http://nat.org/blog/2009/11/return-of-the-city-state/

http://nat.org/blog/?p=1410

A city-state is a city which is also a country, having its own autonomous government.

Ancient Greece had a lot of city states. Hong Kong is a modern city state. China has benefited a lot from Hong Kong, setting up economic “free zones” in several major Chinese cities to emulate the Hong Kong model.

Today our societies are massive tapestries of interdependence. A lot of our infrastructure is naturally centralizing. Noxious coal burning power plants need to be located away from urban centers. Concentrated industrial farming precludes diverse zoning. And TV has homogenized the culture and language of large swaths of the planet.

But distributed energy, farming, and manufacturing technologies are coming. Rooftop solar, small-scale nuclear power, desktop manufacturing, recycling warehouses, high-rise urban farming.

It’s lovely to imagine a new era of independent city states, each with its own cultural and economic values. Each of these cities will be free to experiment with its own way of life, and to discover new and better ways of structuring a society. The Internet has allowed like-minded individuals to find each other and to form cliques, and modern transportation technologies make migration more inexpensive than at any time in human history.

People will assemble in the city states that best fit their own values and dreams, and cities will compete to attract the best people. This has already been happening in the US with its hyper-mobile population. People move to places with specific values like Silicon Valley or Portland or New York. Books like Who’s Your City encourage us to choose our home city based on what kind of person we are. City identity is strengthening.

Cities with different identities have different laws, economic models, and cultures. This is already true today: Gavin Newsom allows gay marriage in San Francisco and Bloomberg bans trans-fats in New York. The question is whether new technologies will make it feasible for cities in the future to have even greater autonomy and freedom to define their own rules of civilization.

http://www.scoutingny.com/?p=1190

Staring down 54th Street from 31st Ave in Woodside, Queens, a street lined with boxy brick apartments and a scant bit of foliage, one would not expect to find one of the oldest cemeteries in New York nestled in amongst the buildings…

But there it is, halfway down the block: the Moore-Jackson Cemetery, founded in 1733 (276 years ago) and a rare surviving example of a colonial graveyard in Queens.

While doing research on the Marble Cemetery on Second Ave, I came across a number of sites about the Moore-Jackson cemetery, which was once located on farmland belonging to the wealthy Moore family. I’m amazed by the idea that any part of a former Queens farm still exists to this day, much less an entire cemetery, and I had to take a look.

The cemetery is located halfway down the block on 54th Street btw. 31st & 32nd Avenues – you can see it in the below map as that grouping of trees. Though the cemetery entrance is technically on 51st Street, the area is immensely overgrown and no headstones are visible on that end. The entire graveyard is fenced and locked up, so you’ll have to take pictures from the street.

The cemetery resides on former farmland once owned by the Moore family, of whom Clement Clarke Moore (author of The Night Before Christmas) is a descendant. The Moore farmland, established by Samuel and Charity Moore, covered 100 acres, including the cemetery and a farmhouse located nearby (torn down in the early 1900’s, according to Forgotten-NY – check out their page for an excellent full history).  The Moore Cemetery added the Jackson name when one John Jackson married into the family.

The Moore family didn’t always find itself on the right side of history: during the Revolutionary War, the family sided with the British and housed soldiers. Later, Clement Clarke Moore, a professor at Columbia, argued against abolition.

In the 1820’s, the Moore farmland was sold off save for the cemetery, which was stipulated by will to remain as the family burial ground.

(pan – to see full size, click the picture, then click on All Sizes)

The earliest grave dates to 1733; the last, 1868. All in all, there were approximately 42 burials here, of which only 15 headstones remain. Sadly, the graveyard fell into decay, to the point where by the 1920’s, the entire plot of land had become completely overgrown. Builders used the site as a garbage dump during the construction of the nearby apartment buildings, not realizing that headstones still remained. Many are now broken or illegible. Others have been moved.

The cemetery was restored after its rediscovery in the 1920’s, then forgotten again, left to become further overgrown. In the 1970’s, local residents uncovered it once more, and the cemetery has been looked after to varying degrees ever since. It received landmark status in 1997 – sorry, developers!

The oldest remaining grave visible from the street, dating to November 23, 1769 (240th anniversary is coming up), belonged to one Augustine Moore.

Another grave visible was for Margaret Moore, who died in 1790 just 1 year, 11 months old.

Another grave, this one belonging to Samuel Hallet Moore who died in 1813 at age 23:

This one farther back has been vandalized – someone wrote a name and “January 24, 1967″ in marker…nice…

Others have faded or been destroyed.

There are three trees in the cemetery that I really like, small and gnarled, looking like claws reaching up from the ground:

Two of the trees up close:

You can see the posts of a fence, which probably once encircled the cemetery in a chain.

More posts:

And a few more posts:

I love the idea that this tree just south of the cemetery probably stood when the surrounding area was farmland…

The tree:

The entire rear of the cemetery is overgrown. According to The Queens Historical Society, the cemetery went through Phase 1 of a new restoration plan in June. They were looking for volunteers at the time, and I’ve emailed to see if Phase 2 is in the near future.

