Michael Shields blog XML
Several of you have forwarded me Wired’s coverage of a salvage operation on a sinking cargo ship.
It is a good story, yes, but not such a good article; editing has never been Wired’s strength. Within a few pages, the project is described as “a sort of orchestrated water ballet” and “an unusual, waterlogged symphony”, and the ship is compared to “a stunned boxer after a heavy blow” who “has been trying to figure out whether it can do this, whether it can really return to the land of the living”. If you enjoy reading about ship disasters but would like fewer mixed metaphors involving undead boxers, I recommend reading about the RORO ferry Estonia in William Langeweische’s The Outlaw Sea.
posted at: 2008-05-04 04:36 UTC | permanent link to this entry | comment
For several years now, I been getting out of conversations with “I can’t hear you; I’m going into a tunnel.” (This is most useful when obviously not going into a tunnel, for example when you are talking in person.)
However, I have now invented a better phrase: “I can’t hear you; I’m going into a coma.”
posted at: 2007-03-16 05:52 UTC | permanent link to this entry | comment
You often ask what I am reading. Here are ten books I’ve read recently. These are not the ten best or the ten most recent, just ten books and my terse commentary.
Lunar Park, by Bret Easton Ellis (Knopf, 2005)
Ellis takes unreliable narration to clever new places in this book, a novel that masquerades as a memoir. In the second act it disintegrates into a horror story and blends in characters from his own work, blah blah. Maybe watch Adaptation instead.
The Golden Gate, by Vikram Seth (Random House, 1986)
Normally, I’m not so excited by a story about 1980s yuppies and their love interests and social concerns and whatnot, but this one is in sonnets? Seth unwinds the story across 300 pages of iambic tetrameter, clearly having a lot of fun in the process. Form over content here, but so be it.
It Must’ve Been Something I Ate: The Return of the Man Who Ate Everything, by Jeffrey Steingarten (Random House, 2002)
You like reading about food, right? This is on the remainder table not on its merits but only because anthologies of articles never sell well.
The Making of a Chef: Mastering Heat at the Culinary Institute of America, by Michael Ruhlman (Henry Holt, 1997)
Michael Ruhlman made his name as a food writer with this book, in which he enlists in the CIA on a modified schedule. You can see that he did not commit to it as fully as the students who are there for their livelihood (cf. Ted Conover’s Newjack), but by the end Ruhlman has clearly gone native, and it’s also apparent from his work since this book that he has a lot more cred than pansy dilettante eater-writers like Jeffrey Steingarten, Calvin Trillin, or me.
The War Against Cliché: Essays and Reviews, 1971–2000, by Martin Amis (Jonathan Cape, 2001)
These collected articles about literature are omnivorously broad, including reviews of John Updike, J.G. Ballard, Cervantes, Thomas Harris, and Nabokov. Like Susan Sontag or Pauline Kael, Martin Amis is always highbrow but never a snob. Plus, it’s a killer title, isn’t it? In a hypothetical better world, I would attract girls by reading this.
American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer, by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin (Knopf, 2005)
Manhattan Project obsessives like me will not be disappointed by this ruthlessly researched 700-page biography, but others might not be so fascinated. As fiction, Oppenheimer’s story would be a true dramatic tragedy, but you’d tell it by streamlining away all the minutiae that was carefully reconstructed here.
A Peace to End All Peace: Creating the Modern Middle East, 1914–1922, by David Fromkin (Henry Holt, 1989)
In this period the Turks, British, and Arabs knew almost nothing about each other, and today we remember almost nothing about them. This is a true story of major events where none of the principals, even towering personalities like the young Winston Churchill, have more than a dim view of the situation. The Middle Eastern situation is hard to follow today because it never made sense, and Fromkin lays out a cold autopsy of the period. World history has never seemed so capricious.
London: The Biography, by Peter Ackroyd (Nan Talese, 2001)
More of a memoir than an a biography, this book consists almost entirely of unfootnoted anecdotes. Fans of the city will drink it up. I wish New York, San Francisco, and Tokyo had books equal to this.
