“The Cars Produce Literally Hundreds Of Megabytes Of Data Each Second”

March 6, 2013 in Excerpts, Science/Tech, Urban Studies | Permalink

From Craig Timberg’s new Washington Post article about the legal implications of smart cars:

“More than 60 percent of vehicles worldwide will be connected directly to the Internet by 2017, up from 11 percent last year, predicts ABI Research. In North America and Europe, that percentage is likely to reach 80 percent.

Many cars already record their speed, direction and gear setting, as well as when brakes activate and for how long. Newer systems also can track whether road surfaces are slick or whether the driver is wearing a seat belt — information potentially valuable to police and insurance companies investigating crashes. (Some car insurance companies already monitor driving behavior in exchange for discounted rates.)

‘The cars produce literally hundreds of megabytes of data each second,’ said John Ellis, a Ford technologist who demonstrated some of the new Internet-based systems at the company’s display at the Mobile World Congress, which ended last week in Barcelona. ‘The technology is advancing so much faster than legislation or business models are keeping up. . . . What can government do? What can you do?’“

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“Nowadays We’re Treated Like Demented And Delinquent Children, And The Eyes Are Always Upon Us”

March 6, 2013 in Film, Videos | Permalink

All six episodes or Orson Welles’ Sketch Book, a series of 15-minute commentaries by the auteur on a variety of subjects, which ran on the BBC in 1955. Meandering, but off-the-cuff and fun. Each one features some of Welles’ drawing. I’ve embedded Episode 3: “The Police,” in which the host discusses intrusions into privacy by government and modernization. 

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“It Wouldn’t Just Be A Tragedy. It Would Be Awfully Bad For Business.”

March 6, 2013 in Excerpts, Sports | Permalink

Remember when I wrote that I fear an NFL player is going to die during a game because of how dangerous the sport has become? Well, Commissioner Roger Goodell has similar apprehensions. From “His Game, His Rules,” Don Van Natta Jr.’s excellent ESPN profile of Goodell’s iron-fisted tenure:

“Six and a half years into Goodell’s tenure, his billionaire bosses believe the man who dreamed of being commissioner as a teenager is perfectly suited to lead the league through its most perilous time. They paid him $29.5 million in 2011, and in January 2012 he signed a five-year contract extension. Robert Kraft, the Patriots owner, says Goodell runs the NFL as if he owns it — the league literally belongs to him. Jerry Jones, the Cowboys owner, says Goodell cares so much about the game that he ‘totally emptied his bucket — everything he’s got — and put his life into the NFL.’

As part of his mission, Goodell often tells audiences a favorite story: More than a century ago, before there was an NFL, President Theodore Roosevelt saved football with the blunt force of his visionary leadership. In 1904, 18 student-athletes died playing the game, mostly from skull fractures. A devout fan, Roosevelt convened the coaches from Harvard, Yale and Princeton to a White House meeting. The innovations that were adopted — the forward pass, the founding of the NCAA — helped propel an endangered game into the modern era.

The history lesson not only places Goodell in Roosevelt’s shoes and the current worries about player safety into a historical context, it also portends one of his greatest fears: An NFL player is going to die on the field.

It’s happened only once. Lions wide receiver Chuck Hughes died of a heart attack late in a game on Oct. 24, 1971. Within the past year, Goodell has told friends privately that he believes if the game’s hard-knocks culture doesn’t change, it could happen again. ‘He’s terrified of it,’ says a Hall of Fame player who speaks regularly with Goodell. ‘It wouldn’t just be a tragedy. It would be awfully bad for business.'”

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“Do You Agree That Offices Will One Day Be A Thing Of The Past?”

March 6, 2013 in Excerpts, Science/Tech, Urban Studies | Permalink

I’ve always believed that people are more productive professionally if they are present in an office and preferably one that is a little too small so that they are almost forced to collaborate and share ideas. But have I been sold a narrative that doesn’t stand up to statistical analysis? An excerpt from Richard Branson pushing back at the anti-telecommuting arguments of Marissa Mayer and Michael Bloomberg:

“The debate about remote working has raged for the past week following Yahoo! CEO Marissa Mayer’s opposition to her staff working from home. Now Michael Bloomberg has said he’s always thought working from home is ‘one of the dumber ideas I’ve ever heard.’

