Urban Studies

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“The End Result Could Be A Wholesale Shift In The Way We Treat Illness”

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

From Elizabeth Murphy’s Fast Company article about 23andMe, a company founded by Anne Wojcicki, which will conduct genetic testing at birth on your child for $99, beginning the self-quant analysis before the first word or step, arming you with information, so much information:

“Wojcicki is connected to the fabric of Silicon Valley, which has served her well. But her goals are global. ‘We’re not just looking to get a venture-capital return,’ Wojcicki says. ‘We set out with this company to revolutionize health care.’ On the same December day when she closed a $59 million round of financing, she dropped the price of 23andMe’s genetic testing from $299 to $99. While prices like that may not make taking control of one’s health a universal, democratic reality, they accelerate our society’s move in that direction. The end result could be a wholesale shift in the way we treat illness, a move away from our current diagnostic model to one based on prevention. That’s why, if Wojcicki gets it right, 23andMe could help change the health care industry as we know it. ‘At $99, we are opening the doors of access,’ she says. ‘Genetics is part of an entire path for how you’re going to live a healthier life.’

As 23andMe scales, its business model will shift. Right now it gets most of its revenue from the $99 that people like me pay in return for test-tube kits and the results we get back after we send off our spit-filled tubes. ‘The long game here is not to make money selling kits, although the kits are essential to get the base level data,’ says Patrick Chung, a 23andMe board member and partner at the venture-capital firm NEA. ‘Once you have the data, [the company] does actually become the Google of personalized health care.’ Genetic data on a massive scale is likely to be an extremely valuable commodity to pharmaceutical companies, hospitals, and even governments. This is where the real growth potential is.”

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A Brief Note From 1897 About A Bee Sting

October 14, 2013 in Old Print Articles, Urban Studies | Permalink

From the October 4, 1897 New York Times:

“Keene, N.H.–Willie, the five-year-old son of Charles Paro of Troy, N.H., was killed yesterday through swallowing a bee. The insect stung him internally. The child died in great agony.”

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“Are We Trying To Act More Like The Creator Than Creatures?”

October 14, 2013 in Politics, Science/Tech, Urban Studies, Videos | Permalink

In 1997, the cloning in Scotland of a sheep named Dolly was received with hyperbole and denunciation, as some envisioned a near-term future in which human doppelgangers would walk among us. In the short film “The Clone Named Dolly,” Nicholas Wade of the New York Times takes a sober look at the sensation and its aftermath. Watch here.

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“We Were Absolutely Not Out To Get People To Boycott Football”

October 14, 2013 in Excerpts, Sports, Urban Studies | Permalink

Would be lying if I said I wasn’t disappointed in a chat that accompanied the excellent Frontline program, League of Denial, which examined the NFL’s obfuscation in regards to its concussion problem. I was especially dismayed by journalist Mark Fainaru-Wada’s answer to a question about what he and his brother, Steve Fainaru, hoped to accomplish with the program and their book: “I think our hope is that through the book and the film people will be more informed about the challenges the game faces and how it might deal with that.”

There’s a certain element of denial there as well. I think the honest answer would be that if you allow your children to play football, they may very well incur some brain damage, especially considering how prone their skulls are at that age. Any adult who plays college football or in the NFL is at great risk of brain damage. Anyone who buys a ticket to a game or who supports it in other ways is complicit in these injuries. Football, like boxing, can’t escape this problem which is embedded into the game, and equipment alterations or rule changes won’t eliminate it. It’s not merely a “challenge,” so let’s be honest about what we’re risking and what we’re supporting.

______________________

 
Comment From Kristi Hofacker:  

Why did frontline not mention all the advancements and changes of game regulations that have been put in place to decrease TBIs? People have been working to gain concussion awareness so they can further their movements to fix the problem. After the frontline special, people don’t want to help, they want to boycott football all together. Is that what you were trying to accomplish?

 
Mark Fainaru-Wada: 

First and foremost, we were absolutely not out to get people to boycott football. Steve and I are both huge football fans — he has season tix to the 49ers — and we love the sport. I think our goal was simply to trace what the league knew, when it knew it and to what extent it sought to tamp down the emerging science. There’s no question the league has made strides on this issue since it was hauled before Congress in 2009, and we note that to some degree in the film, although the commissioner is still not openly acknowledging a link. I think our hope is that through the book and the film people will be more informed about the challenges the game faces and how it might deal with that. Again, though, it’s a violent, brutal sport, which is one of the things many of us love about it, and not sure that can/should be changed.

