5 Intriguing Things
1. Daimler wants to make sure it is in the car services business, too.
"Moovel GmbH, a unit of the Stuttgart, Germany-based maker of Mercedes-Benz cars, said Wednesday that it will acquire the U.S.'s RideScout LLC and Germany's Intelligent Apps GmbH, which operates the popular mytaxi taxi booking app. The deals will help Daimler build up a presence in mobile coordinated transportation, a highly profitable sector dominated by startups. The value of the acquisitions is small at less than $100 million, according to people familiar with the situation, but the deals show that traditional car makers are reacting to changes in consumer habits." (wsj.com)
2. Two 5IT favorites are launching a new food+science+history podcast called Gastropod.
"Gastropod is a new podcast that looks at food through the lens of science and history. Hosted by award-winning science journalist Cynthia Graber and popular Edible Geography-blogger Nicola Twilley, this entertaining show will tell the hidden history and surprising science behind forks, fruit, fish farms, and much, much more." (gastropod.com)
3. “Moving Ghost Town” by artist Cai Guo-Qiang has encountered some problems with its live participants.
"Three African sulcata tortoises that were part of a controversial exhibit at the Aspen Art Museum have been relocated to a warmer climate more than a month ahead of schedule, after the veterinarian in charge of their care determined that weather conditions are too cold and wet to ensure their well-being. The three tortoises have been held in an 800-square-foot pen on the new museum building’s roof deck with iPads mounted on their shells, with footage of local ghost towns playing on the screens." (aspendailynews.com)
"In order to build support for and justify government programs, the Historical Section set out to document America, often at her most vulnerable, and the successful administration of relief service. The Farm Security Administration—Office of War Information (FSA-OWI) produced some of the most iconic images of the Great Depression and World War II and included photographers such as Dorothea Lange, Walker Evans, and Arthur Rothstein who shaped the visual culture of the era both in its moment and in American memory. Unit photographers were sent across the country. The negatives were sent to Washington, DC. The growing collection came to be known as 'The File.'... The map plots the approximately 90,000 photographs that have geographical information. Customize your search by by photographer, date, and place." (photogrammar.yale.edu)
5. The 1964 World's Fair really did presage the real future.
"It was supposed to be perfect: a paean to free enterprise, technology, and the progress of freedom made tangible in the form of consumer convenience. Built on the refuse of the Corona dump—F. Scott Fitzgerald’s 'valley of ashes'—the 1964 New York World’s Fair would be, 'master builder' Robert Moses hoped, 'an Olympics of progress and healthy rivalry, a vast Colosseum dedicated to new friendships… the hopes and aspirations of a new world.' But with less than a month to go before opening day, the Brooklyn chapter of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) announced plans for a fair exhibit of their own: hundreds, if not thousands, of stalled cars on the highways leading to the fairgrounds, tying up traffic for hours and preventing hundreds of thousands of eager fair patrons from entering the gates." (theappendix.net)
Today's 1957 American English Language Tip
climacteric. The old pronunciation was climacteric, which stands first in the OED; but climacteric is now commoner & is likely to prevail.
What does climacteric—which sounds like a made-up word—mean? "Having extreme and far-reaching implications or results; critical." Also, as a noun, a synonym for menopause or "a period in a man's life corresponding to menopause."
Roof Deck with iPads Mounted on Their Shells