TechToxic – Vintage Disk Drive Factory

disk drive factory

A (carcinogenic?) San Jose, California disk drive factory, circa 1956.

It’s turtles all the way down

A game of Rashomon, anyone?

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In A Brief History of Time (Bantam Books, 1988), Stephen Hawking tells the story of an elderly woman who confronted Bertrand Russell at the end of a lecture on orbital mechanics, claiming she had a theory superior to his. “We don’t live on a ball revolving around the Sun,” she said, “we live on a crust of earth on the back of a giant turtle.” Wishing to humor the woman Russell asked, “And what does this turtle stand on?” “On the back of a second, still larger turtle,” was her confident answer. “But what holds up the second turtle?” he persisted, now in a slightly exasperated tone. “It’s no use, young man,” the old woman replied, “it’s turtles all the way down.”

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Stephen Hawking in BriefHistoryOfTime starts with the same anecdote. A well-known scientist (some say it was Bertrand Russell) once gave a public lecture on astronomy. He described how the earth orbits around the sun and how the sun, in turn, orbits around the center of a vast collection of stars called our galaxy. At the end of the lecture, a little old lady atthe back of the room got up and said: “What you have told us is rubbish. The world is really a flat plate supported on the back of a gianttortoise.” The scientist gave a superior smile before replying, “What isthe tortoise standing on?” “You’re very clever, young man, very clever,”said the old lady. “But it’s turtles all the way down.”

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A Brief History of Time begins with a striking image and a wonderful true story: An elderly lady attended a public lecture given by an astrophysicist on how the Earth goes around the Sun and how the Sun circles about with countless other stars in our galaxy the Milky Way. During the question and answer session, the woman stood up and told the distinguished scientist that his lecture was nonsense, that the Earth is a flat disk supported on the back of an enormous tortoise. The scientist tried to outwit the lady by asking, “Well, my dear, what supports the tortoise?” To which she replied, “You’re a very clever young man, but not clever enough. It’s turtles all the way down!”

Hello, I Must Be Going

Groucho Marx, as Captain Jeffrey Spaulding, in Animal Crackers (1930):

Spalding (speaks): Well I’m certainly grateful for this magnificent washout, eh, turnout, and, eh,
now I’d like to say a few words…
(sings) Hello, I must be going.
I cannot stay, I came to say I must be going.
I’m glad I came, but just the same I must be going.

Mrs. Rittenhous: For my sake you must stay.
If you should go away, you’ll spoil this party I am throwing.

Spalding: I’ll stay a week or two.
I’ll stay the summer through.
But I am telling you that I must be going.

Mrs. Rittenhous: Before you go will you oblige us
and tell us of your deeds so glowing?

Spalding: I’ll do anything you say.
In fact, I’ll even stay!

All: Good!

Spalding: But I must be going.

Jason Salavon – Every Playboy Centerfold, The Decades

“The photographs in this suite are the result of mean averaging every Playboy centerfold foldout for the four decades beginning Jan. 1960 through Dec. 1999. This tracks, en masse, the evolution of this form of portraiture.”