tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-44366861216521083422024-02-20T19:31:05.773-08:00Jordan CloughObservations at the crossroads of landscape architecture, design, the environment, world issues and current events.Jordanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07783135536058091383noreply@blogger.comBlogger23125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4436686121652108342.post-57501775787904041912012-02-20T18:54:00.000-08:002012-02-20T18:58:48.584-08:00Urban and Suburban Agriculture - the Books<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">It goes without saying, that many books have been published in the past 10 years regarding urban agriculture. Covering all the facets of local agricultrural - from the experiential qualites of growing one's own food to the economic impacts, from the nutrtional benefits to the ecological impacts - it can be safely said, the existing body of literature on the subject is no longer obscure, but rather mainstream. Having said that, there are many subjects remaining unexplored and undocumented, as we continue to reinvent the way we source our food.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">In Canada, especially urban centers such as Vancouver, there has been an enthusiastic response to urban agriculture. The Vancouver area brimms with newly minted 'urban farmers' and an impressive network of community gardens. Thus, the following book comes as no suprise to this active community of growers.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">From the Victoria, Canada Times Colonist a review of <i>The Urban Food Revolution: Changing the Way We Feed Cities</i>, by Peter Ladner. The comprehensive work cover many of the angles of urgan agriculture. For a broad understanding of the interconnectedness of all the aspects of our modern food system, and the potential benefits urban agriculture offers, look no further.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Favorite concept - the "twoblock diet" - fantastic. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.timescolonist.com/news/Growing+food+urban+environment/5843714/story.html">http://www.timescolonist.com/news/Growing+food+urban+environment/5843714/story.html</a></span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://small-mart.org/the-small-mart-revolution"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">http://small-mart.org/the-small-mart-revolution</span></a> </td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Urban Agriculture is not without it's skeptics. And while their critiques may vary, a common concern is the economic viablilty of such enterprises. Without firm economic data to support the push to localize food production it is difficult to rally support from policy makers and the public. Ultimately, if urban argriculture is to be truely affective, and correct many of the negative consequence of the status quo, it must be economically viable. </span><br />
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<a href="http://vimeo.com/16048307"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">http://vimeo.com/16048307</span></a> <br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Michael Shuman, a Stamford trained economist who wrote <i>The Small Mart Revolution: How Local Businesses Are Beating the Global Competition</i>, and co-authored <i>Community Food Enterprise</i>, has extensively studied the economic impacts of local food production. His work has verified the positive impact localized agriculture has on local and regional economies. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Without this kind of work, great ideas are desitined to dismissal and failure. In the true entreprenurial spirit he has gone on to start Cutting Edge Capital, an Oakland, Calif.-based consulting business which offers financing services to small businesses - such as local farms and distribution networks, and other emerging 'green' businesses.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">As new models for local food networks are formed in communites, a range of businesses related to growing, distribution, and sales, spring forth. These entrepreures benefit greatly from documented and established economic baselines, access to capital specific to their needs, and the knowledge that they have the opportunity to be profitable.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/220391">http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/220391</a></span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">From the D.C. Farm to School Network - <a href="http://dcfarmtoschool.org/">http://dcfarmtoschool.org/</a></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Bringing local food to schools has been a major push for many localities and organizations. Educating the next generation of consumers is a critial part of the cultural shift many are aiming for. As well as the inherent health benefits for the kids, local farmers are seeing economic benefits. In Jordan, Minnesota the farm-to-school program has been a huge success, and has not gone unoticed by the state agencies. Several agencies overseeing agricultural issues, education, and health have come together to implement an aggressive push to formalize the program across the state. </span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">From City Blossoms - who I met at "Rooting DC" - <a href="http://cityblossoms.org/">http://cityblossoms.org/ </a> </span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">The benefits of educating the next generation are far reaching. By ensuring "agricultural literacy" we are ensuring a future of concious, aware consumers, potentially reducing health issues associated with a diet of processed foods, and therefore, costs to society at large. Even now, children participating in these programs are relaying the information they learn to the buyers in the household, priming the current generation of consumers and accelerating a wholsesale cultural shift. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">A new generation armed with knowledge and choices are destined to adopot new paragdimes of food production readily. Of all the long-term strategies to make a real difference, little stands up to the power of educating thoes that will inherit the fruits of our labor.</span><br />
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<a href="http://www.jordannews.com/view/full_story/16812306/article-Frederickson--Farm-to-School-trend-produces-healthy-economy-and-kids"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">http://www.jordannews.com/view/full_story/16812306/article-Frederickson--Farm-to-School-trend-produces-healthy-economy-and-kids</span></a><br />
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</div>Jordanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07783135536058091383noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4436686121652108342.post-23321669991304989492012-01-21T17:56:00.000-08:002012-01-21T18:30:50.632-08:00Urban and Suburban Agriculture - In the News<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: white; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">In the latest edition of “Urban and Suburban Agriculture – In the news” initiatives are passed, resolutions are made, food is grown, and communities are built and strengthened through local food production. Everything from livestock in suburbia to fish farms in Baltimore - where and how we feed ourselves is changing, creating a swell of ideas and innovation.</span><br />
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</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: white; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>MARYLAND</b></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: white; font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: white; font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.baltimoresun.com/features/green/bs-gr-fish-farming-20111226,0,1853487.story">http://www.baltimoresun.com/features/green/bs-gr-fish-farming-20111226,0,1853487.story</a> </span> </span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: white; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Fish aren't just for the Chesapeake Bay anymore – welcome to aquaponics!</span><br />
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<tr> <td width="665"><div align="CENTER" style="border: none; padding: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="color: white; font-size: small;">Baltimore native fishing in the Middle Branch - he claimed he ate fish from this spot often, I don't know if he was aware of, or cared about, the three adjacent brownfield sites known to be leaching toxins into the water.<br />
- Summer 2009</span></span></div></td> </tr>
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</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: white; font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Local entrepreneurs, universities, traditional farmers, and residents are undertaking a whole-cycle approach to farming. By growing fish, commonly tilapia, and cycling the soiled tank water to plant beds, a two-tiered approach to urban agriculture produces both vegetables and protein. </span> </span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: white; font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: white; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">The well-documented environmental challenges of the Chesapeake Bay have taken a toll on the local seafood market, so culturally ingrained in the area. Urban waterways have been considered un-fishable for decades, although some residents (such as the one pictured above) continue to eat what they catch, due to lack of accessible, affordable options, or ignorance of the health issues. As this industry develops it has the potential to offset what seafood the bay can no longer supply in commercially viable quantities.</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: white; font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: white; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">A similar system in Kansas City, Missouri has powered an urban pioneering movement in neighborhoods associated with high crime rates and blight. In conjunction with a local church, new residents have had their efforts supported by grants for growing food. The subsequent community-building has proven to be potent force in combating dysfunctional and decrepit neighborhoods. While the land use may not be typical, or appropriate in higher value neighborhoods, ares in decline provide an opportunity to test new ideas. Said in another way – when the bar is already set low, anything has to be better than what exists now:</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: white; font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: white; font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.timescolonist.com/homes/Urban+farmers+take+over+zone/5556140/story.html">http://www.timescolonist.com/homes/Urban+farmers+take+over+zone/5556140/story.html</a> </span> </span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: white; font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: white; font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">As Dave Love so aptly points out,"It's sort of like the next step into urban agriculture," </span> </span><br />
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</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: white; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>NEW JERSEY</b></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: white; font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: white; font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.shorenewstoday.com/snt/news/index.php/cape-may/cape-may-gazette/20087-planning-board-to-hear-about-the-birds-and-the-bees-next-week.html">http://www.shorenewstoday.com/snt/news/index.php/cape-may/cape-may-gazette/20087-planning-board-to-hear-about-the-birds-and-the-bees-next-week.html</a> </span> </span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: white; font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Cape May considers the keeping of chickens, rabbits and bees on suburban lots. </span> </span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: white; font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: white; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Following the lead of cities like Cleveland, Ohio, Portland, Oregon, and a neighboring township, the city board had a “discussion” on the issues. Amongst the concerns, avian flu, which I understand is rather rare. </span><br />
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<span style="color: white; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">We aren't talking about pig farms here (<a href="http://www.eagletribune.com/haverhill/x1304575207/City-to-develop-rules-for-pig-farms">http://www.eagletribune.com/haverhill/x1304575207/City-to-develop-rules-for-pig-farms</a> ), the relative noise or smell emanating from a rabbit hutch or chicken coop (minus the roosters) would be minimal, if even noticeable. Citing “tough economic times” and an interest in local food production, the board appears open to new ideas and updating legislation.</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: white; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: white; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">The issue of beekeeping seemed less an issue than the chickens and rabbits, as several experts from around the state weighed in and established that keeping bees in dense areas poses few problems.</span></div></div><br />
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<tr> <td width="665"><div align="CENTER" style="border: none; padding: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="color: white; font-size: small;">The future? - <a href="http://inhabitat.com/philips-unveils-sexy-concept-bee-keeping-gadget/">http://inhabitat.com/philips-unveils-sexy-concept-bee-keeping-gadget/</a></span></span></div></td> </tr>
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</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: white; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">In finishing up, we are left with some beekeeping philosophy: “ 'As our country and our club move forward to resolve life’s numerous issues, ask yourself, ‘What would bees do?’ When a task seems too difficult, remember that through a unified effort, any task can be accomplished. Any wrong can be righted. Progress is possible,' wrote Belsen on the New Jersey Beekeepers Association website.”</span><br />
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<tr> <td width="665"><div align="CENTER" style="border: none; padding: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="color: white; font-size: small;">The valley in question - I can't blame the open-space preservationists too much, it looks quite nice.</span></span></div></td> </tr>
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</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><a href="http://www.arounddublinblog.com/2011/12/save-mount-diablo-call-new-farm-tassajara-valley-illegal/" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;">http://www.arounddublinblog.com/2011/12/save-mount-diablo-call-new-farm-tassajara-valley-illegal/</a><br />
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</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: white; font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">There is no better way to loose support for a good idea than by associating it with corruption. Such is the story of a new development in Contra Costa County, California. </span> </span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: white; font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: white; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">The concept is a good one, and one being implemented with some success in other areas around the country – to build subdivision that integrate active agriculture amongst the homes, creating a hyper-local foodshed, an agriculturally aware community, and, in certain markets, and marketable amenity. Developments of this type vary greatly in how extensive the agriculture is (orchards vs. corn/soy/wheat vs. individual plots) and level of resident involvement (tenant farmers vs. on-site housing for labor population vs. homeowner participation), and often it is some mix of these practices to appeal to as many potential buyers as possible.</span></div></div><br />
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<tr> <td width="642"><div align="CENTER"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMSGAnzhcm8KkXxHQolHvIEeGC4gL9eEt79QOHtLSPI_y-L5HYdJbm8vRlFNtvdSBGQBtW6fBedG-UeUxDbXgekHcF-gNU8rAVA4hGTULONvCyl8TxUcbe-v2dxp63B9qWHwn8aIvi9qm-/s1600/abandoned+golf+course.jpg"><span style="color: white;"><img align="BOTTOM" border="0" height="426" name="graphics4" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMSGAnzhcm8KkXxHQolHvIEeGC4gL9eEt79QOHtLSPI_y-L5HYdJbm8vRlFNtvdSBGQBtW6fBedG-UeUxDbXgekHcF-gNU8rAVA4hGTULONvCyl8TxUcbe-v2dxp63B9qWHwn8aIvi9qm-/s640/abandoned+golf+course.jpg" width="640" /></span></a></div></td> </tr>
<tr> <td width="642"><div align="CENTER" style="border: none; padding: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="color: white; font-size: small;">An abandoned golf course - here, a clear lesson in biodiversity.</span></span></div><div align="CENTER" style="border: none; padding: 0in;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/catladen/2667179057/"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="color: white; font-size: small;">http://www.flickr.com/photos/catladen/2667179057/</span></span></a></div></td> </tr>
