A Brief Note From 1885 About A Nosebleed

October 17, 2013 in Old Print Articles, Science/Tech, Urban Studies | Permalink

From the August 1, 1885 Brooklyn Daily Eagle:

“Laredo, Tex.–The 7 year old son of a well to do Mexican is dying a horrible death from a very unusual cause. A few days ago that little fellow had a slight attack of bleeding at the nose and lay down to sleep without removing the blood. While asleep a large green fly deposited its eggs in the bloody nostril. Physicians have extracted over fifty worms, about half an inch long, and have detected evidences of many others eating toward the brain. They say the child will die.”

“Joseph K Has His Fortune Told By A Computer”

October 17, 2013 in Film, Science/Tech, Videos | Permalink

Orson Welles died in 1985, when the personal-computer revolution had begun in earnest but before the Internet had become accessible for all. I wonder what he would have thought of the Digital Age. Did he ever use a PC or a Mac? From a 1962 BBC interview about The Trial, in which he discusses marrying Kafka and computers–a seemingly perfect match–for a scene that never made the final cut:

“Huw Wheldon:

There exists a scene of a computer scientist, played by Katina Paxinou, that is no longer in the film. She tells K his most likely fate is that he will commit suicide.

Orson Welles:

Yes, that was a long scene that lasted ten minutes, which I cut on the eve of the Paris premiere. Joseph K has his fortune told by a computer–that’s what the scene amounted to. It was my invention. The computer tells him his fate. I only saw the film as a whole once. We were still in the process of doing the mixing, and then the premiere fell on us. At the last moment I abridged the scene. It should have been the best in the film and it wasn’t. Something went wrong, I don’t know why, but it didn’t succeed. The subject of that scene was free will. It was tinged with black humor; that was my main weapon. As you know, it is always directed against the machine and in favor of freedom.”•

______________________

In 1978, Welles traded a piece of his name for a paycheck selling unimpressive-looking Vivitar cameras:

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Recently Posted On NYC’s Craigslist

October 17, 2013 in Misc., Urban Studies | Permalink

Odd Needs for artwork (Midtown West)

I am in the need of the following:

  • A ram’s head, taxidermy style – mounted or not.
  • A Queen Elizabeth-esque gown. Tent-like, perhaps.
  • Faux flowers. Lots of ’em.

Any freebies appreciated, can negotiate price.

And if you want to help put it together, oh why not?

 

“It Is Only Impossible To Castrate A Woman Because It Is Assumed She Has No Sex”

October 17, 2013 in Politics, Urban Studies, Videos | Permalink

Some old-school clips of Germaine Greer, a ferociously brilliant person who has said some truly dumb things. Included in the first video of 1971 media appearances is some of her eviscerating righteousness from the Hegedus-Pennebaker film Town Bloody Hall. The second video contains a cut of her hanging out in 1972 with that group of feminists, Led Zeppelin.

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“If I Have A Nanobot, I Don’t Need Any Money”

October 17, 2013 in Excerpts, Science/Tech, Urban Studies | Permalink

Peter Diamandis, founder of Singularity University and author of Abundance, is a true believer in technology, one who sees a near-term future filled with nanobots, asteroid mining, transparency and immortality. He thinks tomorrow will be largely wonderful. Diamandis just did an Ask Me Anything at Reddit. A few exchanges follow.

____________________

Question:

(1) If abundance and amazing technology is our future, what will be the motivation for anyone to disconnect from Matrix-like, fully immersive, virtual worlds (where anything imaginable might be possible)? Also, considering that advanced alien civilizations probably reach the technological ability to create virtual reality like this before interstellar space travel, would this be a valid explanation for the Fermi Paradox?

(2) Being in medical school I am extremely interested in what being a physician will actually entail two decades from now. You have a unique perspective since you actually went to Harvard Medical School (and somehow started you own space company and university while attending) but decided not do your residency afterwards. If you were graduating today, what residency would you choose (i.e., has the greatest potential)?

Peter Diamandis:

(1) The human body is a collection of 10 trillion cells working together… i think we are heading towards the transformation of humanity being a collection of 9 billion human brains working together… towards a “Meta-INtelligence” where you can know the thoughts, feelings and knowledge of anyone. that’s where tech is driving us… As such, i don’t know that i would want to live outside of this, just like any one of your human cells has a disadvantage living outside of your body.

(2) Wow, Medicine is going to change ALOT. I can imagine a time in the near future where the patient is saying “NO WAY… I don’t want that human doctor doing the surgery, he/she makes mistakes… i only want the robot… its done 300,000 perfect surgeries in a row.”

____________________

Question:

What exactly do you feel will be the greatest contribution in the next 4-5 decades in regards to both Earth-domestic technological advancements and in space exploration/colonization?

Peter Diamandis:

Over the next 30 – 40 years (not 40 – 50) humanity will establish itself in space, independent of Earth. We finally have the technology at hand to do this… and the wealth… and the will. That is HUGE. Millions of years from now, as people look back at these next few decades, it will be the moment in time that we broke away irreversibly and became a multiplanetary species. Not since lung fish crawled out of the oceans onto land has this happened!

