Urban Studies

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“Horses Were, For The Most Part, Tools”

September 28, 2012 in Excerpts, Science/Tech, Urban Studies | Permalink

The introduction to Megan Garber’s excellent history of mechanical horses in the Atlantic:

“For most of human history, horses have been, primarily, a technology. An intimate technology, yes — people named their horses, and groomed them, and sometimes loved them — but horses were, for the most part, tools: They helped humanity to get around and get things done. Once steam power and internal combustion came along, though, that relationship changed drastically. As horses were eclipsed by more efficient methods of moving people and things — trains, cars, planes — their role in human culture shifted, as well. We quickly came to see horses more as what they had been, of course, all along: fellow animals. 

That shift is evident in a longstanding dream that is a little bit fanciful, a little bit practical, a little bit silly, and a little bit wonderful: the quest for the mechanical horse. While some creations — theScammel mechanical horse, the Iron Horse — imagined themselves as horses’ mechanized successors while not actually resembling them, many others have engaged in biomimicry of a more specific variety. While they are only one species we humans have seen fit to imitate with our machines — the world now hosts, among other automatons, the mechanical dog, the mechanical dinosaur, the mechanical pack mule, the mechanical elephant, the mechanical flea, and the mechanical shark — horses have held a special place in human hearts.”

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Old Print Article: “Sweating Blood,” Brooklyn Daily Eagle (1881)

September 28, 2012 in Old Print Articles, Urban Studies | Permalink

“Bleeding from all parts of the body was the principal thing noticeable.”

An 19th-century Illinois lad was often mysteriously soaked in his own blood, as evidenced by an article that ran in the January 27, 1881 Brooklyn Daily Eagle. An excerpt:

“Chicago–A boy named Willie Crawford is suffering from a strange disease, the most extraordinary feature of which is that he sweats blood. The boy’s parents live at 86 Seeley Avenue. He was born December 1, 1866, and hence is a little over fourteen years of age. Up to seven years ago last summer he was healthy. He played hard, ate heartily and slept soundly. One night he woke up and called his mother, and she found him bleeding at the nose. She could not stop it, so she called a doctor, who said, ‘it was nothing but a bad nose bleed. Put cold cloths on his back.’ This was done but without avail, and another doctor was called. The bleeding at the nose was stopped, and then there came out on his body great black patches, and they would bleed. Blood also flowed from his mouth and eyes and from his stomach, and upon one occasion from his bladder and kidneys.

Willie recovered from the first attack and became apparently as well as ever, but others soon followed, and he was constantly under the care of different physicians. Bleeding from all parts of the body was the principal thing noticeable. It made him very weak, and the blood from his mouth affected his taste so that he could not partake of nourishment without great difficulty. On some occasions blood would issue in small drops about the size of a pin head from, as it seemed, every pore in his body and would stain his clothing, just as though blood had been pricked into the cloth. These discharges were unaccompanied with pains, and, until the last attacks were without much fever. Spots of all shapes and sizes would appear upon all parts of his body and would turn as black as coal sometimes, and at others would be of red or blue color. 

Three weeks ago to-day he was taken down suddenly with the worst attack he has ever had. He bled so much that his blood became so thin and reduced in quality that it would scarcely soil a white handkerchief. He also had a high fever and bled so badly from his nose that it had to be constantly plugged. His gums, mouth and tongue were covered with large blood blisters, and the whites of his eyes were bloodshot, and it seemed as though he could not live, he had become so weak. These attacks, though they have come without any apparent cause or warning, have sometimes been produced and stopped by sudden excitement. Mrs. Crawford said he was once bleeding so badly that she went for a doctor, and left him with the hired girl and one of her daughters. As she was coming back, Willie met her with the bleeding stopped, though he was deadly pale, as he said, ‘Bridget has fainted, and Maggie is almost scared to death.’ He was so frightened at the fainting of the hired girl that it had for the time cured him.

Willie Crawford is mentally bright, and his father, mother, brother and sister are strong and healthy. The physicians who have taken an interest in his case propose sending him to Edinburgh and London for examination by the Academy of Surgeons.”

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“They Listened To Marshall McLuhan As The First Oracle Of The Electronic Age”

September 28, 2012 in Science/Tech, Urban Studies, Videos | Permalink

Fun 1984 doc about McLuhan that was scripted and “hosted” by Tom Wolfe.