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<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: white; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Gone are the days of communities oriented around a manicured golf green. The WSJ ran this article describing the marketability of mixing agriculture and suburban development, and its predicted future growth:</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: white; font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: white; font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><a href="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111903392904576510492421141056.html">http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111903392904576510492421141056.html</a> </span> </span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: white; font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: white; font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">It would be easy to dismiss this as “green-washing” sprawl, and to some extent these projects may be doing just this. What a hasty dismissal fails to realize are two things: housing market forces, and intermediate steps toward a more sustainable housing model. The vast majority of the home-buying public is not ready to be so close to their sustenance. The idea of living in the midst of active agriculture is romantic to some, yet raises skepticism amongst many who see it as 'backwards' and an inappropriate living arrangement; citing smell, noise, machinery, aesthetics, and a host of other issues. Planning and designing with this in mind, these communities have the potential to be very pleasant and enlightening places to live. </span> </span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: white; font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: white; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">In Contra Costa, the idea never stood a chance. On top of resistance from a local open-space preservation group , the project has links to a developer with a history of corrupting public officials. The combined public outcry over the nature of the development, and those associated with it, pose a real set of challenges for pushing this project forward.</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: white; font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: white; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">For more on the idea of “Agriburbia” :</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: white; font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: white; font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.agriburbia.com/">http://www.agriburbia.com/</a> </span> </span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: white; font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.denverpost.com/ci_13631048">http://www.denverpost.com/ci_13631048</a> </span> </span><br />
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</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: white; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>CUBA</b></span></div></div><br />
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<tr> <td width="322"><div align="CENTER"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMVz_9LzDe14329dAlGmx0yoD-NVwTP2-oT7yHrj-h7oBjLtsdBzU73urPZBsi99GETruKaHs83RUVYePmDK1TShgpmS8SmWoA6YIDt0nBfyvLfNp_CkQ46CaZVd3ernwLiPuZ8MOsDfZh/s1600/agricultura-urbana.jpg"><span style="color: white;"><img align="BOTTOM" border="0" height="240" name="graphics5" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMVz_9LzDe14329dAlGmx0yoD-NVwTP2-oT7yHrj-h7oBjLtsdBzU73urPZBsi99GETruKaHs83RUVYePmDK1TShgpmS8SmWoA6YIDt0nBfyvLfNp_CkQ46CaZVd3ernwLiPuZ8MOsDfZh/s320/agricultura-urbana.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></div></td> </tr>
<tr> <td width="322"><div align="CENTER" style="border: none; padding: 0in;"><span style="color: white; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Nobody said anything about organic...</span></div></td> </tr>
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</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: white; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">The small island nation could have easily earned it's own post this time around.</span><br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: white; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Both external pressures and internal need has propelled Cuba as a perennial leader in urban agriculture.</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: white; font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: white; font-size: large;"><span lang="zxx"><u><a href="http://www.plenglish.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=466178&Itemid=1"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">http://www.plenglish.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=466178&Itemid=1</span></a></u></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span> </span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: white; font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: white; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">On top of some impressive yield statistics, Cuba continues to implement practices such as “the incorporation of idle land in usufruct”, recapturing irrigation water, seed saving/exchange, and “ animal-drawn vehicles”.</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: white; font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: white; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I would predict a few issues arising with the “use of more oxen” in North American cities. An interesting case could be made for the use of working animals and large livestock in American suburbs - lawn grazing, fertilizer source, food source – but most would file this vision of the future under 'apocalyptic scenarios'.</span></div></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: white;"><br />
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<tr> <td width="665"><div align="CENTER"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh39V3q8XN5Yqgg0LXbIznaJP7GVxFjC86CnUgAJd55DPAi4mOkxap7nkkjOY1moV6lkDWfhxauQ64_MTbctHeRshOhbAILkNWg6PcCn-p5rZBTZnT6_TRstymGq-jcmUvVdIK1wSR102kt/s1600/dubai+villa-w-livestock.JPG"><span style="color: white;"><img align="BOTTOM" border="0" height="480" name="graphics6" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh39V3q8XN5Yqgg0LXbIznaJP7GVxFjC86CnUgAJd55DPAi4mOkxap7nkkjOY1moV6lkDWfhxauQ64_MTbctHeRshOhbAILkNWg6PcCn-p5rZBTZnT6_TRstymGq-jcmUvVdIK1wSR102kt/s640/dubai+villa-w-livestock.JPG" width="640" /></span></a></div></td> </tr>
<tr> <td width="665"><div align="CENTER" style="border: none; padding: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="color: white; font-size: small;">An upscale villa in Dubai with it's own livestock - <a href="http://an-englishman-in-dubai.blogspot.com/2007/05/midtown-mirdiff.html">http://an-englishman-in-dubai.blogspot.com/2007/05/midtown-mirdiff.html</a></span></span></div></td> </tr>
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</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: white; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">In the case of developed countries agriculture in dense areas must compete with a certain vision of what a 'city' or 'neighborhood' should look like. Obviously, there is a great range of what people consider to be an appropriate standard of living. In a place where large livestock and working animals are already an integrated part of life, as transportation and food, to say they can be a part of urban agriculture would be redundant. In order to ensure the livestock is utilized to its fullest potential, integrating their food and waste streams into an agricultural cycle within the city creates more value.</span><span style="color: white; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;"> </span></div><br />
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<tr> <td width="642"><div align="CENTER"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVHi35yedv29RnTHW-jbysuowsZIpkE9ukfZOLaiaI-rIArXr6jwNHHkcQ24eVwpEy6sLHdLD1UZIPx37y-IRaXaqu5vFzP6kd1ow7UCt86n9HFkJrTPoFqW22agKgzuslW3pumFpZcAOW/s1600/Detroit-compost.jpg"><span style="color: white;"><img align="BOTTOM" border="0" height="426" name="graphics7" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVHi35yedv29RnTHW-jbysuowsZIpkE9ukfZOLaiaI-rIArXr6jwNHHkcQ24eVwpEy6sLHdLD1UZIPx37y-IRaXaqu5vFzP6kd1ow7UCt86n9HFkJrTPoFqW22agKgzuslW3pumFpZcAOW/s640/Detroit-compost.jpg" width="640" /></span></a></div></td> </tr>
<tr> <td width="642"><div align="CENTER" style="border: none; padding: 0in;"><span style="color: white; font-size: x-small;">A lesson for Cuba in Detroit?</span></div></td> </tr>
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<span style="color: white; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">An apt example can be found in Detroit where a new compost - or “black gold” depending on the circles you run in - center has made a deal with both the local zoo and mounted division of the Police department:</span><br />
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</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: white;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20111220/BIZ/112200329/-1/auto01insider/Detroit-start-ups-strike-gold-compost"><span style="font-size: large;">http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20111220/BIZ/112200329/-1/auto01insider/Detroit-start-ups-strike-gold-compost</span></a> </span> </span></div></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: white;"><br />
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<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: white; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">More research to be done on this. Beyond poultry, rabbits, and bees urban livestock deserves another look.</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: white; font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: white;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.readabroadegypt.com/2010/11/another-holiday-and-oblivious-urban.html"><span style="font-size: large;">http://www.readabroadegypt.com/2010/11/another-holiday-and-oblivious-urban.html</span></a> </span> </span></div></div><span style="color: white;"><br />
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<tr> <td width="665"><div align="CENTER"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8akUExnvuLAPiZ1GXMPferM3vMFe-lvBleijGi_vO5NUDOtIvbliFNENbIQVQWLReeeSBs0b4yHjnZbu9BLqt6j4-gz24eP_qftBxkJeCM6elbB8cnpPzvLUbsY0kNPqau3T17tvFBAGY/s1600/Urban+Shepherd-+egypt.JPG"><span style="color: white;"><img align="BOTTOM" border="0" height="480" name="graphics8" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8akUExnvuLAPiZ1GXMPferM3vMFe-lvBleijGi_vO5NUDOtIvbliFNENbIQVQWLReeeSBs0b4yHjnZbu9BLqt6j4-gz24eP_qftBxkJeCM6elbB8cnpPzvLUbsY0kNPqau3T17tvFBAGY/s640/Urban+Shepherd-+egypt.JPG" width="640" /></span></a></div></td> </tr>
<tr> <td width="665"><div align="CENTER" style="border: none; padding: 0in;"><span style="color: white;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">An urban shepherd and his flock, Egypt - <a href="http://www.readabroadegypt.com/2010/11/another-holiday-and-oblivious-urban.html">http://www.readabroadegypt.com/2010/11/another-holiday-and-oblivious-urban.html </a></span></span><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></div></td> </tr>
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</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: white; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">In Cuba's goal to become food independent is critical for the number of political and geographic reasons. Sanctions and embargoes have created an extra layer of isolation compounding the insular nature of island economies. Faced with limited resources, Cuba has developed their food and land use policies with the goal of maximizing what resources they have. The UN FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization) continues to provide food assistance to supplement the efforts on the island – which you can read about here:</span><br />
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</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: white; font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.cadenagramonte.cu/english/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=7574:fao-official-affirms-cuba-is-moving-towards-food-independence&catid=2:cuba&Itemid=14">http://www.cadenagramonte.cu/english/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=7574:fao-official-affirms-cuba-is-moving-towards-food-independence&catid=2:cuba&Itemid=14</a> </span> </span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: white; font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: white; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">and here:</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: white; font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: white;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.plenglish.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=468839&Itemid=1"><span style="font-size: large;">http://www.plenglish.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=468839&Itemid=1</span></a> </span> </span></div></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: white;"><br />
</span></div><div align="CENTER" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: white;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglEmMbV4PvOiy24GJM6XUxXGo4j1i9XbDqfzRT4cAN3RpyoBolS9YevzSg0vVJ5asPcJ7tyL0VTxYdvCkTzpwpz3QQHY-89iFilqGfwBvWtMLI8gWvv2M45d_LofAwFBmu1G0XxPXDZTn7/s1600/cultivo_uvas_cuba.jpg"><img align="BOTTOM" border="0" height="200" name="graphics9" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglEmMbV4PvOiy24GJM6XUxXGo4j1i9XbDqfzRT4cAN3RpyoBolS9YevzSg0vVJ5asPcJ7tyL0VTxYdvCkTzpwpz3QQHY-89iFilqGfwBvWtMLI8gWvv2M45d_LofAwFBmu1G0XxPXDZTn7/s200/cultivo_uvas_cuba.jpg" width="142" /></a></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: white; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Recent efforts have also focused on the growing of wine grapes as well. Prepare to enjoy a glass of 'Guantanamo Muscat' with your next stogie:</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: white; font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: white; font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.cadenagramonte.cu/english/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=7528:grape-can-be-grown-in-camagueey-specialists-agree&catid=1:camaguey&Itemid=14">http://www.cadenagramonte.cu/english/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=7528:grape-can-be-grown-in-camagueey-specialists-agree&catid=1:camaguey&Itemid=14</a> </span> </span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: white; font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: white; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">also, for further reading on the subject:</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: white; font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: white; font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.caribbeannewsnow.com/topstory-Urban-and-suburban-farming-progresses-in-Cuba-9459.html">http://www.caribbeannewsnow.com/topstory-Urban-and-suburban-farming-progresses-in-Cuba-9459.html</a> </span> </span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: white; font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: white; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">___________________________________________</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: white; font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: white; font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">All of these disparate places, each rising to meet a local need and create local solutions, are part of a larger puzzle. As our food/land dynamic shits so do cultures and people. Farming in dense areas is a hyper-local activity by its very nature. No matter if the producer is first in a wave of urban pioneers or simply practicing local customs as they have been done for hundreds of years, it is critical to learn from the success and failures of each situation around the globe. </span> </span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: white; font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: white; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Come back soon for more update!</span></div></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: white;"><br />
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</div></div>Jordanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07783135536058091383noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4436686121652108342.post-151314390387143172012-01-13T12:30:00.000-08:002012-01-13T12:36:10.915-08:00Partnering with The Tysons Corner<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwuqYOZOB-7QM6Q4M40uoTX3rz7ImIaJa57a5fg2qt5Y3DhwMW8FHifxydTjv-UBtlKGAQbqxRRfAA-onxoFLK-4gM4ANGYQI5MtmarqG-QkgXIz-yl06OD6OKdxQOYF_zl7YTRPZqfpA-/s1600/Lerner_1775_Jan_03.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" kba="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwuqYOZOB-7QM6Q4M40uoTX3rz7ImIaJa57a5fg2qt5Y3DhwMW8FHifxydTjv-UBtlKGAQbqxRRfAA-onxoFLK-4gM4ANGYQI5MtmarqG-QkgXIz-yl06OD6OKdxQOYF_zl7YTRPZqfpA-/s640/Lerner_1775_Jan_03.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">(The) Tysons Corner</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "Verdana", "sans-serif"; font-size: 18pt;">Check out the newest link (to your right) to </span><a href="http://thetysonscorner.com/blog/"><span style="font-family: "Verdana", "sans-serif"; font-size: 18pt;">The Tysons Corner</span></a><span style="font-family: "Verdana", "sans-serif"; font-size: 18pt;"> !</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Verdana", "sans-serif"; font-size: 18pt;">'Tysons Engineer' and I have a tendency to become involved in a variety of lively discussions throughout the day. The topic....you pick. We have covered everything from debating the size of the Reston Ice rink (turns out its smaller than a full size rink, and larger than a half-rink - thanks Jeff), to the geopolitical ramifications of European fiscal policy. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Verdana", "sans-serif"; font-size: 18pt;">If you are in the general D.C. area, interested in urban development, new restaurants, or any number of other topics, have a look. And keep an eye open for some posts on each other’s respective blogs.</span>Jordanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07783135536058091383noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4436686121652108342.post-4651855417186642552012-01-12T09:35:00.000-08:002012-01-13T12:15:41.572-08:00More on Urban Decay<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">On AOL travel - as if these places are tourist destinations, which they could be. "Ruin tourism"? I've heard of tours of New Orleans' 9th ward (conspicuously missing from the cities profiled in this link). Nevertheless, interesting photos, and some good background info on how these places got to their current condition.</span><br />
