January 2011 Archives

Pakettering är ibland allt. Piratismen har en estetik som kanske inte tilltalar alla, men det är nog tanken också. Jag vet inte så mycket om hur, eller ens om, den fungerar, men PirateBox är rätt så stilig, en portfölj full av möjligheter för att dela med sig av saker - en "self-contained mobile collaboration and P2P file sharing device".

Between 1577 and 1628, to judge by the dates of surviving examples, Frank Adams and Robert Triplet, two London bookbinders and "makers of writing tablets," put out a large number of notebooks designated as "Writing Tables with a Kalender for XXIIII years." In 16vo format used either in the usual way or as an oblong object, printed notebooks containing some of the standard features of almanacs (such as a calendar, a list of fair dates, distances between cities, table of weights and measures, multiplication table for Roman numerals, and a plate depicting coins in circulation) also included blank pages, some of which were covered with a coating of plaster, glue, and varnish that could be written on and then erased and rewritten. In the 1604 edition published by Robert Triplet, we find in the calendar for December 13 instructions on how to use these "writing tables":

To make cleane your Tables, when they are written on. Take a little peece of a Spunge, or a Linnen cloath, being cleane without any soyle: wet it in water, and wring it hard, & wipe that you have written very lightly, and it will out, and withing one quarter of an howre you may wryte in the same place againe; put not your leaves together, whilest they be very we with wyping.

For one week, 21 bus and tram stops in downtown Helsinki will bear a non-commercial message. 1458 people participated in renting them for one week - at 5896.62 euros, the average contribution was 4.20€ per person. The word was spread through a Facebook page from the beginning of December. Within 1.5 months, the page reached almost 6000 fans and it took only two weeks to collect the needed amount of money.

It is hard today to convey the significance and implications of the timetable, which first appeared in the early 1840s: for the organization of the railways themselves, of course, but also for the daily lives of everyone else. The pre-modern world was space-bound; its modern successor, time-bound. The transition took place in the middle decades of the nineteenth century and with remarkable speed, accompanied by the ubiquitous station clock: on prominent, specially constructed towers at all major stations, inside every station booking hall, on platforms, and (in the pocket form) in the possession of railway employees. Everything that came after--the establishment of nationally and internationally agreed time zones; factory time clocks; the ubiquity of the wristwatch; time schedules for buses, ferries, and planes, for radio and television programs; school timetables; and much else--merely followed suit.  

Det här är det mest deprimerande jag läst på länge. Från Erik Almqvists artikel "Isens ensamhet" i februari/mars-numret av Filter.

- Jag är väldigt förvirrad just nu. Den senaste tiden har jag inte varit glad. Jag tror att jag är deprimerad. Det har varit så sedan VM 2008: först är det jättemycket med allt och sedan blir jag deprimerad  under sommaren och har ingen glädje i åkningen. Och i år har det varit så mycket skit med allting. Jag har mål, stora mål, men ibland har jag slutat att drömma. Hittar jag inte tillbaka till glädjen lägger jag nog av efter den här säsongen.

Han lutar sig framåt på sängkanten.

- Min tjej kommer och kollar på träningarna ibland. Det hjälper. Då känner jag mig inte så ensam. Jag sätter svårare hopp och gör snyggare piruetter då.

Adrian Schultheiss liv kretsar helt och håller kring konståkningen. Han tränar på morgonen, sedan åker han hem och vilar några timmar innan han åker tillbaka till ishallen för en ny omgång. Kvällarna tillbringar han ibland tillsammans med sin flickvän, som pluggar på universitetet och bor hemma hos sina föräldrar. Hans inrutade schema gör att han inte längre har några andra vänner i Göteborg. Mest umgås han med ett gäng utländska åkare som han träffar på tävlingarna. När han är hemma sitter han mest på sängen och tittar på akvariet. Han älskar sina fiskar och kan studera "deras beteende" timmar i sträck.