____________________

Question:

Do you feel that our potential to reach a future of abundance faces significant threats from these sorts of negative factors? (environmental damage and resource depletion, and the unrest that has potential to ferment in such conditions) Are there any areas that you feel need critical attention to avoid derailing a successful future?

Peter Diamandis:

I actually am an optimist about human nature and people usually do “bad things” in the shadows. As tech continues to drive towards MASSIVE Transparency, where you can’t hide, it will actually cause us to be safer in society and allow us to take action more quickly when things are heading in a negaive direction. Knowledge is the Bright light we need.

____________________

Question:

A year ago someone brought up the question of abundance and its implication on labor. As technology takes over more complex tasks (via automation) less labor is needed. However, if we reach a critical point where labor needs decrease dramatically there is no economic population to purchase the output (as they would have no jobs). While total “abundance” is perhaps unreachable there has to be a tipping point where labor markets and automation balance each other out. Would you mind commenting on this concept, its implications and perhaps limitations? Thank You. 

Peter Diamandis:

GREAT question…. There is a race to the bottom. What you say above is true. It is also true that were we spend our money… Health, education, energy etc is “Demonetizing” i.e. tech is making it effectively FREE, so we will need less money. ALSO, and ultimately we will partner with technology. I’m an engineer and i look at boundary conditions… the final result is nanotech.. and if i have a nanobot, i don’t need any money.•

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“The Service Uses The GPS Coordinates Of A User’s Smartphone To Make Textbook Deliveries”

October 17, 2013 in Books, Excerpts, Science/Tech, Urban Studies | Permalink

Even though it wasn’t particularly cost-efficient, early airplanes (or “aeroplanes”) were sometimes utilized to deliver newspapers. While physical textbooks are a questionable commodity in an age when the Encyclopedia Britannica can be put on the head of a pin, an Australian company is using drones to deliver them. From Emily Keeler in the Los Angeles Times:

“Imagine the book you need to ace the exam showing up at your door, care of your friendly neighborhood drone.

A textbook rental company is trying to mimic the instantaneous speed of e-book delivery for printed books by utilizing civil drones in Sydney, Australia. Zookal, a service that rents textbooks to university students, has partnered with Flirtey, an outfit specializing in unmanned aerial vehicles, to aerially deliver print books to customers within minutes after an order is placed.

The Age reports that the service uses the GPS coordinates of a user’s smartphone to make textbook deliveries, a win for cramming students who have left studying to the very last minute and and need to save all the time they can. After one of six Sydney drones has been dispatched, students will be able to track the realtime journey of their unmanned textbooks on a Google-powered map.”

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141 Questions Thomas Edison Asked Job Applicants

October 16, 2013 in Excerpts, Science/Tech, Urban Studies | Permalink

Not to pick on Google today because as an outsider I’m fascinated by what the company is trying to accomplish, but they used to ask prospective employees ridiculous questions to make themselves feel special. But that company wasn’t the first to be criticized for such a practice: In 1921, Thomas Edison was taken to task for a similar thing. Here are 141 of the questions he asked applicants, per the New York Times:

