(Thanx Ana!)
A Final Thanks !!! I’m Buzzing !
3 hours ago
Thursday, 3 June 2010
Good on you Glenn
I was just on MSNBC talking about Israel, the Gaza blockade and the flotilla attack with Eliot Spitzer, who was guest-hosting for Dylan Ratigan. It was a rather contentious discussion, though quite illustrative of how Israel is (and is not) typically discussed on American television, so I'm posting the whole 8-minute segment. Two points: (1) before I was on, Spitzer had on an Israel-defending law professor, followed by Netanyahu's former Chief of Staff, and both of them (along with Spitzer) were spewing pure Israeli propaganda in uninterrupted and unchallenged fashion; at the end of Spitzer's discussions with them, he asked them to "stick around just in case," and once I was left, he brought at least one of them back on to respond to what I said without challenge; (2) literally 90 seconds before my segment was about to begin, the new cam and sound system I just acquired stopped working, forcing me to unplug everything and use only my laptop cam and mic, which caused the technical aspects to be less than ideal (though still perfectly workable); to watch in full screen, click play, then click in the lower right hand corner of the picture and select "option":
UPDATE: Just to give the context, this was the five-minute, propaganda-suffused segment with former Netanyhau Chief of Staff George Birnbaum to which I listened before my segment began.
UPDATE II: A few worthwhile related items: (1) for an excellent discussion of the illegality of the Israeli raid, see this analysis from former British Ambassador and maritime law expert Craig Murray, and this one from International Law Professor Kevin Jon Heller (the Post has a decent article on this topic today as well); (2) Amos Oz, the Israeli writer who supported the Israeli attacks on both Lebanon and Gaza (though he changed his mind about the former), has a very good Op-Ed in the NYT today on what Israel has become; and (3) the Post's Ann Telnaes has an incisive cartoon about this situation (and note the towels).
UPDATE III: Barney Frank -- unlike Anthony Weiner, Jerry Nadler, Spitzer, and a whole slew of other Jewish progressives vehemently defending Israel -- demanded an independent inquiry and had some rather harsh words for Israel today: "as a Jew, Israeli treatment of Arabs around some of the West Bank settlements makes me ashamed that there would be Jews that would engage in that kind of victimization of a minority."
Glenn Greenwald @'Salon'
Wyeth, Exported Waste And Infertile Pigs
Here’s a tale that may make you squeal. The drugmaker has pleaded guilty in Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to four counts of illegally exporting waste water from its plant in Newbridge, Ireland, where contraceptive pills were made (see here), to Holland, where the water wound up in animal feed and Dutch farmers had to destroy some 50,000 pigs.
Wyeth, which is now owned by Pfizer, actually confessed to four of 18 charges. These related to the illegal “trans-frontier” shipment of waste; illegal mixing of waste; and two breaches of the drugmaker’s EPA waste licence requiring approval for contractors, RTE Business reports. There was no comment from the Wyeth Medica unit. Sentencing is scheduled for next month.
At issue is the extent to which Wyeth supervised the disposal of its waste water, if at all. The case originated in 2002 when some Dutch pig farmers noticed their sows were infertile, RTE writes, adding that many farms were subsequently closed after infertile pigs on one farm were fed a syrup containing the hormone MPA, which is used as a human contraceptive. A probe later found Wyeth produced hormone-laced waste water in the process of sugar-coating its pills.
From there, the water was sent an environmental company in Dublin for disposal, and it was sold to a Belgian that passed it on as treacle to Dutch feed companies. The Dutch Feed Industry trade group claimed in 2003 that the disaster was ‘one of the worst in memory’ and cost the industry about $145 million (at today’s rates). Cara Environmental Technology, which processed the waste for Wyeth, is due in criminal court next week, but not admitting anything.
Ed Silverman @'Pharmalot'
Keith Richards teams up with Nick Kent for forthcoming autobiography
Former NME journalist Nick Kent has been helping Keith Richards pen his autobiography.
Kent, speaking at the recent Hay Festival, revealed that he helped The Rolling Stones guitarist "fill in" the gaps in his memory of the '70s.
