Non ferir!
Not long ago, a cardiac patient in a cardiac support group I was leading told of his response to a recent incident: He and a female friend were on the plaza at Lincoln Center after seeing a performance of Verdi’s opera “Il Trovatore” when a car nearly hit the woman. She ran after the vehicle, which was slowly moving away, and slammed the trunk with her rolled up program. The driver emerged from the car hurling expletives in her direction. The patient then hit the driver with his cane. The driver shoved the patient into a fender, at which point, the patient insisted, he had no choice . . . It was no ordinary cane he was carrying, but a beautiful 19th-century model with a sleek, sharp sword concealed within. He then insisted that the driver “apologize at swordpoint” in front of a small crowd that had gathered. The characters in “Il Trovatore,” he added, proudly brandished swords.
—Robert Allan, “When the Heart Pays the Price of Anger,” Happy Days blog, NewYorkTimes.com, June 25, 2009
How industries fail
Perhaps the most fascinating bit of Michael Nielsen’s article “Is Scientific Publishing About to Be Disrupted?” is a wish list of science-oriented Web services. It’s bracketed, however, by one of the better discussions I’ve seen of how the Internet has changed the media system and why so many otherwise intelligent people are still singing LA LA LA, I CAN’T HEAR YOU:
There are two common explanations for the disruption of industries like minicomputers, music, and newspapers. The first explanation is essentially that the people in charge of the failing industries are stupid. How else could it be, the argument goes, that those enormous companies, with all that money and expertise, failed to see that services like iTunes and Last.fm are the wave of the future? Why did they not pre-empt those services by creating similar products of their own? Polite critics phrase their explanations less bluntly, but nonetheless many explanations boil down to a presumption of stupidity. The second common explanation for the failure of an entire industry is that the people in charge are malevolent. In that explanation, evil record company and newspaper executives have been screwing over their customers for years, simply to preserve a status quo that they personally find comfortable.
It’s true that stupidity and malevolence do sometimes play a role in the disruption of industries. But in the first part of this essay I’ll argue that even smart and good organizations can fail in the face of disruptive change, and that there are common underlying structural reasons why that’s the case. That’s a much scarier story. If you think the newspapers and record companies are stupid or malevolent, then you can reassure yourself that provided you’re smart and good, you don’t have anything to worry about. But if disruption can destroy even the smart and the good, then it can destroy anybody.
(Via Richard Nash and some other people)
Noisy Idiots
One of my classmates is trying to figure out how to keep trolls from ruining the Internet for everybody else. The problem seems to be that people who are not trolls have a great deal of respect for the rights of trolls.
In studying various threads on the various fora, it became apparent that attempts had been made to address the problem of these Noisy Idiots dominating debate. In one example, a contributor to the Intercultural Dialogue forum known as filosofia, clearly fed-up with the Noisy Idiots, with their one repetitive view point, posed a question to the forum: what was to be done to address the problem? . . .
What followed in the debate was incredibly interesting. People responded to filosofia’s ideas initially two ways.:
a) By suggesting ways of dealing with the problem, such as a YouTube-style voting system or otherwise ignoring the ‘trolls’, or
b) Reminding filosofia that just because people didn’t go along with her ideas or style of debating, it doesn’t mean their views shouldn’t be voiced. After all, isn’t this the point of a forum?
A Noisy Idiot then began a rant against Muslims, mentioning Mein Kampf and the phrase ‘let the deportations begin.’ Followed by EurophileAmerican (a more moderate voice) trying to engage in some form of intelligent debate on the topic. Filosofia then waded back in saying how interesting it is the debate has followed down an Islamic route when she actually was meaning the ‘UKippers’ (UK Independence Party supporters) as the people she was initially talking about, she then declared she has had enough and was leaving the forum. The Moderator then stepped in trying to assert some control. The discussion ended with two Noisy Idiots intonating that filosofia is uptight, that the BBC probably have documentary about such people, and the other concluding the thread with the phrase ‘laughing my ass off.’
. . . people in the forum seemed more concerned with the protection of the principle of free speech and democracy and of not allowing anyone to be silenced – i.e. the democratic process, rather than a rational, intelligent debate or even indeed concern over the final decision made by the group.
from a Vanity Fair article on Sarah Palin
A flamboyant divorce lawyer who drives a big red Hummer with the vanity license plate WAR, Ross is a good old boy of pithy expression and considerable charm.
