Ramblings & ephemera
From “A-Z Retail Tricks To Make You Shop“:
Escalators - Multi-level Department stores often use their escalators to encourage you to see more of the store. Travelling either up or down the store you will find you have to walk half way around the level in order to find your next connecting escalator, as opposed to [...]
Posted on August 29th, 2007 by Scott Granneman
Filed under: business | No Comments »
From Tom Reiss’s “Imagining the Worst: How a literary genre anticipated the modern world” (The New Yorker [28 November 2005]: 108):
… the first mini-boom in invasion fiction began in the seventeen-eighties, when the French developed the hot-air balloon. Soon, French poems and plays were depicting hot-air-propelled flying armies destined for England, and an American poem [...]
Posted on October 1st, 2006 by Scott Granneman
Filed under: Wash U: tech in changing society, art, history, language & literature, science, security, technology | Comments Off
From Patrick Smith’s “Ask the pilot” (Salon: 4 August 2006):
The wing is shorn off. It lies upside down in the dirt amid a cluster of desert bushes. The flaps and slats are ripped away, and a nest of pipes sprouts from the engine attachment pylon like the flailing innards of some immense dead beast. Several [...]
Posted on August 20th, 2006 by Scott Granneman
Filed under: Wash U: tech in changing society, business, fiction, technology | Comments Off
From Paul Graham’s “What the Bubble Got Right” (September 2004):
In fact most of the money to be made from big trends is made indirectly. It was not the railroads themselves that made the most money during the railroad boom, but the companies on either side, like Carnegie’s steelworks, which made the rails, and Standard Oil, [...]
Posted on July 7th, 2006 by Scott Granneman
Filed under: business, history | Comments Off
From Andrew Odlyzko’s “Pricing and Architecture of the Internet: Historical Perspectives from Telecommunications and Transportation“:
Railroads were the dominant industry of the 19th century. … Early railroad charters, in both England and the U.S., were modeled after canal and turnpike charters, and almost uniformly envisaged that railroad companies would not be carriers themselves. Instead, they were [...]
Posted on April 21st, 2006 by Scott Granneman
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From Andrew Odlyzko’s “Pricing and Architecture of the Internet: Historical Perspectives from Telecommunications and Transportation“:
British turnpikes were a controversial response to a serious problem. Traditionally, the King’s Highway was open to all. The problem was how to keep it in good condition. As commerce grew, the need to maintain roads became acute. At first, in [...]
Posted on April 21st, 2006 by Scott Granneman
Filed under: Wash U: tech in changing society, business, history, politics | Comments Off
From Andrew Odlyzko’s “Pricing and Architecture of the Internet: Historical Perspectives from Telecommunications and Transportation“:
The modern canal era can be said to start with the Duke of Bridgewater’s Canal in England. Originally it was just a means of connecting the Duke’s colliery to Manchester. The parliamentary charter (which enabled him to take over private property, [...]
Posted on April 21st, 2006 by Scott Granneman
Filed under: Wash U: tech in changing society, business, history, technology | Comments Off
Man, Jason Statham is a great action star, and The Transporter is a fantastic movie of its type.
Me: Let's see Transporter 3. Robin: I don't know, shouldn't I watch 1 & 2 first so I understand it? Me: Ahahahahahahahahahaha!
JavaScript would be more immediately useful, but it IS programming. XML would be more useful longterm, & would be a nice intro. Make sense?
I wish Mother Nature would decide if she wants to snow or rain or what.
Added a product to their wishlist:
Good God a'mighty but that big man positively.WAILS on the geetar!
The amazingly loud & good Tony Campanella is just starting. This guy rocked the house last year.
On my way with Robin to the annual Stevie Ray Vaughan tribute show at the Pageant. $15 for a kickass 3 hour + show. Awesomeness!
Daniel Craig = best James Bond ever. Good flick. Amazing fight scene among ropes & flying scaffolding!