Urban Studies

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The “Messiah” Holds Court In Los Angeles (1949)

August 30, 2012 in Excerpts, Photography, Urban Studies | Permalink

I know there’ve been cults all throughout human history, but I tend to think of the ones that popped up in America after 1965. The classic 1949 photo above shows an earlier cult, a postwar sect established in Los Angeles known as the WKFL (Wisdom, Knowledge, Faith, Love) Fountain of the World. Founded by inveterate jailbird Francis Herman Pencovic, who reinvented himself as the self-styled messiah Krishna Venta, the group had an apocalyptic edge and seemed to be an antecedent to the Manson Family. Penecovic was murdered in 1958 in a suicide bombing perpetrated by former members of the cult. From the International Cultic Studies Association:

“His name was Krishna Venta, and Monday, December 10, 2008, marked the 50th anniversary of his violent assassination, which all told ended ten lives.

Born Francis Pencovic in the San Francisco of 1911, Venta was an interesting candidate for messiah, having previously lived as burglar, thief, con artist, and shipyard timekeeper. This changed in 1946 when, following a stretch on a chain gang and a stint in the Army, Pencovic’s body (or so he claimed) became the host vessel for the ‘Christ Everlasting,’ an eternal spirit being who had not only died on the cross at Calvary 2,000 years earlier, but had commandeered to Earth from the planet Neophrates a convoy of rocket ships whose passengers included Adam and Eve.

But in the wake of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, insisted Venta, such ancient history was irrelevant. This time around, his Earthly mission was to gather the 144,000 Elect foretold in Revelation and deliver them from an apocalypse heretofore unseen by mankind.

To draw attention to this cause, Venta donned a monk’s robe, permanently discarded footwear, and thereafter forewent cutting both hair and beard.  In the Truman and Eisenhower eras, Venta, who frequently made headlines for both his luck at the dog track and his repeated arrests for failure to pay child support, cut a unique figure.  His message, however, could not have been more tailor-made for Cold War America.

Armageddon, prophesied Venta, would begin as an armed race war in the streets of America.”

Sister Audrey, 1958.

Krishna Venta, homesteading in Alaska, 1958.

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“The Audiences Become The Performer To A Large Extent”

August 29, 2012 in Science/Tech, Urban Studies, Videos | Permalink

Glenn Gould, in 1969, predicting that new technologies would allow for the sampling, remixing and democratization of creativity. Perhaps we’re only at the beginning.

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“Some Researchers Say A Large Crowd Makes It Less Likely That An Individual Hero Will Step Up”

August 29, 2012 in Excerpts, Science/Tech, Urban Studies | Permalink

Until now, I missed this recent and interesting WSJ piece by Sue Shellenbarger about the psychology of heroism. An excerpt:

“Certain traits make it more likely that a person will make a split-second decision to take a heroic risk. People who like to take charge of situations, who respond sympathetically to others, and who have a strong sense of moral and social responsibility are more likely to intervene than people who lack those traits, research shows. Heroes tend by nature to be hopeful, believing events will turn out well. They consciously try to keep fear from hampering their pursuit of goals, and they tend to block out the possibility of injury or material loss.

People who are otherwise good and caring may still shrink back in a crisis. Their responses depend partly on whether they perceive the situation as an emergency and whether they know how to help; someone who doesn’t know anything about electrical wiring probably won’t rush to save a person tangled in a power line. How you’re feeling that day makes a difference, too; ‘people who are in a good mood are more likely to help,’ says Julie M. Hupp, an assistant professor of psychology at Ohio State University in Newark. Context also matters; some researchers say a large crowd makes it less likely that an individual hero will step up.”