See also:

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Recently Posted ON NYC’s Craigslist

September 27, 2012 in Misc., Urban Studies | Permalink

“Borrowing your wheelchair will help me bring joy to many.”

Drag Queen needs Wheel Chair!

I am a drag queen.

I have a performance coming up soon (Oct 13th) and need a wheelchair for a number I am doing.

Ideally, I would love to just BORROW a cheap (non-motorized) wheelchair if someone can lend me one.

I can even possibly kick a few bucks your way as a thank you.

Borrowing your wheelchair will help me bring joy to many in a really unique performance that will be seen by hundreds.

(No, it’s not a performance I’m being paid for, which is why I don’t have a budget to buy a wheelchair.)

Thanks for any help! 

“He Is Learning How To Regulate The Flow Of Information In The Brain”

September 27, 2012 in Excerpts, Science/Tech, Urban Studies | Permalink

The opening of Amy Barth’s new Discover article about Optogenics, which is showing promise as a way to bring about profound behavioral modification through the use of flashes of light:

“Stopped at a red light on his drive home from work, Karl Deisseroth contemplates one of his patients, a woman with depression so entrenched that she had been unresponsive to drugs and electroshock therapy for years. The red turns to green and Deisseroth accelerates, navigating roads and intersections with one part of his mind while another part considers a very different set of pathways that also can be regulated by a system of lights. In his lab at Stanford University’s Clark Center, Deisseroth is developing a remarkable way to switch brain cells off and on by exposing them to targeted green, yellow, or blue flashes. With that ability, he is learning how to regulate the flow of information in the brain.

Deisseroth’s technique, known broadly as optogenetics, could bring new hope to his most desperate patients. In a series of provocative experiments, he has already cured the symptoms of psychiatric disease in mice. Optogenetics also shows promise for defeating drug addiction. When Deisseroth exposed a set of test mice to cocaine and then flipped a switch, pulsing bright yellow light into their brains, the expected rush of euphoria—the prelude to addiction—was instantly blocked. Almost miraculously, they were immune to the cocaine high; the mice left the drug den as uninterested as if they had never been exposed.

Today, those breakthroughs have been demonstrated in only a small number of test animals. But as Deisseroth pulls into his driveway he is optimistic about what tomorrow’s work could bring: Human applications, and the relief they could deliver, may not be far off.” (Thanks Browser.)

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“Some Of These Changes Would Also Apply To What I’m Calling ‘Whistlecars'”

September 27, 2012 in Excerpts, Science/Tech, Urban Studies | Permalink

Brad Templeton considers a potential use for the coming robotic autos: “whistlecars,” which can deliver themselves to you for a small fee whenever you need to drive someplace. It’s the taxi without the taxi driver, and the vehicle can return itself. An excerpt:

“Many of the big changes that will come about form robocars will come from how they free car designers from the constraints of human-driven cars which are the owner’s sole, or almost-sole vehicle.

Much of this depends on this yet-untested idea:

  • If one can hire a cheap specialized ‘robotaxi’ (or whistlecar) on demand when one has a special automotive need, car users can elect to purchase a vehicle only for their most common needs, rather than trying to meet almost all of them — or to not purchase at all.

For example, for many, most trips are short, single passenger and do not require significant cargo room. Almost nobody purchases a vehicle good only for that purpose, because they want to cover the occasional needs for long trips, taking extra people, carrying cargo, towing or going off-road.

Some of these changes would also apply to what I’m calling ‘whistlecars’ — owned or rented cars that deliver themselves to you when you summon them, but which you still drive.” (Thanks Atlantic.)

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Old Peinr Article: “Luther Burbank–The Man And His Mind,” New York Times (1906)

September 27, 2012 in Old Print Articles, Photography, Science/Tech, Urban Studies | Permalink

By any standards, Luther Burbank was a virtuoso botanist and horticulturist, mixing, matching and creating. Among the hundreds of exotic varieties that were hatched from his experimental Santa Rosa farm, greenhouse and nursery–which included plants, potatoes, fruits and flowers–was the spineless cactus featured in the above classic photograph. The opening of an admiring 1906 New York Times profile of Burbank:

Every summer our transatlantic steamers are burdened with great throngs of travelers beginning their pilgrimages to the shrines of departed genius. In America, too, we may visit places made illustrious by the former presence of Washington, Jefferson, Lee, Lincoln, Emerson, Poe, and other native men of genius. But, disguise it as we will, the visits are at last to cemeteries, where everything is described in the past tense.

