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

Transportation!

Everyone knows I'm a huge transportation geek; and lately I have found so many exciting transportation opportunities that I can't keep them all to myself. I'll address three here, but there are so many more, I feel that the opportunities for transportation how you want it, when you want it, are all over, and we just have to learn how to take control of it!

First, let's talk about road trips. Most people in America take at least one road trip in their life (this is a generalized statement based on conversations with my friends, I did not use any data to come up with this). As I have gotten older though, and gotten rid of my car, the idea of a road trip seems so expensive and like such a hassle. I love driving on the open road, but I'm not going to rent a car to do that, nor would I want to own a car just for the purpose of the occasional desire to go on a road trip. This website (Auto Driveaway) provides a way around all of that. It does require a deposit from drivers, but it would be very interesting to drive someone's car from their current home to their new one through a semi-safe system. I was reminded by a friend that this is also an option through Craigslist, but that seems a little bit sketchy for me. This company could provide the safe middleman feeling not provided by Craigslist, and I think they must provide some sort of roadside assitance/solution for breakdowns that Craigslist definitely doesn't supply. There aren't too many people on the site yet, but once (or if) it takes off this could be an awesome way to get a cheap vacation in. You would still have to pay for gas and put down a deposit in case you break something major in the car, but that is a lot cheaper than renting a car and paying for all of those things, especially for the duration of a cross-country trip. And you wouldn't have to drive the car back home as you would if you owned the car, so it solves the problem of only having one week for vacation but wanting to get somewhere interesting on a road trip. I think this is something I will definitely have to try!

Second, who doesn't love the idea of bike share? It's a good way to have a bike in the city, but not have to deal with maintenance of your own bike or worrying about the bike getting stolen (I recently had a friend lose her bike this way) and so many other things. It's also an awesome way to see a city you're vacationing in. In Chicago the system doesn't totally work yet, but it's getting there soon. Washington, DC has a good version, and many people use it to travel around the city. However, there's a new innovation in San Francisco that might be a good option for hilly cities (or lazy people maybe?) and longer distances. Scooter share!  A group of young city dwellers decided they wanted to provide the freedom of bike share with the excitement of riding an electric scooter! Scoot Networks allows members to rent a scooter for $10 per hour with a $5 per month membership fee. They do require that you wear a helmet (California Law) but you don't need to have a motorcycle license, so most people could participate in the activity. I definitely think I want to try this out next time I go to San Francisco. The hills there might make me shy away from a bike share option (I'm used to biking on the flat streets in Chicago, almost to the lazy point of hating an overpass over a major freeway because it's too much of a hill for me) but this could be really fun!

Third, I'm going to look a bit into the future, at self driving cars. I know a lot of people have seen the video of Google's self driving car and, if they are like me, have imagined the simplicity of combining the freedom of a personal vehicle with the relaxation of a transit system (yes, I think it's relaxing to not have to think about traffic all the time and read or space out on public transit). This article is a really interesting point about it, these cars will probably not replace the traditional car, and why would they? If I had a driverless car I wouldn't ever want to pay for parking, the car could go find free parking by itself, or park back at home, or could be used by someone else while I don't need the vehicle. These vehicles could start replacing taxis, and paratransit, and possibly even low-ridership bus routes. Further, once these are easy to access and are able to provide affordable transportation to people around the country or world, more people may opt to use them instead of their own personal vehicles. These vehicles provide the exclusivity of a personal vehicle, by enclosing you in your own space and not forcing you into the public, but would not have to be privately owned. The opportunity for carpool companies to spring up also arises as these cars could return to a central location after taking many workers into their offices and for overnight storage as well as maintenance. I think there really is something to driverless cars, not to mention that they can follow much closer to each other allowing for more vehicles to use the same roadway space, but that wouldn't start being obvious until they are more widespread!

That's my transportation inspired rant for the day, so if you need to ship a car use Auto Driveaway and if someone asks you to help support driverless car research, please do!

R

How good is your sense of smell?