I have enormous respect for Michael Bloomberg and have rarely disagreed with anything he has done or said. However, on this occasion I disagree completely. Many employees who work from home are extremely diligent, get their job done, and get to spend more time with their families. They waste less time commuting and get a better work/life balance. To force everybody to work in offices is old school thinking. …

The key for me is that in today’s world I do not think it is effective or productive to force your employees one way or another. Choice empowers people and makes for a more content workforce.

In 30 years time, as technology moves forward even further, people are going to look back and wonder why offices ever existed. Do you agree that offices will one day be a thing of the past?”

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“Many Greens Continue To Be Implacably Opposed To GM Crops”

March 5, 2013 in Excerpts, Science/Tech, Urban Studies | Permalink

Something I’ve mentioned before is that I don’t get the resistance to genetically modified foods since we’re going to need them desperately sooner or later. The climate that allows us to enjoy our current agriculture would eventually change naturally even if we were treating our environment well, which we are not. The Earth has existed for more than 4.5 billion years, and our climate has been in its present form for merely a fraction of that. Things change. Why not experiment with lab-based foods while we still have the time? That doesn’t mean we have to trust food corporations-–they are not trustworthy. They should be watched more closely whether we’re talking about natural, processed or GM foods. But we shouldn’t take any options off the table. From “Frankenfoods Reduce Global Warming” in the Economist:

“Each year the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-Biotech Applications (ISAAA), a not-for-profit body, publishes estimates for the number of hectares under GM crops (available for order here). Its most recent report shows that, for the first time, developing countries are growing more hectares of GM crops than rich countries are—a remarkable uptake given that the technology was introduced only two decades ago, and is often seen as suitable mainly for rich farmers.

According to ISAAA, 170m hectares of land are planted to GM crops round the world and 52% of them are in emerging markets. Almost half of that share are in five countries, China, India, South Africa, Brazil and Argentina. Brazil is the most important of these: its GM land area rose by more than a fifth in 2012 to 37m hectares, making it the fastest growing GM market in the world and second in size behind America.

Rich countries are using more GM crops, too, but only slightly: they planted 1.6m hectares more than in 2011, up 3%. Developing countries planted 11% more (9m hectares). Of the 17m farmers who use such crops round the world, 15m are in emerging markets.

The report also logs the spread of so-called ‘stacked traits,’ crops with two or more bio-engineered traits. These are planted on 44m hectares, more than a quarter of the total.

Many greens continue to be implacably opposed to GM crops, which they regard as environmentally harmful.“

Recently Posted On NYC’s Craigslist

March 5, 2013 in Misc., Urban Studies | Permalink

mmm

“Can cook delicious meals in exchange for help.”

Need Dermatological Help!

Hi! I have horrible scabs & scars all over my body from bedbug bites and have no idea who to turn to. I’m living a nightmare for the past 5 months with skin I don’t recognise: bumpy, continuously itchy, with some of the scabs not healing well/getting infected. I feel disgusting and ugly. I have no money or health insurance, but can cook delicious meals in exchange for help.

“I Don’t Think That Imprisonment For Robots Would Be Effective”

March 5, 2013 in Excerpts, Politics, Science/Tech, Urban Studies | Permalink

As robots grow more autonomous, do we need to broaden the legal system to hold them (and just their manufacturers and owners) culpable for their misdeeds? Law professor Gabriel Hallevy thinks so. From an interview with the author of When Robots Kill that was conducted by Dylan Matthews at the Washington Post:

“Any punishment that we may impose on humans, we can impose it both on corporations and on the robot, or any other non-human entity. You need some fine-tuning adjustments. We can impose imprisonment on corporations. We have no problem with it. I’m not talking about putting in prison the people who are managing the corporations. The legal technique for corporations is to ask, “What is the meaning of imprisonment?” It’s to negate its freedom. The freedom of any corporation is the legal capability to make business. Therefore, when you impose six years imprisonment on a corporation, you cannot allow the corporation during this period to do business.