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<a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/12/photographs-of-abandoned-places_n_1197538.html#s602441&title=Baltimore_Maryland_2010"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/12/photographs-of-abandoned-places_n_1197538.html#s602441&title=Baltimore_Maryland_2010</span></a><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Enjoy,</span>Jordanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07783135536058091383noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4436686121652108342.post-76564728657415083332012-01-09T06:17:00.000-08:002012-01-13T12:18:03.898-08:00Continuing on a tangent from the last post<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">BLDGBLOG ran this today - </span><br />
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<a href="http://bldgblog.blogspot.com/2012/01/remnant-infrastructure.html"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">http://bldgblog.blogspot.com/2012/01/remnant-infrastructure.html</span></a><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">As a follow-up to "Urban Decay", "Remnant Infrastructure" begins to look at modern telecom infrastructure as artifacts, to be repurposed for current needs. While lending insight into former geopolitical situations, these hidden networks (often underground) also speak to current trends of priviatzation and the reclaimation of state infrastructure.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Enjoy,</span>Jordanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07783135536058091383noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4436686121652108342.post-71511243347360058122012-01-04T08:11:00.000-08:002012-01-13T13:10:01.873-08:00Urban Decay - a critical curiosity <br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6Ud9Gt_XWqr8xzcRmM_wczFxIuySQmZVSss0SUwS7H3cOh7y7LcO7W0_ZQRoGNwgGDkzZenMRRBszb9P31hnZWXlp8nzNEVW1Q4Eqj_vG7QmgCZTRrid-yDFcestV7QV3CVjaxHS6nnTG/s1600/DSC01644.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6Ud9Gt_XWqr8xzcRmM_wczFxIuySQmZVSss0SUwS7H3cOh7y7LcO7W0_ZQRoGNwgGDkzZenMRRBszb9P31hnZWXlp8nzNEVW1Q4Eqj_vG7QmgCZTRrid-yDFcestV7QV3CVjaxHS6nnTG/s640/DSC01644.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Baltimore, MD - Fall 2009</span></td></tr>
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<div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The recent swell of interest in urban decay has fascinated me for a few years now. As a student studying urban planning and design, it was all the rage. It has become the subject of innumerable budding photographers, graffiti artists, architects, urban explorers, and anyone interested in urban land. I have since taken a step back to critically examine this particular trend.</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span></span></div><div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">"Why?" you ask. Why the fascination with the morbidity of the built environment? </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Urban decay touches upon a myriad of modern conditions, both personal and environmental: </span></span></div><div style="margin-left: 0.5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">-<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">They allow us to imagine one version of the future.</span></span></div><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
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<div style="margin-left: 0.5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">-<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">They satisfy a need for danger and risk, both perceived and real</span></span></div><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
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<div style="margin-left: 0.5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">-<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">They attract us with the fantasy of the unknown and foreign</span></span></div><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
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<div style="margin-left: 0.5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">-<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">They connect us to histories - some familiar, some unrelated to our own</span></span></div><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
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<div style="margin-left: 0.5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">-<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">They collect their own users and inhabitants - wildlife, artists, explorers, delinquents, recluses, etc.</span></span></div><div class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt 0.5in;"><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3PmrzWIGsvUtpG82Vl2t7wKA5sHK6udZ77HgH_QaX6Ub3i-M7ajDVDrW4RZ7ZE8CnSyati2RHlbeukU_vxYaD19W70vMFxWVtX7bw1gq4GXsb_wUNbE8yT4SkSgLaiOE7K0L8BoEdAS_m/s1600/DSC00719.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><img border="0" height="640" rea="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3PmrzWIGsvUtpG82Vl2t7wKA5sHK6udZ77HgH_QaX6Ub3i-M7ajDVDrW4RZ7ZE8CnSyati2RHlbeukU_vxYaD19W70vMFxWVtX7bw1gq4GXsb_wUNbE8yT4SkSgLaiOE7K0L8BoEdAS_m/s640/DSC00719.JPG" width="480" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">The Roman Froum - Summer 2008</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table><span style="font-size: large;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Urban decay was initially fascinating to me because it is a very dynamic intersection between man and nature.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">“Is it a building in the woods, or are the woods now in the building?”</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I like the grey areas; where you can’t quite tell where the pavement ends, where the surface beneath your feet is an accumulation of time.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="640" rea="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfflJvsmqExFtjt9DeHWLALTHPHd9OW0wsK3t3loXWNQYtYuRnz0vaaOaPlwAyAYuWj4yhmbTnv5_LzTnLUhqSMUzWOKs-oyzuBXu0WcHK7qVq8JXBK5Byzj7k32sLDxRNFLhDhDDYXvGE/s640/DSC01247.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="480" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Landschaftspark - Duisburg Nord, Germany - Summer 2008</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">If you have ever come across, or had the chance to explore one of these places, they are intoxicating for the imagination. Ever dream of finding an ancient Mayan city, like Indiana Jones? Just like the subjects of Dr. Jones’ studies, that is precisely what these places are – artifacts. Rich with clues, treasures (objectively speaking), and hints of a life we may find it hard to imagine. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">For western culture, a romanticism of the old begins at the Renaissance. As learning and the arts retuned to a Europe slowly crawling out of a dark hole, they looked to the only signs of civilization they knew, the Roman ruins. Being that these ruins pepper the countryside of Europe, and in many cases actually provided the foundation for the modern cities we know today, it was a natural curiosity that drove these early thinkers into the rubble.</span><br />
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<tr><td><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIR5LOZgBMzpiWOe03s-4Rl-T90u0pBbZN3szaSJ8cQGbxBE1-XjzJhJjiGW1yDk74rjPwsZBXnG5pnYvNtMiw45IKtOzkVzzJxBc5g6Wmd_W6r1Z7xwgpFSl7ZeFhcp3Ymor5efySQ_uf/s1600/DSC00727.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" rea="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIR5LOZgBMzpiWOe03s-4Rl-T90u0pBbZN3szaSJ8cQGbxBE1-XjzJhJjiGW1yDk74rjPwsZBXnG5pnYvNtMiw45IKtOzkVzzJxBc5g6Wmd_W6r1Z7xwgpFSl7ZeFhcp3Ymor5efySQ_uf/s640/DSC00727.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">The Roman Forum - Summer 2008</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">At the dawn of the 20<sup>th</sup> century, rising nationalism, combined with a yearning for a simpler past in hard times (the industrial revolution had begun to lose its novelty in Europe after the first “mechanized war”, WWI) brought about a renewed interest in the castles and the lore of old. Romanticized and politically tinged, ruins provided a physical rallying point, and metaphor, for supremacist ideologies - not to name names.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">But, of course, all of this is Euro-centric, and fails to address the complex relationship between Americans and our “virgin land”. One could understand the lure of a place where no grand ruins existed to be claimed by one party or another as their entitlement to the land. And while the Native Americans left no stone arches or viaducts, their monumental works, be it the earthen mounds of the Mississippi people or Mayan jungle cities, were summarily dismissed by early settlers. In this land without a strong physical legacy of civilization, ruins were anomaly and despised by the “cult of the new.”</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">American values forsake the old for the new. We are a culture of the latest-and-greatest – and that subject alone could fill many volumes. For there to be a recent interest in the abandoned places of old, for me, points to a certain cultural maturity. This type of introspective reflection could be said to be indicative of a society trying to find its way, of a people attempting to reconnect to a “golden era”, or just a fad interest in destruction.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Abandoned places are indicative of <i>LOST</i> value. At one point, the decrepit warehouse, vacant lot, or rotting shell of a building was someone's great investment. The place held promise, its structures were dreamed of, labored over, and then occupied. </span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZW-a1h49BC769YEw04YCtgZMhmTw4FWKuR6zyCYQUMldUGs7DvTat6cxTCELX4VEqgTg_H1CotrGMl-UkECok_R65T3SR9CySMiw1zfSyWwaA8-rQK3xyyUI0iFwxc4PAElTlhVS9q-D-/s1600/DSC01435.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" rea="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZW-a1h49BC769YEw04YCtgZMhmTw4FWKuR6zyCYQUMldUGs7DvTat6cxTCELX4VEqgTg_H1CotrGMl-UkECok_R65T3SR9CySMiw1zfSyWwaA8-rQK3xyyUI0iFwxc4PAElTlhVS9q-D-/s640/DSC01435.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Underground at the McMillan Water Filtration Plant - Washington D.C.</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Today we find these structures and landscape on the front lines of the battle against time. Nature creeps in to reclaim walls and roofs for photosynthesis. Materials, assembled and sorted for the needs of man, begin the slow process of redistribution with the help of fungus, plants, insects, weathering and gravity. Like glaciated moonscapes, asphalt and concrete swaths are colonized at first by the simplest of organisms, graduating through time to support a complex ecosystem. To witness this process in action is to witness life at its most virile. It is in, and on, these abandoned places that the pioneers are engaged in a race to claim new territory. Generally, buildings, while occupied, and their accompanying lots have a dearth of biodiversity. Imagine them as the opposite of an oasis - a dead zone, like a lava flow. But as human use and upkeep (the constant energy inputs to keep entropy at bay) desist, the “wild" spills back in. </span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbv0FVSO6zk00v5mFkABgq92HVnfHyNyixqC4Xq2SQL4UlV8cklAacQPJBPR4Pvtmc57mqT15hApi13zIFQr_ZVwoB04AmySmdFAgW3jDDwsYAF0Bt2smRgeGLDN5esHOftrYvfdJCcRA8/s1600/DSC01539.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbv0FVSO6zk00v5mFkABgq92HVnfHyNyixqC4Xq2SQL4UlV8cklAacQPJBPR4Pvtmc57mqT15hApi13zIFQr_ZVwoB04AmySmdFAgW3jDDwsYAF0Bt2smRgeGLDN5esHOftrYvfdJCcRA8/s640/DSC01539.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Baltimore, MD - Fall 2009</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">What was once the fate of urban industrial activity has now spread to our malls, shopping centers and even our neighborhoods. The pendulum has swung. And so it is that the phenomenon of decay has become entered into many places it was formerly unheard of - but isn’t that the way it always is?</span><br />
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<tr><td><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgaoWLinvP7OCXG35zWq4kWeVie_QBRPwwWr0_AmTfwi_5W4VtEYAqZUJyxmskFHmsX0Zig7GR9hPnL6uRW41mB-Dp7yyim74L3AU_QS1fKo_m3pR6xp_FFXxBxQlNppkI3lY3INNfMjJ4C/s1600/IMG_2970.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgaoWLinvP7OCXG35zWq4kWeVie_QBRPwwWr0_AmTfwi_5W4VtEYAqZUJyxmskFHmsX0Zig7GR9hPnL6uRW41mB-Dp7yyim74L3AU_QS1fKo_m3pR6xp_FFXxBxQlNppkI3lY3INNfMjJ4C/s640/IMG_2970.JPG" width="480" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Survival in the urban desert - thriving under a roof drain. </span></td></tr>
</tbody></table><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">In the 1970’s and 1980’s, as the cores of America’s great urban centers rotted away, we busied ourselves shielding our lives from the realities of living in a post-industrial country. With a renewed interest in urban living, money has returned to many cities spurring investment and redevelopment. After the business districts are restored the next stop for the urban land speculators are the formerly industrial areas of a city. The examples are endless – of factory lofts, warehouse retail outlets, complete with exposed piping and ductwork. Some might argue that the abandoned factories of the late 20<sup>th</sup> century are becoming a rarity </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">in many of the places they were made iconic.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">These places are contradictions. In one way they illuminate the past, and in another they are prescient of the future. They are both foreign and familiar. They are created by loss and misfortune, yet continue to inspire. When viewed through the right lens, they can be spaces of opportunity. In our current times improving upon the existing, reusing materials previously harvested and processed, and up-cycling the frameworks we have inherited must be part of any comprehensive plan for future growth.</span></span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglhxwUYidEHDwx4NG5KGuCfQZ2mQ8hKo9RNGVSFeZk8ne7P-qZ_D1Xsc48iGpfq38p8eL39rD7EMzvXq0yRV5rM21fZhCQaDnLfm14GARO1wXuPWFZSdAVLYHbkvw753aTRJaiNzlHJLgy/s1600/DSC01463.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" rea="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglhxwUYidEHDwx4NG5KGuCfQZ2mQ8hKo9RNGVSFeZk8ne7P-qZ_D1Xsc48iGpfq38p8eL39rD7EMzvXq0yRV5rM21fZhCQaDnLfm14GARO1wXuPWFZSdAVLYHbkvw753aTRJaiNzlHJLgy/s640/DSC01463.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">McMillan Water Filtration Cisterns and Sand Silos - Washington D.C.</span> </td></tr>
</tbody></table><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">In the end, whatever it may look like, a certain segment of people will always wonder with fascination at the places of man being overcome by time and natural forces. To create and build is to take a stab at immortality. In witnessing the erasure of the work of others we are humbled and reminded of our own inevitable decline.</span>Jordanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07783135536058091383noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4436686121652108342.post-13970710266293421452011-12-09T13:16:00.000-08:002012-01-13T12:48:13.148-08:00Google Alerts!...and then sifting through them<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">In my quest to stay on top of emerging trends, and just keep up on news in areas that interest me, I subscribed to Google Alerts. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Now, after a few months of "alerts", I have a sizeable collection of articles, resources, and internet detritus - its a mixed blessing. The articles are mostly gleaned from periodicals, online publications, and local newspapers. I get news on suburban agriculture from all over the place, and in every context. The result - a nation-wide perspective of a locally-focused trend. Every town, city, county, and state is addressing food, and land in a new light, specific to their own concerns and each facing its own challenges. The picture that is peiced together is one of ingenuity,</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"> resilience, and people working hard to change the status quo. No matter what BigAg says, its clear people are beginning to understand that a diet based mostly on corn byproducts (whether consumed whole or fed to livestock to be consumed) can't be very good for you. At a minimum, people are interested - interested in how thing grow, and what they can do themselves.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">So, here, today, I present to you a filtering (wide mesh) of the vast haul google has trawled from the internet for me. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I will add a very brief description for each, and I will try to make this a more regular thing to avoid the build-up Im dealing with now.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Enjoy!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><strong>Chicago</strong> - Subruban Moms meet framers to discuss farm practices and learn about agriculture</span><br />
