background preloader

The Cheapest Generation - Derek Thompson and Jordan Weissmann

The Cheapest Generation - Derek Thompson and Jordan Weissmann
In 2009, Ford brought its new supermini, the Fiesta, over from Europe in a brave attempt to attract the attention of young Americans. It passed out 100 of the cars to influential bloggers for a free six-month test-drive, with just one condition: document your experience online, whether you love the Fiesta or hate it. Young bloggers loved the car. Young drivers? Don’t blame Ford. Adulthood, Delayed The Great Recession changed young Americans' attitudes about what it means to be an adult.by Derek Thompson In a bid to reverse these trends, General Motors has enlisted the youth-brand consultants at MTV Scratch—a corporate cousin of the TV network responsible for Jersey Shore—to give its vehicles some 20-something edge. Perhaps. Since World War II, new cars and suburban houses have powered the economy and propelled recoveries. Needless to say, the Great Recession is responsible for some of the decline. The typical new car costs $30,000 and sits in a garage or parking spot for 23 hours a day. Related:  Heidegger

Las 9 peores decisiones arquitectónicas Una muestra de lo increíblemente desatinadas que pueden ser algunas personas en el arte de construir. Todo puede suceder, aquí la realidad supera a la ficción... y a la estupidez. 1. La escalera hasta el techo. 1. La escalera hasta el techo. 2. 2. 3. 3. 4. 4. 5. 5. 6. 6. 7. 7. 8. 8. 9. 9. Comparte este post Síguenos para no perderte ni un post Síguenos para no perderte ni un post Deja tu comentario

Cyborg America: inside the strange new world of basement body hackers Shawn Sarver took a deep breath and stared at the bottle of Listerine on the counter. “A minty fresh feeling for your mouth... cures bad breath,” he repeated to himself, as the scalpel sliced open his ring finger. His left arm was stretched out on the operating table, his sleeve rolled up past the elbow, revealing his first tattoo, the Air Force insignia he got at age 18, a few weeks after graduating from high school. Sarver was trying a technique he learned in the military to block out the pain, since it was illegal to administer anesthetic for his procedure. “A minty fresh feeling... cures bad breath,” Sarver muttered through gritted teeth, his eyes staring off into a void. Tim, the proprietor of Hot Rod Piercing in downtown Pittsburgh, put down the scalpel and picked up an instrument called an elevator, which he used to separate the flesh inside in Sarver’s finger, creating a small empty pocket of space. The implant stayed put the second time. “I’m a cyborg!” Video Part.01 History.01

Un sorprendente video en color muestra cómo era la vida en Berlín en julio de 1945 En la Red ha aparecido una insólita grabación en color en el que se aprecia cómo transcurría la vida entre las ruinas de la capital alemana después de la Segunda Guerra Mundial, en julio de 1945. El video ha sido compuesto a base de materiales de archivo por la agencia Kronos Medios. La calidad del video, que registra la vida en Berlín después de la guerra, sorprende por su nitidez. Sepa más sobre la Gran Guerra Patria en nuestro proyecto especial aquí. En la grabación se aprecia el estado en que quedó la capital alemana tras la guerra, en concreto el Reichstag, la Puerta de Brandeburgo, el búnker del Führer y el bulevar Unter den Linden. Sepa más: Increíbles fotos: Alemania antes y después de la Segunda Guerra Mundial

In Search of the Living, Purring, Singing Heart of the Online Cat-Industrial Complex | Underwire A cat wearing a short tie plays music on a cat-shaped keyboard (“Pancake Meowsic Video,” 185,459 views). A woman performs sun salutations with a cat on her back (“Cat Loves Yoga,” 1,539 views). A man slaps two cats on an ironing board to the beat of “Atmosphere” (“Cat Slap Joy Division,” 357,605 views; watch this one). (Now, I mean.) Writing that paragraph took more than an hour. Maru, which means “circle” or “perfection” in Japanese, is a Scottish fold with nonfolded ears. But Maru is just one of Japan’s famous Internet cats, and his reign will not last forever. There’s also the famous flying-Pop-Tart cat, of course, Nyan Cat; his tie to Japan remains obscure unless you’ve been made aware, by someone who knows something about Japan and cats, that nya is how Japanese cats say “meow.” Photo: Alamy est I unfairly ratchet up your collective expectations: I will never get to pet Maru, and neither will you. A few days later the publicist writes back: Impossible. Pages: 1 23456View All

