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“Even A Novice Shooter Can Become An Elite Long-Range Marksman In Minutes”

May 21, 2013 in Excerpts, Science/Tech, Urban Studies, Videos | Permalink

Software is your friend, but it doesn’t have to be. The latest proof that the anarchy of our thrilling Internet experiment is transitioning to the tactile world is a firearm that uses Wi-Fi to let anyone strike targets with accuracy from more than half a mile away. You don’t even have to decide when to pull the trigger. We’ve thought of everything. From Liat Clark at Wired UK:

“A Texas company has begun shipping a rifle equipped with ‘fighter jet-style lock-and-launch technology” that allows amateurs to hit targets up to one kilometre away, every time.

Any potential threats posed by Cody Wilson’s 3D-printed gun pale in comparison to TrackingPoint’s Precision-Guided Firearm (PGF), a series of three firarms that offer tracking ranges of 1,100m, 915m and 777m. ‘Even a novice shooter can become an elite long-range marksman in minutes, accurately and effectively engaging targets,’ boasts the company press release.

The recreational bolt-action rifle came about when founder John McHale grew frustrated when game-hunting in Tanzania in 2009. He found it impossible to calculate all the variables in time to accurately hit a Thomson’s gazelle, which can run at speeds of up to 94km/h. By 2010 he had an initial prototype. Its features are impressive — it has a laser rangefinder and environmental sensors to pick up things like pressure, wind speed and temperature. Meanwhile, the Linux-powered digital tracking scope has a display that features data including the rifle’s incline (inertial sensors are inbuilt) and a compass. Users can click a small tag button alongside the trigger to ‘mark’ it, then the device does its magic. Taking into account all the variables, from range to humidity, it uses image recognition to mark the target and shows the user where a bullet will realistically land. At this point the trigger is squeezed, which highlights the crosshairs in red and allows the user to align it with the desired mark — only when the two have been aligned will the gun actually go off. The inbuilt computer is deciding when to take the shot, not the marksman.”

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“Cocaine Is The Cat’s Pajamas”

May 19, 2013 in Film, Videos | Permalink

As Bridesmaids introduced a more profane type of female-centric comedy to film audiences, Inside Amy Schumer does the same for the small screen. Yes, there was that one hackneyed bit on the debut show in which Schumer played a customer unable to tell African-American salespeople apart, but there’s otherwise already been a lot of excellent stuff. In this funny bit, A Star Is Born is re-imagined for the antique porno world.

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“With A Love Like That You Know You Should Be Glad”

May 17, 2013 in Science/Tech, Urban Studies, Videos | Permalink

I’ve never understood the desperation not nostalgia. I mean, I get it intellectually. We’re all going to die someday so let’s build a monument of one sort or another to things we’ve done and emphasize their importance–or overemphasize it–so that our egos can be enlarged enough to cover up the truth. It makes us feel like we belong and our belonging cannot be diminished. How sad.

Almost fifteen years after the Beatles rocked the Ed Sullivan Show, Merv Griffin took over the same theater in 1978 for a week of shows from New York and presented the original cast of the musical Beatlemania, which was promoted as “not the Beatles but an incredible simulation.” Because actual memories of and recordings by the Beatles weren’t enough–we had to experience it again through some false reinvention. But that phony Beatlemania never really bites the dust. The holograms keep coming.

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“Uhhhhhhhhh…Blink”

May 17, 2013 in Science/Tech, Videos | Permalink

Facial-motion capture in real-time by Motion Capture Egypt.

“Should We Rely On These Outdated Systems To Continue Fulfilling Our Changing Needs?”

May 17, 2013 in Science/Tech, Urban Studies, Videos | Permalink

From a new post at Matt Novak’s resolutely great Paleofuture blog, a 1997 demo video from the National Automated Highway System Consortium which touts automatic roads and driverless cars, in a decade that didn’t even have GPS.

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“I Believe Ants Are Wonderful Indicators Of Ecosystem Health”

May 16, 2013 in Excerpts, Science/Tech, Videos | Permalink

Biologist E.O. Wilson, who watches his aunts ants have sex, just did an Ask Me Anything on Reddit. A few exchanges follow.

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Question:

Would you agree with Isaac Asimov’s quote, “The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds new discoveries, is not “Eureka” but “That’s funny…”? 

