Urban Studies

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“It Uncannily Flies Like Its Avian Inspiration”

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

From Discover magazine, a passage about the so-called airplane of the future, one with flapping wings:

“When it comes to maneuverability, modern flying machines pale in comparison to an everyday pigeon. Birds can flap their wings to swoop, dive, glide, and alight on perches. Fixed-wing airplanes and rotary-wing helicopters rarely show that dynamism. In recent years, though, scientists have started finding ways to mimic the mechanics of bird flight through various robotic ornithopters, aircraft that fly with flapping wings. Aircraft based on today’s lab experiments could soon find use in military or search-and-rescue missions.

One of the most impressive of the new flock is SmartBird, a prototype flier made by Festo, a German-based automation technology company. The remote-controlled aircraft has wowed audiences on a worldwide tour as it uncannily flies like its avian inspiration, a herring gull.”

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The SmartBird, by Festo:

“The Commonest Type Of Normal Male Will Be Taller And More Gangling Than Ever, With Big Feet, Horse-Faces And Deformed Dental Arches”

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

Matt Novak’s brilliant Paleofuture blog, now housed at the Smithsonian site, is one of the very best uses of the Internet. Looking back at old predictions of the future, it unearths so much hubris and prejudice of the past and, yes, the present. In his latest post, Novak recalls a 1950 Redbook cover story which looked at the physical, mental and moral future of Americans, featuring insights from the rather dangerous anthropologist and eugenicist Earnest A. Hooton. An excerpt:

There can be little doubt of the increase during the past fifty years of mental defectives, psychopaths, criminals, economic incompetents and the chronically diseased. We owe this to the intervention of charity, “welfare” and medical science, and to the reckless breeding of the unfit.

In 2000, apart from the horde of proliferating morons, the commonest type of normal male will be taller and more gangling than ever, with big feet, horse-faces and deformed dental arches. The typical women will be similar—probably less busty and buttocky than those of our generation. These spindly giants will be intelligent, not combative, full of humanitarianism, allergies and inhibitions—stewing in their own introspections. Probably they will be long-lived; the elongated shrivel and buckle, but hang on.•

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I Called You A Moron First, You Moron

February 13, 2013 in Misc., Urban Studies | Permalink

Donald J. Trump ‏@realDonaldTrump

I went to Wharton, made over $8 billion, employ thousands of people & get insulted by morons who can’t get enough of me on twitter…!

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Don’t flatter yourself, pusbag. In general, I find Twitter to be a bore, one of the least interesting means of our new connectivity. Your Twitter account is particularly dismal, a sad exhibition of disgraceful hubris and a shockingly low level of self-awareness. The reason why the Even More Proof That Donald Trump Is a Moron posts usually go up so late in the week is because I delay looking at your gross braindroppings as long as I can. But you’re such a bad person, such a racist and sexist, such an example of the worst that America has to offer, you will continue to be mocked until you improve, which will likely never happen. It’s a chore, but I’ll do it.

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“There Is Also An App To Find A Car Parking Space In Some Major Cities”

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

When every car is connected to the Internet (which will be soon), no one will again have to search blindly for a parking spot. No one will even think of it, the way we don’t think of supermarkets before price scanners. From Alex Hudson at BBC News:

“At present, headlines often focus on the use of social media, integrated internet radio or clever ways to use voice commands. But the internet could be used for much more simple – and practical – things.

There are already apps that can show local petrol stations and their prices, allowing drivers to keep going for a few more miles to save a few pence a litre when filling up a car.

There is also an app to find a car parking space in some major cities, using electronic sensors, or analysing an aerial view of local street spaces.

Perhaps more interesting are the things you never knew you could find out.

When stopped at a traffic light, trials have shown a system where a time can pop up on the dashboard letting drivers know how long until it changes.”

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“Things Are A Lot Better Than They Were 200 Years Ago”

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

A few exchanges follow from the new Bill Gates Ask Me Anything on Reddit.

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Question:

What’s your worst fear for the future of the world? 

Bill Gates:

Hopefully we won’t have terrorists using nuclear weapons or biological weapons. We should make sure that stays hard.

I am disappointed more isn’t being done to reduce carbon emissions. Governments need to spend more on basic energy R&D to make sure we get cheap non-CO2 emitting sources as soon as possible.

Overall I am pretty optimistic. Things are a lot better than they were 200 years ago.

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Question:

What emerging technology today do you think will cause another big stir for the average consumer in the same way that the home computer did years ago?

Bill Gates:

Robots, pervasive screens, speech interaction will all change the way we look at “computers.” Once seeing, hearing, and reading (including handwriting) work very well you will interact in new ways.

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Question:

If Microsoft didn’t take off, what would you have done and be doing instead?

