I just finished a book called Welcome to the Urban Revolution: How Cities Are Changing the World. It’s an interesting book; I learned a lot from it, although I don’t agree with everything that he says (he has both a weirdly rosy view of certain cities, and a weirdly pessimistic view of the broader situation). The […]
Category Archives: Culture
Twitter and context collapse
Returning to a theme I’ve explored previously, I recently encountered two pieces about Twitter and context: Justine Sacco is good at her job, and how I came to peace with her Forced context collapse or the right to hide in plain sight The two pieces explore different aspects of the theme, but both of them […]
Mees 3: Have your cake and eat it too?
The quote that first caught my eye from this chapter was: However, the same citizens who are most concerned about sustainable transport are often the fiercest defenders of leafy, low-rise neighborhoods. This is a particularly pertinent note for Portland, especially right now in light of the discussion around the code allowing developers to build apartment […]
There’s always someone better
I was very impressed by The Urbanophile‘s post on what’s killing California. He takes a look at the general issues behind the current problems, with a level of analysis that pushes it far above most of the reading (and all of the talking) I’ve done on the topic. Hat tip: Jeff, for sharing items in […]
Ten is cool, seven is cool
Xtracycle on Twitter today pointed me to a great blog post from Doug about his seven years as a car-free commuter (in Minnesota, no less). I mentioned to someone recently that it’s been nearly ten years since I owned a car. (Actually, I’m not sure I ever technically owned a car, since the car I […]
Privacy, etc. II
I got some offline feedback on my last entry, with the effect that I rethought a few things. Here are some of the new thoughts: Anonymity. The way I defined this previously was “being out in public without being notable”. This isn’t a very good definition, because, as Gavin pointed out, anonymity actually has a […]
Privacy, Accessibility, and Notability
As a result of some long-ago and more recent conversations with smart friends of mine, I came up with some interesting thoughts about privacy. I don’t fully understand the legal umbrella of privacy, but it seems to me that there are a few distinct concepts that it would be useful to introduce into quasi-legal/common-sense discussions […]
Hipsters (argh!)
Hipsters: reverse meta-fashion? Discuss.
Mixed messages
June is apparently National Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Month. It’s also National Candy Month. Mixed messages, anyone? And…National Crab-Stuffed Flounder Day? Are you kidding me?
Two things that are fantastic
I’ve had kind of a crazy week — maybe kind of a crazy month, really — and two things this week were particularly fantastic: Dry-farmed Early Girl tomatoes from Ella Bella Farm These tomatoes are expensive compared to most of the heirlooms and organic tomatoes at the Menlo Park Farmer’s Market — they cost I […]