This is the 51st Street side, once the entrance to the cemetery. It’s amazing to see such a large pocket of overgrown foliage in the middle of Queens.

My trusty bike poses in another view of the cemetery:

The entrance path:

This is the plaque on the 54th Street side…Come on, City of NY, can we do a little better??

If it’s difficult for the Marble Cemetery in the middle of Manhattan to raise money for restoration, I can only imagine how hard it’s been for the Moore-Jackson cemetery. It’s unfortunate that the surrounding community hasn’t risen to the challenge – the graveyard could be such a beautiful park if the desire and respect was there. I hope to help out at the next restoration phase, and will post info on it when I hear.

-SCOUT

jwz

DNA Lounge update, wherein the axe falls.

http://nat.org/blog/2009/11/computer-frustration/

http://nat.org/blog/?p=1426

58%

That’s the portion of computer experts who report getting helpdesk calls from friends or family at least once a week, according to the survey I ran on twitter the last two weeks.

My survey was not very scientific (163 samples) and definitely has a selection bias (most people who answered use Linux in one way or another, for example, although that doesn’t mean their friends and family do).

But that doesn’t change the fact that 58% is a big chunk of pain.

And a big opportunity for people who want to make computers simpler and more reliable.

How often do family and friends call you about computer problems or to ask how to do something in a particular piece of software?

What sorts of issues prompted computer novices to call their computer-expert friends and family for help? I went through 163 free-form responses in a spreadsheet and tagged them all to find the trends.

Here are the top 15 issues, in order of frequency (percent of issues mentioned):

Skype setup came up surprisingly often; I guess a lot of people are installing it lately. I was distressed to see how common printing issues still are, and curious to note that five different people reported that their friends and family cannot attach files to emails.

About a third of these issues could be addressed by webbook efforts like ChromeOS and litl, although the webbook model will probably raise new issues as well.

It will be interesting to see where Internet/WiFi setup, currently #1 with a bullet, ranks five years from now as the wireless infrastructure matures.

I also asked whether computer frustration has waxed or waned among family and friends over the last five years. There was some disagreement on this.

Based on your personal experience with family and friends, in the last 5 years, would you say the amount of computer frustration people experience has</p>

The top theories for a decline in computer frustration were: increasing skill and comfort with computers (25%), and “they switched to a Mac” (23%). Some people also noted that software quality has improved (13%).

But on the other hand, people are doing much more with their computers, and there are many more computer users.

So your parent who five years ago struggled to do email is now comfortable with email and struggling with online banking or video editing.

Some people also cited an increase in the complexity of computer software.

Computer frustration is not limited to our less-skilled friends and family. Even though 90% of the survey-takers consider themselves either 4/5 or 5/5 on the expertise scale, 32% of them report getting frustrated by their computer at least once a week.

Rate your computer expertise. Novice                             Expert

How often do you get frustrated trying to do something on your computer?

The list of issues which frustrate experts was more varied and detailed. A few key things came up again and again, however: bugs, bad docs, poor user interfaces, and interoperability/compatibility issues. Not the same as the novice list.

I was hoping to find a strong correlation between operating system use and personal frustration, so I asked people which operating systems they use. They could select multiple operating systems, and 61% of respondents did.

The sample sizes were small, but there was a trend. Here’s the percentage of experts who claim to be frustrated with their computers at least once a week (sample size in parentheses):

I also asked people for their age, and we can make the groundbreaking observation that younger people don’t get frustrated with computers as much as older people, or at least they don’t admit to it. Here’s the percentage of experts who claim to be frustrated with their computers at least once a week:

So what does all this mean?

Mostly I see a huge opportunity. People are so frustrated with computers that products and services that make things simpler and more reliable have a huge market.

Best Buy has figured this out. They don’t break out Geek Squad revenues anymore, but it’s safe to say that they’re pulling in well over a billion dollars a year helping people with their computers (at a healthy 10-20% margin – very decent in Best Buy’s universe).

But that’s just a small piece of the pie. Most people still lean on the nerd in the family. As one commenter on my survey wrote,

Not only am I contacted daily, everybody expects the help that I provide to be free.  Why is it that most people feel that computer people love to work on computers, therefore, they do not mind helping me just this one time for free?  If they experience an electrical issue, or clog their toilet, do they expect the electrician or plumber to fix their problem for free? No they gladly pay them and move on.

That probably won’t last.

(You can view or download the raw data.)

http://www.scoutingny.com/?p=1184

Ha, just realized that Sunday marked the year anniversary of Scouting NY! At some point, I was planning on making a bigger post of this, but then I completely forgot. Hopefully, over the past year, we’ve given you a look (or at least a glimpse!) of a side of New York you never knew existed. 180 posts to date, many more to come!