CULTURA MATERIAL Revolt of the Rich It was 1993, during congressional debate over the North American Free Trade Agreement. I was having lunch with a staffer for one of the rare Republican congressmen who opposed the policy of so-called free trade. To this day, I remember something my colleague said: “The rich elites of this country have far more in common with their counterparts in London, Paris, and Tokyo than with their fellow American citizens.” That was only the beginning of the period when the realities of outsourced manufacturing, financialization of the economy, and growing income disparity started to seep into the public consciousness, so at the time it seemed like a striking and novel statement. At the end of the Cold War many writers predicted the decline of the traditional nation-state. Our plutocracy now lives like the British in colonial India: in the place and ruling it, but not of it. In both world wars, even a Harvard man or a New York socialite might know the weight of an army pack.

El arte y el espacio EL ARTE Y EL ESPACIOMartin HeideggerRevista Eco. Bogota, Colombia. Tomo 122, Junio 1970, pp. 113-120. Cuando se piensa mucho en sí mismo, se encuentra la sabiduría inherente al lenguaje. Parece, sin embargo, ser algo poderoso y difícil de captar, el Topos -es decir, el Sitio-Espacio. Las observaciones sobre el Arte, el Espacio, la intermundaneidad de ambas, son aún interrogantes, aunque se las exprese en forma de aseveraciones. La configuración acaece dentro de una delimitación, como un Dentro y Fuera limitados. Será habitado por una obra plástica, moldeado como un volumen cerrado, perforado, vacío. El cuerpo plástico corporeíza algo. Verdad es que en cuanto Arte la plástica es una pugna con el espacio artístico. El espacio empero -¿permanece el mismo? El espacio -¿es aquel que, mientras tanto, sigue impulsando obstinadamente al hombre moderno a su dominio último y absoluto? La interrogante sobre lo que el espacio como espacio sea, no queda formulada, tampoco su respuesta.

The Innocence of White People So I’ve just received an email from a reader, asking whether I might have something to say about The Innocence of Muslims. “Is tolerance for satire really a concept that is not compatible with Islam?” he asks. “Is there something about all this indignation that ‘we,’ the West, don’t understand?” When asked to explain Muslim rage, I have an answer, but I already know the response to my answer. That’s what we send out there, at them. I am not trying to excuse violence. Last week, the day on which my column runs happened to fall on September 11. The reason for my silence on 9/11 is that I am not only Muslim. As a Muslim, however, people do expect me to show evidence of my soul-searching over a single event, and I am regularly instructed by popular media to imagine 9/11 as a cancer within my own self. Yes, there’s something that we, the self-identified “West,” don’t understand: ourselves. Previously - Confession of a Muslim Psychedelic Tea Drinker

Guardían de la isla de Malpelo - Otras ciudades Siente que es muy temprano. Con los ojos entrecerrados y con el dibujo de un leve bostezo en su boca, calcula que pueden ser cerca de las 5 a. m. de un día que no sabe cuál de todos los de la semana es. Los anteriores fueron tan iguales que solo tiene certeza de su ubicación espacial, la temporal tiene varios vacíos. El impresionante ruido del piquero de Nazca, ave insignia del Santuario de Fauna y Flora de Malpelo, termina por despertar a Jáiver Rojas Cundumí. En el puerto de Buenaventura, su familia todavía debe estar descansando y él, en el punto más al occidente de Colombia, a casi 500 kilómetros de distancia y a 36 horas de viaje (o entre 40 y 48 dependiendo del clima), ya va a empezar las actividades de lo que podría ser un lunes o un sábado, o un domingo. ¡Qué más da qué día sea! Más vale que se apresure. La vivienda, llamada Puesto Destacado, cuenta con tres habitaciones. Comienza el día Al salir de la casa, la vista le quita el alimento. De regreso en la casa, se ducha. La noche

Related: