“The Skull Was Made Specifically For The Patient Using An Unspecified Durable Plastic”

March 27, 2014 in Excerpts, Science/Tech | Permalink

When you read a lot today about science and technology, you need to keep an eye on the calendar. It often feels like April Fool’s Day, so much of the latest news seems outlandish. But it’s true that a woman from the Netherlands just had her skull replaced with a plastic one created by a 3-D printer. From Nicholas Tufnell at Wired UK:

“The skull was made specifically for the patient using an unspecified durable plastic. Since the operation, the patient has gained her sight back entirely, is symptom-free and back to work. It is not known whether the plastic will require replacing at a later date or if it will last a lifetime.

The lead surgeon had previous experience with 3D reconstructions of skulls, but such a large implant had never been accomplished before. ‘It is almost impossible to see that she’s ever had surgery,’ said Dr Verweij in the university’s official statement.

It is hoped this technique can also be used for patients with other bone disorders or to repair severely damaged skulls after an accident or tumour.”

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“I Applied Some Theories Of My Own And The Findings Of A Computer To The Game of Blackjack Or 21”

March 27, 2014 in Excerpts, Science/Tech, Sports, Videos | Permalink

Edward O. Thorp, a mathematics professor who lives to bring down the house-the house being a casino–has focused a sizable portion of his career on mathematical probability in betting games. He also created, in tandem with Bell Labs unicyclist Claude Shannon, what is arguably the first wearable computer. The device, which was contained in a shoe or a cigarette pack, could markedly improve a gambler’s chance at the roulette wheel, though the bugs were never completely worked out. From a 1998 conference:

“The first wearable computer was conceived in 1955 by the author to predict roulette, culminating in a joint effort at M.I.T. with Claude Shannon in 1960-61. The final operating version was rested in Shannon’s basement home lab in June of 1961. The cigarette pack sized analog device yielded an expected gain of +44% when betting on the most favored ‘octant’. The Shannons and Thorps tested the computer in Las Vegas in the summer of 1961. The predictions there were consistent with the laboratory expected gain of 44% but a minor hardware problem deferred sustained serious betting. They kept the method and the existence of the computer secret until 1966.”

Thorp appeared on To Tell the Truth in 1964. He didn’t discuss wearables but his book about other methods to break the bank. Amusing that NYC radio host John Gambling played one of the impostors.

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A Brief Note From 1870 About “Lulu Johnson”

March 26, 2014 in Old Print Articles, Urban Studies | Permalink

From the July 28, 1870 New York Times:

“About eight months ago a sprightly, prepossessing boy about seventeen years of age, came to this city from Philadelphia, and obtained employment in a respectable family. He was not only exceedingly bright and intelligent, but was well educated for a boy of his age, and his manner about the house in which he was employed made such a favorable impression upon the mistress of the establishment that she took quite a fancy to him, and according to his statement she induced him to cast off his ‘unmentionables’ and don female ‘toggery.’ He was known as ‘Lulu Johnson,’ and was regularly installed in the house as a female servant, no one, it appears, about the establishment doubting his sex, or knowing that he was not what his dress indicated, except the mistress. In this way matters continued for a considerable length of time, even up until one day last week, when ‘Lulu,’ thinking he was not receiving full compensation for his labor, concluded to leave his new home and seek another, and when he left, by some unaccountable means a breastpin and a pair of ear-rings, valued at $7, the property of Mrs. C., the lady of the house, left with him. The husband, on hearing of the departure of ‘Lulu’ and the loss of the jewelry, made information before the Mayor charging ‘Lulu’ with larceny. A warrant was issued, and placed in the hand of Officer Moon, who found her employed in a saloon on Woodstreet, but to his surprise ‘Lulu’ was a boy. When he was informed that he was wanted at the Mayor’s office on a charge of stealing jewelry, he frankly stated to the officer, who thought still that ‘Lulu’ was a girl and had donned the male attire to escape detection, that he was the identical ‘Lulu’ Johnson he was in search of, but that he was not a girl, neither had he stolen the jewelry, but he had taken it as compensation for services performed while he was in the house. The officer was willing to believe a part of the story but not all of it. He could not be persuaded that ‘Lulu’ was a boy, not a bit of it. ‘Lulu’ was taken to the Mayor’s office, and after satisfying His Honor that he was what his apparel indicated, he gave a full statement of the affair. The prosecutor was present but could not be convinced but that ‘Lulu’ was a girl. The jewelry was returned, and ‘Lulu’ allowed to return to the saloon at which he was employed, with a promise to return to the Mayor’s offices in the morning at 10 o’clock for a hearing.”

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“Looking At California’s Desert-Like Farm Areas, It’s Hard To Picture The Land As It Was Before Being Plowed”

March 26, 2014 in Excerpts, Science/Tech, Urban Studies | Permalink

Hearing about California’s drought issues might be temptation to give thanks that at least we’re not them, but of course, in America, we are them. When the state that supplies us with so much of our food goes dry, there’s the threat that we all go hungry. So many smart West Coast techies are too busy trying to develop the next billion-dollar app to innovate in this area, but even traditional common-sense approaches could alleviate some of the problems. Of course, there are economic drivers keeping such practices from being implemented. From California rancher Nicolette Hahn Niman’s Guardian piece:

“Looking at California’s desert-like farm areas, it’s hard to picture the land as it was before being plowed. Early Europeans reported endless carpets of wildflowers and ‘tall grasses up to the bellies of the horses’. In the mid-1800s, the wild flora was stripped away and huge fields of wheat were planted. When crop yields declined, fields were abandoned or converted to rangelands.

It’s a vicious cycle that has been the curse of destructive agriculture for thousands of years: remove native vegetation, continuously grow crops, don’t rest the land or return nutrients. Erode and exhaust soils. Move on. Repeat.