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“The Chinese Urban Reckoning Will Be Even More Severe Than America’s”

August 29, 2012 in Excerpts, Politics, Science/Tech, Urban Studies | Permalink

China is building cities and skyscrapers faster than the West can, but it’s still thus far relying on the same-old intellectual templates: an auto-centric culture and Le Corbusier-style design. From Peter Calthorpe in Foreign Policy:

“The choices China makes in the years ahead will have an immense impact not only on the long-term viability, livability, and energy efficiency of its cities, but also on the health of the entire planet. Unfortunately, much of what China is building is based on outdated Western planning ideas that put its cars at the center of urban life, rather than its people. And the bill will be paid in the form of larger waistlines, reduced quality of life, and choking pollution and congestion. The Chinese may get fat and unhappy before they get rich.

Like the U.S. cities of the 1950s and ’60s, Chinese cities are working to accommodate the explosive growth of automobile travel by building highways, ring roads, and parking lots. But more than any other factor, the rise of the car and the growth of the national highway system hollowed out American cities after World War II. Urban professionals fled to their newly accessible palaces in the suburbs, leaving behind ghettos of poverty and dysfunction. As Jane Jacobs, the great American urbanist, lamented, ‘Not TV or illegal drugs but the automobile has been the chief destroyer of American communities.’

Only in the last few decades, as urban crime rates have plummeted and the suburbs have become just as congested as the downtowns of old, have Americans returned to revitalize their cities in large numbers, embracing mass transit, walkable communities, and street-level retail. But while America’s yuppies may now take ‘urban’ to mean a delightful new world of cool bars, Whole Foods stores, and bike paths, urbanization in China means something else entirely: gray skies, row after row of drab apartment blocks, and snarling traffic.

If anything, due to China’s high population density, the Chinese urban reckoning will be even more severe than America’s. “

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Recently Posted On NYC’s Craigslist

August 29, 2012 in Misc., Urban Studies | Permalink

“Our issues aside, we’re awesome together.”

I love my wife, but I wonder (East Village)

So, yes, I know my wife loves me. And I love her. Incredibly. If you’re lucky, you find that one person that you want to share everything with. I can honestly say that everything I do would be better if my wife was there to share it with me. I dont think a love like that comes along very often.

Of course, Im a red blooded American man, and I love women. I love to look. I love to imagine. Friends say that my personality can be an asset to me hooking up with beautiful women, were I to decide to seek greener pastures. I dont consider myself a ‘good looking’ man. But I’m not a hideous C.H.U.D. either.

So, if Im so in love with my wife, and she’s so in love with me, why do I look? Cuz I’m a guy? Sure. Cuz whenever we fight, the word divorce is thrown out quite a bit. Yes. Sometimes I wonder if we were just meant to be really good friends, and maybe we veil our wants for divorce, so as not to admit it, even to ourselves. After all, there’s some pride that goes along with having a ‘successful’ marriage. We see our friends come and go, fight and separate, date and split up, and we feel we’ve got a good handle on how to keep a happy home.

The problems are two fold. On my end, I suffer from major depression, medicated but not controlled. My mood swings on a dime, happy to sad, content to yearning, pleased to angry. I go from normal to furious or suicidal at the drop of a hat. Thats me. Mr. Fucked Up Head.

On her end, she is sexually stunted and has zero self esteem. So, needless to say, I never get laid, and when I do, it’s very vanilla. I’m not looking to swing from the ceiling, but I like a woman with some confidence in her sexuality. This is sorely lacking. Which I think, more than anything else, is why I look. I wont have an affair. I dont think thats fair to my partner. I wouldnt like it, so I wont do it.

The worst of it is that I work with these really cute awesome women, and because I’m in a service industry, I’m constantly meeting new people, which include a lot of pretty ladies.

I guess, I’m afraid to take the plunge. To see whats out there. I’m afraid of not finding someone as compatible than my wife. Our issues aside, we’re awesome together. And I always said I’d only get married once. One time. I dont believe in divorce, but I’d respect the decision if thats what we came to. But I wont be walking down that aisle again, so not only do I have to find a pretty lady that I like, who will deal with my mental nonsense, my not so fair figure, who will accept me and love me unconditionally, as my wife does, but who doesnt want to be married.

Am I fooling myself? Should I just resign myself to 80% in the relationship? Is it worth it to try and throw it all away and start again, at 38?