<a href="http://wjbc.com/suburban-moms-meet-up-with-farmers-in-chicago/"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">http://wjbc.com/suburban-moms-meet-up-with-farmers-in-chicago/</span></a><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><strong>Kentucky</strong> - Dr. David Wicks lists 21 ways to green a city</span><br />
<a href="http://blogs.courier-journal.com/davidwicks/2011/12/01/true-green-21-ways-to-plant-a-city/"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">http://blogs.courier-journal.com/davidwicks/2011/12/01/true-green-21-ways-to-plant-a-city/</span></a><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><strong>Cuba</strong> - Suburban Agricultrure dry season production</span><br />
<a href="http://www.cadenagramonte.cu/english/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=8367&Itemid=14"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">http://www.cadenagramonte.cu/english/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=8367&Itemid=14</span></a><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"> - further reading</span><br />
<a href="http://www.radiorebelde.cu/english/news/cattle-raising-in-suburban-agriculture-20111201/"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">http://www.radiorebelde.cu/english/news/cattle-raising-in-suburban-agriculture-20111201/</span></a><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><strong>Michigan</strong> - Placemaking in conjunction with urban agriculture to rebuild declining industrial cities in the midwest. "Creating 21st century communities"</span><br />
<a href="http://rustwire.com/2011/11/29/can-placemaking-save-michigan/"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">http://rustwire.com/2011/11/29/can-placemaking-save-michigan/</span></a><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><strong>New Jersey (in the future)</strong> - A slightly bizzare, fictional account of what shopping might be like in 2021 in northern New Jersey, need I say more?</span><br />
<a href="http://www.zdnet.com/blog/perlow/retail-in-2021-when-clicks-have-buried-bricks/19344"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">http://www.zdnet.com/blog/perlow/retail-in-2021-when-clicks-have-buried-bricks/19344</span></a><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><strong>Detroit</strong> - Urban farms exempted from traditional farming laws. BigAg - not happy.</span><br />
<a href="http://www.freep.com/article/20111128/NEWS06/111280346/Bill-would-create-Right-Farm-Act-exemption-Detroit?odyssey=nav%7Chead"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">http://www.freep.com/article/20111128/NEWS06/111280346/Bill-would-create-Right-Farm-Act-exemption-Detroit?odyssey=nav%7Chead</span></a><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><strong>NRDC, National</strong> - House prices slump+Food prices rise = suburbs reverting to, or integrating, farming.</span><br />
<a href="http://switchboard.nrdc.org/blogs/kbenfield/back_to_the_farm_subdivision_l.html"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">http://switchboard.nrdc.org/blogs/kbenfield/back_to_the_farm_subdivision_l.html</span></a><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><strong>Indiana</strong> - Future Farmers of America (FFA) expands scope and stays relevant!</span><br />
<a href="http://www.ocala.com/article/20111111/ZNYT01/111113011?p=2&tc=pg"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">http://www.ocala.com/article/20111111/ZNYT01/111113011?p=2&tc=pg</span></a><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><strong>Maine</strong> - finding the space to encourage suburban/small scale farming in built up areas. </span><br />
<a href="http://www.kjonline.com/opinion/protecting-encouraging-farming-must-start-at-the-local-level_2011-11-10.html"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">http://www.kjonline.com/opinion/protecting-encouraging-farming-must-start-at-the-local-level_2011-11-10.html</span></a><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><strong>California</strong> - The fate of our fine friends <em>Apis mellifera,</em> aka. BEES!</span><br />
<a href="http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=the-pollinator-crisis"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=the-pollinator-crisis</span></a><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><strong>Cuba</strong> - The suburban and urban ag. capital of the world!</span><br />
<a href="http://www.cadenagramonte.cu/english/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=7997:cuban-urban-agriculture-an-emerging-alternative&catid=27:economy&Itemid=24"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">http://www.cadenagramonte.cu/english/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=7997:cuban-urban-agriculture-an-emerging-alternative&catid=27:economy&Itemid=24</span></a><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><strong>Oakland</strong> - The legal and neighborly hazards of urban farming. Oakland adjusts laws and ordinances to reflect rise in urban homesteading.</span><br />
<a href="http://thinkprogress.org/romm/2011/11/07/362467/urban-homesteading-popular-trend/"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">http</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">://thinkprogress.org/romm/2011/11/07/362467/urban-homesteading-popular-trend/</span></span></a><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><strong>More BEES! - </strong>Small-scale bee keepers may be the solution to colony-collapse disorder. Pending ordinances to facilitate </span><br />
<a href="http://grayslake.patch.com/articles/local-beekeepers-may-play-role-in-saving-food-supply-e34860c7"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">http://grayslake.patch.com/articles/local-beekeepers-may-play-role-in-saving-food-supply-e34860c7</span></a><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><strong>*MUST READ*</strong> - Small cities are the place to be post-oil</span><br />
<a href="http://www.grist.org/cities/2011-10-31-why-small-cities-are-poised-for-success-in-an-oil-starved-future"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">http://www.grist.org/cities/2011-10-31-why-small-cities-are-poised-for-success-in-an-oil-starved-future</span></a>Jordanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07783135536058091383noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4436686121652108342.post-67924806864133124362011-11-28T08:33:00.000-08:002011-12-23T12:41:05.478-08:00PORTFOLIO - done for the moment...<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: large;">Im sure there will be many more iterations to come. view as spreads.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: large;">Feedback is welcome, enjoy!</span><br />
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<object classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" id="9cf92ecd-f5bd-7386-c18b-99509e55228e" style="height: 450px; width: 600px;"><param name="movie" value="http://static.issuu.com/webembed/viewers/style1/v2/IssuuReader.swf?mode=mini&viewMode=singlePage&shareMenuEnabled=false&printButtonEnabled=false&shareButtonEnabled=false&searchButtonEnabled=false&documentId=111213142943-876445356b7d416fad695c4a6f200d35" /><param name="allowfullscreen" value="true"/><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"/><param name="menu" value="false"/><param name="wmode" value="transparent"/><embed src="http://static.issuu.com/webembed/viewers/style1/v2/IssuuReader.swf" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" menu="false" wmode="transparent" style="width:600px;height:450px" flashvars="mode=mini&viewMode=singlePage&shareMenuEnabled=false&printButtonEnabled=false&shareButtonEnabled=false&searchButtonEnabled=false&documentId=111213142943-876445356b7d416fad695c4a6f200d35" /></object>Jordanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07783135536058091383noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4436686121652108342.post-84801727654809607312011-11-24T20:08:00.000-08:002011-12-23T12:42:39.993-08:00Drawings from my senior project<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXYBMy7bkbmbiaxoGVso-mqUFkrfIVPYC7AyHf6YM9SSY2isoQReDXfnclxAJuj9NCtjqc_dQaIz4CgVsrRUkzoyq2SvbiI3zm1V6j11EpJ1lh3zG5IBed9SxmJCI_C41E4TMIYioYOQoL/s1600/img020.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="451" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXYBMy7bkbmbiaxoGVso-mqUFkrfIVPYC7AyHf6YM9SSY2isoQReDXfnclxAJuj9NCtjqc_dQaIz4CgVsrRUkzoyq2SvbiI3zm1V6j11EpJ1lh3zG5IBed9SxmJCI_C41E4TMIYioYOQoL/s640/img020.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">First in set of 3. Led to some great design discoveries.</span><br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Found these while assembling and editing the latest round of my portfolio. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br />
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</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">They were all drawn in late 2009 and early 2010, for my senior project - The Estuary District. They are a mix of site analysis, concept development, and the general working out of ideas.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Enjoy -</span></div><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsYjqVmVE1mulDpTOrFAWp_JiOXxlBzVUjLSturRyqbmBjmt7OnqQ9dfS8xltbYXm6gUkaL01-UUqn3UtkmtXZoTjUtT3cIcqGVkK1lmJxnvDuUhmMfyMWGUepmd5mqHM4f9xQsTbdAA2h/s1600/img021.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="451" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsYjqVmVE1mulDpTOrFAWp_JiOXxlBzVUjLSturRyqbmBjmt7OnqQ9dfS8xltbYXm6gUkaL01-UUqn3UtkmtXZoTjUtT3cIcqGVkK1lmJxnvDuUhmMfyMWGUepmd5mqHM4f9xQsTbdAA2h/s640/img021.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">2 of 3</span><br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTPGvOo1izf_fdyV3SlaYCg5-Ib_RYr_ocuV62GMQvHlZ6Af-Se7jYO2SPy9lp7TsPN0j3EY3smmwCW4ZJK9Y1PQVo99sP8CKfm_QYHFpLVCGCGj_E53ao5Hl3dZRoXcc7x79-zi930GPt/s1600/img022.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="451" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTPGvOo1izf_fdyV3SlaYCg5-Ib_RYr_ocuV62GMQvHlZ6Af-Se7jYO2SPy9lp7TsPN0j3EY3smmwCW4ZJK9Y1PQVo99sP8CKfm_QYHFpLVCGCGj_E53ao5Hl3dZRoXcc7x79-zi930GPt/s640/img022.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">3 of 3 ... discovery!</span><br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6e4V72dow-41bV6w6OYeQFmSYKaEMQSeBqpAc3mCqDyfald3xulS9L7YQc4a3IrFPw-YZ-EH7K2L_NGab4w63VyD48OCzCaXt3Cckbn8zAWpjDUkHi1PsbmmnihkyoNQOoWvZoLcFqsNA/s1600/img023.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="451" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6e4V72dow-41bV6w6OYeQFmSYKaEMQSeBqpAc3mCqDyfald3xulS9L7YQc4a3IrFPw-YZ-EH7K2L_NGab4w63VyD48OCzCaXt3Cckbn8zAWpjDUkHi1PsbmmnihkyoNQOoWvZoLcFqsNA/s640/img023.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">What do I have to work with? What does it want to be?</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnhX0488y1ND9BotOZQ393uujJ-y0CBSIth2dOvV_2MrjcWpNpkemvN6LdtOfW3KyrDPrtevsSvKN7h6oKVN63Z08Zqd8LMkBvL4h7FYoy-vliGU3VvKkAxl2jfbGw1C4wMsL0Yfnjz2V9/s1600/img024.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="451" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnhX0488y1ND9BotOZQ393uujJ-y0CBSIth2dOvV_2MrjcWpNpkemvN6LdtOfW3KyrDPrtevsSvKN7h6oKVN63Z08Zqd8LMkBvL4h7FYoy-vliGU3VvKkAxl2jfbGw1C4wMsL0Yfnjz2V9/s640/img024.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">What do I want it to be?</span><br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxOiQ7ZCr6Bzj-ObHTJlFWI9KrXjnDDn6eDAczz_s8oaMqVrCmM454FvAOJ6SSUDcT7EapLyrKr0Z64QzuTFqc58j82lSQRQMZxwzQzxS0qSFhOB2hGP2D3xXATWLURuTZUaeMAe82bCcS/s1600/img025.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="451" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxOiQ7ZCr6Bzj-ObHTJlFWI9KrXjnDDn6eDAczz_s8oaMqVrCmM454FvAOJ6SSUDcT7EapLyrKr0Z64QzuTFqc58j82lSQRQMZxwzQzxS0qSFhOB2hGP2D3xXATWLURuTZUaeMAe82bCcS/s640/img025.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">What grows here now? How does it do it?</span><br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg651haLCFugOsW0qX-ES19rexbVoT31EMs1bhqOrVeLhcygaAV2juUsaOnLtxgAM67wQjIHnLsIc13_8grdyw6y-TGrupmbu6O0_mask8yk0IMLX4AStsnBFEw_6lqffpH3FQrkbpr-QuF/s1600/img026.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="451" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg651haLCFugOsW0qX-ES19rexbVoT31EMs1bhqOrVeLhcygaAV2juUsaOnLtxgAM67wQjIHnLsIc13_8grdyw6y-TGrupmbu6O0_mask8yk0IMLX4AStsnBFEw_6lqffpH3FQrkbpr-QuF/s640/img026.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">How did these buildings function?</span><br />
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</td></tr>
</tbody></table><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOFsTyvsJ19UCDY8CMYkeR9gC9XkbuyLmhPmNHvpxAMZuczpujBiIMtfx_MLgFVqGcaBZY7A7l8G36V_uJy0LlcDAwcRncajA_nov0U6I_fG_SQqsgH7-n86i4doEyngaWOlNmg3DCybWU/s1600/img027.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="451" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOFsTyvsJ19UCDY8CMYkeR9gC9XkbuyLmhPmNHvpxAMZuczpujBiIMtfx_MLgFVqGcaBZY7A7l8G36V_uJy0LlcDAwcRncajA_nov0U6I_fG_SQqsgH7-n86i4doEyngaWOlNmg3DCybWU/s640/img027.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Whats going on underground? What could that become?</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>Jordanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07783135536058091383noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4436686121652108342.post-16858601100914675382011-10-30T19:54:00.000-07:002011-10-30T19:55:32.589-07:00Preview of portfolio - the inside cover/table of contents<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikb-4ooKQuf_g-GA5XsNrJEOTnNQqx4nBp8tWlZt23mtoybRaahuMMz0GsUOiaiyHyrhSp9lZiwtKBrEjKFd5xX02EOyxdbE0jFt0R4JaTDsTqO2owkqW3xdF2hwAYQyBuxLAyKJoL5T9i/s1600/portfolio_cover-page1-2+-+ALTERNATE_CROPPED.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="242" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikb-4ooKQuf_g-GA5XsNrJEOTnNQqx4nBp8tWlZt23mtoybRaahuMMz0GsUOiaiyHyrhSp9lZiwtKBrEjKFd5xX02EOyxdbE0jFt0R4JaTDsTqO2owkqW3xdF2hwAYQyBuxLAyKJoL5T9i/s400/portfolio_cover-page1-2+-+ALTERNATE_CROPPED.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div>Jordanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07783135536058091383noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4436686121652108342.post-19790488639828786132011-10-19T08:58:00.000-07:002012-01-13T12:50:28.838-08:00New blogs and website links<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Here are a few of the new website and blogs that I’m following. You can also find them now in the sidebar! </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">If anyone has any others they highly recommend – I’m always interested.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Enjoy!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">An exploration of what makes old cities work and how we can apply that to the cities of today.</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large; line-height: 115%;"><a href="http://oldurbanist.blogspot.com/">http://oldurbanist.blogspot.com/</a></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large; line-height: 115%;">The intersection of capitalism and urbanism.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="color: white; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large; line-height: 115%;"><a href="http://marketurbanism.com/">http://marketurbanism.com/</a></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large; line-height: 115%;">A look at the policies and ‘best practices’ guiding the development of modern cities. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="color: white; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large; line-height: 115%;"><a href="http://www.urbanophile.com/">http://www.urbanophile.com/</a></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large; line-height: 115%;">Environmental news, sustainable home-ec, DIY projects, and a dash of politics.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="color: white; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large; line-height: 115%;"><a href="http://www.thegoodhuman.com/">http://www.thegoodhuman.com/</a></span></div>Jordanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07783135536058091383noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4436686121652108342.post-25317219505399263902011-10-07T10:17:00.000-07:002011-12-23T12:46:50.323-08:00Steve Jobs quotes<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I have discovered a few interesting quotes from Mr. Jobs over the past few days, and some great writing about his influence on things such as leadership, design, innovation, and consumerism. I'll continue to add to this post as I find them.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Enjoy - </span><br />
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<div class="sfajax_slideshow_poll_just_caption " style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><em>"I read a study that measured the efficiency of locomotion for various species on the planet. The condor used the least energy to move a kilometer. Humans came in with a rather unimpressive showing about a third of the way down the list....That didn't look so good, but then someone at Scientific American had the insight to test the <span style="color: white;"><u>efficiency of lomotion for a man on a bicycle</u></span> and a man on a bicycle blew the condor away.<br />
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That's what a computer is to me: the computer is the most remarkable tool that we've ever come up with. It's the equivalent of a bicycle for our minds."</em></span></div><div class="sfajax_slideshow_poll_just_caption " style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div class="sfajax_slideshow_poll_just_caption " style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div class="sfajax_slideshow_poll_just_caption "></div><div class="sfajax_slideshow_poll_just_caption "><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">-Steve Jobs</span><br />