Now I Can’t Use This Title for My Autobiography
A natural history of birds. The most of which have not hitherto been either figured or described, and the rest, by reason of obscure, or too brief descriptions without figures, or of figures very ill designed, are hitherto but little known
from the comments: Babyfoot
Aaron inspired comment by Danny:
3 oz. Orange Juice
1 1/2 oz. Tuaca
1/2 oz. Kahlua
Shake over ice, then strain and serve in a chilled tommy-tippy-sippy-cup or a lidded cup with a curly straw (a.k.a.”a crazy straw”)
Good for inexperienced drinkers, clergy, and maiden aunts
El Chupacabra at Weapon of Choice
This just in from Stanley Donwood:
I’ve made 13 paintings of feral carnivorous goats wearing the suits and ties of disgraced (though still disgustingly wealthy) bankers… I must make clear that I’m not anti-goat. It’s just those weird eyes they have. And the horns.
‘EL CHUPACABRA’ by Stanley Donwood runs from the 10th July – 9th August 2009, Weapon of Choice Gallery (across the great pond in Bristol).
Being that “Weapon of Choice” is the name of the song that Christopher Walken infamously dances too, I suppose I should have signed in as him, but I’ve forgotten how.
Danger!
Dear clusterflock, what kind of danger, real or wildly overestimated, were you exposed to as a kid? Was it worth the risk?
Greece introduces smoking ban
“Faced with mass disobedience, which is an art form here, the authorities often give up and allow lawlessness to continue.”
Malcolm Brabant – BBC World
For Mary
‘Stoned wallabies make crop circles’
Was a BBC News headline:
“The one interesting bit that I found recently in one of my briefs on the poppy industry was that we have a problem with wallabies entering poppy fields, getting as high as a kite and going around in circles,” Lara Giddings told the hearing.
“Then they crash,” she added. “We see crop circles in the poppy industry from wallabies that are high.”
Dear Clusterflock
This has probably been asked here before (sorry)–but, are you delighted to know the names for certain things? I know I like saying the names of trees and plants when I identify them, and I’m also excited to hear what obscure mechanical parts are called (isinglass and petcock, for instance). Other terms do it for me too: recently I was reminded by India that the symbol for a paragraph is called a pilcrow. Now when I see one and remember the name–I think of lovely India! Maybe that’s why I like the names for things: they allow us to hold on to a larger world, as we look through the electron haze of each one–that nimbus lit by our combined minds. So what are your favorite names for things? (Warning–I will make them my own).
The Human Printer
The Human Printer is a group of people who print photos in CMYK or B&W by hand.
(Via today and tomorrow)
DIY Damien Hirst
Now you can make your own Damien Hirst from a plastic skull and 8,601 crystal beads with a contemporary art kit from iartistlondon. I’m torn between getting that one or the Banksy stencil kit.
(Via DailyCandy)
Dear Clusterflock
Do you still have a land line and, if so, do you party on it?
Kathryn Rantala
sent me this link, to an interesting (and long–I haven’t read it all yet) article on the state of book publishing etc. Sifton worked (works?) for ‘prestige’ houses like Knopf and Farrar Straus and ended up with her own imprint, I think.
Kelsey tipped me off
to Olafur Arnalds. I bought and recommend eulogy for evolution.
A few folks
seem to like this photo.
Supernova
Speaking of youth, a 14-year-old, Caroline Moore, found a supernova that baffles scientists:
Her discovery did indeed turn out to be a supernova, but it goes against all the rules we thought we knew. For example, it’s in a galaxy that’s in the process of “eating itself,” UGC 12682, where supernovas don’t usually occur. It’s also one of the least luminous supernovas ever detected, and scientists haven’t found any evidence of hydrogen, which usually turns up around dimmer supernovas. Now scientists are theorizing that the lack of hydrogen may stem from the fact that this was a massive star that lost mass. Perhaps its core collapsed into a black hole without transferring any energy to the outer layers of the star.
iPod versus the Walkman
13-year-old Scott Campbell swaps an iPod with a Walkman for a week:
It took me three days to figure out that there was another side to the tape. That was not the only naive mistake that I made; I mistook the metal/normal switch on the Walkman for a genre-specific equaliser, but later I discovered that it was in fact used to switch between two different types of cassette.
Another notable feature that the iPod has and the Walkman doesn’t is “shuffle”, where the player selects random tracks to play. Its a function that, on the face of it, the Walkman lacks. But I managed to create an impromptu shuffle feature simply by holding down “rewind” and releasing it randomly – effective, if a little laboured.
I remember the first time I had to use a rotary phone, I was clueless.
rooftops
Chimney and roofline of the house next door fit against our house like puzzle pieces.
self-potrait with fancy bird platter & hat & bird
Thanks Cindy!
IKEA in Hell
In the mid seventies, when ABBA topped the music charts, Sweden was just putting the finishing touches on its giant civil defense nuclear bunker outside Stockholm, called the Elephant.
Googling with Bing
Lido
Outdoor pools in the summertime rule
