Wednesday, August 27, 2008
boat at sunset
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via [daily dose of imagery] on 8/26/08
Shot at Toronto's Centre Island. Shot 15 minutes before this shot.
Bigger size for wallpaper at flickr.
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Tuesday, August 26, 2008
Beijing 2008: Men's 800m
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via The Science of Sport by noreply@blogger.com (Ross Tucker and Jonathan Dugas) on 8/22/08
Men's 800m: Anyone's race and a discussion of 800m pacing physiologyThe final day of athletics competition in Beijing brings with it one of our most anticipated races of the Games - the Men's 800m event. As we wrote yesterday, the event has already thrown up some huge surprises, because three of the big favourites failed to even qualify for the final! Yuriy Borzakovskiy Mbulaeni Mulaudzi, and Abubaker Kaki Kamis all failed to advance from their semifinals in what must be one of the most open, competitive and unpredictable events in athletics.
The race without the favourites should be fascinating, and any one of the eight athletes could win it. Most impressive in qualifying has been Wilfred Bungei (who has the experience to boot), and so I'd probably bet on him if forced to. But really, any one of the other seven could beat him - look for Kirwa Yego (also of Kenya) to be competitive, and for a "dark-horse", keep an eye on Gary Reed of Canada.
Today's post is not so much an event preview, however, as it is an examination of the fascinating physiology of the event. So here is the physiology of 800m running, which will hopefully provide some more insight on the events that will unfold in Beijing tomorrow.
A tactical game: Pacing and strategy as vital as physiology
The 800m distance is fascinating because it straddles the divide between what people usually refer to as "sprinting" and "middle distance" running. To some, it is the first of the middle distance events, whereas to others, it's the last of the sprints. Of course, using such jargon can pose challenges, but generally, when people refer to a sprint, they refer to an event where the athlete goes 'flat out'. This is of course never true, because even in a 200m race, there is some pacing, as evidenced by people who go out a little too fast and end up faltering in the final 40 to 50m! By failing to pace herself properly, Sanya Richards demonstrated the value of pacing in the 400m event, when she got it wrong and was reeled in by two athletes in the final earlier this week in Beijing. So pacing is certainly as vital in sprints as in middle distance races, which brings us to an analysis of the 800m event.
Coaches (and physiologists) have often spoken of an aerobic-anaerobic divide for different events, and they often refer to the 800m distance as being a 50% split for each. That is, they say that approximately 50% of the energy comes from aerobic sources, 50% from anaerobic. This is a contentious issue in itself, one that I would argue with, as recent evidence suggests there is no black and white split between the energy sources. It's more likely, based on recent work, that the aerobic component is far larger - even in 400m running, it's almost 50-50.
What is optimal pacing?
It is often said that the ideal way to run an endurance race is to aim for what are called 'even splits'. In other words, the first half and second half should be run in the same time. If you are a 10km runner, for example, the ideal strategy seems to be to run even pace the whole way. An underperformance happens when you either start too fast and slow down (called a positive split – the first half will be faster) or you finish very fast, running the second half faster than the first (called a negative split). For most recreational runners, aiming for a negative split is probably the prudent approach, recommended as a safety first option.
To fully appreciate pacing strategies, you have to look at a range of different events, and so we'll look briefly at the track events from 800m upwards. We'll do it in reverse order, and work our way backwards to the 800m event.
10 000m distance – even pace is the way to go, with a fast finish
In the men's 10000m distance, 34 world records have been set in the modern era. It's quite clear from the graph that on average, the race is even paced, with a fast start, more consistent period in the middle, and the final kilometer is fastest. In fact, in 33 out of the 34 world records, the final kilometer was the fastest of the race. What this means, practically, is that even the elite have left themselves something in reserve for the final kilometer. You may be thinking that this indicates that the athletes are not performing maximally, because surely, if you have enough for a sprint at the end, you might have been able to go quicker in the middle part? And you'd probably be right, and that's one of the big unknowns in exercise science - what does this reserve mean, and how can it be accessed sooner (or more fully?)