“When The Signature Was Required On Top, Only 37 Percent Cheated”

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

The human mind is really good at justification and rationalization and delaying responsibility, so it’s not surprising that a cleverly designed recent study reveals that we’re much more likely to answer printed questions honestly when we’re asked to sign the form at the beginning rather than the end. From John Timmer at Ars Technica:

“Their hypothesis was that ‘signing one’s name before reporting information (rather than at the end) makes morality accessible right before it is most needed, which will consequently promote honest reporting.’

To test this proposal, they designed a series of forms that required self reporting of personal information, either involving performance on a math quiz where higher scores meant higher rewards, or the reimbursable travel expenses involved in getting to the study’s location. The only difference among the forms? Some did not ask for a signature, some put the signature on top, and some placed it in its traditional location, at the end.

In the case of the math quiz, the researchers actually tracked how well the participants had performed. With the signature at the end, a full 79 percent of the participants cheated. Somewhat fewer cheated when no signature was required, though the difference was not statistically significant. But when the signature was required on top, only 37 percent cheated—less than half the rate seen in the signature-at-bottom group.”

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A Note From 1895 About A Strong Man’s Demise

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

From the March  7, 1895 Brooklyn Daily Eagle:

“Patchogue, L.I.–David Robinson, a resident of East Moriches, is dead. Robinson weighed 500 pounds and was buried in a coffin large enough to hold four ordinary men. Mr. Robinson showed signs of great strength and rapid growth before he was 21 years of age. For some years he was a whaler and sailed on several ships from Sag Harbor. He was a giant in strength. Though the whalers, as a rule, were pretty tough characters in those days, it was said that Robinson was more than a match  for the roughest of them. It is said that he could at one time life a dead weight of 2,000 pounds with his neck and shoulders. Of late years, Mr. Robinson had grown tremendously in size and moved about very little, owing to his weight. He had amassed quite an estate.”

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“For The First Time Ever In Sport, Women Compete Alongside Men For Equal Share Of The Glamour, Prestige And Big-Money Contracts”

August 28, 2012 in Sports, Urban Studies, Videos | Permalink

When I posted not too long ago about the reasons why women’s sports have experienced such a boom in America over the last four decades, I was remiss in not mentioning Billie Jean King. In 1974, the tennis star founded the Women’s Sports Foundation, womenSports magazine and became the first female to be a founding partner of a major sports league with World Team Tennis.

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Old Print Article: “Old Friends Fight A Duel,” Brooklyn Daily Eagle (1886)

August 27, 2012 in Old Print Articles, Urban Studies | Permalink

“The breach grew wider with time, each sending word that he meant to kill the other.”

A San Antonio cattle deal gone bad led to a deadly duel in 1886, as reported in that year’s November 8th edition of the Brooklyn Daily Eagle:

“A Times special from San Antonio, Tex., says: ‘Information has reached here from Prio Town, the seat of Prio County, of a duel which took place Friday afternoon in Seavala County, near the county line, between two of the wealthiest ranchmen in Seavala County–Hiram Bennett and John Rumfield. The men for several years were close friends and owned many cattle and sheep jointly. About a year ago they dissolved business relations and a difficulty arose regarding the number of cattle in a certain bunch which figured in their settlement at a valuation of $10,000. The breach grew wider with time, each sending word that he meant to kill the other. Friday afternoon the two rich men, with a few cowboys, happened to meet near the edge of the little village of Batesville. They were both on horseback and carrying Winchesters. It was agreed that they should dismount and fire at the word of command from one of the cowboys. They stood about 150 feet apart. Both men were crack shots and each fired at the word. Bennett fell dead, with a bullethole through the brain. One report says Rumfield was wounded in the thigh; another account says he is uninjured. No attempt has been made thus far to arrest Rumfield, who is on his ranch, and would doubtless fight before being carried to jail. The dead man was worth about a quarter of a million dollars in cattle, sheep and lands. He leaves a family.'”

