Open Space

I love to have extra space in my apartment, I don't want to get home and be surrounded by stuff. I LOVE the show hoarders because it makes me a little uncomfortable, but when they do finally get some of the stuff cleared out it makes me feel so much better (and it's not even my house!). So when I read this article on Apartment Therapy's blog, I loved it. To some extent, the article is actually a bad article, it's a little confusing, and doesn't seem to have a follow through at all; but I absolutely agree that empty space allows for creativity and exploration. I am always looking to re-enforce what I already believe though, so there's obviously that.

I have many friends who cannot fathom having an empty room in their apartment, I have just that. I do keep my suitcases and my bike in the closet, but the room itself has a couple empty plastic milk crates and my bf's broken bike. I love knowing that I can always go somewhere completely devoid of clutter, and I can flip my bike over and do random work on it, or do a major art project (still haven't done this at all) if I wanted to, or just go in there and meditate. The rest of my house is fairly barren as well, but I would love if it could be even more so. Space allows for a clear mind, and you know if it's dirty or not because there really isn't much to clean!

An empty room, to me, always reminds me of when you first move into a new place. There are so many opportunities, so many ideas about how the space will be used. Those opportunities are still there even when the space is full of stuff, we just have to remind ourselves that it exists every once in a while.

R

Up next: how to control your children

Ok, we still have a long way to go before we can control other people.  Aside from the fact that we don't have much control over the rat, people don't even have tails!

Yoo, S-s, Kim, H, Filandrianos, E, Taghados, SJ, and Park, S. PLOSone, 2013

 

 

A group in Harvard has made a way for humans to control rat tail movements with their minds. And all of this is noninvasive for both of the participants (the human and the rat).  Well, the rat was anesthetized, so not completely noninvasive.  

Further, being anesthetized means that the rat couldn't reject the movement, so this doesn't allow the "controller" to force motion of an otherwise functional rat.  And, the movement doesn't actually correlate to a movement that humans perform, so we can't get too excited about controlled, focused, functional motion just yet but this is a huge step toward brain-to-brain interfaces.

S

Invading Privacy

A while ago, S had her apartment broken into, and while only a couple things were stolen (namely money and a camera) the idea of someone you don't know walking around in your house and rooting through your things is very unsettling. I remember discovering that my freshman year roommate had eaten something I purposely hid in my underwear drawer so she wouldn't find it and realizing that she was probably looking in all of my drawers every day (or else, how would she have found it!). The anger, but mostly betrayal, and embarrassment for something I didn't need to be embarrassed about (I really didn't have anything to hide, except food) was overwhelming. So overwhelming that I still hold disdain for her, a girl I haven't seen in almost 7 years. In a way, I feel really bad for her, because she was severely depressed and lost in the world that she was thrust into for college, but I also feel violated in a way I have never felt violated since or before.

However, the recent hacking of the Bush email accounts has me wondering what it would feel like if someone hacked into my email or my online life. Honestly, I probably do have many things I wouldn't want everyone to see, not that I can think of things right now, but I also don't know what is there. I have had my gmail account for about 7 years and my hotmail account for over 12 (I don't even WANT to know what I emailed to people back then.. weird) and I wouldn't want everyone to have access to those things!

This article, in Slate of course, discusses what that might feel like. A business man was threatened by a hacker to reveal all of his information (mostly business related information) and when he approached his superiors and a lawyer they also had to look through the information to see if anything would be damaging. The fact that not only would a person you don't know have all that access to your stuff, but people you will have to see again every day would want access as well is ... humbling, to say the least.

What is privacy in today's world? I know that someone in Google could probably track all of my activity, and if someone hacked into my email accounts there would probably be things that I don't want them to see, but I know that generally, I assume no one will see it. I guess we should assume the only thing we can regard as private are our thoughts, and maybe person to person conversations that are not in the public domain. It's interesting to think you'd have to live your life in a completely cleansed form to be completely innocent. Just think of celebrities, they are followed and every move is documented. I think if I were not allowed to have any privacy I would probably go insane, and I think the definition of privacy is changing dramatically.