We did discuss this issue in our series on Fatigue earlier this year, and you might spend some time looking at that for futher insights. The very summarized version is that the brain prevents the runner from ever fully accessing muslce motor units until the end of the bout, when the "danger" has passed. The "sprint" at the end is the manifestation of that reserve, but it's not a simple matter of accessing sooner, because it serves an important regulatory function as it protects against possible damage during exercise. The great atheltes go closer to the "limit" than others, it's part (though not all) of their advantage.
Men's 5000m – similar to the 10000m, the pace is even, with a final kilometer kick
There have been 32 world records in the 5000m event, and the pacing is very similar to that of the 10000m. The first and final kilometers are faster than the middle three kilometers, which again suggests that the middle kilometers are somewhat 'conservative'. The final kilometer has been fastest in 21 of the 32 world records. In the other 11, it has been the first kilometer that is fastest. So for those wondering about tactics, they are certainly in play, but they have never once produced a fastest kilometer in the middle of a 5km race.
Men's 1 mile – a much more even pace
The men's mile event begins to get down into the range where speeding up at the end is a lot more difficult to do. On average, the final lap is run in the same speed as the first lap. In fact, in more than half the world records set, the first lap is actually faster.
There is still a drop in pace in the middle part of the race, but the overall strategy is even, in contrast to the longer races, where the fast final kilometer ensures that the second half is usually faster. So here, in the even that lasts about 4 minutes, we see a subtle change, which has physiological relevance. Because the even pace in the mile suggests we are getting down to the point where speeding up at the end is becoming increasingly difficult for optimal performance. Which brings us to the 800m race…
800 m – it's not possible to run optimal times with a faster second lap
In the 800m event, 26 world records have been set. The graph below shows the average lap times in these 26 races. It's immediately clear that the second half is quite a lot slower than the first. Some of you may be thinking, hang on a moment, what about the 200m splits? Unfortunately, they are not available for the 26 world records, but in the ones they are available, they follow the same pattern – the first 200m is fastest, followed by the second, and the pace gets slower and slower.
So this is a departure from what we've seen before – suddenly, speeding up at the end of an 800m doesn't happen. In fact, in the 26 world records, the second lap has only been faster than the first on ONLY two occasions. Therefore, a world record seems to require that you run a fast first lap, and then hang on in the second, but speeding up does not appear to be an option.
Some of you may now be questioning this statement. Among the biggest challenges would be the assumption that you're seeing 'optimal performances'. And of course, this is true. If a guy goes out and run 1:46, who is to say that is not optimal? Perhaps it is. However, I still maintain that with this pacing strategy observed in 24 out of 26 world records, the best way to run the race is to run the first lap faster than the second. On average, the difference is 2 seconds. This means a first lap of 50 seconds would be followed by a second lap of 52 seconds.
What is even more interesting is that the two fastest second lap times ever achieved in 800 m world record performances were run in 1972 and 1966 respectively. The graph below shows the lap times from all the world records, and if you look at the panel on the right, you will see that the second lap time of a world record performance has not improved in 35 years, since Dave Wottle broke the world record with a time of 1:44.3 (min:s) and a second lap of 51.40 seconds in 1972.
The current world record holder, Wilson Kipketer, has broken the world record on three occasions, with second lap times of 52.12, 52.90 and 51.80 seconds. Therefore, a 3.2 second reduction in the world record in the 800 m event between 1966 and 1997, from 1:44.3 to 1:41.11, has been achieved by running the first lap significantly faster, rather than an improved ability to increase running speed on the second lap.
The Figure below shows the lap times for the 26 world records in the 800m event. The left panel is the first lap, the right panel is the second lap
Another interesting fact is that the second lap is slower even in the Olympic Games, where the first lap is often tactical and slow. In other words, a slow, tactical first lap is still followed by a slower (on average) second lap, despite your perceptions that the athletes are "sprinting" for the line! The average first lap in the Olympic Games finals is 52.8 seconds and the second lap is 53.4 seconds.
