[CTRL] Gutenberg (was: Re: [[CTRL] Fwd: The Web and the Pentagon])
-Caveat Lector- Kris Millegan [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Many people know what the first book Gutenberg published was: the Holy Bible. Few ask what the second book was. The answer? Good question. It appears the sole purpose of the printing press was to print the Bible and the Bible alone, and everything else was of little (if any) importance to him. Before the printing press, the Bible was a document in the hands of a select few, a corrupt priesthood centered in Rome. The printing of the Bible (and it's distribution to the masses) was a questioning of authority, an attack on the powers that be, a declaration of war. Well, maybe...this is from http://www.slip.net/~graphion/guten.html Many years of Gutenberg's life are lost to history, but by 1450 he was back in Mainz at work on a printing press. Between 1450 and 1455, while preparing to produce a large folio Latin Bible, Gutenberg is thought to have printed a number of smaller books, a calendar, and a papal Letter of Indulgence. The Bible of 42 lines, the oldest surviving printed book in the western world, was completed by August 15, 1456, and while it is now credited to Gutenberg, he appears to have been relieved of his supervisory position, and his press, before the time of its publication. In fact, no printed material was ever credited to Gutenberg during his lifetime. Gutenberg is also believed to have worked on the Catholicon of Johannes de Janua, an enormous encyclopedia: 748 pages in two columns of 66 lines each. In later years, he received a position as a courtier to the archbishop of Mainz, and was buried in the town's Franciscan church. And this is from the Catholic Encyclopedia, http://www.csn.net/advent/cathen/07090a.htm Johann Gutenberg (Henne Gänsfleisch zur Laden, commonly called Gutenberg). Inventor of printing; born about 1400; died 1467 or 1468 at Mainz. Gutenberg was the son of Friele (Friedrich) Gänsfleisch and Else Wyrich. His cognomen was derived from the house inhabited by his father and his paternal ancestors "zu Laden, zu Gutenberg". The house of Gänsfleisch was one of the patrician families of the town, tracing its lineage back to the thirteenth century. From the middle of the fourteenth century there were two branches, the line to which the inventor belongs and the line of Sorgenloch. In the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries it scions claimed an hereditary position as so-called Hausgenossen, or retainers of the household, of the master of the archiepiscopal mint. In this capacity they doubtless acquired considerable knowledge and technical skill in metal working. They supplied the mint with the metal to be coined, changed the various species of coins, and had a seat at the assizes in forgery cases. Of Johann Gutenberg's father, Friele Gänsfleisch, we know only that he was married in 1386 to Else Wyrich, daughter of a burgher of Mainz, Werner Wyrich zum steinern Krame (at the sign of the pottery shop), and that he died in 1419, his wife dying in 1433. Of their three children Friele (d. 1447), Else, and Johann the last-named (the inventory of typography) was born some time in the last decade of the fourteenth century, presumably between 1394 and 1399, at Mainz in the Hof zum Gutenberg, known today as Christophstrasse, 2. All that is known of his youth is that he was not in Mainz in 1430. It is presumed that he migrated for political reasons to Strasburg, where the family probably had connections. The first record of Gutenberg's sojourn in Strasburg dates from 14 March, 1434. He took a place befitting his rank in the patrician class of the city, but he also at the same time joined the goldsmiths' guild quite an exceptional proceeding, yet characteristic of his untiring technical activity. The trades which Gutenberg taught his pupils and associates, Andreas Dritzehn, Hans Riffe, and Andreas Heilmann, included gem-polishing, the manufacture of looking-glasses and the art of printing, as we learn from the records of a lawsuit between Gutenberg and the brothers Georg and Klaus Dritzehn. In these records, Gutenberg appears distinctly as technical originator and manager of the business. Concerning the "new art", one witness states that, in his capacity of goldsmith, he had supplied in 1436 "printing requisites" to the value of 100 gulden; mention is also made of a press constructed by Konrad Saspach, a turner, with peculiar appliances (screws). The suit was therefore obviously concerned with experiments in typography, but no printed matter that can be traced to these experiments has so far come to light. The appearance at Avignon of the silversmith Waldvogel, who taught "artificial writing" there in 1444, and possessed steel alphabets, a press with iron screws and other contrivances, seems to have had some connection with the experiments of Gutenberg. As of Gutenberg's, so of Waldvogel's early experiments, no sample has been preserved. In the year 1437 Gutenberg was sued for "breach of promise of marriage" by a young