Bill Gates:

If the microprocessor had NOT come along I am not sure what I would have done. Maybe medicine or theoretical math but it is hard to say.

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Question:

Oh! What’s your favorite book? 

Bill Gates:

My favorite of the last decade in Pinker’s Better Angels of our Nature. It is long but profound look at the reduction in violence and discrimination over time.

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Recently Posted On NYC’s Craigslist

February 12, 2013 in Misc., Urban Studies | Permalink

"...within this 108 thousand-word manuscript..."

“…within this 108 thousand-word manuscript…”

The Caller E-book- $1 (Downtown)

Instead of following the pack, this novel is a trendsetter, bustling with fresh ideas, everyday-yet-memorable characters, and a surprise ending that will leave the reader exhilarated. Readers should find the writing style engaging, and the story relevant to the world we all share.

Tonight, Seattle talk show host Jim Sears’ viewing audience would number three million. In the next few days, that number will climb dramatically. That increase will have little to do with Jim’s expertise or his unmarried boss, Linda Sheridon. Rather, it will be fueled by an unnamed caller, who for the next several evenings, would use Jim’s show to touch peoples lives. The FBI enters the fray when some unusual deaths are attributed to the Caller. The plot thickens with a kidnapping and possible links to military involvement. Jim and Linda have to identify and stop the Caller before his final prediction comes to fruition. 

The title of this literary work is The Caller. Many technical details–with a special focus on telecommunications vulnerabilities–within this 108 thousand-word manuscript are from the authors 27-year career as a systems analyst for the Federal Aviation Agency at the Seattle Air Route Traffic Control Center. 

Thanks for Looking.

“This Is Pure Science Fiction Silliness”

February 12, 2013 in Books, Excerpts, Science/Tech, Urban Studies | Permalink

David Rorvik was a medical reporter for Time and the New York Times who dreamed of being another Asimov–a writer who could readily shift from nonfiction to fiction and back. In 1978, he seemingly combined both genres, writing the book In His Image: The Cloning of a Man, which purported to tell the true story of how he traded on his science journalism bona fides to organize the actual cloning of a 67-year-old man he called “Max.” It didn’t pass the smell test nor more rigorous medical probings, but for awhile Rorvik got the attention he desired. People magazine even felt the need to run an interview with Nobel Prize winner James D. Watson to dispel the sensation. An excerpt:

“People:

Have you done any cloning? 

Watson:

Not exactly. Here at the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory we have genetically rearranged various viruses and bacteria as part of our medical research. In fact, we have been able to create entirely new types of DNA molecules by splicing together the genetic information from different organisms—recombinant DNA. This will lead, among other things, to the manufacture of human insulin, a major medical breakthrough. 

People:

In your opinion, has a human being been cloned?

Watson:

Absolutely not. This is pure science fiction silliness.

People:

When might we see the cloning of a man?

Watson:

Certainly not in any of our lifetimes. I wouldn’t be able to predict when we might see the cloning of a mouse, much less a man.

People:

Is David Rorvik a fraud?

Watson:

Let’s just say that he proposed a pornographic book on cloning to a New York publisher back in 1970. There are elements of that novel in his supposedly nonfiction book, In His Image.

People:

Could the experiments on human cloning described in Rorvik’s book take place without the knowledge of the scientific community?

Watson:

There are just too many problems, too many major obstacles to be overcome before we clone a man. Each time there was such an advance, it would be big news. Science moves ahead by rather discrete steps, but even when small progress is made, we generally hear about it.

People:

How far along has the technology of cloning progressed?

Watson:

Well, we’ve been successfully cloning frogs for about 25 years. The unfertilized frog egg is removed, then the nucleus is destroyed by ultraviolet radiation. A cell is taken from a tadpole and surgically inserted into the nucleus, using a pipette. The cell begins dividing to form a blastula—a hollow sphere made out of a single layer of cells—which eventually becomes a frog genetically identical to the original.

People:

Has any life form higher than a frog been successfully cloned?

Watson:

Not to my knowledge. Cloning mammals is a long, long way off.”

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“He Travelled Extensively In Asia, Spending Several Years With A Witch Doctor”

February 12, 2013 in Excerpts, Urban Studies | Permalink

Because I’m not privy to the inner workings of the Browser, that great blog, I’m not quite sure why the Five Books Interviews are being moved to a discrete site, though I hope it means those folks can be profitable and continue doing such wonderful work. Via the Browser, a passage from a great Telegraph obituary of Jungleyes Love, who made his way for 56 years as a fruitarian with a taste for psychedelics:

“Descended from privateers, Charles Gibaut Bissell-Thomas was born in Jersey on March 13 1956. He shed his given name while a teenager, changing it several times, first to Charlight Utang, then Soma Love, then (by deed poll) to Jungleyes Cism Love. More recently he called himself Jarl Love.

