Sex, Bombs and Burgers

by Peter Nowak

  17Author’s interview with Brad Casemore, March 2009.

  18Author’s interview with Michael Klein, Jan. 2009.

  19Author’s interview with Evan Seinfeld and Tera Patrick, March 2009.

  20Author’s interview with Stoya, March 2009.

  21Author’s interview with Scott Coffman, March 2009.

  22Author’s interview with Ali Joone, Jan. 2009.

  23Author’s interview with Paul Benoit, March 2009.

  24Statistics come from three places: Los Angeles Business Journal, “Family guy: Steve Hirsch followed in his dad’s footsteps by launching his own adult film company, now the leader in a very mainstream business,” Nov. 12, 2007, www.accessmylibrary.com/coms2/summary_0286-33572982_ITM; Computerworld, “Porn industry may decide battle between Blu-ray, HD-DVD,” May 2, 2006, www.computerworld.com/ s/article/print/111087/Porn_industry_may_decide_battle_between_ Blu_ray_HD_DVD_; Top Ten Reviews, “Internet Pornography Statistics,” http://internet-filter-review.toptenreviews.com/internet-pornography-statistics.html#corporate_profiles.

  25Author’s interview with Jonathan Coopersmith, March 2009.

  26Statistics come from a comprehensive study of the 2006 pornography market performed by the Top Ten Reviews website at http://internet-filter-review.toptenreviews.com/internet-pornography-statistics.html.

  27Levenstein, Harvey, Paradox of Plenty: A History of Social Eating in Modern America, Berkeley, University of California Press, 2003, pp. 89–90.

  28Ibid., p. 96.

  29Ibid.

  30Index Mundi, “Food and Live Animals Exports by Country in US Dollars,” www.indexmundi.com/trade/exports/?section=0.

  31Singer, Wired for War, p. 283.

  32Forbes, “The World’s Biggest Industry,” Nov. 15, 2007, www.forbes.com/2007/11/11/growth-agriculture-business-forbeslife-food07-cx_ sm_1113bigfood.html.

  33Author’s interview with Patrick Dunne, April 2009.

  34Weasel, Lisa, Food Fray: Inside the Controversy Over Genetically Modified Food, New York, Amacom, 2008, pp. 48–49.

  35Ibid.

  36Author’s interview with Dave Rogers, Nov. 2008.

  37Singer, Wired for War, p. 285.

  1 Weapons of Mass Consumption

  1Coventry City Council, www.coventry.gov.uk.

  2From the Blitz Experience Museum in Coventry.

  3The New York Times, “‘Revenge’ by Nazis,” Nov. 16, 1940.

  4The New York Times, “Bombs on Coventry,” Nov. 16, 1940.

  5Rhodes, Richard, The Making of the Atomic Bomb, New York, Simon & Schuster, 1995, p. 336.

  6Earls, Alan R. and Edwards, Robert E., Raytheon Company: The First Sixty Years, Great Britain, Arcadia Publishing, 2005, p. 9.

  7Ibid., p. 336.

  8Ibid., p. 338

  9Author’s interview with Norman Krim, May 2008.

  10Reader’s Digest, “Percy Spencer and His Itch to Know,” Aug. 1958, p. 114.

  11Ibid.

  12Earls and Edwards, Raytheon Company, p. 21.

  13Norman Krim interview.

  14Earls and Edwards, Raytheon Company, p. 21

  15According to Norman Krim.

  16Rhodes, The Making of the Atomic Bomb, p. 343.

  17According to Norman Krim.

  18Bush, Vannevar, Science: The Endless Frontier, New York, Arno Press, 1980, p. 330.

  19Radiation Effects Research Foundation frequently asked questions, www.rerf.or.jp/general/qa_e/qa1.html.

  20The New York Times, “Radar,” May 23, 1943.

  21Budget of the United States Government Fiscal 2009, Historical Tables, www.whitehouse.gov/omb/budget/fy2009/pdf/hist.pdf, p. 47.

  22The New York Times, “Raytheon MFG: Year’s Earnings Off Sharply,” July 13, 1956.