And it’s not just California: a society’s inability to feed its people from local resources has contributed to the collapse of civilizations throughout history. ‘We remain on track to repeat their stories,’ warns the professor David Montgomery in his fascinating book Dirt. ‘Only this time, we are doing it on a global scale.’

But Montgomery also urges that we can choose another fate: understand the land, take care of the soil. We need to farm as nature does – with diverse crops, and plants and animals together – rather than the so-called ‘monocultural’ school of farming that grows huge fields of annual crops.”

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“Robot Cars May Prevent Thousands Of Accidents, But Eventually, Inevitably, There Will Be A Crash”

March 26, 2014 in Excerpts, Science/Tech, Urban Studies | Permalink

I think an interesting concentration right now for law students would be the legality and ethics of automated machines. One question yet to be answered which falls within that purview is the liability of automakers and drivers when a robocar malfunctions. While these new machines will save a huge number lives, they won’t be flawless. From Alex Brown at National Journal:

‘What happens when something goes wrong? Robot cars may prevent thousands of accidents, but eventually, inevitably, there will be a crash.

‘Who’s responsible if the car crashes?’ Audi’s Brad Stertz said earlier this year. ‘That’s going to be an issue.’

It’s tough to argue the passenger (who may well be the victim) should be held responsible if a car controlled by a computer runs itself off the road. But should automakers face long, expensive lawsuits when life-saving technology suffers a rare glitch? ‘

Automaker liability is likely to increase. Crashes are much more likely to be viewed as the fault of the car and the manufacturer,’ Anderson said. ‘If you’re an automaker and you know you’re going to be sued [more frequently], you’re going to have reservations.… The legal liability test doesn’t take into account the long-run benefits.’

In other words, even though a technology is an overall boon to the greater good, its rare instances of failure—and subsequent lawsuits—won’t take that into account. That could slow the movement of driverless cars to the mass market if automakers are wary of legal battles.”

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Recently Posted On NYC’s Craigslist

March 26, 2014 in Misc., Urban Studies | Permalink

“I will be only 42 years old when I can bid you adieu and move forward into a bright and shiny future that I can enjoy alone, or with a pet or two.”

“I will be only 42 years old when I can bid you adieu and move forward into a bright and shiny future that I can enjoy alone, or with a pet or two.”

I fucking hate you

You small, low life piece of shit…Had i had even the smallest inkling that you were who you actually are i would have fled. You are exactly what shames real men. IGNORANT, POORLY BRED, PRACTICALLY ILLITERATE, NO AMBITION, NO CLASS, YELLING ALL THE TIME, SHITBAG, You SHOULD HAVE BEEN SKEETED OUT onto YOUR NO GOOD MAMA’S CHEST, as opposed to being born and not ABORTED. The slag whore who shit you out should have been placed at the top of a stairwell and kicked in the back, so as to tumble to the bottom, thus ending the trip with a MOST appropriate miscarriage. You should have slid down her filthy leg and into the gutter where you belong. I hate that i met you and fell for all the bullshit you shoveled….You were lying when you said that you were Someone. You were lying when you said you cared about politics and family and being better…. You lied about how you were raised and your education level, you were lying when you said you had had a good upbringing and that you intended to raise your children in the same way. I ended up with a no account loud asshole who is only good for a tiny paycheck and an annual tax refund that the poor are given. I FUCKING HATE YOU. I’m only here in this hell of a life until the kids are off to college and well clear of MY bad choice and your SELF. Fear not asshole, I blame me too, for my misery. I was lonely, I was stupid I didn’t listen to those who knew better and tried to warn me off you. I thought I was good enough and smart enough and strong enough to bring you into a place where we could build and be successful as a family…

Here’s the thing, it’s alright. Because the Best of you was combined with the best of me, sprinkled with grace or cell division or whatever, and two of the best, most beautiful, kind and wonderful people Happened AND they are SO worth all this small petty shit. An average lifetime for a woman is around 76, my youngest is already 12 therefore I’m looking at only 6 years which means i will be only 42 years old when i can bid you adieu and move forward into a bright and shiny future that I can enjoy either alone, or with a pet or two. Good luck with your future….

The kids hear you every time you swear and carry on and bring slang up in conversation, they, I’m sure notice, when you wear new clothes and have a haircut and Mom is running around in her Two good outfits, to parent teacher night and the honor roll ceremonies, and the speech therapist and the doctor’s appointments ad nauseum. The lucky part for you asshole, is that I will never, ever say words to them that makes them feel as though half of them is begotten by a hateful asshole. You, Dickhead, will forever be spoken of in positive and important terms…but you and I know the truth don’t we? Good luck in 10 years bitch!!!

“Can One Of These Suits Withstand A Micrometeorite Hit?”

March 26, 2014 in Excerpts, Science/Tech | Permalink

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Apollo spacesuits weren’t just high quality but also high fashion, even inspiring runway apparel. A movie is in development now to adapt Nicholas de Manchauz’s recent book on the topic. NASA engineers involved in the design of next-gen spacesuits just did an Ask Me Anything at Reddit. A few exchanges follow.

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Question:

What are your backgrounds? Engineers? Physicists? How did you get into this?

NASA:

We’re all engineers (aerospace, mechanical, bio-astronautics, human factors, and electrical). We’ve all been interested in space since we were kids and dreamed of working at NASA. The majority of us started our NASA careers as cooperative education students too, which allowed us to try several different aspects of engineering at NASA before finding our calling in space suit design and testing.

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Question:

Do you think we will ever (in the foreseeable future) “escape” from the giant bulky bubble spacesuits that have been the norm since the Apollo missions? A slimmer, more form-fitting one, like the ones the Mercury and Gemini astronauts wore, would certainly be easier to operate in, but is not technologically feasible for working in exposed space. Are there any designs that are aimed towards a thinner aesthetic?