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“A Hybrid Public-Private, Domestic-Foreign Nexus Lies Beneath The Miracle”

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

If population concentrates as media and tools become increasingly decentralized, will regional authority outrank the national kind? Would a city-state set-up with public and private sectors vying to solve problems lead to improvements or greater inequalities–or doses of both? These are some of the hot topics in politics and development right now. The opening of “The End of the Nation State?” Parag Khanna’s New York Times Opinion piece:

“SINGAPORE — EVERY five years, the United States National Intelligence Council, which advises the director of the Central Intelligence Agency, publishes a report forecasting the long-term implications of global trends. Earlier this year it released its latest report, ‘Alternative Worlds,’ which included scenarios for how the world would look a generation from now.

One scenario, ‘Nonstate World,’ imagined a planet in which urbanization, technology and capital accumulation had brought about a landscape where governments had given up on real reforms and had subcontracted many responsibilities to outside parties, which then set up enclaves operating under their own laws.

The imagined date for the report’s scenarios is 2030, but at least for ‘Nonstate World,’ it might as well be 2010: though most of us might not realize it, ‘nonstate world’ describes much of how global society already operates. This isn’t to say that states have disappeared, or will. But they are becoming just one form of governance among many.

A quick scan across the world reveals that where growth and innovation have been most successful, a hybrid public-private, domestic-foreign nexus lies beneath the miracle. These aren’t states; they’re ‘para-states’ — or, in one common parlance, ‘special economic zones.'”

Recently Posted On NYC’s Craigslist

October 14, 2013 in Misc., Urban Studies | Permalink

"It's all about the subtleties!"

“It’s all about the subtleties!”

Dating Tutor / Professional Wingman – Pick Up Coach – Street Game (Union Square)

INTRO:

It’s all about the subtleties! Why looks don’t matter and what women are attracted to. Are you tired of reading material but not applying it? Speed up the process with an instructor to help you internalize the information? Get the 9s and 10s you deserve. Insanity – doing the same thing over and over again expecting different results

Very few men have the love life they deserve. A lot of people ‘think’ they are good because sometimes they get drunk and get lucky. I will show you the path to consistency, abundance, and instead of relying on luck – I’ll show you how to do things the right way, to get the women that you want – not the ones that want you. Including that model that walks by you on the street.

BACKGROUND:

After YEARS of going out, taking professional classes, lectures, boot camps and living with a house of 6 other social artists, I have transformed from a shy introvert into the 1 %

I’m a very ordinary looking 27 year old Caucasian. I have been coaching for 2 years, I have taken out teenagers to men in their 60’s.

I will go out and teach you everything I know for the night. This includes recommendations on style, how to approach, how to keep the interaction going, what girls like (it’s not looks) and just an overall guide on where to take the night.

WHAT I’M OFFERING:

I will spark note years of learning into 1 hour, and then I will apply it with you when we go out for the entire night. I will also show you some great night spots.

While winging you, I will point out your ‘blind spots,’ things that you do not even realize that you are doing. I will also film you out so that you can see what you look like – self-realization is key.

I’ll introduce you to other students with similar values so you can grow together and wing each other. 

SYLLABUS:

Meet at 8:30 / 9 PM at a Starbucks to go over backgrounds, past success, goals and sticking points. 

Then I’ll review my top concepts, sticking points and goals for you. 

10 PM – Warm up drills, how to get socially calibrated without alcohol.

11 PM – ??? We will talk to as many people in high end bar or club possible.

Afterwards (that night or the next day on Skype) we will review your night.

"Bluetooth audio and video will speed up the learning process."

“Bluetooth audio and video will speed up the learning process.”

STREET GAME:

I also separately teach how to meet girls you see during the day walking the street, and how to get a phone number / date in minutes. I will do examples for you on the street, we will do drills. Bluetooth audio and video will speed up the learning process. 

PRICING:

This information is invaluable, and life changing. That is why some professionals charge $3000 for a weekend out, or $200 per hour. 

This is more of a fun hobby for me, and I like to help people. That is why I only charge 350 for an entire night, including group discounts for friends, and repeat business discounts. In special circumstances – my price is negotiable. Email and we will discuss. 

