Urban Studies

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“Would Even The Most Penny-Pinching Cut-Price Airline Be Able To Sell Tickets To Passengers On Flights That Have An Empty Cockpit?”

December 26, 2012 in Excerpts, Science/Tech, Urban Studies | Permalink

I would trust a pilotless aircraft just as much as a piloted one–perhaps more. Maybe at least one of the people on the ground controlling the plane isn’t falling-down drunk? Your average aviator ain’t exactly Sully Sullenberger. And you know how Jet Blue pilots tend to joke that they were just testing the plane’s new tires after they do a crappy job landing and bounce down the runway? You know how everyone laughs because they’re happy they’re not dead? I really don’t think it’s funny. From the Economist, an excerpt from an article about unmanned flight:

“It is potentially a huge new market. America’s aviation regulators have been asked by Congress to integrate unmanned aircraft into the air-traffic control system as early as 2015. Some small drones are already used in commercial applications, such as aerial photography, but in most countries they are confined to flying within sight of their ground pilot, much like radio-controlled model aircraft. Bigger aircraft would be capable of flying farther and doing a lot more things.

Pilotless aircraft could carry out many jobs at a lower cost than manned aircraft and helicopters—tasks such as traffic monitoring, border patrols, police surveillance and checking power lines. They could also operate in conditions that are dangerous for pilots, including monitoring forest fires or nuclear-power accidents. And they could fly extended missions for search and rescue, environmental monitoring or even provide temporary airborne Wi-Fi and mobile-phone services. Some analysts think the global civilian market for unmanned aircraft and services could be worth more than $50 billion by 2020.

Whatever happens, pilots will still have a role in aviation, although not necessarily in the cockpit. ‘As far as the eye can see there will always be a pilot in command of an aircraft,’ says Lambert Dopping-Hepenstal, the director of ASTRAEA. But that pilot may be on the ground and he may be looking after more than one unmanned aircraft at the same time.

Commercial flights carrying freight and express parcels might one day also lose their on-board pilots. But would even the most penny-pinching cut-price airline be able to sell tickets to passengers on flights that have an empty cockpit? More realistically, those flights might have just one pilot in the future. Technology has already relieved the flight deck of a number of jobs. Many early large aircraft had a crew of five: two pilots, a flight engineer, a navigator and a radio operator. First the radio operator went, then the navigator, and by the time the jet era was well under way in the 1970s flight engineers began to disappear too. Next it could be the co-pilot, replaced by the autonomous flight systems now being developed.”

Recently Posted On NYC’s Craigslist

December 26, 2012 in Misc., Urban Studies | Permalink

PIGMAN’S FINGERS E-book for Kindle – $2

“The sex with mom was good, and for once, I was in the mood for it…”

So begins the nightmarish tale of a young boy in a post-apocalyptic America. A haunting Gothic story in the tradition of Lord of the Flies and Riddley Walker.

Previously published by The Utopian literary magazine. *Adults only*

“A Lady Ripped Off The Head Of An Edward Cullen Standee”

December 26, 2012 in Excerpts, Urban Studies | Permalink

When people are turned down for a jobs at Arby’s they become movie-theater employees. One such worker just did an Ask Me Anything on Reddit. A few exchanges follow.

____________________________

Question:

What’s the weirdest thing [you’ve seen]?

Answer:

I’ll give you my top three weirdest moments

  1. A larger lady had a heart attack at the Twilight: Breaking Dawn part 1 premiere. She ran out into the middle of the lobby, started hysterically screaming, then just collapsed, i was on crowd control that night, so i had to run out to the middle of the lobby and make sure she was okay, i coudln’t tell if she was just messing around and was crazy (like every Twilight fan) or if she was really in trouble, ten minutes later an ambulance showed up and took her away…not sure what happened from then on.
  2. At the midnight premier of Magic Mike, (the Channing Tatum stripper movie) I had a large lady grab me and start pulling of my shirt yelling “strip for me, strip for me.” Was terrifying.
  3. any occasion with drunk people in the theaters.

Question:

That’s sexual assault. That is not okay. Unless you enjoyed it. Did you enjoy it?


Answer:

A little….