As always, thanks for reading!! And remember: the tourists are not stupid for looking up (though they could try to keep walking while they’re doing it).

-SCOUT

PS – A bit I still find funny from the very first post:

“I forget what street I was walking on, but I passed a window with this sign beside it:

“Sort of depressing that the blinds are now pulled and there are bars over the windows.”

http://www.scoutingny.com/?p=1177

I must have walked past the entrance to Marble Cemetery on Second Ave (btw. 2nd & 3rd Sts.) countless times before I first noticed its existence (and I’m guessing I’m not the only one).

Sandwiched between two buildings is this iron gate (technically 41 1/2 Second Ave), which is locked 99% of the year. Even if you notice the sign, you can only barely make out the cemetery down the long alley.

Marble Cemetery is New York’s oldest non-sectarian cemetery, founded in 1831 (not to be confused with the other Marble Cemetery around the corner – I’ll do a post on that one soon). Its first burial was for the child of one Dr. Post who died in 1830, and its 2,000th and final was for Charlie VanZandt in 1937.  Many were for children below the age of 6.

From April to October, the cemetery is usually open on Sundays for a few hours in the afternoon (access is available year round to those that make an appointment – check out their website for more details). The final visiting day of 2009 was on October 25, and having been meaning to check it out for years, I finally went down to see it.  I was pretty excited to see the front gate actually unlocked and wide open, and to be able to walk down the alley…

Unfortunately, the cemetery was closed for a film shoot (stupid New York film productions…).

Luckily, you don’t have to go too far into the cemetery to take it in. Marble Cemetery consists of 156 underground vaults set 10 feet underground, each the size of a small room. Why vaults and no coffin burials? At the time of its incorporation, legislation had been passed in the city that outlawed earth graves due to fears of yellow fever outbreaks (the vault system was thought to prevent this). Check out this floor plan and cross-section to see how the vaults are arranged.

Each vault has a removable stone slab set a few feet below the lawn covering adjoining vault doors. Once uncovered, a key is needed to open a vault door. The one below is for Vault 113 (pictures from the Marble Cemetery site/Ruth Ward).

There are no headstones (the few in the first picture are movie props). Instead, marble tablets on the stone walls denote nearby burials. The southern wall of the cemetery is below.

Note the “Warning Falling Rocks” sign. Unfortunately, the walls have seriously deteriorated and are in need extensive repairs (the entire west wall is gone, and large portions are missing from the north). According to the website, plans are in place to do this in stages, though I’m pretty sure donations are much appreciated.

Below, the northern wall. The Tuckahoe marble used in the tablets (also found in Brooklyn Borough Hall, St. Patrick’s, the US Capitol) is soft and weathers badly. Check out this list of plaque names for evidence of how many have become illegible.

In the south-west corner once stood the so-called Dead House, a small structure used for the temporary holding of remains. The Dead House was positioned over Marble Cemetery developer Perkins Nichols own vault, and his tablet was set into its facade. The Dead House was torn down in 1955 (photo from MarbleCemetery.org).

I love Manhattan cemeteries, in part because of how annoyed they must make developers. I find the idea of multi-million dollar plots of land being permanently dedicated for the rotting remains of long dead New Yorkers to be completely mind-boggling in one sense and very satisfying in another. Thankfully, they’re all landmarked, and we can enjoy them as both historical relics and outdoor public spaces for years to come.

-SCOUT

PS – For those looking for a shooting location, Marble Cemetery is very open to productions. Contact them through their website. Also, for anyone looking for a New York alley and coming up short, the Marble Cemetery entrance could easily stand in if you can cheat out the iron gate.

jwz

First iPhone worm discovered

Apple iPhone owners in Australia have reported that their smartphones have been infected by a worm that has changed their wallpaper to an image of 1980s pop crooner Rick Astley. Once in place, the worm appears to attempt to find other iPhones on the mobile phone network that are similarly vulnerable, and installs itself again

On each installation, the worm - written by a hacker calling themselves "ikex" - changes the lock background wallpaper to an image of Rick Astley with the message: "ikee is never going to give you up".

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/uclick/redmeat/~3/Qq6vamouJWE/458788

jwz

Bay Area Vampirism, Energy-work, and Otherkin Society (San Francisco, CA)

The Vampirism, Energy-work and Otherkin Society (VEOS) is a loosely-organized San Francisco based group. This group is open those identifying as vampire (sang or psy), donor, otherkin, and to those who wish to learn more about such topics. Other energy-workers are also welcome, so long as you have no problem with the vampiric side of energy work.

This group is NOT open to role-players, recruiters of any type, or those seeking to promote any form of religion (discussion about religion is OK, preaching is not).

news [theljstaff]

The empire strikes back

RSS feeds again

xkcd_rss

icanhaschzbrgr

Wii have killer CSI Deadly Intent contests!

c_s_i

c_s_i

c_s_i

Enveloped in postcards

Photos of the week

lj_photophile

jwz

DNA Lounge update, wherein it's spoooooky.