From Cosmos Magazine: The Science of Everything

Apparently, psychopaths have a worse sense of smell than other people. A group in Australia did a study and found that people with less empathy and higher scores on the psychopathy scale cannot discriminate smells as well.  They used people from a university, who got course credit for doing the study and ranked them on smell sensitivity, scent identification, and scent discrimination as well as empathy and a psychopathy scale.  They used people who ranked on the psychopathy scale who were non-violent members of society, so one person was disqualified for having a criminal conviction. 

The authors suggest that the front part of the brain (the orbitofrontal cortex) is involved in olfactory (smell) processing, and in human interaction (empathy, etc).  This article suggests that this could be a way to help determine if people are psychopaths even if they lie or learn what to answer on the tests.  This may not work, because many of these people may also have done drugs or smoked or been injured or experienced some other thing that would damage their sense of smell, unrelated to their processing center.  Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, and other neurodegenerative diseases or neural trauma may also cause this same result.  That being said, maybe we could test kids, before they have all of these olfactory insults, to see if they might have a tendency to be psychopaths.  We'll have the hearing, vision, and smelling tests in schools from now on! (side note: I don't actually think this is a good idea)

On another note.  Women tend to have a heightened sense of smell during the early stages of pregnancy (google it, it's everywhere). Maybe women become less psychotic during pregnancy, to fight the hormones making her seem like she is MORE psychotic.  Women do seem to be overly-empathetic while pregnant... 

Another thing to think about: women tend to have a better sense of smell than men, and be more empathetic, even when they're not pregnant.

S

Buses are cool

Everyone is talking about this, sharing it, and posting it, and damnit, I want to too!!

R

Gardening

You all know I'm obsessed with The Plant (a local urban vertical farming venture here in Chicago). But it made me want to really start a garden in my own place even more when we ate fresh edamame I picked from the outdoor garden last time I was there. Of course because of that I got into looking around at gardening ideas for an apartment and this one might just be one of my favorites! The article on GoodMagazine's blog talks about some other ideas, but this is the main focus. I think I could do it... I might need to borrow a drill or something, but I could set something up like this, I wonder if my landlord will think I'm crazy!

Also I just want a little shout out to this couple in Quebec and so many other people all over who are fighting to keep their gardens! I think if we want to garden in the city why should we not be allowed to?! Not only is it good for the soil (when done right) it helps reduce the dependence on imported goods and gives the city an amazingly eclectic style!  Good for you.

Here's a quick urban planning type article about urban agriculture too. I recently passed a community garden in my neighborhood (only a block from my new apartment!) and this makes me think that perhaps the small community garden helped to revive Pilsen, or that more could continue to revive it. There are definitely some empty lots nearby and I would love to start up a community garden. Maybe I should start working toward that for next season.

I like the article writer's point at the end that "We should celebrate the power of local projects like community gardens—but in doing so we should not forget that there are systemic problems in our economic and political systems that contribute to the desperation in certain urban centers. A green thumb alone can't get to the roots of gun violence".  It's true that community projects can help to bring people together and bring some peace, but it is not the fix-all problem. Similarly, I love that this man lived in the neighborhood and conversed with friendly neighbors, acknowledging that gang members are people too, they have families and friends and they continue to live their lives normally (mostly). I think media portrays these people not as people but as evil beings. If we start understanding their lives as they relate to "normal" life, maybe we will be better able to understand why someone ends up in a gang in the first place and where the root problems are, rather than fighting the gang as an evil being itself.

R

We live alone...or do we?

Klineberg writes more on the topic of Americans living alone

Recently, apartmenttherapy.com reviewed an article about Americans living alone.  The review seems like a more modern look at the situation.  The original article is an overview about how to deal with living alone and how this will affect the community of senior citizens who have lived alone for much of their lives, whereas the review discusses more how it affects the community in a positive way and introduces a short pro vs con list to consider.  Most of the comments, as well as in the article, people seem to think that safety (in an emergency) and financial stability are the two main advantages to living with someone.  A roommate helps with the safety part and less with the financial stability part than a partner.  The disadvantage of having a roommate (of whatever sort) is mainly personal freedom.  They also have some cool facts, like half of america is single and one third of households are single-occupancy households.