Richards revealed last month that he is currently waiting to read the proofs of the book, which he hopes to release in October.
"I've helped Keith Richards write his upcoming book on the years of the early '70s. I helped fill in the early '70s, when things got really, really bad. I can understand why he forgot all about it. It just wasn't pleasant," Kent explained.
He added: "His memories are incredibly gloomy. A lot of resentment, bitterness, Keith broke down in tears several times when he talked about it and turned into a blubbering wreck. It was a bad time for him. When you look back on your life you tend to suppress bad memories and that's what he's done, apart from the fact that he was taking more drugs than all Motley Crue put together."
Kent, speaking at the recent Hay Festival, revealed that he helped The Rolling Stones guitarist "fill in" the gaps in his memory of the '70s.
Richards revealed last month that he is currently waiting to read the proofs of the book, which he hopes to release in October.
"I've helped Keith Richards write his upcoming book on the years of the early '70s. I helped fill in the early '70s, when things got really, really bad. I can understand why he forgot all about it. It just wasn't pleasant," Kent explained.
He added: "His memories are incredibly gloomy. A lot of resentment, bitterness, Keith broke down in tears several times when he talked about it and turned into a blubbering wreck. It was a bad time for him. When you look back on your life you tend to suppress bad memories and that's what he's done, apart from the fact that he was taking more drugs than all Motley Crue put together."
Elsewhere in his talk, Kent laid into the recent British music scene, signalling out Oasis in particular.
"There's a lack of talent at the moment," he said. "There aren't that many great performers at the moment. Noel Gallagher and Oasis would have only had a couple of hit records if they'd have been around in the '60s and '70s."
"There's a lack of talent at the moment," he said. "There aren't that many great performers at the moment. Noel Gallagher and Oasis would have only had a couple of hit records if they'd have been around in the '60s and '70s."
Going back to articles that Kent wrote about the Stones in the 70's perhaps the most unpleasant I remember was when there was a sex show put on by two women for Jagger and Richards and their entourage (including Kent) and the rug they were cavorting around on got set on fire and of course nobody helped the girls as the two Stones didn't (couldn't?) move....
Lawrence Lessig - Remix: Making art and commerce thrive in the hybrid economy (PDF)
Remix
Making art and commerce thrive
in the hybrid economy
Making art and commerce thrive
in the hybrid economy
Lawrence Lessig
Publication: October 2008
Paperback: 352 pages
ISBN: 978-1408113479
Dimensions:
23.4 x 15.3 x 2.6 cm
Price: £12.99
Publication: October 2008
Paperback: 352 pages
ISBN: 978-1408113479
Dimensions:
23.4 x 15.3 x 2.6 cm
Price: £12.99
'Lessig's proposals for revising copyright are compelling, because they rethink intellectual property rights without abandoning them.'
Briefly Noted The New Yorker
Briefly Noted The New Yorker
'Lessig... has written a splendid combative manifesto – pungent, witty and persuasive.'
Financial Times
Financial Times
'... Lessig is surely right that digital culture requires governance that is more subtle and ecological, judging a balance of forces between commerce and community, than precise and draconian.'
Books of the Week, The Independent
Books of the Week, The Independent
'Prof Lessig is formidably qualified...his latest book, REMIX will enhance his cult status on the web.' The Guardian
To hear Lawrence Lessig talk about his book Remix you can listen now to the NPR interview (37 min 51 sec)
e-book version available – please click here to purchase £9.99
You can buy the book from A&C Black a Bloomsbury company
e-book version available – please click here to purchase £9.99
You can buy the book from A&C Black a Bloomsbury company
Gunman kills at least five in Cumbria rampage UPDATE: 12 DEAD
At least five people have been killed and 25 injured after a gunman opened fire in west Cumbria.
A body, thought to be that of the suspect - taxi driver Derrick Bird - has been found in the Boot area of the Lake District.
The first fatality was in Whitehaven before the gunman drove south, apparently shooting people at random.
Prime Minister David Cameron told the House of Commons at least five people had been killed.