  1. What countries bound France?
  2. Where is the Rover Volga?
  3. What country and city produce the finest China?
  4. Where does the finest cotton grow?
  5. What country consumed the most tea before the war?
  6. What city in the United States is noted for its laundry machine making?
  7. What city is the fur centre in the United States?
  8. Can you play any musical instrument?
  9. What country is the greatest textile producer?
  10. Is Australia larger than Greenland in area?
  11. Where is Copenhagen?
  12. Where is Spitzbergen?
  13. In what country other than Australia are kangaroos found?
  14. What telescope is the largest in the world?
  15. Who was Bessemer and what did he do?
  16. Where do we get prunes from?
  17. How many States in the Union?
  18. Who was Paul Revere?
  19. Who was Hancock?
  20. Who was Plutarch?
  21. Who was Hannibal?
  22. Who was Danton?
  23. Who was Solon?
  24. Who was Frances Marion?
  25. Who was Leonidas?
  26. Where did we get Louisiana from?
  27. Who was Pizarro?
  28. Who was Bolivar?
  29. What war material did Chile export to the Allies during the war?
  30. Where does the most coffee come from?
  31. Where is Korea?
  32. Where is Manchuria?
  33. Where was Napoleon born?
  34. What is the highest rise of tide on the North Atlantic coast?
  35. Who invented logarithms?
  36. Who was Emperor of Mexico when Cortes landed?
  37. Where is the Imperial Valley and what is it noted for?
  38. In what cities are hats and shoes made?
  39. Where is the Sargasso Sea?
  40. What is the greatest depth ever reached in the ocean?
  41. What is the name of the large inland body of water that has no outlet?
  42. What is the capital of Pennsylvania?
  43. What state is the largest? The next?
  44. Rhode Island is the smallest state. What is the next and the next?
  45. How far is it from New York to Buffalo by way of the New York Central Railroad?
  46. How far is it from New York to San Francisco?
  47. Of what State is Helena the Capital?
  48. What State has the largest copper mines?
  49. What State has the largest amethyst mines?
  50. What is the name of the famous violin maker?
  51. Who invented the modern paper-making machine?
  52. Who invented the typesetting machine?
  53. Who invented the printing press?
  54. On what principle is the telephone based?
  55. Of what is brass made?
  56. Where do we get tin from?
  57. What ingredients are in the best white paint?
  58. How is leather tanned?
  59. How is artificial silk made?
  60. What is a caisson?
  61. What is coke?
  62. How is celluloid made?
  63. Where do we get shellac from?
  64. What causes the tides?
  65. To what is the change of the seasons due?
  66. What is the population of the following countries: Germany, Japan, England, Australia, Russia?
  67. From what part of the North Atlantic do we get codfish?
  68. Who discovered the south pole?
  69. What is a monsoon?
  70. Where is Magdalena Bay?
  71. From where do we import figs?
  72. From where do we import dates?
  73. From where do we get prunes?
  74. From where do we get domestic sardines?
  75. What railroad is the longest in the world?
  76. Where is Tallahassee?
  77. Where is Kenosha?
  78. How fast does sound travel per foot per second?
  79. How fast does light travel per foot per second?
  80. What planet is it that has been recently measured and found to be of enormous size?
  81. What large river in the United States is it that flows from south to north?
  82. Where are the straits of Messina?
  83. In what country are earthquakes frequent?
  84. What mountain is the highest in the world?
  85. Where do we import cork from?
  86. Name six big business men in the United States.
  87. Who is called the father of railways?
  88. Where was Lincoln born?
  89. Who stated the following: ‘Fourscore and seven years ago,” &c?
  90. What business do you like best?
  91. Are you experienced in any of the following: Salesmanship, clerk, stenography, bookkeeping?
  92. Name a few kinds of wood used in making furniture, and the highest priced?
  93. What kind of wood is the lightest?
  94. What kind of wood is the heaviest?
  95. Of what kind of wood are axe handles made?
  96. Of what kind of wood are kerosene barrels made?
  97. What part of Germany do we get toys from?
  98. What states bound West Virginia?
  99. Where do we get peanuts from?
  100. What is the capital of Alabama?
  101. Who wrote “Home, Sweet Home”?
  102. Who wrote the “Star-Spangled Banner”?
  103. Who composed “Il Trovatore”?
  104. Who was Cleopatra?
  105. Where are Condors found?
  106. What voltage is used on street cars?
  107. Who discovered the law of Gravitation?
  108. What cereal is used all over the world?
  109. Where is the Assuan Dam?
  110. What country produces the most nickel?
  111. What is the distance between the earth and the sun?
  112. Who invented photography?
  113. Where do we get wood from?
  114. What is felt?
  115. What states produce phosphates?
  116. Why is cast iron called pig iron?
  117. Name three principal acids?
  118. Name three principal alkalis?
  119. Name three powerful poisons?
  120. Who discovered radium?
  121. Who discovered the X-ray?
  122. What is the weight of air in a room 20x30x10?
  123. Where is platinum found?
  124. With what metal is platinum associated when found?
  125. How is sulphuric acid made?
  126. Who discovered how to vulcanize rubber?
  127. Where do we get sulphur from?
  128. Where do we import rubber from?
  129. Who invented the cotten gin?
  130. What is the price of 12 grs. of gold?
  131. What is vulcanite and how is it made?
  132. What is glucose and how is it made?
  133. What is the difference between anthracite and bituminous coal?
  134. Where do we get benzol from?
  135. Of what is glass made?
  136. How is window glass made?
  137. What is porcelain?
  138. What kind of machine is used in cutting the facets of diamonds?
  139. What country makes the best optical lenses and what city?
  140. Where do we get borax from?
  141. What is a foot pound?

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“Companies Like Google Actually Embody A Particular Notion Of Progress Rather Than Populism”

October 16, 2013 in Excerpts, Science/Tech, Urban Studies | Permalink

In “What Is ‘Evil’ to Google?” Ian Bogost of the Atlantic tries to decipher the slippery moral code of the search giant that aspires to be so much more:

“All moral codes are grounded in something: a religious tradition, a philosophical doctrine, a cultural practice. Google’s take on virtue doesn’t reject such grounds so much as create a new one: the process of googlization itself. If anything, Google’s motto seems to have largely succeeded at reframing ‘evil’ to exclude all actions performed by Google.

There is a persistent idea that Internet technology companies embody an innocent populism. That the rational engineer is an earnest problem-solver, his fists striking tables instead of noses. But there’s something treacherous in believing that virtue and vice can be negotiated in the engineering of an email client or the creation of a spreadsheet—that evil is just another problem to overcome, like usability or scalability.

Companies like Google actually embody a particular notion of progress rather than populism, one that involves advancing their technology solutions as universal ones. Evil is vicious because it inhibits this progress. If Google has made a contribution to moral philosophy, it amounts to a devout faith in its own ability to preside over virtue and vice through engineering. The unwitting result: We’ve not only outsourced our email hosting and office suite provisioning to Google, but also our information ethics. Practically speaking, isn’t it just easier to let Google manage right and wrong?”

