Pessimists Aloud
14 episodes - English - Latest episode: over 2 years ago -Real, cynical old articles about new things read aloud. Based on @PessimistsArc.
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Episodes
😷 'S.F. Feels Good Without Mask' - 1918, The San Francisco Examiner
December 09, 2021 16:40 - 6 minutes - 12.7 MBIn the 1918 Spanish Flu pandemic San Francisco quickly instituted a mask mandate, when it was repealed there was a countdown in the streets and jubilation as reported on the front page of The San Francisco Examiner. To the right of the report was a piece by Annie Laurie celebrating the moment and lamenting how smiles had been hidden away, she declared the pandemic over and a return of smiling - however not long after this mask rules were put back in place as a spike in flu cases occurred. '...
📻 Weird, Ghostly and “Supernatural” Antics of the Radio (1931)
October 31, 2021 16:04 - 29 minutes - 54.1 MBDid the rise of 19th century technologies - such as radio - lead to an increase in ghostly sightings? That’s the question Atlantic writer Derek Thompson asked on Twitter this week and it brought to mind a 1930s piece from the archive titled: Weird, Ghostly and “Supernatural” Antics of the Radio that could hint at an answer (yes!) The 1931 San Francisco Examiner peice consisted of a heavily illustrated two-page spread about fictitious reports of ghostly sounds, prompted by the rise of radio b...
✈️ “A Skeptical Nation Visits Upon the Airplane the Doubts it Once Felt for the Automobile" - The New York Times, 1928
September 27, 2021 17:35 - 17 minutes - 31.6 MBAt the end of the 1920s aeroplanes were becoming a more common sight in the skies, in 1928 The New York Times reported on growing public disdain, comparing it to past reactions to transport innovations like the automobile and bicycle. The piece was subtitled “A Skeptical Nation Visits Upon the Airplane the Doubts it Once Felt for the Automobile” explores many of the patterns we see today play out with electric scooters, bicycles and self-driving cars. 🗞 Source: https://timesmachine.nytimes...
💉 'An Absurd Prejudice' - The New York Times, 1875
August 27, 2021 19:02 - 6 minutes - 6.06 MB146 years ago The New York Times published an article lamenting anti-vaxxers, the piece began: "One might suppose that the popular prejudice against vaccination might have died out by this time, considering it has been practice for nearly a century." Today this statement is as amusing as it is painful, when considering anti-vaxxers remain a relevant movement. It rightly observed that “It seems useless to quote science, and a long and successful practice, against such dense stupidity as this...
📺 'The Lazy Half-Wit Comes Into His Own - A British Writer Reveals His Views on The Drawbacks of Mass Communication' (1953)
August 02, 2021 14:35 - 8 minutes - 7.86 MBThis screed against mass-media appeared in a 1953 issue of The New York Times, it was an excerpt from an article written by British novelist J.B. Priestly for The Newstatesman. Today people yearn for the days of unsocial mass-media, but we forget that once mass-media was a strange new cultural influence - Priestly gives some insight into concerns about it at the time. Source: The New York Times, October 4th, 1953 https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1953/10/04/92749299.html?pageNu...
✈️ 'The Flying Machines Which Do Not Fly' - The New York Times, October 9th, 1903
July 19, 2021 22:15 - 5 minutes - 5.55 MB69 days before the Wright Brothers achieved manned flight The New York Times posited it could take between 1 and 10 million years to achieve. The piece chides those experimenting in the field and posits that human ingenuity will never achieve what evolution had done over millions of years. The piece ends implying it is a waste of time and money: "To the ordinary man, it would seem as if effort might be employed more profitably.” 'The Flying Machines Which Do Not Fly' - The New York Times, O...
📷 “Photographs are made to lie” (1897) + 🚲 “Bicycle Insanity” (1896)
July 15, 2021 18:35 - 4 minutes - 4.32 MBThese two pieces from the last decade of the 1900s cover two big consumer trends at the time: personal photographs and bicycle riding. Photographs of oneself were popular, as they are now and so was retouching! Photoshop used to mean a literal photography shop where edits were made to photos to enhance beauty, enlarge eyes and reduce bulge - the article lamented this trend for encouraging vanity. The bicycle was blamed by some doctors as causing insanity, often it was women that were the sup...