  23The New York Times, “Raytheon Shows Increased Profit,” Aug. 29, 1945.

  24Author’s interview with Norman Krim.

  25The New York Times, “War Instrument Peace-Time Boon,” May 18, 1952.

  26According to Norman Krim.

  27Inflation calculator at www.westegg.com/inflation.

  28Ibid.

  29The New York Times, “Cooking on No Burners,” May 5, 1957.

  30The New York Times, “Microwaves Fail to Lure Home Cooks,” Mar. 31, 1962.

  31Ibid.

  32The New York Times, “Microwave Sales Sizzle as the Scare Fades,” May 2, 1976.

  33Ibid.

  34The New York Times, “Better Homes and Gadgets,” Aug. 7, 2006.

  35UK National Statistics, Living in Britain: General Household Survey, 2004.

  36The Scotsman, “Microwaves in dire straits as iconic household purchase status is lost,” Mar. 18, 2008.

  37DuPont corporate history, http://heritage.dupont.com.

  38Rhodes, The Making of the Atomic Bomb, pp. 431–32.

  39Ibid.

  40Ibid., p. 603.

  41Tefal corporate history, www.tefal.co.uk/tefal/about/history.asp.

  42The New York Times, “Dow Explains Sales Rise,” May 30, 1950.

  43The New York Times, “New Uses Shown for Saran Fiber,” Sept. 17, 1952.

  44The New York Times, “Peak Net Posted by Dow Chemical,” Aug. 14, 1959.

  45Fenichell, Stephen, Plastic: The Making of a Synthetic Century, New York, HarperCollins, 1996, p. 232.

  46Ibid.

  47Ibid., p. 152.

  48Ibid., p. 183.

  49Ibid., p. 184.

  50I.G. Farben trial documents, www.profit-over-life.org/rolls.php?roll= 97&pageID=1&expand=no.

  51Fenichell, Plastic, p. 314.

  52From testimony given in the McLibel trial, found at www.ejnet.org/ plastics/polystyrene/mclibel_p6.html.

  53The New York Times, “Packaging and Public Image: McDonald’s Fills a Big Order,” Nov. 2, 1990.

  2 Better Eating Through Chemistry

  Opening quotation from Roald Dahl’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory reprinted by permission of Puffin Books.

  1Armstrong, Dan and Black, Dustin, The Book of Spam, New York, Atria Books, 2007, p. 136.

  2Ibid.

  3Ibid., p. 140.

  4Ibid., p. 110.

  5Ibid., p. 70.

  6Levenstein, Paradox of Plenty, p. 85.

  7Armstrong and Black, The Book of Spam, p. 73.

  8Cleveland Plain Dealer, “Soldiering on: Spam and World War II,” Sept. 14, 2007.

  9Armstrong and Black, The Book of Spam, p. 101.

  10The Daily Telegraph, “Spam at heart of South Pacific obesity crisis,” Feb. 17, 2008.

  11The Cambridge World History of Food, 2000, www.cambridge.org/us/ books/kiple/potatoes.htm.

  12Funding Universe, www.fundinguniverse.com/company-histories/The-Minute-Maid-Company-Company-History.html.

  13Ibid.

  14The New York Times, “Frozen Food Sales Growing Steadily,” Mar. 9, 1950.

  15Schlosser, Eric, Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal, New York, Houghton Mifflin Company, 2001, p. 114.

  16Love, John F., McDonald’s: Behind the Golden Arches, New York, Bantam Books, 1995, p. 329.

  17Ibid., p. 330.

  18Schlosser, Fast Food Nation, p. 115.

  19G.I. Jobs., www.gijobs.net/magazine.cfm?issueId=61&id=809.

  20American Frozen Food Institute, www.answers.com/topic/frozen-fruits-fruit-juices-vegetables.

  21Market Line Frozen Food Global Industry Guide, www. globalbusinessinsights.com/content/ohec0101m.pdf.

  22World Health Organization, www.who.int/topics/obesity/en.