What this suggests is that the ability to run faster during the second lap of an 800 m is limited, and so the optimal pacing strategy may consist of a faster start followed by a relatively slower second lap. I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that if you are an 800m athlete, or you are coaching an 800m athlete, if you want that athlete to run their best, you have to plan for a second lap that is about 2 to 3 seconds slower than the first. So, if the goal is 2 minutes, it's not good enough to aim for a first lap of 60 seconds. It has to be 58, because if your athlete is going maximally, then he should slow down to a 61 something on the second lap, giving him a final time just under 2 minutes.
Similarly, if you want to break the world record, forget about running the second lap in 51 seconds. It's not going to happen. Therefore, you must plan for a second lap of 52 seconds, which means the first lap must be 49 seconds, or faster. This is also an indication of the sort of speed needed to challenge Kipketer's world record – you have to be able to run a 400m in 48.5 seconds as part of an 800m race. Your basic 400m speed therefore needs to be down in the 45's, maybe 46 seconds (but that starts cutting it fine).
So looking ahead to the 800m final…
The 800m final is more likely to be a tactical affair, unless someone has decided that his best shot is to follow in the Women's champion's (Palema Jelimo) footsteps and go as fast as possible from the gun. Jelimo found a willing ally in Jepkosgei, which is unlikely in the men's race. So therefore, a slightly slower race might be expected, and this means the race will be roughly evenly-paced.
I suspect the first lap will be run in about 52 seconds (wild guess), meaning that the second lap will probably be run in about 52.5 seconds. You'll note that this is still a slower second lap, which is really interesting from a physiological point of view – why can you speed up in a 1500m, 5000m and 10000m race, but not the 800m race? Is it a different type of fatigue? Again, I've said this before, but it's worth repeating – we don't really know what causes this, and if anyone tells you they do, they're lying! It's quite a mystery.
But for the race, it means that the athlete who has the ability to maintain speed is likely to come out on top. In the past, the former Olympic Champion, Yuriy Borsaikovsky, was the master of the "fast finish". I hope that by reading this, you now appreciate that this is not 100% correct – the truth is that he wasn't necessarily the fastest finisher, but rather that he was the least slowing finisher! So his strategy was to hang back over the first 400m, which added about 1 second to his lap time. But he was able to maintain a pace on the second lap that was much closer to the first lap, and appeared to have an incredible finish. I don't have the data, but I would suspect that in his major victories, he ran roughly even splits (between 0 and + 0/5 s), when the rest of the field were running a positive of at least 1 to 2 seconds.
Of course, when Borzakovskiy or anyone else goes out for a fast time, he has to run the first lap in 49 seconds - the speed is "limited" on that second lap and simply can't be much faster than a 52.
Anyway, returning to Beijing, the race will come down to the final 300m, where tactics will be incredibly important. As will speed-endurance – the ability to sustain a fast pace on the second lap, running as close to even splits as possible is a unique physiological ability. That is what makes the race so unpredictable. We saw the fastest man in the world (Kaki Kamis) "disappear" from the race in his semi-final, and so calling it will be difficult. But I'd guess that Bungei comes through, winning perhaps from Reed and Kirwa Yego. Then again, I thought Kaki Kamis and Borzakovskiy would be racing for gold!
Enjoy!
RossThe Science of Sport Dr. Ross Tucker Dr. Jonathan Dugas
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Sunday, August 24, 2008
Canada's Biggest Election Final
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via CalgaryGrit by calgarygrit on 8/24/08
After starting with 16, we're down to the final round of Canada's Biggest Election. The 1988 Free Trade Election crushed the competition in every round on the federal side, while the 1944 Saskatchewan election eeked out a 2 vote win over 1976 Quebec to take the title of the biggest provincial election.So the final is set. The excitement of '88, against the long term impact of '44. Voting is open until Wednesday at 10 pm.
| What Was Canada's Biggest Election? |
|---|
| (1) 1988 Federal Election |
| (2) 1944 Saskatchewan Provincial Election |
| See Results |
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Friday, August 22, 2008
Art Gallery of Ontario
Back in the day
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Thursday, August 21, 2008
Yes We Canoe
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via Torontoist by David Topping on 8/21/08
Some fifty-odd canoeists and kayakists collected on Lake Ontario last night to show some local water-based support for Canada's Olympic canoe and kayak teams.