He said the country's thoughts were with those families who had lost loved ones.
Witnesses said the suspect drove through the town with a gun hanging out of his car window, before heading south through Gosforth and Seascale before turning inland.
A GP in the town of Seascale said he and a colleague had later certified two other people dead.
Dr Barrie Walker said: "The surgery was called and I went out. I've certified one of them dead. My colleague saw another," he said.
"At present there are two people dead and one seriously injured in Seascale. I know one of the victims. She was in the street.
Deputy Chief Constable Stuart Hyde said he believed Derrick Bird's body had been found
"The second person was on a bicycle and was shot on the bike."
BBC Look North Chief Reporter Chris Stewart said a farmer is also believed to have been killed in the Gosforth area.
After the shootings, detectives said 52-year-old Mr Bird drove to the central Lakes in a Citroen Picasso, then abandoned it in the Boot area.
Before the body was discovered people living nearby were urged to stay indoors for their own protection.
Helicopters and armed officers from other police forces were brought in to help apprehend the gunman.
Soon afterwards, Deputy Chief Constable Stuart Hyde said: "I can confirm that we've found a body in a wooded area near Boot which we believe to be Mr Bird, together with a firearm.
"A formal identification will be made later."
Nuclear plant shut Mr Hyde added: "Our focus now is to try and work out what has caused this and where Mr Bird has been over the last 24 hours and in particular the last few hours.
"I would plead to anyone who has seen him or has seen any of the incidents, please come forward, speak to us and help us piece together exactly was has happened in this very, very tragic set of circumstances.
"We have a number of crime scenes across the county, which are being staffed by police officers, and I would ask people to show a little bit of restraint and respect in regard to those scenes as we try and piece together exactly what has gone on."
.A major incident has been declared at West Cumberland Hospital, in Whitehaven, where the NHS said all routine operations had been cancelled.
The Accident and Emergency department at the Cumberland Infirmary in Carlisle is also on full incident stand-by, the hospital trust said.
The Sellafield nuclear reprocessing plant in west Cumbria closed its gates as a safety precaution and afternoon shift workers were being told to stay away, though the site has since reopened.
The Whitehaven victim, believed to be a colleague of 52-year-old Mr Bird, was killed at 1035 BST.
A local taxi firm boss, Glenda Pears, said: "We just don't know what's happened.
"The lad that's been killed was friends with him. They used to stand together having a craic on the rank.
"He was friends with everybody and used to stand and joke on Duke Street."
Sue Matthews, a telephonist at A2B Taxis in Whitehaven, said the Mr Bird was self-employed and lived alone. She described him as a "quiet fellow".
At the start of Prime Minister's Questions David Cameron expressed his shock at the events which had unfolded.
He said: "The government will do everything it possibly can to help the local community and those affected.
"When lives and communities are suddenly shattered in this way, our thoughts should be with all those caught up with these tragic events."
An emergency helpline has been opened for people concerned about the incident. Cumbria Police Casualty Bureau Line on 0800 096 009
Plus +
from Thingiverse: via Bruce Sterling (@bruces)
This is the next step in my attempt to make a Sarrus linkage based 3D printer. The idea is to have a cartesian mechanism without those long rods and bearings.
I built three of the Mark III and mounted them in a x-y arrangement as shown. They can move over a square about 105 mm wide, and someday may carry an extruder. They are driven by DC motors taken from inkjet printers. These motors are driven in a servo arrangement using quadrature optical encoders and optical strips removed from the same printers.
Sarah Palin Has Some Tough Words For Amphetamines
Yes, governor, we do get it now! When you were leading thousands of morons in shouting “drill, baby, drill” (or, sorry, “drill,baby,drill”) and “drill here, drill now”, what you were trying to get at was that we should in no way be doing exploratory offshore drilling, baby, exploratory offshore drilling, because that’s dangerous. How could we have been so blind?
