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T.R. Hummer
Aug. 10, 1909: Leo Fender and the Heart of Rock ‘n’ Roll | This Day In Tech | Wired.com
1909: Clarence “Leo” Fender is born.
The designer, engineer and inventor would found the Fender Electric Instrument Manufacturing Company, the banner under which he created and produced the first wave of commercially successful electric guitars, basses and amplifiers. Fender’s panache for instrument design reached its pinnicle with his work on the Telecaster guitar, the Fender Precision bass and, most famously, the Stratocaster, the musical instrument that was the central force in defining rock ‘n’ roll in the 1950s and ’60s, and whose influence continues to dominate every genre of popular music.
Leo Fender didn’t invent the electric guitar. Six-string slingers had been experimenting with rudimentary amplification systems since the early decades of the 20th century. Always itching for more volume, guitarists were eager to be heard above the drums and other loud instruments in the dance bands of the time.
The first real innovations toward electric axes, however, came with the awarding of two patents for magnetic pickups. The first went to Gibson’s Guy Hart for his company’s Hawaiian guitar design on July 13, 1937, and the second went to Rickenbacker’s George Beauchamp for his horseshoe magnet pickup design featured on his company’s lap steel “frying pan” guitars, on August 10, 1937 — coincidentally, Fender’s 28th birthday.
The earliest electric guitars were either of the lap steel or hollow body archtop varieties. It wasn’t until guitarist Les Paul constructed his own prototype solid body electric, nicknamed “The Log,” in 1946 that the stage would be set for the revolution that would define popular music in the second half of the century.
And that’s where Leo Fender comes in.
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Rare Egan Harp, Damaged and Discarded, Is Brought Back to Life - NYTimes.com
Colin Moynihan writes:
To a certain type of New Yorker, every Dumpster is a potential treasure chest, right up there with thrift stores and stoop sales.
But if the scavenger gods offer only a finite number of prizes, Julie Finch might have claimed one of them.
Last month Ms. Finch stood on her toes to peer into the Dumpster outside her building on West 26th Street and found a blue wooden harp distinguished mainly by caked layers of grime and dust and a snarl of broken strings.
“It was this old thing with wires going in all directions,” she said. “It didn’t look like anything anybody could play.”
Still, as a lover of found objects, Ms. Finch felt duty bound to take the harp home. She offered it to a neighbor whose brother is a composer, but the man’s wife objected after seeing its sorry condition. So Ms. Finch used wood-floor soap to clean the harp and discovered not only clusters of hand-painted gold shamrocks climbing the column and soundboard, but a brass plaque bearing the name of the instrument’s maker, John Egan, and an address on Dawson Road in Dublin.
Egan, who is thought to have made instruments from the late 1700s until about 1840, is seen by many as the father of the modern Irish harp. In the 19th century his instruments were used by nationalist balladeers, like the poet Thomas Moore, who wrote “The Harp that Once Through Tara’s Halls.” Today universities and museums collect them.
“The ancient Irish harp tradition, which goes back to medieval times, was dying out around 1800,” Simon Chadwick, honorary secretary of the Historical Harp Society of Ireland, wrote in an e-mail message. “Egan invented a completely new romantic type of Irish harp, which was very successful, and which formed the basis of all subsequent revivals.”
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Clinton reiterates commitment to impoverished Haiti - World - Canoe.caFormer President Bill Clinton on Sunday delivered to Haitian-Americans and emigres a mixed message of heartbreak and hope.
As the new U.N. envoy to Haiti, Clinton has focused his well-honed fundraising talents on Haitian relief. The former president announced he would head a trade mission there in October with international investors.
Clinton also said billionaire investor and philanthropist George Soros' Soros Economic Development Fund was launching an equity investment program with an initial commitment of up to $25 million. The Haiti Invest Project's potential partners could immediately expand that amount to $150 million in manufacturing, agriculture, logistics, energy and tourism ventures.
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For Families Today, Technology Is Morning’s First Priority - NYTimes.comBrad Stone writes:
Technology has shaken up plenty of life’s routines, but for many people it has completely altered the once predictable rituals at the start of the day.
This is morning in America in the Internet age. After six to eight hours of network deprivation — also known as sleep — people are increasingly waking up and lunging for cellphones and laptops, sometimes even before swinging their legs to the floor and tending to more biologically urgent activities.
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The Artist Formerly Known as Dissident: Artists have a duty to dissent—even against Obama - Reason MagazinePatrick Courrielche writes:
Throughout modern history, art typically enters politics on a mass scale in two fashions: first, as a check on power; second, as a tool used by those in power. Freedom of the Press comes into play in both cases, but in very different ways. In the first case, it protects political commentary by artists. This freedom is not a garnish. It is a necessary weapon, enshrined in the Constitution for the purpose of countering contradictions, hypocrisies, and distortions made by politicians and others in power. Yet the art community has responded to the Obama administration's contradictions, hypocrisies, and distortions with near total silence.
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Idealab rebounds with recent focus on clean technology - Los Angeles Times
The hundreds of glass mirrors break the dusty field in Lancaster, a sea of silver in a landscape of brown.
When switched on for the first time today at an opening gala with investors, local politicians and others, they'll make up the first operational solar tower energy facility in the United States.
They reflect the sun into a tower in the middle of the field, boiling water into steam that travels through pipes to power a turbine and create electricity. The plant, created by Pasadena company ESolar Inc., will be able to power 4,000 homes.
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In Cuba, the ox may be mightier than the tractor - Boston.com
In this Aug. 6, 2009 photo, farmer Diosdado Mena works his oxen in a field in Los Palacios, Cuba. Cuba may rely more heavily than ever on oxen to save fuel normally used by heavily machinery. In a speech to lawmakers last weekend, Raul Castro extolled the value of oxen, saying a pilot program promoting urban farming and relying on the beasts of burden in the central province of Camaguey would be expanded to the rest country.
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