The get-together, brainstormed over beers by Jeff Needham of the Complete Paddler and David Newland, included paddlers from the Harbourfront Canoe and Kayak Centre, The Complete Paddler, Canoe.ca, and the Virtual Voyageurs Canoe Club. The group congregated on the shore at 5:30 and spent two hours paddling around the lake and islands, stopping only when patriotism demanded it.
Newland, the newly-appointed Editor-in-Chief of fittingly-titled news site Canoe.ca, was hoping that the stunt would help Torontonians consider the beauty of their city, "rather than pining for the wilderness." For now, though, his biggest goal is using the CanWest empire he's part of to get word of the paddle out to the athletes in Beijing. Someone should also tell Olympic silver medalist Jason Burnett that we fully intend to seek out a trampoline and jump on it ecstatically. For Canada.
Photo by Jeff Needham
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Getting to Ireland Park
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via Spacing Toronto • understanding the urban landscape by Dylan Reid on 8/21/08
Ireland Park is a lovely, moving park recently created at the foot of Bathurst Street, at the south base of the Malting Silo buildings near the ferry to the island airport. Statues, monuments and an interpretive station commemorate the landing of thousands of desperate Irish immigrants, many of them sick, escaping the Irish famine in 1847. Spacing has written about the park both in our print magazine, before the park was opened, and online.
The weird thing, though, is there is no officially permitted way to actually get to the park.
The obvious entrance is along the quay from the foot of Bathurst Street. But there's a prominent sign at this entrance saying "DANGER: KEEP OFF", presumably because the quay is crumbling and considered unsafe. So to get to the park this way, you have to disobey a municipal sign and engage in behaviour officially deemed risky (although, really, the quay is in decent enough shape and doesn't seem to offer any real danger).
There's another entrance through a driveway, but this one is through a municipal urban forestry site and is even more forbidden, with a sign saying "Private Property: No Trespassing".
The Malting Silo site, meanwhile, is thoroughly fenced off, so there is no access there.
It seems pretty bizarre to build a park but not provide any permitted way to actually get to it. In practical terms it's easy to get there, of course — you just walk along the quay — but citizens shouldn't have to break regulations in order to access their parkland.
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Friday, August 15, 2008
The Christie Pits Riot and the birth of multicultural Toronto
via Posted Toronto by Rob Roberts on 8/15/08
(Toronto Archives; fonds 1266, Globe and Mail Collection, item 30791)
By Brianna Goldberg, National Post
The picture seen above, the only image of the anti-Semitic rampage known as the Christie Pits Riot, wasn't published in 1933. By newspaper standards of its time, the frantic image taken by a photographer at the Globe was deemed too streaky to print, for all the movement it captured.
Four papers wrote about the riot. Their details were streaky, too: Hours of violence. Bricks and pipes. Blood. And, of course, the swastikas.
For Jews, the story became something passed between family members as legend; it became a symbol of the second-generation Canadian Jews who asserted themselves.
But to the city at large it is coming to mean more, a symbol of the first stages of a multicultural Toronto. Sunday, Heritage Toronto unveils a plaque to commemorate the 75th anniversary of its anti-Jewish violence.
The story goes like this:
The first summer after Hitler came to power in Germany, Toronto temperatures blasted past the thermometer's 100 F mark for many, many days as Canada suffered through the deepest moment of the Depression.
Many Jews in Toronto, most working in stifling warehouses near Spadina Avenue's garment district, were deemed not welcome by resorts in Northern Ontario, and thus made a weekend routine of shooting eastward along the Queen Street streetcar to cool relief at the shores of Kew Beach.
The locals complained that the Jewish visitors were littering orange peels. The locals complained they were changing into their bathing suits in the open air. And, soon, the locals more menacingly expressed their displeasure by taking a cue from the headlines they would have read about Hitler, and founded their own "swastika clubs."
The only thing that prevented a riot from happening along the shores in those days of the swastika clubs was the swift action of a few police officers, and an agreement brokered by the mayor that "officially," but certainly not effectively, disbanded the swastika clubs.
