if given an option, he chooses something in the trillions. His assistant, who wears a big black mustache and a dress suit, has to work much harder, physically, than Inaudi. The latter, who faces the audience from a little projecting platform, never looks at the blackboard, but repeats the numbers given him from various parts of the house for his manager, and stage assistant, to write with Parisian flourishes. Then, when the sum in addition, subtraction, cube root or what not, is complete, the manager works it out in sight of the audience but, quick as he is, Monsieur Inaudi finished before him and gives the correct answer to the people in the front.

"One blackboard isn't enough for him; so his assistant operates five in a row."

“One blackboard isn’t enough for him; so his assistant operates five in a row.”

Last night Inaudi asked first for material for a sum in subtraction. Various three figure combinations were shouted here and there, with the result that when the top of the five boards had been filled to overflowing Inaudi had a proposition like  this–not before–but behind him: Subtract 297, 122, 999, 492, 322, 260 from 495, 876, 711, 411, 460, 594. It was not the sort of a sum that the ordinary school sharp would care to tackle mentally, but Monsieur Inaudi did it, with his back turned to the board; and he did something else beside. This is where the double brain theory gained its notoriety. All the while that Inaudi was calculating in amounts rather more than the average man’s spending money, he was answering questions, as to the week days of certain dates, from anybody in the audience. Many men fired the date of their birth at him and received back instantly the day of the week. A glance at the questioner’s face was enough to indicate that Inaudi’s answer had been the right one.

In the meantime the hard working manager at the blackboard had been taking violent exercise in subtraction.

‘Haf you finished?’ asked Inaudi, from his place out by the footlights.

‘Non, non,’ was the answer, ‘It ees not quite.’

‘I haf finished,’ said Inaudi, calmly.

There, still looking straight ahead, the Frenchman gave the answer, the same as that which had been worked out on the blackboard: 98, 753, 711, 919, 138, 334. After that came multiplication, square root and finally Monsieur Inaudi repeated without a falter, from beginning to end, every figure that appeared on the blackboard up stage.

Inaudi and his manager were the very pink of politeness when an Eagle man saw them later in their dressing room. More tests in mathematics followed and with them every suspicion of possible treachery vanished.

‘What were you before making use of your ability at figures?’ the reporter asked.

‘Monsieur Inaudi was a shepherd,’ his manager replied for him, ‘a shepherd, with hees sheep, in France. One day, years, ago, he came to Marseilles. A strangaire there learned what he could do in mathematiques. He heard him and took him to Paree. Since then he has been before scienteests, doctairs and all–and all say, ‘Monsieur Inaudi ees a man with two brains.’

‘Have you got a memory for other matters like your memory for figures?’

‘It ees for feegures only,’ said Inaudi, answering for himself.” 

“An Attendant Slips A Plastic Bag Inside A Lubricated Plastic Sleeve Around The Head”

November 14, 2013 in Excerpts, Science/Tech, Urban Studies | Permalink

Even if I wasn’t born months premature, purple and being choked by an umbilical cord, I would still be awed by a new and unlikely invention from an Argentine car mechanic that eases difficult births. It looks dangerous, but it’s a lifesaver. From Donald G. McNeil Jr. at the New York Times: 

“With the Odón Device, an attendant slips a plastic bag inside a lubricated plastic sleeve around the head, inflates it to grip the head and pulls the bag until the baby emerges.

Doctors say it has enormous potential to save babies in poor countries, and perhaps to reduce cesarean section births in rich ones.

‘This is very exciting,’ said Dr. Mario Merialdi, the W.H.O.’s chief coordinator for improving maternal and perinatal health and an early champion of the Odón Device. ‘This critical moment of life is one in which there’s been very little advancement for years.’

About 10 percent of the 137 million births worldwide each year have potentially serious complications, Dr. Merialdi said. About 5.6 million babies are stillborn or die quickly, and about 260,000 women die in childbirth. Obstructed labor, which can occur when a baby’s head is too large or an exhausted mother’s contractions stop, is a major factor.”

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“There’s An ‘Interesting Opportunity To Make A Supersonic Vertical Takeoff Landing Jet'”

November 14, 2013 in Excerpts, Science/Tech, Urban Studies | Permalink

Just to annoy George Clooney, Elon Musk believes he can build an electric supersonic jet. From Damon Lavrinc at Wired:

“At the New York Times DealBook conference, Musk said there’s an ‘interesting opportunity to make a supersonic vertical takeoff landing jet,’ something he began to envision after the Concorde service ended nearly a decade ago.