NASA:

Great question! This is a question we get a lot, and there are a couple answers.

First, the Mercury suits were not designed to be pressurized except in a contingency – they were “get me down” suits similar to the orange ACES suits we used for Shuttle. The Gemini suits were used for EVA, but were sorely lacking in mobility. In comparison, the Apollo suit built just a few years later, which still has somewhat limited EVA mobility, appears much “bulkier”. As a general rule, the more mobile a pressurized suit, the bulkier it appears due to the use of more hard mobility elements such as bearings. The more hard components, the less change in volume of the suit through the range of motion, and the higher the mobility.

Also, an “alternative” to full pressure suits is mechanical counter pressure suits which have been theorized and worked on since the 1960s. Some of us think that this type of suit architecture has a place in the distant future once material technology enables it. For now, we do actively fund material development in this area. In the meantime, we are designing suits for the next 10-20 years, and those will likely be full pressure suits like you see with the EMU, Mark III, Z-1 and the upcoming Z-2!

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Question:

Do you plan on distributing any suits to SpaceX or other privatized companies?

NASA:

NASA’s commercial crew partners are solely contracted to develop a vehicle as a way to transport crew to the International Space Station. As such, the suits they use will be “launch and entry” suits of the simplest kind. Each company is responsible for their own suit, whether they build it in house, or subcontract it out. Launch and entry suits are designed for unpressurized comfort and mobility – they are only pressurized in an emergency and therefore, pressurized mobility is not a significant design driver. The Z-series of suits and other suits in our Advanced Suit Laboratory are specifically EVA suits – that is, optimized for pressurized mobility. Therefore, while there are always lessons learned in any suit design and some technical overlap, we view these suits of limited applicability to the Z-series. That being said, there are others within our branch (Spacesuit and Crew Survival Systems Branch) as well as within NASA that are working closely on commercial crew partners and spacesuits are an important component of this. And lastly, we just want to add that we are all super excited about the prospect of commercial access to space!

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Question:

How accurate are spacesuits in modern science fiction movies? Are there any depictions that unknowingly got some tech you’re developing right?

NASA:

Space suits from most futuristic space movies are form fitting and allow you got get in your suit, open the hatch, and go EVA. Not realistic for the forseeable future. Form fitting suits (MPC) are decades away and there is a certain amount of pre-breathe time required before going EVA to allow your body to be purged of N2 because the suits operate at lower than earth atmospheric pressures.

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Question:

Can one of these suits withstand a micrometeorite hit, say, in a moon or Mars atmo scenario? Or is that pretty much instant death for the wearer?

NASA:

The risk of impact is higher on the Moon because there’s no atmosphere to slow bits down or destroy them, and once they hit on the Moon, smaller secondary chunks can be ejected too. However, at the end of the day, the damage done depends on the size of the particle. The suits are designed to maintain pressure for at least 30min after getting a 0.25in diameter hole. We try to mitigate the risk by designing multiple layers in the suit that reduce the size and energy of particles that hit to prevent them from actually penetrating the bladder layer. We also use statistical models in EVA planning to pick times and locations for space walks that are lower risk for micrometeoroid impacts.

All that said, if a big rock moving at 17,500mph hits you, that’s going to be a bad day.•

“Countless Religious Innovators Over The Years Have Played The Game Of Establishing An Identity For Themselves By Accentuating Their Otherness”

March 26, 2014 in Books, Excerpts, Politics, Science/Tech, Urban Studies, Videos | Permalink

As you probably realize if you read this blog with any regularity, I’m fascinated by religious and secular cults, groups of people who give themselves over to an idea, a hoped-for utopia, outside the mainstream, often threatening the mainstream. These offshoots can bring about death or disappointment, and sometimes they’re driven by genuine madness, though occasionally the mistrust is misplaced. I suppose what makes me so interested in them is that I’m a really individualistic person who can’t even fathom trusting so wholly in a culture, let alone a subculture. I’d like to know how that process works. What’s the trigger?

In his just-published New Yorker piece about The Journey to Waco, a sect member’s memoir that revisits the FBI’s disastrous 1993 siege of the compound, Malcolm Gladwell points out that negotiating with the devoted is different than making deals with those devoted solely to profit. A passage that compares Branch Davidians with early Mormons:

“The Mormons were vilified in those years in large part because Joseph Smith believed in polygamy. But the Cornell historian R. Laurence Moore, in his classic book Religious Outsiders and the Making of Americans, points out that the moral hysteria over the Mormons was misplaced. The Mormons were quintessential Americans. ‘Like the Puritans before them, the Mormons linked disciplined labor with religious duty,’ Moore writes. ‘Mormon culture promoted all the virtues usually associated with the formation of middle-class consciousness—thrift, the denial of immediate gratification, and strict control over one’s passions.’ Polygamy, the practice that so excited popular passions, was of little importance to the Church: ‘First, the vast majority of nineteenth century Mormons did not practice polygamy, and many of them found it distasteful, at least as a way of conducting their own lives. Second, those who did practice plural marriage scarcely exhibited the lascivious behavior made familiar in anti-Mormon literature. Plural wives were commonly the widowed or unmarried sisters of the original wife.’

So why were nineteenth-century Americans so upset with the Mormons? Moore’s answer is that Americans thought the Mormons were different from them because the Mormons themselves ‘said they were different and because their claims, frequently advanced in the most obnoxious way possible, prompted others to agree and to treat them as such.’ In order to give his followers a sense of identity and resilience, Joseph Smith ‘required them to maintain certain fictions of cultural apartness.’ Moore describes this as a very American pattern. Countless religious innovators over the years have played the game of establishing an identity for themselves by accentuating their otherness. Koresh faced the same problem, and he, too, made his claims, at least in the eyes of the outside world, ‘in the most obnoxious way possible.’