I realized that we (R & S in particular, but all of our siblings in general) have the best of both worlds. Each of us (S first and R more recently) have depended on the other for financial support.  S lived with R for one year, rent free, S made her bank account available for R to use as she needed.  Obviously S took a little of R's personal freedom...bunk beds make it a little awkward to have a boyfriend over, but, on those nights, the couch was very comfortable. Now we are living individually and know we can depend on each other for financial support.  We also talk to each other every day, at least a few texts each day, so if anything happened we would quickly realize the other needed help.   I don't think living alone provides the same social structure, we have to force ourselves to not become hermits and to get social interaction...not that that is too hard. And, we do it with financial stability and safety.  Maybe everyone should get a twin instead of a partner!

New York's planned micro apartments

Generally, it is becoming easier to live alone.  Bloomberg recently announced a plan to build an entire building of 'micro-unit',  300 square foot, apartments and there are similar plans in Boston and San Francisco.  

On another note: If you google living alone, most of the pictures are of depressed people, we need some people in there who are enjoying their personal freedom!

S

Feminism

I recently bought a book that is described as a "feminist memoir" of a woman in her mid 30s living in London. This book is amazing, and, while I always identified myself as a feminist, makes me want to stand up and start really acting on it. I want to write a book about what feminism is to me too! I don't always agree with this woman, she makes valid points, but I think that is part of what feminism is about.

She spends about 5 or 6 pages discussing underwear, complaining about thongs and bras (though, she is very adamant about bras being our friend and that she loves her bras, even though they hurt) and I like thongs (I remember when I didn't) and I think bras don't have to hurt if you buy the right ones, so I think that though she is in full support of "big undies" as she says, I prefer my stance to be that I am in full support of people who want to wear big undies wearing big undies. I think that feminism has been popping up all over the place lately too, and I want to jump on that bandwagon and scream about it to all of my friends, family, and random people who are willing to listen to me!

This article in GoodMagazine (yes, still one of my favorite online magazines to read) talks about why we need feminism and other articles that I've read recently discuss the issue that fewer and fewer women are identifying with the term feminist. I think that the term feminist needs to have a looser definition than what people associate with it, and I think one way to start working on that change of definition is to start talking about it. I also think that maybe we need to keep some of the aspects currently associated with the term, maybe we NEED a little bit of the loudness, and the brashness with the term. Women are making less than men, women are pushed into certain jobs and certain tasks because of their gender, and (yes) women are sometimes hired for their looks or NOT hired for their looks (as are men, I know). We need to start acknowledging that some of our struggles are not JUST about female freedoms and male/female equality, but about human equality.

In the spirit of the GoodMagazine article: I need feminism because it's who I am, and who I want to be.

R

People walk differently in different places

We just got back from a trip (well, a few days ago) and it was so much fun.  We were pedestrians and we rode buses, planes, and trains, and we even took a boat.  People were all traveling and walking differently and speaking different languages with different accents.

First we went to Beijing China (a 12 hour flight).  R went a few days earlier than S and she flew to Toronto and then over Canada to Beijing, with a 13 hour flight.  S flew to Seattle and then to Beijing on a 12 hour flight.  She didn't stand up the entire flight and swollen ankles were the result, nothing painful though.

R explored the city on the first day with our friend and visited the the zoo, Temple of Heaven, and the planning museum the next day (without S).  The planning museum was really cool, they have a model of the entire city with the tallest building being about one foot tall.  You can see the traffic flow and the building layouts.  They built a lot of new buildings for the olympics and you can see how they shaped them like dragons and how they used the building locations to direct people toward the stadium and other away from less touristy areas.  At the zoo the animals were kept in cages without any greenery to ensure good visibility, it was a little depressing seeing the animals in such unfriendly cages, but was a fun experience.

With some of our fans on the Great Wall

The first day we were both there, we visited the great wall and that's when we became celebrities, well at least we felt like we were, many people wanted to take pictures with us, we had them take the pictures with our camera too.  The train ride to and from the Great Wall was about an hour and there were farms along the way, right next to the train tracks! That night we had Peking Duck, which was good, but S's favorite dish from that night was a tofu salad made with green onions, cilantro and something salty (probably just MSG sprinkled over the top, but I don't want to think about it).  R's favorite dish that night was a pork dish with a sweet-ish sauce, served with green onions and cucumbers on tofu sheets (you were supposed to wrap the pork and vegetables in the sheets, we didn't like them much so we used the tortilla-like ones they gave us for the duck with the pork too). Good thing we had Veronica there to order for us, we would have been lost!