But there is in America at this moment a man of the very greatest genius, just in the flower of his fame, a visit to whom not only emphasizes his genius and his leadership in thought and living things, but also enables one to see far into the future. There is a searchlight of truth in constant operation at Santa Rosa, Cal., and the mind and heart of Luther Burbank are the lenses through which the light is focused. Long ago I resolved to beg the privilege of standing near the searchlight and making a few observations as it illumined some of the peaks of knowledge I could never hope to scale.

Our so-called “Captains of Industry” are busy men, but many of their duties and responsibilities they may delegate to others. Luther Burbank is the busiest man in the world. I make that statement without fear of successful contradiction. His ship is alone on a vast sea of nature’s secrets. With him on the voyage of discovery are a few near relations to encourage him, a dear friend or two for protection and companionship, and several humble helpers to feed the boilers and oil the engines. But he is more alone than was Columbus, because he has no first officer, no second officer, no mate. Like Columbus, upon him alone falls the responsibility for the expedition; he alone knows why the vessel’s prow is kept always in one direction; he alone has faith that it must ultimately touch the shores of truth and reality.•

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“Why, It’s An Honor For Me To Be Here”

September 27, 2012 in Excerpts, Politics, Urban Studies, Videos | Permalink

The opening of what’s arguably Jimmy Breslin’s most famous column, his 1963 profile of the quiet, sober work of the gravedigger at Arlington National Cemetery who attended to John F. Kennedy’s plot after the President was assassinated:

“Washington — Clifton Pollard was pretty sure he was going to be working on Sunday, so when he woke up at 9 a.m., in his three-room apartment on Corcoran Street, he put on khaki overalls before going into the kitchen for breakfast. His wife, Hettie, made bacon and eggs for him. Pollard was in the middle of eating them when he received the phone call he had been expecting. It was from Mazo Kawalchik, who is the foreman of the gravediggers at Arlington National Cemetery, which is where Pollard works for a living. ‘Polly, could you please be here by eleven o’clock this morning?’ Kawalchik asked. ‘I guess you know what it’s for.’ Pollard did. He hung up the phone, finished breakfast, and left his apartment so he could spend Sunday digging a grave for John Fitzgerald Kennedy.

When Pollard got to the row of yellow wooden garages where the cemetery equipment is stored, Kawalchik and John Metzler, the cemetery superintendent, were waiting for him. ‘Sorry to pull you out like this on a Sunday,’ Metzler said. ‘Oh, don’t say that,’ Pollard said. ‘Why, it’s an honor for me to be here.’ Pollard got behind the wheel of a machine called a reverse hoe. Gravedigging is not done with men and shovels at Arlington. The reverse hoe is a green machine with a yellow bucket that scoops the earth toward the operator, not away from it as a crane does. At the bottom of the hill in front of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, Pollard started the digging (Editor Note: At the bottom of the hill in front of the Custis-Lee Mansion).

Leaves covered the grass. When the yellow teeth of the reverse hoe first bit into the ground, the leaves made a threshing sound which could be heard above the motor of the machine. When the bucket came up with its first scoop of dirt, Metzler, the cemetery superintendent, walked over and looked at it. ‘That’s nice soil,’ Metzler said. ‘I’d like to save a little of it,’ Pollard said. ‘The machine made some tracks in the grass over here and I’d like to sort of fill them in and get some good grass growing there, I’d like to have everything, you know, nice.'”

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“It’s a good drinkin’ beer”:

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“In Late 2011, Broad Built A 30-Story Building In 15 Days”

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

The opening of Lauren Hilgers’ Wired feature about Zhang Yue, the unlikely Chinese builder who is erecting tall, sustainable buildings in blindingly short spans of time and at shockingly low costs:

“Zhang Yue, founder and chairman of Broad Sustainable Building, is not a particularly humble man. A humble man would not have erected, on his firm’s corporate campus in the Chinese province of Hunan, a classical palace and a 130-foot replica of an Egyptian pyramid. A humble man, for that matter, would not have redirected Broad from its core business—manufacturing industrial air-conditioning units—to invent a new method of building skyscrapers. And a humble man certainly wouldn’t be putting up those skyscrapers at a pace never achieved in history.