The risks of such a strategy are obvious. Mainstream American society finds it easiest to be tolerant when the outsider chooses to minimize the differences that separate him from the majority. The country club opens its doors to Jews. The university welcomes African-Americans. Heterosexuals extend the privilege of marriage to the gay community. Whenever these liberal feats are accomplished, we congratulate ourselves. But it is not exactly a major moral accomplishment for Waspy golfers to accept Jews who have decided that they, too, wish to play golf. It is a much harder form of tolerance to accept an outsider group that chooses to maximize its differences from the broader culture.”

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“Was there no plan?”

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Old Print Articles: Francis Schlatter, Faith Healer Brooklyn Daily Eagle (1896-1901)

March 25, 2014 in Old Print Articles, Urban Studies | Permalink

A Rasputin-like figure from the 19th century, Francis Schlatter, a cobbler who turned to faith healing, was rumored to have retired or died in 1896 or so. But the Brooklyn Daily Eagle subsequently ran an assortment of stories about him–or others purporting to be him. At some point, it seems he became more idea than flesh, “appearing” in cities all over America. The following are a few pieces about those strange years.

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“Schlatter on a Wheel” (July 15, 1896): Guthrie, Okla.–A man claiming to be Schlatter, the healer, from Denver, rode into town yesterday on a bicycle and is creating a sensation. He was dressed in a trailing gown of black and wore a curling beard and long, flowing hair. As soon as his identity became known a great crowd gathered about the man and since then hundreds of people have constantly dogged his footsteps. Last night he addressed an immense throng, laying on hands to heal people and blessing hundreds of handkerchiefs.

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“Schlatter the Healer” (August 19, 1897): Pittsburgh, Pa.–Late last night it was positively announced that Mrs. Margaret Ferris, widow of the builder of the Chicago wheel, had been married in Pittsburgh to Francis Schlatter, healer, of Canton. The ceremony was performed by Rev. Mr. Ward, pastor of St. Peter’s Episcopal Church. Mr. and Mrs. Schlatter are now at a downtown hotel.”

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“Schlatter the Healer” (January 10, 1899): Lynbrook, L.I.–A tramp, who resembles Schlatter, the healer, and who is evidently deranged, applied for lodging at the Rudd Farm, East Rockaway, and was permitted to sleep in the coachman’s room. He spent a week in fasting and prayer and was only seen to leave his room once in all that time. He refuses all food and it is supposed that he is preparing by fasting and prayer for forty days to resume the work of preaching and healing. He seems younger than Schlatter and his features strikingly resemble those of Christ as depicted by modern artists. Although evidently a cultured and scholarly man he refuses to talk and is apparently anxious to conceal his identity.

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“Small Audience Attracted” (January 30, 1899): Brooklyn–Before an audience of about two hundred spectators, the Rev. Charles McLean, M.D., who claims to be the original Schlatter, the divine healer in a resurrected form, gave an exhibition of his healing powers. The meeting was held at the Antheneum, Atlantic Avenue and Clinton Street. Among the two hundred were those afflicted with every ill flesh is heir to. Some hobbled up as early as 7 o’clock. although it was after 8 o’clock before the alleged healer began to talk. Others were led, and about the whole crowd was an air of tragic expectation. About thirty came up on the front seats to be treated when the call was made for subjects. The healer rejected all but ten, after a hurried questioning as to the nature of their ills. He explained that he did work where he felt called and those subjects not treated must report at future meetings. One by one as rapidly as he could apply his method these ten were led up to the stage and were seated in a chair with back to the audience. For a minute the hands of the healer would be pressed over their foreheads. At the same time he would recite an inarticulate prayer. Then he would interview his subject as to the result of the treatment and announce the decision.

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“Divine Healer” (July 21, 1901): Washington–Francis Schlatter, the so-called ‘divine healer,’ was tried in the police court to-day as a vagrant and fined $10 or thirty days in the workhouse.

As he returned to the cells he pleaded that the workhouse authorities refrain from shearing his locks. Schlatter stated to the court that he had come here to get his wife, who had deserted him to approve the sale of some English property. Becoming discouraged, he had commenced to drink. A policeman testified that he found Schlatter surrounded by a boisterous crowd and that he admitted having been on a “drunk” since July 3.

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“Schlatter Sent to the Island” (August 25, 1901): Manhattan–Francis Schlatter, who calls himself ‘the divine healer,’ was sentenced to three months in the workhouse on the Island yesterday by Magistrate Zeller, in the Harlem police court. Mrs. Elizabeth Muller, the janitress of the house at 44 Bradhurst Avenue, where Schlatter’s wife had been living since she quarreled with and left him, was the complainant against the prisoner. The healer’s wife left the house a few days ago, and Mrs. Muller charged that he constantly annoyed all the tenants in the house, persisting in visiting the rooms to see his wife. On each of these visits, the complaintant said, Schlatter was in an intoxicated condition, bordering on delirium tremens.