<a href="http://www.mlfilms.com/productions/m_and_i" target="_hplink"><span style="color: white; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">-- Interview for the documentary "Memory and Imagination," 1990</span></a></div><div class="sfajax_slideshow_poll_just_caption "></div><div class="sfajax_slideshow_poll_just_caption "><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div class="sfajax_slideshow_poll_just_caption "><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Thanks: Huffington Post</span></div><div class="sfajax_slideshow_poll_just_caption "><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
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</span></div><div class="sfajax_slideshow_poll_just_caption " style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><em>“We don’t have good language to talk about this kind of thing,” Mr. Jobs replied. “In most people’s vocabularies, design means veneer. It’s interior decorating. It’s the fabric of the curtains and the sofa. But to me, nothing could be further from the meaning of design. Design is the fundamental soul of a man-made creation that ends up expressing itself in successive outer layers of the product or service. The </em></span><a class="meta-classifier" href="http://nytimes.com.com/desktops/apple-imac-core-2/4505-3118_7-32065020.html?tag=api&part=nytimes&subj=re&inline=nyt-classifier" title=""><span style="color: white; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><em>iMac</em></span></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><em> is not just the color or translucence or the shape of the shell. The essence of the iMac is to be the finest possible consumer computer in which each element plays together. ... That is the furthest thing from veneer. It was at the core of the product the day we started. This is what customers pay us for — to sweat all these details so it’s easy and pleasant for them to use our computers. We’re supposed to be really good at this. That doesn’t mean we don’t listen to customers, but it’s hard for them to tell you what they want when they’ve never seen anything remotely like it.” </em></span></span></div><div class="sfajax_slideshow_poll_just_caption " style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div class="sfajax_slideshow_poll_just_caption " style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">- Steve Jobs</span></div><div class="sfajax_slideshow_poll_just_caption " style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Verdana;">-- Quoted from The New York Times, Oct. 7, 2011 </span></span></div><div class="sfajax_slideshow_poll_just_caption " style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="sfajax_slideshow_poll_just_caption " style="text-align: center;"><strong><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><em>"Stay hungy, stay foolish"</em></span></strong></div><div class="sfajax_slideshow_poll_just_caption " style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="sfajax_slideshow_poll_just_caption " style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">- Steve Jobs</span></div><div class="sfajax_slideshow_poll_just_caption " style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Verdana;">-- Numerous </span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: large;">sources</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: large;">...damn straight, Steve. RIP.</span></div>Jordanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07783135536058091383noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4436686121652108342.post-2890090053431416452011-09-29T07:59:00.000-07:002012-01-13T13:09:20.258-08:00Physical Diplomacy<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">(The anniversary of 9/11 brought about a flood of emotion. The media forced us to replay that day; it took me back to being 14 – a sophomore in high school – and the wild range of emotions this new, shocking event evoked. My 9/11 (2011) started with a little NPR that resulted in much soul-searching, and ultimately I resorted to driving in silence with my thoughts.)</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Maybe we lack, as a nation, a certain type of vanity. The kind that would cause us to pause and consider what the rest of the world thinks of us. There are plenty of voices screaming, “who cares!?” And while that may not be the official line towed by our noble diplomats, it is the voice of our physical legacy in the places we have entered in the name of peace and stability.</span> </span></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjasB_3ciAYAbSHla0fjjd89i2Yv8muzDGFqBlkVdxL35dq6QDtiAwH15RKQ7Kd3Wu1o1SV4hh0JZCtrTqPx1JXh0sgWEPiOEPttAbEQSpr9774BfxmrTbhqPEGaSX7CCf0kIVfjqlReyNO/s1600/untitled.bmp" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="476" kca="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjasB_3ciAYAbSHla0fjjd89i2Yv8muzDGFqBlkVdxL35dq6QDtiAwH15RKQ7Kd3Wu1o1SV4hh0JZCtrTqPx1JXh0sgWEPiOEPttAbEQSpr9774BfxmrTbhqPEGaSX7CCf0kIVfjqlReyNO/s640/untitled.bmp" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Field of abandoned blast-walls - Iraq</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Courtesy: </span><a href="http://gocomics.typepad.com/the_sandbox/2008/08/graveyard-of-ol.html"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">http://gocomics.typepad.com/the_sandbox/2008/08/graveyard-of-ol.html</span></a></span></td></tr>
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</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">BLDGBLOG ran a timely post on 9/11(</span><a href="http://bldgblog.blogspot.com/2011/09/shape-of-war.html"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">http://bldgblog.blogspot.com/2011/09/shape-of-war.html</span></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">). Studio-X NYC hosted a discussion with photographer Simon Norfolk, focused on the spaces and technologies of post-9/11 warfare. While the discussion will surely explore the photographic qualities of such surreal places, and their modern implications, I would like to look at these new battlefields in the context of future diplomacy. </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">The physical works of militaries are some of the longest standing and most iconic on earth. We humans have a violent history; there is no doubt about that, and the infrastructure of conquest, control, and defense has long shaped our understanding of nations. The very need to build, the root of architecture, was to protect one’s self from the elements, the beasts, and inevitably, one’s neighbors.</span> </span></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6a/Jinshangling2.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="File:Jinshangling2.jpg" height="432" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/6a/Jinshangling2.jpg/800px-Jinshangling2.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Great wall of China. Thanks Wikipedia.</span></td></tr>
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</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-size: large;"> <span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Today we see the remains of warring, turbulent ages in the form of the majestic castles of Germany, France and England, the Great Wall of China, Hadrian’s Wall in Scotland, even the Acropolis in Athens. These iconic fortifications now help to form a national identity; they speak to a shared heritage and remain as symbols, sometimes painful ones, of pivotal points in a nation’s development. While these fortifications were useful in their own time, almost all were overrun by superior technologies or ceased fulfilling their intended purposed due to diplomatic resolutions</span>. </span></span></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXYlc4ER6nVWaHUaW3Smw8xaEweX6AE1ncv0LONaZwwOp4AHeTrYRcLSejvuZtmsatUi7pLRVPFxQ7aLV2cpn-SVfXz3ckh_eJMoSr7G_NF_yOGxKynhpjScbAu2p1SWYPA8bAY50zt2K8/s1600/Edinpain.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" kca="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXYlc4ER6nVWaHUaW3Smw8xaEweX6AE1ncv0LONaZwwOp4AHeTrYRcLSejvuZtmsatUi7pLRVPFxQ7aLV2cpn-SVfXz3ckh_eJMoSr7G_NF_yOGxKynhpjScbAu2p1SWYPA8bAY50zt2K8/s640/Edinpain.jpg" width="563" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Edinburgh Castle, Scotland. Thanks Wikipedia.</span></td></tr>
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</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Military infrastructure, like built work of any kind, is a cultural barometer. The materials used, the methods employed, all illuminate the greater political forces at work, and can even point to the source of conflict. The Castles and Fortresses of Medieval Europe, adorned with Christian imagery, speak not only to a time of adherent devotion to faith, but also to the wars being waged amongst Christian kings, each proclaiming divine right to rule. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Similarly, CHUs (containerized-housing-units), blast walls, fields of storage tanks, sallyports and bunkers all speak not only to the style of war being fought, but also to the resources and capabilities of the opposing forces. The physical presence of our military is indicative of a globalized force. Support systems are all containerized, ready for shipment to any corner of the globe. Bases are a package of components, each ready to plug-and-play in rapid deployment. And while these technological advances allow for the economical fabrication of miniature cities, they have come to demonstrate the kind of commercialization that has overrun our culture and permeated the military. In parts of the world where vast open land is part of tribal heritage and western notions of land owenership are foriegn, the imported 'Wal-Mart-esque' sprawl of bases and facilites convey a message of 'land-grabbing'. All of this is the result of a quick-fix mindset (the “surge” anyone?); whereas less economical solutions might prompt the more thoughtful allocation of resources, and greater emphasis on long-term strategic vision. Most importantly, we could leave a light footprint, and meaningful physical legacy; indicative of a country that respects the sovereignty of other nations and respects the future of its own image.</span></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1RK552P-QgqcQlX2ne1oy8FKuYUItyazb-o3o19nMzbt_02bjpl7-Zn-gOvnrzto3sOKPwHnyFFoHmWa6yWWNad7yGL_qGYz3DyQek7aFl3WPeS3IErCkPVTYP46_k6hs5h9SQK1PXWIU/s1600/US_Navy_101211-N-6436W-098_Active_duty_and_reserve_component_Seabees_assigned_to_Naval_Mobile_Construction_Battalions_40%252C_18_and_26_secure_and_fort.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="424" kca="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1RK552P-QgqcQlX2ne1oy8FKuYUItyazb-o3o19nMzbt_02bjpl7-Zn-gOvnrzto3sOKPwHnyFFoHmWa6yWWNad7yGL_qGYz3DyQek7aFl3WPeS3IErCkPVTYP46_k6hs5h9SQK1PXWIU/s640/US_Navy_101211-N-6436W-098_Active_duty_and_reserve_component_Seabees_assigned_to_Naval_Mobile_Construction_Battalions_40%252C_18_and_26_secure_and_fort.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hesco_bastion"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hesco_bastion</span></a><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Thanks: US Navy</span></td></tr>
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</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"> The Romans built <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">castras</i>, the source of the word “castle”, many of which served not only as military outposts, but also as centers of trade, and provided the foundations of great cities around the Mediterranean and throughout Europe. Then again, maybe a comparison to the most notorious empire in history is not a good place to start a discussion on modern American diplomacy. The fact remains, the Roman Empire spread language, learning, governance, and commerce in a way never before witnessed. Starting to sound like familiar foreign policy? And the staying power of their outposts is evidenced by the great cities that sit atop their foundations today.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj40qqQ1jEUi38Q1hPoAnQhIq6YkWDu0X6FpGJcYjqMWdXUK2LOd0g7ZVTPr_JUgvjxfFNXgEF2Q0Y4etK-MPXiBJcZQWSBP_HquEZU-h2pyLdjG_3HcsXCG4FaS4JrExATkoQn-ifdaNNV/s1600/800px-Masada_Roman_Ruins_by_David_Shankbone.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="480" kca="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj40qqQ1jEUi38Q1hPoAnQhIq6YkWDu0X6FpGJcYjqMWdXUK2LOd0g7ZVTPr_JUgvjxfFNXgEF2Q0Y4etK-MPXiBJcZQWSBP_HquEZU-h2pyLdjG_3HcsXCG4FaS4JrExATkoQn-ifdaNNV/s640/800px-Masada_Roman_Ruins_by_David_Shankbone.jpg" width="640" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Roman "castra" - this one failed to become anything greater than a fort.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">A view into the future?</span><br />
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castra"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castra</span></a></td></tr>
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</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Regardless of our best diplomatic efforts, oratory and written resolutions have little staying power in the lives of those affected by conflicts. The places built, and things left behind will influence their collective feelings towards a foreign force that came in the name of peace and prosperity. </span></div> <br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0rVsUT47wY5ILHAW-GqjcUuTwPNJKiAxmZQqIGhnnolFW3hrUPA0v9cQMoHwo3cMHbCIwWzKuM24fSzmgFGfFFRzij6mMzidcVN2bHI43LqnHUOJT7z7uQufqCY1CT23olizfB1xqjWIN/s1600/800px-Camp.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="475" kca="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0rVsUT47wY5ILHAW-GqjcUuTwPNJKiAxmZQqIGhnnolFW3hrUPA0v9cQMoHwo3cMHbCIwWzKuM24fSzmgFGfFFRzij6mMzidcVN2bHI43LqnHUOJT7z7uQufqCY1CT23olizfB1xqjWIN/s640/800px-Camp.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Camp_marmal02.JPG"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Camp_marmal02.JPG</span></a></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">These ideas are too readily dismissed as phenomenology, when in fact there is an undeniable truth that the built environment speaks; and is much longer-winded than even the most verbose politician. </span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">See also: </span><a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/09/26/iraq-withdrawal-us-bases-equipment_n_975463.html"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/09/26/iraq-withdrawal-us-bases-equipment_n_975463.html</span></a></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">More on this to come…</span></div>Jordanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07783135536058091383noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4436686121652108342.post-90030657533503275892011-09-14T08:56:00.000-07:002012-01-13T13:04:57.394-08:00Bikes - for real this time<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizggyEOVpKpEsEgY8pQp3dh19MvBWdVNSpLPENp0QLfdyi5VVhuTs4fFkPpBYandVu9yFBnoqV_D8sLLJflAnjVcNk172dAzpFTs-SSzYtdrG5W2ALRItoybYOkoISkRdm2g0K4d83SmIk/s1600/bike-vs-car.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="440" rba="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizggyEOVpKpEsEgY8pQp3dh19MvBWdVNSpLPENp0QLfdyi5VVhuTs4fFkPpBYandVu9yFBnoqV_D8sLLJflAnjVcNk172dAzpFTs-SSzYtdrG5W2ALRItoybYOkoISkRdm2g0K4d83SmIk/s640/bike-vs-car.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Today I came face-to-face with the realities of modern transportation. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">My beloved truck, a 2004 Nissan Frontier, may have finally died after struggling for several years with a bad supercharger. As I waded through rush hour traffic in the rain the rumbling under the hood grew from concerning to deafening and downright alarming not only to me, but also to the other drivers in traffic – that’s when I knew it was bad; I had other drivers yelling their personal diagnosis’ at me above the roar of metal on metal.</span></div> <br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4To7tFe-rt_lwGgubQ1l5q3woDKt1BaKIn2Yd0mIndaJYsefLjZQGsUJCQE6eGEXu-KSlv5XCSUcf4RLfskwbanuZxqBTMVJPoM3IVhDgSEeCdI7H7sP-qjehfvMFn8ruvj6DaJG3PLZb/s1600/truck.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="286" rba="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4To7tFe-rt_lwGgubQ1l5q3woDKt1BaKIn2Yd0mIndaJYsefLjZQGsUJCQE6eGEXu-KSlv5XCSUcf4RLfskwbanuZxqBTMVJPoM3IVhDgSEeCdI7H7sP-qjehfvMFn8ruvj6DaJG3PLZb/s320/truck.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">There she is - hiding in the woods</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table><span style="font-size: large;"> <span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The shock of the proposed repair bill was enough to make me laugh at the mechanic, who smugly starred me down, his body language conveyed the message clearly, “well, I’m your only chance, so you better just pay up”, ha, little did he know who he was dealing with. I walked away (actually got a ride from a coworker) with my head up, committed to washing my hands of the trucks and suvs I had become so accustomed to and devote myself to my bike. </span></span></span><br />
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</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: large; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Now, this poses several issues – all surmountable, but not without some sacrifices. First and foremost, we live in a country built on the personal automobile. Never mind the cultural stigma of not owning a car, in most of this country it is simply impractical to use it as a means of real</span> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">transportation as opposed to a hobby. The infrastructure is single-purpose, the planning is short-sighted, and distances between many necessary, day-to-day places too far. I won’t belabor the point that the current state of our transportation infrastructure has been influenced by corporate interests, market demand, and cultural flaws, but it has subsidized an addiction to oil and the automobile.</span></span></span><br />