So when the all-Jewish Harbord Playground baseball team took the pitch against the non-Jewish St. Peter's team for the city's semi-finals in the coming weeks, the swastika supporters and those they aimed to intimidate were there in force and ready to scrap.
The first game on Aug. 16, 1933, came and went amidst catcalls, pushing, shoving, and a shirt waved around with a swastika sewn into the back.
But it wasn't until the second game, after St. Peter's caught the ball for the final out of the game, that local anti-Semitic thugs, part of a group called The Pit Gang, stood up on a small hill behind the field and unfurled a bed sheet painted with a black swastika.
Jewish supporters rushed the toughs holding the sheet. Nazi supporters rushed the Jews. Residents around the park (who, census statistics show, were overwhelmingly WASPs) spilled out of their homes and into the street armed with broom handles. And so began the six-hour riot.
This is where the newspaper reports start to diverge, and urban myth takes over.
Dr. Levitt says the legend goes that trucks were commandeered, and trolled along roads in the traditionally Jewish neighbourhood of Kensington Market as passengers called out that Jews were being attacked in the Pits.
People grabbed whatever they could find — a brick, a pipe, brass knuckles, a pool cue — and ran north to become a part of the swarm in the park.
Some say there were hundreds. Or else thousands. Or else tens of thousands there that night.
And the legend, according to Dr. Levitt, says it was the first time Toronto's Jews stood up for themselves.
It was this richness of the Christie Pits folklore that motivated literary journalist Judy Stoffman to chair a committee that would create a definitive Heritage Toronto plaque in the first place.
"I just kept coming across novels and short stories that use the riot as a background, and I was intrigued by the way it had entered the consciousness of the city," she said. "Traumatic historical events like that... they trouble you. They trouble the writers. And I was puzzled why there was no marker for an event like that."
Ms. Stoffman got the go-ahead from Heritage Toronto, and invited academics and politicians to be part of a committee to make the plaque. She said they endlessly edited its wording, and even fund-raised for it to be made. Sunday, they will unveil the piece of bronze, which makes a place in the city's official history for the night of racial violence.
National Post columnist Robert Fulford wrote the forward to Levitt and Shaffir's book on Christie Pits. In it, he laments his own ignorance of the riot, and ascribes it to his theory that "colonies, by nature, lack self-awareness and a sense of their own past; they believe that matters of note happen elsewhere."
Now, 20 years later, he still describes it as "a very small event in the history of the world."
"Nobody will ever think of it as a great Canadian event," he says. "But in a way, it was an expression of the multiculturalism that would be, in the future.
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
T-Shirt Design of the Day
for some reason I find this terribly amusing. I think it's like the Calvin & Hobbes cartoons of snowmen in the front yard.
via The Adventures of Accordion Guy in the 21st Century : Joey deVilla's Personal Blog by Joey deVilla on 8/13/08
Here's a great t-shirt design fans of sports, monster movies or Gahan Wilson-esque humour — it's titled Foam Monster in Emotional Reunion with Severed Limb:
Click the image to visit the T-shirt's order page.
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
island mirror
via [daily dose of imagery] on 8/12/08
Boats at Toronto's Island.
In case you are wondering; although it might look it, this not an HDR image in the classic mixed exposures sense of the word. It's only one exposure and is processed in Lightroom 2 (Just like yesterday's photo)
How to Access Pandora From Anywhere in the World
Woot!
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via Wired Top Stories by Scott Gilbertson on 8/11/08
Thanks to legal restrictions, the free music streaming service, built on the Music Genome Project, Pandora is available only in the United States. It's OK, we've got some tips to getting around the restriction by setting up a proxy to make it look like you're from the United States, even if you're not. Things you can do from here:
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How Do You Like Them Apples?
