This all just tells me that it’s not easily consumed, so I skip it. Time better spent on other things.

…am I the only one who hates when people on the web say “our friends at ____” or “my good friend ____” when they’ve never even spoken to the person(s)?

How do you feel about the fact that I currently have over 300 “friends” on Newsvine?

;)

Did anyone else wonder if, after 41 hours locked in a small room with NOTHING to do, if he emerged as, um, master of his domain?

————

In most elevators, at least in any built or installed since the early nineties, the door-close button doesn’t work. It is there mainly to make you think it works. (It does work if, say, a fireman needs to take control. But you need a key, and a fire, to do that.) Once you know this, it can be illuminating to watch people compulsively press the door-close button. That the door eventually closes reinforces their belief in the button’s power. It’s a little like prayer. Elevator design is rooted in deception—to disguise not only the bare fact of the box hanging by ropes but also the tethering of tenants to a system over which they have no command.

That’s just one of many fascinating tidbits in a piece in this week’s New Yorker about, you guessed it, elevators. And elevator design. And elevator jargon: destination dispatch, arrival immediate prediction lantern, psychological waiting time, &c.

Oh, and elevator horror stories—chief among them the story of Nicholas White, who was stuck in an elevator, alone, for forty-one hours (that link takes you to the time-lapse security video of said elevator during said forty-one hours).

————

I also included some links to Khoi Vinh’s posts about the New York Times building switching to destination dispatch ’cause they were pretty fascinating as well.

To me, anything that teaches me how something works is a must read.

Your friend, -Rex