E.O. Wilson:

Asimov was a genius in science fiction with an amazingly wide-ranging imagination. However, I don’t recall that he made many original discoveries in science, if any. So, if this not too presumptuous, it maybe true that the first thing that passes the mind is: “Hmmm…there is something different here” but quickly the successful scientist learns and thinks enough to say, “a-ha! I think…”

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Question:

Mr. Wilson, what do you think about genetic engineering and its potential impact on biodiversity? 

E.O. Wilson:

A decade ago I made a special study of genetically modified organisms, including crops, and their potential impact on the environment. I don’t believe that what I concluded has changed a great deal. It is that while some risk occurs, it is not profound and it is over weighed by potential good.

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Question:

How devastating would the collapse of the bee population be to the world’s ecosystem?

E.O. Wilson:

Unless we solve the colony collapse syndrome and build up new stocks of honeybees, the result will be a severe loss to agriculture, costing as high as billions of dollars.

Question:

What is presumed to be behind the large losses? Pesticides? Climate change? Thanks for your answer.

E.O. Wilson:

A recent study conducted by a team of experts could find no primary cause of the collapse syndrome. The best they could conclude was that multiple causes are at work, including pesticides and inbreeding. Obviously there is an urgency to deeper studies of the problem.

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Question:

Ants are probably one of the most important invertebrate taxa ecologically, and they certainly deserve more recognition then they get. It is clear that ants are capable of colonizing disturbed environments more effectively than some other insect groups. Despite this talent for dealing with rough environments, do you believe that ant species richness/diversity is a particularly useful measure of forest/ecosystem health?

E.O. Wilson:

I believe ants are wonderful indicators of ecosystem health. There are so many species in most environments, as many 300 in some tropical rainforests, each with its own specialization and requirement of a healthy environment, that even just the presence or absence of a particular species tells us a great deal about whats happening to the local environment.•

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Ant-sploitation from 1977:

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“Authorities Say Most Of The Runaways Come From White, Middle-Class Families”

May 15, 2013 in Excerpts, Urban Studies, Videos | Permalink

This telling segment July 31, 1971 Huntley-Brinkley Report (which was Chet Huntley’s final broadcast) is a pretty tremendous capsule of ’60s youth culture run aground, as there are accounts of rock festivals cancelled, the Manson Family murder trial in progress and Berkeley police attempting to shutter communes. Young reporter Tom Brokaw handles the Berkeley story.

The opening of the December 19, 1969 Life report about the Manson murders: “Long-haired, bearded little Charlie Manson so disturbed the American millions last week–when he was charged with sending four docile girls and a hairy male acolyte off to slaughter strangers in two Los Angeles houses last August–that the victims of his blithe and gory crimes seemed suddenly to have played only secondary roles in the final brutal moments of their own lives. The Los Angeles killings struck innumerable Americans as an inexplicable controversion of everything they wanted to believe about the society and their children–and made Charlie Manson seem to be the very encapsulation of truth about revolt and violence by the young.”

“[She Is] Probably As Responsible As Any Other Living Person For The Ridiculous And Sorry State Of American Television Journalism”

May 13, 2013 in Excerpts, Urban Studies, Videos | Permalink

Barbara Walters proved to be just as good as the men in the media world, but, sadly, no better. More Joan Lunden than Joan Didion, she didn’t enlighten but entertained, sinking gleefully along with the culture, participating in its descent. The opening of a Walters takedown at Salon, on the day she announced her retirement, by the consistently and delightfully petulant Alex Pareene:

“Barbara Walters has announced her retirement from journalism, a profession she claims to have been practicing for more than 50 years. Walters, the former co-host of the Today show, ABC World News, 20/20, and current co-host of The View, is a national icon and a pioneer, and probably as responsible as any other living person for the ridiculous and sorry state of American television journalism. She has announced her retirement a year in advance, so that a series of aggrandizing specials can be produced celebrating her long and storied career. So let’s get things started off right, by reminding everyone how her entire public life has been an extended exercise in sycophancy and unalloyed power worship.”

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“Baby, baby, baby, you have Bieber Fever”:

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“Piloted Driving For Parking Maneuvers In Parking Garages”

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

A video from Audi about “piloted parking,” an intermediary step on the way to driverless cars, though one I doubt many people would opt for.

“Planet Earth Is Blue And There’s Nothing Left To Do”

May 12, 2013 in Science/Tech, Videos | Permalink

Two versions of “Space Oddity.”