People pay 100’s of dollars an hour for math and school tutors. This is a life tutor to help you get that hotter girl, at a much cheaper price. 

If you need examples of my skill level I am I can send videos of my students and I talking, approaching and closing, and I can demonstrate getting a number in front of you on the street when we meet before you pay.

Let’s get started! Change your life!

"Get the 9s and 10s you deserve."

“Get the 9s and 10s you deserve.”

Old Print Article: “To Beautify The Human Race This Wealthy Russian’s Fad,” New York Times (1904)

October 13, 2013 in Old Print Articles, Urban Studies | Permalink

“On his lands there live men and women of striking physique and charm of face.”

A wealthy Russian man founded a Utopian farm in which beautiful people and only beautiful people were collected to be entered into arranged marriages in the hopes that perfection would be perpetuated. The opening of a September 18, 1904 New York Times article:

Reshetnikoff, a wealthy distiller of Northeast Russia, is a man with a fad. He believes that the human race, by judicious mating, can be brought to a state of physical perfection, and on his great estate near Perm he is doing what he can to prove his theory. Just as extreme speed and symmetry is developed by the breeder of horses, or as the horticulturist brings his plants and the florist his blooms to the highest possible degree of usefulness and beauty, it is his aim to give to the world a type of men and women who shall be flawless in strength and shapeliness.

Throughout all Russia he is known as the ‘man with a beauty farm.’ He is giving his time to the demonstration of his chosen task without stint, and spending his money with a freedom which would in itself insure notice. More than that, he has already proved to a large degree that he is justified in the stand he has taken, for on his lands there live men and women of striking physique and charm of face.

As a matter of fact the end for which he is striving is one which would probably be speeded by the thinking people of the world by every means in their power if it were not for an obstacle which others believe to be insurmountable and which he affects to ignore. This obstacle is affection. Since order was evolved from chaos and the waste places of the earth were populated, reason has entered but little into the matching of man and maid. The strong have loved the weak and the ugly have won the hearts of the beautiful. Those who have watched the work undertaken by the Russian distiller take these things into consideration in refusing actively to undertake the propagation of his cult. They know the futility of the fight he is making.

“Deformed and diseased persons are not permitted to find a home on the estate.”

The eyes of Europe were recently centered on the Reshetnikoff estate by a remarkable marriage arranged by him–a marriage which marks the passing of at least one milestone in the journey toward perfection which he has undertaken for the unbuilding of humanity. The bride and the bridegroom were ‘nurslings’ of his beauty farm, the first couple, both of whom had sprung from unions arranged by him.

That the bride was as nearly the ideal of physical womanhood as could be found by the most extended search, and that the bridegroom was as strong and handsome as could be desired, was admitted by all who saw them. But that their offspring would meekly accept at maturity the men or women selected as best qualified for the perpetuation of their strength and comeliness was not so readily granted.

“That is the weak link in M. Reshetnikoff’s chain,” said a scientist who is deeply interested in the ideal the distiller has set out to achieve. ‘His labor is doomed to be lost. Suppose a boy is born of this marriage who represents all that the patron of the parents hopes for. When that boy grows to be a man he is just as apt as not to choose a little, lop-sided woman for a wife as he is to select the kind of mate M. Reshetnikoff would have him take, and the care and thought which were embodied in him would be thrown away. The marriage is fortuitous. That is all. As long as there are men and women they will choose for themselves. His dream is Utopia, impossible of fulfillment.’

The Russian distiller has for many years attracted to his estate handsome giants of both sexes by means of concessions of lands and valuable privileges. Further grants of land encouraged them to enter the state of matrimony. All expenses of marriages are paid, and an annuity is given of $15 for every child born. In the event that marriages are arranged by the distiller, and the parties selected refuse to carry out the arrangements, they are deported. Deformed and diseased persons are not permitted to find a home on the estate.•

“Just Bring In Any Roll Of Color Print Film”

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

We were prisoners then, not so long ago, chained to bricks and mortar. It seemed like convenience until we knew the truth, until the trip was no longer necessary. It’s an improvement, sure, but was anything about the trip important?