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</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Here is the point I will belabor – we are primed to become a nation of the Bicycle.</span></span></span></span><br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRN9QFfEJS2k9OROVld3BEeBvWa0CtkY1WkwsK-d6WBXTk3UX0ckGxD7Eyqv5dsv_goas-Nfc2Pk0qG1JfClrRP2XbbSeh8-90DIzs0yIKllyHBi_cxKyIkOHzpCixHSYWlbRzEjZnewT1/s1600/Open-Road-Freedom.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="385" rba="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRN9QFfEJS2k9OROVld3BEeBvWa0CtkY1WkwsK-d6WBXTk3UX0ckGxD7Eyqv5dsv_goas-Nfc2Pk0qG1JfClrRP2XbbSeh8-90DIzs0yIKllyHBi_cxKyIkOHzpCixHSYWlbRzEjZnewT1/s400/Open-Road-Freedom.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">"Yeah! Burn those dinosaurs!"</span></td></tr>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Lets start with the freedom of the car. A selling point of every car commercial – the open road with the wind in your hair – it plays to powerful underlying sentiments quintessential to American culture. In keeping with the tradition of freedom of movement and individual choice (long used as rallying cries against trains and other mass transit) the bicycle is champion. Conveniently, few car owners have ever thought of freeing themselves from the constraints of gas station locations, but it is a limiting factor. The bicycle takes these shared ideals and brings them to a whole new level: they allow you the ultimate freedom of movement as far as your own legs will take you. You simply fuel yourself, and hop on your self-powered machine. No more burning subsidized dinosaur goo – how is that for real personal </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">freedom?</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;"><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: large; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In terms of the</span> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">physical makeup of our towns and cities – think for a second how much surface area is devoted to the automobile. Parking lots, highways, interstates, all built to store and accommodate our two-tons of personal armor, our carapace of sorts, enclosing a living room on wheels. Our cities have been transformed into places for our cars, not places for people. The bicycle, as opposed to an automobile, is a human</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">-scale machine. They lack noisy, polluting combustion engines, can only go as fast as you can peddle, and cost far less over a lifespan. Most of the mechanical needs of a bike are so simple a child can do it. Gone are the days of DIY auto repair, today it requires specialist, a computer technician, and a garage full of specialized tools – not so with a trusty bike.</span></span></span></div> <br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div> <br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJvmdILlQ4BNkAPwRzHIKc5p-Ijaz__YEXUY3T93KTmztkqbZq0svpGzMFUN39O0rm1KPPksp3a5WrGPeFjeNp5z39e8466FG5oKO57WACO1g63xTeZyUCdy1ZiZRR5-GrEMVjA5UwZm41/s1600/800px-Bicycle_Parking_Lot_Niigata.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="428" rba="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJvmdILlQ4BNkAPwRzHIKc5p-Ijaz__YEXUY3T93KTmztkqbZq0svpGzMFUN39O0rm1KPPksp3a5WrGPeFjeNp5z39e8466FG5oKO57WACO1g63xTeZyUCdy1ZiZRR5-GrEMVjA5UwZm41/s640/800px-Bicycle_Parking_Lot_Niigata.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">The only parking lots I dream about. Thanks Wikipedia.</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table> <br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">On the East Coast, especially New England, towns were spaced a long walk apart, usually about 6- 10 miles. With sprawling infill and urbanization, the density is perfect for biking. So many times I hear people in the dense, older suburbs of DC where I live in say, “ I could walk it, but its just a bit too far”, that’s where the bike comes in. It is ideal for the suburban ring, as well as the city of course, but it expands your radius of travel 10-fold without burning anything except a few calories.</span><br />
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</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">On that note: </span><a href="http://velocracy.com/2011/07/12/how-the-transportation-future-was-won-by-the-dutch/"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">http://velocracy.com/2011/07/12/how-the-transportation-future-was-won-by-the-dutch/</span></a></span><br />
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</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Can you imagine, for a second, a city devoid of all combustion engines? There is a place you can experience this phenomenon – Venice, Italy. As night falls in the city, and the bustling crowds retreat, the silence becomes conspicuous. No rumbling freeways in the distance, no blaring horns, just the quiet lap of water in the canals. Imagine instead hearing birds, quiet sidewalk conversations, and the “whizzz..” , of a bike zipping past. </span></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEika_t6WD8Wv1go0Cbx-xHfcxywVb7XTP4AApsZ6_8VJXE6z_i9O_HvBpVvhLaj9v_Kw-lc_s42hlxnllNHvDnvslkWH0Z1xrNUZHUlWpjask-pH1e3yyZNFAIDjKcTqCSXyXHXvh7YmUtH/s1600/GAS.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" rba="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEika_t6WD8Wv1go0Cbx-xHfcxywVb7XTP4AApsZ6_8VJXE6z_i9O_HvBpVvhLaj9v_Kw-lc_s42hlxnllNHvDnvslkWH0Z1xrNUZHUlWpjask-pH1e3yyZNFAIDjKcTqCSXyXHXvh7YmUtH/s400/GAS.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Couldn't have said it better myself...</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Ok, do you want to tie this to some of the political issues of the day? Sure, let’s go there:</span><br />
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</span><br />
<div style="margin-left: 0.5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Riding a bike could greatly reduce obesity = lower healthcare costs.</span></span></div><div style="margin-left: 0.5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Riding a bike reduces pollution – air particulates and smog, noise pollution, and runoff of all the fluids that leak from our beloved vehicles. = lower healthcare costs from environmental hazards, lower environmental cost of clean-up and regulation.</span></span></div><div style="margin-left: 0.5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Riding a bike saves money – no more car insurance, maintenance bills, gas bills, and car payments = lower household debt.</span></span></div><div style="margin-left: 0.5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">And, in this political season it must be said, riding a bike could help create more jobs – with an increase in demand for bicycles there will be an uptick in small business (bike retailers, many locally owned), manufacturing, and all the related apparel and accessory industries. As well as infrastructure/construction jobs to widen the roads a bit and paint all those bike-lane lines. </span></span></div><div style="margin-left: 0.5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">For a complementary list of additional factors that keep us in our cars, look no further:</span><br />
<span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.theurbancountry.com/2011/05/making-sure-nobody-walk-or-bikes.html">http://www.theurbancountry.com/2011/05/making-sure-nobody-walk-or-bikes.html</a></span><br />
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</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">So, if we assume some of the infrastructure is in place(</span><a href="http://velocracy.com/2011/07/11/the-case-for-separate-bicycle-infrastructure/"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">http://velocracy.com/2011/07/11/the-case-for-separate-bicycle-infrastructure/</span></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> ) – paths, roads, trails, alleys, etc. (ah, the versatility of the bike!) – minus a few extra bike racks, what is holding back the bicycle uprising? It is held up by oil subsidies, cultural norms perpetuated by archaic industries, and the lack of a legal framework that gives bikers rules and rights like the auto-driving public. Historically, the “right-of-way” that we refer to as our roads were reserved by the government for the travel of all people; cars are just big enough, loud enough and dangerous enough that they have edged out everything else. In the US, biking remains the marginalized mode of transportation. Many cities have taken steps to remedy this, most recently, L.A., an auto-addicted metropolis if there ever was one. The recent legislation, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Rosendahl’s Ordinance</i>, (</span><a href="http://articles.latimes.com/2011/jul/22/opinion/la-ed-cyclists-20110722"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">http://articles.latimes.com/2011/jul/22/opinion/la-ed-cyclists-20110722</span></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">) outlines the rights of bikers not be harassed or otherwise intimidated by drivers. While cities continue to build bike lanes on the unprotected shoulders of busy streets, they often fail to acknowledge the real needs of the biking community. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">With a continued focus on national health and the economic issues facing America’s urbanizing population, planners, politicians, and drivers should take note. Increased use of bikes, through ownership and bike-share programs, is a continuing trend. As personal vehicles become less attractive, due to costs and associated health and environmental issues, biking has the potential to become a dominant mode of transportation in some parts of the US. </span><br />
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</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">If you are interested in reading more on bikes, and lots of beautiful picture of people on them, you need to check this out:</span><br />
<span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.velocracy.com/">http://www.velocracy.com/</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">From the <em><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Velocracy</span></em> site: "Worldwide, less than 8% of the population owns cars, but <em><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">everyone</span></em> is <a href="http://www.350.org/" modo="false">paying a huge price for their existence and abuse</a>, and the Western world, even the United States, is starting to realize that."</span><br />
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</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">For the truly chic:</span><br />
</div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiElkl159kyICwmNDobD1ig7-8B1WSc-OoPvP_y9zm7u3U07T5JiSlu6JjXyWOcdPhlT3DV2nu_iG3zh0Juijb77RxiWmQWwLIl6GWf2c0IWPdvCxFOH3j_CwsCmLA0C82Q0hmeumfizoAJ/s1600/copen-chic.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="435" rba="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiElkl159kyICwmNDobD1ig7-8B1WSc-OoPvP_y9zm7u3U07T5JiSlu6JjXyWOcdPhlT3DV2nu_iG3zh0Juijb77RxiWmQWwLIl6GWf2c0IWPdvCxFOH3j_CwsCmLA0C82Q0hmeumfizoAJ/s640/copen-chic.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Courtesy: Copenhagen Cycle Chic</span></td></tr>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.copenhagencyclechic.com/%EF%BB%BF%EF%BB%BF"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">http://www.copenhagencyclechic.com/</span></a></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">If you want to be on the cutting edge of biking, and have the hottest set of wheels when gas gets to $10 a gal. check this out: </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><a href="http://weburbanist.com/2009/03/03/futuristic-strange-concept-bicycles-designs/">http://weburbanist.com/2009/03/03/futuristic-strange-concept-bicycles-designs/</a></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">And to wrap it up, a short photo study from Amsterdam. Here it is understood that the bike possesses all the desirable qualities of urban transportation - and they do it with class:</span><br />
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<span style="color: black; font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.ski-epic.com/amsterdam_bicycles/"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">http://www.ski-epic.com/amsterdam_bicycles/</span></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span></span></div><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6wYYAehdxPhEE1Cp0QIIybW4Pj5ChpB9ObbsR0Lu9JRiRiy3j1c-CkmHzwLd_MAQiEQTsHOLUxzLkZlQVxb8J-Oklm4u3JX7-y4yahl8HqEbajG3q9GfQf01RBraEGrJCcKvPyxhq3xdd/s1600/amsterdam_bicycle_many.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><img border="0" height="480" rba="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6wYYAehdxPhEE1Cp0QIIybW4Pj5ChpB9ObbsR0Lu9JRiRiy3j1c-CkmHzwLd_MAQiEQTsHOLUxzLkZlQVxb8J-Oklm4u3JX7-y4yahl8HqEbajG3q9GfQf01RBraEGrJCcKvPyxhq3xdd/s640/amsterdam_bicycle_many.jpg" width="640" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: small;">Courtesy: www.ski-epic.com</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">It amazes me that a country with such a strong cultural tradition of personal independence, DIY ethic, and appreciation for the self-driven (literally!) that the bicycle has remained marginalized, for hobby and recreation, in the US. I think its time we give bicycles serious consideration as an integral part of our transportation system. </span></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></div>Jordanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07783135536058091383noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4436686121652108342.post-58567366352220908622011-09-02T08:43:00.000-07:002011-12-23T19:46:59.996-08:00Reflections on Montana<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiq8kwAP-r0sVwpl6nx8KkOj5hpqmG4KvDveI_q6i8QH0FGHmkc5k_42knuw7bLpsOjIhlLtrMjG7Hl_BsoYdDpZzJW13DGmtU66-O9E6MuXSon7n6o4S_4Zr0b-Dnz-2IspKimHrreQCLT/s1600/MT3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiq8kwAP-r0sVwpl6nx8KkOj5hpqmG4KvDveI_q6i8QH0FGHmkc5k_42knuw7bLpsOjIhlLtrMjG7Hl_BsoYdDpZzJW13DGmtU66-O9E6MuXSon7n6o4S_4Zr0b-Dnz-2IspKimHrreQCLT/s640/MT3.jpg" width="640" xaa="true" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="color: white; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Photo: Adam Sexton</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">It’s really a matter of scale. At least that is what sticks with me. I had never really felt the sensation of “vastness” before this trip, not in the way I experienced it in Montana. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">First it was the mountains. While driving up and out of Helena, MT our first day there, we ogled the craggy hills that dwarfed just about everything on the east coast. A friend of mine remarked, “every hill here would be a historic monument back east”, true, I guess it’s all relative. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In Butte, Mt, we witnessed the one of the largest Superfund sites in the nation – the </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berkeley_Pit"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Berkeley Pit</span></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">. This mother-of-all-pits has water with the same acidity as lemon juice, is home to a few bacteria that thrive on heavy metals, and is threatening the local water supply with serious consequences predicted by 2024. Dug out of what was called “the richest hill on earth” by the Anaconda Mining Co. it produced a staggering quantity of copper from 1955 till its closure 1982. At a mile and a half wide and nearly as deep, it is a testament to human power. As disturbing as it is to see environmental degradation on such a massive scale, it is consistent with its surroundings. In a place where human and geological scales are in such apparent contrast, it seems as if the pit is simply the human response to a landscape so vast. As much as it was necessary to open this hill in order to extract the ore as efficiently as possible, it is hard to ignore the human tendency to feel insecurity and belittlement in a place where the natural world is as raw, and survival as harsh, as it is in these dry mountains. What better way to assert man’s dominance than to make an inverse mountain? </span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZSUgx0Yxkpm6WYrD4yWk9iadYMRfmoWvUkptQaJRbdjpvA8PgP-IoyJRyXYRjsWN5smoGG1olGo3AMnMh6RKXXJ1Ll0w1ZLfJMfs2q1M4eex1BRJ_Vw5UB47svafPSYMShjrJAGUMpW5i/s1600/800px-Butte_MT_Berkeley_Pit_April_2005_Composite_Fisheye_View.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="232" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZSUgx0Yxkpm6WYrD4yWk9iadYMRfmoWvUkptQaJRbdjpvA8PgP-IoyJRyXYRjsWN5smoGG1olGo3AMnMh6RKXXJ1Ll0w1ZLfJMfs2q1M4eex1BRJ_Vw5UB47svafPSYMShjrJAGUMpW5i/s640/800px-Butte_MT_Berkeley_Pit_April_2005_Composite_Fisheye_View.jpg" width="640" xaa="true" /></a></div><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Courtesy of Wikipedia</span><br />
