I love this three-part BBC series that reviews the history of electricity starting with Isaac Newton & Francis Hauksbee and ending with levitating, room-temperature super conductors.
Episode 1: Spark
Episode one tells the story of the very first ‘natural philosophers’ who started to unlock the mysteries of electricity. This is the story about what happened when the first real concerted effort was made to understand electricity; how we learned to create and store it, before finally creating something that enabled us to make it at will – the battery.
Episode 2: The Age of Invention
Just under 200 years ago scientists discovered something profound, that electricity is connected to another of nature’s most fundamental forces – magnetism. In the second episode, Professor Jim Al-Khalili discovers how harnessing the link between magnetism and electricity would completely transform the world, allowing us to generate a seemingly limitless amount of electric power which we could utilise to drive machines, communicate across continents and light our homes. This is the story of how scientists and engineers unlocked the nature of electricity in an extraordinary century of innovation and invention.
Episode 3: Revelations and Revolutions
Electricity is not just something that creates heat and light, it connects the world through networks and broadcasting. After centuries of man’s experiments with electricity, the final episode tells the story of how a new age of real understanding dawned – how we discovered electric fields and electromagnetic waves. Today we can hardly imagine life without electricity – it defines our era. As our understanding of it has increased so has our reliance upon it, and today we’re on the brink of a new breakthrough, because if we can understand the secret of electrical superconductivity we could once again transform the world.
I love this three-part BBC series that reviews the history of electricity starting with Isaac Newton & Francis Hauksbee and ending with levitating, room-temperature super conductors.
Episode 1: Spark
Episode one tells the story of the very first ‘natural philosophers’ who started to unlock the mysteries of electricity. This is the story about what happened when the first real concerted effort was made to understand electricity; how we learned to create and store it, before finally creating something that enabled us to make it at will – the battery.
Episode 2: The Age of Invention
Just under 200 years ago scientists discovered something profound, that electricity is connected to another of nature’s most fundamental forces – magnetism. In the second episode, Professor Jim Al-Khalili discovers how harnessing the link between magnetism and electricity would completely transform the world, allowing us to generate a seemingly limitless amount of electric power which we could utilise to drive machines, communicate across continents and light our homes. This is the story of how scientists and engineers unlocked the nature of electricity in an extraordinary century of innovation and invention.
Episode 3: Revelations and Revolutions
Electricity is not just something that creates heat and light, it connects the world through networks and broadcasting. After centuries of man’s experiments with electricity, the final episode tells the story of how a new age of real understanding dawned – how we discovered electric fields and electromagnetic waves. Today we can hardly imagine life without electricity – it defines our era. As our understanding of it has increased so has our reliance upon it, and today we’re on the brink of a new breakthrough, because if we can understand the secret of electrical superconductivity we could once again transform the world.
PHILIP GLASS: Did I ever tell – I should tell you what my very first job in the store was. You see, in those days, those are the days of 78s, and every record store have always called, you had an allowance, a return privilege it was called. That was actually what it was, a return privilege for broken records.
IRA GLASS: Wait. If you would take the record home and break it you could bring it back?
PHILIP GLASS: No, no, no. No, it didn’t work that way, Ira.
(LAUGHTER)
PHILIP GLASS: If you were, if you had the store and some records arrived and they were broken…
IRA GLASS: Oh, I understand.
PHILIP GLASS: So for you…
(LAUGHTER)
PHILIP GLASS: So the merchant could return the records.
IRA GLASS: Right.
PHILIP GLASS: It was called a return privilege. And it was a strict, it was something like, the way they figure it out they made it something like 5 percent of the records could be returned.
IRA GLASS: Right.
PHILIP GLASS: Now what happened was that you didn’t actually break 5 percent of the records, but you could return 5 percent of the records. So what you had to do, if you wanted to return records and get your money back you had to break them.
(LAUGHTER)
PHILIP GLASS: That’s cute, huh?
IRA GLASS: So that was your job?
PHILIP GLASS: My first job…
(LAUGHTER)
PHILIP GLASS: …my brother and I were, on the weekends, we went down to the store, and we were sent to the basement and we jumped on records.
(LAUGHTER)
PHILIP GLASS: We were – and…
IRA GLASS: It’s a good preparation for what was to come.