R

Legos!

Lego has an architecture collection!  It's pretty interesting and there are pamphlets for each building with information about the architect and the building and it's impact on the world.  They even have the Sydney Opera House!
This collection has been around as an educational promotion since the 1960s.

S

New Year 2013



This is also how happy I plan to look every time I'm flossing...

As the new year rang in, everyone started wondering what resolutions to settle on. I have always struggled with that, breaking my lifelong habit of picking my nails (S has this problem as well) or eating healthier, or setting up an actual workout plan (not that I am not fairly healthy and not active, but just getting organized with it) are my normal ones. This year, like any other year, I still have not fully decided what my resolutions are. I think they need to be measurable, and I need to have some way to account for them. One of my recurring resolutions that I am sticking in there again this year is to floss at least 4 times a week. I downloaded an app called habit streak, so I'll be able to see if I actually flossed 4 times a week, and hopefully that helps, but more importantly I need to get on my willpower train and start believing in myself. There are many articles about fulfilling New Years resolutions out there, but I do agree with this one about how willpower is really your most valuable resource, but it isn't depleted unless you THINK it's depleted.

Basically, I'm just letting everyone know they should believe in themselves (and not make COMPLETELY unachievable goals) and they should be able to keep their resolutions strong!

Now.. just to decide what my resolutions should be, suggestions anyone?

R

Hurricane Sandy

Hurricanes are one of the most interesting weather patterns to me. Comparing them to Tornadoes is like comparing a painting done with a fine brush and a large brush, they will never been the same, both interesting, but never the same. When I first moved to Austin, Hurricane Katrina ripped through New Orleans, leaving behind devastation, sadness, loss, and a really interesting urban planning project. Should we rebuild New Orleans *knowing* it is below sea level and seeing exactly what that means?

With Hurricane Sandy in New York recently, we have another interesting and challenging urban planning issue. I have read many blogs about whether or not FEMA is actually holding us back, because cities would be forced to upgrade to prevent these types of disasters or would be eliminated all together if they knew they could not depend on the federal government at all. This sparked my government major side in questioning just how independent a country is. Without FEMA and other disaster relief type of assistance, would cities even want to be associated with the national government or would this country turn into a big conglomeration of little governments with no over-arching government connecting them? (probably not, but it would be interesting to see how far cities are willing to go to maintain their connection to the county, state, federal levels with diminished funding).

What really amazes me about disasters like this is not the government, but the individual people. People have gone around saving others, working tirelessly to help others, and finding new strength in themselves to provide for someone else. One man waded into the flood waters to save a cab driver from drowning during the storm. It is people like this that make me realize the world has so many good people in it. I would never expect to be saved in a situation like that, but I sure hope someone would be there to help me out. There are also heart breaking stories though, one that many people have heard is the story of the woman who lost her two young boys in the storm surge and ended up spending the whole storm outside on a porch because no one would let her into their house. However, one older woman, was able to help her neighbors by carrying water and supplies up their 21 story building. I hope I'm as strong and alive as she is at that age!

There are still so many ways to help, either donating, or volunteering, or acting as moral support for people who have lost so much.