During assembly at primary school, he questioned his orthodox Christian headmistress about why the school was not also worshipping the Devil. Later, at Harrow, he contacted the Chinese Embassy and persuaded staff there to send 725 complimentary copies of Chairman Mao’s Little Red Book, which were promptly returned by the school authorities.

Several terms later his mother received a call from his housemaster stating that he was being sent home in the middle of term, not because he had been expelled but because he contacted the headmaster of Latymer School, Hammersmith, and had secured himself a place.

After entering Latymer he would never cut his hair again, and from his mid-20s no longer brushed or combed it. While perhaps hoping to achieve a neat Rasta-dread style, he ended up with a matted construction which was later long enough to use as a cushion while waiting at bus stops.

After graduating in Neurobiology at the University of Sussex he travelled extensively in Asia, spending several years with a witch doctor (or dukun) in Indonesia called Waktu Lemak (Fat Time).”

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“Each One Of Us Already Has Experienced What It Is Like To Be Simulated By A Computer”

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

We know so little about the tools we depend on every day. When I was a child, I was surprised that no one expected me to learn how to build a TV even though I watched a TV. But, no, I was just expected to process the surface of the box’s form and function, not to understand the inner workings. Throughout life, we use analogies and signs and symbols to make sense of things we constantly consume but don’t truly understand. Our processing of these basics is not unlike a computer’s process. Marvin Minsky wrote brilliantly on this topic in an Afterword of a 1984 Vernor Vinge novel. An excerpt:

“Let’s return to the question about how much a simulated life inside a world inside a machine could resemble our real life ‘out here.’ My answer, as you know by now, is that it could be very much the same––since we, ourselves, already exist as processes imprisoned in machines inside machines! Our mental worlds are already filled with wondrous, magical, symbol–signs, which add to every thing we ‘see’ its ‘meaning’ and ‘significance.’ In fact, all educated people have already learned how different are our mental worlds than the ‘real worlds’ that our scientists know.

Consider the table in your dining room; your conscious mind sees it as having familiar functions, forms, and purposes. A table is ‘a thing to put things on.’ However, our science tells us that this is only in the mind; the only thing that’s ‘really there’ is a society of countless molecules. That table seems to hold its shape only because some of those molecules are constrained to vibrate near one another, because of certain properties of force-fields that keep them from pursuing independent trajectories. Similarly, when you hear a spoken word, your mind attributes sense and meaning to that sound––whereas, in physics, the word is merely a fluctuating pressure on your ear, caused by the collisions of myriads of molecules of air––that is, of particles whose distances are so much less constrained.

And so––let’s face it now, once and for all: each one of us already has experienced what it is like to be simulated by a computer!”

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A Brief Note From 1898 About Monkey Stew

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

From the July 17, 1898 Brooklyn Daily Eagle:

“New York Manila News–The European residents here (in Manila) complain of a tendency to scruff, which develops after a short stay in this climate, but they are generally loth to adopt the national preventive. In the forests of Luzon are a great many monkeys, and there is a belief among the natives that stewed monkey is an unfailing cure for all cutaneous diseases. To the stranger in these islands the idea of eating monkey flesh may be very revolting, but, there are few dishes more delicate than the young monkey stuffed and baked, though it does look very much like a small baby.”

“Jim Kor Is Printing A Car”

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

The entire two-person, electric Urbee is to be printed. Not just the skin but the bones as well. From Leslie Brooks Suzukamo at Twin Cities.com: “You can produce a lot of things on 3-D printers nowadays — fantasy figurines from World of Warcraft, prototypes for implantable medical devices, jewelry, replacement joints, precision tools, swimwear, a replica of King Tut’s mummy.

Jim Kor is printing a car.

Kor, an engineer and entrepreneur from Winnipeg, Manitoba, has designed a two-passenger hybrid car of the future dubbed the Urbee. The ultra-sleek three-wheel vehicle will have a metal internal combustion engine, electric motor and frame.”

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“This Equipment Here Will Allow Him To Carry On Normal Business Activities”

February 11, 2013 in Science/Tech, Urban Studies, Videos | Permalink

Walter Cronkite, in 1967, imagining what the home workplace of the future would look like, not yet grasping that it would fit in our pocket, that we would put it on the head of a pin.

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“That Keypad, In Turn, Would Inform The Design Of A Spate Of Other Everyday Objects”

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

From an obituary of John Karlin by the excellent New York Times writer Margalit Fox, a passage about the psychologist who brought behavioral sciences to product design during his tenure at Bell Labs:

“By all accounts a modest man despite his variegated accomplishments (he had a doctorate in mathematical psychology, was trained in electrical engineering and had been a professional violinist), Mr. Karlin, who died on Jan. 28, at 94, was virtually unknown to the general public.