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Recently Posted On NYC’s Craigslist

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

“Why would a fat, cheap, dirty, broke guy want to date a knock-out like me?”

knock out (Cranbury)

Realistic dilemma: Stunning, intellegent, independent woman attracts the dredges. Why would a fat, cheap, dirty, broke guy want to date a knock-out like me? Most men my age wind up in a one bedroom apartment in the worst section of town, while the ex’s took the best of them. Second time around sucks for women. And you men who have a little jingle want women in their 30’s even though you can’t have an erection.

“I Didn’t See The Gorilla”

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

“It turns out very few people saw the gorilla.” (Image by Kabir Bakie.)

From a Five Books interview at the Browser with behavioral economist Dan Ariely, a passage about The Invisible Gorilla, which demonstrates that we see more with our brains than our eyes and that our brains are often “blind”:

“Let’s go through the books, and you can tell me what’s important about them and why you like them. The first one on your list is The Invisible Gorilla: How Our Intuitions Deceive Us, by Christopher Chabris and Daniel Simons.

These are the guys who did one of the most important pieces of research in social science, which is to show how little we actually see in the world around us. The basic demonstration of this is a movie in which there are two groups playing basketball. One group is wearing white t-shirts and the other group is wearing black t-shirts. They are passing the ball, and the viewer is asked to count how many times the people in white t-shirts pass the ball to each other. What then happens in the background is a gorilla passes through. He stops right in the middle and thumps his chest. When the clip is over, the viewer is asked, “How many times did you see the people in white t-shirts pass the ball?” Sometimes they get it right, sometimes they get it wrong. But when you ask, ‘How many of you saw the gorilla?’ it turns out very few people saw the gorilla.

I didn’t see the gorilla.

There’s also another demonstration in the book that I really like. This involves going up to someone on a campus with a map and saying, ‘Excuse me, can you help me figure out how to get to the student centre?’ They take the map from your hand and start explaining it to you. While they’re explaining, two people in workmen’s clothes come between you with a door. For a moment, they obscure your view. What the person you’ve asked for directions doesn’t know is that you’re going away. You’re walking off with the door and a new person is standing in front of them. The question is, do people notice this change? And the answer is, again, no.

These are findings that are incredibly powerful and important. We think we see with our eyes, but the reality is that we largely see with our brains. Our brain is a master at giving us what we expect to see. It’s all about expectation, and when things violate expectation we are just unaware of them. We go around the world with a sense that we pay attention to lots of things. The reality is that we notice much less than we think. And if we notice so much less than we think, what does that mean about our ability to figure out things around us, to learn and improve? It means we have a serious problem. I think this book has done a tremendous job in showing how even in vision, which is such a good system in general, we are poorly tooled to make good decisions.”

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“You’re Going To See Something Absolutely Amazing”

August 27, 2012 in Science/Tech, Urban Studies, Videos | Permalink

Excellent 1978 BBC doc about the impact of microprocessors and computers.

“We Are Living Through The Most Exciting Period Of Human History”

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

I have great respect for the inventor and futurist Ray Kurzweil, though I usually think his predictions are very aggressive. In his defense, he is way smarter than I am. From the Sun:

“WE are living through the most exciting period of human history.

Computer technology and our understanding of genes — our body’s software programs — are accelerating at an incredible rate.

I and many other scientists now believe that in around 20 years we will have the means to reprogramme our bodies’ stone-age software so we can halt, then reverse, ageing. Then nano-technology will let us live for ever.

Already, blood cell-sized submarines called nanobots are being tested in animals. These will soon be used to destroy tumours, unblock clots and perform operations without scars.

Ultimately, nanobots will replace blood cells and do their work thousands of times more effectively.

Within 25 years we will be able to do an Olympic sprint for 15 minutes without taking a breath, or go scuba-diving for four hours without oxygen.”

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“How Long Do You Want To Live?”

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

The United States ranks 34th in infant mortality rate, but some of us dream of life-extension beyond belief, we dream of an end that never arrives. That’s our strange reality right now, though perhaps the Affordable Care Act will improve those numbers, should it survive one more mad charge in November. From David Ewing Duncan in the New York Times:

“How many years might be added to a life? A few longevity enthusiasts suggest a possible increase of decades. Most others believe in more modest gains. And when will they come? Are we a decade away? Twenty years? Fifty years?

