Rants
RE: Design and Deities
We used superconducting magnets to smash your letters together at 99 percent of the speed of light, and we discovered the Wired Uncertainty Principle: Some of you hate uncertainty! We tell you what we don’t know, and you answer, “God.” And then you ask why we left the Big Guy out. We had to. Whether a supreme being exists or not, invoking one to answer a question extinguishes inquiry. Apparently, a handful of you also dislike any uncertainty about how your favorite magazine is going to look. A few people howled about our redesign, slinging around fancy art-gallery words like gauche, frenetic, and abrasive. We say put away your $10 words and your tin-pot deities — and embrace uncertainty wherever you find it. It’s inevitable, after all. You don’t need a supercollider to figure that out.
Natural Selections
Your Big Questions issue missed a biggie: biodiversity (What We Don’t Know, issue 15.02). We don’t know why there are about 700 (and not seven) species of birds in North America. We don’t know why a similar number live in Costa Rica, which is smaller than West Virginia.
It’s not that there aren’t any ideas; rather there are too many. For example, ecologists are currently much exercised over niche theory, which states that different species can coexist because they are different, and neutral cological theory, which states that they can coexist because they are the same.
Given that we appear to be in the midst of a mass extinction, it would be nice to understand some of these things.
John Whitfield
London, England
On a Roll
After 40 years of marriage, another unknown: Why can’t my wife change the empty toilet paper roll?
Thomas Peischl
Ellensburg, Washington
A 2006 PC model on your February 2007 cover? You guys are slipping.
Paul Nerbonne
Los Angeles, California
Resident Sexpert
Each month, I open Wired and find several advertisements and articles that show T&A in tenuous connection to a processor or Web site. Imagine my joy when I saw hunky John Hodgman on the February cover. My geek-girl lust was equally stirred by Beck’s lanky frame on the September cover. Keep up the good work, guys. As Abigail Adams wrote, “Remember the ladies.”
Amy Jones
Englewood, Colorado
I Have a Dream
One benefit of sleep could be to permit the brain’s short-term memory to be cleared of its contents and readied for a fresh start the next day (What We Don’t Know, “Why Do We Sleep?”). A first step could be to file away what are perceived as important bits of data in some longer-term memory area. Once such data are filed, the short-term memory could be cleared and the brain switched to REM mode to begin a more sophisticated procedure: correlating the newly filed data with recollections previously stored in long-term memory.
Such data correlation might reinforce our ability to recall and cross-reference key events that caused joy or fear. Later, feelings of anticipation or foreboding might improve our chance of encountering good things and avoiding bad ones. Dreaming might well turn out to be a key feature of this data correlation process, which could explain a dream’s bizarre juxtaposition of random memories and recent experiences.
Peter Parkinson
Ottawa, Ontario
To Be or Not to Be
You missed the biggest unanswered question: Why is there anything at all? Or to put it another way, Why isn’t there nothing — no matter, no energy, no universe, no space, no dimensions, no branes — no anything? We will have little fundamental understanding of our universe until we can begin to answer this question with anything other than superstition.
Fred Stahl
Arlington, Virginia
There has always been an “arms race” (another apt metaphor) between infectious disease organisms and medical tactics, and medicine is losing out.
Eliot Gelwan
Brookline, Massachusetts
excerpted from the blog Follow Me Here...
Yahoo Boos
“How Yahoo Blew It,” (issue 15.02) demonstrates how quickly the balance of economic power can change. And if Google isn’t very, very careful, it may be in the same position a few years from now: struggling to catch up with the brash young upstart that has come up with the Next Big Thing.
David Ma
Toronto, Ontario
Excerpted from the blog techblawg
We put ad dollars into both Yahoo’s Overture and Google and monitored the results. For us, an indicator of which one was the better value was that Yahoo indexed only one page of our Web site — an advertiser that had spent several thousand dollars with them — while Google indexed dozens.
Patrick Morris
San Francisco, California
Biological Warfare
My congratulations on the superb research and writing in “The Invisible Enemy” (issue 15.02). I read about the lag in antibiotic research years ago, but as you point out, the real money for Big Pharma is elsewhere. Wake-up time will turn into catch-up time, which will result in more casualties. Steve Silberman’s article, which could be the basis for a thriller, brings this folly into sharp focus and shows how the heroic and unsung efforts of medical personnel everywhere are tragically overrun by the pathogens and their human quisling: the complacency and stupidity of antibiotic misuse.
