My father was an actor by trade and a sculptor by avocation. He was very good at it, and worked in clay, wood, and stone. When he passed (hang head), most of his work was donated to local musea; a few examples follow.
Paul Muni
Walter Hampden as Cyrano de Bergerac, modeled from life
Negro Dancer, Bronze
King Lear, plaster, destroyed
As a young man during the depression, my father and his first wife would lug his sculptures to a display in Washington Square in New York – heavy work, because most of his materials, such as limestone, granite, and wood came from building debris. In the evening, he would lug them all back to his workshop. Sufficie it to say he was passionate about sculpture, and remained so to the end of his days.
In 1949, he and my mother visited the 3rd International Sculpture exhibition in at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. He was also an avid amateur photographer, and captured some images of the day’s visit. The quality is not spectacular, but there are some interesting pieces to be seen.
Clearly my father’s work was influenced by some of the styles that seemed popular in the day:
Here’s a new one. I fear it will catch some people in its snare, but I’m putting it up here in case anyone is searching to ascertain its validity.
This email is not from General Motors. It is a scam.
The English is riddled with errors. The message promises a payout. There will be “fees” to pay. Do not call the number, or respond in any way.
————————————-
Microsoft Word – GM Mass Zoho Email
To: Undisclosed recipients
Subject: you might want to look at this plan
From: “GM” <jason@mta1.axp4h.com>
GM ANNOUNCES PAYOUT PLAN!
Hello,
I hope this message finds you well. We are writing to inform you of a very important recall. General Motors (GM) as of Monday June 30th, 2014 has put out a recall on over 29 million cars. These cars are being recalled due to many different problems one being a faulty ignition switch. These faulty cars, are causing major accidents and injuries, all the way up to multiple death related accidents. If you or a loved one owns one of these recalled cars and have experienced some type of complication , accident or even death as a result of the accident, we would like for you to call us and let us help you or your loved one be financially compensated , due to GM’s recall. Below are a list of the recalls from GM. If you see your car, or family members’ car listed below. Please call us as soon as possible at 877-210-5546.
It should go without saying that this message is a bald-face lie. General Motors would be ashamed to send out such a poorly-formatted, poorly-worded, error-riddled email.
Please protect yourself and your loved ones – teach them never to respond to mails of this nature. Be careful out there.
Some have billed this as the first brick building in Boston, but that fact is in dispute. What is not in dispute is that this is a wonderful relic from years past.
And looking as it does today:
Google Maps search done by /u/MyApplePie
A stereogram of the Old Corner Bookstore taken in the 19th century
“Threatened with demolition in 1960, the building was “rescued” through a purchase by Historic Boston, Inc. for the sum of $100,000.Historic Boston is a not-for-profit preservation and real estate organization that rehabilitates historic and culturally significant properties in Boston’s neighborhoods so they are a usable part of the city’s present and future. The building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is Boston Landmark under the auspices of the Boston Landmarks Commission.” – Wikipedia
March 1943. “Conductor G. Reynolds, checking his waybills in a caboose of the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad between Argentine and Emporia, Kansas.” Photo by Jack Delano for the Office of War Information.
An eeriliy deserted 6th Avenue, looking south from 40th street. The man’s headline reads ‘Nazi Army Now 75 Miles From Paris.’ The lack of traffic and people, combined with the breakfast special sign, leads one to believe this may have been taken in the early morning.
This is the New York I remember, the one I grew up in. Not too far from my home in that year, either. Notice the street light: no yellow. I remember sitting in my windowsill in 1955 or 1956, on nights when for some odd reason I wasn’t sleepiing, watching the staggered lights turn green or red all the way up Lexington Avenue (we were on 85th) – here’s my view, taken around the same era:
The window to the right was the one I sat in, and I was able to see a couple of miles up the road.
I would pay dearly for a time machine and be able to go back to the City in those days. In many ways it was a lot more interesting than it is today.
This delightful Epic News video by Peter and Chris (two Irish gentlemen with sharp wit) deconstructs the nature of clickbait to make it easy to recognize. The video is irreverent and lowbrow, but spot on and hilarious. Watch at your own risk.
For those who want the executive summary:
You usually see a highly-sensational title that completely misrepresents and oversells whatever content there may or may not be.
Take a headline like “19 Reasons Why Young Marlon Brando Will Ruin You For The Rest of the Day.”
What do these headlines even mean?
What follows is a summary of how to generate successful clickbait:
Don’t waste your time generating original content.
Spend your day lurking on link aggregator sites such as reddit and repackaging other people’s stuff to get maximum shares on social media.
Add a ridiculous claim about something that will happen provided you CLICK
1) Take a simple video of a homeless man playing a tin whistle for his dog.
This homeless man’s music (will change your life) / (will restore your faith in humanity) / (will make your jaw drop) / (will shock you)
2) If possible crowbar in gender, race, or social issues to make it more provocative:
This blind homeless man’s amazing music for his terminally-ill (gay) dog will restore your faith in humanity.
3) Remove as much descriptive information as possible from your headline to create what the industry calls “a curiosity gap.” Replace it with Hyperbole. If the reader can tell what the story is about at a glance, you’ve FAILED!