  23The Daily Plate, www.thedailyplate.com/nutrition-calories/food/ generic/french-fries.

  24Journal of Dairy Science, 1956, pp. 844–45.

  25Ibid.

  26Ibid.

  27Ibid.

  28Author’s interview with Howard Rogers, Aug. 2008.

  29WWII Navy Food Remembered, www.foodhistory.com/foodnotes/ leftovers/ww2/usn/pla.

  30Infoshop report on eggs, www.the-infoshop.com/study/mt42271-us-eggs.html.

  31Leffingwell an
d Associates report, www.leffingwell.com/top_10.htm.

  32Author’s interview with Scott Smith, June 2009.

  33Levenstein, Paradox of Plenty, p. 109.

  34Ibid., p. 112.

  35Ibid., p. 21.

  36Ibid., p. 22.

  37Ibid.

  38Ibid., p. 69.

  39Connor, John M. & Schiek, William A., Food Processing: An Industrial Powerhouse in Transition, Second Edition, New York, John Wiley & Sons,1997, p. 33.

  40Love, McDonald’s: Behind the Golden Arches, p. 16.

  41Ibid., p. 121.

  42Ibid., p. 334.

  43Company website, www.keystonefoods.com.

  44Love, McDonald’s: Behind the Golden Arches, p. 342.

  45Ibid., p. 342.

  46Subway is poised to surpass McDonald’s in terms of total outlets but lags far behind in revenue.

  47Ibid., p. 347.

  3 Arming the Amateurs

  1Di Lauro, Al and Rabkin, Gerald, Dirty Movies: An Illustrated History of the Stag Film 1915–1970, New York, Chelsea House Publishers, 1975, p. 52.

  2Playboy, “The History of Sex in Cinema: The Stag Film,” Nov. 1976.

  3Di Lauro and Rabkin, Dirty Movies, p. 55.

  4Ibid., pp. 53–54.

  5Playboy, “The History of Sex in Cinema.”

  6Di Lauro and Rabkin, Dirty Movies, p. 59.

  7Zimmerman, Patricia R., Reel Families: A Social History of Amateur Film, Bloomington, Indiana University Press, 1995, p. 96.

  8Editors of Look, Movie Lot to Beachhead: The Motion Picture Goes to War and Prepares for the Future, Garden City, N.Y., Doubleday, 1945, pp. 58–59.

  9Carl Preyer, “Movies Report on Defense Programs,” American Cinematographer, Aug. 1943, p. 445.

  10C.E. Eraser, “Motion Pictures in the United States Navy,” Journal of the Society of Motion Picture Engineers, Dec. 1932, pp. 546–52.

  11Zimmerman, Reel Families, p. 97.

  12The New York Times, “Fastest Movie Camera Scans the War Machine,” Aug. 15, 1943.

  13Zimmerman, Reel Families, p. 108.

  14American Cinematographer, “A.S.C. and the Academy to Train Cameramen for Army Services,” June 1942, p. 255.

  15Thompson, George Raynor, “Overview: The Signal Corps in World War II,” Army Communicator, Special Edition: The Signal Corps in World War II, vol. 20, no. 4.

  16Zimmerman, Reel Families, pp. 115–16.

  17Ibid., pp. 120–21.

  18Coopersmith, Jonathan, “Pornography, Technology and Progress,” in

  Icon: Journal of the International Committee for the History of Technology, volume4, 1998, p. 101.

  19Lane, Frederick S., III, Obscene Profits: The Entrepreneurs of Pornography in the Cyber Age, New York, Routledge, 2001, p. 47.

  20U.S. Commission on Obscenity and Pornography, The Report of the Commission on Obscenity and Pornography, Washington D.C., GPO, 1970,pp. 129, 190.

  21Watts, Steven, Mr. Playboy: Hugh Hefner and the American Dream, Hoboken, N.J., John Wiley & Sons Inc., 2008, p. 59.

  22Ibid., p. 70.

  23McDonough, Jimmy, Big Bosoms and Square Jaws: The Biography of Russ Meyer, King of the Sex Film, New York, Crown, 2005, p. 125.