But his research, along with that of his subordinates, quietly yet emphatically defined the experience of using the telephone in the mid-20th century and afterward, from ushering in all-digit dialing to casting the shape of the keypad on touch-tone phones. And that keypad, in turn, would inform the design of a spate of other everyday objects.

It is not so much that Mr. Karlin trained midcentury Americans how to use the telephone. It is, rather, that by studying the psychological capabilities and limitations of ordinary people, he trained the telephone, then a rapidly proliferating but still fairly novel technology, to assume optimal form for use by midcentury Americans.

‘He was the one who introduced the notion that behavioral sciences could answer some questions about telephone design,’ Ed Israelski, an engineer who worked under Mr. Karlin at Bell Labs in the 1970s, said in a telephone interview on Wednesday.”

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“He Admits That He Has Read Whole Chapters Of War and Peace On His iPhone”

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

Odd that Facebook co-founder and initial Obama online guru Chris Hughes has made the move to print, purchasing a controlling interest in the New Republic and naming himself Editor-in-Chief. Certainly it won’t be a print product much longer, though that hardly matters if Hughes is able to turn out the great reportage he plans. From a new Financial Times interview with him conducted by Anna Fifield:

“Then almost a year ago, Hughes moved on to The New Republic and took a majority stake for an undisclosed amount. Like many other magazines, it was hemorrhaging readers, owners, editors and money. Its circulation had fallen to 34,000 from a peak of more than 100,000 two decades ago.

In an age when it can seem that journalism is increasingly conducted in 140 characters, it seemed like a counter-cultural step: here was a new-media sensation moving to a traditional magazine committed to publishing 10,000-word essays on paper and delivered to readers by post.

While admitting that Zuckerberg ‘absolutely’ thinks it’s weird that he’s moving into old media, Hughes argues that people of his age in this Twitter era are still readers. ‘A Pew [Research Center] report recently found that people under 30 are reading more books than they were 10 years ago – not much more, but more – and are as likely to have read them on their phone as in print,’ he says. ‘It’s crazy.’

He should know. He admits that he has read whole chapters of War and Peace on his iPhone, although he also read parts on old-fashioned paper. (Over Christmas, he tells me, he read DH Lawrence’s Sons and Lovers, and he is now reading George Saunders’ new collection of short stories on his iPad.)”

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“I Don’t Know What You’re Doing Here If You’re Not An Evangelist”

February 11, 2013 in Politics, Science/Tech, Urban Studies, Videos | Permalink

William F. Buckley interrogates Dr. Timothy Leary about, of course, LSD.

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“We Are Essentially Forest Dwellers”

February 11, 2013 in Books, Excerpts, Politics, Science/Tech, Urban Studies | Permalink

I recall Russell Baker, who can craft a sentence as well as anyone, once saying that the old, rigid copy-editing policies at the New York Times in his day used to make him drink and cry. Something like that. In his New York Review of Books piece on Jim Sterba’s Nature Wars, Baker writes about how technology and policy have led to a remarkable resurgence in forests and wildlife in America, one which may have gone too far. An excerpt: 

“During America’s first 250 years, early settlers cleared away some 250 million acres of forest. Yet the forest comes back fast. By the 1950s, one half to two thirds of the landscape was reforested. Most of us now ‘live in the woods,’ Sterba writes. ‘We are essentially forest dwellers.’ The new forests ‘grew back right under the noses of several generations of Americans. The regrowth began in such fits and starts that most people didn’t see it happening.’

Why did it happen? For one thing, because oil, gas, and coal replaced wood as the major fuel for heating and cooking. Because new building techniques and materials reduced wood’s importance to the construction trades. And because the family farm began to vanish, leaving the abandoned acreage to follow earth’s natural impulse, which is to produce wild grasses, weeds, bushes, shrubs, and small trees that turn into big trees.

Then, of course, even the bleakest urban areas may yield to a civic impulse to primp a bit with touches of greenery, as in New York where 24 percent of the city’s area is now covered by a canopy of 5.2 million trees. Nationally, Sterba reports, tree canopy covers about 27 percent of the urban landscape.”

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Recently Posted On NYC’s Craigslist

February 10, 2013 in Misc., Urban Studies | Permalink

"I understand the need for discretion."

“I understand the need for discretion.”

Odd Request (queens)

I know this may seem odd, however i am giving it a try. My coke dealer has gone MIA and I need a new one to purchase my supply.

Is there anyone out there.

P.S. I understand the need for discretion so please let me know if you can recommend anyone.