The physics of getting enough power on board an electric aircraft to not only carry passengers, but maintain a supersonic speed, is still decades away. Not that it matters to Musk. Like the Hyperloop, it’s something he doesn’t have time to commit to developing. At least, not yet.”

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In 1968, Braniff predicts the future of air travel:

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“It’s The Rapid Increase In Machines’ Ability To Substitute For Intelligent Human Labor That Presages The Greater Disruption”

November 14, 2013 in Excerpts, Politics, Science/Tech, Urban Studies | Permalink

“The Robots Are Here” is an excellent, thought-provoking article by Tyler Cowen at Politico Magazine which considers what our progress with data and automation has wrought. If you’re not familiar with the George Mason economist’s work, this piece is a wonderful entry point. He begins by looking at the prescience of an Isaac Asimov story which predicted the intersection of deep data and the democratic process. An excerpt:

“Nearly 60 years after Asimov anticipated a decidedly dramatic intrusion of machines into our politics, we may not (yet) be offloading our democratic responsibilities to computers, but we are empowering them to reshape our economy and society in ways that could be just as profound. The rise of smart machines—technologies that encompass everything from artificial intelligence to industrial robots to the smartphones in our pockets—is changing how we live, work and play. Less acknowledged, perhaps, is what all this technological change portends: nothing short of a new political order. The productivity gains, the medical advances, the workplace reorganizations and the myriad other upheavals that will define the coming automation age will create new economic winners and losers; it will reorient our demographics; and undoubtedly, it will transform what we demand from our government.

The rise of the machines builds on deeper economic trends that are already roiling American society, including stagnant growth since 2001 and a greater openness to trade and foreign outsourcing. But it’s the rapid increase in machines’ ability to substitute for intelligent human labor that presages the greater disruption. We’re on the verge of having computer systems that understand the entirety of human ‘natural language,’ a problem that was considered a very tough one only a few years ago. We’re close to the point when we can fit the (articulable) knowledge of the entire world into the palm of our hands. Self-driving cars are making their way onto streets in California and Nevada. Whether you are a factory worker or an accountant, a waitress or a doctor, this is the wave that will lift you or dump you.”

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“And Don’t Forget The 420,000 Gallons Of Horse Urine Flowing Through The Streets Each Week”

November 14, 2013 in Excerpts, Science/Tech, Urban Studies | Permalink

Matt Novak’s Paleofuture blog, housed now at Gizmodo, is one of the very best things birthed on the Internet. In a recent post, Novak examines an unrealized “centralized street-vacuum system” that was proposed in 1922 to help New York City curb its pollution problem. The opening:

“New York City at the turn of the 20th century was a pretty pungent place. Piles of garbage, millions of people cooking food, and about 2.5 million pounds of horse manure emptied into the streets per day will do that to a city. And don’t forget the 420,000 gallons of horse urine flowing through the streets each week. But some forward-thinking New Yorkers had an idea to clean up the city: establish a citywide central vacuum system.

The August 1922 issue of Science and Invention magazine proposed this innovative vacuum system for the Big Apple and claimed that it would save the city hundreds of thousands of dollars. The magazine claimed that the new system — which could be run privately, or preferably managed by the city — would also eliminate many diseases and drastically cut the mortality rate.

Science and Invention explained that the vacuum pipes needed for such a system wouldn’t be so different from the water and gas pipes that were already running through the streets.”

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“The Times Itself Will Likely Have To Eventually ‘Leave’ The Times”

November 13, 2013 in Excerpts, Science/Tech, Urban Studies | Permalink

Things are cyclical in the media business as they are in every other business. But when print was king you would never have seen the type of mass exodus of high-profile talent from the New York Times that it’s experienced in recent weeks. Because the Times isn’t part of a gigantic multi-platform corporation or flush with new-media cash, it’s at a decided disadvantage in fending off challengers for its best writers, reporters and thinkers. Just compare the financials of the Sulzberger-run company to, say, ESPN, which poached Nate Silver because it could offer him any amount of money it felt like and all the outlets he desires for his numbers. That’s not to say the Times isn’t still excellent and can’t attract more talent, but it will be difficult to maintain morale and quality if the bleeding continues.

Reading news stories about the departures yesterday, I thought that the Times itself will likely have to eventually “leave” the Times. I mean that the company will ultimately have to abandon the independence it’s always enjoyed and become another piece in a multimedia behemoth. I don’t see any other answer, though I’d like to be wrong.•

“This Could Be One Of The Craziest Extensions Of That Philosophy To Date”

November 13, 2013 in Excerpts, Science/Tech, Urban Studies | Permalink

The Urbee is space-age car that is manufactured via 3D printer. It’s so highly fuel efficient that the makers are about to see if the second iteration of the auto can drive cross country on just ten gallons of gasoline. I would guess someday most cars will be manufactured this way, though they’ll be a market for “hand-crafted” cars the way there are for shoes and such. From Michael Kwan at Mobilemag:

“Even though we’ll keep getting talk about hydrogen fuel cells and fully electric vehicles, there is still a lot more to be said about just getting more fuel efficient vehicles at all. And this could be one of the craziest extensions of that philosophy to date.