“An Executive Carrying A Personal Communicator Could Send And Receive Electronic Mail And Facsimile Message”

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

It may have been driven by greed, but the idea of handheld personal-computing devices was clearly not a pipe dream. Some people were just a decade too early in their predictions. From Peter H. Lewis in the July 19, 1992 New York Times:

“Sometime around the middle of this decade no one is sure exactly when — executives on the go will begin carrying pocket-sized digital communicating devices. And although nobody is exactly sure what features these personal information gizmos will have, what they will cost, what they will look like or what they will be called, hundreds of computer industry officials and investors at the Mobile ’92 conference here last week agreed that the devices could become the foundation of the next great fortunes to be made in the personal computer business.

‘We are writing Chapter 2 of the history of personal computers,’ said Nobuo Mii, vice president and general manager of the International Business Machines Corporation’s entry systems division.

How rich is this lode? At one end of the spectrum is John Sculley, the chief executive of Apple Computer Inc., who says these personal communicators could be ‘the mother of all markets.’

At the other end is Andrew Grove, the chairman of the Intel Corporation, the huge chip maker based in Santa Clara, Calif. He says the idea of a wireless personal communicator in every pocket is ‘a pipe dream driven by greed.’

These devices are expected to combine the best features of personal computers, facsimile machines, computer networks, pagers, personal secretaries, appointment books, address books and even paperback books and pocket CD players — all in a hand-held box operated by pen, or even voice commands.

Stuck in traffic on a business trip, an executive carrying a personal communicator could send and receive electronic mail and facsimile messages from anywhere in the country. She could also call up a local map on a 3-inch by 5-inch screen, draw a line between her current position (confirmed by satellite positioning signals) and her intended destination, and the device would give her specific driving instructions (as well as real-time warnings about traffic jams or accidents). Certainly, these are just predictions for now, but they sure are fun to think about.”

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“We’re Constantly Redefining What Humans Are Here For”

October 13, 2013 in Science/Tech, Urban Studies | Permalink

Another very good EconTalk episode hosted by Russ Roberts is this one from early 2013 with Kevin Kelly of Wired fame. It was prompted by the writer’s article for the magazine “Better Than Human” (a title not of his choosing nor his liking). Most interesting to me was Kelly’s idea that this century is one of identity crisis for our species, that the things we thought we were meant to do (chess, manufacturing, etc.) have been taken from our domain, so we’ll have to figure out what our role should be, reassess what our purpose truly is. Listen here.

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“The Future World Belongs To People, Communities, Conscious And Subconscious Machines, Talking Animals, Thinking Cars, Roads And Cities”

October 13, 2013 in Film, Science/Tech, Urban Studies, Videos | Permalink

From Mika Taanila’s 2002 film about philosopher and electronic music composer Erkki Kurenniemi, The Future Is Not What It Used to Be, an explanation of what life was and what it increasingly is now.

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Recently Posted On NYC’s Craigslist

October 11, 2013 in Misc., Urban Studies | Permalink

I bought peanuts for the squirrels but ate them myself. Is that wrong?

They were delicious. 

“They Had Computerized Their 20th Century Shape”

October 11, 2013 in Excerpts, Science/Tech, Urban Studies | Permalink

An excerpt from “Imagine a World Without Shops or Factories,” Peter Day’s provocative BBC News Magazine piece, which asserts, among other things, that those who attempt to retrofit the Digital Age to the specs of the Industrial Age will be lost:

“What is so extraordinary is how this Fordist model of mass production and this mechanised quest for ever greater efficiency so quickly came to dominate not just car manufacturing but production in general, in nearly every industry. The production-line big corporation became the absolute model for business everywhere in the industrialised world and the concept of work for millions of people. It brought huge prosperity and material goods to people who had never been able to have them before. It created the suburbs where people who made the cars and bought them could live. Then, after 80 years of Fordist Western domination, the rich world manufacturing machine began to move away to other, far flung locations. But here too, in the mighty Chinese industrial revolution and when services were outsourced en masse to India, mass production prevailed. During the last decade of the 20th Century and into the 21st, I felt that the only way for businesses to be sure of survival in the developed world, in the US and in Europe, was to abandon competing with the world’s low-cost producers I had seen emerging so fast in China and many other new industrial nations. I became convinced that the explosion of digital connectivity was the answer.