Dreaming in Code: Two Dozen Programmers, Three Years, 4,732 Bugs, and One Quest for Transcendent Software, by Scott Rosenberg (Crown, 2007)
Despite what some reviews have said, all this book is about is some spoiled techies spending years to produce an incomplete prototype that never had clear goals and now is too late to matter. This will not stand with the classic stories of systems engineering: Tracy Kidder’s The Soul of a New Machine, a Pulitzer-winning 1981 report of how engineers come together to build things under intense pressure to ship while it will still be relevant, and Fred Brooks’s The Mythical Man-Month, a first-hand account of how we learned in the 1960s that building large software is almost impossible. Little has been learned since then. We are not even within decades of producing work about which someone will write a book like The Great Bridge. No software yet written is “transcendent”, and if programmers were more perceptive, they would have physics envy too.
The J Curve: A New Way to Understand Why Nations Rise and Fall, by Ian Bremmer (Simon and Schuster, 2006)
Bremmer’s “J Curve” refers to his graph of a country’s stability (on the y axis) against its openness (on the x axis). He argues convincingly that although both dictatorial and democratic countries are open, the transition between them is extremely risky, and especially so without some external stabilizing influence (such as money from natural resources, or the Marshall Plan). The “J Curve” is an obvious Gladwellesque marketing hook and does not exactly explain “why nations rise and fall”, but I don’t think his motive is just to sell books here or raise his consultancy’s profile — those are goals, of course, but not the only ones. I think Bremmer would like this essay to undermine the conventional view that Africa and Eastern European countries are “developing” economies that need only to be gardened in order to become modern, open, prosperous nations. He is clearly a smart and articulate guy who has spent many years thinking about this in a professional, global, and mostly disinterested context. See also Bremmer’s talk at Google (one-hour video).
posted at: 2007-02-20 06:16 UTC | permanent link to this entry | comment
This is the Freud D0724X Diablo circular saw blade.
Compare it with the market-leading framing blade, the Irwin Marathon.
The Diablo is a lot easier on the eyes, no? The thing is, it didn’t have to be. No one really cares if a circular saw blade looks good or not, but they made it look good anyway — and without adding any cost; both these blades are printed in only three colors.
Please let’s have more like this. The world has enough designs for artsy clocks and chairs. What we need is more design in parts of the world that are currently ugly.
posted at: 2007-02-12 01:25 UTC | permanent link to this entry | comment
Quand il n'y a plus rien à retrancher
Many people who look at this page are surprised that I broke a 27-month blogging fast to post about swimming animals, instead of the usual blog subjects: Republicans, Internet fads, and whatever it is that you and your friends do all day. But after that important animal feature, I went back on blog hiatus. So I've had several conversations approximately like this one:
“Hey, Shields, why don't you post to your blog more often? One post in three years? What's that about?”
“Well, 92% of Internet users do not blog at all, so actually, once in three years is relatively often.”
That usually throws people off balance, and I can change the subject to something more interesting — buildings, maybe, or food.
But it seems you are still checking in. My New Year's promise to you, my loyal readers: I will post to my blog at least three times in 2007. This means you will enjoy my writing no less than 50% more often than in 2006. Don't say I never did anything for you.
P.S. Kurt points out that I was wrong about the largest swimming mammal. Elephants are excellent swimmers.
posted at: 2006-12-30 19:12 UTC | permanent link to this entry | comment
The Central Park Zoo has an Endless Pool for polar bears. I know what you are thinking: are polar bears the largest non-aquatic mammal that swims?
The answer appears to be no. According to the National Wildlife Federation, an adult bison can weigh 900 kg and is “a good swimmer”. An adult male polar bear would be large at 600 kg.
What about the hippopotamus? Adult hippos are much larger than bison, weighing up to 3,200 kg. Buoyant baby hippos are born underwater and nurse underwater, and so must swim well because they are so hungry hungry. However, adults become much denser, and they cannot swim. Adults move in gentle, sinking arcs, using their stubby limbs to push off from the bottom. This style is not permitted by FINA.
posted at: 2006-03-10 03:11 UTC | permanent link to this entry | comment
Internet construction is complete
According to a new ITU study, the major barrier to Internet expansion worldwide is not, at this point, getting it built out. “Our research… suggests that affordability and education are equally important factors.”
This is a significant finding. It says that the bulk of people who would and could benefit from Internet access, if it were available, already have access. In other words, future growth of demand will come from the long slow work of making the world wealthier and better educated, from cannibalization of existing communication services like voice, fax, and physical delivery, and from the unglamorous work of making what we have now cheaper so that people will buy more of it.
If you’ve been working in the industry, know now, if you didn’t before, that you’re no longer changing the world through any sort of Disruptive Technology. It’s done; the world is already made over.
posted at: 2003-12-01 06:00 UTC | permanent link to this entry | comment
Children play the video games of the past
Reviewers, aged 10 to 13, play video games of the Pong to Tetris era.