For starters, the Urbee 2 is a car that was built using 3D printing, rather than more conventional manufacturing methods. They aim to drive the car clear across the United States on just ten gallons of fuel. To put this in perspective, the first Urbee was already able to achieve over 200mpg on the highway.”

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“I Wanted People To Feel The Passion And The Elation Of Being In The Revolution”

November 13, 2013 in Excerpts, Science/Tech, Urban Studies, Videos | Permalink

Economist Tyler Cowen suggests that video games are the low-hanging fruit of education, and that’s probably true. There are financial hurdles to overcome, but it would be great if textbooks were interactive and engaging. Game isn’t bad because they’re games, and we should probably stop resisting their allure on an institutional level and make them work for us. Of course the limitation of history books applies to gaming as well: The education is only good as the veracity and objectivity of the story being told.

A small step into the educational camp is being attempted by Navid Khonsari, a Grand Theft Auto veteran who’s trying to raise money to create a video game about the Iranian Revolution of 1979. He acknowledges it’s still mostly about entertainment, but it is ambitious and aims to show people what Iran wasactually like in the 1970s before the veil was lowered.

Brief aside: I can’t help but think that Iran is worse for the Revolution, for all the smart people who fled, for the assault on cultural modernity, for the repression of women, for the way it’s become isolated from many corners of the world. Of course, the U.S. should never have been sabotaging any foreign government and installing leaders friendly to us, but it feels like Iran lost decades of progress to its uprising. Of course, my version of the video game might differ from yours.

From Amanda Holpuch’s Guardian article about Khonsari’s project:

“One of the people behind some of the most popular – and violent – video games has left the world of Grand Theft Auto and developed a game prototype based on the Iranian revolution.

Since Navid Khonsari began work on the game, called 1979 Revolution, it has been labeled Western propaganda by an Iran government-run newspaper and some members of his team still use aliases to protect themselves from the repercussions of creating a video game based on a controversial event that has persistent reverberations today. Khonsari launched a Kickstarter on Wednesday, hoping to take the game from a prototype to tablet-ready, episodic series.

‘I wanted people to feel the passion and the elation of being in the revolution – of feeling that you could possibly make a change,’ said Khonsari, who moved from Iran to Canada at age 10, just after the revolution. He remembers his grandfather walking him through the early protests in Tehran.”•

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Life in Tehran just before the revolution:

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“I Was One Of The First Cats With A Tesla”

November 13, 2013 in Excerpts, Science/Tech, Urban Studies | Permalink

New technologies take time to perfect, but it’s tough to be patient when you’re an A-Lister. In an Esquire profile by Tom Junod, George Clooney complains that his Tesla Roadster was overrated junk that took him nowhere. Coincidentally, that’s how I felt about Syriana. From the article:

“’Hey, where’s the Tesla?’ I said when I was leaving his house. I was just giving him shit; I didn’t know if he had a Tesla or not, and was trying to see if even George Clooney was susceptible to Hollywood cliché.

‘I had a Tesla. I was one of the first cats with a Tesla. I think I was, like, number five on the list. But I’m telling you, I’ve been on the side of the road a while in that thing. And I said to them, ‘Look, guys, why am I always stuck on the side of the fucking road? Make it work, one way or another.’ ”

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“‘Fiscal Cliff” Lay Largely Dormant For Decades”

November 13, 2013 in Excerpts, Politics, Science/Tech, Urban Studies | Permalink

Language is a funny thing, and there’s no way that Walter H. Stern could have guessed that a phrase he came up with 56 years ago would be the lead of his obituary in 2013. From Margalit Fox in the New York Times:

“In fact, the first known print citation, the O.E.D. goes on to say, appeared more than half a century ago, on Oct. 20, 1957, on the front page of The Times.

‘To the prospective home owner wondering whether the purchase of a given house will push him over the fiscal cliff,’ the article begins, ‘probably the most difficult item to estimate is his future property tax.’

The man who wrote that article — and in so doing gave life to a phrase that has lately poured from the lips of pundits, politicians and the public worldwide — was Walter H. Stern, a former real estate writer for The Times who died last Saturday at 88.