Even without a new high-tech ‘fix’ for aging, the United Nations estimates that life expectancy over the next century will approach 100 years for women in the developed world and over 90 years for women in the developing world. (Men lag behind by three or four years.)

Whatever actually happens, this seems like a good time to ask a very basic question: How long do you want to live?

Over the past three years I have posed this query to nearly 30,000 people at the start of talks and lectures on future trends in bioscience, taking an informal poll as a show of hands. To make it easier to tabulate responses I provided four possible answers: 80 years, currently the average life span in the West; 120 years, close to the maximum anyone has lived; 150 years, which would require a biotech breakthrough; and forever, which rejects the idea that life span has to have any limit at all.”

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Recently Posted On NYC’s Craigslist

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

“I’m 21, young and beautiful.”

appendix for sale – $500 (anywhere, everywhere)

some asshole stole my iphone and I’m selling my appendix, i figured i have no use for it so might as well sell it. im 21 young and beautiful, so my appendix is healthy and in great condition. we can also do a trade off, my appendix for your iphone 4s…the phone has to be in a good condition, im not taking a crappy phone for my beautiful and healthy appendix. 

A Note From 1898 About A Baby Christening

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

From the September 19, 1898 Brooklyn Daily Eagle:

“Uniontown, Pa.–A christening last night at Banning, a mining settlement near here, ended in a free for all fight, in which knives, pistols and clubs were used. One man was killed and five others were injured. The participants in the melee fled and the police are after them.”

“It Had Been A Crazy Summer In New York”

August 24, 2012 in Excerpts, Sports, Urban Studies | Permalink

Michael Steinberger has a fun, brief New York Times Magazine piece this weekend, “Queens Was Burning, Too,” which recalls another incendiary borough, which roiled all throughout the steamy months of 1977, the Summer of Sam, like John McEnroe on the wrong side of an “out” call at the U.S. Open. The opening:

“On a Sunday night midway through the 1977 U.S. Open, nearly 7,000 people gathered in the stadium at the West Side Tennis Club in Forest Hills, Queens, for a third-round match between the ninth-seeded Eddie Dibbs and an 18-year-old named John McEnroe, who was making his debut at the tournament that year. Two months earlier, McEnroe surprised the tennis world by reaching the semifinals of Wimbledon as a qualifier. His feathery touch dazzled the British fans while his combustive behavior led the British tabloids to nickname him Superbrat. Now McEnroe, who grew up in nearby Douglaston, looked poised to make a deep run at the Open. First, though, he had to get past Dibbs, a short, speedy player known as Fast Eddie.

Soon after the match started, a commotion in the stands halted play. A spectator had been shot in the leg; the bullet, the police later surmised, was fired from a nearby apartment building. At the time, New York was still reeling from the citywide blackout in July and the looting that followed. It had been terrorized for much of the summer by the Son of Sam, and now a scene straight out of Black Sunday, a film about a planned attack at the Super Bowl released earlier that year, seemed to be unfolding at the Open. ‘It had been a crazy summer in New York,’ says Bud Collins, the famed tennis commentator, who left the press box to investigate the disturbance, ‘and we were all up there wondering if another bullet was going to appear.’

Dibbs and McEnroe didn’t want to stick around to find out. As McEnroe later recalled, when an umpire told them what happened, Dibbs announced, ‘I’m out of here.’ Then the story was coincidentally revised: the fan hadn’t been shot, he’d gone into shock. The match eventually resumed with McEnroe beating Dibbs two sets to one. (At that time, early-round men’s matches at the Open were best-of-three.) Only later did they learn that it had indeed been gunfire.”