When the sentence of three months was pronounced Schlatter said that he did not care, as he had powerful friends who would have him set free. Among these he named President McKinley.•

“It Might Not Always Be Obvious How Technologically-Induced Changes In A Punishment Affect Its Severity”

March 25, 2014 in Excerpts, Politics, Science/Tech, Urban Studies | Permalink

At Practical Ethics, Rebecca Roache, one of the interview subjects in Ross Andersen’s excellent Aeon piece about criminal punishment during a time of radical life extension, answers some of the more overheated criticism her philosophical musings received. An excerpt:

“Even if technology is harnessed to devise new punishment methods, it might not be clear how the new methods compare to old methods. Radical lifespan enhancement might enable us to send people to prison for hundreds of years, but would this be a more severe punishment than current life sentences, or a less severe one? On the one hand, longer prison sentences are more severe punishments than shorter prison sentences, so a 300-year sentence would be a more severe punishment than a 30-year one. On the other hand, consider that many prisoners sentenced to death in the US appeal to have their death sentences converted to life sentences. This suggests that a longer sentence is viewed by prisoners who are sentenced to death as less severe than a shorter sentence (followed by execution). I made this point in the Aeon interview, and some people took me to be rejecting the idea of technologically-extended life sentences on the ground that this would be too lenient, and therefore bad. In fact, my point was that it might not always be obvious how technologically-induced changes in a punishment affect its severity.”

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“It Brought Satire Into The Mainstream, Along With Up-To-The-Moment New York Humor Sprinkled With Yiddish, Nonsense And Non Sequiturs”

March 25, 2014 in Books, Excerpts, Videos | Permalink

William M. Gaines, the legendary publisher and impresario behind Mad magazine, appears on To Tell the Truth in 1970. He looked like a plate of spaghetti that fell on the floor.

To this day I recall being amazed as a child by an old Mad that had a reprint of Will Elder’s existentialist Melvin Mole comic.

The opening of Gaines’ 1990 obituary in the New York Times:

“William M. Gaines, who as publisher of Mad magazine conferred immortality on a goofy-faced, gaptoothed cover boy and the ‘What — me worry?’ motto, died yesterday at his home in Manhattan. He was 70 years old.

He died in his sleep, editors at Mad said.

The first issue of the magazine hit the newsstands in 1952, with sharp-eyed sendups of movies, advertising, celebrities and comic strips: Mickey Mouse became ‘Mickey Rodent’ and Superman ‘Superduperman.’ To the delight of its largely teen-age audience, it brought satire into the mainstream, along with up-to-the-moment New York humor sprinkled with Yiddish, nonsense and non sequiturs.”

“Companies Will Increasingly Know All There Is To Know About You”

March 25, 2014 in Excerpts, Science/Tech, Urban Studies | Permalink

Speaking of surveillance: While I’m certainly not in favor of government snooping, I don’t think legislation will seriously alter the practice. There are too many tools to spy with, and they’ll only get better. And corporations, even more than the government, want to know everything about us. It’s like a focus group we’ll hardly even notice, conducted in real time. We won’t only live in public, but our lives will be measured, quantified. There will be no going off the grid because everything will be the grid. It will be utopia and dystopia all at once. The opening of “Invasion of the Data Snatchers,” a new article at Real Clear Technology by Catherine Crump and Matthew Harwood:

“Estimates vary, but by 2020 there could be over 30 billion devices connected to the Internet. Once dumb, they will have smartened up thanks to sensors and other technologies embedded in them and, thanks to your machines, your life will quite literally have gone online.

The implications are revolutionary. Your smart refrigerator will keep an inventory of food items, noting when they go bad. Your smart thermostat will learn your habits and adjust the temperature to your liking. Smart lights will illuminate dangerous parking garages, even as they keep an ‘eye’ out for suspicious activity.

Techno-evangelists have a nice catchphrase for this future utopia of machines and the never-ending stream of information, known as Big Data, it produces: the Internet of Things. So abstract. So inoffensive. Ultimately, so meaningless.

A future Internet of Things does have the potential to offer real benefits, but the dark side of that seemingly shiny coin is this: companies will increasingly know all there is to know about you.”

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“Your Predecessor As Head Of The NSA Compared The Internet With The Invention Of The Atomic Bomb”

March 25, 2014 in Excerpts, Politics, Science/Tech | Permalink

In a Spiegel interview by Marc Hujer and Holger Stark, former NSA director Michael Hayden addresses what he feels is the chilling effect the Snowden leaks have had on the Internet globally. I think, like it or not, the world is ultimately stuck with the Internet and a new normal in regards to privacy. An excerpt:

“Spiegel:

On the one hand, the United States promotes the Internet as a tool of freedom. On the other hand, it now appears to many people to be a tool of surveillance.

Michael Hayden:

I am quite willing to have a discussion about what my country has or has not done, but it has to be based on facts. Let me first point out that the NSA doesn’t monitor what every American is doing on the Internet. The NSA doesn’t check who goes to what websites. But you’ve got these beliefs out there now.

Spiegel:

Your predecessor as head of the NSA, General Kenneth Minihan, compared the Internet with the invention of the atomic bomb. He said a new national effort should be dedicated to one single goal, ‘information superiority for America’ in cyberspace. It looks like you’ve gotten pretty close.

Michael Hayden:

We Americans think of military doctrine and ‘domains’ — land, sea, air, space. As part of our military thought, we now think of cyber as a domain. Let me define air dominance for you: Air dominance is the ability of the United States to use the air domain at times and places of its own choosing while denying its use to its adversaries at times and places when it is in our legitimate national interest to do so. It’s just a natural thing for him to transfer that to the cyber domain. I do not think it is a threat to world peace and commerce any more than the American Air Force is a threat to world peace and commerce.

Spiegel:

But do you understand if people in other countries are concerned about one country trying to gain “superiority” over something transnational like the Internet?

Michael Hayden:

I certainly do, and I thoroughly understand that. Now, other countries are creating cyber commands, but we were first, public, and very forceful in our language. We are now accused of militarizing cyberspace. Around the time US Cyber Command was created, McAfee did a survey of cyber security experts around the world. One of the questions they asked of them was, ‘Who do you fear most in cyberspace?’ The answer for the Americans was the Chinese. With the plurality of people around the world, it was the Americans.”