In late 2011, Broad built a 30-story building in 15 days; now it intends to use similar methods to erect the world’s tallest building in just seven months. Perhaps you’re already familiar with Zhang’s handiwork: On New Year’s Day 2012, Broad released a time-lapse video of its 30-story achievement that quickly went viral: construction workers buzzing around like gnats while a clock in the corner of the screen marks the time. In just 360 hours, a 328-foot-tall tower called the T30 rises from an empty site to overlook Hunan’s Xiang River. At the end of the video, the camera spirals around the building overhead as the Broad logo appears on the screen: a lowercase b that wraps around itself in an imitation of the @ symbol.”

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“The Left Coast Has A Way Of Prodding Automakers To Innovate Faster”

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

I put up a post yesterday about the spiffy new Supercharger stations built by Tesla Motors, but most of the news regarding alterna-cars in America in the last 24 hours has been mixed at best. Tesla itself is falling far short of its near-term manufacturing goals and Toyota, king of the hybrid with the Prius, announced it was largely abandoning the electric category. The one bright spot was that California legalized driverless cars, many of which will be electric. And that’s a state where such vehicles could thrive.

The obstacles to electric vehicles are gigantic because of the lack of infrastructure. Imagine if Steve Jobs had dreamed up the iPod but there were no outlets in your home to charge them, so Apple also had to build power sources. One thing that makers of electric autos should do is pool resources to create universal filling stations or outfit existing fossil fuel stations with a universal electrical outlet. The early electric cars are ideal for urban areas because of their relatively limited travel capacity, and most city dwellers don’t have garages in which to power their cars. Stations have to be ubiquitous, uniform and simple.

The challenges for automatic autos are psychological as well as foundational. Americans who feel like they don’t have great control over the rest of their lives have long enjoyed a sense of empowerment and freedom from being behind the wheel of their cars. (Picture America Graffiti with driverless cars.) So the obstacles are technological as well as those of hearts and minds.

From a Forbes article about California’s new driverless cars law: “California Gov. Jerry Brown on Tuesday signed a law making it legal for driverless cars to travel on public roadways, demonstrating once again that the Left Coast has a way of prodding automakers to innovate faster.

It’s not that smart minds in Detroit, Japan and Germany aren’t already working on autonomous cars. They’ve been doing so for years. But as with most new technologies, automotive engineers want to make absolutely certain that they’re safe and perform as expected before launching into mass production. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration agrees, of course, which is why it recently launched the first real-world test of vehicle-to-vehicle communication near Ann Arbor, Mich.

But Google, which has already developed a fleet of driverless cars that some of its employees use to commute to work, was eager to press ahead. It lobbied heavily for the California law, which would allow testing of autonomous vehicles on the state’s roadways as long as there’s a fully licensed human in the driver’s seat to take over if needed.”

A Note From 1854 About A Missing Farmer

September 26, 2012 in Old Print Articles, Urban Studies | Permalink

From the June 14, 1854 Brooklyn Daily Eagle:

“Ashtabula County, Ohio–An old bachelor by the name of Lyman Sutliff who was well off in the world, had a fine farm well stocked, lived in his house alone and carried on his farm himself, was about four weeks ago missing and his house was closed up. Not hearing anything from him, the neighbors got alarmed, broke into his house, and found an awful stench arising from meat, maggoty milk and a dead pet porcupine. The whole county turned out last Thursday to look for the missing man, supposing him murdered. Near one of the fences running across his back lot, his body was found buried in the ground, the corpse lying on its back, and so near to the surface that one of its knees protruded out. Suspicion immediately fell on one of the neighbors who had been seen ploughing with the deceased’s cattle. The crowd immediately surrounded his house and demanded his surrender. He was arrested.”

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Even More Proof That Donald Trump Is A Moron

September 25, 2012 in Humor, Misc., Urban Studies | Permalink

Donald Trump: Money really can’t buy happiness.