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“I’m Concerned About The Chicago Disturbances”

October 16, 2013 in Politics, Urban Studies, Videos | Permalink

Future Vice President Spiro Agnew, who smiled once and chipped a tooth, being interviewed by John Chancellor in 1968 about the Chicago riots and his running mate’s refusal to address the protests. Considering our current political climate, these were the good old days.

Fun thing: Natasha Lyonne, the very talented actress, guested this week on Marc Maron’s WTF podcast. She said her Jewish ancestors left Europe to escape Nazism, arrived without much money or prospects in America, and eventually bettered themselves through selling Spiro Agnew watches, which were apparently a popular novelty a little more than four decades ago.

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“I Think Google Glass Has Some Profound Social Problems To Overcome”

October 16, 2013 in Science/Tech, Urban Studies | Permalink

David Pogue, New York Times tech writer and Nova: Making Stuff host, just did an AMA on Reddit. A few exchanges follow.

_________________________

Question:

What was the first tech product that made you think “wow!”?

David Pogue:

If you really mean FIRST…

It was the Whistle Switch. Maybe 1974. I was nine. You could make this high hissy sound, either with your mouth or with a provided squeezy toy, to turn an appliance on or off. (Kind of like the Clapper.)

To me, it was magic. I eventually McGuyvered my entire bedroom, using the Whistle Switch to start a Rube Goldberg sequence involving a record player, Erector set motor, lights coming on, clothes folding by themselves…it was called “The Automatic Room,” and it was my masterpiece.

_________________________

Question:

In your opinion, which of these “big player” social networks will be the first to fail and why?

  1. Facebook
  2. Twitter
  3. Instagram
  4. Google +

David Pogue:

Well, Google+ seems to have a rarefied audience of tech folks; I’m not sure it has a real chance at becoming, you know, Facebook.

And Instagram is awesome, but also an easily duplicated, easily incorporated feature; such photo sharing might eventually be built into other gadgets and networks. So basically, I’d say #4, #3, #2, and #1, in that order!

_________________________

Question:

What is an industry where tech hasn’t yet made an impact but you think will be impacted by it soon?

David Pogue:

There are examples all around us! Just look at Nest, whose Internet-connected, intelligent thermostat shook up the thermostat business (which hadn’t changed in 50 years)! Now they’re introducing a smoke alarm that will have the same effect!

We have much farther to go with cars/traffic/transportation. With groceries. With customized clothing shopping online. We’re at the Commodore 64 era with those!

_________________________

Question:

What technology company scares you the most and why?

David Pogue:

I guess the expected answer would have something to do with privacy. You know: “Facebook” or “Google” or “Apple,” because they’re tracking us all and selling our data for Evil Purposes.

Truth is, I’m probably more relaxed than most about privacy. We get a lot of really cool, great tech for free in exchange for our data. There are cases where data should be private (your past, your medical history, etc.), but I’m really not bothered if Stop ‘n’ Shop wants to see what I bought.

________________________

Question:

If you had a choice, would you prefer a smartwatch or smartglasses (ala Google Glass)?

David Pogue:

The watch, for sure.

I think Google Glass has some profound social problems to overcome. When you’re talking to someone wearing them, you’re acutely uncomfortable. You know they could be filming you. It puts them in this artificially elevated social position, and it’s profoundly obnoxious.

Plus, they’ll be banned everywhere: movie theaters, courtrooms, stores, restaurants, sports events–anywhere that it’s uncool to hold a camera in front of your face now.•

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

October 16, 2013 in Old Print Articles, Science/Tech, Urban Studies | Permalink

“It is simply delicious.”

If we are to believe what journalism tells us, people in Albany during the 19th century visited slaughterhouses to drink the blood of freshly killed animals for its salubrious effects. From the September 18, 1881 Brooklyn Daily Eagle:

“A reporter of the Albany Evening Journal who has visited the abattoirs in that city, writes as follows of the persons who gather there to drink blood:

Several people, as soon as the throat was cut with sleeves uprolled and grasping a glass, hurried over to the hanging carcass and holding the goblets in turn under the ruby stream, filled their glasses and then drank of the steaming liquid. One, a middle aged man, seemed old in the business, for he threw the contents of the glass off at one draught. Another threw some salt in his glass before drinking, while another could hardly make up his mind whether or not to drink it. At last he shut his eyes and then after three or four efforts succeeded in downing about half a glassful. The reporter approached one of the butchers after he had finished dressing the carcass on which he was at work, and asked, ‘Do the same persons come every day?’ ‘No, they come two or three times a week on the average,’ was the reply. ‘Do any women ever come?’ ‘Yes, there used to be one young girl, but the last I saw of her she seemed to be getting fleshy and has stopped coming altogether.’

"It is richer than the richest of cream."

“It is richer than the richest of cream.”