If an oil well in ANWR had blown up, the oil would just kind of pool all over the tundra, where it’s really too cold for media people to come up and make a big fuss, and it would be much easier to just nuke it, like the Russians did. Funny how none of that came across in your slogan, which just seemed to imply that we should drill the crap out of everywhere to get oil! It’s almost as if reductionist chants don’t carry nuance, and allow you to claim they mean any convenient bullshit you want when they become inconvenient!
Oh, and, word to the wise: it’s totally OK to use whatever pill-based stimulants you need in order to get in the Twitterin’ mood, but it’s not necessary to actually name-check them at the beginning of your tweet. That just eats into your 140 characters. [The Greatest Twitter In The World]
Steve Jobs: Gizmodo Bought Stolen iPhone Prototype And Then Tried To Extort Us
Gizmodo's explanation that it wasn't sure what it was buying when it bought the stolen iPhone prototype doesn't appear to hold much water with Steve Jobs.
As this video clip from Peter Kafka reveals, Steve used startlingly strong language in his D8 talk to describe Apple's interactions with Gizmodo after Gizmodo bought the phone--namely, that Gizmodo tried to "extort" Apple:
Wednesday, 2 June 2010
Gaza Flotilla: A Legal Opinion “The Occupying Power Had to Facilitate the Passage”
Amidst the discussion of whether Israel had a right under international law to intervene against ships sailing in international waters, one of my colleagues, lawyer Dina Biygishieva argues that Israel, as an occupying power in Gaza, had to facilitate the passage of the six ships of the Freedom Flotilla:
On 31 May the Israeli navy attacked humanitarian ships bringing aid to Gaza in international waters in the middle of the night. According to different reports approximately 10-16 humanitarian activists were killed and 50-60 were injured. The ships were seized by the Israeli navy. What could be a verdict on the Israeli actions under international humanitarian law?
Gaza Flotilla LiveBlog: Limiting an Enquiry, Maintaining a Blockade? (2 June)
The whole situation on humanitarian ships in international waters falls into scope of the regulation of different international sources of law. According to article 188 of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, high seas shall be reserved for peaceful purposes, and Article 110 provides that a warship that encounters a foreign ship on the high seas can only board the ship if there are reasonable grounds for suspecting that it is participating in unlawful activities such as piracy or the slave trade.
The Gaza flotilla was made up of civilian ships carrying humanitarian aid. There were no reasonable grounds for boarding the ships, much less for killing civilians on board. With respect to international maritime customary law. In the case of genuine security concerns, the action of Israeli navy should have been contacted by expressing concern with the flotilla to flag-bearing states and insisting on the boats’ retreat.
Regarding the use of force, the extent of Israel’s actions should have been to divert the flotilla once it had reached [Israel's] territorial waters. Even then, once ensuring that the flotilla contained only humanitarian goods, Israel, as the Occupying Power in Gaza, would have been duty-bound to facilitate its passage.
By intercepting and boarding the ship in the high seas, Israel has acted in egregious violation of customary international law.
What follows next? Israel is bound by so-called Fourth Geneva Convention (Convention IV relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War. Geneva, 12 August 1949). Provisions of the Convention clearly impose the obligation of meeting humanitarian needs of the people of occupied territories to the fullest possible extent. The welfare of Gaza ’s inhabitants is a precise duty of Israel duty under the Convention, and it includes their rights to health, education, food and adequate housing. The assault on the flotilla, widely publicized to be carrying essential humanitarian aid to Gaza, contravenes Israel’s duty to facilitate the passage to humanitarian aid to territory it occupies.
Furthermore, the use of live ammunition to kill and injure civilians on board, even in circumstances in which there may have been some resistance to the take-ver of the ship, was a disproportionate response to the situation and a violation of the civilians’ right to life, as set out in Article 6(1) of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
@'Enduring America'
The Tech Industry: Revenge of the Nerds?