Donald Trump, that huge d-bag, tweeted about a speech he recently gave at the Christian Liberty University, which was apparently drawn to him for his experience with divorce, gambling and bigotry. Trump, who appears to favor an Old Testament retributive God, had this advice for young Christians:

Donald J. Trump ‏@realDonaldTrump

…One point I made sure to stress at @LibertyU is to be sure to get even with anyone who crosses you…

Donald J. Trump ‏@realDonaldTrump

…Never let yourself be pushed around–but treat the good folks great.

 

JC: Fuck ’em up good, Donnie.

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Recently Posted On NYC’s Craigslist

September 25, 2012 in Misc., Urban Studies | Permalink

“Items such as trucks, autos, second homes in trade for having your home sealed.”

Are you tired of living with rodents? (Westchester, NY)

This is a very simple barter.

If you are fed up with living with rodents in your home-then I can help.

This is a social experiment as I have made a good deal of money performing this service for more than a decade. Now since the economy is tough we will adapt to what people have to offer for this unique service. Items such as trucks,autos,second homes, anything of proven value in trade for having your home sealed so that your major infestation is to a minimum( if at all) when this is done. We have had homes that were getting 40 plus mice a month turn to zero.Your pest control company can’t do this-but I can,and I do not use any poison!

Let me know the sq. footage and type of foundation you have (solid pour cement, cinderblock, rock) and what you have to trade and I will get back to you.

“It Is A Regression To The Ancient Usury Problem That Destroyed Rome”

September 25, 2012 in Excerpts, Politics, Science/Tech, Urban Studies | Permalink

The opening of economic analyst Michael Hudson’s thoughts on a system in which debt creation floats the boat, until he believes, it capsizes:

“Mainstream economics has become a body of assumptions selected to rationalize a ‘trickle-down’ tax policy favoring the financial sector driving the rest of the economy into debt, turning the economic surplus into interest charges – to be recycled into yet more debt creation. Claiming that wealth at the top pulls up the rest (‘the rich are job creators’), the policy inference is to shift taxes off financial wealth and property onto labor and industry.

What this view leaves out of account is that some ways of ‘getting rich’ are corrosive, not productive. The wealthiest 10% have gotten rich mainly by getting the bottom 90% into debt. And labor (‘consumers’) try to escape from their financial squeeze by going even deeper into debt, to buy homes and status before their access price rises even further out of reach. But what is pushing up real estate and other prices is easy bank credit – that is, debt. So the debt expansion calls for yet more debt to keep the financial system solvent.

This is not industrial capitalism as analyzed by the classical economists. It is something quite different. It is a regression to the ancient usury problem that destroyed Rome.” (Thanks Browser.)

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“It’s Designed To Generate More Energy From The Sun Over The Course Of A Year Than Is Consumed By Tesla Vehicles”

September 25, 2012 in Excerpts, Science/Tech, Urban Studies | Permalink

Elon Musk’s Tesla Motors announced yesterday the location of its first six Supercharger stations, which allow Tesla drivers to recharge batteries fast and for free. No gas station has ever looked this immaculate. The station creates all its power through solar. From the press release:

“Tesla Motors today unveiled its highly anticipated Supercharger network. Constructed in secret, Tesla revealed the locations of the first six Supercharger stations, which will allow the Model S to travel long distances with ultra fast charging throughout California, parts of Nevada and Arizona.

The technology at the heart of the Supercharger was developed internally and leverages the economies of scale of existing charging technology already used by the Model S, enabling Tesla to create the Supercharger device at minimal cost. The electricity used by the Supercharger comes from a solar carport system provided by SolarCity, which results in almost zero marginal energy cost after installation. Combining these two factors, Tesla is able to provide Model S owners1 free long distance travel indefinitely.

Each solar power system is designed to generate more energy from the sun over the course of a year than is consumed by Tesla vehicles using the Supercharger. This results in a slight net positive transfer of sunlight generated power back to the electricity grid.”

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“What we want to show you tonight is the solution to the three major problems holding back electric vehicles”:

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Old Print Article: “The Writing Machine,” Brooklyn Daily Eagle (1867)

September 25, 2012 in Old Print Articles, Urban Studies | Permalink

“He prints a letter by the blow of minute hammers.”

