An escalator's worst failure mode is far worse than 'becoming stairs'. I witnessed an escalator loaded with riders go into free fall once at a major league ballpark: thirty or forty people ended up in a heap at the bottom in just a few seconds.

Thank you for representing the part of my brain that needed a voice.  Yay!

I like the intro to this one. I've gotta use these jokes lol

I live in the DC area and I liked the squeaky elevators too. I've always thought of them as whale mating calls too!

99 pi tracks left

Listening to The Movies

Why watch a movie if you can’t see the screen? Matthew and his friend Ben take in a Marx Brothers film and showcase the power of a good description. Blind Guy Travels is written and performed by Matthew Shifrin, and produced and sound-designed by Ian Coss. Blind Guy Travels is a production of Radiotopia from PRX and part of Radiotopia Presents, a podcast feed debuting limited-run, artist-owned series from new and original voices. Learn more about Blind Guy Travels and access transcripts at radiotopiapresents.fm and discover more shows from across the Radiotopia network at radiotopia.fm.

Radiotopia Presents: Blind Guy Travels

Wall Street Journal's Josh Zumbrun details how airlines get rid of certain passengers on a flight and how passengers can fight against this issue.

The Science Behind Who Airlines Bump From a Flight—and How to Exploit It

LC.12_Smoke_Everything Eaten in One Year

Dans le cimetière d'un petit village d'Ariège se trouve la tombe de mes parents. Heureusement, ils ne sont pas encore dedans.

1er prix du concours de podcasts 2022 "Un été en liberté"  :
Le jury a été touché par cette histoire de famille cocasse et tendre, tournée en mode documentaire. Comme quoi le podcast, parfois, se passe très bien de voix off et de narration... 

Le concours de podcasts des Audioblogs d'ARTE Radio a lieu chaque été. Le concours 2022 était animé par Thomas Guillaud-Bataille, coordoinateur des Audioblogs. Il était proposé par ARTE Radio en partenariat avec Télérama et Sennheiser. La gagnante Anne Defraiteur-Nicoleau pour "Rien ne presse" gagne un mix par Samuel Hirsch + une diffusion rémunérée sur ARTE Radio + une diffusion sur le site de Télérama + un abonnement papier d'un an à Télérama + un micro de reportage Sennheiser + un casque audio Sennheiser. Les 2ème et 3ème prix ainsi que l'ensemble des envois au concours sont là : https://audioblog.arteradio.com/blog/188050/concours-arte-radio-2022

Enregistrements : été 22 - Réalisation : Anne Defraiteur-Nicoleau - Mix : Samuel Hirsch - Production : ARTE Radio

Rien ne presse

The diary of a girl in the 1980s who-- forbidden to go out on dates-- resorts to finding love via the phone. To learn more about Mortified visit getmortified.com.  The Mortified Podcast is a proud member of Radiotopia from PRX. 

02 Sakena: Mr. Telephone Man

BLOOD

Will Grant takes a ride in Cuba to discover how people get around and whether the thaw in relations with the United States will make any difference to their lives. Published on August 13, 2015.

Cuba on the Move

“There's a secret jazz seeping from Washington's aging Metro escalators - those anemic metal walkways that fill our transit system…they honk and bleat and squawk…why are you still wearing those earbuds?”
 
-Chris Richards, “Move along with the soundtrack of Metro's screechy, wailing escalators” Washington Post

Ever since the industrial revolution, when it became possible for products to be designed just once and then mass produced, it has been the slight imperfections and wear introduced by human use that has transformed a quality mass produced product into a thing we love. Your worn blue jeans, your grandmothers iron skillet, the initial design determined their quality, but it’s their imperfections that make them comfortable, that make them lovable, that make them yours. 

And if you think that a “slightly broken” escalator can’t be lovable, then our own Sam Greenspan would like to introduce you to Chris Richards.

Chris Richards is a music critic for the Washington Post, and after years of ignoring the wailing and screeching of the much maligned, often broken escalators in the DC Metro, he began to hear them in a new way. He began to hear them as music.


99% Invisible-43- The Accidental Music of Imperfect Escalators

The Pruitt-Igoe housing project in St. Louis became most famous at the moment of its demise. The thirty-three high-rise towers built in the 1950’s were supposed to solve the impending population crisis in inner city St. Louis. It was supposed to save the urban poor from the indignities of the downtown slums that lacked natural light, water and fresh air. And for a short while, it worked. It was a housing marvel. But when conditions started to decline, everything got very bad, very fast.
It got so bad, only two decades after it was built; the housing authority blew it up. The image of the first Pruitt-Igoe controlled implosion circled the globe.
The implosion footage became the unassailable proof that Modernist architecture and federal housing just didn’t work.
Chad Freidrichs is the director of the new documentary The Pruitt-Igoe Myth and in the film he examines all the reasons people cite for the demise of Pruitt-Igoe. 
In this episode of 99% Invisible, we focus on the popular idea that the architecture was to blame.