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Our traveling band moved on the next day to </span><a href="http://www.nps.gov/glac/index.htm"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Glacier National Park</span></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">. This unbelievably majestic patch of earth is a real national treasure. Despite being heavily visited by tourists from all over the globe, the park has managed to avoid the ‘amusement park’ feel that might overwhelm any other place. This park is immune to such plights. You could see it in the faces of the visitors, no matter how many trinket shops and faux chalets greet you at the park entrance, the mountains steal the show. The land held the power to shut people up. The mountains looked down upon the people with a smug regality: “Yes, you can admire us, and yes, nature has the power to wipe you from the face of the earth without a trace.” We had entered a time warp of sorts. The world we entered operated in centuries and eons, not days and hours. Tourists openly gawked and snapped pictures with hopeful desperation, trying to preserve their sense of wonder and amazement, and bring it with them. Looking back through my pictures I now realize it is not a sensation that transports well.</span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFKdy839RT12IAKqLTCY6i9OeyWm5XC_I4eeUq1hrgrnpZzUCaq5jlGSjT9fOGj7ckPsHNgbqX3sLt2qFZ2W6L1xRPqzYLSif38OMeNxG3a4qDou-hiUdYYlMUuZME_vs25C1_LZXt_Y3j/s1600/MT4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFKdy839RT12IAKqLTCY6i9OeyWm5XC_I4eeUq1hrgrnpZzUCaq5jlGSjT9fOGj7ckPsHNgbqX3sLt2qFZ2W6L1xRPqzYLSif38OMeNxG3a4qDou-hiUdYYlMUuZME_vs25C1_LZXt_Y3j/s640/MT4.jpg" width="640" xaa="true" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Photo: Adam Sexton</span></div><span style="font-family: Calibri;"></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">The four+ hour drive back to Helena is when it hit me. Descending from the jagged peaks and valleys of the Rocky Mountains and arriving on the high plains we were met with a landscape surreal and completely alien to me. Let me just say now, I have only been west of the Mississippi one other time, and my appreciation for land and space at that time was quite limited. A golden, gently undulating surface, stretched to the horizon. Crumbling rock broke the surface at the crest of the steeper hills, like white-caps on the open water, and the vast openness was overwhelming. For miles we drove, cresting over slight hills that opened onto 10 mile straight-aways. Even at 90 mph the land seemed to slowly drift by as dusk set in over a hazy saw-blade in the distance. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9Q9ofo6p_IdYt8n4SRRJHnP06ETs0cCjrDA3PMH44Iw6es22cI3nXxgKPBZUcS5VkTpWRDI0-ywsIf33_1mMxQzK-l9IDt42bxMZUM29Tq9kcB5tRWFbbc5UzK3HP7uxoKrHjIEFUJiDL/s1600/MT5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="425" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9Q9ofo6p_IdYt8n4SRRJHnP06ETs0cCjrDA3PMH44Iw6es22cI3nXxgKPBZUcS5VkTpWRDI0-ywsIf33_1mMxQzK-l9IDt42bxMZUM29Tq9kcB5tRWFbbc5UzK3HP7uxoKrHjIEFUJiDL/s640/MT5.jpg" width="640" xaa="true" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Photo: Autumn Visconti</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I can’t quite explain all the emotions brought about by being in a place so vast and devoid of other people. I may have discovered I have slight agoraphobia. Maybe it was the contrast to our Prius, packed with 5 people and all our stuff? Maybe it was sheer exhaustion? Or, most likely, it was the result of spending 3 days within 10 feet of of my closest friends. Whatever is was, the landscape of Montana provided more than just an incredible backdrop for a group of friends reuniting; it had the power to set the mood, consume our attention, and overwhelm our senses.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDNrT8KtVB3exwepdy_cclfJkPFOCRej5EpYny3jq4MrfHcFJuSM4hIxsIFZGh4252KBq116pwkIz8wxv9RijCBJaiP2mkMc-iCsZBT32exVSiLKVQ5FJV4TcAW86_Lg7V1nWl_qSNcWJ6/s1600/MT2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDNrT8KtVB3exwepdy_cclfJkPFOCRej5EpYny3jq4MrfHcFJuSM4hIxsIFZGh4252KBq116pwkIz8wxv9RijCBJaiP2mkMc-iCsZBT32exVSiLKVQ5FJV4TcAW86_Lg7V1nWl_qSNcWJ6/s640/MT2.jpg" width="640" xaa="true" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Photo: Adam Sexton</span></div>Jordanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07783135536058091383noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4436686121652108342.post-16039619358876141182011-08-30T07:48:00.000-07:002012-01-13T13:20:33.488-08:00Greening the Military<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><a href="http://money.cnn.com/2011/08/17/technology/military_energy/index.htm"><span style="color: windowtext; font-family: "Verdana", "sans-serif"; font-size: 18pt;">http://money.cnn.com/2011/08/17/technology/military_energy/index.htm</span></a><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Verdana", "sans-serif"; font-size: 18pt;">Some of the numbers in here are staggering!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Verdana", "sans-serif"; font-size: 18pt;">“$15 billion on energy” “…80% of the federal energy budget..”</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Verdana", "sans-serif"; font-size: 18pt;">From a design standpoint, here are the needs of your client:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Verdana", "sans-serif"; font-size: 18pt;"> A portable, non-explosive, simply constructed, lightweight, renewable, energy source that is as durable as the Marines it serves. No problem, right?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Verdana", "sans-serif"; font-size: 18pt;">What interests me are the ExFOBs (Experimental Forward Operating Bases). See the movie <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Restrepo</i>, you’ll quickly get the idea of an FOB: Spartan living in a remote outpost, usually under some kind of attack. Think “hill-fort”, like the ones from the Bronze Age, its not far off, sans machine guns. These experimental bases are at the crossroads of an ancient goal (the ultra-efficient, swift and effective fighting force) and modern technological advancements. As much as gas-power has allowed modern militaries to be highly effective (just ask the Polish Calvary from 1939), it has become a leash and limiting factor when establishing outposts in highly remote locations and, as a result, a financial burden as well. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Verdana", "sans-serif"; font-size: 18pt;">Making these outposts truly self-sufficient has great implications for the ability of the armed forces to stretch even further. An FOB’s success is inherently based its ability to carry out functions with as little material support as necessary. Currently, they are reliant on convoys, whether by overland routes or by air, for food, fuel, and supplies. Total self-sufficiency might be impossible. There will always be a need for ammunitions, equipment, and things to be fixed or replaced. But, if fuel could be taken out of that equation, there could be a significant change in the strategic abilities of that unit.</span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidEf1iWJi7L-Rn9lrJlJJKBWa_jBarIPEc5BtCAW1hxTnMRnks3lc1UzQhshMpjQj04opWbOAcbALsHJ0at-ZN1LovEGPAKiuNv3E_3p-Fc5FcAJUxxxbJDEfSnr7sCwefqQoG6ELsHD0x/s1600/algae.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="564" kba="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidEf1iWJi7L-Rn9lrJlJJKBWa_jBarIPEc5BtCAW1hxTnMRnks3lc1UzQhshMpjQj04opWbOAcbALsHJ0at-ZN1LovEGPAKiuNv3E_3p-Fc5FcAJUxxxbJDEfSnr7sCwefqQoG6ELsHD0x/s640/algae.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br />
<span style="font-family: "Verdana", "sans-serif"; font-size: 18pt;">So, what are we talking? Roll-out solar arrays? Hybrid fighting vehicles? Maybe, but maybe the solution is more outside the box than that. Recent work has been done of<span style="background: black;"><span style="background-color: white;"> fuel producing algae</span><span style="background-color: white;"> </span></span>that might be able to provide a continuous energy source without compromising power and without the weight of batteries. On a less appetizing note, we must not forget that energy can come from biological waste as well. If MREs are already being brought in, why not use them twice, once for the soldiers, once after the soldiers have processed them.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Verdana", "sans-serif"; font-size: 18pt;">To find a really groundbreaking solution to this problem is going to require rethinking how we look at our energy sources. Looking at energy beyond the current linear mindset (oil=power, food=energy, etc.) and begin thinking of energy in all of its various forms. Whether its solar rays, plant sugars, fats and oils, or methane from decomposition, it will most likely take a multi-pronged approach to create a highly efficient, versatile force. </span><br />
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<shape alt="Description: Ventigro%20vertical%20grow%20wall%20for%20biofuel%20production.jpg" id="Picture_x0020_2" o:spid="_x0000_s1026" style="height: 107.65pt; margin-left: 0px; margin-top: -34.15pt; mso-height-percent: 0; mso-height-relative: page; mso-position-horizontal-relative: text; mso-position-horizontal: absolute; mso-position-vertical-relative: text; mso-position-vertical: absolute; mso-width-percent: 0; mso-width-relative: page; mso-wrap-distance-bottom: 0; mso-wrap-distance-left: 9pt; mso-wrap-distance-right: 9pt; mso-wrap-distance-top: 0; mso-wrap-style: square; position: absolute; visibility: visible; width: 203.75pt; z-index: 251659264;" type="#_x0000_t75"><imagedata o:title="Ventigro%20vertical%20grow%20wall%20for%20biofuel%20production" src="file:///C:\Users\JB8DE~1.CLO\AppData\Local\Temp\msohtmlclip1\01\clip_image002.jpg"></imagedata><wrap type="square"></wrap></shape><span style="font-family: "Verdana", "sans-serif"; font-size: 18pt;">And here is the best part – who has ever been snuck-up-on by a Prius? Yeah, those things are stealthy.</span><br />
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</div></div></div>Jordanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07783135536058091383noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4436686121652108342.post-28483871115402327492011-08-25T10:51:00.000-07:002011-08-30T08:00:48.090-07:00Edible landscaping - right around the beltway<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I am always on the lookout for other companies that do what <span style="color: white; mso-themecolor: background1;"><a href="http://www.yardcraft.net/"><span style="color: white; mso-themecolor: background1;">Yardcraft</span></a></span> does. So far we have found a handful around the country, but today, much to my surprise, I found one in our backyard! Thanks to an article in the Washington Post (<span style="mso-themecolor: background1;"><a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/realestate/green-scene-planting-a-garden-thats-both-ornamental-and-edible/2011/08/12/gIQAexUgPJ_story_1.html"><span style="color: #999999; mso-themecolor: background1;">http://www.washingtonpost.com/realestate/green-scene-planting-a-garden-thats-both-ornamental-and-edible/2011/08/12/gIQAexUgPJ_story_1.html</span></a></span>) written by Joel Learner, the CEO and founder of <span style="color: white; mso-themecolor: background1;"><a href="http://www.gardenlerner.com/"><span style="color: white; mso-themecolor: background1;">Environmental Design</span></a></span>, I have now found another like-minded professional right on the other side of the beltway. Unbeknownst to me, he has been writing an occasional column for the Washington Post on gardens. I think I have ever referenced several of his articles without putting it all together - but now here we are. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I'd like to point out one fact this illustrates - that no matter how much Google searching of "key words" I do, the landscape/gardening community is so diverse, each subculture and generation with its own language of trends and methods, there is always the chance that people like Joel exist right around the corner. There is nothing that can replace personal connections in order to learn more and open the doors of opportunity. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">More on cultivating these relationships later…I am off to Montana!</span>Jordanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07783135536058091383noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4436686121652108342.post-82679711580038775832011-08-15T08:54:00.000-07:002011-09-03T10:18:49.120-07:00Embassy design in The Economist<a href="http://www.economist.com/node/21524909"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">http://www.economist.com/node/21524909</span></a><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The Economist does an excellent job of highlighting the issues currently faced by those building US embassies. As a designer, I can’t help but be saddened by the physical presence we bring to so many countries. The problems are clear; bureaucracy surrounding the low-bid process, hyper-sensitivity to global threats, and some willingness to ignore a basic fact of foreign policy – that action speaks a lot louder than any policy document. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Imagine for a second, you are a resident of some impoverished third world metropolis. You are one of a lucky few who work hard and receive an education. You consider immigrating to another country where you can apply your skills and better your life. Will you apply for a visa at the embassy located in town, say within walking distance, maybe even within the range of what public transit there might be? Or will you apply at the embassy located 10 miles outside of town, accessible only by private vehicle? Will you be attracted to the high-profile country that exports a culture of freedom and inclusivity, but builds fortresses? </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">All I am going to say is this: embassies are the one component of a “national image” we can control. We can’t do a thing about the crappy reruns of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Friends</i> we export or the corporate opportunism prevalent in some place. If we are serious about creating, and leaving, a good impression on the rest of the global population, we might benefit from having our only physical presence be well-designed and more in-sync with the official dialogue.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Here are some excerpts about projects I was directly involved with:</span><br />
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<div align="center" style="text-align: center;"><em><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">"Thomas McCarthy of Page Southerland Page, a Texan firm which has designed 17 American diplomatic compounds, is very proud of the tributes to local tradition it incorporated into the embassy in Ouagadougou, for example, in the form of a shaded but open-air waiting area and a zigzag decorative motif..."</span></em></div><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso I developed the paving patterns based on tribal patterns and motifs. We began by looking at decorated items of cultural significance, focusing mostly on basket weave patterns. In the culture in Burkina Faso patterns woven into baskets convey a variety of meanings; this is where the design inspiration came from. Without becoming so specific that we might convey an actual meaning, intended or unintended, we developed a pattern language with the architects which was applied to the building façade and arrival plaza.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><img border="0" src="http://www.contentedits.com/img.asp?tn=showandtell_formsRecordsPhotos&fn=original&idn=ID&id=214113" /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">U.S. Embassy. Ouagadougou, Brukina Faso. Photos: B.L. Harbert International</span><br />
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<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN">“…in Kigali, excavations for the foundations unearthed human remains; in Kiev the winters are so cold that it was hard to keep the concrete from freezing; and in Monrovia an arms embargo impeded the import of the explosives needed to blast away some awkward rocks.”</span></i><span lang="EN"></span></span></div><span lang="EN" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Our office had a hand in all of the projects mentioned above. Needless to say, it keeps things interesting.</span>Jordanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07783135536058091383noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4436686121652108342.post-83002774811500326212011-08-09T13:06:00.000-07:002011-09-14T10:19:42.510-07:00An addition to the previous post<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhL1hwtq59pSw3GxzY5sRsQ2vmQr91_1kHBZ5CeQNVwMoOvPs2swHxWx26i2-1sOjvZBHqw5FU7F9qhMn4_1obcL4F9MHR_aK6JyIyOuWaPYohR7Y5-VZW8eLVRJZrvTUIOQUcc9oElmqW3/s1600/with-mulch-4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="253" rba="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhL1hwtq59pSw3GxzY5sRsQ2vmQr91_1kHBZ5CeQNVwMoOvPs2swHxWx26i2-1sOjvZBHqw5FU7F9qhMn4_1obcL4F9MHR_aK6JyIyOuWaPYohR7Y5-VZW8eLVRJZrvTUIOQUcc9oElmqW3/s400/with-mulch-4.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">The residence in question</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Some further research revealed a few interesting links related to the last posting.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">An organization created by the author of a book with the same name.</span><br />
<a href="http://www.foodnotlawns.net/"><span style="color: windowtext;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">http://www.foodnotlawns.net/</span></span></a><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">A great book, and Fritz is a good speaker as well if you ever have the chance to see him.</span><br />
<a href="http://www.fritzhaeg.com/edible-estates-book.html"><span style="color: windowtext;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">http://www.fritzhaeg.com/edible-estates-book.html</span></span></a><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">And this book as well.</span><br />
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Edible-Front-Yard-Grow-More-Beautiful/dp/1604691999"><span style="color: windowtext;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">http://www.amazon.com/Edible-Front-Yard-Grow-More-Beautiful/dp/1604691999</span></span></a><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Another site that picked up this story:</span><br />
<a href="http://www.theagitator.com/2011/07/07/does-michelle-obama-know-about-this/"><span style="color: windowtext;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">http://www.theagitator.com/2011/07/07/does-michelle-obama-know-about-this/</span></span></a><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Here are a few of my favorite comments from the various re-postings of this story from around the web.</span><br />
