Diigo Bookmarks 05/11/2008 (a.m.)

May 10, 2008 at 5:32 pm | In links | 1 Comment

Gas Prices Send Surge of Riders to Mass Transit - New York Times

Something to think about “out west,” where existing public transit might be spotty, or where the only public transit is buses. Rail definitely makes sense for many people here.

“Some cities with long-established public transit systems, like New York and Boston, have seen increases in ridership of 5 percent or more so far this year. But the biggest surges — of 10 to 15 percent or more over last year — are occurring in many metropolitan areas in the South and West where the driving culture is strongest and bus and rail lines are more limited.”

tags: transportation, transit, transit_oriented_development, cars

 

Creating new habits = essential for innovation; old habits remain, but can be lessened (if bad,eg.) by new habits.

…brain researchers have discovered that when we consciously develop new habits, we create parallel synaptic paths, and even entirely new brain cells, that can jump our trains of thought onto new, innovative tracks.

Rather than dismissing ourselves as unchangeable creatures of habit, we can instead direct our own change by consciously developing new habits. In fact, the more new things we try — the more we step outside our comfort zone — the more inherently creative we become, both in the workplace and in our personal lives.

This reminds me very much of SEED magazine’s 2006 article, The Reinvention of the Self, by Jonah Lehrer, which profiled the work of Prof. Elizabeth Gould.

tags: psychology, brain, habits, innovation, success, business

Diigo Bookmarks 05/09/2008 (a.m.)

May 8, 2008 at 5:32 pm | In jane_jacobs, links | No Comments

Diigo Bookmarks 05/07/2008 (a.m.): 4 from Christopher Hume

May 6, 2008 at 5:33 pm | In urbanism, cities | 4 Comments

Diigo Bookmarks 05/04/2008 (a.m.)

May 3, 2008 at 5:31 pm | In ideas, links | No Comments
  • Britt Blaser coins the compelling term “collaboration mall.” I left a long comment on April 28, but it appears stuck in moderation or has been deleted. Here’s what I wrote:

    QUOTE
    Thank-you for using my comment as a jumping off point to a thought-provoking blog entry here, Britt! (And I hope I didn’t sound as ‘despairing’ as all that — my despair, such as it is, stems as often as not from the fossilized pace of local governance here. Other than that, I’m a pretty optimistic, happy-go-lucky person, which is probably why I’m ready to stumble into pre-existing conversations! …Like, duh Yule: one quick google search could have told me that you, Britt, have been talking about open source government for …well, for a while.)

    But on to your post: I really like your descriptive term, “collaboration mall.” As a city person (and yeah, Victoria is a smaller city, but it’s pretty dense and urban and walkable), I’m of course loathe to admit that the suburbs might be places that produce appropriate symbols (”mall”) for civitas / civic life. But I can remind myself that in the 1920s Walter Benjamin wrote about 19th century Parisian arcades as localities of social meaning (and manufacture of meaning) — and what were the arcades but urban forerunners of suburban malls?

    I’d say that the urban street is still more democratic/ porous/ open, if only because it really is public space, vs. private or semi-private. But the mall can bring together all sorts of different (including “regular”) people, and it’s a great term (compared to “street”) because it acknowledges the reality of markets, fees for services, settings for enterprise, and consumer platforms.

    I’m at the very beginning of trying to create a community aggregator type service here, and your suggestion of a “collaboration mall” is intriguing. Just as with Doc’s entry on infrastructure, I find it helps my thinking when one (physical) thing typically seen in one context is transposed into another (more abstract) context. Till now, I was thinking for example of “public space” (physical) and how that manifests online (abstract). But narrowing that space to a mall brings things into better focus.
    UNQUOTE

    tags: infrastructure, britt_blaser, collaboration_mall

Persecuting smokers …and leaving everyone else to their own devices

May 3, 2008 at 10:54 am | In social_critique | 1 Comment

There’s an editorial in today’s Times-Colonist, Persecuting smokers, which includes a reference to BC Provincial Health Officer Dr. Perry Kendall that has me scratching my head. 

The editorial is about the Lower Mainland municipality of White Rock’s plan to ban smoking in all outdoor public places by 2010.  This would include streets, parks, beaches: everywhere.  The editorial notes that this "looks more like a plan to persecute smokers than a strategy for protecting non-smokers."  Agree.  Dr. Kendall, meanwhile, is fully supportive of this plan. 

