#anti-superstition society of chicago

[discrepancybot]

^^^ Good for those guys!

We need contemporary events to display public disdain for superstition (including astrology 🤮) and to smack down conspiracy theories.

Apparently The Anti-Superstition Society of Chicago was still around in 1962 to salute astronaut John Glenn.

Superstition Ain't The Way!: The 13th Anniversary Jinx-Jabbing Jamboree And Dinner of The Anti-Superstition Society of Chicago, held on Friday The 13th, 1941.

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Amazon is the poster child for everything wrong with post-Reagan anti-trust enforcement

Last January, a 28-year-old law student named Lina Khan published a 24,000-word article in the Yale Law Journal unpicking a half-century's shifts in anti-trust law in America, using Amazon as a poster child for how something had gone very, very wrong -- and, unexpectedly, this law student's longread on one of the most technical and abstract areas of law has become the centerpiece of a raging debate in law and economics circles.

The article is called Amazon's Antitrust Paradox, and you should read it, because Khan is a sprightly and gifted writer with a talent for squeezing some exciting and relevant juice out of dry and abstract subjects.

At its heart is a critique of the neoliberal "Chicago School" and its new orthodoxy about when monopolies are a problem -- an orthodoxy that is at odds with much of the world and hundreds of years' worth of US lawmaking and enforcement.

The Chicago School is notorious for its emphasis on profits ahead of all else, its complicity in tens of thousands of death-squad executions in Chile, its influence on Thatcher, Reagan and their contemporaries in their belief that "there is no such thing as society" and "greed is good" -- the belief that behaving as selfishly as possible will make everyone richer and happier.

It's this school and its adherents that John Kenneth Galbraith was speaking of when he called economics "the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness." As you might imagine, if you owe your fortune to selfishness, ruthlessness and greed, you might want to fund and elevate this kind of exercise. Nothing confers empirical respectability to manifestly immoral behavior like a lot of inscrutable mathematics that purportedly shows the self-perfecting nature of a system of greedy, "rational" actors.

The Chicago School holds that monopolies are only bad when they result in higher prices ("price theory") and that everything else -- the "structuralist" worry about rich people amassing political power, or making inferior goods, or screwing their workforce, or holding back innovation -- is just a distraction.

This model rose to prominence in the 1980s with Reaganomics, and it coincided with catastrophic collapse in small business in America(especially minority-owned businesses); since Reagan, Republicans and Democrats alike have been enthusiastic proponents of the idea that the only thing a competition watchdog should keep an eye on is the prices charged to consumers, not "integration," be it vertical (one firm owning the factory, the trucks and the stores) or horizontal (companies buying out their direct competitors).

Using Amazon as her poster-child, Khan argues that whatever problems this approach had in bricks-and-mortarland (she highlights several), the combination of networks, digital goods, data-oriented retail, and huge pools of investment capital willing to float businesses like Amazon using their profits from one area to sell goods below cost in others to the detriment of their competitors, make mincemeat out of price-theory. The digital world -- where each customer might pay a different price, where retailers can use algorithms to price their competition out of existence -- is one where costs of one category of goods can't possibly capture the wider harms of monopolistic practice.

Related to this is On the Formation of Capital and Wealth, by Stanford's Mordecai Kurz, who proposes a means by which digital commerce can drive a winner-take-all phenomenon that makes the rich much richer, at the expense of the general welfare.

The question, then, is what to do about it. Khan suggests some modest reforms in anti-trust enforcement, which, despite their modesty and the extremely unlikeliness of seeing them enacted under Trump or any future establishment Democratic administration, have provoked howls of outrage from Chicago School economists.

More radical approaches have been proposed, of course. Paul Mason's Postcapitalism points to Amazon's very monopolism as the reason to believe that capitalism has outserved its usefulness. If a monopolist like Amazon can use customer surveillance and algorithms to decide what to make, where to put it, and how to deliver it, why do we need imperfect markets? Just nationalize Amazon and its datasets (for the record, I think Mason was unduly optimistic about the problems of anonymizing large data-sets).

