Urban Studies

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Recently Posted On NYC’s Craigslist

February 20, 2011 in Misc., Urban Studies | Permalink

"Just be prepared for her ignorant rants about how everyone is stupid and things used to be so much better."

My Grandma… (Westchester)

I would like to barter my Grandma. Currently I am living with her. She is independent and does not need to be taken care of. Just be prepared for her ignorant rants about how everyone is stupid and things used to be so much better. You will hear about how she is glad her husband is dead and probably some racist stuff also. She will be nice to you and everyone else’s face but will badmouth everyone behind their back in the six hours she spends on the phone a day. She will do gross stuff like use your kitchen sponge to wash everywhere and put it back in the sink. Also never eat her cooking. She is unsanitary and you will be crapping liquid for days. She does stuff like dipping raw chicken in bread crumbs and then putting the remainder back in the box to be used again. Grandma is a pack-rat who blows through money recklessly and then complains she is poor but uses the excuse that the bible says the world will end soon. And speaking of the bible if you ever cross her she will say you have the demons in you. She believes that she was diagnosed with MS in her thirties and overcame it. (First case I ever heard of) Dont try and argue with her. She is always right. If you have any type of headache ever she will insist you are a drunk even though you never drink.

Doesn’t sound too great huh. Maybe we can barter for some yard work exchange for the next sixty years and you could maybe just push her down the stairs. Be creative…will entertain all offers.

“We Practice In Order To Give Our Leader Joy”

February 20, 2011 in Politics, Urban Studies, Videos | Permalink

In “North Korea: Cinema of Dreams,” Al Jazeera English takes a look inside Pyongyang’s University of Cinematic and Dramatic Arts, the heart of Kim Jong–il’s propaganda machine. The delusional “Dear Leader” is convinced that he’s a genius of cinema, theater and the circus. The circus part I believe.

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Thai Folding Umbrella Market + Speeding Train

February 18, 2011 in Urban Studies, Videos | Permalink

Peddlers at a market in Thailand close shop to allow train to pass.

“What We Need Is A New Frontier, An Open Space For Political Experiments…And The Next Frontier Is The Ocean”

February 18, 2011 in Excerpts, Science/Tech, Urban Studies | Permalink

A seasteading design by Andras Gyorfi.

Seasteading sounds ridiculous to me, but what do I know? Ray Kurzweil’s blog has a transcript of “How to Create a Startup Country,” a speech on building nations on the ocean, presented by Patri Friedman:

“A startup country could be the world’s first trillion dollar business.

Now for humanity, this is a huge problem, but with our entrepreneur hats on, what a business opportunity! A startup country could be the world’s first trillion dollar business. But right now, there’s no way for an entrepreneur with a great idea for a startup country to make it happen. Unlike the software industry, where you can get started with just a laptop, to enter the government industry, you need a open space, a physical place that allows political experiments. But there is no such place — every piece of land in the world is claimed.

So there are no startup countries, there’s no channel for innovation of entrepreneurs … no wonder it’s a such a sad industry.

So why don’t we see more innovation in politics? Now, politics is a pretty emotionally charged subject. You’re not supposed to talk about that, or religion. So let’s take a new perspective. Let’s forget about left and right and instead, put on our entrepreneur hats. Let’s think of government as an industry, where countries are firms and citizens are customers.

This is not just any industry. This is the world’s biggest industry. The leading firm had 2009 revenues of 2.5 trillion dollars. Strangely, it’s also an industry legendary for poor performance. That leading firm lost 1.4 trillion. And that’s a top company. The worst companies kill many of their own customers. It’s a pretty sad industry!

The seasteading solution: let a thousand nations bloom

So that’s how we come to seasteading — homesteading the high seas. What we need is a new frontier, an open space for political experiments…and the next frontier is the ocean. With a little technical innovation to make this new frontier accessible, we can unleash enormous political innovation. Let a thousand nations bloom on the high seas, trying diverse political systems — essentially, a startup sector for government.”

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“Twin Oaks Was One Of Thousands Of Communes To Sprout Across A Restive America In The ’60s And ’70s”

February 18, 2011 in Excerpts, Urban Studies | Permalink

Hammock weaving at the Twin Oaks community.