🪞 'Those Deadly Little Mirrors' - Chicago Tribune, 1912
July 03, 2021 23:16 - 8 minutes - 8 MBIn 1912 hand mirror use evoked similar reactions to smartphones today, the Chicago Tribune reported: "WOMEN CONSTANTLY WALK INTO DANGER. Accidents which are due to women’s passion for looking in mirrors in stores are slight compared with ones which result from the use of the fascinating little hand mirror." Source: Chicago Tribune 08 Sep 1912, Sun • Page 48 https://www.newspapers.com/clip/53610995/chicago-tribune/
'Chess Playing Excitement' - Scientific American, 1859
June 26, 2021 18:26 - 4 minutes - 4.6 MB♟️ The year is 1859, American Paul Morphy had just defeated Europe's top chess masters leading to a surge of interest among the American public. Scientific American tried to quell the hype, suggesting chess playing was a waste of time that would be better spent outside, the piece stated: "A game of chess does not add a single new fact to the mind; it does not excite a single beautiful thought; nor does it serve a single purpose for polishing and improving the nobler faculties" 🗞 Source: Sci...
♟️'Chess Playing Excitement' - Scientific American, 1859
June 26, 2021 18:26 - 4 minutes - 4.6 MB♟️ The year is 1859, American Paul Morphy had just defeated Europe's top chess masters leading to a surge of interest among the American public. Scientific American tried to quell the hype, suggesting chess playing was a waste of time that would be better spent outside, the piece stated: "A game of chess does not add a single new fact to the mind; it does not excite a single beautiful thought; nor does it serve a single purpose for polishing and improving the nobler faculties" 🗞 Source: Sci...
📖 ‘Reading in Bed’ (1909) + ✈️ ‘Aeroplane Face’ (1908)
June 18, 2021 16:17 - 8 minutes - 7.77 MBIt was the first decade of the 1900s, the bicycle was now mainstream and manned flight was still a curious novelty, oh and reading in bed a dysfunctional sin. Sources: Aeroplane Face: http://digital.chipublib.org/digital/collection/examiner/id/12588/ • 🤳📰 View in AR: https://pessimistsar-flight.netlify.app Reading in Bed: https://www.newspapers.com/clip/79793760/the-inter-ocean/
‘Reading in Bed’ (1909) & ‘Aeroplane Face’ (1908)
June 18, 2021 16:17 - 8 minutes - 7.77 MBIt was the first decade of the 1900s, the bicycle was now mainstream and manned flight was still a curious novelty, oh and reading in bed a dysfunctional sin. Sources: Aeroplane Face: http://digital.chipublib.org/digital/collection/examiner/id/12588/ • 🤳📰 View in AR: https://pessimistsar-flight.netlify.app Reading in Bed: https://www.newspapers.com/clip/79793760/the-inter-ocean/
🎙 "Mr. Edison Has Invented Too Many Things" - The New York Times, 1878
June 02, 2021 15:56 - 7 minutes - 7.07 MB'THE AEROPHONE' - The New York Times, March 25, 1878, Page 4 • 🤳🗞 VIEW IN AR: https://bit.ly/3uMHcGZ In 1878 The New York Times wrote a scathing article on Thomas Edison and his little known invention the 'Aerophone' (a giant megaphone.) The piece began "Something ought to be done to Mr. Edison, and there is a growing conviction that it had better be done with a hemp rope" joking some wanted to him hanged, it went on to say "Mr. Edison has invented too many things" A year later Thomas Ediso...
"Mr. Edison Has Invented Too Many Things" - The New York Times, 1878
June 02, 2021 15:56 - 7 minutes - 7.07 MB'THE AEROPHONE' - The New York Times, March 25, 1878, Page 4 • 🤳🗞 VIEW IN AR: https://bit.ly/3uMHcGZ In 1878 The New York Times wrote a scathing article on Thomas Edison and his little known invention the 'Aerophone' (a giant megaphone.) The piece began "Something ought to be done to Mr. Edison, and there is a growing conviction that it had better be done with a hemp rope" joking some wanted to him hanged, it went on to say "Mr. Edison has invented too many things" A year later Thomas Ediso...