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“Yes, He Was A Mean One In His Time”

March 24, 2014 in Sports, Videos | Permalink

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Since baseball season has gotten underway (at least in Australia), here’s a rare video of Ty Cobb, one of the sport’s best players ever and one of the damndest sons of bitches to strap on the spikes, appearing in 1955 on I’ve Got a Secret. Seems like a sweet grandfather here, but he strangled to death at least eight or ten peanut vendors during his career. The first two players are Leon Cadore, who pitched an entire 26-inning game in 1920; and Johnny Vander Meer, who threw back-to-back no-hitters in 1938. Cobb shows up at roughly the 12:15 mark, just as Vander Meer walks off with his complimentary carton of cancer-causing Winston cigarettes.

A Brief Note From 1909 About Revenge

March 24, 2014 in Old Print Articles, Urban Studies | Permalink

From the November 28, 1909 New York Times:

“One of the diversions of the New York tenement house boy is flying captive pigeons from the roof of his home. While three little boys, Anthony Koenig, of 638 East Eleventh Street, Henry Flannigan, of 187 Avenue C, and Rudolph Poharley of 174 Avenue C, were flying pigeons from the roof of the Koenig boy’s home, yesterday afternoon, Poharley lost his string, and his black pigeon fluttered off.

He reached after the string as it trailed over the edge of the roof and lost his balance, falling to the ground, six stories below. Dr. Reiter, of 630 East Eleventh Street, just across the street, saw Poharley strike the sidewalk on the side of his head. He ran to him, and after an examination, found that he had been killed instantly. His neck was broken.

An ambulance took the 18 year old boy’s body to the Union Market Police Station.

When his companions, who are 12 and 13 years old, had dried their eyes they returned to the roof and hid behind the chimneys, waiting for the pigeon that Poharley had been flying to return.

It was a black pigeon, and among the boys of the East Side, a black pigeon is called a ‘hard luck’ pigeon.

At last the pigeon returned, and the boys pounced upon it and killed it by wringing its neck.

Thus the hoodoo of the bird was ended.”

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“Young People Are Just Smarter”

March 24, 2014 in Excerpts, Science/Tech, Urban Studies, Videos | Permalink

The Bay Area, home of Moneyball, seems to have created a market inefficiency waiting to be exploited: tech workers who’ve reached their thirtieth birthdays. A strong bias in favor of not just young employees but very young ones, a culture with values akin to Logan’s Run, has left talented people fearing their first wrinkle or gray hair. Where will these “olds” go? The opening of Noam Scheiber’s New Republic article “The Brutal Ageism of Tech“:

“I have more botox in me than any ten people,’ Dr. Seth Matarasso told me in an exam room this February.

He is a reality-show producer’s idea of a cosmetic surgeon—his demeanor brash, his bone structure preposterous. Over the course of our hour-long conversation, he would periodically fire questions at me, apropos of nothing, in the manner of my young daughter. ‘What gym do you go to?’ ‘What’s your back look like?’ ‘Who did your nose?’ In lieu of bidding me goodbye, he called out, ‘Love me, mean it,’ as he walked away.

Twenty years ago, when Matarasso first opened shop in San Francisco, he found that he was mostly helping patients in late middle age: former homecoming queens, spouses who’d been cheated on, spouses looking to cheat. Today, his practice is far larger and more lucrative than he could have ever imagined. He sees clients across a range of ages. He says he’s the world’s second-biggest dispenser of Botox. But this growth has nothing to do with his endearingly nebbishy mien. It is, rather, the result of a cultural revolution that has taken place all around him in the Bay Area.

Silicon Valley has become one of the most ageist places in America. Tech luminaries who otherwise pride themselves on their dedication to meritocracy don’t think twice about deriding the not-actually-old. ‘Young people are just smarter,’ Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg told an audience at Stanford back in 2007. As I write, the website of ServiceNow, a large Santa Clara–based I.T. services company, features the following advisory in large letters atop its ‘careers’ page: ‘We Want People Who Have Their Best Work Ahead of Them, Not Behind Them.’

And that’s just what gets said in public.”

_________________________

“There’s just one catch…”:

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“The Whole History Of Man Is Just An Effort By People, Writers, To Just Write Your Name On The Great Wall”

March 24, 2014 in Excerpts, Science/Tech, Urban Studies | Permalink

Matthew Hahn interviewed Hunter S. Thompson for The Atlantic in 1997, discussing the impact of the Internet on journalism and culture, among other matters. Thompson was particularly prescient about the ego-feeding nature of new, decentralized media. An excerpt:

“Matthew Hahn:

The Internet has been touted as a new mode of journalism — some even go so far as to say it might democratize journalism. Do you see a future for the Internet as a journalistic medium?

Hunter S. Thompson:

Well, I don’t know. There is a line somewhere between democratizing journalism and every man a journalist. You can’t really believe what you read in the papers anyway, but there is at least some spectrum of reliability. Maybe it’s becoming like the TV talk shows or the tabloids where anything’s acceptable as long as it’s interesting.

I believe that the major operating ethic in American society right now, the most universal want and need is to be on TV. I’ve been on TV. I could be on TV all the time if I wanted to. But most people will never get on TV. It has to be a real breakthrough for them. And trouble is, people will do almost anything to get on it. You know, confess to crimes they haven’t committed. You don’t exist unless you’re on TV. Yeah, it’s a validation process. Faulkner said that American troops wrote ‘Kilroy was here’ on the walls of Europe in World War II in order to prove that somebody had been there — ‘I was here’ — and that the whole history of man is just an effort by people, writers, to just write your name on the great wall.