Mr. Stern was associated with The Times from 1942 until 1961, when he left to pursue a career in public relations. What he could scarcely have known that day in 1957 was that in the course of writing an analytical article about taxation, he built a small but powerful lexicographic time bomb.

‘Fiscal cliff’ lay largely dormant for decades, cropping up in The Times on only seven more occasions through the end of 2011.

Then it exploded.”

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“[Google Is] Working On A Temporary Electronic Tattoo That Would Stick To The User’s Throat”

November 13, 2013 in Excerpts, Science/Tech, Urban Studies | Permalink

“Eventually you’ll have the implant,” promised Google’s Larry Page when asked about brain augmentation. And, sure, we could stand to be smarter, but Gogogle doesn’t just provide information–it also collects it. In that vein is this CNN story by Doug Gross about a strange, new Google patent:

“It looks like Google Glass was just the beginning. Google now appears to be aiming a few inches lower, working on a temporary electronic tattoo that would stick to the user’s throat.

Google-owned Motorola Mobility, published last week, for a system ‘that comprises an electronic skin tattoo capable of being applied to a throat region of a body.’

The patent says the tattoo would communicate with smartphones, gaming devices, tablets and wearable tech like Google Glass via a Bluetooth-style connection and would include a microphone and power source. The idea is that wearers could communicate with their devices via voice commands without having to wear an earpiece or the the Glass headset.

And how’s this for future tech? It could even be used as a lie detector.”

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“But I Need Your Help Now”

November 13, 2013 in Excerpts, Science/Tech, Urban Studies | Permalink

Is zombie culture currently so popular in America because it’s actually a mirror rather than a fantasy?

People seem so strange now, and not in the same ways we’ve always been strange. It’s somewhat a reflection of the era we live in. Every generation thinks it’s going through extreme times–and they’re all right, of course–but I think we’re particularly doing so. It’s the disaster of the economy, the disquiet of the technological revolution and the way our new tools enable us to opt out mentally and emotionally into the white noise of personalization, even as we’re more connected than ever. Sometimes the streets in Manhattan seem like a necropolis, a sea of dead stares, heads pointed down at screens. You see a bright face for a moment, a flicker of recognition, and then it disappears. 

But it’s more than just a fractured form of capitalism and what our new tools have wrought: There’s quietly an epidemic of painkillers in the U.S. that’s made junkies of so many people you see across the space of a day. I’ve heard anecdotal evidence from people I’ve met who work in pharmaceuticals and hospitals, but the numbers back it up. We have a lot of people in our midst who are high and low–an army of zombies.

What and whom conspired to make OxyContin and the like so available, so prescribable? From Celine Gounder’s New Yorker blog post about the pain-pill epidemic:

“When I started working as a medical resident, in 2004, I heard from a patient I had inherited from a graduating resident. The patient had an appointment scheduled in a couple weeks. ‘But I need your help now,’ he said.

He was a former construction worker who had hurt himself on the job a couple of years earlier. He told me, ‘I also need some more OxyContin to tide me over until I can see you.’ The hospital computer system told me that he had been taking twenty milligrams of OxyContin, three times a day, for at least the last couple of years. I had rarely seen such high doses of narcotics prescribed for such long periods of time. I’d seen narcotics prescribed in the hospital to patients who had been injured, or to those with pain from an operation or from cancer. But I didn’t have much experience with narcotics for outpatients. I figured that if the previous resident—now a fully licensed doctor—was doing this, then it must be O.K.

What I didn’t know was that my time in medical school had coincided with a boom in the prescribing of narcotics by outpatient doctors, driven partly by the pharmaceutical companies that sold those drugs. Between 1999 and 2010, sales of these ‘opioid analgesics’—medications like Vicodin, Percocet, and OxyContin—quadrupled.”

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“Without A Functioning Store, It’s Hard To Get A Good Gauge Of Interest”

November 12, 2013 in Excerpts, Politics, Science/Tech, Urban Studies | Permalink

From an Ask Me Anything at Reddit that Sarah Kliff, Washington Post health reporter, just did about the Affordable Care Act:

“Question:

Does the success/failure of healthcare.gov necessarily guarantee the success/failure of the ACA?

Sarah Kliff:

Great question. I would say that the success/failure of healthcare.gov is tied to the success/failure of the ACA in that it’s a doorway to purchasing coverage under the new law. If people can’t get into the store, then there’s not much of a shot at expanding health insurance coverage.

The assumption is that, at some point, the site will be fixed (what point is another excellent question). And then we’ll get a sense of whether the products being sold on healthcare.gov are ones that Americans want to purchase. But without a functioning store, it’s hard to get a good gauge of interest.”

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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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“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.”

“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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