____________________________

Question:

What is your job in movie theater? Do you sell tickets? Do you sell foods? Are you ticket collector? And tell me the funniest thing you saw in there.

Answer:

99% of the time i sell movie tickets, the rest of the time i just kinda roam around, funniest thing i have seen recently, was a lady, after thoroughly looking around, ripped off the head of an Edward Cullen Standee and subtlely walked out the door with it. I was too busy laughing to go stop her.

____________________________

Question:

Would you rather watch a movie about 100 duck-sized horses or a movie about one horse-sized duck?

Answer:

[No response.]

“These Were The Days Of Bobby Fischer And Garry Kasparov, Slightly Before The IBM Computer Deep Blue Took Reign”

December 26, 2012 in Excerpts, Science/Tech, Urban Studies | Permalink

Why do I have to wait to see Andrew Bujalski’s film Computer Chess when I want to see it right now? From Indiewire:

“Set around 1980, Computer Chess is the fictional account of the computer programmers and chess players that tested artificial intelligence through computer-human chess tournaments. These were the days of Bobby Fischer and Garry Kasparov, slightly before the IBM computer Deep Blue took reign.

But Bujalski’s film is not about these real-life people; it’s an exploration of the environment he imagines for these programmers. Speaking with indieWIRE, Bujalski says, ‘We’ve certainly done research, and a few people in that community have talked to us and helped us out. We’re not setting up to do a documentary or a slavish interpretation of the truth. I certainly have tremendous respect for those guys and for what they accomplished. I hope some of that will come through whether or not we get it right for them.’

Though Bujalski says he was never a computer nerd, he admits this film is a way of him exploring the geek that never was. ‘Perhaps deep down it’s my attempt to vicariously peek into the fantasy braniac life I ought to have pursued as a kid.’

Speaking with Indiewire, he elaborated on arriving to the story: ‘I was only a little kid at this time. I saw the same headlines as everyone else did about Deep Blue. I was never terribly invested in the topic in those days. The idea for the film really came when I was at the New England Mobile Book Fair — Newton Highlands, MA. They have this great remainders section. I’ve been going to that bookstore since I was a kid. There are books waiting for someone to love them, and many of them have been there for 25-30 years, if not longer. I found a book on chess trivia — it was $1 or $2. I’m not nearly enough of a chess enthusiast to buy it at full price. The book was from 1986 or so and there was a section on computer chess trivia. It started to plant images in my head, of these guys and what they were up to.'”

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“It’s Wholly Empirical, Rather Than Building Edifices Of Equations”

December 24, 2012 in Books, Excerpts, Politics, Science/Tech, Urban Studies | Permalink

From Andrew Hacker’s New York Review of Books critique of a trio of new volumes about predictive powers, including The Signal and the Noise, written by political polling wunderkind Nate Silver:

“The Signal and the Noise is in large part a homage to Thomas Bayes (1701–1761), a long-neglected statistical scholar, especially by the university departments concerned with statistical methods. The Bayesian approach to probability is essentially simple: start by approximating the odds of something happening, then alter that figure as more findings come in. So it’s wholly empirical, rather than building edifices of equations. Silver has a diverting example on whether your spouse may be cheating. You might start with an out-of-the-air 4 percent likelihood. But a strange undergarment could raise it to 50 percent, after which the game’s afoot. This has importance, Silver suggests, because officials charged with anticipating terrorist acts had not conjured a Bayesian ‘prior’ about the possible use of airplanes.

Silver is prepared to say, ‘We had some reason to think that an attack on the scale of September 11 was possible.’ His Bayseian ‘prior’ is that airplanes were targeted in the cases of an Air India flight in 1985 and Pan Am’s over Lockerbie three years later, albeit using secreted bombs, plus in later attempts that didn’t succeed. At the least, a chart with, say, a 4 percent likelihood of an attack should have been on someone’s wall. Granted, what comes in as intelligence is largely ‘noise.’ (Most intercepted conversations are about plans for dinner.) Still, in the summer of 2001, staff members at a Minnesota flight school told FBI agents of a Moroccan-born student who wanted to learn to pilot a Boeing 747 in midair, skipping lessons on taking off and landing. Some FBI agents took the threat of Zacarias Moussaoui seriously, but several requests for search and wiretap warrants were denied. In fact, an instructor added that a fuel-laden plane could make a horrific weapon. At the least, these ‘signals’ should have raised the probability of an attack using an airplane, say, to 15 percent, prompting visits to other flight schools.”