Brian: What's this supposed to be?
EGM: Football. It's one of the first great portable games.
Brian: I thought it was Run Away From the Dots.
John: I don't see how this has anything remotely to do with football.
EGM: Which team are you playing?
Kirk: The red lines.
Tim: They could've just as easily called this game anything—Baseball, Bowling, Escape From the Monsters.
EGM: Did you score?
Kirk: I bumped into a dot.
[thanks to Kurt, who got it from Josh]
posted at: 2003-10-17 16:37 UTC | permanent link to this entry | comment
I had an idea the other day: Garlic Altoids!
For better or for worse, it turns out they don’t exist.
posted at: 2003-10-08 03:13 UTC | permanent link to this entry | comment
During our summer vacation this year, my wife and I amused ourselves by taking leisurely drives in Ohio and photographing every diamond-shaped highway sign that we saw along the roadsides. (Well, not every sign; only the distinct ones.) For provenance, I also stood at the base of each sign and measured its GPS coordinates.
This turned out to be even more fun than a scavenger hunt, so we filled in some gaps when we returned to California. And we intend to keep adding to this collection as we drive further, although we realize that we may have to venture to New England in order to see `FROST HEAVES'.
Here are the images of our collection so far.
For your convenience, he’s even retouched them onto a black background. The page of arrows with numbers is neatly organized into a grid, with the number on the horizontal axis and the type of arrow on the vertical.
posted at: 2003-10-03 02:41 UTC | permanent link to this entry | comment
CVS doesn’t carry them, they haven’t been noted on Snackspot, and even the manufacturer’s web page doesn’t have any mention of them — but thanks to Trader Joe’s, I’ve now obtained a box of Ginger Altoids.
These are damn tasty! Very sharp, like Reed’s Extra Ginger, and not too sweet. Much more successful than Cinnamon Altoids and, I think, possibly even better than the original.
Go ginger go!
posted at: 2003-09-30 00:32 UTC | permanent link to this entry | comment
http://slumbering.lungfish.com/index.php?p=chargingpeople.1064271013The Web-wide reticence among independent artists to actually hunker down and charge for material is because we know that if we did so, we wouldn't get fame or fortune. We'd get, at best, beer money and a clique.
posted at: 2003-09-25 04:24 UTC | permanent link to this entry | comment
Crime doesn't pay, except for upper management
In An Economic Analysis of a Drug-Selling Gang's Finances, Levitt and Venkatesh analyze the business of a local crack gang with revenues of a few hundred thousand dollars.
An individual’s rank within the gang is of critical importance for his personal remuneration. The local gang leader is the residual claimant on drug profits. As shown in Table II, the gang leader retains between $4,200 and $10,900 a month as profit, for an annual wage of $50,000–130,000. This value is well above what leaders could hope to earn in the legitimate sector given their education and work experience. For instance, a former leader of a rival gang is now employed in the legitimate sector at an annual salary of $16,000. His legitimate sector wage may be lower than ito therwise would have been, however, due to his intervening years spent in prison {Lott 1992; Nagin and Waldfogel 1995}. […]
Official monthly payments to each foot soldier are low: only $200 per month or less until the final year. Based on observation and discussion with the gang leader, we estimate that the typical foot soldier worked four four-hour shifts per week selling drugs, and performed approximately four hours of other tasks for the gang, for a total of twenty hours of work per week. […] Based on these estimates of hours worked, the hourly wage earned by the typical foot soldier was below the federal minimum wage.
posted at: 2003-08-31 21:55 UTC | permanent link to this entry | comment
A company called Indigo Airlines is offering four flights daily between New York (Teterboro) and Chicago (Midway) using Embraer 135 sixteen-passenger jets. What’s different is that they operate as a charter, so they don’t take away your nail clippers. Congressman Steve Rothman is explicitly trying to shut them down.
[from AOPA’s newsletter]
posted at: 2003-04-18 17:27 UTC | permanent link to this entry | comment
Unicode, the Universal Character Set
One user group has been overlooked during the development of the UCS…
ISO/IEC JTC1/SC2/WG2 N258A is a proposal to address this.
posted at: 2003-04-01 18:23 UTC | permanent link to this entry | comment
Lay on ground, light fuse, retire quickly
![[www.crackerpacks.com]](/blog/2003-03/crackerpacks.gif)
http://www.crackerpacks.com: The archive of cracker packs.