(LAUGHTER)
PHILIP GLASS: Well, that’s the kind way of putting it.
IRA GLASS: Well, no, no.
(LAUGHTER)
PHILIP GLASS: So, I gradually worked my way up – what?
IRA GLASS: And classical music, right?
PHILIP GLASS: It didn’t matter.
IRA GLASS: Yeah.
(LAUGHTER)
PHILIP GLASS: It didn’t matter what you broke.
IRA GLASS: Eddie Fisher.
PHILIP GLASS: They counted it by the label.
IRA GLASS: Right.
PHILIP GLASS: And you did it by the, you did it by the company so there would be, and there would be companies like Okeh Records or Blue Note Records or RCA Records, they all had a return privilege. But the only thing is that all the RCA Records have to be in their box and all the broken Okeh Records have to be in their box and all the broken Blue Note Records had to be in their box. You couldn’t mix boxes. But they didn’t really care what was on the record. They just had to be broken.
(LAUGHTER)
PHILIP GLASS: Anyway, so I, that was my first pay – I wasn’t actually paid. But that was my first professional job…
Recently, while on vacation in New Orleans for Mardi Gras and visiting family, we stayed at my sister’s house. She was kind enough to let us have her place while she found accommodations elsewhere. She moved in to this place herself not too long ago and was proud to point out to us the brand new, gigantic, flat-panel television and full Cable TV package she purchased slightly before our arrival. She felt that our four year old daughter Beatrix would especially get a kick over having so many kids channels to watch on such a big screen.
Now, we don’t watch what someone my age would consider a traditional television at home. We do own one — a 15 year old CRT model that resides in our third floor office loft. That said it is very rarely turned on. We don’t subscribe to Cable TV. It is connected to a not much newer DVD player. The digital converter and antenna we have for it have not been hooked up for a couple of years. Beatrix will occasionally remember it when we are up there and shove a DVD in the player to watch. That is the extent of its use.
When we want to watch things like movies and shows, we do so using streaming services on a three generation old iMac 20 inch that resides in our library/den. This means mostly Netflix unless available for streaming otherwise (Hulu, Amazon, iTunes, direct from the show’s website, etc.). One can safely assume that if it is not available via online streaming then we likely have not watched it.
I say all of this to set up the fact that Beatrix has little idea of how traditional TV works and seeing her first real exposure to it was enlightening to say the least.
The first time came after attempting to walk to a parade a few blocks away and getting caught in one of the area’s famous torrential downpour rainstorms and having to turn back. Wet from head to toe and cold, we figured finding something fun for Beatrix to watch on that great big screen would lessen Beatrix’s disappointment at missing the parade. After scrolling through what seemed like a hundred options in the built-in program guide, I finally found a channel that had something on that would hold her interest — Shrek.
I turn to that, Beatrix approves, and we watch. Then, a few minutes later, a commercial comes on. The volume difference is jarring to say the least. I would safely guess it is fifty percent louder than the show. I hurriedly reach for the remote and turn it down…
“Why did you turn the movie off, Daddy?”, Beatrix worriedly asks, as if she has done something wrong and is being punished by having her entertainment interrupted. She thinks that’s what I was doing by rushing for the remote.
“I didn’t turn it off, honey. This is just a commercial. I was turning the volume down because it was so loud. Shrek will come back on in a few minutes” I say.
“Did it break?”, she asks. It does sometimes happen at home that Flash or Silverlight implode, interrupt her show, and I have to fix it.
“No. It’s just a commercial.”
“What’s a commercial?”, she asks.
”It is like little shows where they tell you about other shows and toys and snacks.”, I explain.
“Why?”
“Well the TV people think you might like to know about this stuff.”
“This is boring! I want to watch Shrek.”
“I know, honey. It will be on in a bit. Just be patient.”
The show eventually comes back on. I reach for the remote to turn the volume back up. We can barely hear it now. The difference in volume between the show and the commercial is shocking and I don’t remember it being this bad when I did watch television regularly. Perhaps it is only like this on kids channels. I wouldn’t know.
Of course, not more than ten minutes later, the movie is once again interrupted by a round of commercials.