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“It May Well Change The World”

December 24, 2012 in Excerpts, Science/Tech, Urban Studies, Videos | Permalink

The opening of “A Robot in Every Home,” Bill Gates’ famous 2007 Scientific American piece which compared the nascent robotics industry to computers of the Homebrew era:

“Imagine being present at the birth of a new industry. It is an industry based on groundbreaking new technologies, wherein a handful of well-established corporations sell highly specialized devices for business use and a fast-growing number of start-up companies produce innovative toys, gadgets for hobbyists and other interesting niche products. But it is also a highly fragmented industry with few common standards or platforms. Projects are complex, progress is slow, and practical applications are relatively rare. In fact, for all the excitement and promise, no one can say with any certainty when–or even if–this industry will achieve critical mass. If it does, though, it may well change the world.

Of course, the paragraph above could be a description of the computer industry during the mid-1970s, around the time that Paul Allen and I launched Microsoft. Back then, big, expensive mainframe computers ran the back-office operations for major companies, governmental departments and other institutions. Researchers at leading universities and industrial laboratories were creating the basic building blocks that would make the information age possible. Intel had just introduced the 8080 microprocessor, and Atari was selling the popular electronic game Pong. At homegrown computer clubs, enthusiasts struggled to figure out exactly what this new technology was good for.”

••••••••••

Homebrew Computer Club in 1978:

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“We Don’t Mind Our Phones Spying On Us”

December 23, 2012 in Excerpts, Science/Tech, Urban Studies, Videos | Permalink

I don’t always agree with Evgeny Morozov, but I always find him to be thought-provoking. In his new Financial Times piece, “Google Should Not Choose Right and Wrong” (free registration required), the technologist suggests that the search giant should be forced to accept checks and balances. A passage about the intrusiveness of Google Now:

“At the end of each month, Google happily reports – without you ever asking for it! – how many miles you’ve walked or cycled. This intervention is no simple weather trivia. Here Google assumes that walking is more important – perhaps, even more moral – than, say, driving. It explicitly ‘bakes’ morality into its app, engaging in what one might term ‘algorithmic nudging.’

Had governments advocated such surveillance-powered interventions, many would find them intrusive, not least because their terms must be subject to public debate. Are we measuring the right things? Are we unfairly blaming individuals for failures of institutions? Walking is undoubtedly easier in Manhattan than in the suburbs of Los Angeles.

With Google at the helm, however, resistance is minimal. We don’t mind our phones spying on us – at least not when Google needs this data to tell us about flight delays. Likewise, we have been persuaded by Google’s efforts to recast the information it collects as objective and simply existing “out there” – in nature – unaffected by their recording devices or systems of measurement.

Google’s power and temptation to do good are only poised to increase. As its services are integrated under one umbrella – maps, emails, calendars, videos, books – it knows even more about our moral failings. And as Google begins to mediate our interactions with the built environment – through its self-driving cars, smart glasses, smartphones – the scope for ‘algorithmic nudging’ also expands.”

••••••••••

“All that information is ready at the exact moment you actually need it”:

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A Brief Note From 1874 About Poor Parenting

December 23, 2012 in Old Print Articles, Urban Studies | Permalink

From the August 19, 1874 Brooklyn Daily Eagle:

“Yesterday afternoon, Officer Irwin was attracted by yells and drunken screams to the den No. 91 Degraw Street, occupied by Mrs. Duck. On entering the place, the officer found three women and a child in the place. The women were drunk, and tossing the child about ‘just like,’ said the officer, ‘as if it were a foot ball.’ The little child, who is scarcely three years old, presented a most pitiable sight. The officer, on ascertaining who the mother was, arrested her. The health authorities have been notified of the den which is described as the filthiest hole in Red Hook.”