At the time, the internet was helping to generate vast amounts of information about consumers and their desires and was creating vast fortunes for a new generation of entrepreneurs. Yet when in 1998 I went to visit one of the most celebrated management gurus of all time, he said something that struck me as weird.

The late Prof Peter Drucker, then 87, said: ‘The computer has yet to really influence American business.’ It sounded crazy when so much money had been invested in computing. But he was right – as usual. He meant that the shape and structure and hierarchy of the corporation had not responded to the huge flows of information that companies now had at their fingertips about their customers, should they wish to use it. They had computerised their 20th Century shape, rather than responding to how the computer network was upending much of what they had been set up to do decades before. It was one of the many things they don’t teach you at business school. Companies remained stuck in the 20th Century when life was moving on.”

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A Note From 1903 About A Lightning Calculator

October 11, 2013 in Old Print Articles, Urban Studies | Permalink

From the April 13, 1903 New York Times:

“Trenton, N.J.–William Vallance, the famous lightning calculator, who could do any sum in mathematical calculation mentally and with but an instant’s hesitation, died here to-night, aged 30 years. About a week ago he was taken to the State Hospital suffering from a severe mental strain, believed to be the result of his juggling with figures.

Vallance could duplicate the feats of any of the lightning calculators, and then beat them all by stating instantly any desired date in history. His mind was a vast storehouse of historical data, and where he gathered it no one ever knew, as he was not a student. He could not tell how he knew history, but would rattle off fact after fact without ever making a mistake.

He could give instant answer to such arithmetical questions as multiply 389, 487 by 4,641. Feats in algebra were his delight. Despite his marvelous ability he would not put it to commercial use.”

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“We Believe That Self-Driving Cars Will Be Profoundly Disruptive”

October 11, 2013 in Excerpts, Science/Tech, Urban Studies | Permalink

The opening of a Wired report by Damon Lavrinc about new consumer research into autonomous vehicles, which registered with more acceptance among Americans than I anticipated at this point:

“Nearly every automaker is working on some form of autonomous vehicle technology, but according to a new study, consumers are more interested in a self-driving car from Google than General Motors.

The study, conducted by U.S. audit and advisory firm KPMG, polled a diverse group of drivers from both coasts and in between, pulling samples from Los Angeles, California; Chicago, Illinois; and Iselin, New Jersey.

The focus groups were asked about their willingness to use an autonomous vehicle every day, and rank their trust in the company producing the car on a scale of one to 10. While high-end automakers like Mercedes-Benz received a median score of 7.75, tech companies like Google and Apple scored an eight, and mass-market brands (Chevrolet and Nissan) came in at five.

‘We believe that self-driving cars will be profoundly disruptive to the traditional automotive ecosystem,’ said Gary Silberg, KPMG auto expert and author of the report.”

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“Many Believe That This Move From Fixed To Fluid Is Not Exactly New”

October 11, 2013 in Excerpts, Science/Tech, Urban Studies | Permalink

Is the newspaper, that neat product, the anomaly, and the Internet, an ungovernable mess, the norm? From a recent speech by Guardian Deputy Editor Katharine Viner:

“The web has changed the way we organise information in a very clear way: from the boundaried, solid format of books and newspapers to something liquid and free-flowing, with limitless possibilities.

A newspaper is complete. It is finished, sure of itself, certain. By contrast, digital news is constantly updated, improved upon, changed, moved, developed, an ongoing conversation and collaboration. It is living, evolving, limitless, relentless.

Many believe that this move from fixed to fluid is not exactly new, and instead a return to the oral cultures of much earlier eras. Danish academic Thomas Pettitt’s theory is that the whole period after Gutenberg’s invention of the printing press – of moveable type, the text, the 500 years of print-dominated information, between the 15th and the 20th centuries – was just a pause; it was just an interruption in the usual flow of human communication. He calls this the Gutenberg Parenthesis. The web, says Pettitt, is returning us to a pre-Gutenberg state in which we are defined by oral traditions: flowing and ephemeral.

For 500 years, knowledge was contained, in a fixed format that you believed to be a reliable version of the truth; now, moving to the post-print era, we are returning to an age when you’re as likely to hear information, right or wrong, from people you come across. Pettitt says that the way we think now is reminiscent of a medieval peasant, based on gossip, rumour and conversation. ‘The new world is in some ways the old world, the world before print’ he says.”