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<em><u><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Reggie Hubbard</span></u></em><br />
<em><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The important thing for the city to remember is that this woman is clearly the type to resist any sort of government action so in future altercations, a SWAT team should be sent to her home so ordinary police officers aren’t put in harm’s way by this obvious lunatic.</span></em><br />
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<em><u><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Barbara Landrith</span></u></em><br />
<em><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">There are lots of ways to make an edible garden look beautiful. Here are some links to a few examples. Maybe a good compromise would be to submit a design plan to be approved for the front yard, so it could be beautiful and functional. Then everyone would be happy. </span></em><i><br />
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<a href="http://www.google.com/search?q=edible+landscape+designs&hl=en&biw=1145&bih=724&prmd=ivns&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=2ZAcTsaSK4fQsAPFjLmmBQ&sqi=2&ved=0CDYQsAQ"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">http://www.google.com/search?q=edible+landscape+designs&hl=en&biw=1145&bih=724&prmd=ivns&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=2ZAcTsaSK4fQsAPFjLmmBQ&sqi=2&ved=0CDYQsAQ</span></a><em></em></i><br />
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<i><a href="https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=2021807438747&set=o.107040689333712&type=1&theater"><em><span id="goog_109787791"></span><span style="color: #999999; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">https://www.facebook.com/p<wbr></wbr>hoto.php?fbid=202180743874<wbr></wbr>7&set=o.107040689333712&ty<wbr></wbr>pe=1&theater</span></em></a></i><br />
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<span id="goog_109787792"></span><em><a href="http://edenmakersblog.com/?p=246"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">http://edenmakersblog.com/<wbr></wbr>?p=246</span></a></em></i><br />
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<em><u><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Apryl Dionne</span></u></em><br />
<em><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">WOW! And what purpose does all this serve? Big Business-- that's who. The are trying to push a bill through the house to ban every American from ever growing their own food, leaving us at the mercy of corporations and their friends that must profit off the people before adhering to the Constitutional Rights. When is America going to WAKE UP and TAKE A UNITED STAND? AND RESPONSIBILTY?</span></em><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><cite><u>ThisIsVicodin</u></cite><span style="font-size: 10pt;"> </span></span><br />
<em><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Perhaps a pink flamingo would be more appropriate than a garden…..or since it’s Detroit, an old GM product on concrete blocks.</span></em><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">and, to sum it up, one very angry gentleman....</span><br />
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<cite><u><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">GT</span></u></cite><br />
<em><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Here’s my e-mail to the offensive scrote tax-parasite:</span></em><br />
<em><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">_____________________________________________________</span></em><br />
<em><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Your persecution of Julie Bass marks you unambiguously as an ideologically hidebound idiot who thinks his tax-funded sinecure gives him rights to determine what productive members of society do with properties they bought and paid for.</span></em><br />
<em><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">You’re a career parasite every bit as bad as any ‘crack mom’ or welfare queen, and you deserve to be hounded out of office.</span></em><br />
<em><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Expect several hundred more emails about this, from all over the world… people are sick and tired of petty tyrants whose entire lives are funded by taxes, who then turn around and bite the hand that feeds. Although they’re not remotely responsible for their father’s idiocy, I think you’ll find that as this goes viral, your kids will get hazed by their fellow students… nobody likes a kid whose father is an internationally-renowned moron. </span></em><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">On that note, we can see issues like this bring out passionate responses. However real or unreal the actual threat to our freedoms may be, this is an excellent example of the cross-roads between personal freedoms, land use law, design, and sustainable living. </span>Jordanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07783135536058091383noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4436686121652108342.post-84151392016844779622011-08-09T11:30:00.000-07:002011-08-30T08:03:10.618-07:00Modern Criminals<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This story can be found here:</span><br />
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<a href="http://www.treehugger.com/files/2011/07/michigan_woman_faces_jail_planting_veggie_garden.php"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">http://www.treehugger.com/files/2011/07/michigan_woman_faces_jail_planting_veggie_garden.php</span></a><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">and many, many other places on the web, as it has caused quite a stir. While it may be old news (and, as you will read, it has been resolved, for now) the heroine of our story, Mrs. Julie Bass, has become a sort of rallying point for those concerned with systemic issues in our currents laws and regulations. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Let's review the facts - </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Mrs. Bass' lawn gets torn up, for some sewer repair.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">She, being a forward-thinking, example-setting citizen, re-plants the area with vegetables.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">She is then ticketed, ordered to appear in court, and threatened with 93 days in jail.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Where to start? The egregiously overzealous prosecutor? The archaic laws on the books? How about the general absence of common sense? </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">It would be easy here to play to the hand of the conspiracy theorists: are small jurisdiction with these laws paid by the food lobby to keep people dependent on the industrial food system? Is there some plot to keep us from being self-sufficient, as that it might harm corporate profits? </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Most likely not.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">But what this illustrates all too clearly is a pervasive legal pattern in the US that has built up over decades to discourage independence, and self-reliance, in the name of uniformity and predictability. Now, to bring us back to the issue at hand: these laws Mrs. Bass has found herself in violation of are laws regarding <em>aesthetics</em>. It would be a real stretch for even the most creative prosecutor to make a case for the negative impacts of her garden on her neighbor's health, safety and welfare. In fact, a very strong case for the exact opposite could be made! By planting a vegetable garden Mrs. Bass has set a fine example of living an active, outdoor lifestyle, eating fresh vegetables, and making her front yard a dynamic, productive place. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">It is essential to the well-being of a society that the legal system be relevant to the issues of the day. Laws like the one violated in this example are a waste of everyone’s resources, to prosecute it, defend it, and blog about it. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The follow-up article is here:</span><br />
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<a href="http://www.treehugger.com/files/2011/07/front_yard_vegetable_gardens_different_is_good.php"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">http://www.treehugger.com/files/2011/07/front_yard_vegetable_gardens_different_is_good.php</span></a>Jordanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07783135536058091383noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4436686121652108342.post-37601863577933091222011-08-05T09:39:00.000-07:002012-01-13T13:10:58.879-08:00A bit of history...<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEji7GvFIOWPMPkV-U2Z04b0jCTmpM3ZNzFHgKhvbAEb7HtjrLJ-B1yRg_iexJoPD3QiErtDDMcy1tpk33i3mG-MawjfkD7H_0ELI7PSfFWzX79uQSsnKnLxC1iQzusG5iGct3_bn8SXvWU-/s400/chariot_1.jpg" t$="true" width="400" /></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">----- "<em>The US standard railroad gauge (distance between the rails) is 4 feet, 8.5 inches. That's an exceedingly odd number.</em></span><br />
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<em><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Why was that gauge used? Because that's the way they built them in England, and English expatriates built the US railroads.</span></em><br />
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<em><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Why did the English build them like that? Because the first rail lines were built by the same people who built the pre-railroad tramways, and that's the gauge they used.</span></em><br />
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<em><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Why did 'they' use that gauge then? Because the people who built the tramways used the same jigs and tools that they used for building wagons, which used that wheel spacing.</span></em><br />
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<em><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Why did the wagons have that particular odd wheel spacing? Well, if they tried to use any other spacing, the wagon wheels would break on some of the old, long distance roads in England, because that's the spacing of the wheel ruts.</span></em><br />
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<em><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">So who built those old rutted roads? Imperial Rome built the first long distance roads in Europe (and England) for their legions. </span></em><br />
<em><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">And the ruts in the roads? Roman war chariots formed the initial ruts, which everyone else had to match for fear of destroying their wagon wheels. Since the chariots were made for Imperial Rome, they were all alike in the matter of wheel spacing.</span></em><br />
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<em><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Therefore the United States standard railroad gauge of 4 feet, 8.5 inches is derived from the original specifications for an Imperial Roman war chariot. Bureaucracies live forever.</span></em><br />
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<em><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">So the next time you are handed a specification, procedure, or process and wonder 'What horse's ass came up with it?', you may be exactly right. Imperial Roman army chariots were made just wide enough to accommodate the rear ends of two war horses. Now, the twist to the story:</span></em><br />
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<em><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">When you see a Space Shuttle sitting on its launch pad, there are two big booster rockets attached to the sides of the main fuel tank. These are solid rocket boosters, or SRB's. The SRB's are made by Thiokol at their factory in Utah. The engineers who designed the ferred to make them wider, but the SRB's had to be shipped by train from the factory to the launch site.</span></em><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><em>The railroad line from the factory happens to run through a tunnel in the mountains, and the SRB's had to fit through that tunnel. Thtunnel is slightly wider than the railroad track, and the railroad track, as you now know, is about as wide as two horses' behinds.So, a major Space Shuttle design feature of what is arguably the world's most advanced transportation system was determined over two thousand years ago by the width of a horse's ass</em>" -----</span><br />
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<div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This is a repost from some other source- I have no idea where this came from or who wrote it first. It was emailed to me by one of my favorite professors during my final year at VT. </span></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">While being an interesting history lesson, it also illustrates how the standards, sizes and constraints we accept with curious bewilderment each day have long and storied evolutions. </span></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">My personal daily example is the metric/english system...mess. That is really the only way to describe it, a mess. In our modern work we are beholden to these dualing, unrelated measurement systems. I'm going out on a limb here - I'm blaming this one on architects. Every architect I know loves the english system. They are enamored with their 5/8ths and 3/32nds, Ive never met another group of people so loyal to compound fractions. Nearly every day I coordinate with an architect who gives me files in english while every other engineer gives me files in metric. Everything is finalized in metric anyways, so why use the english system to begin with? Because projects have lead architects, not lead engineers, or landscape architects. And when the project is done, its the architects name that goes on it - the same guy who was too troubled to work in the same universe as the other 98% of the world. The examples are endless; of huge errors, 10 million dollar mistakes, and so much time wasted, neither system has a unit to describe it, all because of a few <em>American</em> architects who still go by the length of a dead king's hand, or finger, or whatever it was.</span></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Who knows, you could be setting a precedent today that will have people 2,000 years from now scratching their heads and cursing your name..</span></div><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
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<div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEji7GvFIOWPMPkV-U2Z04b0jCTmpM3ZNzFHgKhvbAEb7HtjrLJ-B1yRg_iexJoPD3QiErtDDMcy1tpk33i3mG-MawjfkD7H_0ELI7PSfFWzX79uQSsnKnLxC1iQzusG5iGct3_bn8SXvWU-/s1600/chariot_1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a></div>Jordanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07783135536058091383noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4436686121652108342.post-31600639496846626792011-08-02T07:57:00.000-07:002011-08-02T08:04:28.866-07:00Taking matters into our own hands<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"> I couldn't have said it better myself. While being forever grateful for my full-time position right out of college (the first one in my graduating class of 16) I found a need to explore my interests in landscape architecture further. Upon graduation I had interned with my current company for over 2 years, on and off on breaks from school, and full-time while I studied in Alexandria. Soon after I graduated I found myself doing much the same work I did as an intern, with the occasional opportunity thrown my way. The room for upward mobility in a firm of 6 is not much, and as work slowed I grew restless for the learning experiences I knew I needed to have. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"> I am blessed with a very encouraging boss who, understanding my entrepreneurial desires and need for a steady paycheck, guided me in the establishment of a small side practice. My first jobs, and biggest one to date, have come as direct recommendation from my “day-job” boss, as they were projects outside of the company niche. At the office, I fill the un-billable hours with my own projects, off-the-clock, of course. </span><br />
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"> I still go to work Monday-Friday, with some half-days scattered here and there when I need one. My own company remains a side-project, allowing me to experiment with clients, strategies, and business development in my free time. While the office takes priority, I am able to balance the two, and explaining my situation to potential clients is usually received well. Like Zoe says, we are designers, creative people, and creating the experience and work you want to have is just another part of the job.</span></div><div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0DwbTuUqmSvqSHNUSlYBDanh-qk9A_aefb86ovuB2bTEM25DOOw-2ryCy6IEWr6Lhw2qFFBdKUHxs7uD5LQzdDgtYQ-qSx2yJk-51NkH-9Yid3U8Lfe1qomY-WVYuBE9qbBNgSp8k2Vq4/s1600/LAM-Aug001.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640px" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0DwbTuUqmSvqSHNUSlYBDanh-qk9A_aefb86ovuB2bTEM25DOOw-2ryCy6IEWr6Lhw2qFFBdKUHxs7uD5LQzdDgtYQ-qSx2yJk-51NkH-9Yid3U8Lfe1qomY-WVYuBE9qbBNgSp8k2Vq4/s640/LAM-Aug001.jpg" t$="true" width="475px" /></a></div>Jordanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07783135536058091383noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4436686121652108342.post-42471882778865619402011-08-01T11:15:00.000-07:002011-08-01T12:03:50.185-07:00We are up!This is a test. Lets hope this is the only one.Jordanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07783135536058091383noreply@blogger.com0