Thanks.

Old Print Article: “Queer Pets,” Brooklyn Daily Eagle (1885)

February 10, 2013 in Old Print Articles, Urban Studies | Permalink

“The snakes are allowed the liberty of the store and are quite friendly, gliding slowly up to a person to be stroked.”

A odd-duck druggist with outré taste in collectibles had his prized possessions profiled in a story in the Milwaukee Sentinel, which was republished in the April 12, 1885 Brooklyn Daily Eagle. The piece in full:

“The private collection of curiosities of Doctor Louis Lotz, 615 Galena Street, is considered one of the best and largest of the Northwest. It represents an accumulation of years, and is so extensive that to inspect it thoroughly would require several days. Among the most noteworthy curiosities in the collection is a Roman coin of silver, made when Christ was upon earth. It is about the size of a half-dollar of the present day, but thinner. Upon its face is a Roman head, surrounded by a wreath and some Greek letters, while upon the reverse side is an embossed tree. The coin is highly prized by the Doctor, and occupies a central position in the large number of old and curious coins of every nation, of every size and shape, and ranging in intrinsic value from one-quarter of a cent to $20.

Indian relics and curiosities occupy a separate case, and embrace everything from a scalp to a war club. Arrow and spear heads of flint and agate are arranged in rows, according to size, and make an attractive collection. Tomahawks and axes are numerous. The beholder cannot but wonder at the mechanical ingenuity of the red man, as he gazes upon these implements of warfare. Pottery and jewelry found in Indian mounds form a conspicuous portion of the department.

A flint-lock pistol recalls to mind the days of long ago, when our forefathers retired by the light of a candle dip, and the telephone and electric light were unknown.

The doctor does not keep his entire collection at his residence. His store at Chestnut Street is a perfect curiosity shop, and resembles in many respects a tropical garden, containing, as it does, large tropical plants and animals. In a large tank near the stove in the center of the room reposes an alligator, Hans by name, and a young one. Hans is now 9 years old, and has been in its present quarters many years. The animal is very docile, and is handled and fondled by Dr. Lotz with as much freedom as a babe is handled by its mother. To one unaccustomed to the sight a cold shiver is apt to pass along his spinal column as the Doctor kisses the repulsive looking reptile, which is about four feet in length. The small one–but a foot long–is also tame, but will not permit itself to be touched by any one except Dr. Lotz. Bread and milk, with an occasional bit of meat, constitute the food of these reptiles. Two large snakes occupy a small case near the alligators’ quarters. This case is not closed, and now and then a rustle will be heard in the palm standing near, and before one is fully aware of what is going on a pair of bright eyes will look into his and a forked tongue will dart out in apparently glad surprise. The snakes are allowed the liberty of the store and are quite friendly, gliding slowly up to a person to be stroked. The doctor handled them, and they in return nestled down in his pocket. To an observer the practice seems fraught with danger, but Dr. Lotz places great confidence in his peculiar pets and caresses them with impunity. Snakes and insects are preserved in bottles and arranged on shelves, and the whole scene reminds one forcibly of a room of a professor of the black art, such as seen in some spectacular plays.”

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A Subscription-Only Piece You Should Pay For

February 10, 2013 in Politics, Urban Studies | Permalink

I love doing the semiannual “Great Nonfiction Pieces Online For Free” lists (here’s the one from the end of 2012), but it has one obvious drawback: The amazing stuff that’s gated doesn’t get any love from this blog. So a quick note that if you are behind on your New Yorker reading so far this year and have yet to look at Jon Lee Anderson’s piece about Venezuela (“Letter from Caracas: Slumlord”), you need to catch up on it. Yes, it’s subscription-only, but completely worth the investment.

Oh, an equally amazing piece from the same publication, Patrick Radden Keefe’s new article about the Amy Bishop murder case (“A Loaded Gun“) is completely free and ungated. It’s likewise a must-read.

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“There Were More Drugs In That Small Yard Than There Probably Were In The 10 Mile Radius Of The Jail”

February 10, 2013 in Excerpts, Politics, Urban Studies | Permalink

An 18-year-old in Arizona was arrested for a DUI and wound up in Joe Arpaio’s Tent City jail compound, the Sheriff’s  self-described “concentration camp” for those awaiting trial, many of of whom are made to wear pink underwear and all of whom sweat it out in desert heat. The teen just did an Ask Me Anything on Reddit. A few exchanges follow.

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Question:

Tent City, what’s that?

Answer:

It’s jail, but you’re outside in these big military style tents with bunk beds. In Phoenix, and I was there in the summer; So needless to say it gets pretty toasty. They pay more for their dog food than they do for their inmate food apparently.

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Question:

You said it was easy to get drugs. How did they get in? How much did they cost?