John J. Pratt, Alabaman inventor, devised his version of the typewriter, the Pterotype, in 1865. Two years later when Pratt demonstrated his machine in London, some genius from the Scientific Journal was there to inspect it and explain its operation to readers in excruciating detail. The story was repeated in the July 18, 1867 issue of the Brooklyn Daily Eagle. If you want to shoot yourself, read on:

“The Scientific Journal contains the following account of a newly invented and curious machine:

‘A machine by which it is assumed that a man may print his thoughts twice as fast as he can write them, and with the advantage of the legibility, compactness and neatness of print, has been exhibited before the London Society of the Arts, by the inventor, Mr. Pratt, of Alabama.

He draws up his alphabet in a solid square battalion, say seventy characters in seven rows, the whole in solid electrotype plate about five-eighths inch square or more according to the size of the type desired. He prints a letter by the blow of minute hammers of uniform size with all the type bodies, striking the face of the letter, with the paper interposed, and a carbonated sheet also between that and the type. Each letter, as wanted, is moved into position before the hammer by compound levers actuated by keys like those of a piano. The same touch of the key readjusts the paper to the new impression (with or without a space before it, according to the force used), readjusts the type plate, so as to present the desired type to the hammer, and gives the printing blow. Simple arrangements also retract the page at once laterally and vertically to begin a new line. The type plate and paper are placed vertically, the latter with its face to the operator, so that the work done is before his eyes as in writing. The keys actuate two double acting levers, one of which raises or lowers the type plate, while the other moves it laterally. Each key is so applied to the levers as to adjust the plate at once sideways and vertically to the position for bringing a particular character into the play. Or, a better way, one key will do duty for the  vertical movement of each entire horizontal row, another key for the lateral movement of each vertical column, and thus by pressing two keys for each character, seventeen keys will be sufficient to operate the whole front of seventy characters above supposed.

The case of the instrument is small and compact, the parts are mostly of wood, and it could be manufactured and sold on a large scale for about $15 for a handsome profit.'”

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“I Think We Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet”

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

In his TED Talk, Andrew McAfee asserts that the robotization of labor is a good thing. Sure, in the long run.

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“A New Generation Of Airship-Like Vehicles Could Soon Be Making Their Way Across Our Skies”

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

I’ve blogged before about aviators attempting to repopularize the airship. More on the topic by Jon Stewart at the BBC:

“If you like the idea of cruising on a ship in laid-back luxury, but prefer the speed and convenience of air travel, there may soon be a solution. Drawing their inspiration from the airships of yesteryear, a new generation of airship-like vehicles could soon be making their way across our skies.

In a hangar outside Tustin in California, engineers are preparing one of the most radical designs for testing. The Aeroscraft, as it is known, is the brainchild of Igor Pasternak and has been made possible by advances in materials and computer control systems.

‘We are resurrecting [the airship] with new composite fabric structures, that are stronger, lighter, more versatile,’ says Fred Edworthy, of Aeros, the company building the lighter-than-air vehicle.”

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“Advanced Variable Buoyancy Air Vehicle”:

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Recently Posted On NYC’s Craigslist

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

“I live a good and carpeting life.”

Eternal Soul for sale – $1967862 (Yonkers )

I am selling my soul. Now I relies how strange this sounds but I am desperate. I am tired of livening in working poverty. I would like to provide my family with all the things they desire if at the cost of my life. I struggle every day and I don’t have any more steam in the engin. I am 32 american of Irish and Italian decent. I live a good and carpeting life. I try to live a moral and gental life. I am not with out sin (as you can see here). I am a believer in magik and in god (go fig) and I have a family that I just adore. So any takers email me. If this offends any one I am truly sorry but I am at my wits end. Jr.

“There’s Never Been Anything Like It In My Lifetime”

September 23, 2012 in Excerpts, Sports, Urban Studies, Videos | Permalink

Pete Hamill refers to the evening of the first Muhammad Ali-Joe Frazier fight, which took place on March 8, 1971 at Madison Square Garden, as “perhaps the greatest night in the history of New York City.” Maybe. Of course, it would have been amazing to be in Times Square when WWII ended or to hear Abraham Lincoln speak at Cooper Institute in 1860 or to be there in 1927 to watch the ticker-tape parade for Charles Lindbergh after his transatlantic solo flight.

