re Dangerous Ideas Ahead
We're proud to say that our readers are comfortable with bold thinking. You embraced most of our perilous proposals, especially the suggestion to release nonviolent offenders from jail. "Thumbs up! A prison is nothing more than a crime school," one commenter wrote. Some daredevils wished we had pushed the envelope even further: "What about cybernetic implant technology? Or sustainability? Or — the most dangerous idea of all — universal health care?" Another asked, "How about eliminating tax exemptions for religious institutions?" Baby steps, guys, baby steps. Maybe next year.
The Story of Lightning Man
The first issue of Wired*, published in January 1993, included a review of Douglas Coupland's* Shampoo Planet*, an ad for AT&T FAXsolutions, and a little picture of a guy being struck by lightning. John Plunkett, the magazine's founding creative director, had spotted the image years before on construction signs in Paris. He liberated one and held on to it.* Wired provided an opportunity to put the image to use, and it became the logo for the magazine's Street Cred section. "Danger of Electrical Shock" felt right in line with our self-appointed editorial mission of the time, et voilà," Plunkett says. Over the years, Lightning Man appeared on Wired gear, but he didn't make the cover until October 2009, when creative director Scott Dadich hit upon the idea of resurrecting the old image and hired illustrator Christoph Niemann to execute the update.
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Big in Europe
I noticed that a few proposals in the Dangerous Ideas package (issue 17.10) are already in place in Europe and elsewhere outside the US. Considering America's history of shunning great ideas from abroad (e.g., the metric system, public transportation), I don't see much room for these other borrowed innovations to take root. Let's hope I'm wrong.
__Adam Scott
Baltimore, Maryland__
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Compare and Contrest
It's inevitable: We're intrigued by some research. A magazine we admire is hooked by the same collection of data. So it went with our October piece about Nicholas Christakis and James Fowler, who mined 60-year-old health data to analyze how relationships influence people's health. Just before our article appeared, The New York Times Magazine ran its version of the story. Herewith, a comparison:
Headline: The Buddy System
Author: Jonah Lehrer, Wired contributing editor
Words: 1,398
Charts: 3
Newsstand date: September 22, 2009
Moment of convergence: "Having an obese spouse raised the risk of becoming obese by 37 percent. If a friend became obese, the risk skyrocketed by 171 percent."
Conclusion: "People, in other words, need people: We are the glue holding ourselves together."
Headline: Is Happiness Catching?
Author: Clive Thompson, also a Wired contributing editor
Words: 7,762
Charts: 0
Newsstand date: September 13, 2009
Moment of convergence: "If a male Framingham subject had a male friend who became fat, his risk doubled, but if his wife became obese, his risk was increased by only 37 percent."
Conclusion: "If someone tells you that you can influence 1,000 people, it changes your way of seeing the world."
The Clone Wars
Thanks, Wired, for addressing the cloning issue ("Embrace Human Cloning," issue 17.10). As a teenager, I've had to sit through countless debates in school about the ethics of the practice. I'm glad that a reputable magazine has raised legitimate reasons for cloning humans — I have never seen a problem with it. I enjoyed all of your dangerous ideas.
__Sam Robbins
Seattle, Washington__
I don't have any moral or religious qualms about the cloning of humans. Gregg Easterbrook has made the point that we could do it. But he still hasn't made a compelling argument for why we should do it, beyond the tired tropes of infertility and that the clones would be so grateful.
Excerpted from a comment posted to Wired.com by DOGCOW
We need to clone humans ... because 6 billion people born the old-fashioned way just aren't enough! More of us need to live in poverty, hunger, and disease. How else are we to achieve the lofty standards of Soylent Green? I am pro-science, but let's solve the problems we have before inventing new ones.
Excerpted from a comment posted to Wired.com by MIKELINPA
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Aspies for Hire
Regarding "Recruit Autistics" (issue 17.10): Individuals with Asperger's typically have very high IQs and a topic on which they perseverate. My 14-year-old is an Aspie, and he's become an expert on physics. We joke when my eyes glaze over and I have to ask him to keep it high-level since I'm "neurotypical." Asperger's is definitely a gift.
Excerpted from a comment posted to Wired.com by LISABE
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Fair Play
"Bust Up Big League Sports" (issue 17.10) left out one big drawback of the European soccer model: Those leagues are dominated by a few big-money teams like Real Madrid and Manchester United. Compare this with the American system, where salary caps, luxury taxes, and a rookie draft maintain a competitive balance. Major league sports in the US are far from perfect, but regulation would only ensure domination by wealthy teams.
__James Ferguson
Davis, California__
Thank you for being brave enough to say this. Pro sports are the biggest scam ever!
Excerpted from a comment posted to Wired.com by BIFFBIFFLEY
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Stupidity=Death
Bad decisionmaking is nature's way of weeding stupidity out of the gene pool ("Cheat Death," issue 17.10). The too-dumb-to-survive must not pollute it. Don't mess with natural selection.
