June 2012
1 post
3 tags
May 2012
19 posts
1 tag
3 tags
“The common word meaning ‘combustible’ is inflammable. But some people are thrown off by the in- and think inflammable means ‘not combustible.’ For this reason, trucks carrying gasoline or explosives are now marked FLAMMABLE. Unless you are operating such a truck and hence are concerned with the safety of children and illiterates, use inflammable.”
2 tags
2 tags
“Mettez un canard sur un lac au milieu des cygnes, vous verrez qu’il...”
– Le Mariage d’Olympe, Emile Augier
1 tag
1 tag
2 tags
“To the popular question inquisitive guests and visiting journalists ask —...”
– Orhan Pamuk
1 tag
3 tags
2 tags
1 tag
“Meals make the society, hold the fabric together in lots of ways that were...”
– Anthony Bourdain
3 tags
1 tag
“Empires are best understood from their edges.”
– Marshall McLuhan (via samuelganton)
1 tag
“It was actually kind of funny to see the apostles of orthodoxy trying to portray...”
– Paul Krugman
1 tag
“In the long run we are all dead. Economists set themselves too easy, too useless...”
– John Maynard Keynes
April 2012
25 posts
1 tag
Landlord: Our restriction about overnight guests is that, because hydro and utilities are shared, we want to avoid issues relating to that.
Jeff: Wait, relating to what?
Landlord: Overnight visitors, since hydro is shared and there can be issues with tenants having to pay for hydro used by someone else's guests-
Jeff: Most of my guests don't... require very much electricity.
1 tag
Participatory Budgeting →
Over the next few months, some 60 volunteer community representatives met regularly in committees on streets, public safety, parks and environment and other areas, to brainstorm, research and fine-tune possible projects. The groups ultimately put forth 36 proposals. On April 10, 2010, more than 1,500 residents – age 16 and up and regardless of legal status – voted to implement 14 projects...
1 tag
“He is interested in the feelings of the squash ball, and of the champagne bottle...”
– Alan Bennett on Kafka.
1 tag
1 tag
1 tag
2 tags
4 tags
2 tags
On Cars and Cities
It must seem contradictory that half my posts on this Tumblr are about cars and the other half of my posts are about architecture but, specifically, sustainable urbanism and city planning. I’ll be the first to admit that a lot of my loves are contradictory ones, but I have put a lot of thought into the tension between these particular interests of mine.
The most important thing, I guess,...
2 tags
The Times: Motorman Clarkson praises cycling →
irishboyinlondon:
Progress!
Jeremy Clarkson, the Top Gear presenter and one of Britain’s most outspoken motorists, has come out in praise of cycling, hailing Copenhagen’s cycling culture as “fan-bleeding-tastic” and comparing it to the streets of London where a state of “undeclared war” exists between cars and bicycles…
…“In Copenhagen, [cycling] is just a pleasant way to get about. Nobody...
1 tag
“As a relatively recent transplant from New York, I am frequently asked whether I...”
– Jane Jacobs, 1969
2 tags
A Stone
You love a stone, because it’s dark and it’s old, and if it could start being alive you’d stop living alone. And I think I believe that, if stones could dream, they’d dream of being laid side-by-side, piece-by-piece, and turned into a castle for some towering queen they’re unable to know.
[[MORE]] And when that queen’s daughter came of age, I think...
1 tag
“The real issues I don’t think most people touch. The Clinton jokes are all...”
– Tom Lehrer
1 tag
“If, after hearing my songs, just one human being is inspired to say something...”
– Tom Lehrer
1 tag
2 tags
“Architecture without love is annoying. There are far too many buildings today....”
– Alvaro Siza
1 tag
3 tags
“As a genre, wargames tend toward the Fascistic in the extreme and I’m not...”
– Joshua A.C. Newman
3 tags
1 tag
“When a bullet from a Colt’s .45, or any firearm of approximately the same size...”
– Dashiell Hammett
3 tags
How collective memory saved lives →
After a long day of field work, my colleagues and I were chatting with a community leader, Koutaro Ogata, from a fishing village called Murohama. We asked what had happened to him in the moments after the earthquake. He told us that he and his neighbors were well aware that a large earthquake would generate a large tsunami and they knew, particularly, what to do because “a thousand years...
3 tags
A dumbed-down conversation →
“I think new media has a really important role to play but more and more Twitter, again, it’s like being badgered by a drunk on a 24-hour bus ride.”
NDP MP Charlie Angus quits Twitter. Bravo.
I feel like I should send him a copy of Amusing Ourselves to Death.
3 tags
A Partisan Budget
Unlike the significant fiscal consolidation exercise in the mid-1990s, major transfers to persons and other levels of government for health care and education and other social programs will not be cut.
I’ve been reading through the 2012 federal budget at work since it came out.
It’s interesting how much effort its writers put into framing all post-2006 (read: Conservative)...
1 tag
1 tag
March 2012
33 posts
1 tag
1 tag
“As he stared at her ample bosom, he daydreamed of the dual Stromberg carburetors...”
– Dan McKay - 2005 winner, Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest
1 tag
Take a guess
Insurer: Your vehicle is a 2003 VW Golf?
Jeff: Yes.
Insurer: What was the purchase price for the vehicle?
Jeff: $5900.
Insurer: And when did you purchase the vehicle?
Jeff: November 2010.
Insurer: Did you buy it new, or used?
1 tag
Hackers attack NDP →
Thomas Mulcair won on the fourth ballot, with his victory coming after 9 o’clock Saturday night. Had everything gone according to plan, Mr. Mulcair’s victory should have been announced in late afternoon, which would have generated more media attention.
Because of the delays, many members had already left the convention hall ahead of Mr. Mulcair’s victory speech.
I know it’s absurd...