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Recently Posted On NYC’s Craigslist

December 23, 2012 in Misc., Urban Studies | Permalink

Cash needed to fill a dream – $20

I have a multi-billion dollar idea that will not wait for anybody.

If you want to help with this, it will cost money – preferably $ 5,000.00 , but $ 20,000.00 will be searched for.The idea is to take cars off the roads, and replace them with a flying car, already thought up by me, and will begin construction of them when the money is set.

This idea will not leave me, as long as I have breath in my body.

If interested, please get back to me, and you will get paid back. $ 20,000 will be paid back $ 38,000.00.

“Faking Depends On A Measure Of Complicity Between The Perpetrator And The Victim”

December 21, 2012 in Excerpts, Urban Studies | Permalink

I’m always fascinated by fakes, pranksters, counterfeiters and confidence artists of all sorts, so it’s no surprise I loved “The Great Swindle,” Roger Scruton’s excellent new Aeon essay about false scholarship, art and philosophy. The opening:

“A high culture is the self-consciousness of a society. It contains the works of art, literature, scholarship and philosophy that establish a shared frame of reference among educated people. High culture is a precarious achievement, and endures only if it is underpinned by a sense of tradition, and by a broad endorsement of the surrounding social norms. When those things evaporate, as inevitably happens, high culture is superseded by a culture of fakes.

Faking depends on a measure of complicity between the perpetrator and the victim, who together conspire to believe what they don’t believe and to feel what they are incapable of feeling. There are fake beliefs, fake opinions, fake kinds of expertise. There is also fake emotion, which comes about when people debase the forms and the language in which true feeling can take root, so that they are no longer fully aware of the difference between the true and the false. Kitsch is one very important example of this. The kitsch work of art is not a response to the real world, but a fabrication designed to replace it. Yet both producer and consumer conspire to persuade each other that what they feel in and through the kitsch work of art is something deep, important and real.

Anyone can lie.”

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“More Than A Million Britishers Went To See Him When He Was There, Including The Mods And The Rockers”

December 21, 2012 in Urban Studies, Videos | Permalink

Merv Grffin travels to London in 1966 to speak with the Rev. Billy Graham, who was the Elvis of the evangelical set.

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“There’s No Going Back. So What Is ‘Control’ Now?”

December 21, 2012 in Excerpts, Politics, Science/Tech, Urban Studies | Permalink

More about the harsh realities of gun control in the nascent days of 3D printers, this time from Devin Coldewey at Techcrunch:

“If you were to attempt to write a law governing media copyright in 1998, would you attempt to do so without acknowledging the existence of the Internet and compression methods like MPEG-1? Any law crafted under such restrictions would be laughably incomplete.

Likewise, if you were to discuss a law that allows or restricts the creation and distribution of firearms, would you attempt to do so without acknowledging the existence of 3D-printed weapons and the ability to transfer blueprints for them online?

Here’s the problem, though. Like the digitization of music, the digitization of objects, guns or otherwise, is a one-way street. Every step forward is ineffaceable. Once you can make an MP3 and share it online, that’s it, there’s no going back — the industry is changed, just like that. Why should it be different when you reduce a spoon, a replacement part, a patented tool, or a gun to a compact file that can be reproduced using widely-available hardware? There’s no going back. So what is ‘control’ now?

Will ISPs use deep packet inspection to watch for gun files being traded? Will torrent sites hosting firearm files be taken down, their server rooms raided? Will all the ineffectual tactics of digital suppression be tried again, and fail again?

Will 3D printers refuse to print parts, the way 2D ones are supposed to refuse to print bills? Will printers have to register their devices, even when those devices can print themselves? How is it proposed that control is to be established over something that can be transferred in an instant to another country, and made with devices that will soon be as common as microwaves?

Part of the discussion has to be that, government or otherwise, there can be no more control over printed guns than there can be over printed spoons. Regulation or banning of firearms, whether you think the idea is good or bad, will soon be impossible.” (Thanks Browser.)