Facebook's recent antics have tested the faith of its users; wireless carriers are posting massive profits (no doubt, due in large part to Blacks and Latinos out-indexing each month in expenditures); statistical reports demonstrate "surprising" facts that young, hip users of color are also out-indexing in Twitter usage; there are emerging reports of questionable practices concerning how companies like Apple strip Africa's coltan mineral for its power-products; New York Magazine did not include a single digital female entrepreneur of color in its recent issue lauding start-ups-to-watch; and there is a profound lack of diversity inside most Silicon Valley offices, as recently reported in the San Jose Mercury News. Given all of this, legendary rap artist Chuck D and I decided to press pause a minute, look at the elephant in the room and chop it up a bit about today's pop-tech situation as it pertains both to diverse users of digital tech and digital entrepreneurs of color.
Here are the highlights from my talk with Chuck D.
If I had to say one way or the other I'd say that most tech-related companies today are pretty arrogant. It's almost like revenge of the nerds.
Do they see an importance in reaching out to diverse markets in this country? For me, it's like they've decided "buy it/use it or don't", it doesn't really matter that Black Americans spend millions on these gadgets and stuff and tons of time (on their social platforms). Who cares about statistics? They know we're going to buy/use these tech products, phones and more; so it seems they could care less.
And the way it's all set up; it's encouraged to be like another appendage and (for those platforms that have a monthly invoice for usage) don't miss a payment; then it gets gangsta.
The only way I see more diversity happening both inside of these companies and with their strategies is for a collective push to happen like in Montgomery, Alabama back in the day. But I'm really wondering how likely that is to happen. So many people are apathetic these days. In fact, technology may even encourage it. While there's the social aspect of what's happening, a lot of the trends in technology actually reinforce individualism, to me. It's all about self-promotion on these social pages. It's like 'I'm good', so there is not a lot of focus on the whole. But it's funny. You never know what can happen. Just look at the volcano in Iceland. It affected so many people at once that the airline companies actually had the European Union changing up policy because they all pushed back at once. It was like, 'Wait a minute. We're losing too much money. Something has got change up.' So I say you never know.
But here's the thing, there's also just a lot of dumb people now in our society. For example, so many Black males disengage from school at a very early age (not necessarily at fault of their own). Larger business knows it so they're like, 'yeah, here's something for your dumb a**: a new phone, a new game.' It's like everyone's got a Wii, but they have no idea how it works. That's, like, the big secret. Why aren't more young people trying to figure that out and more?
But yeah, these tech companies definitely should have more accountability with the (balance of dollars and deals) -- especially at the high tech level when we start talking about chips that scan for pancreatic cancer or something, let alone just making sure you get your (recording artist) Nicki Minaj download (LOL).
We really need to look at what's happening because for me, hip hop is technology -- from the two turntables and a microphone it's all about the combination of technology to express a lifestyle and creative vision. So for me, it was just a natural transition to get deeper into this tech game. I started early because for me it symbolized freedom and independence in an industry that was not really offering that. I thought, 'This is great.' That's one of the reason's why Public Enemy has the position of having the first-ever hip hop site from years and years ago.
Now it's about expanding. That's why I started SlamJamz.com. It's all about the creativity. We also work to provide avenues to other creatives of color. We've also scaled back the original budget for the Sellaband.com concept and are looking forward to the release of a new Public Enemy album soon. I also started hiphopgoods.com to provide an avenue for female MC's to have a greater platform because that's really been lacking lately.
It's really all about trying to get an edge in something you know is right."
And while Chuck D and others both create and consume, flooding the tech industry with their hard-earned dollars, trend-setting entertainment content and surpassing frequency usage (the latter, which will no doubt impact digital advertising dollars to be reaped by various companies); the question will remain -- just when, how and if a good portion of this sleeping giant demographic will awake one day and perhaps boisterously demand deeper business inclusion and consumer recognition as this new digital frontier expands with each and every click?
Chuck D and Lauren DeLisa Coleman @'HuffPo'
Timothy Greenfield-Sanders on Dennis Hopper
Photo (c)Timothy Greenfield-Sanders, all rights reserved
On February 22nd, 1995, Dennis Hopper sat for this portrait. Artist/filmmaker David Salle brought him by the studio. Hopper had just starred in Salle's film, "Search and Destroy." What I remember most about the afternoon was Dennis' extraordinary love for art. As we toured my studio and home, he pointed at each work of art and named the artist, even the most obscure ones. That's a Resnick, that's Taaffe, that's Rick Prol, that's a Joop Sanders, that's Martin Wong, that's Judy Glantzman, that's The Starn Twins, that's Richard Hambleton.