S decided she needed to join some people while they napped
in the Forbidden City

The next day we ventured out alone again to Tiananmen Square.  We took pictures with strangers again. We asked a Chinese guy who was about 22 to take our picture for us and once he was finished he asked to have a picture with us.  He got between us and we all stood there kinda awkwardly until his aunt yelled 'WAIT' (or something like that in Chinese) and went up to us and put his arms around us...he looked like a pimp. Then we went to the Forbidden City (or Palace Museum), which is right next to the square, this is where the emperors lived with their concubines, empress, and servants.  It was fun to hear about the different emperors, but we don't know enough about Chinese history to have known a lot of the implications the automatic guide would say stuff like 'in the Qing dynasty the emperors stayed here for their summer court' and we have no idea what kind of significance that has so we didn't pay too much attention. There were some interesting stories though, about the emperor who didn't make any of his own decisions and instead the empress had a throne set up behind him with a yellow curtain between and when people came to ask him for something she would tell him what to say.  There was also a story of an emperor who had to marry his cousin to try to bring the family closer, but she was really ugly (with a hunchback and thin hair) so they were married but pretended to be strangers so she lived a really lonely life and 'died of loneliness' but after he died and she got to appoint the next emperor (maybe she killed him to get power...who knows). One of the most interesting parts about these parks were that people would spend the entire day in there because there is not much green space in the city. There were people with picnics and napping on the benches (of course we took pictures of the nappers). But the best part is that there are always people selling ice cream in the street, there is no shortage of that!

Our favorite proverb, and I'm pretty sure R is wearing that hat wrong
(for the record, no, I'm not wearing it wrong, there is never a wrong
way to wear one of those hats!)

Then we crossed the street to a park that overlooks the Forbidden City and climbed some stairs where we found the best Chinese proverb (as you can see in the picture).  At the top of the overlook you can see the entire city and the Forbidden City.  We met our friend and one of her friends there and then went to dinner.  We met a bunch of Veronica's Chinese friends (only some of whom spoke English) for dinner and we spent the evening giggling and gossiping in the corner while they caught up.  They all commented to her about how nice it was to not have to entertain her American friends.  We ate lots of lotus root and fish balls that night (well, R didn't touch the fish balls) and may have eaten some unidentified meats, but they all tasted good.

On the pedal boat at Summer Palace, S felt so powerful steering.

The next day we went shopping and bought cheap shoes that warn us to 'keep away from intense meat', maybe referring to our meal the last night? Then we saw the Chinese acrobats, impressive and a little nerve wracking, they did a bicycle act where there were about 15 people on one bike while a girl pedaled around in a circle and one with 6 motorcyclists in a sphere, that one was stressful.  That night dinner was in a small restaurant near where our friend lives with lots of good chinese food, but none that stood out as the best.  R and our friend picked out all of the peanuts while S ate the whole cloves of garlic in most of the dishes. We went to the Olympic Stadium and saw some mega-segways (I don't really remember what day this happened so I'm just sticking it in here hoping no one notices).  The next day we went to the Summer Palace where we rented a pedal boat and pedaled around the lake while eating lobster cheese chips (gross) and seaweed pringles (S liked them, R and Veronica said eww) and some other good Chinese snack food.  That night we made hot pot at the apartment.  We bought lotus root, fish balls, cilantro, 3 different kinds of mushrooms, spinach,  and other vegetables for the dish, then we made our own peanut sauce (well, ok Veronica's boyfriend made it) and ate hot pot.  Basically you boil water with some oil and spices in it at the table and put stuff in as you want to eat it.  I think S ate all of the lotus root, and R kept going back for the broccoli.  Then we had McDonald's deliver McFlurries to us (YES, they deliver by bike 24 hours a day, what?!) and had to run to the train to get to the airport on time for our 1am flight out.