But Ali-Frazier was no doubt very special, considering the political backdrop of the former Cassius Clay being stripped of his title and two of the greatest heavyweights ever meeting while each was still undefeated. Just prior to the fight, Life magazine published a cover story by Thomas Thompson about that anticipated match, “Battle of the Champs.” An excerpt:

There is almost an obscene aura of money hanging over the fight. It might seem to be the ultimate black man’s revenge–each fighter getting his $2.5 million. But the white man will, as per custom, get his. The promoter of the fight is a 40-year-old California theatrical agent and manager named Jerry Perenchio whose clients include Richard Burton, Andy Williams, Johnny Mathis and Henry Mancini.

Perenchio is a pleasant man who wears monogrammed shirts and who would seem to be more at home beside a Beverly Hills swimming pool than at ringside of Madison Square Garden. But he is so far cleverly navigating his way through the turmoil. “I feel like I am smack in the middle of the court of the Borgias,” he said the other day. “So far I am being sued in various lawsuits totaling $58 million, and I have people calling me for tickets–the same people who, before the fight, I couldn’t even get on the telephone.”

The fight will be seen in at least 350 closed-circuit locations in America totaling 1.7 million seats, at prices ranging from $10 per ticket to $30. (Top price at Madison Square Garden is $150, but scalpers are already getting $500 per ticket.) “There’s never been anything like it in my lifetime,” says Perenchio, “very possibly since time began.”

alifrazier34

Promoting the fight has not been without its problems. Perenchio simply took the map of America and the world, carved it out into various sections, and set a price tag on each for the closed-circuit rights. If the price was met, the rights were granted. If not, they were withheld. So far, more than 20 auditoriums in the U.S. have been withheld from potential entrepreneurs because of Muhammad Ali’s conviction on draft evasion charges.

The fight will be seen live in Canada, Peru, Argentina, Mexico, Japan, and in England at 4 a.m. There would be considerably more outlets if there were enough time. ‘We only had two months really to promote it,’ complained Perenchio. “We’re like a guy in an orchard with only a limited amount of time to pick the fruit. We can only get at the lower branches.”

Perenchio is not overlooking any way to make money from the event. Besides the expected $20 million to $30 million gross anticipated from the fight itself, he is selling the rights to the souvenir program, between-rounds commercials, a special poster and post-fight movie–to be delayed for six months–for a total of $4 million. “We haven’t sold it yet, in fact we’ve only had a few offers of $500,000 or $250,000. We just don’t want to schlock it.”

On top of all this, Perenchio actually plans to seize both boxers’ trunks and gloves so that he can auction them off later. “If they can sell Judy Garland’s red Oz shoes for $15,000, then we should get at least as much for these,” he said. “We get a little blood on the trunks, it makes them all the more valuable.”•

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“Strange New Infectious Diseases…Call Up A More Urgent Sort Of Attention”

September 23, 2012 in Excerpts, Politics, Science/Tech, Urban Studies | Permalink

Curious that in the Information Age there’s still so much misinformation about potential pandemics. Epidemiology is vastly improved, but the public is often off-base in understanding medicine in our more quantified world, fearing life-saving vaccines while indulging in unhealthy behaviors. Schlocky journalism, a failure to develop critical thinking and our deep fear of horrible deaths conspire to make it so. From David Quammen in the New York Times:

“Humans die in large numbers every day, every hour, from heart failure and automobile crashes and the dreary effects of poverty; but strange new infectious diseases, even when the death tolls are low, call up a more urgent sort of attention. Why?

There’s a tangle of reasons, no doubt, but one is obvious: whenever an outbreak occurs, we all ask ourselves whether it might herald the Next Big One.

What I mean by the Next Big One is a pandemic of some newly emerging or re-emerging infectious disease, a global health catastrophe in which millions die. The influenza epidemic of 1918-19 was a big one, killing about 50 million people worldwide. The Hong Kong flu of 1968-69 was biggish, causing at least a million deaths. AIDS has killed some 30 million and counting. Scientists who study this subject — virologists, molecular geneticists, epidemiologists, disease ecologists — stress its complexity but tend to agree on a few points.

Yes, there probably will be a Next Big One, they say. It will most likely be caused by a virus, not by a bacterium or some other kind of bug. “

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A Brief Note From 1887 About Dr. Leach’s Eye

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

From the October 7, 1887 Brooklyn Daily Eagle:

“Cairo, Ill.–While Dr. J.H. Leach, of Cairo, was walking the floor of his office Wednesday night a sudden and very severe pain darted into his right eye, which seemed to jump out of his head. A profuse hemorrhage began and continued all night. The pain was intense. An examination showed that the eye had burst and that its immediate removal was necessary. Dr. Leach was taken back to his own office where the operation was performed.”