Wow! A Blind, Homeless man Befriended an Old Adorable Lost Dog, and What Happened Next Will Restore Your Faith in Humanity.
4) If possible, turn it into a bogus list somehow. Use age and target demographics for greater impact.
16 reasons why only 90s Kids from England will Keep Calm and Carry On While Understanding Why This Blind Homeless Man and His Full-Blown Dog-AIDS-Infested Best Friend Will Restore your Faith in Humanity and Change Your Life (Forever).
5) Add a hashtag
#jenniferlawrence
If you need good examples of clickbait, toddle over to ClickHole, the Onion’s (semi)-parody website originally designed as a sharp stick in the eye to BuzzFeed and Upworthy, but now taking on all the media without discrimination.
As the presenters say, there’s a place for this kind of bulldust tabloid journalism, because enquiring minds want to know. The problem arises when so-called “real news” outlets try this stuff and are deadly serious about it.
Now I need to confess that I often scan media outlets and reddit and other sources for things I consider interesting or worthwhile or socially relevant, and share them with my social circles. However, I don’t think I’ve ever asked anyone to “like and share” anything. I’m not a like farmer, it’s a poor way to make money.
The Old Wolf Has Published a Blog Post Accessible from Almost Anywhere in the World, and Reading It Will Change Your Life Forever! #Monsanto
This Initiation Well at Quinta da Regaleira near Sintra, Portugal, one of several connected by tunnels, was never used for water; rather, it was the site of Tarot initiation rites. While beautiful and intriguing, the first thing that ran through my mind when seeing this picture was this:
A recent article in Science Daily outlines some research on how the brain changes in response to curiosity. Executive summary: “The more curious we are about a topic, the easier it is to learn information about that topic.” I’ve long known this about my own mind – if I get really curious to learn something, it absorbs more easily and sticks around longer.
The study revealed three major findings. First, as expected, when people were highly curious to find out the answer to a question, they were better at learning that information. […]
Second, the investigators found that when curiosity is stimulated, there is increased activity in the brain circuit related to reward. […]
Third, the team discovered that when curiosity motivated learning, there was increased activity in the hippocampus, a brain region that is important for forming new memories, as well as increased interactions between the hippocampus and the reward circuit.”
The full article is worth a read.
Bill Watterson illustrated this principle delightfully almost 20 years before this study was ever done. Calvin and Hobbes find a snake in the garden. They marvel at its fluidity, the flicking tongue, wonder how they sleep with their eyes open, what they eat, and realize they know nothing about snakes. Hobbes suggests that perhaps Calvin’s mom would get them a book. It’s a captivating idea, until Calvin realizes that it’s summer vacation, and he’s determined to learn nothing, whereupon Hobbes intones, “If nobody makes you do it, it counts as fun.” The last panel makes the whole strip:
The problem with curiosity today is captured by Randall Munroe in his wonderful XKCD panel:
This holds true not just for Wikipedia or TV Tropes (Stay away! Stay away!) but for the Internet in general. Falling down the rabbit hole makes time compress in a way that Isaac Asimov could never have imagined.
That said, I would have paid dearly for the internet when I was a child in the 50s. I wanted to know things. I wanted to understand things. But I didn’t have the patience to search the World Book, or the Brittanica, or the Americana, or the card catalogs, only to come up with results for a single topic.
On the other hand, given what’s out there, it’s probably a blessing that it wasn’t available.
My name is Lawrence, I am from U.K. I want to share my testimonies to the general public on how this great man called Dr Osas cure my sister from Genetic Herpes with the herbal medication gotten from dr. osas, he cures other diseases too herbal is a great medication. To hell with the government and their insane policy, he have a medication that is hundred percent assured to cure genital herpes and you don’t need to spend so much money on anymore . I want you to contact dr Osas on: doctorosasherbalhome@junkmail.com. My family is now a brand new one, so stop your worries and go get your medication and set the family free of the deadly disease that hold no respect to family harmony. Thank you for reading my comment.
THESE ARE THE THINGS DR OSAS DOES
1. HERPES
2. LASSA FEVER
3. GONORRHEA
4. HIV/AIDS
5. LOW SPERM COUNT
6. MENOPAUSE DISEASE
7. EPILEPSY
8. ASEPSIS
9. CANCER
10. ANXIETY DEPRESSION
11. PREGNANCY PROBLEM
12. SHORT SIGHTEDNESS PROBLEM
14. Male menopause
15. Menopause – male
16. Menopause – peri
17. Menstruation problems
18. Mercury Poisoning
19. Migraine
20. Miscarriage
21. Mites (demodex mites)
22. Mites (scabies mites)
23. Motion sickness
24. Mouth ulcer
25. MRSA
26. Multiple sclerosis
27. Muscle cramps
28. Myodesopsia
29. Stroke
30. He can as well cast and remove spell.,.
Is there a difference between “genetic herpes” and “genital herpes?” Interestingly enough, this is not the first junk comment on this topic that I’ve seen. Dude must be a first-class witch doctor if he can cure all these diseases and “cast and remove spell as well.”
I swear, people are desperate for money, don’t care how they get it, and display the morals of a crazed weasel.
Playing in the World Game 