5 Intriguing Things
1. Drone federalism: a legal proposal.
"Civilian drones are scheduled to be permitted in the national airspace as early as 2015. Many think Congress should establish the necessary nationwide regulations to govern both law enforcement and civilian drone use. That thinking, however, is wrong. This Essay suggests drone federalism instead: a state-based approach to privacy regulation that governs drone use by civilians, drawing on states’ experience regulating other forms of civilian-on- civilian surveillance. This approach will allow necessary experimentation in how to best balance privacy concerns against First Amendment rights in the imminent era of drone-use democratization. This Essay closes by providing some guidance to states as to the potential axes of drone-related privacy regulations." (californialawreview.org)
"He says in the video that he's not writing music, he's 'generating probabilities.' Which is vague and weird and cool in only a way that a guy that looks like a weekend dad and yet fronted one of the greatest electronic bands of all time can only be cool. The algorithm is based in code, but IBM engineers working with Murphy translated them in such a way that made sense for a musician who's used to working with physical instruments like drum kits." (gizmodo.com)
+ I'm pretty sure this is just a very complex advertisement for IBM, but it's an ad I can get behind.
3. The cryptocreeks of Brooklyn. (Note: not a band or artisan cocktail.)
"'The Gowanus Canal is historically a creek-fed tidal estuary,' Eymund told me via email later. 'When the creeks were buried, we destroyed their ecological and cleaning functions and created the Gowanus Canal's water quality problems. By identifying where those streams were buried alive, and still survive, we can help restore a major neighborhood recreational and fishing amenity, and make the water fun again for canoe groups.'" (vice.com)
"Everard Digby’s De Arte Natandi (The Art of Swimming) published in 1587, considered the first English treatise on the practice. Divided into two parts, the first is largely theoretical (Digby wrote in Latin, though it would be translated into English by Christopher Middleton eight years later). The second part is concerned with practical demonstration borne out in a series of 40 beautiful woodcuts, all composed from five landscape blocks into which swimmers in various positions have been placed. The work was hugely influential, not just providing a practical guide to staying afloat and different strokes but also in its attention to issues of safety." (publicdomainreview.com)
5. Inside Google's drone-delivery program, which I've spent the week reporting on.
"Taken with the company’s other robotics investments, Google’s corporate posture has become even more ambitious. Google doesn’t just want to organize all the world’s information. Google wants to organize all the world." (theatlantic.com)
Book 5. The White Hotel by D.M. Thomas. "Imagine you're in college. Before a day of classes you indulge in your hallucinogenic drug of choice. Your classes of the day: history (a lecture on Europe in the years leading to World War II and the horrors of that war); psychology (Freudian theory and case studies); and a poetry class. The surreal stew your subconscious brews from these ingredients might well resemble this brilliant novel. Both poetic and profane, it's the kind of book that etches itself into your subconscious and leaves you in a trance for a time once you finish it." As recommended by Lauren Meow (or at least that's the name in the email address).
Today's 1957 American English Language Tip
clever is much misused, and is constantly heard in the sense of learned, well read, bookish, or studious; a woman whose cleverness is apparent in all she does will tell you she wishes she was clever, that she cannot read clever books (meaning those of the graver kind), & that Mr. Jones must be a very clever man, for he has written a dictionary. But in fact ignorance & knowledge have no relation to cleverness, which implies ingenuity, adroitness, readiness, mental or manual quickness, wit, & other qualities incompatible with dullness, but not with ignorance or dislike of books.
When the Creeks Were Buried