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“The Brain Researcher Is Also A Sales Professional”

October 11, 2013 in Excerpts, Science/Tech, Urban Studies | Permalink

The opening of “Is Your Coffee Too Cheap?” a Spiegel article by Frank Thadeusz about “neuro pricing,” in which consumer brainwaves are studied to determine what the market will bear:

“The most subversive criticism of capitalism at the moment comes from the small town of Aspach, in the Swabian-Franconian Forest, a region of southern Germany known for its industrious and energetic inhabitants. Kai-Markus Müller is sitting in his office in a nondescript building, thinking about the coffee-roasting company Starbucks. ‘Everyone thinks that they’ve truly figured out how to sell a relatively inexpensive product for a lot of money,’ he says. ‘But the odd thing is that even this company doesn’t understand it.’

Müller, a neurobiologist, isn’t criticizing working conditions at the multinational purveyor of hot beverages. Instead, what he means is that the Seattle-based company gives away millions of dollars a year out of pure ignorance. The reason? Starbucks isn’t charging enough for its coffee.

It’s an almost obscene observation. Müller is convinced that customers would in fact be willing to dig even more deeply into their pockets for products for which Starbucks already charges upmarket prices.

Classic Market Research Doesn’t Work Correctly

The brain researcher is also a sales professional. Müller used to work for Simon, Kucher and Partners, a leading international consulting firm that helps companies find suitable prices for their products. But he soon lost interest in the job when he recognized that ‘classic market research doesn’t work correctly.’ From the scientist’s perspective, research subjects have only limited credibility when they are asked to honestly state how much money they would spend for a product.

Instead, Müller is searching for ‘neuronal mechanisms,’ deeply buried in the human brain, ‘that we can’t just deliberately switch off.'”

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Old Print Article: “Texas Treasure Seekers,” New York Times (1893)

October 11, 2013 in Old Print Articles, Urban Studies | Permalink

Like a lot of pirates, Jean Lafitte supposedly buried great treasures that were just waiting patiently beneath the earth to be struck with a shovel. Those with dubious maps and those with just a hunch went in search of such interred wealth in the nineteenth century, including a trio of enterprising Texans featured in a politically incorrect article in the August 3, 1898 New York Times. The story:

“Galvreston, Texas–For many years there have been traditions that Lafitte, the buccaneer, had left vast sums of gold coin and silver bars buried about Galveston Island previously to his having been ordered away by the United States Government. From time to time persons have dug on the island and mainland in search of this treasure, and their utter failure appears to have in no way prevented others from making the attempt.

Twelve miles ‘down the island’ to the west of the city is a small clump of live-oak trees, situated on the line of the Galveston and the Western Railroad, which is commonly called Lafitte’s Grove. History has handed down the fact that these trees were the favorite camping ground of the Caranchua a savage tribe–said to be cannibals–of magnificently proportioned warriors one roaming over the mainland and crossing to Galveston Island across the shallows still bearing the name of Caranchua Reefs. There they would have great oyster roasts, procuring the succulent bivalve from the natural reefs along the shore of the bay; and the huge piles of shells still remaining attest the fact that their appetites were good.

Here tradition has it that Lafitte attacked these savages for the murder of one of his men, and after a severe conflict defeated them with heavy loss, a number of his won men being slain in the battle.

Having consulted an old man with a divining rod, who made an examination of the land near Lafitte’s Grove, and who positively asserted that there was buried treasure in the neighborhood, Frank Corbin, John Geen, and William Irvine of this place concluded that the spot where Lafitte had ‘planted’ his loot had been located at last, and secured permission from Capt. M.A. Baro, the owner of the land, to dig there, it being stipulated that he was to receive 35 percent of the value of the find.

The prospectors began operations about a week ago, and prosecuted work vigorously until to-day, excavating about twenty large holes in different spots in the vicinity of the trees, but they failed to discover anything of value. They, however, unearthed the skulls and bones of a number of large men, supposed to be the remains of the Caranchua warriors who perished in the battle with Lafitte’s men, as well as a number of flint arrowheads and tomahawks.

The party is not at all discouraged, and says that it will shortly resume perations at another point.”

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“They Took My Photograph And I Come Out Ugly. What Can I Do?”

