Weekend Reading XXIII
by uber
The 23rd of its kind.
- There never was a red phone in the Oval Office
- Ebony Car Parts
- Engineering on a Massive Scale
- Table Manners
- The 30-year design
- Fear in the modern world
There never was a red phone in the Oval Office
Funny when cultural touch-stones which seem so very real, because they are repeated so often in fiction, turn out to be illusory. It really can be a bit of a shock. Similar effects seem to be observable with shock paddles and insta-knockout anaesthetics and other narrative devices.
If there’s one symbol that conveys the power, secrecy, responsibilities, and brinkmanship of the modern presidency it’s the red phone, the direct line of communication from the White House to Moscow. Funny thing though: It’s a myth.
Ebony Car Parts
Context decides the cost of actions, items in the most unpredictable and sometimes astonishing ways. I like the idea this article brings up, though it’s easy to draw the wrong conclusion about ‘programmed obsolescence’, ‘manufactured fragility’ and other anti-globalisation, anti-modern and frankly anti-intellectual concepts.
https://medium.com/african-makers/c52770670f9d
At first, I had trouble figuring out exactly what was going on. Paulo sat on a small cushion on the ground with a piece of pod mahogany held between his toes, tapping away at it with a mallet and a crude gouge. The original part, made of black injection-molded plastic, lay beside him, and he paused to study it periodically.
“What are you making?” I asked.
“It’s for a Honda,” he said. “Part of the door.”
Table Manners
I didn’t know that American table manners were so different to the British Isles. I actually experienced a bit of culture shock when I discovered the cut-and-stow method. It amazed me to discover something so simple could be so different. Also, the American switch seems really annoying.
http://www.thekitchn.com/fork-knife-skills-is-it-time-to-retire-the-american-cutandswitch-191641
When you eat your dinner, do you keep the fork in your left hand and knife in your right, as diners in Europe do? Or do you employ the American “cut-and-switch,” putting the knife down after you cut your food and switching the fork to your right hand to eat? The latter method has been the polite way to eat since we picked up the habit from the French sometime during the nineteenth century. That’s right, the cut-and-switch is actually an old European habit, one that fell out of fashion around the mid-1800s. Is it time for Americans to give up this inefficient eating style too?
Engineering on a Massive Scale: what could have been
While there is a wistful sense that the devil-may-care era of ‘the world is ours to change as Man wills it’ has passed, we do still build amazingly large projects. The sheer vision required, and the type of person who wants to leave that sort of mark, can be as interesting a subject as the project itself.
http://gizmodo.com/6-radical-infrastructure-schemes-that-almost-changed-ny-636053287
These days, the ballooning cost of construction combined with environmental and preservation issues conspire to make extreme infrastructural projects a moot point. Hell, it’s taken us almost a century to build the 2nd Avenue Subway. But in the middle of the 20th century, a booming economy and a renaissance in public infrastructure made it seem like anything was possible in New York—literally, anything.
The 30-year design
I didn’t enjoy Dwarf Fortress, this is almost certain evidence that I am lame/haven’t invested enough time in it/lack intellectual depth/lack curiosity/lack skill (delete as applicable). I do think the design and the process travel far beyond the domain of the real into the domain of madness and self-delusion. Still, deluded time-frames sometimes create amazing things.
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/195148/dwarf_fortress_in_2013.php?print=1
Adams says that whenever he becomes bored of a specific element of the game, he can simply go off and work on something else completely different instead. “Like, if I got sick of geology, I wouldn’t have to look at geology again for 10 years, right?” he laughs. “You can just go do something else.”
Fear
It’s addictive to hear about global catastrophe, personal tragedy and the existential threats of countless daily events and objects. I think it’s in part because we know there’s nothing we can do about it, so it’s a chance to indulge without feeling a need to do anything.
http://robrhinehart.com/?p=572
People today are much more likely to die from the complications of an unnaturally long, enjoyable life than war or famine. No one has ever hospitalized by artificial sweeteners or fluoridated tap water. Curious what actually has been overwhelmingly linked to the onset of cancer, heart disease, and a host of other ailments? Stress. Our world is more peaceful, healthy, and productive than ever, yet people are terrified of it. To really lower one’s risk of cancer one of the best things to do is stop worrying and enjoy your life and the people in it. The only modern idea worth being afraid of is the fear-mongering itself.
Given that we are continually receiving additional energy from the sun it makes sense that our planet would run up, not down. Despite what a tired mind would believe, things are going to get better, not worse. The future is going to be unrecognizably awesome.
Comments
The ebony car parts is exactly right – once you’re off the ‘just in time’ logistics network things get strange; down in Port Harcourt I used to see the most ancient of trucks, things from the Soviet Union, things from old British marques that are long done now – all staggering along. When the cost of labour is relatively tiny odd things happen – I think Agatha Christie is quoted as saying she never thought she would be so wealthy as to have an automobile, nor so poor to not have servants – I would understand this as an echo of what it was like everywhere before WWI; capital assets were expensive, manual labor was cheap. My father was in Turkey and saw some elaborate concrete work for peoples houses and he said that as the formwork needed to pour concrete in such a shape would only ever be done for major projects in Ireland (I guess most of the OECD), to see it on someones house in a nondescript area instantly told him labor was cheap and expert carpenters plentiful.
Dwarf Fortress… is fascinating in something akin to ice sculpture – very cool but not something I want to have to figure out myself.
Yes you knew American table manners were different from the ones here. I distinctly remember you and xaosseed pointing and laughing at me while I worked my way through a salad at our mutual friend’s wedding some 8.5 years ago.
As harrowing as that experience was, at least it was straightforward. ;) The differences between here and there are subtle and pernicious and almost impossible to discern until you screw up. Then you have to make a perception check versus THEIR etiquette score to figure out that something is wrong. And if you pass the check, you then have to figure out WHAT you did wrong. Combined with the food issues I already have, it’s probably no wonder I lost a fuquetonne of weight when I was here in college. I was too afraid to eat.
@Xaosseed:
The fact that it’s efficient to bring lamb to Ireland from New Zealand to sell just shows how complex value chains have become.
@Dixie:
I’ve no memory of that, but I trust you. It truly has become very difficult to know what is the best option, and how much compromise is reasonable. Things like when to start, when to wait, how to hold items and so on are all difficult and varied. One real challenge is that American guides all to often confuse ‘European’ manners with the British Isles. The way the French and Germans (and presumably Italians, Spaniards and so on) conduct formal and informal service is quite different. You could come armed with good decorum for the table in London or Dublin, and end up being a boor in Paris.
I hope I shall never be so old as to be unable to savour the joy of being a boor on the continent.
I have always found Americans rather odd in their habits, which are often rooted in older norms than our own. I suppose it’s one of the things I find fascinating about them – like their bizarre insistence that they don’t have a class system.