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“More Mobile, More Capable, And Less Expensive Robots For The Battlefield”

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

Airplanes have been inflatable for decades, but what about robots? DARPA, which loves you to death, has the answer. From Ars Technica: “A DARPA-funded research project at Massachusetts-based iRobot has developed a series of prototype robots with inflatable parts. The robots, developed with researchers from Carnegie-Mellon University and inflatable engineering company ILC Dover, are part of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s program to create more mobile, more capable, and less expensive robots for the battlefield.”

“He’d Sold The Eiffel Tower To A French Scrap-Metal Dealer”

August 24, 2012 in Excerpts, Urban Studies | Permalink

This is so great. Gilbert King has put up a very well-written post at the Smithsonian site which recalls Hall of Fame con man Victor Lustig. Counterfeiters, confidence men and impostors are just like you and I, except they have more initiative. An excerpt:

“Secret Service agents finally had one of the world’s greatest imposters, wanted throughout Europe as well as in the United States. He’d amassed a fortune in schemes that were so grand and outlandish, few thought any of his victims could ever be so gullible. He’d sold the Eiffel Tower to a French scrap-metal dealer. He’d sold a ‘money box’ to countless greedy victims who believed that Lustig’s contraption was capable of printing perfectly replicated $100 bills. (Police noted that some ‘smart’ New York gamblers had paid $46,000 for one.) He had even duped some of the wealthiest and most dangerous mobsters—men like Al Capone, who never knew he’d been swindled.

Now the authorities were eager to question him about all of these activities, plus his possible role in several recent murders in New York and the shooting of Jack ‘Legs’ Diamond, who was staying in a hotel room down the hall from Lustig’s on the night he was attacked.

‘Count,’ one of the Secret Service agents said, ‘you’re the smoothest con man that ever lived.'” (Thanks Browser.)

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“It Creates A Completely New Biology Toward Our Understanding Of How Cells Age”

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

Researchers at Johns Hopkins have made a breakthrough in returning cells to pristine form, perhaps making possible an endless summer, a fountain of youth. What will it be like when we have all the time in the world? From the press release:

“Johns Hopkins scientists have developed a reliable method to turn the clock back on blood cells, restoring them to a primitive stem cell state from which they can then develop into any other type of cell in the body.

The work, described in the Aug. 8 issue of the journal Public Library of Science (PLoS), is ‘Chapter Two’ in an ongoing effort to efficiently and consistently convert adult blood cells into stem cells that are highly qualified for clinical and research use in place of human embryonic stem cells, says Elias Zambidis, M.D., Ph.D., assistant professor of oncology and pediatrics at the Johns Hopkins Institute for Cell Engineering and the Kimmel Cancer Center.

‘Taking a cell from an adult and converting it all the way back to the way it was when that person was a 6-day-old embryo creates a completely new biology toward our understanding of how cells age and what happens when things go wrong, as in cancer development,’ Zambidis says.”

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A Brief Note From 1889 About A Music Lesson

August 24, 2012 in Old Print Articles, Urban Studies | Permalink

From the June 18, 1889 Brooklyn Daily Eagle:

“Kerwood,  W. Va.–William Miller, a  farmer, is dying from the effects of knife wounds inflicted by George Sell, a music teacher at Stemple Ridge. A few evenings ago Sell was conducting a song when a son of Miller interrupted and a fight ensued. Sell whipped young Miller. The father interfered and Sell disemboweled the elder Miller with a knife.”

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“I Drove An Automobile Around The World Fifty Years Ago”

August 23, 2012 in Science/Tech, Sports, Urban Studies, Videos | Permalink

George Schuster, driver of the Thomas Flyer that won the New York-to-Paris “Great Race” of 1908, appears on I’ve Got a Secret five decades later. Prior to Schuster’s trek, no “automobilist” had driven across America during the winter.

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“It Is Carried Out Either At Home Or In Piercing Shops”

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

I’ve never used an illegal drug in my life, so I’m the last person who would suggest other people turn themselves into pharmaceutical guinea pigs. And bio-hackers don’t only experiment with drugs, but with all sorts of gizmos they insert beneath their skin, hoping to push human evolution to its next phase. I think they’re crazy, but it still hard to criticize them.