But if the internet supercharges inequality and monopolism while delivering many undeniable benefits in coordination, culture, and material production, can we simply divorce technology from the economic and social context that created it? Can we have the internet without douchey Silicon Valley jerktech and its lucrepaths, vulgarati, uberization, mom-as-a-service, and *-bait?

It's not without precedent: the Protestant reformation gave us religion without the unified Church; the Enlightenment gave us alchemy without superstition; and Wikipedia and GNU/Linux gave us encyclopedias and operating systems without a single corporate overlord. As Leigh Phillips wrote in Austerity Ecology & the Collapse-Porn Addicts, the belief that Chicago-style sociopathic capitalism is the sole proprietor of technological change and improvement is one of the Chicago School's most successful projects, one that convinced large swaths of the left that you either have to be pro-technology or pro-human, that being anti-corporatism meant that you had to oppose the technical feats of corporations.

Science fiction's best move is cleaving a technology from its social and economic context, as steampunk does, when it imagines industrial-style production without the great Satanic mills where people become part of the machines, moving through scripted and constrained tasks in unison to the ticking of a huge time-clock. In steampunk, individual inventors and small groups produce things with the polish and awe-inspiring innovations of the industrial revolution, without the surrender of individual autonomy that industrialization demands of its workers. In steampunk -- to quote Magpie Killjoy -- we "love the machine and hate the factory."

The problem with Amazon isn't that it's now really easy to get a wide variety of goods without having to shlep all over the place trying to find the right widget (or book). The problem is the effect that this has on workers, publishers, writers, drivers, warehouse workers, and competition.

https://boingboing.net/2017/08/07/economists-so-fragile.html

[watchilove]

The unique LeCoultre “Lucky 13” (1962): to be sold at Phillips New York, December 2019 The LeCoultre “Lucky 13” is a truly remarkable and unique watch presented by the Chicago Anti-Superstition Society alongside 13 U.S. Senators to an original Mercury Seven U.S. astronaut to commemorate his historic achievement of becoming the first American astronaut to orbit the Earth. Featuring the number 13 at every hour marker, the watch celebrated the Friendship 7 spacecraft capsule used for the Mercury-Atlas 6 mission. Friendship 7 was the 13th space capsule produced by McDonnell Aircraft Corp, and the 13s on the dial were used to illustrate the society’s rejection of the number 13 as unlucky. The ceremony, taking place on Friday, April 13th, 1962, was entered in the House Congressional Record on October 13th, 1962. The consignor intends to donate a portion of the proceeds of the sale of this watch to The John Glenn College of Public Affairs at The Ohio State University. https://www.instagram.com/p/B4DgWb_IUUK/?igshid=lnndtpg79f6x

[watchilove]

A very rare LeCoultre POLARIS MEMODATE to be sold at Phillips Geneva in November 2019 and the unique LeCoultre LUCKY 13 to be sold by Phillips New York in December 2019. 

Throughout its history, Jaeger-LeCoultre has been driven by the spirit of inventiveness, its expertise rewarded with more than 400 patents, and its watchmakers’ technical skills and creative imagination embodied in more than 1,200 different calibres.

As these two rare watches from the mid-20th Century demonstrate, every decade has brought fresh ideas and solutions, reflecting the spirit of the times. Among the many changes brought by the 1950s and 60s – represented by each of these watches – were, on one hand, tremendous advances in technology and aerospace, and on the other, the transformation of diving from a challenging pursuit to a widely practised leisure activity.

Jaeger-LeCoultre Polaris Memodate

A rare LeCoultre Polaris Memodate (1967): to be sold at Phillips Geneva, November 2019:

In 1950, Jaeger-LeCoultre introduced its first wristwatch featuring an alarm and called it the Memovox (‘voice of memory’). As the model become one of the most desirable and reliable on the market, the company introduced different variations, including a date display, a self-winding version and even an alarm designed to time parking meters.

In 1959, noting that diving had begun evolving from a specialist pursuit into a recreational sport enjoyed by thousands, Jaeger-LeCoultre decided to adapt the Memovox to the sea. The company realised that it could offer both a visual timer (on the inner bezel) and an auditory alarm (which also caused vibration against the case) for ultimate diver safety.