The opening of “The Other American Dream,” Tamara Jones’ 1998 article in the Washington Post about Twin Oaks, a 1960s Virginia commune that neither burned out nor faded away, but instead survived to confront its own midlife crisis:

“To get there, follow the winding road past shadowed woods and sunlit fields, past the tiny church with its tall steeple, past the eerie old mill and listless river, until finally you come upon the sign that taunts: ‘If you lived at Twin Oaks, you’d be home now.’ Venture through the gate, down the dirt driveway to the white clapboard farmhouse, which is precisely where the path ends and the journey began.

Kat Kinkade remembers being so excited that first day that she couldn’t decide where to start, so she grabbed an old broom and began sweeping the chicken house, making a compost pile of the filth. At 36, she was a bored secretary banking not just her future but her entire identity on a slim novel she had read in night school. Seven other people, including Kat’s new husband and her teenage daughter, moved with her that day to rural Louisa County, Virginia, where they had leased a modest farm. The year was 1967, and as Vietnam exploded and racial violence bloodied streets across America, this small, misbegotten group of dropouts, visionaries, drifters and seekers began working on an exquisitely detailed plan to change the world.

Twin Oaks was one of thousands of communes to sprout across a restive America in the ’60s and ’70s, emblems of hope and hubris. Most would disappear unnoticed. Twin Oaks was different, though. Against all odds, it managed to flourish, growing from eight people to nearly 100, becoming not merely self-sustaining but successful, a land trust sprawling across 450 efficiently managed acres to form what is surely one of the last bastions of pure communism in the modern world. From each according to ability, to each according to need. No one goes hungry or cold. Everyone is employed. The children are joyful. Competition, materialism and wastefulness are rare. Violence is forbidden; ambition quelled. Admirable goals have been achieved, and it would be easy to assume that happiness prevails. But reality is always more complex.

Which is why Twin Oaks, in its plump and improbable middle age, now finds itself searching so fervently for all the dreams that got lost, somehow, on the way to Utopia.”

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Recently Posted On NYC’s Craigslist

February 18, 2011 in Misc., Urban Studies | Permalink

"Gene." (Image by Stahlkocher.)

Awesome costume of a washing machine! (Gramercy)

We built and used it for a design project, but now we have no room for Gene the Washing Machine!! Can you give him a good home?

He’s made of fabric and foam and a cardboard box inside.

Contact only if you are very serious about picking this up in Manhattan.

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Iranians Selling Their Kidneys

February 18, 2011 in Science/Tech, Urban Studies, Videos | Permalink

Of course, Iranians aren’t the only ones selling organs. (Thanks Reddit.)

Life Maps The History Of Computing

February 18, 2011 in Photography, Science/Tech, Urban Studies | Permalink

The Jacquard Weaving Loom was, "the first machine to use punched cards to control a series of sequences," according to "Life."

Life.com has a slideshow called “A Brief History of Computing,” which progresses from abacus to iPad in a few dozen images. See it here.

Mark Zuckerberg’s Ex-Girlfriend Is Also A Real Piece Of Work

February 18, 2011 in Misc., Urban Studies | Permalink

"He NEVER friended me on Facebook." (Image by Raphaël Labbé.)

The opening scene of The Social Network, David Fincher and Aaron Sorkin’s brilliant takedown of Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg, features a momentous scene in which the aspiring tech titan is dumped by his girlfriend, Erica Albright, which leads him to begin experimenting with interactivty on the Internet. In the scene, Zuckerberg is presented as a prick and Albright as wronged, but the site Albright has started (it would seem to be real) isn’t exactly short on hubris. On the site, she describes herself as “Yes the Erica Albright who was dating Mark Zuckerberg the founder of the Social Networking website Facebook.” She mentions her long-ago beau and Facebook repeatedly. Well, milk it for all you can, Erica.

