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.
Found at Shorpy
Yearly Archives: 2014
New York: May 18, 1940
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.
The same scene today:
The times, they have done changed.
The Old Wolf has spoken.
51st and Lex: NYC, 1955.
Seen at Shorpy.
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.
The Old Wolf has spoken.
Clickbait: Deconstructed.
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
Initiation Well, Sintra, Portugal
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:
Curiosity and Learning
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.
I struggle enough as it is.
The Old Wolf has spok… ooh squirrel!
Well, at least it’s not male enhancement…
A different kind of blog spam today:
| Lawrence [address obfusticated] lawrencejerry5@gmail.com 146.185.28.59 |
Submitted on 2014/10/01 at 6:37 pm
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 |
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.
The Old Wolf has spoken.
Sex Ed in 1939
Well, not really. This showed up on my Facebook feed, but it’s really a still shot from the 1929 film “The Wild Party,” starring Clara Bow in her first “talkie.”
But it sure looks funny if you re-frame it, and imagine the picture in that context.
Ironically, the girl in the second row on the right, the one with the sweet smile that says “been there, done that, bought the Woot! shirt” looks an awful lot like my mother did as a young girl:
But mom was born in 1916, and would have only been 13 that year… these young ladies look a lot older and more sophisticated, but to my eyes the resemblance is striking.
The Old Wolf has spoken.
The Crooked House of Windsor
Lovely historical building, built in 1592, looking like it might have been built by Numerobis:
If you’re an Astérix fan, you’ll know what I mean.
According to Wikipedia, the thing went skeewompus because it was rebuilt with green wood in 1718. Of course, buildings tend to do this over time,
but contractors are always cutting corners:
I am put in mind of a couple of things:
Terre vasée, Krous, qu’est dément
En y vaquer Krous qu’est d’émail.
Il fondu Krous qu’est de si que se pince,
Agacer Krous qu’est déesse taille
Il botté Krous qu’est de quatre.
Vich côté Krous qu’est de mousse
Année olive tous guetteurs
Déracinés Krous qu’est délit Toulouse.
-Mots d’Heures, Gousses, Rames (van Rooten)
Image from Granfa Grigg Had a Pig, by Wallace Tripp. Some of the loveliest nursery rhyme illustrations I’ve ever had the good fortune to encounter.
The Old Wolf has spoken.
The 1933 Texaco Doodlebug
Just a little interesting history; one of only 11 made.
Famous enough that replicas were made of it:
More information and a lot more photos can be seen at Just a Car Guy and Hemmings Daily.
I used to be an avid collector of those die-cast models, particularly the Matchbox series by Lesney. I would have loved one of these in my collection.
Playing in the World Game 