Michael D. Abrams
Uckfield, England
As the son of a USAF doctor, and with four close friends awaiting redeployment, I read “The Invisible Enemy” with great interest. Excellent article. Too often the sacrifices of soldiers, especially after they return home, are marginalized in press and politics. The small mention of Clostridium difficile caught my eye. In October, my mother lost an 11-month battle with ovarian cancer due to complications from C. diff. Like most people, she picked it up at the hospital.
Jack Gross
Sacramento, California
Fish Gotta Swim
There are spotted owls in those underwater forests, only they have fins and gills (“Reservoir Logs,” issue 15.02). Don’t be surprised if fish populations decline as their underwater perches are removed. No, I’m not a radical environmentalist — only a geek who likes to go fishing every once in a while.
Mark Finley
Edmonds, Washington
I Want My Old MTV
It is ironic that a company that branded itself with reality programming has descended into a fantasy world devoid of true communication or honest self-expression (“A Second Life for MTV,” issue 15.02). MTV needs more than a virtual makeover to restore its once hip and respected image.
Jori Robbins
Deerfield, Illinois
I was shocked to see a slang word for breast get into the title of Clive Thompson’s monthly column. It seems to me Mr. Know-It-All is the real boob.
Mary Kate Fredriksen
Bowling Green, Ohio
Bashing the Mashup
You recently described Brian Eno as transforming “the mashup into fine art” (Play, “Master Mix,” issue 15.02). But there is no relation whatsoever between his installation and mashups. Eno’s piece is just a novel combination of images and audio displayed in a gallery — the definition of video installation art. Who needs it contextualized with references to mashups?
I enjoy reading about the infusion of a new concept or aesthetic into an established standard. But why mar such descriptions with an increasingly loathsome term like mashup? The only situation where this word seems even remotely applicable is regarding certain approaches to remixing music. Even then, the words remix or bootleg sound more intelligent and clear.
The truth is, mashup is a manufactured buzzword, and like any buzzword, it drips with tacky artificiality, marketing innuendo, and vague implications. I have lately observed the application of this metaphor to the most unlikely subjects, including art, video, laptops, cell phones, movies, sneakers, cars, toothbrushes, and who knows what else. I look forward to the moment your writers properly address this particularly trendy and overused word by jettisoning it from your hallowed pages.
Oliver Paradis
Brooklyn, New york
One Giant Cleanup
The water-leak incident mentioned in “One Giant Screwup for Mankind” (issue 15.01), while unfortunate, affected a relatively small number of records (only 0.0006 percent of the National Archives and Records Administration’s total holdings). Immediately after the leak, NARA staff worked tirelessly to ensure there was no permanent damage. I am happy to report that due to our staff’s diligence, all records have been fully recovered.
Alan J. Kramer
Division Director, National Archives and Records Administration
You’re the Tops
Wired has always been known for its design, and other magazines have been revamped to follow your lead. Your new design delights by distancing Wired from these copycats and taking a giant step toward legibility. The new fonts are handsome. The font sizes, leading, and column widths all encourage reading rather than skimming (as we do on the Web). There is an emphasis on content rather than white space. Your content is now enhanced by — not overwhelmed by — graphics. Well done.
Owen Findsen
Cincinnati, Ohio
You’re So Vain
Wired’s new design scores in the cool category. But the text is so manipulated, compacted and colorized that your publication’s most vital function — legibility — is nullified by its self-indulgent design.
__Steve Raglin
Omaha, Nebraska __
You’re the Reason Our Kids Are Ugly
This so-called design upgrade caught me unguarded. Mixing typefaces brings confusion. Different font sizes on the same page are not a feast for the eye. The new, Chinese-like section logos are silly. The heavy black bars that follow them are sluggish and boring. Colors now match the ads, which before were distinctively inferior to the magazine’s content. It really feels like a downgrade. The changes renounce all the good things the magazine meant in terms of graphical design.
Fabio Juvencio
Toronto, Ontario
You’re Still the One
I always enjoy Wired, especially the odd dreams it can inspire if I read it at night. The only trouble I have (besides the magazine dropping onto my face as I fall asleep) is the unusual color choices, particularly the oranges and yellows used for text and graphics on light backgrounds. I need a halogen lamp to see these well, and that doesn’t fly with my partner trying to sleep next to me. Happily, my first glance at the new layout shows you’ve changed some of that. Here’s to funky dreams.
Jack Vinson
Evanston, Illinois
Return to Sender
Coin Bank,
By Elysse Sewell
UNDO Aromatic is a scientific term referring to certain molecules — not any molecule — with one or more hexagonal rings of carbon atoms (Start, “What’s Inside,” issue 15.02).
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