Excerpted from a comment posted to Wired.com by WIZARD_SKYTH
Yearbook photo
The task: Take a portrait of modern teenagers that's reminiscent of the work of American photographer Mike Disfarmer. "It was an amazing, challenging project," says Todd Hido, who we hired to pull off the feat. "I was excited to try to re-create the work of somebody I've admired for 20 years." To find models, senior photo editor Zana Woods scouted San Francisco basketball courts and skate parks; she even coaxed one subject into getting a '40s bowl haircut. From an LA prop house, photo editor Carolyn Rauch scored vintage uniforms with the numbers 17 and 10 (for issue 17.10, get it?). Hido shot the scene on film — that's how Disfarmer would have done it — and production guru Jeff Lysgaard composited Hido's image onto an older photograph and color-corrected the result. Could you tell the final version wasn't ripped from an old yearbook? Neither could we.
Can't you also read this as evidence that we don't all die from disease and unsafe working/living/traveling conditions anymore? Obviously, the more progress we make in stamping out those things, the higher the risk that we'll die of stupid things like being overweight.
Excerpted from a comment posted to Wired.com by ZIRTOC
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False Imprisonment
"Open the Prison Gates" (issue 17.10) downplays an important fact: US correctional facilities have become the world's largest mental institutions. About 500,000 individuals with mental illness are imprisoned at any given time, and another 500,000 are on probation for minor misbehavior caused largely by their flawed perceptions of reality. It is an expensive, cruel, and stupid way to deal with mental illness.
__Mary Di Pietro
Secretary, Board of Directors
National Alliance on Mental Illness, Washington, DC__
I was excited to see your publication's logical position on the overcrowding of US prisons. I am incarcerated in the California Department of Corrections. While I feel my punishment fits my crimes, I believe that a majority of the inmates held in minimum-security facilities are not criminals and do not deserve or need to be imprisoned. It's great to hear an intelligent person like Nils Christie state that drug abuse should be treated as a public health matter instead of a crime. Thank you.
__Ryan Miller
Corcoran, California__
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Out of Africa
Aid to Africa often supplants the need and desire for change and may cause more hardship over time ("Cut Africa Loose," issue 17.10). Bill Gates should not be employing people in China, then giving profits to Africa; he should be building factories in Africa so people can support themselves and change their lives for the better.
Excerpted from a comment posted to Wired.com by CIRCUITSPORTS
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Physics Lesson
It's disappointing that "Does Internet Speed Vary by Season?" (Test, issue 17.10) falls woefully short on the physics details. Data transfer speeds depend not on the media's conductivity but on the cable's design, the material's electrical properties, and the speed at which the electronic circuits can transfer data. The effect of temperature is both more complex and less significant than the article states. Change in copper's conductivity, by itself, hardly matters. Real-world data speeds are more likely affected by the number of users online, as the piece concludes.
__Prashanth Ramesh
Columbus, Ohio__
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Uphill Both Ways, in the Snow
It never fails: We create a list of the 10 best or worst of anything and our readers want to make additions. Here's what they'd include in the "10 Best Things We'll Say to Our Grandkids" (Start, issue 17.10) :
"Back then, New York was above water."
Excerpted from a comment posted to Wired.com by M4CGYV3R
"When I was a kid, we only had 8-MB bandwidth — and we were thankful to have it. Now get back to your room and take your dinner pill."
Excerpted from a comment posted to Wired.com by IONU
"No, really! Cancer used to be deadly!"
Excerpted from a comment posted to Wired.com by ATYPICALPERSON/p>
(Fingers crossed! — Ed.)
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Revenge of the Nerds
I found "The Assclown Offensive" (issue 17.10) a humorous and enjoyable read. Why don't these guys declare Chanology a religion, naming Anonymous their god and Scientology their devil? Then they could enjoy tax-exempt status and get their own nameless, faceless deity.
__Michael Alvarez
Portland, Oregon__
As someone who gladly shares in the title Anonymous, I commend Julian Dibbell. I was astonished that he managed to see what 4chan actually stands for: cheap, numerous lulz at the expense of others — and sometimes even ourselves. Thank you for doing us, and 4chan, justice.
__Anonymous
Toronto, Ontario__
I belonged to Anonymous when I was in college. It was fun wearing a mask and partying. Most of my friends felt like outsiders, and the group honestly made us feel like part of something big. We were protesting against the church of Scientology! It was the highlight of my life until I got pregnant, and now I look back at all that freaking time wasted. I could have been doing something better with my time, like building a career or getting an education. Life hits you hard.
Excerpted from a comment posted to Wired.com by LISAH
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RE: "Screen Grab" (issue 17.10)
Are you serious? Is this a prank? I can't think of anything more ridiculous than a "making of Facebook" movie. Except maybe wasting Wired pages discussing a Facebook movie.
Excerpted from a comment posted on Wired.com by GLEBOVITZ