There will be more to come about England soon!
S and R

Sleep

Recently I have felt like my life is spiraling out of control, as much as it ever is at the end of a school semester, but almost more because this is my last semester in school. Every time my life begins to careen into crazy, I grasp for a schedule, and force myself to stay up late enough to sleep at my normal time as I fight exhaustion from waking up earlier. However, this sleep schedule and stress makes my actual work time so much more unfocused than I am used to. Typically I am a very productive person, I amaze people with how much time I can spend volunteering, or talking and yet still get my work done. But with a crazy schedule I start to realize where their amazement comes from.
As much as I cling to a schedule that I have artificially assigned to myself (usually I aim to be in bed by 11 PM and wake up at 730 AM) I wonder if perhaps my most productive time is not a typical 9-5, or perhaps that I am not allowing myself the right amount of sleep. After reading this article about how making sleep a priority made the author's life so much more enjoyable, even if more time was spent sleeping I began to wonder what would happen if I started a similar schedule. I have found, at different times of my life, that either early morning or late night seem to be my most productive. I'm not sure if I attribute that to the fact that no people are in the office at this time, or that I feel the pressure of a deadline, but either way, those times are my most productive.
I began to think about how to determine my most productive period, and how to take advantage of it. But also, I need to allow myself to sleep and awake without an alarm clock. Luckily, school is almost over so I will soon be allowed the freedom of allowing my sleep schedule to adjust itself. Most of my jobs in the past have allowed me to work a fairly flexible schedule, and I hope to be able to grasp that at a new workplace as well. My current boss insists that we are in the office for most of our hours between 9 AM and 5 PM, which is normal, but as this article states, not everyone's productive period is between 9 and 5.
Different people have written about finding and correctly utilizing the most productive hours of your own day. This post I find to be interesting, because this blogger does not discuss the productivity so much as job productivity, being unemployed, but as life productivity. I find that with a schedule I can function well and be productive, as long as I get enough sleep and run it can almost be any schedule, but maybe I will one day find my balance and become my productive self.

Of course.. I write this as I am supposed to be working on a homework assignment... therefore, tonight I will probably not get enough sleep, or the right hours of sleep, but I will make due and soon I will be able to allow my body to regulate itself!

R

Family planning, population control, and birth control access

I've always been appalled by doctors sterilizing women without their permission.  Uzbekistan is doing it today and many other countries have forced sterilization for specific regions and races within their country.  One of my friends recently switched birth control and we were looking up different types of birth control.  I read about the progesterone shot that said doctors used to give the shots as a way to prevent African Americans from having children without them knowing.  Melinda Gates gave a TEDX talk where she discussed the desire of people to have smaller families as a way to have an increased standard of living.  If you have fewer children, you can afford to pay for all of their educations, you can afford to feed all of them, and you can continue to work because you don't have to stay home to take care of so many children.  She urges increased access to birth control for all women so they can decide to have smaller families.  People do not want to be sterilized, nor do they want to have children who they cannot support. 

Mechai Viravaidya  discusses birth control in Thailand with a more humorous twist.  He discusses Thailand's campaign to decrease population growth by providing easier access to condoms.  There is a super hero named Captain Condom who visit universities, the police hand out free condoms on the streets and they use witty advertising to encourage people to use condoms as a way to control population naturally.  He also says he will be handing out condoms after his talk but warns "these are Thai sized, so be very careful".

So, use birth control, unless you want a baby now.

S

Pink ribbons aren't the whole story

One of the pictures from the Scar Project's website.  They have a book with
autobiographical stories to go with each picture.

The Scar Project is a project with a series of images of young breast cancer survivors shot by a fashion photographer. 

In 3rd grade on of our closest friend's mom lost the battle with breast cancer.  I remember hearing about how she had to have one breast removed, and then the other, and at the time it didn't seem like such a big deal, but I didn't realize it could be so painful, or so personally degrading. I thought of it only as boobs being removed.  But it wasn't just that. Women have a sexual identity that includes their breasts; women have a personal identity that includes their ability to be seen as regular women and mothers.  Without the breasts they used to have, these women have to learn to be themselves again, and learn to be confident in their bodies again, aesthetically and physically.