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“Sun City Has A Fertility Rate Of Zero”

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

From “The Gray Tsunami,” Jeff Wheelwright’s new Discover article about the challenges attending the increasing longevity of world population, a section about Sun City retirement community in Arizona, an example of how some white Americans used to retire:

“Del Webb was no demographer, but in the late 1950s he saw an opportunity in America’s budding crop of elderly. Promoting the then-novel idea of ‘active retirement,’ Webb was a very active 60-year-old himself. Tall and lean, a vigorous golfer and baseball fan, he was a millionaire contractor with a common touch. The people who flocked to see his Sun City demonstration homes—100,000 showed up over New Year’s weekend in 1960—had had their fill of hard times. These were people who had lived through an economic depression and a world war. The advertisements for Sun City depicted a golden way of life in a place where they could retire and relax, where they would not be frail or sick.

Some of those ads now hang in the Sun City Historical Museum, which occupies one of the first homes to be built here, next to the first golf course. Two vintage golf carts, labeled Him and Her, stand side by side in the carport. Inside, the modest fixtures and furniture of a typical 1960s retired couple are on display. The original cinder-block structure consisted of five rooms totaling just 858 square feet; an addition was put on the back later. The small eat-in kitchen features a boxy electric range and fridge. The sink in the pink-tiled bathroom is very low and the toilet is minuscule, hardly suitable for today’s amplified Americans. The three academics smile as they look into the bathroom. ‘There are no handrails, nothing to grab onto,’ Glick says.

Sun City’s radical idea—to restrict home ownership to people 55 and older—effectively excluded families and children from the development. But recently the policy was updated. Now only one owner has to be over 55, this to accommodate residents with younger spouses. Getting back in the van and touring the quiet, curving streets, with their neat plantings and pink-tinted gravel, the ASU group sees no pregnant women or kids, no young people whatsoever. Sun City has a fertility rate of zero.

The fertility rate is the number of children an average female will produce in her lifetime. The panelists note that the rate is currently plunging in almost all countries around the world. True, it has not occurred in sub-Saharan Africa, not yet. But for those who specialize in the long view, fertility collapse and accelerated aging have supplanted overpopulation as the most salient demographic trend.” (Thanks Browser.)

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Sun City promotional film from the 1960s:

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Recently Posted On NYC’s Craigslist

September 21, 2012 in Misc., Urban Studies | Permalink

“Clean.”

I am looking for a clean and beautiful girl to have my babies (Jersey City, NJ)

I am a healthy person my sexual orientation is bisexual, and I would like to make arrangements with the right lady to have my baby. Only serious enquiries.

Requirements:

  • PLEASE SEND ONE FULL BODY PICTURE THANKS.
  • Age Btw 23-36
  • Hight 5/10-6/3
  • Weight SLIM preferable
  • Race: Any – Black a big Plus
  • Good health

“If Dallas Can Have A Zero-Waste Plan, Any City Can”

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

Microbes supercharged to devour particular types of waste–even the non-organic kind–makes too much sense for it to not happen. Of course, it’s easy for me to say since I don’t have to come up with the science to enable that process. Until we perfect the method, we must employ workarounds. The city of Dallas, for instance, is trying to effect a zero-waste recycling plan by 2040. From Nick Swartsell in the New York Times:

“If J. R. Ewing can quit smoking and promote solar energy, anything is possible in Dallas, environmental advocates say, even an ambitious plan to have the city recycling nearly all of its garbage by 2040.

‘If Dallas can have a zero-waste plan, any city can,’ said Zac Trahan, the Dallas program manager at Texas Campaign for the Environment, a group challenging the city’s reputation for big oil, big cars and big sprawl. ‘It can really be a huge opportunity to move toward a more sustainable Texas.’

Before the last of the plastic bags, crumpled papers and other urban tumbleweeds head to the recycling plant, the city will have to determine when to put into place the various steps of its plan, which the Dallas City Council formally adopted on Aug. 22. It will also have to address the lingering concerns of advocacy groups and business interests, like unintended environmental consequences and unfinanced mandates.”

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