Two years ago, I saw Dennis at Cinevegas, the Las Vegas film festival into which Robin and Danny Greenspun had put so much love and energy. One evening, just before a Steve and Elaine Wynn dinner honoring Takashi Murikami, Dennis and I were invited by Wynn to see some of his art collection. As we strolled past a lovely Turner and then the Picasso that Steve's elbow had made so famous, we came upon an especially difficult Marisol. Dennis turned to Steve and said, "that's a really great Marisol." Wynn stopped in his tracks and replied with awe, "You're the first person who's ever known the sculptor's name."
RIP Dennis Hopper.
Plastician – Sound That Speaks Volumes 2010
Tracklisting:
1. Youthman & Luce – Brother Don’t Cry
2. Redlight – MDMA
3. D Double E – Woo Riddim
4. Flux Pavillion – Got To Know
5. Boogaloo Crew – Days Go BY
6. Skream – Raw Dogz
7. Joker – Tron (Kromestar Remix)
8. Chew Lips – Salt Air (Plastician Remix)
9. Trolley Snatcha – We Rock The Forest
10. G Tank – Electronic Era
++ Tempa T – Boy Off Da Ting Acapella
11. Rude Kid – Electric
12. Plastician & 12th Planet – West Croydon
13. 12th Planet Feat. Juakali – Reasons (Doctor P Remix)
14. D Double E – Streetfighter
15. Joker & TC – It Aint Got A Name
16. Om Unit – Searching
17. Benga – Transform
18. Drumsound & Bassline Smith – R U Ready (Dubstep Mix)
19. Simian Mobile Disco – Cruel Intentions (Joker Remix)
20. Doctor P – Sweet Shop
21. P Money – Left The Room (Skreamix)
22. Teddy & G Tank – Ghanaian Fire
23. Distance – No Warning
24. Paul Harris – I Want You (Bar9 Remix)
25. Flux Pavillion – Normalize
26. Stinkahbell – Stalker
27. Mr Virgo – Cinema
28. Joker – Digidesign (Om Unit’s Pop Lock Remix)
29. Om Unit – The Corridor
2. Redlight – MDMA
3. D Double E – Woo Riddim
4. Flux Pavillion – Got To Know
5. Boogaloo Crew – Days Go BY
6. Skream – Raw Dogz
7. Joker – Tron (Kromestar Remix)
8. Chew Lips – Salt Air (Plastician Remix)
9. Trolley Snatcha – We Rock The Forest
10. G Tank – Electronic Era
++ Tempa T – Boy Off Da Ting Acapella
11. Rude Kid – Electric
12. Plastician & 12th Planet – West Croydon
13. 12th Planet Feat. Juakali – Reasons (Doctor P Remix)
14. D Double E – Streetfighter
15. Joker & TC – It Aint Got A Name
16. Om Unit – Searching
17. Benga – Transform
18. Drumsound & Bassline Smith – R U Ready (Dubstep Mix)
19. Simian Mobile Disco – Cruel Intentions (Joker Remix)
20. Doctor P – Sweet Shop
21. P Money – Left The Room (Skreamix)
22. Teddy & G Tank – Ghanaian Fire
23. Distance – No Warning
24. Paul Harris – I Want You (Bar9 Remix)
25. Flux Pavillion – Normalize
26. Stinkahbell – Stalker
27. Mr Virgo – Cinema
28. Joker – Digidesign (Om Unit’s Pop Lock Remix)
29. Om Unit – The Corridor
Download
(mixed or unmixed)
"one on one" "terrorists"?
"I was the second to be lowered in by rope," said Captain R. "My comrade who had already been dropped in was surrounded by a bunch of people. It started off as a one-on-one fight, but then more and more people started jumping us. I had to fight against quite a few terrorists who were armed with knives and batons."
Currently reading looking at the pictures...