October 10, 2013 in Film, Urban Studies, Videos | Permalink

I don’t follow celebrity news very closely, but I believe it was recently revealed that Woody Allen once impregnated Frank Sinatra. Mazel tov to the whole family! Here’s Allen in 1979, before all the eeeew!, being interviewed in his Manhattan apartment by a French journalist. The piece opens with a discussion of the filmmaker landing on the cover of Time, when that was still the most-coveted real estate in media.

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“No Computer Developed In The Intervening Years Has Failed To Play A Stupid Game”

October 10, 2013 in Excerpts, Science/Tech, Urban Studies | Permalink

The New Yorker has done a fair share of excellent technology reporting in its history, but in that category you can’t include mocking commentary about computers in general and computer chess in particular by Jacob R. Brackman in the June 11, 1966 issue. An excerpt from the piece (paywalled here):

“It stands to reason that before any mileage of wires and tubes occupies our desk and sends us scurrying off to ‘retrain for tomorrow’s jobs’ (whatever they may be) it will have mastered at least the intellectual activity characteristic of children and, in some cases, animals–playing games, recognizing patterns, solving easy problems, reading sentences. With the help of the press, a few noisy researchers in the field of artificial intelligence have fostered the impression that such modest feats can indeed be performed by machines today. A wellspring of this scientific mythology seems to be a historic talk delivered in 1957 by H.A. Simon, one of the the grandfathers of artificial intelligence. ‘It is not my aim to surprise or shock you–if, indeed, that were possible in an age of nuclear fission and prospective interplanetary travel,’ Mr. Simon said. ‘But the simplest way I can summarize is to say that there are now in the world machines that think, that learn, and that create. Moreover, their ability to do these things is going to increase rapidly until–in a visible future–the range of problems they can handle will be co-extensive with the range to which the human mind has been applied.’ Mr. Simon went on to predict that within ten years a digital computer would (a) win the chess championship of the world (unless barred, by rule, from competition), (b) discover and prove an important new mathematical theorem, (c) write music praised by critics, and (d) programmatically express most theories in psychology.

Well, we’ve just come across a lovely paper by Hubert L. Dreyfus, a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, which says computers can’t, and won’t. With Mr. Simon’s decade almost up, we learn, a recurrent pattern has plagued artificial intelligence in every field it tackles: dramatic early success followed by unforeseen problems and then by disenchantment. In game playing, for instance, researchers developed a checkers program, about ten years ago, that was able to beat an ex-champion from Connecticut. In chess, however, where the number of possible moves and responses is so much greater, computer programs bogged down in the problem of exponential growth. A computer’s attention cannot be attracted by areas on the board that look interesting. It cannot zero in on possibilities that appeal to a sort of ‘fringe consciousness.’ It can only count out alternative moves on an ever-branching tree of possibilities. At about the time of Mr. Simon’s grand prognostication, a group at Los Alamos devised a chess program that played an inferior, though legal, game on a reduced board. Ever since that program beat one weak opponent, the forecasts of impending master play have grown increasingly emphatic, but no computer developed in the intervening years has failed to play a stupid game. A highly publicized program, in its latest recorded bout, was defeated in thirty-five moves by a ten-year-old novice. Yet the projected world championship is only a year off.”

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“While This Type Of Autonomous Vehicle Technology Might Seem Futuristic, It’s Actually Widely Used In All Other Vehicles”

October 10, 2013 in Excerpts, Science/Tech, Urban Studies | Permalink

Tesla CTO JB Straubel isn’t without obvious bias, but he believes autonomous cars are inevitable and upon us. As he points out, auto-pilot isn’t new, just new to the highways. From Katie Fehrenbacher at Gigaom:

“Tesla has been investing a quite of bit of time into the technology and has been hiring ‘a large team,’ said Straubel. Tesla has long maintained that it is trying to push the envelope of car technology, beyond just electrifying vehicles. The company has built bleeding edge tech features into its second-gen car the Model S like voice recognition, large in vehicle dashboards, and remote over-the-air software updates.

While this type of autonomous vehicle technology might seem futuristic, it’s actually widely used in all other vehicles, said Straubel. The auto industry has just been particularly slow moving to adopt it. Vehicles like planes, ships, and space ships all use auto pilot for safety reasons, and Straubel said ‘They didn’t do it because the pilot was bored; they did it because of safety.'”

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“We’re Selling Books. It’s A Tiny Little Business.”