“Why did they stop the movie again?” Beatrix, asks. Thus leading to essentially the same conversation as before. She just does not understand why one would want to watch anything this way. It’s boring and frustrating. She makes it through the end of the movie but has little interest in watching more. She’d rather play. The television is never turned on again during our stay.
A few days later and on our way back home, after a long day of driving, we arrive at a hotel. We check in, unpack the car of our essentials, make it to the room, and settle in for the night. There was a television in the room with some select Cable TV stations and Beatrix asked if she could watch a show. Sure, I said, so I turned it on, and flipped it to what appeared to be a kids channel. There was a commercial on.
“Is this a show?”, she asked.
“No. This is a commercial, we have to wait for the show to come on.”
I now realize, in hindsight, that she did not understand that all televisions work this way. She thought it was only the one in my sister’s place that was “broken” and “boring”. In her mind, this was a new TV and thus should work differently.
Then, a commercial for The Secret World of Arrietty comes on.
“This! I want to watch this!”, Beatrix exclaims.
“We can’t honey. It’s not out yet. It’s just a commercial.”, I say. She seems more confused so I try an analogy.
“You know when we go to a movie theater, and they show you previews of movies that are not out yet before the real movie? It’s like that.”
“Oh.”, she resigns. Not sure she gets this but I think the television executives and I have finally worn down her curious resolve.
When the commercials are over, it is some live action teen show. She is not impressed.
“Can I choose?”, Beatrix asks. She’s still confused. She thinks this is like home where one can choose from a selection of things to watch. A well organized list of suggestions and options with clear box cover shots of all of her favorites. I have to explain again that it does not work that way on television. That we have to watch whatever is on and, if there is nothing you want to watch that is on then you just have to turn it off. Which we do.
I then do what I should have simply done in the first place. I hook up the iPad to the free hotel wifi and hand it to her. She fires up the Netflix app, chooses a show, and she is happy.
Lou Reed must be broke. Or maybe he lost a bet. I can’t think of any other explanation for why he’s agreed to go all Beats by Dre on these Klipsch earbuds. Everyone needs to pitch in here.
There’s something humiliating about seeing Lou Reed—Lou Reed—modeling a set of metallic purple in-ear headphones. This man is a rock and roll pioneer who struck fear into the hearts of the status quo. I don’t believe that Lou Reed wears these in-ear headphones, but if he does, I don’t want to know about it. I don’t want to think about him walking the dog in the morning. Or going to Starbucks. I want to think about him strung out on the floor of the Factory saying weird and important things to Nico, Andy Warhol, and John Cale. Nevermind that there’s no way that Lou Reed had anything to do with the design of these headphones. Purple? Not even in a glam way, man. This is a parody of a sponsorship.
Special edition or not, these Lou Reed Signature X10i in-ear headphones have solidified within my soul what before amounted to only a nebulous concern for Mr. Reed—now I’m sure that he’s in trouble. In theory there is nothing wrong with Klipsch X10i headphones. $350 is pretty expensive for a set of aluminum in-ears, and I doubt if they really sound $250 better than the excellent Klipsch S4is.
Klipsch makes great products, but the company also has the habit of repackaging its designs into new and super-special editions that are more or less what came before. Like these buds: The X10i’s have been around since last year, which means Lou Read didn’t raise a finger designing them.
It’s just the latest hollow money grab in Reed’s life. I was willing to abide that ridiculous failure of an HP commercial last summer. But then I heard his new Metallica collaboration (spoiler: it blows), and I started to get worried. This is the behavior of a man who must be desperate. I mean look at THOSE EYES. Those are the eyes of a man who is crying for help with his actions, but can’t ask for help with his voice. Why else would Lou mug for the camera like he’s Lady Gaga. I can’t stand it.
Oh and did you hear? The first 50 people to order $400 Lou Reed headphones get a LIMITED EDITION AUTOGRAPHED LOU REED CD! What?!?! You might as well send me a cassette tape. How about an eight-track? Thanks for the limited edition drink coaster Klipsch.
So let’s all do Lou Reed a solid. After all, his music has always been there for us, and now our Spotify subscriptions are killing him. Let’s go buy lots and lots of his records. Buy Transformer on Amazon. Buy Transformer on iTunes. I don’t care where you buy Lou Reed’s music. Just do it. Let’s not shame him any more with our neglect. [Klipsch]