One of the invalids was then approached and asked, ‘How do you like blood drinking?’ ‘Well, I’ll tell you. At first when the doctor told me I would have to drink warm bullock’s blood or die, I told him that I preferred the latter, but I reconsidered my thought and came up to the slaughterhouse. I thought at first I could not touch it, and the sight of killing sickened me. But I soon overcame that feeling, and when I raised the first glass to my lips I spilt the contents over me. Next time I shut my eyes and drank it down. It tasted like rich milk, and if I kept my eyes shut, I would have not the known the difference.’ Another one of the drinkers was asked how it tasted. ‘How does it taste?’ said he. ‘It is richer than the richest of cream. It is simply delicious and a drink not to be compared with any potion extant. It is simply the elixir of life. You can feel its strength as it spreads through your veins. If it hadn’t been for its strengthening qualities I would have been dead three years ago.’”

“The Idea…Involves Embedding Powerful Microprocessor Chips In Everyday Objects”

October 15, 2013 in Excerpts, Science/Tech, Urban Studies | Permalink

Smartphones are embedded with improved technologies which will be useful in autonomous cars which will create other technologies useful in other souped-up tools, as the algorithms popularized on the Internet escape through the screen. The objects grow smarter whether or not we do. From “The Rapid Advance of Artificial Intelligence,” by John Markoff in the New York Times:

“The enormous amount of data being generated by inexpensive sensors has been a significant factor in altering the center of gravity of the computing world, he said, making it possible to use centralized computers in data centers — referred to as the cloud — to take artificial intelligence technologies like machine-learning and spread computer intelligence far beyond desktop computers.

Apple was the most successful early innovator in popularizing what is today described as ubiquitous computing. The idea, first proposed by Mark Weiser, a computer scientist with Xerox, involves embedding powerful microprocessor chips in everyday objects.

Steve Jobs, during his second tenure at Apple, was quick to understand the implications of the falling cost of computer intelligence. Taking advantage of it, he first created a digital music player, the iPod, and then transformed mobile communication with the iPhone. Now such innovation is rapidly accelerating into all consumer products.

‘The most important new computer maker in Silicon Valley isn’t a computer maker at all, it’s Tesla,’ the electric car manufacturer, said Paul Saffo, a managing director at Discern Analytics, a research firm based in San Francisco. ‘The car has become a node in the network and a computer in its own right. It’s a primitive robot that wraps around you.’ “

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“I Went Down Fighting, As Most Television Writers Do”

October 15, 2013 in Science/Tech, Videos | Permalink

When he wasn’t playing Pong or chain-smoking himself into an early grave, Rod Serling was crafting paranoid visions that were perfectly if improbably suited for American living rooms. Here he is in 1959 speaking about the outset of his TV opus with Mike Wallace, who was still a decade from reaching his own small-screen apex.

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Recently Posted On NYC’s Craigslist

October 15, 2013 in Misc., Urban Studies | Permalink

"Realistic penis."

“Realistic penis.”

Tired of failing urine tests? Don’t want to go to jail?

Ur answer is here! Realistic penis used to pass urine test. Email for details and pics.

“My Interest In Science Is Related To How Mysterious It Is”

October 15, 2013 in Excerpts, Science/Tech, Urban Studies | Permalink

Ross Andersen, excellent writer and Aeon Senior Editor, spent a night at Star Axis, artist Charles Ross’ secretive and still-to-be-completed desert installation and observatory in New Mexico. From “Embracing the Void“:

“I followed Ross and [Jill] O’Bryan in my car, down to the desert floor and then to the top of an adjacent mesa. We parked in front of their makeshift ranch house and headed inside, being careful to step around a six-foot rattlesnake that was sunbathing a few feet from the front door. O’Bryan showed me the bathroom, and explained how to work the manual pump toilet — hold the flush lever down for 20 seconds, then do it again — while Ross went to look for a book he wanted to show me, a collection of essays about quantum mechanics. He returned with the book, and the two of us flipped through it while he gave me a tour of his studio. Ross keeps a close eye on new research in physics, and sometimes enlists astronomers to help him at Star Axis. In the 1990s, Leroy Doggett of the US Naval Observatory measured the staircase’s first and last steps. And the week before I arrived, Ross had an astronomer out from the University of Washington to do the others. I asked him if these encounters with scientists enriched his work.

‘My interest in science is related to how mysterious it is,’ he told me. ‘I have found that if you get astronomers and physicists drunk enough, you can get them to admit that what’s going on in the quantum field is not a hair’s breadth from metaphysics. That tells me the world is not getting easier to decipher. The deeper they go with this stuff, the more mysterious it gets.’ “

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“Some Of The Most Consistent Innovators Of The Modern Era Have Also Been Among Its Biggest Monsters”

October 15, 2013 in Books, Excerpts, Science/Tech, Urban Studies | Permalink

There’s now a large industry of writers and speakers telling you bullshit narratives about how you can think counter-intuitively, how you can see hidden patterns if you look through their eyes, how you too can become a creative thinker. Maddeningly, many of them do it supposedly supported by science and math. Taking aim with a cash register (just a Square is necessary, really) at the creative mind during the the dying days of the Industrial Revolution might be a good business model, but that doesn’t make it useful. From “TED Talks Are Lying to You,” Thomas Frank’s Salon essay about the sad state of the creative class and the lacking literature aimed at it:

“Those who urge us to ‘think different,’ in other words, almost never do so themselves. Year after year, new installments in this unchanging genre are produced and consumed. Creativity, they all tell us, is too important to be left to the creative. Our prosperity depends on it. And by dint of careful study and the hardest science — by, say, sliding a jazz pianist’s head into an MRI machine — we can crack the code of creativity and unleash its moneymaking power.

