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Making Time
The history of standard time began in the mid-1800s, when train companies in Britain began to adopt a time standard based on the sun position at the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, England, called Greenwich Mean Time (GMT). Before this, every town would have its own time standard.
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Chicago on TV
The Chicago of the last twenty years has tended to stay out of the limelight, unless it is cast as an oasis for bros through the filter of Vince Vaughn (The Dilemma), or functions as the setting for Gotham in The Dark Knight. This is where The Chicago Code steps in, and with the city’s…
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Slow Your Roll
The opening of the McDonald’s on the Spanish Steps in Rome was the catalyst that drove Carlo Petrini to found the Slow Food movement in 1986. The 14000-square-foot, 800-seat McDonald’s, one of the largest in the world, has also been described as one of the most elegant, featuring frescoes, statue replicas, and a stone tile…
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Absurdistan
Last night, the carrier rocket sent a special container with the sacred symbols of Turkmenistan: the flag and the unique philosophical work by Saparmurat Niyazov, Ruhnama, to the near-earth orbit from the Baikonur space center. Ruhnama is a messenger of space and good. It delivers clandestine, interesting facts from the past to the present. Ruhnama…
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Basement Drones
I met Rachel Razza of Ultra Dome, Jeffrey Roman of Sky Stadium, and Dan Svizeny of Cough Cool (and others), in the Terrace parking lot on a sunny afternoon.
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Bombs and Hookers
“Innovator”—Plains (Link) At first we think it’s a requiem; the minors chords on a solo guitar, “ROOSEVELT DIES SUDDENLY” as the featured headline. The women weep as Truman kisses the Bible, then as shadows descend over the mountains the soldiers don their goggles with resolve. Grief is somehow implied in their faces as they set…
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Robot Unicorn Attacked
In the last 30 days, the town of Princeton has searched for “robot unicorn attack” on average (that is as percentage of total traffic) 25 times as much as Seattle, 30 times as much as Boston and Los Angeles, and 50 times as much as New York and Chicago. For those that are unfamiliar, Robot…
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The Story of Suk-ho Peel
Author’s Note: Around 90% of the text of this story is taken verbatim from Wikipedia articles on various famous Princeton alumni, after Kenneth Goldsmith’s lecture and seminar “Uncreative Writing.” If you are curious to know from which alumnus certain details might originate, simply search the text in quotes with the search terms Wikipedia and/or Princeton…