Now: Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield from the International Space Station.

44 years ago: David Bowie’s original video.

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“There’s Two Different Worlds”

May 12, 2013 in Politics, Urban Studies, Videos | Permalink

A very smart piece from W. Kamau Bell, who’s uncommonly good at seeing the silliness of the things that separate us and the serious consequences such a divide can have.

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“I’ve Lost Touch With The World”

May 10, 2013 in Excerpts, Film, Videos | Permalink

The final vignette from Jim Jarmusch’s Coffee and Cigarettes, which features Lower East Side staple Taylor Mead, who passed away on Wednesday. He acted in numerous Andy Warhol films, but let’s not hold that against him.

From Mead’s obituary by Douglas Martin in the New York Times: “It was as an actor in what was called the New American Cinema in the 1960s that he made his biggest mark. Warhol recruited him as one of his first ‘superstars,’ and from 1963 to 1968 he made 11 films with Mr. Mead. In all, Mr. Mead figured that he had made about 130 movies, many of them so spontaneous that they involved only one take.

The film critic J. Hoberman called Mr. Mead ‘the first underground movie star.’ The film historian P. Adams Sitney called one of Mr. Mead’s earliest films, The Flower Thief (1960), ‘the purest expression of the Beat sensibility in cinema.’

The Flower Thief, directed by Ron Rice, stars Mr. Mead as a bedraggled mystic wandering the North Beach neighborhood of San Francisco with open-mouthed wonder. He carries with him his three prized possessions: a stolen gardenia, an American flag and a teddy bear.

It goes almost without saying that Mr. Mead was playing himself, as Susan Sontag observed in Partisan Review. ‘The source of his art is the deepest and purest of all: he just gives himself, wholly and without reserve, to some bizarre autistic fantasy,’ she wrote. ‘Nothing is more attractive in a person, but it is extremely rare after the age of 4.'”

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“It Was The First Time Anyone Had Seen A Computer Like This”

May 10, 2013 in Science/Tech, Urban Studies, Videos | Permalink

Wearable computing, as predicted by an IBM spot in 1997. From the commercial’s director, John Allen: “We did this piece for IBM in 1997 or so. It was the first time anyone had seen a computer like this, wearable, almost invisible, elegant and futuristic. In fact, we still haven’t seen anything like this. It was a prototype that had to be signed in and out every time it was transported. It is yet to be put into production 15 years later.”

IBM WEARABLE COMPUTER from possible pictures on Vimeo.

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“In Ten Years, I Envision Iran As An Economically And Politically Stable Country That Is At Peace With The U.S.”

May 10, 2013 in Excerpts, Politics, Videos | Permalink

Hooshang Amirahmadi, a Rutgers Public Policy professor of Iranian birth, is running an unlikely campaign to become the next President of that country and supplant the wackjob Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. A return engagement for the Shah may seem more likely, as Amirahmadi’s attempt is largely being powered by social media, including Facebook and Reddit, which have greater prominence outside of Iran than within it. He just did an Ask Me Anything at the latter site. A few excerpts follow.

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Question:

Do you believe that Iran can give up its nuclear program and rest assured that the United States will not meddle in Iran’s internal affairs well into the future?

Hooshang Amirahmadi:

The problem between the US and Iran did not start with the nuclear issue, rather with the Islamic Revolution or even the 1953 coup. I don’t believe a nuclear Iran can be immune from US intervention nor can a non nuclear Iran necessarily face US intervention. There are many countries with nuclear power that face American intervention (Pakistan) and other nations without nuclear power that do not face intervention (Turkey). Therefore, the nuclear technology is irrelevant to the way american foreign policy operates. What matters is the strategic relationship between the US and the particular country.

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Question:

I was just wondering what are your views on women’s rights and how they should dress?

Hooshang Amirahmadi:

There should be no difference between men and women. All laws for men should be the same for women, including the dress code. We support a free society for all and elimination of all kinds of discrimination against women and other disadvantaged groups. Of course while women should be able to choose their lifestyle privately, they must be held accountable for their choices in the public arena as well, just like men have to.

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Question:

How do you feel about Israel?

