(((Charles Fishman))) 💧 Profile picture
Jun 19, 2020 6 tweets 3 min read Read on X
In April 1965, the U.S. government owned 1,767 computers. Total.

Most buildings in downtown DC today have more than 1,767 computers.

Going to the Moon launched the digital revolution.

Going to the Moon had more impact on Earth than on space travel.

fastcompany.com/90361101/how-t…
2/ The 60s were a wildly transformative time.

One thing that often gets overlooked is that the '60s were the dawn of the geek.

In 1960, 'technology'—the word itself— really meant military tools — really, the A-bomb and the H-bomb.

Technology meant 'Dr. Strangelove.'
3/ Then we spent a decade watching civilians, at consoles, using computers to do the hardest thing anyone could imagine: Fly to the Moon.

Plus, we had 'The Jetsons' (1962), 'Lost in Space' (1965), 'Star Trek' (1966), '2001: A Space Odyssey' (1968).

Computers were everywhere. Image
4/ The 1960s transformed the ordinary attitude about technology — from something with a slightly frightening tone to something that was accessible, useful, reliable. Even cool.

fastcompany.com/90361101/how-t…
5/ That's #10 in the series I did last summer about the race to the Moon in the 1960s—how Apollo happened, and also how it changed life on Earth.

Last summer was the 50th anniversary of the first Moon landing.

This summer, we need a story of making the impossible possible.
6/ The whole series is collected @FastCompany.

50 short pieces that give you a flavor for how ordinary people, asked to do something extraordinary, rose to the occasion.

A lot to learn for our world today.

The first 10 in the series are here.

#Apollo51
fastcompany.com/section/50-day…

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More from @cfishman

Mar 29
On the bridge of the container ship Dali, 4 minutes from disaster, there's one critical moment we haven't heard about yet.

The very moment the ship lost power the 1st time.

What did the pilot do, right then?

His first thought, apparently, was safety — the bridge looming ahead.

—>

⤵️ NTSB photo of the bridge of the Dali...Image
2/ The 1st 'event' leading up to the collision that the NTSB notes in its timeline is 1:24:59—when alarms on the bridge indicate power failure.

The ship was without electricity, engine power, lights, navigation, radio.

Dali was dark, literally & in terms of communications.

—>
3/ The first thing the pilot did — apparently within the first 30 to 60 seconds of the ship going dark — was take out his cell phone and call harbor pilot dispatch.

He told his dispatcher: We've lost power, close the bridge. Close the bridge.

—>
Read 20 tweets
Mar 28
Sam Bankman Fried sentenced to 25 years in federal prison for the FTX crypto fraud.

Below from ⁦@WSJ⁩ — a great chart comparing him to other major white collar criminals.

SBF gets a decade more than Jeff Skilling from Enron. Twice as long as Elizabeth Holmes. Image
2/ Here's the WSJ account of this morning's sentencing hearing.

US Dist Judge Lewis Kaplan said he thought SBF was a risk to commit future fraud if freed; didn't seem to tell the truth on the stand; and lacked 'any real remorse.'

—>

(Open free link)
wsj.com/finance/curren…
3/ Sentencings aren't the art of comparative justice.

But I'm not sure SBF's crimes are worse than Skilling at Enron or Holmes at Theranos.

Skilling has been free since Feb 2019.
Read 4 tweets
Mar 27
Again, a moment to pause & appreciate the cool professionalism of those in & around the Key Bridge at 1:24 am Tuesday.

Ship’s pilot radios in that ship has lost steerage & will hit bridge.

Someone (maritime control?) transmits urgent alert to Maryland/Balt police dispatch…

—>
2/ Police dispatched with just a few crisp phrases—ship has lost steering, close the bridge to traffic—and race to do just that.

No time for confusion. No time for … ‘What do you mean, close the bridge? Who says?’

4 minutes, alert to collapse.

Bridge successfully closed…

—>
3/ That’s amazing. Again, a system worked—a government system.

All those people just ordinary frontline workers in anonymous, sometimes invisible jobs.

Maritime radio operators. Police/fire dispatchers. Bridge police & state police.

All working 11p to 7a o’night shift.

—>
Read 9 tweets
Jan 6
Pause just a moment this evening & appreciate something from 24 hours ago:

An Alaska Air 737 had a hole torn in the side of it in flight.

The plane was 3 miles up, flying at 400 mph.

It stayed intact. The pilots landed in minutes. No one was seriously injured.

Incredible. —>
2/ For the people on board, it was a harrowing, even terrifying, few minutes.

But the training, aircraft design, engineering, safety, inspections — the fail-safe system worked.

Something went wrong. But that failure was stopped.

Great WSJ story…
wsj.com/business/airli…
3/ We often roll our eyes at how 'government never gets anything right' or 'government doesn't work.'

Air travel in the US and worldwide is super-safe. It's safer than walking along your own street.

Because the gov't, the safety agencies, the airlines, all work together.

—>
Read 10 tweets
Jul 24, 2023
I was nudged to wear a pink pullover to go see Barbie yesterday evening.

Barbie was a great movie — remarkable balance of camp, satire, serious & storytelling.

Really hard to pull all that off. The actual movie-making—set design, costumes, directing—is artful & absorbing.

—>
2/ Fun movie-making, fun movie-watching, just provocative enough.

Half the people streaming into our DC-area theater were wearing pink. You could spot Barbie moviegoers 3 blocks away.

That was cool. A brief burst of community. 'They're going to Barbie too!'

And…a mystery!
3/ Barbie The Movie often mocks, and outright critiques, Barbie the Toy.

Not gently or obliquely. Sharply.

At one point, a teen girl shouts: Barbie, you're a fascist!

Just to be clear: Barbie The Movie is a product of Mattel—the company that owns & sells Barbie the Toy.

Whoa!
Read 15 tweets
Jun 23, 2023
James Cameron is being interviewed by Anderson Cooper on CNN now...

'It certainly wasn't a surprise today.'

The submersible apparently dropped some ballast weights, Cameron says, in effort to abort dive.

He says pilot must have heard hull starting to delaminate & took action.
2/ Cameron on the carbon composite material as the hull of the submersible:

'It's completely inappropriate for this use.'

Wow. Says carbon composite is wrong material for 'external pressure' vessels — ie, subs — v. internal pressure vessels, like scuba tanks.

—>
3/ Cameron says carbon composites do NOT hold up under heavy pressure in successive dive cycles.

They deteriorate, unlike steel hulls. And that deterioration is hard to detect.

'This is known,' Cameron says. They picked wrong material, despite decades of science to contrary.
Read 6 tweets

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