That was the ultimate lesson. That’s where the music, the theology, the physics and the ethereal water lilies were meant to direct us. Our correspondent could think of no books that tried to work the equation the other way around — holding up the invention of air conditioning or Velcro as a model for a jazz trumpeter trying to work out his solo.

And why was this worth noticing? Well, for one thing, because we’re talking about the literature of creativity, for Pete’s sake. If there is a non-fiction genre from which you have a right to expect clever prose and uncanny insight, it should be this one. So why is it so utterly consumed by formula and repetition?

What our correspondent realized, in that flash of bathtub-generated insight, was that this literature isn’t about creativity in the first place. While it reiterates a handful of well-known tales — the favorite pop stars, the favorite artists, the favorite branding successes — it routinely ignores other creative milestones that loom large in the history of human civilization. After all, some of the most consistent innovators of the modern era have also been among its biggest monsters. He thought back, in particular, to the diabolical creativity of Nazi Germany, which was the first country to use ballistic missiles, jet fighter planes, assault rifles and countless other weapons. And yet nobody wanted to add Peenemünde, where the Germans developed the V-2 rocket during the 1940s, to the glorious list of creative hothouses that includes Periclean Athens, Renaissance Florence, Belle Époque Paris and latter-day Austin, Texas. How much easier to tell us, one more time, how jazz bands work, how someone came up with the idea for the Slinky, or what shade of paint, when applied to the walls of your office, is most conducive to originality.”

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“In A Dusty Yard Under A Blistering August Sun, Rover Was Hard At Work”

October 15, 2013 in Excerpts, Science/Tech, Urban Studies | Permalink

In the long run, robots will be good for us, once the pain of displacement subsides and we have figured out a way to navigate the new normal. For instance: a solar plant that doesn’t produce many jobs but offers the promise of cheap, clean energy. From Diane Cardwell in the New York Times:

“RICHMOND, Calif. — In a dusty yard under a blistering August sun, Rover was hard at work, lifting 45-pound solar panels off a stack and installing them, one by one, into a concrete track. A few yards away, Rover’s companion, Spot, moved along a row of panels, washing away months of grit, then squeegeeing them dry.

But despite the heat and monotony — an alternative-energy version of lather-rinse-repeat — neither Rover nor Spot broke a sweat or uttered a complaint. They could have kept at it all day.

That is because they are robots, surprisingly low-tech machines that a start-up company called Alion Energy is betting can automate the installation and maintenance of large-scale solar farms.

Working in near secrecy until recently, the company, based in Richmond, Calif., is ready to use its machines in three projects in the next few months in California, Saudi Arabia and China. If all goes well, executives expect that they can help bring the price of solar electricity into line with that of natural gas by cutting the cost of building and maintaining large solar installations.”

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“The End Result Could Be A Wholesale Shift In The Way We Treat Illness”

October 15, 2013 in Excerpts, Science/Tech, Urban Studies | Permalink

From Elizabeth Murphy’s Fast Company article about 23andMe, a company founded by Anne Wojcicki, which will conduct genetic testing at birth on your child for $99, beginning the self-quant analysis before the first word or step, arming you with information, so much information:

“Wojcicki is connected to the fabric of Silicon Valley, which has served her well. But her goals are global. ‘We’re not just looking to get a venture-capital return,’ Wojcicki says. ‘We set out with this company to revolutionize health care.’ On the same December day when she closed a $59 million round of financing, she dropped the price of 23andMe’s genetic testing from $299 to $99. While prices like that may not make taking control of one’s health a universal, democratic reality, they accelerate our society’s move in that direction. The end result could be a wholesale shift in the way we treat illness, a move away from our current diagnostic model to one based on prevention. That’s why, if Wojcicki gets it right, 23andMe could help change the health care industry as we know it. ‘At $99, we are opening the doors of access,’ she says. ‘Genetics is part of an entire path for how you’re going to live a healthier life.’

As 23andMe scales, its business model will shift. Right now it gets most of its revenue from the $99 that people like me pay in return for test-tube kits and the results we get back after we send off our spit-filled tubes. ‘The long game here is not to make money selling kits, although the kits are essential to get the base level data,’ says Patrick Chung, a 23andMe board member and partner at the venture-capital firm NEA. ‘Once you have the data, [the company] does actually become the Google of personalized health care.’ Genetic data on a massive scale is likely to be an extremely valuable commodity to pharmaceutical companies, hospitals, and even governments. This is where the real growth potential is.”