Hooshang Amirahmadi:

The animosity between Iran and Israel is unfortunate but entirely reconcilable. The fact of the matter is that the two countries have no territorial, religious, historical, nor ideological dispute. During much of Iran’s history, good relations were in place with Israel. The only thing that stands in the way is this: the Islamic Revolution. In 1979, Iran had a revolution that enshrined in its constitution the mandate to stand up for oppressed peoples around the world. It identified the Palestinians as one of those people and has taken a rejectionist stance toward Israel as a result. Therefore, the root of this problem lies in solving the Israeli-Palestinian problem. This has been a conflict since at least 1948, thirty years before the Islamic Revolution. I believe that the only lasting, peaceful solution is a two state solution with a viable, independent Palestinian state and a safe Israel with secure borders. Once that Israeli-Palestinian problem is solved, I believe the Iranian-Israeli conflict will go away much quicker than many imagine.

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Question:

If your two-state solution doesn’t work, what will happen with Israeli-Iranian relations? Will you remain neutral?

Hooshang Amirahmadi:

The two state solution is a realistic approach and is reachable as there is no other alternative. Unfortunately, because of certain tensions in the region and Israel’s nervousness about its security, the two state solution is being postponed. A change of administration in Iran and a few other regional countries will certainly help bring Israelis in line w a two state solution. This will happen and it is a matter of time. Again, it will happen only if the animosity toward Israel in the region is reduced making Israel more certain of its security in the future.

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Question:

Do you worry about being killed? Have there been threats or attempts on your life? And how do you avoid this?

Hooshang Amirahmadi:

I do not worry about this, and there have not been threats on my life. I don’t believe there is any reason for such a thing to take place because everything I promote is pro-peace and within the framework of the Islamic Constitution. I am not promoting war, sanctions, nor regime change. I am simply trying to offer positive solutions to the issues that matter to Iranians, as well as the international community, the most. From the inflation and unemployment, to US-Iran relations and foreign policy, I have never said anything that is out of the bounds of the country’s constitution.

I have always said that I have zero interest in being a martyr!

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Question:

Where do you envision Iran being in ten years?

Hooshang Amirahmadi:

In ten years, I envision Iran as an economically and politically stable country that is at peace with the US and all of its neighbors. I remain an eternal optimist and will do everything I can to be a part of this developmental process. Iran’s current economic situation is unfortunate, since Iran is actually a very wealthy country with rich energy and natural resources, a highly-educated workforce, varying climates, access to strategic waterways, and many other positive attributes. The reasons holding back Iran’s economic development are primarily mismanagement and sanctions. As someone who has been a peacemaker in US-Iran relations for thirty years, I would be best positioned to help realize that peace. In addition, economic development is my academic and professional background. I have taught international development and public policy as a tenured professor at Rutgers and have worked for many governments and international organizations on development. I wish to offer my background and expertise to help develop Iran economically as well. A lot can be achieved in ten years!

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Iran just 34 years ago:

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“The People Of The United States Have Great Admiration For You And Your Men”

May 10, 2013 in Politics, Urban Studies, Videos | Permalink

Fidel Castro visited by Ed Sullivan in 1959 after the triumphant revolution, promising a democratic Cuba that never materialized.

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“I Think The Thing With A Story Is, It’s Kind Of Genetically Related To A Joke”

May 9, 2013 in Books, Videos | Permalink

Two recent George Saunders TV appearances if you missed them, with Stephen Colbert and George Stephanopoulos. Ayn Rand, interestingly, is mentioned in both interviews, as a punchline for Colbert and in a serious vein with Stephanopoulos, as Saunders cops to being a right-winger as a youth.

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“The Film Was A Sleeper Hit In 1952, Establishing Mr. Harryhausen As Someone Who Could Deliver Astonishing Footage”

May 8, 2013 in Excerpts, Film, Science/Tech, Videos | Permalink

Sad to hear of the passing of special-effects legend Ray Harryhausen. I lost interest in animation and action-adventure fare when I was a small kid, but I can still recall his skeleton-fight sequence from Jason and the Argonauts and the monsters from The 7th Voyage of Sinbad.

From Harryhausen’s New York Times obituary:

“With help from his parents — especially his father, a machinist and inventor — Mr. Harryhausen was soon teaching himself the basics of stop-motion animation and producing short films of dinosaurs and apes in the family garage. While still in high school, he got an appointment to meet Mr. O’Brien and showed him some early work; on Mr. O’Brien’s advice, he studied anatomy and sculpture and took night classes in film production.

