The Decline: The Geography of a Recession →
Graphic time-series of unemployment by county in the United States.
“This is a time-lapse compilation of over 5,000 images taken from dozens of locations inside and outside of Yankees Stadium during Game 6 of the 2009 World Series between The New York Yankees and the Philadelphia Phillies.”
'Road trains' get ready to roll →
Road trains that link vehicles together using wireless sensors could soon be on European roads.
Determining the size of the fiscal multiplier | vox →
Soooo…fiscal stimulus isn’t very effective in modern economies…that sucks…
"...that kind of a machine..."
92Y Podcast: Kurt Vonnegut Reads Breakfast of Champions - 92Y Blog - 92nd Street Y - New York, NY
I can’t believe I’ve made it this long without ever hearing this audio, described as Vonnegut’s “first public reading of the classic Breakfast of Champions, three years before it was published, on May 4, 1970 at the 92nd Street Y.”
Sounds just terrific in the air:
This is a world premiere of a book called, Breakfast of Champions. Not even my wife has seen it — I’ve simply passed the rumor around that it exists. So, here we go. It…uh…it’s a novel.
My name is Dwayne Hoover and I am an experiment by the creator of the universe. I am the only creature in the entire universe who has free will. I am the only creature who has to figure out what to do next and why. Everybody else is a robot.
I am pooped. I wish I were a robot too. It is perfectly exhausting having to reason all the time in a universe I never made.
When you hear Kurt Vonnegut reading this aloud you appreciate the necessity of science fiction; it’s a way we crazy people have of talking about the world without talking about the world. I didn’t always get that, but now I really think I do.
Listen to the whole thing. It’s poetry.
