Hugh Kenner is good on a surprisingly wide range of things. This is a publisher's description of a book called The Counterfeiters, first published around 1968:
"Wide-ranging enough to encompass Buster Keaton, Charles Babbage, horses, and a man riding a bicycle while wearing a gas mask, The Counterfeiters is one of Hugh Kenner's greatest achievements. In this fascinating work of literary and cultural criticism, Kenner seeks the causes and outcomes of man's ability to simulate himself (a computer that can calculate quicker than we can) and his world (a mechanical duck that acts the same as a living one)."
Kenner also co-authored a relatively early text generator, called Travesty, that would analyze a source text in terms of n-grams (e.g., 4-letter combinations) and then generate something new to match it. This was published in Byte magazine in 1984.
"A Travesty Generator for Micros" doesn't ring a bell, so thanks for the pointer. If it wasn't collected in Mazes or Historical Fictions it'll be one of the few things of his I haven't read yet.
I've been following Alex Wellerstein off and on for a few years now, since I discovered that he was a science adviser for a crazed nuclear-history TV series called Manh(a)ttan, so I read this post about NUKEMAP when it originally appeared. I wonder whether the situation with Google Maps is any different now. I'm not a developer, so I don't need to know. I'm just curious.
> I wonder whether the situation with Google Maps is any different now. I'm not a developer, so I don't need to know. I'm just curious.
As the Google Maps APIs/libraries already exited the "growth" phase where the focus is acquiring new users, and entered the "squeeze" phase, I'd say it's worse today than it was in 2019.
Some newspapers in the 1970s used the Atex publishing system. The now-defunct Dallas Times Herald, a daily, used it when I worked there, roughly 1978 to 1980. The Atex system there relied on custom terminals--that is, supplied by Atex, not off-the-shelf from another manufacturer--and Atex terminals could be among those shown in the screenshots. Unfortunately, I don't remember much about how the Atex terminals looked, and (call me lazy) I haven't looked for photos.
Right you are. In the 90s, ESPN covered each stage with a nicely edited but short recap, about 30 minutes each as I recall. Not much, but better than nothing. The race has since moved around, and coverage of each stage has expanded--which, incidentally, coincides with the gradual expansion of cable channels and streaming.
I wonder whether Netflix will boost American interest in the Tour de France. Something of the kind happened with Formula 1. Interest in it here (I’m in NYC) was generally so-so, whether or not one of the races occurred here. But the 2019 launch of the Netflix documentary series Formula 1: Drive to Survive roughly coincided with the expansion of American F1 races, of which I think there are three this season, and there are now American F1 fangirls. Re the TdF, America hasn’t paid much attention in the past except when a major contender was an American, as with Greg LeMond, Lance Armstrong, and a few others. Now, however, Netflix is running a documentary series about this race, called Tour de France: Unchained. That may do the trick. On the other hand, a TdF race will never occur here, so it remains to be seen whether interest will rise regardless of that.
I'm not so sure. To paint with a broad brush, Americans love fast cars and don't care too much for cycling. There's always been a large motorsport culture in the US.
DTS was a big part of the F1 rise in the states, but it is but one part of the story. Things really started to change when Liberty Media acquired F1 and brought in new management. F1 needed to make the sport more accessible by opening up on social media, giving away broadcast rights to ESPN, adding more race weekends both in the States and abroad, and of course (re)introducing the sport to many via Netflix. Which is all to say that there was a full on effort and strategy by the sport to change with the times.
The Tour de France was popular in America when an American was winning it. Then he was revealed to be a cheating dirtbag and the American public lost interest.
I'm not sure it was the tour that was popular when Lance was winning it... Lance was popular and his Live Strong brand was popular, but I don't think many Americans actually cared about world tour cycling.
I’m optimistic about the big tours’ “image” presence in the US because I think that
the future of pro cycling is represented by Anglo countries, plus a few Colombians and some European sporting “freaks” like Pogacar. Ah, and some Benelux guys.
Italy is as good as dead when it comes to pro-Cycling, the same goes for Spain, and France... France is always on the edge of the precipice and of “we’ll never ever going to win La Grande Boucle again! Long live Hinault and Virenque!”, so I’m not so sure about them.
Long story short, the big cycling money is in the Anglo countries, I’m sure California-based clients alone purchase more professional bikes in a year compared to the whole of Europe. And that’s good for Californians.
Spanish and French teams still haven't embraced the science like in England, central and northern European countries where the training is very monitored and using modern findings.
Looking at Frances most popular recent riders in the Tour, Voeckler supposedly just used to basically just go on long rides to train and was drinking Coke during races a few years ago. You never see Alaphilippe looking at his wattage and going at a steady pace when the race picks up instead he'll always be attacking, dropping off or catching back up.
At some point they'll embrace the 21st century and have real contenders again
There's already a documentary series following Movistar (one of the team that competes in the TdF) with 2 seasons on Netflix. It was popular within cycling circles but I don't think people outside would be interested. It's kinda weird to focus so much on 1 tour when there are so many in a season, so I wonder how the series will do.
It's true that a race from the TdF won't be in the US, but I don't believe there's anything other than a lack of interest stopping UCI from having a 3 week race inside the US.
I’m a casual racing fan. I enjoy it, but typically don’t follow it or go out of my way to put it on.
For me, constantly seeing /r/formula1 in my feed was an inciting factor for me. F1 also did well to adjust race durations to make them short and sweet.
Lastly, the variety of locations is extremely interesting to me. F1 is one of the few global sports.
This is the Tragedy of Delamination all over again. I coined the phrase half in jest, modeled on a TV-ad phrase (the tragedy of psoriasis, as I recall), after it turned out that a commercial airline flight went down near JFK Airport two months after 9/11 because a carbon-fiber failure allowed its tail to snap off. Now it looks as if a carbon-fiber failure allowed Titan’s pressure hull to implode. Admittedly, we don’t know yet. But a lot of effort will go into finding out, because (as in that plane crash) lives were lost.
For me, the story was a little too elaborate for its own good. (The film is based on a novel and may have tried to keep too much of its source.) But it addresses a lot of issues. And the rugged landscapes of the film, which was shot in Tasmania, are just the place for an elusive creature to roam. Besides, Willem Dafoe plays the title character. There's a trailer at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KgfB9kebFNI
As for thylacines themselves, they've been discussed here and elsewhere. They're probably extinct, but they haven't really left, since they turn up in film and fiction, and they may be coming back, if de-extinction works.
My not very substantive response is that I like the project name. Maybe lots of text generators can come up with wordplay involving Subject ! and Subject 2, but I think you've already got one running.
"Wide-ranging enough to encompass Buster Keaton, Charles Babbage, horses, and a man riding a bicycle while wearing a gas mask, The Counterfeiters is one of Hugh Kenner's greatest achievements. In this fascinating work of literary and cultural criticism, Kenner seeks the causes and outcomes of man's ability to simulate himself (a computer that can calculate quicker than we can) and his world (a mechanical duck that acts the same as a living one)."
Kenner also co-authored a relatively early text generator, called Travesty, that would analyze a source text in terms of n-grams (e.g., 4-letter combinations) and then generate something new to match it. This was published in Byte magazine in 1984.