One interesting aspect of her posts is that she confirms that plenty of what happens in the movie is fiction, created wholecloth by Sorkin for his remarkably airtight script. The narrative arc of a movie has its demands, and fealty to facts has to be sacrificed. But is it ethical to fictionalize aspects of real people’s lives, especially when those people are alive and young and have most of their futures ahead of them? Zuckerberg took great liberties to achieve what he wanted, but Fincher and Sorkin also took some in making what is the best American film of the year. An excerpt from Albright’s blog:

“I went and saw the movie last night. Kind of crazy that someone is actually playing me in a movie! The movie definitely brought back some great memories….it made me miss my college years that’s for sure! (I feel soooo old) lol (: — I guess you could say the movie is ‘based on a true story’ but there are many scenarios that were soooo made up by Hollywood! As far as the two scenes I’m in, the first one is fairly accurate, we did ‘break-up’ over dinner, I do remember him ripping on my school (that wasn’t the first time)…but the second scene of me at dinner with my friends blowing Mark off never happened. (also he NEVER friended me on Facebook) lol! (:”

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Woman Jumps, Goat Jumps

February 18, 2011 in Urban Studies, Videos | Permalink

Did I mention the part about the woman jumping and the goat jumping? (Thanks Reddit.)

“Xanadu Has Set A Record Of Futility That Will Be Difficult For Other Companies To Surpass”

February 18, 2011 in Excerpts, Science/Tech, Urban Studies | Permalink

"Most people are fools, most authority is malignant, God does not exist, and everything is wrong." (Image by Tim Brailsford.)

To dream big is to risk failing big, and nobody in the computer world dreamed bigger than visionary Ted Nelson. The information pioneer and philosopher coined the term “hypertext” in 1963 and spent the majority of his life frustratingly, unsuccessfully working on Project Xanadu, a system that attempted to link networked computers with a simple interface decades before the invention of the World Wide Web. Nelson’s tilting at virtual windmills was the subject of a devastating Wired article in 1995 by Gary Wolf. An excerpt:

“Nelson’s life is so full of unfinished projects that it might fairly be said to be built from them, much as lace is built from holes or Philip Johnson’s glass house from windows. He has written an unfinished autobiography and produced an unfinished film. His houseboat in the San Francisco Bay is full of incomplete notes and unsigned letters. He founded a video-editing business, but has not yet seen it through to profitability. He has been at work on an overarching philosophy of everything called General Schematics, but the text remains in thousands of pieces, scattered on sheets of paper, file cards, and sticky notes.

The Hypertext Editing System (HES), seen here being used at Brown University in 1969, was developed by Ted Nelson and others. (Image by Greg Lloyd.)

All the children of Nelson’s imagination do not have equal stature. Each is derived from the one, great, unfinished project for which he has finally achieved the fame he has pursued since his boyhood. During one of our many conversations, Nelson explained that he never succeeded as a filmmaker or businessman because ‘the first step to anything I ever wanted to do was Xanadu.’

Xanadu, a global hypertext publishing system, is the longest-running vaporware story in the history of the computer industry. It has been in development for more than 30 years. This long gestation period may not put it in the same category as the Great Wall of China, which was under construction for most of the 16th century and still failed to foil invaders, but, given the relative youth of commercial computing, Xanadu has set a record of futility that will be difficult for other companies to surpass. The fact that Nelson has had only since about 1960 to build his reputation as the king of unsuccessful software development makes Xanadu interesting for another reason: the project’s failure (or, viewed more optimistically, its long-delayed success) coincides almost exactly with the birth of hacker culture. Xanadu’s manic and highly publicized swerves from triumph to bankruptcy show a side of hackerdom that is as important, perhaps, as tales of billion-dollar companies born in garages.”

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Recently Posted On NYC’s Craigslist

February 17, 2011 in Misc., Urban Studies | Permalink

"The blowgun was demonstrated by one of the natives to my parents by darting a monkey out of a tree from a great distance."

Vintage Amazon Blowgun – $200 (Shelton, CT)

Vintage Amazon Blowgun from the seventies. This is not a tourist item. It includes the 72” gun, a woven sack that holds the kapok cotton for the end of the dart, the quiver that holds the darts and a Piranha jaw bone to sharpen the darts.