You can get on [the Internet] and all of a sudden you can write a story about me, or you can put it on top of my name. You can have your picture on there too. I don’t know the percentage of the Internet that’s valid, do you? Jesus, it’s scary. I don’t surf the Internet. I did for a while. I thought I’d have a little fun and learn something. I have an e-mail address. No one knows it. But I wouldn’t check it anyway, because it’s just too fucking much. You know, it’s the volume. The Internet is probably the first wave of people who have figured out a different way to catch up with TV — if you can’t be on TV, well at least you can reach 45 million people [on the Internet].”

“One Day We Could Have Conductive Materials That Grow, Evolve, And Self-Repair”

March 24, 2014 in Excerpts, Science/Tech, Urban Studies | Permalink

Rust never sleeps, and it would make sense that chemical reactions and biological materials, programmed to keep advancing, would eventually be engineered for use in our tools, in everything from smartphones to solar panels, allowing such goods to auto-repair and biodegrade. From Rachel Feltman at Quartz, an investigation into the latter:

“One day we could have conductive materials that grow, evolve, and self-repair. Researchers at MIT have taken the first steps to creating them. A new study describes ‘living materials’ that combine bacterial cells with nonliving materials that can conduct electricity and emit different colors of light. The study is just a proof-of-concept, but researchers say that future applications could include cheaper, more efficient solar panels and biosensors.

‘When you look around the natural world,’ lead author Timothy Lu told Quartz, ‘you can see that biology has done a great job of designing unique materials. But in our day-to-day lives, we use materials that aren’t alive in any way.’ These plastics, he says, require lots of energy to make and use. ‘The goal,’ he says, ‘is to find a way to engineer living cells so you can make them into materials you might not find naturally.’

His team used E. coli, which naturally produces biofilms—communities of bacteria like the plaque on your teeth—that grow to cover a surface. Bacteria in biofilms have unique ways of organizing and communicating with each other to survive, which is a quality the researchers found attractive for producing new materials.”

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“Wearable Devices Already Exist To Monitor And Transmit Patients’ Data”

March 24, 2014 in Excerpts, Science/Tech, Urban Studies | Permalink

In “The Data Companies Wish They Had,” Max Taves’ new WSJ article, there are back-to-back passages which stress the quantified direction we’re heading in with all our smart gadgets, a world in which algorithms are measuring, at a distance, the performance and expiration date of humans and machines alike. The passage:

“An Eye on Appliances

Whirlpool Corp., the Benton Harbor, Mich., appliance maker, has a vast reach in American households—but wants to know more about its customers and how they actually use its products. Real-time use data could not only help shape the future designs of Whirlpool products, says CIO Mike Heim, but also help the company predict when they’re likely to fail. The technological costs, which have made this kind of real-time monitoring prohibitive, are continuing to decline, says Mr. Heim.

Taking Patients’ Pulse

Spun off from the Cleveland Clinic, Explorys creates software for health-care companies to store, access and make sense of their data. It holds a huge trove of clinical, financial and operational information—but would like access to data about patients at home, such as their current blood-sugar and oxygen levels, weight, heart rates and respiratory health. Having access to that information could help providers predict things like hospitalizations, missed appointments and readmissions and proactively reach out to patients, says Sarah Mihalik, a vice president of provider solutions.

Wearable devices already exist to monitor and transmit patients’ data. But cost, privacy and a lack of standardization are big barriers, says Explorys co-founder and Chief Medical Officer Anil Jain.”

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8 Recent Huffington Post Headlines

March 24, 2014 in Humor, Misc. | Permalink

  1. Med School Student ‘Auctioning’ Her Virginity
  2. WATCH: American Political Prisoners Recount Having Sex In Iranian Jail
  3. Cameron Diaz Has Some Bad News About Your Relationship
  4. These License Plate Messages Are Seriously Bitter
  5. I Watched Belle Knox Strip At A Gentlemen’s Club
  6. Nun Rocks It On Italy’s ‘The Voice’ And No One Can Believe It
  7. Madonna Shows Long Armpit Hair In New Instagram Pic
  8. Miley Cyrus Would Like To Show You The Bruises On Her Butt


See also:

Recently Posted On NYC’s Craigslist

March 24, 2014 in Misc., Urban Studies | Permalink

Are you looking to start over? (Everywhere)

Is your life not going in the direction you wish, to the point that at times you just wish you were someone else and elsewhere? We’ve all been there, so just drop a line and I will listen and help if I can. Talk to you soon!

“The Main Result of All These Developments Will Be To Eliminate 99 Percent Of Human Activity…If We Look At Humanity As It Is Constituted Today”

March 23, 2014 in Excerpts, Politics, Science/Tech, Urban Studies | Permalink

Kevin Kelly is probably the most articulate contemporary voice on matters relating to how the rise of the machines will remake the meaning of humanity, but, of course, these hopes and fears have been around for awhile. In Michael Belfiore’s new Guardian article, which I think is way too chipper about what will likely be a very painful transition to an autonomous society, he quotes Arthur C. Clarke from five decades ago on the topic. 

By the way, if memory serves, the Clarke essay that’s referenced predicted that by 2001 houses would be able to fly, and communities could migrate south when it was cold. I can’t be mistaking that detail, can I? The excerpt:

“As early as the 1960s, Arthur C. Clarke, professional visionary and inventor of the communications satellite, predicted the end of menial labor (mental as well as manual), due to mechanization (and, more disturbingly, bio-engineered apes). In his essay The World of 2001, originally published in Vogue and reprinted in his book The View from Serendip, Clarke wrote: ‘the main result of all these developments will be to eliminate 99 percent of human activity … if we look at humanity as it is constituted today.’