Robots, it has the same technique but it may lead to different consequences. When we impose imprisonment, we should ask what is the meaning of the certain punishment on the robot. It means to negate its freedom. That freedom is the freedom to commit its useful daily tasks. So you ban him from doing the daily tasks.

I don’t think that imprisonment for robots would be effective as it is for humans. There are other punishments that may be effective on robots than on humans. For any corporation the most effective punishment isn’t imprisonment. It’s a fine. For robots, I can think of community service. For example, in the near future when I hire the services of a robot to help me with my daily task, and the robot commits a criminal offense, for the next few months it may help the community by doing daily tasks for the community. For example, to help in the community library, to help to clean the streets or such other things that contribute to the community.

This is not the only punishment, but any punishment can be adjusted to the robot. Of course, the death penalty, in the case that we still have this punishment, it would be the simple solution of a shutdown, to shut down the robot. If there is no other option, you must cease his life, and that means to shut him down.”

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“What I Expect To See In The Next Five To Seven Years Is The Migration Of Big Data And The Algorithms…Into The Physical Reality”

March 5, 2013 in Excerpts, Science/Tech, Urban Studies | Permalink

Evgeny Morozov, that contrarian philosopher of the Digital Age, was just interviewed by Robert Herritt at the Daily Beast. An excerpt about what Morozov believes is the near-term future of the Internet:

“The Daily Beast:

You have often mentioned this pervasive idea of the Internet as eternal and sacrosanct. As someone who rejects that view, play futurist for a second: What kind of technologies could displace the Internet?

Evgeny Morozov:

I think that definitely the underlying network will probably stay for a while until we find other ways to interconnect our gadgets.

What I expect to see in the next five to seven years is the migration of Big Data and the algorithms that have been developed in the context of Facebook and in the context of Google, into the world at large — into the physical reality. I want to do my next book on the future of public space in the era of smart technologies. Because I think that, ultimately, all of that will break from the purely virtual connections into mediating how we interact with houses and buildings and public squares and shops.

What I do on Facebook will be integrated with what I do when I go to the store. It will be integrated with what I do when I drive my self-driving car. It will be integrated with what I print on my 3D printer, and so forth.”

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“Flynt Admits It Might Not Appear In Print Much Longer”

March 5, 2013 in Excerpts, Science/Tech, Urban Studies | Permalink

Because he was too busy masturbating with both hands, Hustler publisher and free-speech advocate Larry Flynt only now has realized that print media is on the endangered species list. From an article by Geoff Herbert at Syracuse.com:

“The 70-year-old political advocate is also getting ready to celebrate the 40th anniversary of Hustler. The porn publication was first published in 1974 but Flynt admits it might not appear in print much longer, like Newsweek, Spin and The Sporting News.

‘I think magazines are becoming passé,’ he said. ‘They’ll always be around for people who enjoy that coffee table copy of their favorite magazines, but for the most part I think print media is on its way out, including us for that matter. That’s why we’re going up with a digital/online version.” (Thanks Mediabistro.)

See also:

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“Who Is To Write The Evolutionary Code Of Tomorrow?”

March 5, 2013 in Excerpts, Science/Tech, Urban Studies | Permalink

A passage about genetic engineering from a 1978 Omni interview with Alvin Toffler, which was conducted by leathery beaver merchant Bob Guccione:

“Omni:

What’s good about genetic engineering?

Alvin Toffler:

Genetic manipulation can yield cheap insulin. It can probably help us solve the cancer riddle. But, more important, over the very long run it could help us crack the world food problem.

You could radically reduce reliance on artificial fertilizers–which means saving energy and helping the poor nations substantially. You could produce new, fast-growing species. You could create species adapted to lands that are now marginal, infertile, arid, or saline. And if you really let your long-range imagination roam, you can foresee a possible convergence of genetic manipulation, weather modification, and computerized agriculture–all coming together with a wholly new energy system. Such developments would simply remake agriculture as we’ve known it for 10,000 years.

Omni:

What is the downside?

Alvin Toffler:

Horrendous. Almost beyond our imagination, When you cut up genes and splice them together in new ways, you risk the accidental escape from the laboratory of new life forms and the swift spread of new diseases for which the human race no defenses.