  24Ibid., p. 108.

  25Ibid., p. 109.

  26Ibid., p. 4.

  27Lane, Obscene Profits, p. 29.

  28McDonough, Big Bosoms and Square Jaws, p. 99.

  29Ibid., p. 210.

  30Lane, Obscene Profits, p. 29.

  31From Lasse Braun’s official website, www.lassebraun.com.

  32Lane, Obscene Profits, p. 48.

  33From the American Presidency Project, www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/ index.php?pid=2759.

  34Coopersmith, Jonathan, “Do-It-Yourself Pornography,” Ars Electronika, 2008.

  35Author’s interview with Gary Cole, May 2009.

  36Coopersmith, “Do-It-Yourself Pornography.”

  37Chicago Tribune, “The strange allure of photo booths,” May 25, 2005, www. chicagotribune.com/topic/chi-040512photostory,0,6382269.story.

  38Coopersmith, “Do-It-Yourself Pornography.”

  39Author’s interview with Jonathan Coopersmith, March 2009.

  40Coopersmith, “Do-It-Yourself Pornography.”

  41Author’s interview with Brad Casemore, March 2009.

  4 A Game of War

  1The New York Times, “G.I. Joe Doll Is Capturing New Market,” July 24, 1965.

  2Slinky history, www.poof-slinky.com/Slinky-Museum/Slinky-History.

  3The New York Times, “Talking Toys with Betty James,” Feb. 21, 1996.

  4Slinky history.

  5Silly Putty timeline, www.sillyputty.com.

  6Ibid.

  7The New Yorker, “Talk of the Town,” Aug. 25, 1950.

  8Silly Putty timeline.

  9Massachusetts Institute of Technology Inventor of the Week Archive, http://web.mit.edu/invent/iow/sillyputty.html.

  10Lord, M.G., Forever Barbie: The Unauthorized Biography of a Real Doll, New York, William Morrow, 1994, p. 25.

  11Ibid., p. 26.

  12Ibid., p. 27.

  13Ibid., p. 20.

  14Ibid., p. 24.

  15Author’s interview with Norman Krim.

  16People, “Jack Ryan and Zsa Zsa: A Millionaire Inventor and His Hungarian Barbie Doll,” July 14, 1975.

  17Gabor, Zsa Zsa, One Lifetime Is Not Enough, New York, Delacorte Press, 1991, p. 235.

  18Lord, Forever Barbie, p. 30.

  19Ibid., p. 32.

  20BBC News, “Vintage Barbie struts her stuff,” Sept. 22, 2006.

  21Hot Wheels history, www.swflorida-hwc.com/page_14.htm.

  22Author’s interview with Norman Krim.

  23Creative Computing Video & Arcade Games, “Who really invented the video game?” Vol. 1, No. 1, Spring 1983.

  24”The Manhattan Project, an Interactive History,” www.mbe.doe.gov/ me70/manhattan/trinity.htm.

  25The New York Times, “There Is No Defense Against Atomic Bombs,” Nov. 3, 1946.

  26Creative Computing Video & Arcade Games, “Who really invented the video game?”

  27Author’s interview with Dee Katz, Sept. 2008.

  28Author’s interview with Robert Dvorak Jr., Sept. 2008.

  29Creative Computing Video & Arcade Games, “Who really invented the video game?”

  30Author’s interviews with Ralph Baer, Oct. 2008.

  31U.S. patent number 3,728,480.

  32PBS biography, www.pbs.org/transistor/album1/shockley/index.html.

  33”The Time 100,” www.time.com/time/time100/scientist/profile/ shockley.html.

  34Computerworld, “The Transistor: The 20th Century’s Most Important Invention,” Jan. 3, 2008, www.arnnet.com.au/article/202801/ transistor_20th_century_most_important_invention.

  35William Shockley, Nobel lecture 1956, see http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1956/shockley-lecture.html.

  36The New York Times, “G.I. Joe Doll Is Capturing New Market,” July 24, 1965.

