Posted inAutomobiles History
Blurry Patina: Grimy Reverence or “Polished Turd”
Writing about American cars stranded in Fidel Castro’s Cuba, John McElroy observed…
Posted inCommentary History Technology
Baker/No-Baker. Thinker/No-Thinker.
“Computerized baking has profoundly changed the balletic physical activities of the shop…
Posted inHistory
Making people from things
Make human portraits from a pile of vegetables...or tradesman's tools...or car and motorcycle parts. A short history of things and humans in art.
Posted inCommentary History Technology
The fate of letters
There's a difference between paper and bytes. Handwriting power. A prelude: BINGO resolutions!
Posted inAutomobiles History Technology
CES “booth babes” before 1967?
It’s CES time. Organizers and attendees have argued about the ladies since 1967, sometimes just about their label. Their marketing services date back much longer.
Posted inHistory Technology
Four photographs and their “truths”
Photos from the nineteenth century and from 2023 helped my fall seminar students explore truth, the fake, and fiction.
Posted inAutomobiles History Technology
How The American Way traveled by car
Photography from the 1930s shows the interplay of cars, hopes for the future, and The American Way of life.
Posted inHistory Technology
Separated by more than a century, two musicians share a complaint
Rick Beato and John Philip Sousa agree on a "menace" to music and to human creativity even though they never met.
Posted inCommentary History Technology
The villainy of things
Some 99-year-old tools might scare you. Fantastical creatures I ran into while reading for a chapter I'm writing. And children working with tools.
Posted inHistory Living Technology
Does 1950s “mechanization” provide a roadmap for today’s AI influence on skill?
Will AI behave like earlier automation? What affect will AI have on skill requirements? They're open questions.