[thanks to typographi.ca]
posted at: 2003-03-29 22:45 UTC | permanent link to this entry | comment
Who’s the cultural imperialist now?
A letter to The Economist:
SIR – According to you, a French official in the European Commission says that “the English language is being killed by all these foreigners speaking it so badly” (Charlemagne, March 1st). French has already done its worst to the English language. Two centuries of Norman rule in England after 1066 significantly changed the Germanic grammar and dumped a large amount of French vocabulary into the language. The curious union of French and German that is modern English seems the best reason for making it the lingua franca of the EU.
Matt Simon
Boston
posted at: 2003-03-20 02:11 UTC | permanent link to this entry | comment
I've been selling a lot of things on eBay lately. The venerable Lucent WaveLAN Gold PCMCIA cards (aka Agere or Proxim Orinoco) have been going for around $55 plus shipping. It's still as good a card as it was when I bought them in 1999. But it's interesting that people pay this much for a used card when you can get a a new one from buy.com for $59.69 delivered.
Ultimately, though, by creating a more stronger market for everything used, eBay is the best hope we have of ending the culture of disposableness. So I have to be in favor of it. Even if it is strange sometimes.
posted at: 2003-03-15 18:56 UTC | permanent link to this entry | comment
Email me now to sign up! Use subject line: Clone Army.
posted at: 2003-03-14 18:01 UTC | permanent link to this entry | comment
http://www.google.com/search?q=ass
Ass: Find the best deal! Compare prices,
Reviews and More - CNET Shopper.com
posted at: 2003-03-13 05:34 UTC | permanent link to this entry | comment
![[www.stockstock.org]](/blog/2003-03/stockstock.png)
A film festival of editing. They send you thirty minutes of footage selected from the public-domain Prelinger Archives. You make a three-minute short film, using only that footage.
posted at: 2003-03-04 02:35 UTC | permanent link to this entry | comment
![[reuleaux]](/blog/2003-02/reuleaux.jpg)
The Reuleaux triangle is a geometric construction which you may recognize from rotary engines and Spirographs. It can be used to make drill bits that drill square holes.
posted at: 2003-02-28 23:08 UTC | permanent link to this entry | comment
In 410, Rome was sacked by Goths. At almost the same time, it was nearly struck by a metallic asteroid that impacted with a force of 200 kton. Missed, as they say, by that much.
Some more details from the Guardian. They cite Duncan Steel, who I trust to have his facts straight.
posted at: 2003-02-27 06:22 UTC | permanent link to this entry | comment
It's fun to say, but why do we have this word quadrilateral? Why don't we call a four-sided figure a tetragon?
posted at: 2003-02-25 23:03 UTC | permanent link to this entry | comment
What you see someone on TV at the New York Times Washington bureau, you think they are here, but actually they are here.
posted at: 2003-02-25 19:39 UTC | permanent link to this entry | comment
![[kite]](/blog/2003-02/kite.jpg)
The question that I’m asked the most when I’m out flying my camera rig is: “What’s that thing up there?”
posted at: 2003-02-24 17:08 UTC | permanent link to this entry | comment
From Ricky Jay’s book, Learned Pigs & Fireproof Women.
During the performance of a stage illusion show, a magician requested the help of a volunteer from the audience. An unassuming fellow stood up and climbed onstage. The man was placed in a wooden box and the familiar sawing-in-half illusion commenced. The box was severed and each half separated to the delight of the audience. The halves were then pushed together and the volunteer restored. The volunteer walked back to his seat amidst resounding applause. Suddenly, in full view of the audience, he toppled over and split apart at the waist. His legs walked off to the left, and his torso crawled to the right. Gasps and screams were heard in the audience. Many people fainted. Others fled the theater. The disturbance it created was so disruptive, the effect was never repeated.
The illusion was based on a devious switch of the original volunteer for two men. One was well known, Johnny Eck, who without thighs or legs was a star of the Tod Browning film Freaks. The other was a midget who was covered from the top of the head to the tips of his toes in a pair of trousers. Eck mounted the shoulders of the midget friend and “fell off” at the appropriate moment. But the crowning touch, the element that gave the proceedings such credibility, was that the “volunteer” from the audience was Johnny Eck’s full-size, perfectly normal, twin brother!
posted at: 2003-02-22 16:42 UTC | permanent link to this entry | comment
![[home]](/msrl-home.png)