Here is the truth, the whole truth! My parents were adventurous travelers when they where younger. In the mid seventies they made a trip to South America. While in Brazil, they took a trip up the Amazon River as far as their group could go. But that wasn’t good enough for them and they decided to go further up the river against local recommendations. They found transportation and ventured onward. A day or two later, they came across a tribe and befriended them and stayed with them for a couple days. The Blowgun was demonstrated by one of the natives to my parents by darting a monkey out of a tree from a great distance. My mother had to have this Blowgun, so she traded her sneakers for it! That’s THE END of the story!

Driving A Car With A Brain Interface

February 17, 2011 in Science/Tech, Urban Studies, Videos | Permalink

No hands, just brains. (Thanks IEEE Spectrum.)

Old Print Article: Children At The House Of Refuge (1870s-90s)

February 17, 2011 in Old Print Articles, Urban Studies | Permalink

"Yesterday afternoon he beat her over the head with a fire shovel." (Image by Lewis Hine.)

Parents in nineteenth-century New York City who had their hands full with their wild, waifish children sometimes requested assistance from the House of Refuge, which was the first juvenile reformatory in the country, with roots going back to 1816. The following brief notices from the Brooklyn Daily Eagle concern incorrigible children who did a stint at the institution.

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“Wayward Rose Herman” (March 1, 1898): “Thirteen year old Rose Herman of 131 Central avenue was committed to the House of Refuge this morning by Magistrate Worth in the Gates avenue court. Mrs. Mary Herman, the girl’s mother, appeared against her and told the magistrate that Rose sought disorderly companions, stayed out late at night and would not heed her mother’s good advice. Some time ago Rose was arrested on a similar complaint and was sent to the Training School. When she came out she continued her waywardness until her mother was forced to appeal to the Children’s Society. Agent Sauer took the girl away.

Rose is a pretty girl and tall for her age. She showed a defiant manner in court and though her mother’s eyes were filled with tears at the parting, the girl was not at all affected and scarcely noticed her mother.”

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“Sent Joseph to the House of Refuge” (May 11, 1895): “Joseph Hoffman of 179 Stuyvesant avenue is only 13 years old, but his mother cannot manage him. Yesterday afternoon he beat her over the head with a fire shovel and she had him arrested. In the Gates avenue police court this morning Judge Harriman committed Joseph to the Hose of Refuge.

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"Maria Delisso, an Italian girl 14 years old, was sent to the House of Refuge by Justice Walsh this morning on a charge of having been a disobedient and vicious child." (Image by Lewis Hine.)

“Maria Was a Bad Girl” (December 19, 1896): Maria Delisso, an Italian girl 14 years old, was sent to the House of Refuge by Justice Walsh this morning on a charge of having been a disobedient and vicious child. The complainant was the girl’s father, who lives at 821 Kent avenue. Maria left home last August, and for two months her father searched for her and finally found her at a low Italian resort on Mott street, New York. Nicolo Scardino, with whom she was living there, has been sent to the Elmira reformatory by authorities of New York City. Roundsman Vacbris of the headquarters squad arrested the girl in the Mott street house.”

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“Committed for a Year” (December 1, 1877): “Justice Elliott this morning committed John J. White, a lad aged 16 years, to the House of Refuge for one year, on the complaint of the mother who resides at No. 294 North Second street. She charged him with stealing her Bible valued at three dollars.”


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Monkey Cares For Human Baby

February 17, 2011 in Urban Studies, Videos | Permalink

Take note, Michael Lohan. This is how it’s done.

“Its Name Is Transnistria, But In The Eyes Of The World, It Simply Isn’t There”

February 17, 2011 in Excerpts, Urban Studies | Permalink

Symbols of the former Soviet empire linger in Transnistria. (Image by Marisha.)