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A Brief Note From 1896 About A Forlorn Monkey

December 21, 2012 in Old Print Articles, Urban Studies | Permalink

From the July 6, 1896 Brooklyn Daily Eagle:

“The officials of a company which makes a feature of insuring the lives of animals notified the management of Glen Island today that they would not pay the policy on the life of Franko, the monkey which committed suicide yesterday. They claim that the suicide clause hold good in this instance the same as in the case of a man. It is claimed that Franko deliberately hanged himself because he was desperately in love with a female monkey in the same cage. Last week he was removed to another cage and the suicide followed.”

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Recently Posted On NYC’s Craigslist

December 20, 2012 in Misc., Urban Studies | Permalink

"You ain't no spring chicky."

“You ain’t no spring chicky.”

We’d better start fucking

Judging by the latest pictures I seen of you on Google with the blue shirt and red lipstick you ain’t no spring chicky.

Your $20 broken down ass is just about finished.

“With All Due Respect, Do You Understand What Circumference Means?”

December 20, 2012 in Excerpts, Urban Studies | Permalink

The idea that women ever have to pay for sex confounds, but a Los Angeles man who is a male escort (or so he claims) who only services females (or so he claims) just did an Ask Me Anything on Reddit. A few excerpts follow.

____________________________________

Question:

What is your average client like? Age, appearance, etc. What normally happens at one of your appointments?

Answer:

Most of my clients are between 25-45 years old. I have been with girls I would say were 9/10 and down to 4/10 (due to weight issues). Most of them are professionals who are too busy with work, or have useless husbands, or just want to get the deed done and be done with it.

Usually it consists of dinner or coffee to get to know each other and so I can get a feel for what they are expecting. After that we go a private place and I try to fulfill whatever needs they have.

____________________________________

Question:

How does one get into your line of work? How important are looks for men in your field?

Answer:

I actually got into the line of work after working at massage spa. Women would leave me their numbers and after meeting with them a few would offer to pay me for my services since they thought I was an escort.

Looks are very important on my end since a women can get any regular guy to sleep with them. I am at the gym 5 days week, I keep up the cleanliness and grooming on a daily basis. Most of the girls are looking for a muscular man which is the hardest part since my frame in general is small. It took me 2 years to gain 40lbs of muscle; I am 6′ and 205 lbs with 7% body fat.

____________________________________

Question:

What are your prices like? How do you find new clients?

Answer:

$250 an hour with 2 hour minimum. Usually I get new clients from previous clients who give their friends referrals or through dating websites.

____________________________________

Question:

Worst encounter?

Answer:

I have a lot of bad encounters but the worst was with a girl who was roughly 200 lbs and 5’2″. She wanted it in the back but I couldn’t since her butt was literally in the way. I ended up giving her the money back and never heard from her again.

____________________________________

Question:

How big?

Answer:

7 1/4″ long and 2 1/2″ wide.

Question:

Without girth that’s useless!

Answer:

I am 2 1/2″ wide, not its circumference.

Question:

I meant to ask for circumference

 Answer:

7.5″

Question:

7.5″ in circumference? With all due respect, do you understand what circumference means?

“This Cross Between An Aqualung And A Motorbike Is That Latest Idea For Lunar Travel”

December 20, 2012 in Science/Tech, Urban Studies, Videos | Permalink

An amazing British Pathé newsreel about a jetpack that was tested in 1966.

“Motopia Was A Bold—If Somewhat Impractical Plan—For A City Built From The Ground Up”

December 20, 2012 in Excerpts, Science/Tech, Urban Studies | Permalink

There’s another excellent post at the Paleofuture blog, this one about Motopia, a never realized insta-city which completely separated pedestrian and automobile. It was designed in 1960 by British landscape architect Geoffrey Allan Jellicoe. The opening:

“‘No person will walk where automobiles move,’ is how British architect Geoffrey Alan Jellicoe described his town of the future, ‘and no car can encroach on the area sacred to the pedestrian.’

Jellicoe was talking to the Associated Press in 1960 about his vision for a radically new kind of British town—a town where the bubble-top cars of tomorrow moved freely on elevated streets, and the pedestrian zipped around safely on moving sidewalks. For a town whose main selling point was the freedom to not worry about getting hit by cars, it would have a rather strange name: Motopia.