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A Brief Note From 1897 About A Bee Sting

October 14, 2013 in Old Print Articles, Urban Studies | Permalink

From the October 4, 1897 New York Times:

“Keene, N.H.–Willie, the five-year-old son of Charles Paro of Troy, N.H., was killed yesterday through swallowing a bee. The insect stung him internally. The child died in great agony.”

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“Are We Trying To Act More Like The Creator Than Creatures?”

October 14, 2013 in Politics, Science/Tech, Urban Studies, Videos | Permalink

In 1997, the cloning in Scotland of a sheep named Dolly was received with hyperbole and denunciation, as some envisioned a near-term future in which human doppelgangers would walk among us. In the short film “The Clone Named Dolly,” Nicholas Wade of the New York Times takes a sober look at the sensation and its aftermath. Watch here.

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“We Were Absolutely Not Out To Get People To Boycott Football”

October 14, 2013 in Excerpts, Sports, Urban Studies | Permalink

Would be lying if I said I wasn’t disappointed in a chat that accompanied the excellent Frontline program, League of Denial, which examined the NFL’s obfuscation in regards to its concussion problem. I was especially dismayed by journalist Mark Fainaru-Wada’s answer to a question about what he and his brother, Steve Fainaru, hoped to accomplish with the program and their book: “I think our hope is that through the book and the film people will be more informed about the challenges the game faces and how it might deal with that.”

There’s a certain element of denial there as well. I think the honest answer would be that if you allow your children to play football, they may very well incur some brain damage, especially considering how prone their skulls are at that age. Any adult who plays college football or in the NFL is at great risk of brain damage. Anyone who buys a ticket to a game or who supports it in other ways is complicit in these injuries. Football, like boxing, can’t escape this problem which is embedded into the game, and equipment alterations or rule changes won’t eliminate it. It’s not merely a “challenge,” so let’s be honest about what we’re risking and what we’re supporting.

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Comment From Kristi Hofacker:  

Why did frontline not mention all the advancements and changes of game regulations that have been put in place to decrease TBIs? People have been working to gain concussion awareness so they can further their movements to fix the problem. After the frontline special, people don’t want to help, they want to boycott football all together. Is that what you were trying to accomplish?

 
Mark Fainaru-Wada: 

First and foremost, we were absolutely not out to get people to boycott football. Steve and I are both huge football fans — he has season tix to the 49ers — and we love the sport. I think our goal was simply to trace what the league knew, when it knew it and to what extent it sought to tamp down the emerging science. There’s no question the league has made strides on this issue since it was hauled before Congress in 2009, and we note that to some degree in the film, although the commissioner is still not openly acknowledging a link. I think our hope is that through the book and the film people will be more informed about the challenges the game faces and how it might deal with that. Again, though, it’s a violent, brutal sport, which is one of the things many of us love about it, and not sure that can/should be changed.

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“Even In A Mountain Cave, Diminutive And Smiling, He Looked Fresh As A Flower”

October 14, 2013 in Excerpts, Politics | Permalink

From the Economist obituary of General Vo Nguyen Giap, who drove well-funded foreign powers from Vietnam and lived to 102:

“Not that he was a populist, exactly. His father had been a lettré, a local scholar, as well as a farmer; he himself had a law degree. He was dapper, reviewing his troops in a white suit, trilby and club tie; even in a mountain cave, diminutive and smiling, he looked fresh as a flower. He wrote poetry, and his French was impeccable. The French, though, could see through that to the hatred that burned beneath, ever since the deaths of both his father and his first wife, after brutal torture, in French prisons. They called him ‘a volcano under snow.’

Nonetheless, he made an improbable soldier. He had no training, and would never have become a military commander, he said, if Ho Chi Minh, the leader of the Vietminh forces and later of North Vietnam, had not decided it for him. He first met Ho (above, top right) in China, realised they had been to the same school, and idolised him, from his tufty beard to his white rubber sandals. He called him ‘Uncle’; Ho called him ‘beautiful as a girl.’ “

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“I Think I Know What’s Going To Happen In Our World”

October 14, 2013 in Books, Film, Politics, Science/Tech, Videos | Permalink

In the end matter of a New York Times profile of Johnny Knoxville’s bruised, aging balls, I read this:

“Dave Itzkoff is a reporter at The Times. His book, Mad as Hell, about the making of the movie Network, will be published in February.”

This news is exciting because of my feelings for that film, arguably America’s best film satire, and because Itzkoff is such a good reporter and graceful writer, one of the few journalists who can interest me in reading about popular culture. The following video is one I’ve previously posted in which Paddy Chayefsky appears on a talk show in the 1970s to discuss Network and the coming global, technocratic, interconnected culture.