From Alex Hoban and Henry Langston’s Vice article about Transnistria, an independent if unrecognized strip of the former Soviet Union which remains a pre-Glasnost gulag:

“Out on the fringes of the former USSR, in one little pocket of Eastern Europe, the trauma of the Soviet Empire’s collapse has never quite been shaken off. Since 1990 a little-known strip of land between Ukraine and Moldova has encased itself in an isolated world where Lenin still looms large. It has its own border control, passports, currency and everything else you normally need to be a real country – including a population that’s double the size of Iceland’s. Its Soviet credentials are impeccable: It’s being run as a corrupt leader-cult led by an elite of weapons smuggling crooks who’ll sooner gut your face than quote Marx. Yet its sovereignty is recognised by no-one and therefore, it isn’t a real country. Its name is Transnistria, but in the eyes of the world, it simply isn’t there.”

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“It Is Very Easy To Set Up A Humanitarian Guillotine”

February 17, 2011 in Film, Politics, Urban Studies, Videos | Permalink

A really strange artifact from 1975, this 30-minute documentary directed by Theo Kamecke and adapted from the book of the same name attempts to make Libertarianism sexy. The film’s writers (who appear onscreen as themselves) are six young, long-haired, hip proponents of the philosophy whose very presence sends the message that youth culture and free markets are not mutually exclusive. An incredible oversimplification of complex political and economic issues, the film contains the type of jaw-dropping anti-government propaganda that would give Ayn Rand a huge boner. But it’s still an odd and interesting remnant.



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Recently Posted On NYC’s Craigslist

February 17, 2011 in Misc., Urban Studies | Permalink

"That pig tells you he loves you, while he screws his G/F behind your back! Outrageous!"

LADIES? Are you married to a lowlife cheating pig? – $10000 (Midtown East)

Well, don’t get angry, GET EVEN!!!

If that bum has been cheating behind your back, using you and now found another girlfriend, it about time your teach him a lesson. Imagine, that pig tells you he loves you, while he screws his G/F behind your back! Outrageous!

It’s legal and it’s easy: If you have any of his cars registered on your name, I will buy them and pay you a fair price cash and will be very discreet about it. Your SOB hubby or B/f will learn a lesson he is not soon to forget.

You only need a title with your name on it and we can do this deal. You get the money, he loses his car and he’s screwed for a change…what could be more perfect?

Get back to me with all the info and we can get the ball rolling, you’re not going to be sorry as were nice people to do business with and your hubby deserves this.

Thank You!

Vinnie and Sal

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Grandma Is With Team Coco

February 16, 2011 in Urban Studies, Videos | Permalink

A reading of Conan’s tweets.

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Let's go Jaywalking, Grandma.

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“Without The Suit And Wig And Teeth, He Is Just Another Guy From Yonkers By Way Of Long Island”

February 16, 2011 in Excerpts, Urban Studies | Permalink

Mark Vaccacio portrayed John Lennon in the original run of "Beatlemaniaa" at the Winter Garden Theatre.

Veteran Bronx Beatles impersonator Mark Vaccacio continues performing, and taking his mind off of his illness, as he slowly dies from terminal cancer. From Michael Wilson’s story about Vaccacio in the New York Times:

“For more than three decades, Mr. Vaccacio has switched his accent from Bronx offstage to Liverpool on, starting with the role of John Lennon in Beatlemania on Broadway in the late 1970s. Since the late 1990s, he has played with the tribute band Strawberry Fields at clubs, summer festivals, corporate parties, black-tie weddings, Caribbean bars and, for several years, at noon every Saturday at B. B. King’s.

But without the suit and wig and teeth, he is just another guy from Yonkers by way of Long Island, with two ex-wives, more ex-girlfriends, a daughter far lovelier than he, a father who died young of colon cancer, and a bunch of pals in bands.

A guy who, about a year ago, suddenly had no appetite and went to the doctor. ‘I had a tumor the size of a softball on this side and a tumor the size of a golf ball here,’ Mr. Vaccacio recalled, patting his flat lower belly. He felt no pain then, except to his pride: he should have known better.”

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Automated Robo-Rainbow Graffiti

February 16, 2011 in Urban Studies, Videos | Permalink

Bicycle sold separately. (Thanks Reddit.)

St. George’s Church Reduced To Ruins (1894)

February 16, 2011 in Photography, Urban Studies | Permalink

You can see how much flammable wood was contained in the church's structure.