99% Invisible-44- The Pruitt-Igoe Myth

Beauty Pill is band I really like from Washington DC. They have released two EPs (The Cigarette Girl From the Future and You Are Right to be Afraid) and their last album, The Unsustainable Lifestyle, came out in 2004.
In the interim, the singer/guitarist/producer for Beauty Pill, Chad Clark, got very sick and nearly died. That can be enough to make anyone stop making music, but in Clark’s case, he continued to make music, but he just never felt the need to release a record or play live. His music was just for him and his friends, and that was OK.
But a strange confluence of opportunity, desire and architecture knocked Beauty Pill out of their unforced exile. The curators at a new multimedia art center called Artisphere invited Chad Clark to come in and do something musical in the space. While they were showing him around, he saw the angled, 2ndfloor window overlooking the Black Box Theater and it reminded him of the window in Abbey Road Studio 2, made famous by The Beatles. Months later, the Black Box Theater was transformed into a very public recording studio, capturing the sounds and energy of the band, onlookers and guests over the course of a couple weeks.
They called the project Immersive Ideal.


99% Invisible-45- Immersive Ideal

Before the 1850s, dentures were made out of very hard, very painful and very expensive material, like gold or ivory. They were a luxury item. The invention of Vulcanite hard rubber changed everything. It was moldable, it could be precisely fitted, and it was relatively cheap. Everyone began making dentures with Vulcanite bases. But in 1864, a long disputed patent application, originally filed in 1852, was awarded and then acquired by the Goodyear Dental Vulcanite Company. It was an outfit created to collect fees, or very often, sue dentists who already used vulcanite, and there were plenty of dentists to go after.

The person in charge of pursuing the violators was Josiah Bacon, the treasurer of the Goodyear Dental Vulcanite Company.

The patent was enforced with extreme prejudice, despite the protestations of the US dental profession. 

To quote the secretary of the Goodyear Dental Vulcanite Company, Ernest Caduc:
“Many dentists…relying upon the secret nature of the business, prefer to steal this property rather than buy it…”

It all came to a head on Easter Sunday in 1879. A Vulcanite denture patent violating dentist named Samuel Chalfant went to settle his business with his pursuer, Josiah Bacon, in his San Francisco hotel room. Chalfant brought a gun.

A print version of this story originally appeared in the fanzine Murder Can Be Fun by John Marr.


99% Invisible-46- Vulcanite Dentures

"Somebody might be able to do a great painting that’s 20 x 30 inches, but you take that down to 1 x 1.5 inches, and it’s a challenge to make it work." -Ethel Kessler, Art Director for USPS Stamp Services

Stamps design takes, on average, a year to a year and a half, from conception to execution. Unfortunately, most of the stamps we encounter on a day-to-day basis are the rather predictable flag, bell, and love stamps, but there are some really fantastic commemorative stamps, which are supremely functional and affordable tiny works of art.

To determine what should go on a US stamp, the Citizens Stamp Advisory Committee combs through nearly 50,000 suggestions per year offered by the general public. Once the subjects are chosen and approved by the Postmaster General, they are assigned to a handful of art directors to be designed.

There are loads guidelines to help stamp subject selection, but one of the big rules recently changed. In 2012, the first living person will be commemorated on an official USPS stamp.

If you were the Postmaster General, whom would you pick?

Julie Shapiro, Art Director of the Third Coast International Audio Festival, produced this episode. Julie spoke with Terry McCaffrey, the retired manager of stamp development for the USPS Stamp Services Office, and Ethel Kessler, an Art Director who’s been working with Stamp Services for over 15 years.


99% Invisible-47- US Postal Service Stamps

“I have this habit of walking into any door that’s unlocked…You start poking around, going into doors…you find the coolest things…”
-Andrea Seabrook, NPR Congressional Correspondent

In the eight years Andrea Seabrook has been reporting on Congress, she has made it a point to get to know the whole Capitol building.  "The members of the House Republican Caucus--and sometimes the Democrats--meet in the basement for their closed door secret strategy sessions," Andrea says.  "And it's really good place to get a tip from members that you know about what’s going on."  One day, after getting the info she needed for her story, she decided to press further on into the depths of the Capitol.

That's when she found the marble bathtubs.

The bathtubs were installed around 1860 during the expansion of the Capitol. DC is known for its swampy summers, and legend has it that senators could be banished from the chamber if they were too smelly.  But lawmakers--like most Americans at the time--didn't have indoor plumbing at home. They needed a place where they could wash up.

So the Architect of the Capitol ordered six marble bath tubs, each three by seven feet and carved by hand in Italy, to be installed in the Capitol basement--three on the House side, three on the senate. Today, only two tubs remain on the Senate side, in a room which now stores the building's heating and cooling equipment. But evidence of room's former grandeur remains.