Dennis Hopper, one of Hollywood's last great cult figures, is best known for his depiction of social outcasts in films such as "Rebel Without a Cause" and "Apocalypse Now", as well as for directing classic films like "Easy Rider". Hopper has also, however, made a name for himself as an artist and a photographer. His photographic chronicle of America in the 1960s, a decade marked by awakening and rebellion and documented by Hopper in forceful black-and-white pictures, has now become legendary. "A System of Moments", published on the occasion of a major retrospective exhibition at the MAK, Vienna, is a kaleidoscopic documentation of painting, photography, film, and life. It is the first comprehensive publication that takes in to account all of the diverse artistic activities in Hopper's nearly 50-year career, and it examines particularly the subtle connection between genres that is a hallmark of his work. For the first time, recent photographic works, which emerged after a long hiatus from the medium in the 1990s, are also presented. A major retrospective that will be the definitive statement on Hopper's career
I picked this up second hand years ago, unfortunately (for me) it is the German language edition.
Nonetheless a great collection of Hopper's photographs and artwork.
Meet the Last Generation of Typewriter Repairmen
It’s easy to forget how much time computer word-processing programs have saved the writing public. Before computers, any typewritten document that needed revision had to be retyped again and again. And that’s hardly the end of it. Total up all the hours that people spent whiting out errors before the Delete key … how many zeroes would the final figure have? Combine the surface area of every lumpy smudge of liquid paper: Would it cover the country? The world?
Despite these inefficiencies, there are a few places where typewriters still clack away. New York City police stations, the desks of a few stubborn hangers-on, and, increasingly, the apartments of hip young people who have a fetish for the retro. Mechanical devices with a lot of moving parts, typewriters require maintenance by technicians with specialized knowledge and years of experience. A surprising number of people still make their living meeting that demand.
Wired.com takes a look back at these charming machines and visits three Bay Area workshops whose proprietors keep hearse-colored Remingtons and Underwoods from disappearing into the grave...
Continue reading
I am trying SO hard NOT to think about the 1916 Remington that I used to have that I came home one day only to find that my partner of the time had got rid of...
Exploring Music’s Hold on the Mind
Three years ago, when Oxford University Press published “Music, Language, and the Brain,” Oliver Sacks described it as “a major synthesis that will be indispensable to neuroscientists.” The author of that volume, Aniruddh D. Patel, a 44-year-old senior fellow at the Neurosciences Institute in San Diego, was in New York City in May. We spoke over coffee for more than an hour and later by telephone. An edited and condensed version of the conversations follows.
Q. YOU DESCRIBE YOURSELF AS A NEUROSCIENTIST OF MUSIC. THIS HAS TO BE A NEW PROFESSION. HOW DID YOU COME TO IT?
A. I’ve been passionate about two things since childhood — science and music. At graduate school, Harvard, I hoped to combine the two.
But studying with E.O. Wilson, I quite naturally got caught up with ants. In 1990, I found myself in Australia doing fieldwork on ants for a Ph.D. thesis. And there, I had this epiphany: the only thing I really wanted to do was study the biology of how humans make and process music.
I wondered if the drive to make it was innate, a product of our evolution, as Darwin had speculated. Did we have a special neurobiological capacity for music, as we do for language and grammar? So from Australia, I wrote Wilson that there was no way I could continue with ants. Amazingly, he wrote: “You must follow your passion. Come back to Harvard, and we’ll give it a shot.”
Wilson and Evan Balaban, a birdsong biologist who taught me about the neurobiology of auditory communication, mentored me through my thesis, which was called “A Biological Study of the Relationship Between Language and Music.” When I defended it in 1996, this was unusual scholarship. The neurobiology of music wasn’t yet a recognized field.
Q. WHEN DID IT GO MAINSTREAM?
A. Not too long after that. By the late 1990s, all of neuroscience was being transformed by the widespread use of imaging technologies.
Because it became possible to learn how the brain was affected when people engaged in certain activities, it became acceptable to study things previously considered fringy. Today you have the neuroscience of economics, of music, of everything.