Answer:

Not too sure on prices since I didn’t do any of them, but I know they were seriously close to street prices if not a small premium. Got offered to smoke spice (which they called “chicken.” funny story on how I figured that one out.) for free.

I witnessed some guy next to my bunk get hooked on pills, “lose” his wallet and was just a whole mess and came out with an addiction he didn’t come in with.

On the way in they said cigarettes are against the rules but the guard said “if you pay more than $2 each though, you’re getting ripped off” which I laughed at.) Anyway, this guy got caught smoking and if you get caught they make you clean up trash or something like that for an hour or two.

He was walking by asking us if we had some trash, and word for word this is what he said “Got any trash?…[looks around a tiny bit]. Want some morphine?” Someone next to me sounded interested (i just said, Nah man, no thanks) and asked what it was like and he related it to heroin. He’s like “you want some man–I got it on me right now”.

There was more drugs in that small yard than there probably were in the 10 mile radius of the jail…seriously.

_____________________________

Question:

Did you wear the pink underwear?

 

Answer:

Nope!

There’s two totally separate areas. The “N-yard” which is for the inmates who committed more serious crimes and were there for longer. They had the striped jumpsuit and pink underwear, etc. They had to change in front of everyone on the processing in as well (get naked in front of like 20 dudes).

Luckily, being my first offense and I “had a job” (work for myself, Judge was pretty lenient since it was a first offense..ever.. for me), I got what’s called Work Release.

Work Release means on the weekdays, I got to leave at 7am and had to be be back by 7pm to spend the night there. You had to spend the whole weekends there as well (60 hours total). But you also got to wear your civilian clothes, and that alone was quite awesome. Thank god.

_____________________________

Question:

What was the weirdest thing you learned? 

Answer:

Um, the weirdest thing I learned from the whole experience was that you could cook a burrito in the lint catcher of a dryer. 

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“We Are Rapidly Approaching A Historical Cusp”

February 8, 2013 in Excerpts, Politics, Science/Tech, Urban Studies | Permalink

The problem I have with otherwise thoughtful people (like David Brooks, for instance) who seem to think that wealth inequality in America is fueled by sheer meritocracy is that Carly Fiorina and Donald Trump and Paul Ryan are not our best and brightest. While America strives for a level playing field in many ways, financial rewards often go to the worst among us or the plain lucky. And this issue of inequality has always existed and likely always will, so it needs to be addressed with policy. From “Return of the Oppressed,” Peter Turchin’s new Aeon essay:

“What, then, explains the rapid growth of top fortunes in the US over the past 30 years? Why did the wages of unskilled workers stagnate or decline? What accounts for the bitterness of election rhetoric in the US, the growing legislative gridlock, the rampant political polarisation? My answer is that all of these trends are part of a complex and interlocking system. I don’t just mean that everything affects everything else; that would be vacuous. Rather, that cliodynamic theory can tell us specifically how demographic, economic and cultural variables relate to one another, and how their interactions generate social change. Cliodynamics also explains why historical reversals in such diverse areas as economics and culture happen at roughly similar times. The theory of secular cycles was developed using data from historical societies, but it looks like it can provide answers to questions about our own society.

Our society, like all previous complex societies, is on a rollercoaster. Impersonal social forces bring us to the top; then comes the inevitable plunge. But the descent is not inevitable. Ours is the first society that can perceive how those forces operate, even if dimly. This means that we can avoid the worst — perhaps by switching to a less harrowing track, perhaps by redesigning the rollercoaster altogether.

Three years ago I published a short article in the science journal Nature. I pointed out that several leading indicators of political instability look set to peak around 2020. In other words, we are rapidly approaching a historical cusp, at which the US will be particularly vulnerable to violent upheaval. This prediction is not a ‘prophecy’. I don’t believe that disaster is pre-ordained, no matter what we do. On the contrary, if we understand the causes, we have a chance to prevent it from happening. But the first thing we will have to do is reverse the trend of ever-growing inequality.”

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“The Situation Is In Flux Due To The Rapidly Declining Demand For The Post Office’s Services”

February 8, 2013 in Excerpts, Science/Tech, Urban Studies | Permalink

As the United States Postal Service cuts down to five days of mail delivery per week and some wonder what life would be like without the USPS, Foreign Policy (using an Oxford Strategic Consulting survey) ranked it the best in the world. Take that, Bhutan postal service! Fuck you! From FP‘s rankings:

“1.     The United States Postal Service

Efficiency may not be the first word that comes to mind when Americans think of the USPS, but U.S. mail carriers are better at using their limited resources than any of their counterparts, according to OSC’s study. In one year, America’s mailmen and women delivered 268,894 letters and 2,633 parcels per carrier — more than any other country — to 151 million addresses. All told, the USPS accounts for 40 percent of the world’s mail volume (yes, that figure counts your Victoria’s Secret catalogues). And despite complaints about customer service, when researchers in a different study tested 159 countries’ post offices on how fast an average letter sent to a fake address would be returned, the United States also came in first.