  37Seeking Alpha, “The video game industry: An 18-billion entertainment juggernaut,” Aug. 5, 2008, http://seekingalpha.com/article/89124-the-video-game-industry-an-18-billion-entertainment-juggernaut.

  38CBC News, “U.S. Army forms unit to enlist video games,” Nov. 24, 2008,www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2008/11/24/tech-army.html?ref=rss.

  39Singer, Wired for War, p. 365.

  40Ibid., p. 395.

  5 Food from the Heavens

  1From Plutarch’s Parallel Lives.

  2Annual total comes from The New York Times, “Starship Kimchi: A Bold Taste Goes Where It Has Never Gone Before,” Feb. 24, 2008, www. nytimes.com/2008/02/24/world/asia/24kimchi.html. I’ve divided that consumption by the number of households in 2008, about 16.7 million, from The Hankyoreh, “Household debt soars to record high of 660 trillion won,” Sept. 5, 2008, http://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_ edition/e_business/308655.html.

  3The New York Times, “Starship Kimchi.”

  4Ibid.

&
nbsp; 5Ibid.

  6Allied casualties come from Cooksley, Peter G, Flying Bomb, New York, Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1979, p. 175. Concentration camp numbers are from Global Security’s history of weapons of mass destruction, www.globalsecurity.org/wmd/ops/peenemunde.htm.

  7Nine countries have developed nuclear weapons: the United States, Russia, the United Kingdom, France, China, India, Pakistan, Israel and North Korea. Iran is a possible tenth. Twelve countries have launched rockets into space: all of the nuclear powers except Pakistan and North Korea, but including Iran, plus Canada, Australia, Japan and Ukraine.

  8Glenn, John, John Glenn: A Memoir, New York, Bantam Books, 1999, p. 264.

  9My visit took place on April 1, 2009.

  10I have to admit the beans were better at Goode Company.

  11White, Terry, The SAS Fighting Techniques Handbook, Guilford, Connecticut, Globe Pequot Press, 2007, p. 28.

  12According to Natick’s senior advisor in nutritional biochemistry,

  Dr. Patrick Dunne, interviewed in March 2009.

  13NASA website, www.nasa.gov/offices/ogc/about/space_act1.html# FUNCTIONS.

  14Examples taken from NASA’s Spinoff, 2008.

  15NASA, “Thought for Food,” Spinoff, 1977, p. 85.

  16NASA, “Food Service System,” Spinoff, 1992, pp. 78–79.

  17I love camping, but I have yet to find decent-tasting camping food.

  18NASA, “Tenderness Tester,” Spinoff, 1977, p. 86.

  19NASA, “Poultry Plant Noise Control,” Spinoff, 1982, pp. 94–95.

  20NASA, “Spinoff from Space Fuel,” Spinoff, 1982, pp. 46–49.

  21Officially known as “Poppin’ Fresh,” the doughboy wasn’t actually conceived until 1965.

  22NASA, “A Dividend in Food Safety,” Spinoff, 1991, pp. 52–53.

  23Ibid., pp. 53–54.

  24NASA, “Space Research Fortifies Nutrition Worldwide,” Spinoff, 2008, pp.106–7.

  25NASA, “Eating on Demand,” Spinoff, 1998, p. 73, and an Enersyst report at http://ift.confex.com/ift/2002/techprogram/paper_10060. htm. Cooking times taken from “Enersyst’s Speed Cooling, Thawing Technology Available for Home Use,” Appliance Design, Aug. 22, 2001, www.appliancedesign.com/Articles/Breaking_News/ 8731be2d0b938010VgnVCM100000f932a8c0____.

  26The National Provisioner, “Retort pouches heating up,” May 1, 2005, www. allbusiness.com/manufacturing/food-manufacturing/460996-1.html.

  27Author’s interview with Dave Williams, March 2009.

  28Harvey, Brian, The Rebirth of the Russian Space Program: 50 Years After Sputnik, New Frontiers, Chichester, UK, Praxis Publishing, 2007, p. 80.