As is the case with nuclear energy we have safety guidelines. But no system, in my view, can ever be totally fail-safe. All our safety calculations are based on certain assumptions. The assumptions are reasonable, even conservative. But none of the calculations tell what happens if one of the assumptions turns out to be wrong. Or what to do if a terrorist manages to get a hold of the crucial test tube.

A lot of good people are working to tighten controls in this field. NATO recently issued a report summarizing the steps taken by dozens of countries from the U.S.S.R. to Britain and the U.S. But what do we do about irresponsible corporations or nations who just want to crash ahead? And completely honest, socially responsible geneticists are found on both sides of an emotional debate as to how–or even whether–to proceed.

Farther down the road, you also get into very deep political, philosophical, and ecological issues. Who is to write the evolutionary code of tomorrow? Which species shall live and which shall die out? Environmentalists today worry about vanishing species and the effect of eliminating the leopard or the snail darter from the planet. These are real worries, because every species has a role to play in the overall ecology. But we have not yet begun to think about the possible emergence of new, predesigned species to take their place.”

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“Where There’s Ever An Unknown, Man Is Going To Search The Unknown”

March 5, 2013 in Politics, Videos | Permalink

Robert F. Kennedy, then a New York Senator, meeting with some bright and playful children on Wonderama in New York at the end of 1965. I interviewed RFK Jr. a few years back, and, wow, he hated me. Asked him if he thought the Kennedy name had become something of a hindrance politically because of all the scandals. He was not receptive to that question, went a little apeshit. Oh, well.

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1 Thing Sequestration Made Me Think About

March 4, 2013 in Politics, Urban Studies | Permalink

As I watch politicians like Mitch McConell and Eric Cantor play obstructionist, slowing down the economy, forcing budget sequestration which will cause people to lose their jobs for no real reason, I think about this:

Since the economic collapse, I’ve spotted an increasing number of slightly ragged adults in NYC aimlessly wheeling a single piece of luggage behind them, unsure of where they’re headed. It’s become too easy to recognize them.

They are not tourists. Life was very different for them not too long ago.

Is it like that where you live?

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A Brief Note From 1898 About A Heavy Sleeper

March 4, 2013 in Old Print Articles, Urban Studies | Permalink

From the December 13, 1898 New York Times:

“Topeka, Kan.–John Clark, an inmate of the Dodge City Soldiers’ Home, was taken seriously ill recently, and last night the doctors pronounced him dead. He was accordingly prepared for burial, and laid out in the room set apart for that purpose.

Early this morning a commotion was heard, and the watchers, rushing into the chamber of death, found Clark sitting up in his coffin and screaming with terror. Stimulants were administered, and he was at once removed from the coffin and returned to his bed.

Clark says that he has no recollection of the period during which he lay seemingly dead beyond a confused sensation of hunger and a distinct iciness about the feet. He is likely to recover.”

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“Technology Can Be Used To Communicate With Other Species”

March 4, 2013 in Excerpts, Science/Tech, Urban Studies | Permalink

From a BGR post, Internet pioneer Vint Cerf predicting further applications of Web-based communication:

“One of the Internet’s founding fathers envisions a bright future that one day may involve communicating with animals and even aliens using the Web. During a speech given at the annual TED conference, Internet pioneer Vint Cerf described how technology can be used to communicate with other species, explaining that the Internet isn’t just a way of connecting machines but a way for people to interact.

‘Now what’s important about what these people are doing is that they’re beginning to learn how to communicate with species that are not us — but share a common sensory environment,’ he said about the other event speakers. ‘We’re beginning to explore what it means to communicate with something that isn’t just another person.'”