But let's get back to urban planning. When the storm surge came in and the winds picked up, the New York subway system began to flood, and there was no way to stop it. Post Sandy, only part of the system was operable, (see the image for post-Sandy operations) and the city began getting buses together to shuttle the people across the Brooklyn Bridge and around town, borrowing buses from nearby cities that could spare them (CTA sent some from Chicago to New Jersey) and working with whatever they could to get people around the city. Gas was in short supply and many buses and some trains were ruined in the storm. With such an amazing sudden loss of access, and I'm sure personnel (at least I would assume not everyone was going to work that morning, hopefully not to a more permanent loss) it would be difficult to operate a transit agency. This is why agencies need to have a disaster plan in place. When Katrina came through and everything flooded many buses were lost because bus drivers were home evacuating their own homes. This is not to say that the public good is more important than the private home, but transit agencies should take into account a dramatic reduction of personnel when planning evacuation plans, or should evacuate much earlier than would be necessary. Just looking at the subway map without many routes on it, one can begin to imagine how many buses would be needed to move people to and from all of those now empty from public transit areas. Not only do these buses need to be there to move people, the agency must figure out how to get them into these areas across devastated roadways and must begin to figure out where people need to go. Many people will be not going to work but rather to hospitals, evacuation locations, and to take advantage of resources out of the norm for a regular day. Transit routes will be dramatically different in this area during the time of recovery, and MTA is now responsible for producing a temporary plan in less than a day. I applaud the people working at MTA who were able to respond do this disaster quickly and who tried their hardest to still make sure people were able to get to work, home, friends' homes, and to assist with disaster relief. It isn't every day you must dramatically change how transit in a city works and I hope that New York residents are able to appreciate transit much more after this disaster.

I don't know what I would have done to deal with this as a transit agency, I think there really is no time to think of it, as you never know what the situation is when a disaster hits. When Chicago had the Blizzaster last year people were forced to play roles they usually did not, workers from the headquarters shoveled bus stops and helped give information to riders, and everyone was doing their part to help out. The most essential part of a transit agency being able to address the needs of customers during a disaster is having flexible employees. I think both Chicago and New York were able to respond to the changed needs during their disasters because everyone was willing to step in. I guess I should get my bus driving license to when the time comes I will be really valuable!

 

Also, watch this video, it almost made me cry. 

And this one about Breezy Point and the fire that tore through the neighborhoods there even during a huge flood.

R

Biking

I started biking regularly about a year ago. People who know me now might not believe me if I told them that, I went from thinking 2 miles was ridiculously hard to not shirking when I decided biking the 15 miles for work was going to be so much faster than busing it. Not only did I NOT stop myself from biking that 15 miles, I actually revel in it, the view of the lake with the sun rising over it, or setting on the other side of the city and the wind through my helmet are all things I enjoy and actually miss every day now that I'm not biking down to the south side of the city at least once a week.

Though I now love biking and bike almost everywhere, I still remember what it felt like to be a new, out of (biking) shape biker, and when I read this article I quickly realized that many people feel the same way I felt. I wasn't sure how to ride in traffic, or what to wear, nor was I comfortable signaling. But, with more education I learned that it's actually safer to bike in the roadway than on the sidewalk, and it's not too bad to just bike in normal clothes (though.. on those really hot summer days I just wore my running shorts and a t-shirt) if you want to. Not only that, with lights and a helmet, it's not unsafe to bike on the roads really at all, as long as I am alert for the whole ride and can be ready to yell loudly if I think someone is going to hit me.

I do still need to winterise my bike (ie: fenders!) and I want to find a back rack that works on my bike, but overall I think it's important to know you CAN bike almost anywhere in my city, and I think in any city. Drivers are not out to get you (except maybe a couple of them) mostly they just need to know what you're doing and what to expect from you. I always signal, unless it's not safe for me to take one hand off of the handlebars and I usually wear my helmet, but most importantly I look at the cars around me, and make eye contact with drivers when I think they aren't sure what I'm doing, that way I know they see me, and they know that I know they see me. I also always smile and thank drivers for doing the nice and safe things on the roadway. Not all bikers are evil drivers out there to kill drivers, and if a smile at a friendly driver will help reinforce that, it doesn't hurt me to do it.

I think that bikers in many cities, new and experienced, need to learn as much as they can about safety in the city on a bike, and need to be prepared. Chicago has a lot of really wonderful resources through the Department of Transportation and through Active Transportation Alliance, but there are many blogs, articles, and forums where people discuss all the different types of safety that can be taking into account for cyclists in a city.

Get riding!
R