Our salvation, in Clarke’s view, will lie in our looking toward loftier pursuits than all those kinds of jobs that machines will take over:

In the day-after-tomorrow society there will be no place for anyone as ignorant as the average mid-twentieth-century college graduate. If it seems an impossible goal to bring the whole population of the planet up to superuniversity levels, remember that a few centuries ago it would have seemed equally unthinkable that everybody would be able to read. Today we have to set our sights much higher, and it is not unrealistic to do so.”

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Old Print Article: “Lost To Himself For Fourteen Years,” New York Times (1911)

March 23, 2014 in Old Print Articles, Science/Tech, Urban Studies | Permalink

"Rogers, his head swathed in bandages, with part of his skull missing where physicians had removed a portion of the bone, asked for pen and paper."

“Rogers, his head swathed in bandages, with part of his skull missing where physicians had removed a portion of the bone, asked for pen and paper.”

For well over a decade, S. Chandler Rogers was not feeling like himself. According to an article in the October 22, 1911 New York Times, the messenger and sometimes prizefighter was waylaid by three men on a Manhattan sidewalk, suffered brain trauma, and couldn’t recall his identity for the next decade and a half. One day in Seattle, a second mysterious incident brought the attack back to him in great detail. Unfortunately, the beleaguered man said the latter episode completely erased memories of his life during the intervening 14 years.The story:

“Seattle, Wash.–In a fight with three toughs at Sixteenth Street and Eighth Avenue, New York, on May 1, 1897, S. Chandler Rogers had his skull fractured, and later he was thrown into the Hudson River. For fourteen and a half years he lived under the name of George Kelly. He became demented at his home in Port Blakeley on Oct. 10, and to-day regained his senses and announced his right name at Providence Hospital.

Rogers, his head swathed in bandages, with part of his skull missing where physicians had removed a portion of the bone, asked for pen and paper and wrote a clear, concise, intelligent letter to his half sister, Miss Florence Douels, 418 West Thirty-second Street, New York. He wrote:

‘I am in a hospital and all O.K.’

Then he added a paragraph asking that Father Dougherty of the Paulist Society, New York, come to see him.

When Rogers had finished his letter, after telling his physicians and his nurse that his right name was Rogers and not Kelly, he asked for a newspaper. It was handed to him and he read at the top of the first page:

‘Seattle, Saturday, Oct. 21, 1911.’

Rogers turned one look of appeal and wonderment toward the physician, Dr. Milton G. Sturgis, and to his nurse.

‘Am I really in Seattle?’ he asked. And then he broke down and wept.

Although the man is still in a serious condition, he was strong enough to suppress his grief after a few moments and then told a straight and apparently reliable story of his marvelous experience.

‘I do not know where I have been or what I have been doing for fourteen years,’ he said. ‘I know that I was born in New York City in 1880, that I lived with my grandmother, Mrs. Elizabeth Douels, 418 West Thirty-second Street, and that my name is S. Chandler Rogers. I was first a newsboy in New York and then a messenger with a big trust company. I used to box in a theatre to earn a little side money. On May 11, 1897, I took a vacation.

‘With a friend I went to a theatre accompanied by two girls. I took my girl home, then started to walk to my own abode. At the corner of Sixteenth Street and Eighth Avenue, I met three men who asked me for a match. I told them, ‘I am no match factory.’ Then one made a pass at me. I struck at him with brass knuckles on my right hand–I always wore them at night. It was then near midnight. Another man of the three struck me with a blackjack and I fell to my knees. The next I knew I was swimming in the river, almost stark naked. I remember catching hold of a pile and calling for help. I can remember being dragged from the river, and that is the last I know, except that I woke up here in this hospital in Seattle, Tuesday morning.’

Dr. Bruce Elmore, who became interested in the case, talked to Rogers about people he knew in New York. As an intern in Roosevelt Hospital fourteen years ago, Dr. Elmore knew many of the men and places of which Rogers told. He also knew Father Daugherty, for whom Rogers asked as soon as he was able to talk coherently.

Married two months ago, Rogers, as George Kelly, left his home on Tuesday evening, Oct. 10, for a trip to the mill town. He had not been feeling well for some time. He went to a store on Port Blakeley and ordered some groceries for his wife. Then he disappeared. Three days later he was found by bloodhounds in the dense forest near Port Blakeley. He was stark naked and was crawling around on his hands and knees and snapped and barked at the dogs. 

On Friday, Oct. 13, he was brought here, and Dr. Sturgis was asked to examine him. He was unable to speak, could not see, and apparently was paralyzed. Sunday last an operation was performed and a portion of his skull removed, where it pressed on his brain for fourteen years and more.

Rogers does not now remember his recent marriage.”

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“Good Morning, John. You’re Looking Well This Morning.”

March 23, 2014 in Science/Tech, Videos | Permalink

The AT&T Picturephone demo from 1970. The service, which did not catch on, cost $160 per month.

“By 2035, There Will Be Almost No Poor Countries Left In The World”

March 23, 2014 in Excerpts, Politics, Science/Tech, Urban Studies | Permalink

In this year’s Gates Annual Letter, which was mentioned during his appearance at the American Enterprise Institute, Bill Gates sees a world without impoverished nations in about 20 years. We certainly have the tools to make that a reality, though I would assume some nations will be held back by awful political realities. An excerpt:

“The bottom line: Poor countries are not doomed to stay poor. Some of the so-called developing nations have already developed. Many more are on their way. The nations that are still finding their way are not trying to do something unprecedented. They have good examples to learn from.

I am optimistic enough about this that I am willing to make a prediction. By 2035, there will be almost no poor countries left in the world. (I mean by our current definition of poor.)2 Almost all countries will be what we now call lower-middle income or richer. Countries will learn from their most productive neighbors and benefit from innovations like new vaccines, better seeds, and the digital revolution. Their labor forces, buoyed by expanded education, will attract new investments.”

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