The Data Blues

About a year ago I began a Data blog (called DataDataData) to expand on things I was learning in my day job. Technology has always been of special interest to me, and data seems to be the front lines for technology again in  the age-old scavenger hunt to find the humanization of science.
Just as often as I have written there about data - it seems - I have returned to feedback, cybernetics, AI and other technology areas, all of which seem to have some bearing on the new big data moment.

Here is a recent piece...Sometime ago I read a review of a book - "The Information: a History, a Theory, a Flood" by James Gleick. The review was by Sam Anderson and appeared in NYT Sunday Magazine June 26, 2011. That whole year was a blur, lately I am discovering, and I find it hard to believe I totally missed this thing. Cause it sees like a semi-mystical tome about technology, which is one of my suits. More

I remember Soulville

I remember hearing ''Dust My Blues'' -- on the grey Kent 45 thanks to Norman Wilde, who would select my free 45 to accompany an LP I'd buy at Soulville Records next to the Veneitan theatre on Main Street in Racine in 1967.  Norman was supposed to put promos in the LP bag, and there were some good ones, but he would find actual 'oldies' of Wolf, Jimmy Reed, Elmore James.

I've put a lot of miles on, and seen many ramifications and enhancements and extrapolations. But I've come back to that chord of Elmore James as  if it is the only harmonic. Jack and Norman (shown here) were hipster gurus of life and blues and jazz. They made Soulville, a narrow dark store full of record covers, a truly extraordinary place. Norman set me on a path with those genius 45s, that he passed on to me as Jack was good naturally looking out the window.

Recall I saw George Wallace with three Secret Service men go into barbershop next door one day. To get haircut downtown on Main St. in Racine when he was running in 1968 (primary or gnl election?). I told Jack, the Soulville proprietor George Wallace was next door. He informed me he would not walk three-feet to see George Wallace do anything. Tremendously solid Jack.

Analog Issue 252

What's been lost: Most modern digital televisions automatically change to a blue screen or turn to standby after some time if static is present. The days of good old analog TV were far different, as many pensioners can attest. Static was the nemesis then. Sometimes we did battle with tin foil, trying to damper the dumb rabbit ears. Static you see is obtained by antennas when no transmission signal is available. Also called snow, static is the result of electronic noise and radiated electromagnetic noise accidentally picked up by the antenna. Sources of electromagnetic noise include nearby electronic or mechanical devices, as well as cosmic microwave background radiation, polka dots and moonbeams. When you look into the cosmic background dots, you look into the Big Bang. Your mortality call collect. Thanks to Wikipedia.

LEM

They tried to rename it. Of course everything was an mnemonic acronym in those days. But Lunar Excursion Model, someone thought, sounded like a vacation excursion, and this was serious stuff. Yet ever and a day it remains the LEM. For more see Armstrong draft under construction as of Jan 2014. - Jack Vaughan