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“I Could Have A Computer Right By My Bed, And I’d Never Have To Leave It”

March 4, 2013 in Books, Excerpts, Science/Tech, Urban Studies | Permalink

Before computing was portable, even pocket-sized, some feared it would create a physical distance among people. If anything, it has birthed an emotional alienation because of its virtual nature, the way it feeds, even encourages, narcissism. We’re more connected, but there are more disconnects. Via theody. net, Kurt Vonnegut, that coot, explaining in 1995 why he never made the switch to word processing:

“I work at home, and if I wanted to, I could have a computer right by my bed, and I’d never have to leave it. But I use a typewriter, and afterward I mark up the pages with a pencil. Then I call up this woman named Carol out in Woodstock and say, ‘Are you still doing typing?’ Sure she is, and her husband is trying to track bluebirds out there and not having much luck, and so we chitchat back and forth, and I say, ‘Okay, I’ll send you the pages.’ Then I go down the steps and my wife calls, ‘Where are you going?’ ‘Well,’ I say, ‘I’m going to buy an envelope.’ And she says, ‘You’re not a poor man. Why don’t you buy a thousand envelopes? They’ll deliver them, and you can put them in the closet.’ And I say, ‘Hush.’ So I go to this newsstand across the street where they sell magazines and lottery tickets and stationery. I have to get in line because there are people buying candy and all that sort of thing, and I talk to them. The woman behind the counter has a jewel between her eyes, and when it’s my turn, I ask her if there have been any big winners lately. I get my envelope and seal it up and go to the postal convenience center down the block at the corner of Forty-seventh Street and Second Avenue, where I’m secretly in love with the woman behind the counter. I keep absolutely poker-faced; I never let her know how I feel about her. One time I had my pocket picked in there and got to meet a cop and tell him about it. Anyway, I address the envelope to Carol in Woodstock. I stamp the envelope and mail it in a mailbox in front of the post office, and I go home. And I’ve had a hell of a good time. I tell you, we are here on Earth to fart around, and don’t let anybody tell you any different.”

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“The Car Can Presumably Get Lost, Just The Way A Human Can”

March 4, 2013 in Excerpts, Science/Tech, Urban Studies | Permalink

From Henry Blodget’s new Business Insider piece about Google’s self-driving cars, a passage about the obstacles the company has to overcome to perfect its auto software:

“The first challenge is driving in snow.

When snow is on the road, the cars often have a tough time ‘seeing’ the lane markers and other cues that they use to stay correctly positioned on the road. It will be interesting to see how the Google team sorts that one out.

A second challenge, apparently, is when the car encounters a change in a road that is not yet reflected in its onboard ‘map.’ In those situations, the car can presumably get lost, just the way a human can.

A third challenge is driving through construction zones, accident zones, or other situations in which a human is directing traffic with hand signals. The cars are excellent at observing stop signs, traffic lights, speed limits, the behavior of other cars, and other common cues that human drivers use to figure out how fast to go and where and when to turn. But when a human is directing traffic with hand signals–and especially when these hand signals conflict with a traffic light or stop sign–the cars get confused.”

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“Occupying The Middle Of Nowhere Must Have Appealed To The Students, Architects And Seekers”

March 4, 2013 in Excerpts, Science/Tech, Urban Studies | Permalink

44arco

The opening of a 2012 New York Times article about Arcosanti, futuristic designer Paolo Soleri’s carless ecotopia in the Arizona desert, which has arrived at a crossroads:

“The pilgrimage began with a black-and-white handbill on a campus bulletin board. At the top was a sketch of an ultramodern compound rising above a desert canyon: a city upon a hill.

Next came the manifesto. ‘If you are truly concerned about the problems of pollution, waste, energy depletion, land, water, air and biological conservation, poverty, segregation, intolerance, population containment, fear and disillusionment,’ the poster began. Then, at the bottom, the remedy: ‘Join us.’

Occupying the middle of nowhere must have appealed to the students, architects and seekers of the 1970s who founded Arcosanti, an ‘urban laboratory’ in the desert 70 miles north of Phoenix. After following a washboard road to the desolate camp, they would find a kind of kibbutz. Here, in workshops, they might build a 30-foot-high concrete vault or plant olive trees or cast bells in silt to sell for construction money.

Above all, they were able to join an ongoing colloquy with the city’s visionary designer, Paolo Soleri. In a cosmic language of his own invention (filled with phrases like the ‘omega seed’ and “miniaturization-complexity-duration’), Mr. Soleri proselytized for a carless society in harmony with the natural world. Over the course of 40 years, some 7,000 souls would come and go.