[CTRL] Fwd: The Web and the Pentagon
Kenn, Thanks for the patience. I know it's late, but I think it was worth the wait. Since the book is about cyberculture, this makes a great leadoff piece for the collection. I believe this is a Rickey Henderson for a leadoff. Robert The Web and the Pentagon Robert Sterling During the summer of 1969, the idea of a coming Aquarius Age was floating through the air in full bloom. Man had landed on the moon, Jimi Hendrix blasted Woodstock with "The Star-Spangled Banner," and Charles Manson led a bloody slaughter which, at least symbolically, appeased the angry moon-goddess as she demanded sacrifice to sanctify the new era. Perhaps it is fitting that when Labor Day weekend came that year, bringing the season to its traditional close (true, the season actually ends in late September, but most consider the Labor Day weekend the final gasp before Autumn hits), a little observed event occurred which would rock the planet in a way that - for all their impact on the collective unconsciousness - neither Neil, Jimi nor Chuck could ever hope to match. It happened at UCLA, not too far from the sites of Helter Skelter. Arriving there was the first network switch for a little campus-to-campus information network called ARPANet. The next day, it was hooked up, and soon after the very first message was sent from the node at UCLA to a second one located at Stanford Research Institute. With this tiny step, ignored by nearly everyone who wasn't involved with the project, the Internet was born. ARPANet was short for ARPA Network, and ARPA stood for the Advanced Research Projects Agency. ARPA funded scientific research and was formed in 1958, during the panic following the launching of the Russian space satellite Sputnik. Frightened by the prospect of the Evil Soviet Empire showing socialism was a superior economic system, the American establishment came up with the only logical response to the menacing threat: prove the claim to be false by having the government fund a huge, centralized project which was managed and controlled by the state. ARPA was controlled by the Department of Defense, and the purpose of ARPA was to focus on leading edge goodies that had military applications. The results were quite stunning, though cynics would point out that nearly every major American scientific advancement since 1958 wasn't funded until researchers could first find a way the technology could exterminate people more efficiently. ARPA certainly did not create the massive military-industrial komplex (Mikkies for short): this was done through World War II, Korea, and the Cold War paranoia which followed. Further, there were already many huge projects that were dubiously linked to military purposes, most notably the Federal Highway System, which was created thanks to a defense spending bill. (The supposed purpose of the highway system, people stuck in traffic jams should ironically remind themselves of, was to enable military equipment and personnel to be transported on the ground quickly.) Still, the founding of ARPA is an important event in the history of the American Mikkie, as it formed an agency to centralize and legitimize the concept of the Pentagon funding the US economic engine. In 1961, President Dwight D. Eisenhower warned the public of the threat that was being created. Having quietly played golf while he saw the death machine develop under his tenure, he boldly stated in his Farewell Address: Our military organization today bears little relation to that known by any of my predecessors in peacetime, or indeed by the fighting men of World War II or Korea. Until the latest of our world conflicts, the United States had no armaments industry. American makers of plowshares could, with time and as required, make swords as well. But now we can no longer risk emergency improvisation of national defense; we have been compelled to create a permanent armaments industry of vast proportions. Added to this, three and a half million men and women are directly engaged in the defense establishment. We annually spend on military security more than the net income of all United States corporations. This conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience. The total influence -- economic, political, even spiritual -- is felt in every city, every State house, every office of the Federal government. We recognize the imperative need for this development. Yet we must not fail to comprehend its grave implications. Our toil, resources and livelihood are all involved; so is the very structure of our society. In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist. Since Ike bid goodbye with these words, only three