What pioneering enterprise isn’t fraught with danger? Those who moved westward in America making Manifest Destiny possible were taking huge risks, and a number of them died. Astronauts exploring space for NASA (and for us) take great chances, and a number of them have perished. But I can’t say either gamble lacked great value. Now that a lot of exploration has moved inside of us, I likewise can’t condemn bio-hackers and their experimentation. It probably will lead to greater knowledge, but, you know, you go first.  From “Grinders: The Cult of the Man Machine,” by Leo Benedictus at the Guardian:

“A common procedure is to implant a strong neodymium magnet beneath the surface of a person’s skin, often in the tip of the ring finger. This causes nearby magnetic fields – and even their strength and shape – to become detectable to the user, thanks to the subtle currents they provoke. For a party trick, they can also pick up metal objects or make other magnets move around.

Calling this a procedure, though, gives rather the wrong impression. Biohacking is not a field of medicine. Instead it is carried out either at home or in piercing shops, cleanly and carefully with a scalpel, but without an anaesthetic (which you need a licence for). If you think this sounds painful, you are correct.

Britain is the birthplace of modern transhumanism, as the field is known. Probably the most sophisticated implantation ever made can be found inside the left arm of Kevin Warwick, professor of cybernetics at the University of Reading, who can now control a robot arm by moving his own. The system also works the other way, so he can now sense his wife’s movements in his own body, after she had a similar implantation.”

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“None Of This Is Science Fiction – It’s Just Around The Corner”

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

From Mark Potts’ Recovering Journalist (via the Atlantic), the opening of a 1992 letter by Bob Kaiser, Managing Editor of the Washington Post, which pinpointed exactly where print news was headed: 

“August 6, 1992

To: Don Graham, Alan Spoon, Ralph Terkowitz. Tom Ferguson, Tuesday Group Vice Presidents
From: Bob Kaiser

John Sculley’s invitation to attend an Apple-organized conference
on the future of ‘multimedia’ – computers, telecommunications,
television and other entertainment media, and traditional news
media – gave me a good opportunity to learn and to think about The
Post’s place in a fast-changing technological environment. This is
a brief report on the conference and thoughts that occurred to me
while attending.

+ + +

Alan Kay, sometimes described as the intellectual forefather of the
personal computer, offered a cautionary analogy that seemed to
apply to us. It involves the common frog. You can put a frog in a
pot of water and slowly raise the temperature under the pot until
it boils, but the frog will never jump. Its nervous system cannot
detect slight changes in temperature.

The Post is not in a pot of water, and we’re smarter than the
average frog. But we do find ourselves swimming in an electronic
sea where we could eventually be devoured — or ignored as an
unnecessary anachronism. Our goal, obviously, is to avoid getting
boiled as the electronic revolution continues.

I was taken aback by predictions at the conference about the next
stage of the computer revolution. It was offered as an
indisputable fact that the rate of technological advancement is
actually increasing. Dave Nagel, the impressive head of Apple’s
Advanced Technology Group, predicted “the three billions” would be
a reality by the end of this decade: relatively cheap personal
computers with a billion bits of memory (60 million is common
today), with microprocessors that can process a billion
instructions per second (vs. about 50 million today) that can
transmit data to other computers at a billion bits per second (vs.
15-20 million today). At that point the PC will be a virtual
supercomputer, and the easy transmission and storage of large
quantities of text, moving and still pictures, graphics, etc., will
be a reality. Eight years from now.

I asked many purported wizards at the conference if they thought
Nagel was being overoptimistic. None thought so. The machines he
envisioned will have the power to become vastly more user-friendly
than today’s PC’s. They will probably be able to take voice
instructions, and read commands written by hand or an electronic
notepad, or right on the screen. None of this is science fiction –
– it’s just around the corner.”

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Recently Posted On NYC’s Craigslist

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

“Please keep them together.”

17 paintings of a goat.

It is the same goat, but the paintings are different. the smallest is the size of a book. the largest is about twice that size. they are free, but you must take all 17.

Please keep them together.

Leave a message telling me why you want them, and i will choose.

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