#scott simon

I was very honored to be interviewed by Scott Simon from NPR about my creation of Stan Kelly and the exhibition at Subliminal Projects in LA. You can read the piece here: https://view.nl.npr.org/?vawpToken=TYCBM7RK3S2E5CG6BJ3ORF6RCM.60238&utm_source=npr_newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_content=20241024&utm_term=9785705&utm_campaign=scotts-thoughts&utm_id=2972220&orgid=430&utm_att1=

I just came across this series about the internet from 1996. Intended as an introduction to the internet to a general audience, the series consisted of 13 half-hour episodes that were hosted by Scott Simon (now current host of Weekend Edition Saturday on NPR). At the time, most people didn’t own a personal computer nor did they use the internet (if they even knew it existed). The “World Wide Web” was just gaining momentum. Netscape went public in 1995. This was also the beginning of the Dot-Com Bubble. The primary way people accessed the internet was through AOL and you basically paid for that access by the hour (until AOL introduced “unlimited access” for $19.95 in 1996). Hotmail was introduced in July of 1996. As the episode I’ve linked to demonstrates, Javascript was newly invented and people were still trying to figure out what the internet was: its uses, its value.  (There’s a bit of film from 1972 featuring Dr. Robert Kahn explaining how the internet would work & later with Dr. Vinton Cerf about inventing the protocols that would allow computers to communicate with one another. Kahn was one of the creators of Arpanet, the first packet-switched network.)  The series is a fun dive into the nascent blooming of the internet into the ubiquitous digital presence it is today.  There’s also this VHS transfer about the internet from 1996 about how to “use a PC and how to access the internet.” I found it amusing.  Addendum: Another quick overview of what the internet looked like in 1996-1997 for your consideration. Note the following: “Most people used dial-up Internet connections with mighty speeds ranging from 28.8Kbps to 33.6Kbps. Highly modern 56Kbps modems would arrive in 1997.” You kids today don’t know the struggle and I’m happy for you ‘cause it was irritating as hell.  Addendum the second: I almost forgot hilarious shit like this existed. ‘Don't Copy That Floppy!‘ from 1992 and ‘The Kids' Guide to the Internet‘ from 1997.

-- Petra

Spillover is engrossing, fascinating reading in light of the current coronavirus pandemic; one of dozens of books in OBIS on zoonoses and animals as carriers of disease, the majority of them accessible as ebooks.  Contact the science library if you would like to borrow Spillover in print.

Another well reviewed debut, The Ensemble, by Aja Gabel, new from Riverhead Books. (Listen to her NPR interview here.)

(Scott Simon)