Som om det inte vore nog med allt annat verkar fiskarna vara sjuka. Han visar mig en lapp som är resultatet av flera timmar framför akvariet där han noggrant antecknat vad fiskarna gör. Där står saker som: "hostar upp mat" och "rycker på kroppen". Han har också räknat deras andetag: 80-110 per minut istället för 60 som är normalt. Adrian ska ta med listan till en djuraffär för att få hjälp att ställa en diagnos och köpa rätt medicin. Själv misstänker han gälparasiter.

If Mujicomp is all about devices we're comfortable inviting into our homes, shouldn't we be inviting in devices that will be comfortable in those environments? Not awkward, seeking attention through flashing lights or occasional, violent bursts into life, but well-appointed, content devices. Devices that are as happy "asleep" as "awake", that don't crave attention with bright screens, but earn it through modest usefulness, and good companionship. House-trained products.

The Kindle, much like a paperback book, is just as happy "asleep" as it is in use. It's a reminder that the design of genuinely ubiquitous devices and products is not just about what they are like in use; it is also about what they are like when they are just present.

In an article in the American Magazine, on the service to the community ofthe control and abatement of disease and pain by medical science, Dr. William Osier says in consideration of the value of vaccination: "A great deal of literature has been distributed casting discredit upon the value of vaccination in the prevention of smallpox. I do not see how any one who has gone through epidemics as I have, or who is familiar with the history of the subject, and who has any capacity left for clear judgment, can doubt its value. Some months ago I was twitted by the editor of the Journal ofthe Anti Vaccination League for a curious silence on this subject. I would like to issue a Mount Carmel like challenge to any ten unvaccinated priests of Baal. I will go into the next severe epidemic with ten selected vaccinated persons and ten selected unvaccinated persons. I should prefer to choose the latter--three members of parliament, three anti-vaccination doctors, ifthey could be found, and four anti-vaccination propagandists. And I will make this promise -- neither to jeer nor to jibe when they catch the disease, but to look after them as brothers, and for the four or five who are certain to die I will try to arrange the funerals with all the pomp and ceremony of an antivaccination demonstration.

I Svensk biblioteksförenings klassifikationssystem skulle Bibliotekstjuven utan tvivel kategoriseras under Hoa.02 - klassisk tragedi. Ingenting kan rädda den buttra bibliotekarien från undergången. På vägen dit får Gustaf Skarsgård gott om tillfällen att briljera i sin förlorarfrisyr, förlorartröja och allmänna förloraruppsyn.

Luntorna må redan vara stulna av plunderhungriga soldater, men trots att seriens cyniska huvudperson försöker hävda motsatsen framstår det som ett brott mot civilisatoriskt fundamentala idéer om samlingarnas kulturhistoriska helighet att i dag flytta böckerna från offentliga institutioner till den slutna samlarmarknaden.

Även böcker från KIs bibliotek stals av bibliotekstjuven, ingen vet med säkerhet hur många, men ett antal har återlämnats och finns numera i Hagströmerbiblioteket.

So in my 21st-century adaptation of Gogol's genius book (Dead Souls) the main character is a tech company founder, and he's trying to buy up dead SULs - Suspended User Lists - from Facebook. He's making the rounds of the startup scene trying to convince other CEOs to participate in this basically illegal practice of selling people's FB accounts so that... well you'll have to keep reading to find out!

Improbable Research uppmärksammar Kjetil Falkenberg Hansens doktorsavhandling vid KTH - The acoustics and performance of DJ scratching (PDF) - möjligtvis den första akademiska avhandlingen i världen om turntablism.

For seven hours on that Saturday, 20 speakers held forth on a range of seemingly dreary diversions, from "The Intangible Beauty of Car Park Roofs" and "Personal Reflections on the English Breakfast," to "The Draw in Test Match Cricket" and "My Relationship With Bus Routes." Meanwhile, some of the 200 audience members--each of whom had paid £15 (about $24) for a ticket--tried not to nod off.