Planned for construction about 17 miles west of London with an estimated cost of about $170 million, Motopia was a bold—if somewhat impractical plan—for a city built from the ground up. The town was envisioned as being able to have a population of 30,000, all living in a grid-pattern of buildings with an expanse of rooftop motorways in the sky. There would be schools, shops, restaurants, churches and theaters all resting on a total footprint of about 1,000 acres.“

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Old Print Article: “Photographing Rogues,” Brooklyn Daily Eagle (1877)

December 19, 2012 in Old Print Articles, Urban Studies | Permalink

“The majority of prisoners whose features are photographed object most seriously.”

The Rogues’ Gallery was a collection of photos of known criminals intended to make it easier for law-enforcement officers to track and arrest miscreants. It was a precursor to mug shots and photographs of the FBI’s most-wanted criminals hanging on post office walls. The idea for such a gallery was first hatched in 1857 by Allan Pinkerton for his detective agency, and it was adopted later in the 19th century by the New York City police department. But where exactly were the NYPD photos shot in the time before the department had its own picture-taking facilities? An explanation comes from the May 22, 1877 Brooklyn Daily Eagle. An excerpt:

“Hanging on the door of the house No. 34 Myrtle Avenue, is the sign ‘Wendel, Photographer.’ The photographer’s rooms are on the top floor, which is reached by numerous, narrow stairways. At this place all the rogues’ photographs are taken. Persons who go to Mr. Wendel’s to have their photographs taken must often be treated to a surprise, by seeing a man with manacles on his wrists sitting in front of the camera obscura, while the operator is making the necessary preparations before the subject’s features are delineated. The square piece of glass on which the picture is first taken is called a negative, and it is placed in what is known as a print box. This box is placed where the rays of sun will strike the negative, thus transferring the photograph to the sheet of prepared paper directly under the glass.

The majority of prisoners whose features are photographed object most seriously to having their photographs in possession of the police. The moment they are placed in the chair opposite the camera they will either distort their mouths or close their eyes, never forgetting to pull their hair down over their foreheads. Old offenders as a general rule, that is those whose features grace the Rogues Gallery of other cities, do not mind having their features photographed. Some of them are anxious to make a good appearance, and ranging themselves before a mirror, they arrange their collars and neck ties and comb their hair.

When the criminals, as they frequently do, refuse to have their pictures taken, the policeman or detective who have them in charge force them to sit in the chair in front of the camera, and if the prisoner persists in moving his head, the officer generally places a hand over each of the fellow’s ears and keeps the head from bobbing around. An Eagle reporter has seen a prisoner who fought with the policeman having him in charge and refused to to sit for his photograph. Although heavily manacled, the prisoner fought desperately, and after vainly endeavoring to hold him while the operator performed his work, the policeman clubbed him about the head, and then, with blood running down his face, the prisoner was forced into the chair. The rough treatment he received did have the effect of bringing the man into submission, and the officers were obliged to leave the gallery without having obtained the desired photograph. In this respect women are very unlike the men, and are not at all displeased at having their features photographed, and the majority of them will get themselves up as elaborately as possible before taking their seat in the photographer’s gallery.

Twelve copies of each photograph are made and these are sent to Sergeant Henry Van Wagner of the Detective Squad. The pictures are kept in large albums, and each picture is numbered, and in an index is kept a record of the name of all the prisoners, their age at the time of their arrest, the crime committed and sentence. If, when a criminal has served his term, and returns to this city to prey again on the public, and when police learn of his depredations, by the aid of his photograph an officer who is a stranger to the man, if placed on the case, will succeed in nine cases out of ten in running the criminal own.”

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“Leaving The ATF Without A Director Is Also A Public Safety Threat”

December 19, 2012 in Excerpts, Politics, Urban Studies | Permalink

In an Op-Ed in USA Today, New York’s Mayor Bloomberg has some common-sense proposals for tightening gun laws in a way that doesn’t encroach upon the rights of law-abiding gun owners. Of course, it doesn’t address the huge amount of assault weapons already in circulation in the U.S., and there really isn’t an answer for that. Anyhow, I wasn’t aware that the ATF hasn’t had a director since the Bush Administration. An excerpt:

“The president should make a recess appointment to fill the vacancy at the top of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF), which has been without a director for six years. The country would be outraged if the Department of Homeland Security went six years without a confirmed director. Leaving the ATF without a director is also a public safety threat.”