I published a paper in 1998 that really surprised people. It was the first imaging study showing what happens when the brain processes musical grammar as compared with what happens when it processes language. From what we learned, this was occurring in an overlapping way within the brain. And this was a clue that the neurobiology of music could give us a new path to access and perhaps even heal some language disabilities.
Q. HOW WOULD THAT WORK?
A. One example. There’s a neurologist in Boston, Gottfried Schlaug, who uses music therapy to return some language to stroke victims. He has them learn simple phrases by singing them. This has proved more effective than having them repeat spoken phrases, the traditional therapy. Schlaug’s work suggests that when the language part of the brain has been damaged, you can sometimes recruit the part that processes music to take over.
Music neuroscience is also helping us understand Alzheimer’s. There are Alzheimer’s patients who cannot remember their spouse. But they can remember every word of a song they learned as a kid. By studying this, we’re learning about how memory works.
Q. RECENTLY, YOU’VE BEEN WORKING WITH A SULFUR-CRESTED COCKATOO NAMED SNOWBALL. WHAT PROMPTED THE COLLABORATION?
A. Before I encountered Snowball, I wondered whether human music had been shaped for our brains by evolution — meaning, it helped us survive at some point. Well, in 2008, a colleague asked me to view a YouTube video of a cockatoo who appeared to be dancing to the beat of “Everybody” by the Backstreet Boys!
My jaw hit the floor. If you saw a video of a dog reading a newspaper out loud, you’d be pretty impressed, right? To people in the music community, a cockatoo dancing to a beat was like that. This was supposed to be, some said, a uniquely human behavior! If this was real, it meant that the bird might have circuits in its brain for processing beat similar to ours.
Q. WHAT DID YOU DO WITH THIS INSIGHT?
A. I phoned up the bird shelter in Indiana where Snowball lived and talked to the director who told me his story. A man had dropped him off with a CD and the comment, “Snowball likes to dance to this.” One day, Irena Schulz, the proprietor, played “Everybody” to amuse the abandoned creature. And Snowball began to move. Irena then made the YouTube video, which immediately went viral. Millions saw it.
“Let’s design an experiment to see if this is real,” I proposed to Irena, who had a science background herself. We took the Backstreet Boys song, sped it up and slowed it down at 11 different tempos, then videoed what Snowball did to each. For 9 out of the 11 variations, the bird moved to the beat, which meant that he’d processed the music in his brain and his muscles had responded. So now we had the first documented case of a nonhuman animal who, without training, could sense a beat out of music and move to it.
Q. YOU SAY THAT SNOWBALL CHANGED YOUR THINKING. HOW?
A. Before Snowball, I wondered if moving to a musical beat was uniquely human. Snowball doesn’t need to dance to survive, and yet, he did. Perhaps, this was true of humans, too?
Since working with Snowball, I’ve come to think we could learn more music neuroscience by studying the behaviors of not just parrots, but perhaps dolphins, seals, songbirds — also vocal learners.
We eventually published the Snowball research in Current Biology. A group at Harvard published a paper right alongside ours in which they surveyed thousands of YouTube videos to see if there were other animals spontaneously moving to a beat. They found about 12 or 13 parrots. No dogs. No cats. No horses.
What do humans have in common with parrots? Both species are vocal learners, with the ability to imitate sounds. We share that rare skill with parrots. In that one respect, our brains are more like those of parrots than chimpanzees. Since vocal learning creates links between the hearing and movement centers of the brain, I hypothesized that this is what you need to be able to move to beat of music.
Q. IS IT DIFFICULT TO FIND MONEY FOR THIS TYPE OF RESEARCH?
A. It easier than it used to be. One of the founders of this field, Dr. Robert Zatorre, before 2000, he never used the word music in a grant application. He knew it would get turned down automatically because people thought this was not scientific. Instead, he used terms like “complex nonlinguistic auditory processing.”
But in recent years, it’s become O.K. to say: I study music and the brain.
Claudia Dreifus @'NY Times'
SageFrancisSFR had a wonderful 6 hour dance at border patrol today. Never again. Never ever again. Ever.
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