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via Taste T.O. - Food & Drink In Toronto by Sheryl Kirby on 8/12/08
Got fruit? Many older houses in Toronto sport a fruit tree of some kind in the yard. From mulberries to apples, sour cherries to pears, backyards across the city offer a trove of hidden seasonal treasure. But in the recent real estate boom, plenty of people find themselves moving into a property that includes fruit trees in the yard and don't know what to do with the things. Especially when it comes to harvesting the stuff. Even if they manage to pick their fill, there's usually a lot left over – some for the birds and squirrels, but even more that goes to waste.
An organization called not far from the tree aims to change that, allowing homeowners to share their harvest with local charities, and with volunteers who will come and harvest the fruit in exchange for a share of the crop.
The project started last year when Laura Reinsborough volunteered at the Green Barn Farmers Market and found herself in charge of harvesting apples from the orchard at Spadina Museum to sell at the market. "I had never picked an apple before," explains Reinsborough, "and all of a sudden I had this apple-selling business on my hands. And it just kind of grew from there."
Partner Suzanne Long now runs the museum/market aspect of the project, which includes a weekly drop-in harvest on Saturday mornings and selling the rare, heritage apples from the museum's gardens at the market in the afternoon. Museum staff give demos and tours of the gardens, and volunteers help to pick fruit from the trees, many of which are over a hundred years old. Much of that fruit goes back into the museum, to be used in cooking demos in the Victorian kitchen, but the extra fruit is transported by bike or cart to the market, just over a kilometer away, and profit from the produce sales are funneled back into the museum's garden.
Meanwhile Reinsborough has taken on an even more ambitious project, which is the residential fruit harvesting arm of not far from the tree.
Currently working only in Ward 41, which is Reinsborough's neighbourhood, and allows her to transport the donated fruit by bicycle, residents can register their tree with the organization and a team of volunteer fruit gleaners will come by, with all the necessary gear, including ladders, bags, and rakes for clean-up, and will harvest ripe fruit from the tree. Homeowners who are also animal lovers can also request that a certain amount of fruit be left on the tree for local birds and squirrels.
All harvested fruit is split three ways, with one third to the homeowner, one third divided up among the gleaners, and the final third taken by Reinsborough to a local charity, either the Wychwood Open Door Program, or NaMeRes, a 61-bed native men's residence shelter. Since NaMeRes is open 24 hours, many harvests are scheduled for early evening so Reinsborough can drop off the fruit on her way home, although she's been known to freeze more perishable fruit such as cherries when she can't do the delivery right away.
Since the beginning of July, not far from the tree has done an average of 2 to 3 harvests per week, and just last week broke the one thousand pound mark in terms of fruit harvested. "I'm having a great summer!" Reinsborough laughs as she calculates these numbers in her head.
Currently the residential harvest program is only available in Ward 21/St. Clair West, although the group will register trees from anywhere in the city. Reinsborough admits to being overwhelmed by the amount of interest in the project and realizes that the scope of a city-wide project is too big for one girl on a bike to handle. Her hope is that not far from the tree will eventually develop into a network of neighbourhood-based fruit tree initiatives across the city, all harvesting local fruit and sharing it with local charities.
In the meantime, owners of residential fruit trees are encouraged to contact the group to register their tree(s), even if they're not in Ward 21. And anyone interested in volunteering can do so in one of two ways. The Saturday morning events at Spadina House are drop-in style – just show up, sign a volunteer waiver and get picking. To volunteer for the residential harvests, simply contact the group via their website, where gleaners are added to a mailing list and receive notification about upcoming harvests.
It may take a few years before the every fruit tree in the city is accounted for and harvested, but the benefits of a program like not far from the tree are far-reaching. Homeowners have someone to help them harvest (and eat) their backyard fruit; charities get free, fresh fruit to feed or distribute among their clients; and local people who volunteer to be gleaners get to enjoy being part of the harvest and reap the benefit of a bag of apples or apricots for their hard work. And everyone can be satisfied in knowing that tons of local, usually organic, food that would otherwise go to waste will be put to good use.
Photos 1 and 4 are from the not far from the tree flickr photo stream.
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Friday, August 08, 2008
Map of the Week: A view of Upper Canada's infancy
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via Map of the Week by Toronto Star on 8/7/08
Elizabeth Simcoe traveled to Upper Canada with her husband John Graves Simcoe after his appointment as first British governor of the colony in 1791. They would stay for the next five years.