The two men stayed in touch through Mr. Harryhausen’s early working years as a technician making stop-motion ‘Puppetoon’ shorts for Paramount, humorous animated training films for the Army during World War II and, after the war, his own animated short films of Mother Goose stories and some advertising work.

Then, when Merian C. Cooper, the director and producer of King Kong, set out to make another feature with Mr. O’Brien about a giant ape, Mr. O’Brien remembered Mr. Harryhausen and hired him to animate most of the film, Mighty Joe Young, released in 1949. It won an Academy Award for special effects.

Its success spurred Mr. Harryhausen to try developing feature projects of his own. After several false starts came The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms, partly based on a short story, “The Fog Horn,” by Ray Bradbury, whom Mr. Harryhausen had gotten to know as a teenager through a local science fiction club. The film was a sleeper hit in 1952, establishing Mr. Harryhausen as someone who could deliver astonishing footage on a tight budget and draw big audiences.”

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An example of  Harryhausen’s teenage work from the garage in the late ’30s, a stop-motion telling of evolution:

 

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“With Considerable Trepidation, We Undertake To Interview This Machine”

May 7, 2013 in Science/Tech, Videos | Permalink

Edward R. Murrow interviewing MIT legend Jay Forrester and his Whirlwind Computer, 1951.

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“The City Itself Outside The Classroom Now Has All The Answers”

May 6, 2013 in Politics, Science/Tech, Urban Studies, Videos | Permalink

Marshall McLuhan thought traditional education was dead as soon as the Industrial Age began changing into a Digital one, thanks to TV’s potential to bring answers more directly to students of all ages. While his contemporary Ivan Illich thought we should shutter the schools, McLuhan favored a modernized Socratic method rather than repetition and memorization. Television turned out to be largely a false god, but the Internet is the real deal, both holy and unholy–abundant and interactive and interconnected and always quietly taking as much as it gives. What will become of the classrooms?

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“From Now On, We Won’t Just Be Visiting Planets”

April 29, 2013 in Science/Tech, Videos | Permalink

This Mars One promotional video is very impressive and all, but big picture: You’re still going to die on Mars.

“My Next Guest Is A Fighter”

April 26, 2013 in Sports, Videos | Permalink

Poet Nikki Giovanni interviewing Muhammad Ali. Not sure of the exact year, but during the 1970s.

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“Please Select An Item From Our Menu”

April 25, 2013 in Science/Tech, Urban Studies, Videos | Permalink

Touchscreens replacing workers at fast-food restaurant drive-thru windows. Like the Automat without the charm.

“Tip And I Don’t Often Share The Same Views”

April 22, 2013 in Politics, Science/Tech, Urban Studies, Videos | Permalink

William F. Buckley and Tip O’Neill reach across the aisle in 1988 to promote the U.S. Space Foundation. American space exploration lost course after the early 1970s, and it seems to only now be regaining momentum, thanks to a combination of public and private enterprises.

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“The Planet Is Fine, The People Are Fucked”

April 22, 2013 in Science/Tech, Videos | Permalink

Even though I don’t care for nature and its constant state of murder and predation, I’m in favor of Earth Day in particular and environmentalism in general, believing that focus on alternative energy methods can reduce carbon emissions greatly–perhaps entirely. That might save you and I. But as George Carlin pointed out, we probably should rename this day since the Earth will be fucking fine without us. It would be even better. We’re the only ones we’re endangering with our profligate behavior. Let’s not be arrogant.

From Walter Cronkite’s coverage of the First Earth Day in 1970, footage of Paul Ehrlich, whose dire prediction of a “population bomb” that brought near-term famine, plague and thermonuclear war, proved incorrect. 

“Saving endangered species is just one more arrogant attempt by humans to control nature.”

“Damn You, Polio!”

April 21, 2013 in Urban Studies, Videos | Permalink

I haven’t had a television for more than a year, so I will pose this question to you: Is there a single network TV show that’s told from the perspective of an African-American or Latino? And I don’t mean having a minority character cast in a show created from a white person’s viewpoint. Are there many programs like that on cable? Talk about writing off the 47%. It’s not just bad ethically, but it’s bad business.

Imagine what we’re missing.

But some happy news: The Eric Andre Show on Adult Swim, one of my favorite programs, has just been renewed for a second season. So there will gladly be another burst of anarchic, Dada cabaret from Andre and Hannibal Buress.

Click on video stills below to go to Adult Swim site and watch the shows.

Damn you, Polio!

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