Roads Gone Wild
What we really need is a complete paradigm shift in traffic engineering and city planning to break away from the conventional ideas that have got us in this mess. There’s still this notion that we should build big roads everywhere because the car represents personal freedom. Well, that’s bullshit. The truth is that most people are prisoners of their cars
I can’t even begin to tell you how much I agree with this after living in a place where the bicycle is the method of transportation.
Caves, Clusters, and Weak Ties: The Six Degrees World of Inventors
…executives: Don’t lock your scientists, researchers, and inventors in ivory towers. Your organization will benefit by the knowledge that flows to them from outside your company. Instead of asking ‘How can I make my R&D lab more productive?’ Fleming says a better question to ponder is, ‘How can I commercialize from this web of connected engineers?’
No surprises here, of course innovators are closely linked, but still a good read.
Is Walmart Good for America?
Wal-Mart’s “everyday low prices” benefit millions of American consumers, and it is Fortune magazine’s number-one most admired company in the United States. But others argue that Wal-Mart is a bad bargain for American workers.
As much as I despise Walmart, I admit I shop there. They’re cheap. It’s hard to walk into Safeway and buy things, knowing full well that I’m paying quite a bit more for goods, even if the money goes to a less evil company.
The Rasterbator
The Rasterbator is a web service which creates huge, rasterized images from any picture. The rasterized images can be printed and assembled into extremely cool looking posters up to 20 meters in size.
Not new, but I made a nine page poster of Red Eagle Lake with this thing and it turned out nice, considering it cost me all of .36 eurocents to print.
Made in the USA
Americans are good at some things and bad at others. We’re good at making movies and software, and bad at making cars and cities. And I think we may be good at what we’re good at for the same reason we’re bad at what we’re bad at. We’re impatient.
After seeing many European cities I have to agree. America cities are just plain ugly. Malls and gigantic shops are a major cause of this, but it seems American city planners just suck.
Cars become a little more important when you live in a state that has 5 people per square mile. Holland this ain't.
While cars in America may not represent personal freedom, they do represent practicality. And while I agree that we should emphasize public transportation over private transportation, doing so requires pouring tax money into blue states. I don't think that's a real popular idea with the current administration.
There's an interesting article in the Sep. 26 issue of the NY Times Magazine called "The Autonomist Manifesto (Or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Road)" Check it out if you get a chance.
"...it seems American city planners just suck."
And they're driven by different motives (e.g. economic efficiency, consumer comfort, etc.). Related to the car thing...so much of what makes many american cities ugly is that fact that our capitalistic drive for progress trumps the desire for artistic expression or aesthetic design.
Big Brother!!! America is all about the here and now... that is why the design sucks.. there is no way that they could build on a church for hundreds of years like over there! But I must tell you... I don't think I would like to walk or ride the bike I don't have in the snow and cold when I go home, cause public transportation isn't there... unlike.. i can walk miles with the 75 degree weather! YES!
Yeah Andy, geez you know that creating an atmosphere isn't what most city designers are about. And when they do try to go off a particular theme (Veil, Jackson, Vermont) most people find it ridiculous and poke fun. But the Walmart in Veil appears to be a lot nicer than the Super Walmart here in Laramie. Despite the fact that walmart es El Diablo.
If more people cared then our cities would change. But people don't care, and are too lazy to want to take pride in the places they live. So they litter, and create ungodly amounts of waste to just stick in the ground or ship off to sea.
As a european I agree about america's cities being ugly... not all of them, but most are. I don't think it's anybody's fault, it's just that America is very young, and that instead of destroying old bulding to build a new and worst looking one, they should think on restore the old one... . But I totally disagree about american making bad cars. I drive american, everyday, and I'm wondering what are your criterion to say they're bad. European cars aren't that good either!
Thanks for the tip on that article Curt. Anyone who's interested, I recommend checkout out The Autonomist Manifesto. I do have to agree that cars are much more convenient than public transportation. For instance, I have class in Amsterdam every Thursday and from my flat to class takes a total about an hour and a half. With a car (and assuming big, open roads like in the U.S.) the same trip would take about half an hour.
Additionally, I agree about not wanting to live in cities. Sure it'd be great fun to live in a city for the next ten years of my life, but I wouldn't want to raise a family in a city... I'll be heading to the 'burbs and driving a minivan.
Safeway's a pretty evil company.