October 10, 2013 in Books, Excerpts, Science/Tech, Urban Studies | Permalink

A couple of excerpts from a very entertaining New Republic interview that Laura Bennett conducted with literary agent Andrew Wylie, who disdains popular fiction, Amazon and most of the American public.

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Laura Bennett:

Do you feel as hostile toward Amazon as you used to?

Andrew Wylie:

I think that Napoleon was a terrific guy before he started crossing national borders. Over the course of time, his temperament changed, and his behavior was insensitive to the nations he occupied.

Through greed—which it sees differently, as technological development and efficiency for the customer and low price, all that—[Amazon] has walked itself into the position of thinking that it can thrive without the assistance of anyone else. That is megalomania. 

Laura Bennett:

That sounds different from the attitude you had in 2010.

Andrew Wylie:

I didn’t think that [in 2010] the publishing community had properly assessed—particularly in regard to its obligations to writers—what an equitable arrangement would look like. 

And I felt that publishers had made a huge mistake, because they were pressured by Apple and Amazon to make concessions that they shouldn’t have made.

These distribution issues come and go. It wasn’t so long ago that Barnes and Noble was this monster publishing leatherette classics, threatening to put backlists out of print. Amazon will go, and Apple will go, and it’ll all go.

I think we’d be fine if publishers just withdrew their product [from Amazon], frankly. If the terms are unsatisfactory, why continue to do business? You think you’re going to lose thirty percent of your business? Well, that’s OK, because you would have a thirty percent higher margin for seventy percent of your business. You have fewer fools reading your books and you get paid more by those who do. What’s wrong with that?

____________________________

Laura Bennett:

Are you really as relaxed about the future of the industry as you sound?

Andrew Wylie:

I am as calm as I’ve ever been in my life. I was concerned for a while. I think everything’s going to work out.

Laura Bennett:

What would you like to see happen?

Andrew Wylie:

The biggest single problem since 1980 has been that the publishing industry has been led by the nose by the retail sector. The industry analyzes its strategies as though it were Procter and Gamble. It’s Hermès. It’s selling to a bunch of effete, educated snobs who read. Not very many people read. Most of them drag their knuckles around and quarrel and make money. We’re selling books. It’s a tiny little business. It doesn’t have to be Walmartized.•

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A Brief Note From 1902 About A Sore Throat

October 9, 2013 in Old Print Articles, Urban Studies | Permalink

From the October 9, 1902 Brooklyn Daily Eagle:

“Cleveland–Frank Buettner, a well known contractor of this city, died early to-day as the result of an operation performed to remove a set of false teeth which it was supposed he had swallowed while asleep Monday night. Just as his esophagus had been opened its entire length a relative of Buettner’s rushed into the operating room with the missing set of teeth, which had been found in Buettner’s bed. It was then learned that Buettner was suffering from acute laryngitis. The pain in his throat led him to believe he had swallowed his teeth.”

Recently Posted On NYC’s Craigslist

October 9, 2013 in Misc., Urban Studies | Permalink

Does Anybody Believe In Vampires?

I know a woman who claims to be one, but I’m assuming she’s crazy. Anyone else know a vampire?

“Students In The Nation’s Second-Largest School District Cracked The Tablets’ Security Settings”

October 9, 2013 in Excerpts, Science/Tech, Urban Studies | Permalink

In his appearance on EconTalk, Tyler Cowen said something that I really agree with: We already have our next great teaching tool, and it’s games. There’s no reason why students in a classroom setting can’t learn physics or mathematics or language through video games, if we can just get past our belief that learning most be painful. Of course, as Cowen pointed out, we also have to commit to games en masse since the production of popular ones is remarkably expensive. From a Yahoo! article about students repurposing their free iPads:

“You have to give school officials in Los Angeles credit for a good idea: put iPads in the hands of over 650,000 students to give them the most advanced learning tools available in an effort to boost their interest in academics.

But the $1 billion plan is taking some heat after students in the nation’s second-largest school district cracked the tablets’ security settings to forgo reading, writing and ‘rithmetic and instead post on Facebook and play games during class time.

‘They kind of should have known this would happen,’ said Maria Aguilera, a student at one of the schools where games briefly replaced academia. ‘We’re high school students after all. I mean, come on.’

The top game choices? Temple Run, Subway Surfing and an unnamed car racing game.”

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