This classic photograph was taken in the aftermath of a horrific 1894 fire that reduced to rubble St. George’s Church in Astoria, New York, which was at the time the oldest Episcopalian church in the city. It wasn’t an act of arson, but it was still devastating to the parishioners. An excerpt from coverage of the fire in January 11, 1894 New York Times:

“St. George’s Protestant Episcopal Church, in the Astoria section of this city, was totally destroyed by fire this morning. The parish record and the silver service were saved.

St. George’s Church was the oldest of the Episcopal denomination in this city. It was a frame structure, and stood on high ground on the corner of Main and Woolsey Streets. It was surrounded by a spacious churchyard, containing the vaults and graves of members of the oldest families.

When the firemen arrived, the flames had obtained so much headway that it was impossible to save the structure. The rectory stood within fifty feet of the burning church. The rector, the Rev. Charles E. Belden, had everything ready for immediate removal if necessary, but the flames did not reach the building.

Funeral services were to have been held in the church this morning, and in order to have the edifice comfortably heated the sexton built a fire in the furnace last night. It is believed the furnace overheated and set fire to the woodwork. The destroyed church contained a number of marble tablets erected to the memory of some of the oldest members of the congregation and several former rectors.”

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“A Bomb Is Blown Up Only Once – But One Bot Can Become Many, And Quickly Get Out Of Control”

February 16, 2011 in Excerpts, Science/Tech, Urban Studies | Permalink

Computer scientist Bill Joy despised the violence of the Unabomber as any sane person would, so he felt great disquiet when he read a passage written by Ted Kaczynski and agreed with the domestic terrorist’s concerns for the future of humankind. In his famous 2000 Wired article, “Why the Future Doesn’t Need Us,” Joy meditates on the unease caused by his sympathies for the ideas of a madman. An excerpt:

“Part of the answer certainly lies in our attitude toward the new – in our bias toward instant familiarity and unquestioning acceptance. Accustomed to living with almost routine scientific breakthroughs, we have yet to come to terms with the fact that the most compelling 21st-century technologies – robotics, genetic engineering, and nanotechnology – pose a different threat than the technologies that have come before. Specifically, robots, engineered organisms, and nanobots share a dangerous amplifying factor: They can self-replicate. A bomb is blown up only once – but one bot can become many, and quickly get out of control.

Much of my work over the past 25 years has been on computer networking, where the sending and receiving of messages creates the opportunity for out-of-control replication. But while replication in a computer or a computer network can be a nuisance, at worst it disables a machine or takes down a network or network service. Uncontrolled self-replication in these newer technologies runs a much greater risk: a risk of substantial damage in the physical world.”

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Featured Video: “Wesley Willis–Artist Of The Streets” (1988)

February 16, 2011 in Urban Studies, Videos | Permalink

The late underground Chicago musician and street artist Wesley Willis is the subject of Carl Hart’s smart ten-minute doc. A towering man and a schizophrenic who liked to greet friends with a gentle head butt, Willis passed away from leukemia in 2003 at age 40. An excerpt from his New York Times obituary:

“At 6 feet 5 inches and more than 300 pounds, Mr. Willis often walked the streets of the Wicker Park neighborhood talking loudly to himself and selling self-produced CD’s.

The record label Alternative Tentacles released three of his albums. A fourth, Greatest Hits Vol. 3, is scheduled for release in October.

Mr. Willis began his career with the guitarist Dale Meiners in the early 1990’s. Their band, Wesley Willis Fiasco, opened for the band Sublime in shows nationwide.

Mr. Willis, who had schizophrenia, at times lived on the streets. But he continued to write songs, perform and create detailed drawings of Chicago street scenes in colored felt-tip markers. He was the subject of at least four documentaries about his career and the voices he heard because of his schizophrenia.” (Thanks to The Documentarian.)

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Recently Posted On NYC’s Craigslist

February 16, 2011 in Misc., Urban Studies | Permalink

"There's a free skunk in it for you." (Image by AnimalPhotos.)

Skunk in Cage (Westchester)

Hi,
I caught a pesky skunk in a trap in my yard and don’t know what to do with it. Anyone know how to get rid of it? There’s a free skunk in it for you…

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