99% Invisible-48- The Bathtubs or the Boiler Room

L'humour est partout, l'humour fait vendre, pourtant le rire au lit passe souvent pour une mauvaise nouvelle. Nous sommes sérieux comme des papes. Nous avons la trouille que ce rire soit un jugement. Nous nous demandons si l'expression "femme qui rit, à moitié dans ton lit" ne recouvre pas un énorme malentendu : et si cette femme qui rit, au lieu d'entrer dans notre lit... était occupée à en sortir ?
A retrouver aussi sur la chaîne Youtube ARTE Radio .

Enregistrements : avril 18 - Mise en ondes & mix : Arnaud Forest - Texte & voix : Maïa Mazaurette - Illustration :  Sjoerd van Leeuwen

Sex and sounds (n°27) : Rire au lit

"A lush debut; Owens delivers her mystery wrapped in gorgeous, lyrical prose." --Alexandra Fuller, author of Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight How long can you protect your heart? For years, rumors of the "Marsh Girl" have haunted Barkley Cove, a quiet town on the North Carolina coast. So in late 1969, when handsome Chase Andrews is found dead, the locals immediately suspect Kya Clark, the so-called Marsh Girl. But Kya is not what they say. Sensitive and intelligent, she has survived for years alone in the marsh that she calls home, finding friends in the gulls and lessons in the sand. Then the time comes when she yearns to be touched and loved. When two young men from town become intrigued by her wild beauty, Kya opens herself to a new life--until the unthinkable happens. Perfect for fans of Barbara Kingsolver and Karen Russell, Where the Crawdads Sing is at once an exquisite ode to the natural world, a heartbreaking coming-of-age story, and a surprising tale of possible murder. Owens reminds us that we are forever shaped by the children we once were, and that we are all subject to the beautiful and violent secrets that nature keeps. Available for purchase at: <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B078GD3DRG?tag=randohouseinc7911-20">Amazon</a><a href="http://www.anrdoezrs.net/click-8373827-11819508?sid=PRHD39095A662&url=http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/?ean=9780735219113">Barnes & Noble</a><a href="http://www.tkqlhce.com/click-8373827-10876509?SID=PRHD39095A662--9780735219113&url=http://www.booksamillion.com/p/9780735219113">Books A Million</a><a href="http://www.hudsonbooksellers.com/book/9780735219090?utm_source=prh&utm_medium=affiliate&utm_term=301&utm_content=PRHD39095A662--9780735219090&utm_campaign=9780735219090">Hudson Booksellers</a><a href="http://www.indiebound.org/book/9780735219090?aff=PenguinGroupUS">IndieBound</a><a href="http://www.powells.com/book/-9780735219090?utm_source=randomhouse&utm_campaign=randomhouse&utm_content=PRHD39095A662--9780735219090">Powell's</a><a href="http://goto.target.com/c/128773/81938/2092?subId1=PRHD39095A662--9780735219090&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.target.com%2Fs%3FsearchTerm%3D9780735219090">Target</a><a href="http://linksynergy.walmart.com/fs-bin/click?id=VD9*lkiWNd8&subid=0&offerid=183959.1&type=10&tmpid=273&u1=PRHD39095A662--9780735219090&RD_PARM1=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.walmart.com%2Fsearch%2Fsearch-ng.do%3F&RD_PARM2=search_query%3D9780735219090%2526ic%3D16_0%2526Find%3DFind%2526search_constraint%3D3920">Walmart</a><a href="https://google.prf.hn/click/camref:1011ld4r/pubref:PRHD39095A662--9780735219113/destination:https://play.google.com/store/search?q=9780735219113&c=books">Google Play Store</a><a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/id1326615497?at=11l3IH&ct=PRHD39095A662--9780735219113">iBooks</a><a href="http://click.linksynergy.com/link?id=VD9*lkiWNd8&offerid=258185.12829781935712206&type=2&u1=PRHD39095A662--9780735219113}&murl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.kobo.com%2Fsearch%3FQuery%3D9780735219113">Kobo</a>

Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens, read by Cassandra Campbell

While shooting the cultish webserie “New York Minute”, Samuel Hirsch recorded some urban sounds and voices for this short Afro-American ballad.  
Recorded on March 2010 - Directed by Samuel Hirsch - Produced by http://arteradio.com
Balade sonore à New York, avec sons urbain et voix afro-américaines. Enregistrée et montée par Samuel Hirsch pendant le tournage de "New York Minute", la web série culte produite par ARTE Radio.  

Download : http://bit.ly/1gFFt92


NY state of mind

A tiny radio show about design, architecture &amp; the 99% invisible activity that shapes our world.

http://99percentinvisible.org/

New episodes every Wednesday.

On the radio on 91.7 KALW in San Francisco. Fridays at 7:35am and 4:30pm, Saturdays at 8:35am.  And public radio stations across the country.

Created by Roman Mars.


99% Invisible-43- The Accidental Music of Imperfect Escalators

Roman Mars

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