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“The Robots’ Duties Also Include Spot Welding Labels Onto The Gifts”

December 18, 2012 in Science/Tech, Urban Studies, Videos | Permalink

Santa is already down on the elves and now technology is taking a potshot. GM has repurposed some auto-manufacturing robots for gift-wrapping duty. From Autoblog: “In addition to stuffing and wrapping boxes, the robots’ duties also include spot welding labels onto the gifts (who even knew that was possible?). The work looks boring and monotonous, but at least these GM robots were able to find a second job.”

Recently Posted On NYC’s Craigslist

December 18, 2012 in Misc., Urban Studies | Permalink

“Along to help out is Rupert, a middle-aged Korean man.”

Miracle Road–eBook (Upper East Side)

An English woman stricken with great misfortune will soon be offered the help of an unlikely prostitute… a.k.a The Chaldean Whore. Along to help out is Rupert, a middle-aged Korean man. Brace Yourselves… On An Epic Journey Through Miracle Road! 

These three souls, each tormented in the past will come together as they try and come to terms with what’s happened to them. Their life regrets and hardships will be recounted. It’s a struggle for happiness… a basic human necessity that’s been RAVAGED, TAKEN and BURIED somewhere deep inside them. 

Life goes on. But with looming memories, happiness… HAS A LIMIT!

*Author’s Sneak Peak: One is human. The other two? Suspiciously different.

“The Glamorous Future Included No Digital Photography Or Stereo Speakers Tiny Enough To Fit In Your Ears”

December 18, 2012 in Excerpts, Science/Tech, Urban Studies | Permalink

From “No Flying Cars, But the Future Is Bright,” Virginia Postrel’s contrarian Bloomberg piece, which provides an incrementalist’s argument to those who feel we’ve failed to realize the bold technological visions of the ’50s and ’60s:

“The glamorous future included no digital photography or stereo speakers tiny enough to fit in your ears. No forensic DNA testing or home pregnancy tests. No ubiquitous microwave ovens or video games or bar codes or laser levels or CGI-filled movies. No super absorbent polymers for disposable diapers — indeed, no disposable diapers of any kind.

Nor was much business innovation evident in those 20th century visions. The glamorous future included no FedEx or Wal- Mart, no Starbucks or Nike or Craigslist — culturally transformative enterprises that use technology but derive their real value from organization and insight. Nobody used shipping containers or optimized supply chains. The manufacturing revolution that began at Toyota never happened. And forget about such complex but quotidian inventions as wickable fabrics or salad in a bag.

The point isn’t that people in the past failed to predict all these innovations. It’s that people in the present take them for granted.

Technologists who lament the ‘end of the future’ are denigrating the decentralized, incremental advances that actually improve everyday life. And they’re promoting a truncated idea of past innovation: economic history with railroads but no department stores, radio but no ready-to-wear apparel, vaccines but no consumer packaged goods, jets but no plastics.” (Thanks Browser.)

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“Many Preppers Also Keep Guns And A Supply Of Ammunition In Anticipation Of The Breakdown Of Law And Order”

December 18, 2012 in Excerpts, Urban Studies | Permalink

It’s difficult to say at this point if the survivalist subculture had anything to do with the huge cache of assault weapons that were used in the Connecticut massacre, but a lot of Americans believe we’re on the verge of imminent collapse. That belief, of course, seems to have no root in reality. The opening of “Newtown and the Doomsday Preppers,” J.M. Berger’s new Foreign Policy article:

“In the wake of a terrible tragedy like Friday’s elementary school massacre in Newtown, Connecticut, most people immediately begin groping for answers.

On Sunday, a family member claimed that Nancy Lanza, mother of 20-year-old gunman Adam Lanza, owned the guns used in the shooting because she was some manner of survivalist. The reasons Adam Lanza did what he did may well be complex. But if the report proves to be true — and many, many reports about the Lanzas have not — it may provide context for his actions.