For the most part, though, they left.”

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“Americans Used To Sleep In An Unconsolidated Fashion, That Is, In Two Or More Periods Throughout The Day”

March 4, 2013 in Excerpts, Science/Tech, Urban Studies | Permalink

I like to go to sleep at 3 a.m. or so and rise at about ten, but society frowns on such owl-ish patterns. From “Up All Night,” Elizabeth Kolbert’s new New Yorker article about so-called sleep disorders, one theory about why we all act like zombies:

“The Slumbering Masses, by Matthew J. Wolf-Meyer, takes a more polemical view of what might be called the ‘sleep question.’ Wolf-Meyer, an assistant professor of anthropology at the University of California at Santa Cruz, spent four years interviewing just about everyone involved in sleep research: physicians, technicians, patients, members of patients’ families. He concludes that what Americans have come to think of as sleep problems are mostly just problems in the way Americans have come to think about sleep. ‘Normal sleep is always pathological sleep, or at least potentially so,’ he writes.

Wolf-Meyer refers to the practice of going to bed at around eleven o’clock at night and staying there until about seven in the morning as sleeping ‘in a consolidated fashion.’ Nowadays, adults are expected to sleep in this manner; anything else—sleeping during the day, sleeping in bursts, waking up in the middle of the night—is taken to be unsound, even deviant. This didn’t use to be the case. Until a century and a half or so ago, Wolf-Meyer observes, ‘Americans, like other people around the world, used to sleep in an unconsolidated fashion, that is, in two or more periods throughout the day.’ They went to bed not long after the sun went down. Four or five hours later, they woke from their ‘first sleep’ and rattled around—praying, chatting, smoking, or making love. (Benjamin Franklin reportedly liked to spend this time reading naked in a chair.) Eventually, they went back to bed for their ‘second sleep.’

Wolf-Meyer blames capitalism in general and American capitalism in particular for transforming once perfectly ordinary behavior into conduct worthy of medication. ‘The consolidated model of sleep is predicated upon the solidification of other institutional times in American society, foremost among them work time,’ he writes. It is ‘largely the by-product of the industrial workday, which began as a dawn-to-dusk twelve-to-sixteen hour stretch and shrank to an eight-hour period only at the turn of the twentieth century.’ So many people have trouble getting enough sleep between eleven at night and seven in the morning because sleeping from eleven to seven isn’t what people were designed to do.”

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Why Isn’t Tina Fey The Next Tonight Show Host?

March 3, 2013 in Misc. | Permalink

Is it possible that Jay Leno is going to finally be replaced as the Tonight Show host and NBC brass isn’t going to offer the slot to Tina Fey? She’d be brilliant and the job would allow her to continue writing whatever she wants. Sure, she could say “no,” but she has the time with 30 Rock ending, and I believe she’s still under a multi-year deal with the network. Considering NBC is now losing in the sweeps to Univision, the execs sure could use all the good publicity they would garner from making what’s a slam-dunk appointment. 

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Recently Posted On NYC’s Craigslist

March 3, 2013 in Misc., Urban Studies | Permalink

"

“You can have a bit of blood, if that suits you.”

Soul – $666 (Bushwick)

Looking to sell my soul for some extra cash. Do with it what you will. Take by any method that doesn’t leave me with bodily harm. You can have a bit of blood, if that suits you. $666 OBO.

“Since Today’s Young Players Have More Tools Than Players Of Earlier Eras…Does That Make Them Prodigies?”

March 3, 2013 in Excerpts, Science/Tech, Urban Studies | Permalink

Iron Lung Patient Playing Chess with Bobby Fischer

I don’t play chess, but I’ve always been fascinated by great players, their monomania and fast-developing talents, which seem to almost pull them along. But where it was easy in pre-digital times to announce a new prodigy, that isn’t the case in an age marked by so many advanced computer programs. From Dylan Loeb McCLain in the New York Times:

“After Bobby Fischer became a grandmaster at 15 in 1958, breaking the old record by three years, it was 1991 before Judit Polgar bettered his mark.

Since then, 33 other players, including Yi, have earned the title at a younger age than Fischer. The current record-holder is Sergey Karjakin of Russia, who did it in 2002 at 12 years, 7 months.