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Paddy Chayefsky, that brilliant satirist, holding forth spectacularly on the Mike Douglas Show in 1969. It starts with polite chatter about the success of his script for Marty but quickly transitions into a much more serious and futuristic discussion. The writer is full of doom and gloom, of course, during the tumult of the Vietnam Era; his best-case scenario for humankind to live more peacefully is a computer-friendly “new society” that yields to globalization and technocracy, one in which citizens are merely producers and consumers, free of nationalism and disparate identity. Well, some of that came true. All the while, he wears a fun, red lei because one of his fellow guests is Hawaii Five-0 star Jack Lord. Gwen Verdon, Lionel Hampton and Cy Coleman share the panel.

Chayefsky joins the show at the 7:45 mark.

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“A Hybrid Public-Private, Domestic-Foreign Nexus Lies Beneath The Miracle”

October 14, 2013 in Excerpts, Politics, Science/Tech, Urban Studies | Permalink

If population concentrates as media and tools become increasingly decentralized, will regional authority outrank the national kind? Would a city-state set-up with public and private sectors vying to solve problems lead to improvements or greater inequalities–or doses of both? These are some of the hot topics in politics and development right now. The opening of “The End of the Nation State?” Parag Khanna’s New York Times Opinion piece:

“SINGAPORE — EVERY five years, the United States National Intelligence Council, which advises the director of the Central Intelligence Agency, publishes a report forecasting the long-term implications of global trends. Earlier this year it released its latest report, ‘Alternative Worlds,’ which included scenarios for how the world would look a generation from now.

One scenario, ‘Nonstate World,’ imagined a planet in which urbanization, technology and capital accumulation had brought about a landscape where governments had given up on real reforms and had subcontracted many responsibilities to outside parties, which then set up enclaves operating under their own laws.

The imagined date for the report’s scenarios is 2030, but at least for ‘Nonstate World,’ it might as well be 2010: though most of us might not realize it, ‘nonstate world’ describes much of how global society already operates. This isn’t to say that states have disappeared, or will. But they are becoming just one form of governance among many.

A quick scan across the world reveals that where growth and innovation have been most successful, a hybrid public-private, domestic-foreign nexus lies beneath the miracle. These aren’t states; they’re ‘para-states’ — or, in one common parlance, ‘special economic zones.'”

Recently Posted On NYC’s Craigslist

October 14, 2013 in Misc., Urban Studies | Permalink

"It's all about the subtleties!"

“It’s all about the subtleties!”

Dating Tutor / Professional Wingman – Pick Up Coach – Street Game (Union Square)

INTRO:

It’s all about the subtleties! Why looks don’t matter and what women are attracted to. Are you tired of reading material but not applying it? Speed up the process with an instructor to help you internalize the information? Get the 9s and 10s you deserve. Insanity – doing the same thing over and over again expecting different results

Very few men have the love life they deserve. A lot of people ‘think’ they are good because sometimes they get drunk and get lucky. I will show you the path to consistency, abundance, and instead of relying on luck – I’ll show you how to do things the right way, to get the women that you want – not the ones that want you. Including that model that walks by you on the street.

BACKGROUND:

After YEARS of going out, taking professional classes, lectures, boot camps and living with a house of 6 other social artists, I have transformed from a shy introvert into the 1 %

I’m a very ordinary looking 27 year old Caucasian. I have been coaching for 2 years, I have taken out teenagers to men in their 60’s.

I will go out and teach you everything I know for the night. This includes recommendations on style, how to approach, how to keep the interaction going, what girls like (it’s not looks) and just an overall guide on where to take the night.

WHAT I’M OFFERING:

I will spark note years of learning into 1 hour, and then I will apply it with you when we go out for the entire night. I will also show you some great night spots.

While winging you, I will point out your ‘blind spots,’ things that you do not even realize that you are doing. I will also film you out so that you can see what you look like – self-realization is key.

I’ll introduce you to other students with similar values so you can grow together and wing each other. 

SYLLABUS:

Meet at 8:30 / 9 PM at a Starbucks to go over backgrounds, past success, goals and sticking points. 

Then I’ll review my top concepts, sticking points and goals for you. 

10 PM – Warm up drills, how to get socially calibrated without alcohol.

11 PM – ??? We will talk to as many people in high end bar or club possible.

Afterwards (that night or the next day on Skype) we will review your night.

"Bluetooth audio and video will speed up the learning process."

“Bluetooth audio and video will speed up the learning process.”

STREET GAME:

I also separately teach how to meet girls you see during the day walking the street, and how to get a phone number / date in minutes. I will do examples for you on the street, we will do drills. Bluetooth audio and video will speed up the learning process. 

PRICING:

This information is invaluable, and life changing. That is why some professionals charge $3000 for a weekend out, or $200 per hour. 

This is more of a fun hobby for me, and I like to help people. That is why I only charge 350 for an entire night, including group discounts for friends, and repeat business discounts. In special circumstances – my price is negotiable. Email and we will discuss. 

People pay 100’s of dollars an hour for math and school tutors. This is a life tutor to help you get that hotter girl, at a much cheaper price. 

If you need examples of my skill level I am I can send videos of my students and I talking, approaching and closing, and I can demonstrate getting a number in front of you on the street when we meet before you pay.

Let’s get started! Change your life!

"Get the 9s and 10s you deserve."

“Get the 9s and 10s you deserve.”

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