Survivalism, sometimes referred to as ‘doomsday prepping’ or simply ‘prepping,’ is a movement based on the fear that society is on the brink of imminent, or at least foreseeable, collapse and that it’s sensible to prepare for that possibility.

‘Survivalist’ is a very broad category, and it includes a strikingly diverse collection of people, many of whom, it should be emphasized, are perfectly nice and have fears that are simply amplified versions of those that keep mainstream Americans awake at night. There are at least tens of thousands of prepper families in the United States, covering a broad range of practices, most of which are not particularly unreasonable.

Someone who closely followed the preparedness guidelines issued by the Department of Homeland Security, the Centers for Disease Control, or FEMA might find themselves the butt of ‘survivalist’ jokes from their friends and family. But those friends would have been grateful to have a prepper friend if they lived in certain parts of the East Coast when Hurricane Sandy struck.

Preppers go beyond the average household’s disaster preparedness regime of having a couple flashlights with batteries in them. Their precautions can include everything from keeping a supply of canned goods to stocking generators and building elaborate bunkers. Many preppers also keep guns and a supply of ammunition in anticipation of the breakdown of law and order, as well as for hunting after the local Whole Foods has been abandoned to looters.”

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A Brief Note From 1843 About A Man Who Sinned

December 18, 2012 in Old Print Articles, Urban Studies | Permalink

From the May 20. 1943 Brooklyn Daily Eagle:

“There is living upon Staten Island, an old man who has devoted himself to the rigid and solitary life of the hermit. He has constructed a rude hut in the middle of a forest, where he passes both day and night, refusing to hold a communication with his fellow men, and living wholly upon cold water. He was formerly a sailor; and the only reason he can give for his curious delusion, is, that he was very wild and wicked in his youth, and that God, in order to punish him, has now commanded him to live upon water for the space of forty days. Fourteen of these days of penance have already passed, yet he persists in adhering to his simple diet. He is somewhat pale and emaciated, we are told, but quite vigorous and active. During the last summer, he took the same notion into his head, but after eleven days fasting, found out that his punishment was remitted for a time. It is again laid upon him, and he thinks he will be able to endure to the end.”

“Where Abandoned Liquor Stores Now Fester, Yoga Studios Shall One Day Bloom”

December 18, 2012 in Excerpts, Science/Tech, Urban Studies | Permalink

I posted something a couple months back about Zappos founder Tony Hsieh spearheading a reimagining of raffish Downtown Las Vegas as a Jane Jacobs-ish walkable community for the Information Age. It’s a tall order. Here’s an excerpt from another piece about Hsieh and his master plan, this time from Greg Beato at Reason:

“In December 2010, Hsieh announced that Zappos.com was planning to move its thousand-plus employees from an office park in Henderson, Nevada, to the old Las Vegas City Hall, a transition that will happen sometime later this year. When it does, Hsieh won’t be commuting. In 2011, he leased 50 units in a luxury high-rise in the neighborhood, and he and some of his Zappos.com co-workers moved in. He’s hoping more will follow—Zappos.com employees and anyone else who wants to live in a lively, community-oriented urban neighborhood near his eight-acre worksite. It’s something he calls The Downtown Project. 

Primarily bankrolled by Hsieh, The Downtown Project plans to invest $350 million in up to 200 small businesses, dozens of tech start-ups, and a diverse mix of other public resources and amenities. The ultimate goal: To create the sort of dense, walkable, mixed-used Shangri-La championed by the urban theorist Jane Jacobs in her 1961 classic The Death and Life of Great American Cities. 

Put another way, Hsieh would like to make downtown Las Vegas a more compelling social network, a feature-rich platform that encourages frequent chance encounters, fruitful knowledge exchange, and over the long term, greater innovation and productivity. Where abandoned liquor stores now fester, yoga studios shall one day bloom. 

In a town where development typically takes the form of another massive casino resort, Hsieh’s dream is a fairly radical vision. But Las Vegas has already replicated Egyptian pyramids, the Eiffel Tower, and the New York skyline, so why not thriving urban neighborhoods like San Francisco’s Mission District or Brooklyn’s Williamsburg?

Call it a venture-capital take on urban locavorism.”

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