The onslaught of young grandmasters is the result of the development of strong chess computers that can be used for training as well as the creation of databases and the Internet, which give players easy access to tough competition. Since today’s young players have more tools than players of earlier eras and therefore mature more quickly, does that make them prodigies? It is difficult to say.”

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“Digital Disruption — A Force That Silicon Valley Gestated And Nursed From Its Earliest Days — Is Now Global”

March 3, 2013 in Excerpts, Science/Tech, Urban Studies | Permalink

Speaking of digital decline, James McQuivey argues in an All Things D article that Silicon Valley as a whole is sowing the seeds of its own descent. The opening:

“All good things must come to an end, including Motown and many a once-noble region or hamlet. So I have history on my side when I lob the following grenade: Silicon Valley will take its turn someday, falling from the heights it has attained.

I make this assertion because if we look closely, we can already see what will cause the decline of Silicon Valley. In fact, the valley’s residents are consciously planting the seeds of the valley’s own demise. What’s more, I believe many of them will celebrate when the valley is no longer on top.

My cheery assessment depends on this sleight of words: Decline is relative, and the decline that Silicon Valley faces will be less like watching Hewlett-Packard slip into irrelevance and more like proudly standing to one side as the rest of the world — eventually even the less-developed world — catches up to it. Thus, the ‘decline’ I claim the valley seeks and will eventually succumb to is a most desirable decline, indeed.

Digital disruption — a force that Silicon Valley gestated and nursed from its earliest days — is now global. Digital devices, the networks that connect them, and the software tools that prod human beings to hanker for more of all these things will soon be everywhere. The long-term effect of rising digital disruption will be to redistribute the benefits of the future across the planet even as it continues to improve the already futuristic valley that started it all.”

________________________

“I had my Commodore 64 / Had to score”

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Afflictor Nation: Great Britain Rules In February

March 3, 2013 in Misc. | Permalink

mmmm

Piers Morgan: Could fit all his viewers in an Olive Garden.

The Top 5 countries sending the most users to Afflictor last month:

  1. Great Britain
  2. Canada
  3. Germany
  4. France
  5. Ukraine

A Note From 1902 About The Medical System

March 3, 2013 in Old Print Articles, Urban Studies | Permalink

From the January 12, 1902 New York Times:

“Phoenix, Ariz.–‘Padre,’ a big medicine man of the Yuma Indians, who lives on a reservation near Yuma, Ariz., has been offered as a sacrifice to the spirit in accordance with the custom of his tribe and has expiated the sins of the tribe, which are held responsible for an epidemic of smallpox.

The medicine man learned several days ago of the intention of the Indians to sacrifice him, and fled to the mountains. Being half starved he returned to the Indian village and pleaded for mercy. He was bound hand and foot and conveyed by a squad of Indians to Mexico, where he was bound to a tree and tortured to death.

‘Padre’ had a warm place in the hearts of his tribesmen, but their customs required them to make a heavy sacrifice.”

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“The Number Of Commercial Companies That Are More Than A Century Old Is Vanishingly Small”

March 3, 2013 in Excerpts, Science/Tech, Urban Studies | Permalink

The opening of John Naughton’s smart Guardian article which reminds us what should be obvious but gets obscured in the hoopla–that today’s blockbuster tech companies will be completely gone someday:

“Some years ago, when the Google Books project, which aims to digitise all of the world’s printed books, was getting under way, the two co-founders of Google were having a meeting with the librarian of one of the universities that had signed up for the plan. At one point in the conversation, the Google boys noticed that their collaborator had suddenly gone rather quiet. One of them asked him what was the matter. ‘Well,’ he replied, ‘I’m wondering what happens to all this stuff when Google no longer exists.’ Recounting the conversation to me later, he said: ‘I’ve never seen two young people looking so stunned: the idea that Google might not exist one day had never crossed their minds.’

And yet, of course, the librarian was right. He had to think about the next 400 years. But the number of commercial companies that are more than a century old is vanishingly small. Entrusting the world’s literary heritage to such transient organisations might not be entirely wise.”

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