To do so, Jaeger-LeCoultre created a patented, multi-layer case-back that optimised the alarm’s sound transmission underwater. The outer case, with its 16 holes, allowed for the alarm tone to be heard and also felt on the wrist, while the inner case sealed and protected the movement.

Jaeger-LeCoultre – LeCoultre Polaris Memodate

Known in the United States as the Polaris, and in Europe as the ‘Montre de plongeur E859’, the reference E859 featured three crowns, each with the cross-hatch pattern characteristic of SuperCompressor watches. The first crown is for time setting, the second rotates the inner bezel for dive timing, and the third rotates the central disc to align the arrow with the alarm time.

The example being offered by Phillips was made in 1967 for the American market and stands out from other models thanks to its very rare dial markings. While most of the dials were stamped Memovox or bore no inscription other than the LeCoultre name, this watch is stamped Memodate.

Perhaps the most fascinating thing about the Memodate Polaris is its combination of two apparently opposite aspects of watchmaking: the tradition of delicate aural complications and the needs of a practical sporting timepiece. In this respect, it epitomises the open-minded spirit of inventiveness that has created such a rich patrimony at Jaeger-LeCoultre and continues to drive the Maison to this day.

Polaris “Memodate” Ref. E 859: An extremely rare and attractive stainless steel diver’s wristwatch with alarm and date, produced in 1967.

Jaeger-LeCoultre – LeCoultre “Lucky 13” (1962)

The unique LeCoultre “Lucky 13” (1962): to be sold at Phillips New York, December 2019

The LeCoultre “Lucky 13” is a truly remarkable and unique watch presented by the Chicago Anti-Superstition Society alongside 13 U.S. Senators to an original Mercury Seven U.S. astronaut to commemorate his historic achievement of becoming the first American astronaut to orbit the Earth.

Jaeger-LeCoultre – LeCoultre “Lucky 13” (1962)

Featuring the number 13 at every hour marker, the watch celebrated the Friendship 7 spacecraft capsule used for the Mercury-Atlas 6 mission. Friendship 7 was the 13th space capsule produced by McDonnell Aircraft Corp, and the 13s on the dial were used to illustrate the society’s rejection of the number 13 as unlucky.

The ceremony, taking place on Friday, April 13th, 1962, was entered in the House Congressional Record on October 13th, 1962. The consignor intends to donate a portion of the proceeds of the sale of this watch to The John Glenn College of Public Affairs at The Ohio State University.

Jaeger-LeCoultre – LeCoultre “Lucky 13” (1962)

LeCoultre, “Lucky 13”: A unique, historically important and unusual gold-filled time-only wristwatch with centre seconds and “Lucky 13” dial, purchased by the consignor directly from the estate sale of Senator John H. Glenn, Jr.

Jaeger-LeCoultre – LeCoultre “Lucky 13” (1962)

As well as demonstrating Jaeger-LeCoultre’s technical expertise, the deep meaning and personal connections behind the story of these unique timepieces remind us that watches have always had social and emotional significance – which sometimes even overrides their practical purpose.

  Jaeger-LeCoultre Polaris Memodate

Jaeger-LeCoultre Polaris Memodate

Jaeger-LeCoultre – LeCoultre “Lucky 13” (1962)

Jaeger-LeCoultre – LeCoultre “Lucky 13” (1962)

Jaeger-LeCoultre – LeCoultre “Lucky 13” (1962)

Jaeger-LeCoultre – LeCoultre “Lucky 13” (1962)

The auction of two extremely rare pieces demonstrates the richness of Jaeger-LeCoultre’s patrimony and its profound watchmaking expertise A very rare LeCoultre POLARIS MEMODATE to be sold at Phillips Geneva in November 2019 and the unique LeCoultre LUCKY 13 to be sold by Phillips New York in December 2019. 

[fitsofgloom]

Superstition Ain't The Way!: The 13th Anniversary Jinx-Jabbing Jamboree & Dinner of The Anti-Superstition Society of Chicago, held on Friday The 13th, 1941.