The Oxford authors acknowledge that the situation is in flux due to the rapidly declining demand for the post office’s services. The United States already lags behind other countries in 12th place on ‘provision of access’ — which measures the number of citizens per post office — and would likely worsen if the USPS follows through on its retrenchment plans.

The biggest obstacle to a more efficient post office may be the U.S. Congress, which has failed to approve reform efforts such as setting up retail outlets in post offices, raising prices, shuttering less-used offices, and ending six-day delivery. (As part of its new cost-saving measures, the USPS has managed to circumvent Congress by keeping only parcel service on Saturdays so that, technically, there’s still some service six days a week.)

And in case you American declinists were wondering, China ranks last on the survey.”

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“Jack, I’ve Got A Couple Of Square Questions”

February 7, 2013 in Books, Excerpts, Urban Studies, Videos | Permalink

I think I could have put up with being in Jack Kerouac’s presence for about five minutes without screaming, but this 1959 clip of him on Steve Allen’s show is fun. The Beat writer even interrupts his discomfort and self-mythologizing, bullshit answers to read from On the Road.

From John Clellon Holmes’ 1952 New York Times Magazine piece, “This Is the Beat Generation,” which introduced the movement to the masses: “Any attempt to label an entire generation is unrewarding, and yet the generation which went through the last war, or at least could get a drink easily once it was over, seems to possess a uniform, general quality which demands an adjective … The origins of the word ‘beat’ are obscure, but the meaning is only too clear to most Americans. More than mere weariness, it implies the feeling of having been used, of being raw. It involves a sort of nakedness of mind, and, ultimately, of soul; a feeling of being reduced to the bedrock of consciousness. In short, it means being undramatically pushed up against the wall of oneself. A man is beat whenever he goes for broke and wagers the sum of his resources on a single number; and the young generation has done that continually from early youth.

Its members have an instinctive individuality, needing no bohemianism or imposed eccentricity to express it. Brought up during the collective bad circumstances of a dreary depression, weaned during the collective uprooting of a global war, they distrust collectivity. But they have never been able to keep the world out of their dreams. The fancies of their childhood inhabited the half-light of Munich, the Nazi-Soviet pact, and the eventual blackout. Their adolescence was spent in a topsy-turvy world of war bonds, swing shifts, and troop movements. They grew to independent mind on beachheads, in gin mills and USO’s, in past-midnight arrivals and pre-dawn departures. Their brothers, husbands, fathers or boy friends turned up dead one day at the other end of a telegram. At the four trembling corners of the world, or in the home town invaded by factories or lonely servicemen, they had intimate experience with the nadir and the zenith of human conduct, and little time for much that came between. The peace they inherited was only as secure as the next headline. It was a cold peace. Their own lust for freedon, and the ability to live at a pace that kills (to which the war had adjusted them), led to black markets, bebop, narcotics, sexual promiscuity, hucksterism, and Jean-Paul Sartre. The beatness set in later.

It is a postwar generation, and, in a world which seems to mark its cycles by its wars, it is already being compared to that other postwar generation, which dubbed itself ‘lost’. The Roaring Twenties, and the generation that made them roar, are going through a sentimental revival, and the comparison is valuable. The Lost Generation was discovered in a roadster, laughing hysterically because nothing meant anything anymore. It migrated to Europe, unsure whether it was looking for the ‘orgiastic future’ or escaping from the ‘puritanical past.’ Its symbols were the flapper, the flask of bootleg whiskey, and an attitude of desperate frivolity best expressed by the line: ‘Tennis, anyone?’ It was caught up in the romance of disillusionment, until even that became an illusion. Every act in its drama of lostness was a tragic or ironic third act, and T.S. Eliot’s The Waste Land was more than the dead-end statement of a perceptive poet. The pervading atmosphere of that poem was an almost objectless sense of loss, through which the reader felt immediately that the cohesion of things had disappeared. It was, for an entire generation, an image which expressed, with dreadful accuracy, its own spiritual condition.

But the wild boys of today are not lost. Their flushed, often scoffing, always intent faces elude the word, and it would sound phony to them. For this generation lacks that eloquent air of bereavement which made so many of the exploits of the Lost Generation symbolic actions. Furthermore, the repeated inventory of shattered ideals, and the laments about the mud in moral currents, which so obsessed the Lost Generation, do not concern young people today. They take these things frighteningly for granted. They were brought up in these ruins and no longer notice them. They drink to ‘come down’ or to ‘get high,’ not to illustrate anything. Their excursions into drugs or promiscuity come out of curiousity, not disillusionment.”