As well as her more famous diary, Simcoe produced a series of sketches and watercolours of the traveled areas along the St. Lawrence and Lake Ontario, then a string of tiny settlements perched on the edge of the wilderness.
At least one was painted on birch bark. Some of her subjects still exist, like the Scadding Cabin, now at the CNE grounds. Some are recognizable from natural features, like Queenston and Cootes Paradise. Others have vanished, like the Long Sault rapids near Cornwall, which were drowned to make way for the St. Lawrence Seaway.
More images can be found at the online exhibit of Simcoe's work at the Ontario Archives site.
Click on image to see map.
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Thursday, August 07, 2008
"Is Google Making Us Stupid?": sources and notes
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via Rough Type: Nicholas Carr's Blog by nick on 8/7/08
Since the publication of my essay Is Google Making Us Stupid? in The Atlantic, I've received several requests for pointers to sources and related readings. I've tried to round them up below.
The essay builds on my book The Big Switch: Rewiring the World, from Edison to Google, particularly the final chapter, "iGod." The essential theme of both the essay and the book – that our technologies change us, often in ways we can neither anticipate nor control – is one that was frequently, and deeply, discussed during the last century, in books and articles by such thinkers as Lewis Mumford, Eric A. Havelock, J. Z. Young, Marshall McLuhan, and Walter J. Ong.
The screenplay for the film 2001: A Space Odyssey was written by Stanley Kubrick and Arthur C. Clarke. Clarke's book 2001, a lesser work than the film, was based on the screenplay rather than vice versa.
Scott Karp's blog post about how he's lost his capacity to read books can be found here, and Bruce Friedman's post can be found here. Both Karp and Friedman believe that what they've gained from the Internet outweighs what they've lost. An overview of the University of College London study of the behavior of online researchers is here. Maryanne Wolf's fascinating Proust and the Squid: The Story and Science of the Reading Brain was published last year by Harpercollins.
I found the story of Friedrich Nietzsche's typewriter in J. C. Nyíri's essay Thinking with a Word Processor as well as Friedrich A. Kittler's winningly idiosyncratic Gramophone, Film, Typewriter and Darren Wershler-Henry's history of the typewriter, The Iron Whim.
Lewis Mumford discusses the impact of the mechanical clock in his 1934 Technics and Civilization. See also Mumford's later two-volume study The Myth of the Machine. Joseph Weizenbaum's Computer Power and Human Reason remains one of the most thoughtful books written about the human implications of computing. Weizenbaum died earlier this year, and I wrote a brief appreciation of him here.
Alan Turing's 1936 paper on the universal computer was titled On Computable Numbers, with an Application to the Entscheidungsproblem. Tom Bodkin's explanation of the New York Times's design changes came in this Slate interview with Jack Shafer.
For Frederick Winslow Taylor's story, I drew on Robert Kanigel's biography The One Best Way and Taylor's own The Principles of Scientific Management.
Eric Schmidt made his comments about Google's Taylorist goals during the company's 2006 press day. The Harvard Business Review article on Google, "Reverse Engineering Google's Innovation Machine," appeared in the April 2008 issue. Google describes its "mission" here and here. A much lengthier recital of Sergey Brin's and Larry Page's comments on Google's search engine as a form of artificial intelligence, along with sources, can be found at the start of the "iGod" chapter in The Big Switch. Schmidt made his comment about "using technology to solve problems that have never been solved before" at the company's 2006 analyst day.
I used Neil Postman's translation of the excerpt from Plato's Phaedrus, which can be found at the start of Technopoly: The Surrender of Culture to Technology. Walter J. Ong quotes Hieronimo Squarciafico in Orality and Literacy. Clay Shirky's observation about the printing press was made here.
Richard Foreman's "pancake people" essay was originally distributed to members of the audience for Foreman's play The Gods Are Pounding My Head. It was reprinted in Edge. I first noted the essay in my 2005 blog post Beyond Google and Evil.
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Wednesday, August 06, 2008
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