Once upon a time, offices had walls inside them. They weren’t glass, like the conference rooms of 2019, but were made of drywall, and were usually painted a neutral color, like many of the walls you know and love. Over time, office walls gave way to cubicles. Now, for many office workers, the cubicles are also gone. There are only desks.If you’re under 40, you might have never experienced the joy of walls at work.
In the open-plan office, wireless headphones are the new cubicles.
..has ushered in a new era of office etiquette—and created a whole new set of problems.
Closing your eyes isn’t going to change anything. Nothing’s going to disappear just because you can’t see what’s going on. In fact, things will even be worse the next time you open your eyes. That’s the kind of world we live in. Keep your eyes wide open. Only a coward closes his eyes. Closing your eyes and plugging up your ears won’t make time stand still.
The Viking Of 6th Avenue [2005]
For more than a year, the Observer writer has been probing a darkness at the heart of Silicon Valley. Last week, at a TED talk that became a global viral sensation, she told the tech billionaires they had broken democracy. What happened next?
Even when reading is impossible, the presence of books acquired produces such an ecstasy that the buying of more books than one can read is nothing less than the soul reaching towards infinity ... we cherish books even if unread, their mere presence exudes comfort, their ready access reassurance.
It's nice that there is word for that.
University libraries around the world are seeing precipitous declines in the use of the books on their shelves.
But there is another future that these statistics and our nostalgic reaction to them might produce: the research library as a Disneyland of books, with banker’s lamps and never-cracked spines providing the suggestion of, but not the true interaction with, knowledge old and new. As beautiful as those libraries appear—and I, too, find myself unconsciously responding to such surroundings, having grown up studying in them—we should beware the peril of books as glorified wallpaper. The value of books, after all, is what lies beneath their covers, as lovely as those covers may be.
The Walker Library of the History of Human Imagination celebrates humanity’s intellectual and emotional adventure of discovery, learning, and creativity by showcasing thousands of rare books, artworks, maps and manuscripts as well as museum-quality artifacts both modern and ancient.
This is the private library of Jay Walker, who founded Priceline.com, in a wing of his home in Ridgefield, Connecticut. Although it’s sadly not open to the public, “invited guests to the Walker Library range from schoolchildren to business leaders, government officials and scholars, as well as librarians from around the world”.
Additional artifacts in the Library include: A page from an original Gutenberg Bible. An original 1957 Russian Sputnik, the world’s first space satellite (one of several backups built by the USSR) and the U.S. response, a Vanguard satellite made from surviving parts of the actual American satellite that blew up on the launch pad. A complete skeleton of a juvenile raptor dinosaur, about the size of a large housecat. One of two known Anastatic Facsimiles of the original 1776 Declaration of Independence (made directly from the original using a wet-copy process). An 1890 Edison sound recording and playback device that plays wax cylinder recordings. A wooden sarcophagus from ancient Egypt, dating to approximately 1,800 BC. A working Nazi Enigma device for encrypted communication. A copy of Robert Hooke’s 1666 book Micrographia, containing some of the earliest published depictions of insects, leaves and other objects as seen under a microscope. An instruction manual for NASA’s Saturn V rocket. A chandelier from the James Bond film Die Another Day, rewired with 6,000 LEDs. The very first book designed as a work of art in and of itself, Goethe’s 1828 Faust included illustrations by Delacroix. The Library’s copy features a carved leather binding. Various medical artifacts including glass eyes and field surgical instruments from the U.S. Civil War. A first edition Encyclopædia Britannica, published in 1768. A U.S. flag flown to the Moon and back on Apollo 11, the first human lunar landing. A 1667 publication called Bills of Mortality that tracked numbers and causes of death in London during the time of the Great Plague. A 1699 atlas containing the first maps to show the sun, not the earth, as the center of the known universe. (“This map, by far the most important map in history, divides the Age of Faith from the Age of Reason,” says Jay.) Anatomical illustrations produced from 1805-1813 by Italian artist and physician Paolo Mascagni, who used a scalpel and iodine to document human systems in hand-painted, life-sized illustrations. The first published illustration of amputation, from a 1532 German book of military field surgery. This hand-painted copy is stained with human blood on the cover. A military field surgical kit, circa 1900, including saws, clamps, and tools in a portable wooden box.-- The Walker Library of The History of Human Imagination (a Billionaire’s Private Library) (messynessychic.com)
Additional artifacts in the Library include: A page from an original Gutenberg Bible. An original 1957 Russian Sputnik, the world’s first space satellite (one of several backups built by the USSR) and the U.S. response, a Vanguard satellite made from surviving parts of the actual American satellite that blew up on the launch pad. A complete skeleton of a juvenile raptor dinosaur, about the size of a large housecat. One of two known Anastatic Facsimiles of the original 1776 Declaration of Independence (made directly from the original using a wet-copy process). An 1890 Edison sound recording and playback device that plays wax cylinder recordings. A wooden sarcophagus from ancient Egypt, dating to approximately 1,800 BC. A working Nazi Enigma device for encrypted communication. A copy of Robert Hooke’s 1666 book Micrographia, containing some of the earliest published depictions of insects, leaves and other objects as seen under a microscope. An instruction manual for NASA’s Saturn V rocket. A chandelier from the James Bond film Die Another Day, rewired with 6,000 LEDs. The very first book designed as a work of art in and of itself, Goethe’s 1828 Faust included illustrations by Delacroix. The Library’s copy features a carved leather binding. Various medical artifacts including glass eyes and field surgical instruments from the U.S. Civil War. A first edition Encyclopædia Britannica, published in 1768. A U.S. flag flown to the Moon and back on Apollo 11, the first human lunar landing. A 1667 publication called Bills of Mortality that tracked numbers and causes of death in London during the time of the Great Plague. A 1699 atlas containing the first maps to show the sun, not the earth, as the center of the known universe. (“This map, by far the most important map in history, divides the Age of Faith from the Age of Reason,” says Jay.) Anatomical illustrations produced from 1805-1813 by Italian artist and physician Paolo Mascagni, who used a scalpel and iodine to document human systems in hand-painted, life-sized illustrations. The first published illustration of amputation, from a 1532 German book of military field surgery. This hand-painted copy is stained with human blood on the cover. A military field surgical kit, circa 1900, including saws, clamps, and tools in a portable wooden box.
..Snarky Puppy isn’t exactly a jazz band. It’s not a fusion band, and it’s definitely not a jam band. It’s probably best to take Nate Chinen of the New York Times’ advice, as stated in an online discussion about the group, to “take them for what they are, rather than judge them for what they’re not.”