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Recently Posted On NYC’s Craigslist

February 7, 2013 in Misc., Urban Studies | Permalink

“He smiled a sexy knowing smile, his eyes sinking into her and rummaging into her soul where he didn’t belong.”

THE CHOSEN ONE (EBOOK) – $3 (Amazon)

Dressed in his white flowing robes edged in an intricate gold threaded pattern, he was an author’s Arabian night’s gallant and her illicit fantasy. With all of the courage she could muster, Sarah held his gaze with a challenge attempting to quell her inner chaos. 

“At last you come, Chosen One. I have waited without patience.” His deep quiet voice and exotic accent framed vividly the fleeting memories of her dreams. I have searched for you for such a very long time.” 

The accuracy of his words struck raw fear in her heart sending her on the immediate attack. “Are we on that again? — Excuse me sir, if I seem rude, but my name is Sarah . . . Sarah Hope . . . I don’t really go by Chosen One.” The heavy veil muffled the effect of her words. 

He smiled a sexy knowing smile his eyes sinking into her and rummaging into her soul where he didn’t belong. “Sarah Hope, yes I know your name, it is very beautiful and fitting for you. Why do you suppose your mother named you this name?”

“She said that I was born for a reason,” Sarah said, instantly regretting her words for she was certain it would only play into his crazy notions about her. He smiled again and nodded. “Indeed, your mother was quite correct. You are The Chosen One, and that is the reason you were born.”

Sarah groaned. “You have got to be kidding, that sounds like something out of a bad movie.”

“Yet, you know I speak the truth.” 

“I don’t think my mother ever believed anyone would make a connection between “Sarah” and the “Chosen One.”

His eyes shaded with burning force. “Do you know what Sarah means in Hebrew?”

Sarah felt her thoughts come to a halt from the ironic religious inconsistency of his question. “What does an Arab know, or care about a Hebrew name?”

“Are you Jewish?” His voice was a concentrated whisper as if he had only just considered at this moment the possibility.

“I am a Catholic.”

He nodded, holding her with his radiant eyes. “Ah yes, of course.” Then he smiled. “Little better, but perfectly ironic.”

“Would you still think I was the Chosen One even if I was Jewish?” 

He shrugged his smile. “You are the Chosen One, if you were Jewish, we would have dealt with that problem just as we will deal with you being a Catholic. Though I admit, it is an easier problem.” Sarah tucked her hair behind her ear, her thoughts racing. “So what does Sarah mean in Hebrew?”

“Princess.”

The word stood alone in the air. Like a word game show the words “Prince” and “Princess” stood together on an imaginary scrabble game.

Sarah laughed nervously. “Really? How coincidental.” 

The man was obviously crazy. Perhaps too much inbreeding had occurred in the Saudi royal family. “Well, I guess for today I am The Chosen One because you chose me to come and dance. That is all fine as long as you understand I am only chosen to dance and nothing else, we will be just fine with each other,” she said firmly. “And I am ready to dance, if you will just show me where I need to get started.”

His smile disappeared and silence covered the room. Sarah scanned the sober faces that surrounded her while her fear escalated from 0 to 60. “Was it something I said? I mean, that is why you hired me despite your insane notions, so you should not look so shocked.”

Vassar’s intense eyes captured and held her even while he waved his hand gesturing the others leave the room. All exited quickly and quietly except three body guards who stepped back into the far corners of the room. “Sarah, surely you must presume why you are truly here.” 

“And it is not to dance,” he added, his voice dropping husky.

A Brief Note From 1843 About A Masher

February 7, 2013 in Old Print Articles, Urban Studies | Permalink

From the July 14, 1893 Brooklyn Daily Eagle:

“There was a scene of excitement this forenoon in a cheap restaurant in the vicinity of the city hall where young women are exclusively employed in attendance at the tables. A well dressed old looking man entered the restaurant and after taking a seat gave a small order. He did not eat, but sat at the table for nearly an hour with his eyes on waitress No. 2, who is known to the other women as Mamie. Suddenly he beckoned Mamie over to his table, threw his right arm around her waist and drew her down as if to kiss her. She screamed and then fainted. Her assailant was arrested, but as the young woman refused to make a charge against him he was not detained. He described himself in the Adams Street station as Henry J. Spyker, aged 55, of 254 Forty-eighth Street.

When questioned by the policeman, Spyker said he was a bachelor, but thought of getting married some day. He declared that he had really no intention of alarming the young woman, and he was really surprised to see her flop over in a faint. The police think he is slightly demented.”

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