Oh, and this brings up all the year-end album collections getting thrown around. I’m going to spare the bloviation, and just give you some lyrics tangentially related to Pruitt-Igoe:
I’m a bit overwhelmed with various jaints at the moment, but take a look at these prospective designs for the Fojol Bros. logo, made in a sort of capitalist fantasy called 99 Designs.
I’ve gotta say, though, the one I like the most is the one below. It’s so simple, yet so jaunty. I’m a fan of understatement (especially litotes), so even though this design doesn’t suit the Bros. too well, it deserves recognition.
Closer to home, DARPA is paying the University of Maryland to weaponize maple seeds or samaras. That might seem insane, but watch the whole video to see what 3 years of research on single-wing rotary aircraft can get you. Go terps!? (hackaday)
Don’t get “samara” confused with the city in Russia, or samsara, or you may experience endless cycles of misunderstanding.
Proud academic and children’s literature critic Karl Kroeber passed away today after a long struggle with cancer. Kroeber had a 50+ year career in education, working on eclectic subjects across literature, but most significantly American Indian literature. In recent years, he railed with a lovable grumpiness against the dumbing down of books and films aimed at the under-12 set. When interviewed by the Blue and White in 2007, he put it this way:
The other side of it, what goes with [my opinion of] Disney, is [my reaction to] this grade-level business, this idea that you must not write a book for a 7-year-old that includes words a 7-year-old might not understand. This is how you encourage dumbing down.
Regrettably, I was never able to fit one of his classes into my schedule, but a single lecture and all the google searching had to suffice for consuming his really brilliant work. The rest of his family is equally distinguished, with an anthropologist father and mother, and celebrated author for a sister (the K. In Ursula K. Le Guin is for Kroeber).
He was also that kind of professor that garnered a large cult following, due in no small part to his open love of scotch and his cat, Mr. Underfoot. Oh, he was also an incredibly nice and generous man. He will be missed.
GodHatesProtesters is the hardest-hitting webstream of tomfoolery that’s come my way recently, and with much more palle than the backroom snickering of Spotted: DC Summer Interns. While garrulous and hateful protesting isn’t a novel phenomenon, the people doing it do seem to be acting crazier than usual. Likewise, the approach featured in GHP is not the usual counter-protest tactic of more anger. Instead, it builds on the rich tradition of snobby pranks and other high-minded jackassery. Enjoy yo guvmin’t cheese!
Also! This is my 100th post, less than a year from the first. Hooray for arbitrary milestones!
Toward the end of his career, Pablo Picasso lamented that he had stopped being creative and was merely “doing Picasso.” New Orleans has followed suit sometime in the past fifty years, becoming the image of the idea of itself. That doesn’t mean the jazz or the culture has disappeared, just that a simulacrum of itself has been interpolated into the French Quarter in such a way that a visitor can’t get a sense of the beast for all the taxidermy. I only had a morning to spend in the area due to nuptials elsewhere, but my perception was that there was a very livable area there, but what I saw did not inspire me to live there. I’ll need to go back and give the whole city a better look.
Continue reading ➞ Out-of-District Experience: New Orleans, Louisiana
Through a complex network spanning at least four continents, [Gil] Peñalosa funnels innovations from one city to the next. Formerly the parks commissioner of Bogotá, Colombia — where his brother, Enrique, is known as the godfather of “Bus Rapid Transit” — Peñalosa is the mastermind behind the “Mexico City hop,” an intellectual property route whereby Latin American BRT cartels reach massive North American markets with an unslakeable thirst for surface transit improvements.
OK. Obvious parody. Yet when you read the New York Times article on the subject, you can see why satire can come so easily:
In the process, she has run up a travel bill of about $35,000, according to city records. And in some cases, Ms. Sadik-Khan has allowed outsiders, including transportation advocacy groups, to help foot the bill.
So, yes, she did what any professional of a certain caliber does, visiting example projects and speaking at conventions. Sadik-Khan is a professional, not a politician, so issues of working with advocacy groups and going to conferences are likewise professional. Admittedly, the Times is just reporting on something they found, but the conspiratorial tone over $470 airline flights and a total expense less than the Mayor’s monthly transportation costs is simply whacked. The Times has been playing to the highway set so desperately that they’ve lost credibility. Decent reporting, I suppose, but the creeping editorial is pathetic.