Bangs, Dogs, Aztecs, McKinley, Boaz
An Interview With Kraftwerk
Lester Bangs | Big Shot | 30th January 2014
In memory of Florian Schneider; a classic 1975 glimpse of Kraftwerk. “In the beginning was feedback: the machines speaking on their own. Gradually, the humans learned to control the feedback, and the next step was the synthesiser, which the humans also sought to control. In the music of Kraftwerk we see at last the fitting culmination of this revolution. The machines not merely overpower and play the human beings, but absorb them, until the scientist and his technology are one and the same” (1,400 words)
The Origins Of Greyhound Racing
Michael LaPointe | Paris Review | 5th May 2020
Two golden rules for sport with animals: Less blood, more speed. “Coursing was a brutal forerunner. A live hare would be given a head start, and greyhounds would be set loose to chase it. Whoever tracked down the rabbit won the race. The sport was not for everyone. When the dog caught the hare, a spectator said, ‘It really sounds quite a bit like a child’s scream’. Smith heard the call of destiny. He set about devising a mechanical hare that would bring greyhounds out of the blood, into the light” (2,400 words)
Aztec Rules For Plague
David Bowles | Zocalo | 10th May 2020
The Aztecs knew enough to fear disease. They prepared for it. But when the Spaniards arrived, the plan failed, and the Aztec empire failed with it. “The Aztecs’ principal collective tool for fending off epidemics was a humble appeal to [the god] Tezcatlipoca. Their first text of philosophy was a supplication to destroy plague. After recognising the divine right of Tezcatlipoca to punish them however he saw fit, the Aztecs tried to get their powerful god to reconsider the worst-case outcome of his vengeance” (1,700 words)
The Last Act Of Leon Czolgosz
Susan Berfield | Lapham’s Quarterly | 5th May 2020
On the assassination of President McKinley, by the radical Leon Czolgosz, in Buffalo, at the Pan-American Exposition of 1901. “The trial lasted two days. The jury deliberated for thirty minutes. On the morning of October 29th prison guards brought Czolgosz into the execution chamber. He was ashen, dressed in a gray shirt, prepared to speak his final words. ‘I shot the president because I thought it would help the working people and for the sake of the common people. I am not sorry for my crime,’ he said” (2,020 words)
Defender Of Differences
Kwame Anthony Appiah | New York Review Of Books | 10th May 2020
Appreciation of Franz Boas, pioneer of anthropology and mentor of Margaret Meade. “Boas taught generations to think about human diversity without hierarchy. ‘Culture’ was once regarded as something that one group might have more of than another. Boas and his students demonstrated how to use the word in the plural: different peoples had different cultures, and while the idiosyncrasies of a foreign culture were patent to us, we’d do well to recognise the arbitrary aspects of our own” (4,700 words)
Video: Sea You | Ben Brand. A journey back through time with a woman, a fish, and a bicycle (2m 25s)
Audio: A Good Walk Spoiled | Revisionist History. Malcolm Gladwell explores the golf courses of Los Angeles, and asks: What is it about rich people and golf? (40m 35s)
Afterthought:
“A true friend is one who likes you despite your achievements”
— Arnold Bennett
Editor’s note: My apologies again to Browser subscribers who were unable to reach Tim Harford’s FT piece about crisis preparation, recommended a couple of weeks ago; it is now on the author's website: http://timharford.com/2020/05/why-we-fail-to-prepare-for-disasters/