Why am I scratching my head?  I’m just not clear on why Dr. Kendall thinks that banning smoking in all public spaces (including streets, beaches, anywhere) would "’de-normalize smoking’ so that fewer youths are tempted to take up the habit," while at the same time Dr. Kendall also advocates in favor of freely dispensing needles to addicts (who promptly take their needle and shoot up openly on the street or in a park, incidentally also in full view of "youths") and handing out "crack kits" (pipes, mouth condoms) to addicts, who (again) then openly ingest these substances on the street.  There seems to be no concern over the social disorder on the street that results from the sort of half-way "harm reduction" that simply involves giving addicts the tools, leaving them to continue as before. 

I don’t smoke, although I used to smoke.  I loathe the smell of smoke and ashtrays.  But I think there’s something really sick about our increasingly blinkered society that we’ll go after smokers, while we hand the streets over to users (and pushers — oh, yes, so many pushers in Victoria) of hard drugs.  It’s as though the nanny state is in overload mode.  It can’t "solve" the drug issue, so it downloads it to the street (that’s us).  It can’t "solve" the problems of addiction and mental health (and resultant homelessness — and crime, typically property crime to support drug habits), so it downloads them to the street (that’s us).  But it can appear "forward-thinking" and "health-minded" when it comes to "us" (citizens, who unlike the chronically homeless, can still be fined — the latter are beyond fining), so downloads another nanny-esque ban on us.   We’re just supposed to hold still and take it, just as we’re supposed to hold still for all the other downloading.

The editorial disagrees with a ban on all outdoor/ public space smoking, and succeeds in making a critique of Kendall’s stance on smoking by pointing out that we ban the consumption of alcohol on the street, but "youths" still drink.  But it doesn’t make the connection that we have given up on controlling the use of hard drugs on our streets.  It suggests instead that: "Smokers are a dying breed. We shouldn’t be so hasty to take away what few places they have left to indulge their habits." 

Oh really?  First, show me that smokers are a dying breed, unless that’s meant literally of course.  And second, is this "time will take care of it" attitude what’s letting our streets go to hell with regard to hard drugs? 

 

Diigo Bookmarks 05/03/2008 (p.m.)

May 3, 2008 at 5:30 am | In newspapers, links, media | No Comments

Diigo Bookmarks 05/02/2008 (p.m.)

May 2, 2008 at 5:30 am | In links | No Comments

Diigo Bookmarks 05/01/2008 (p.m.)

May 1, 2008 at 5:30 am | In urbanism, architecture, links | No Comments

More notes on Brandon Rosario, school reaction, and media fall-out

April 27, 2008 at 12:06 pm | In newspapers, victoria, education, media | 7 Comments

Doc Searls added to the threads on Brandon Rosario’s performance with the wonderfully titled entry, Think softly and punish a big schtick. We know where the soft thinking is…

Doc found a bonus link, Meet Brandon Rosario by Red Tory, a local blogger I hadn’t seen before. (His profile picture is of Francis Urquhart, or “FU,” as he was known to staffers, of House of Cards — a very funny BBC series worth watching.)

Red Tory’s comments board includes an extended discussion of the effect of Brandon’s remark about the physical attributes of a particular teacher. I added a comment to my own April 24 Brandon Rosario entry, partly in response to some of the Belmont students who expressed ambivalence about the “rack” remark. The teacher could use any fall-out that might occur as a teaching opportunity (teachable moment).

There have been a couple of follow-up reports — if one can call them that — in the mainstream media. They’re really laughable — except for the fact that the pot they’re stirring is the pot of stupidity. To see them all, please go to the Facebook group page, Support Brandon Rosario’s fight for Free Speech. There you’ll find not only all the relevant media items (including tv clips), but also the voice of the students and other youth themselves.

The main thing that comes through in those voices is this: Fuck the media.

Every single person on the Facebook comments board is upset by the way the mainstream media are blowing this thing up, and turning it every which way, to create a sensation. Of course the media always manage to find fools to do their bidding — case in point, the class-A fool (a professor of rhetoric) featured on A-Channel’s second report who calls Brandon’s performance totally inappropriate. Professor?

The really “totally inappropriate” thing here is just how incredibly stupid the media assume people are.

They’re digging their own grave, and as far as I’m concerned they can’t fall into it quickly enough.

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