The Scar Project is an awareness-raising project with the slogan "Breast Cancer is Not a Pink Ribbon"  and I don't think they are trying to say don't donate to the pink ribbon campaign.  According to their website, their goal is to "raise public consciousness of early-onset breast cancer, raise funds for breast cancer research/outreach programs and help young survivors see their scars, faces, figures and experiences through a new, honest and ultimately empowering lens."

Anyway, I don't have much more to say about it, but go check it out, they say it better than I could anyway.

Ss

Yosemite HD from Project Yosemite on Vimeo.


I know I'm posting twice in one day, but this one I will only say one thing; I want to go back, soon.

S

Could you live in an 8'X18' home?

Shelves in the Weebee cabin

Tim Guiles was inspired by Tumbleweed, a tiny house company (as they call themselves).  They make a 102 square foot cabin for people to live in called the Weebee.  Guiles founded Yes Wee Cabins in 2009 to continue to educate people about living in small spaces and to present that as a possibility to people.  His house looks like a lot of fun, and both his little and the Tumbleweed cabins look beautiful on the inside, all wood and spacious ceiling with craftily designed shelves to use all the space not needed for walking around.  

Loft in the Weebee cabin

Tumbleweed sells their plans, the disassembled houses, or assembled houses on their website (the plans are in the $800 range) so Guiles followed that same model, selling a shell, an assembled cabin, or the plans (his plans are only $100 though).  

Guiles also paints his cabin pink, making it uniquely his, and adding to the cabin's charm.  He did an interview to discuss small home living (see video) where you can see how tall the cabin is and how easy it is to move around and live in suc a small space...remember they also had to fit all of the cameras in there to film the interview.

  

Guiles has property in Vermont where he has his little house, so I'm sure he spends most of his time outdoors, but even if you had to spend more time inside (for some reason) you could see that it would be just as good as where you live now, maybe even prettier.  Maybe one day I'll try living in a tiny space, probably right after college would be a good time, after moving so much I have been able to keep my possessions to a minimum.  Just don't tell my mom that I should bring any of the stuff that I left at her house (we'll figure that out later).

S

Parking, is it good?

To be blunt... no, parking is terrible. It's terrible for the city, it's terrible for drivers health, it's terrible for accident rates, it's just overall terrible. But it's also amazingly sweet to get that last free spot on the block. However, this article is literally the BEST article I have EVER READ about parking! It discusses "lot men" in LA back at the beginning and how parking has shaped the city, and made traffic congestion and life there that much worse. Comparing city requirements for parking in LA and New York is shocking, it amazes me that LA supports that much parking in the city, more than supports it, *requires* it!

The amount of open space used for parking in LA is outrageous, and the number of cars increases congestion way too much. If we could find a better/cleaner/safer way to use that space, we could maybe make the city more efficient. But parking is a very touchy subject, the article points out that parking enforcement people have been spit on, attacked, and even shot for issuing tickets (and they only make $35,000 to $45,000 a year). The idea of parking causing so much anger makes me wonder if we shouldn't allow parking at all. Not only that, only about 10% of the time people get a ticket for illegal parking, so we should accept our losses, as one of the few times when we are parked illegally, and maybe they should issue tickets more like 90% of the time to actually enforce the laws and make sure people know the true cost of parking (But we should also start paying meter maids way more money).

Anyway, Dave Gardetta does a much better job explaining this than I do, so please, read this article, and then stop driving!!

R

Solar Light - the cheap way

In 2002 there was a power outage and Mr Alfredo needed light in his workshop.  He "noticed" (the video says) that the water in the bottles refracted the light enough to make a 2-liter bottle act like a light bulb.  An electrical engineer even measured and the bottle creates as much light as a 50 watt bulb...during the day.  It's an automatic lighting system!

Now this invention is being used to light people's homes in the Philippines.  Their houses are really dark during the day (they don't have windows due to cost and privacy).  They do have electric lights, but they cost a lot of money and to have to have a light bulb on all day and night (except when they are sleeping) is too expensive for a poor family. With a lower electric bill they can spend the money differently, on more luxurious essentials, like education, and better nutrition as suggested in the video. They are installing the bottle lights in many houses to decrease electricity cost. Now there is an organization (Liter of Light) that is trying to bring light to a million homes in the Philippines, there are many more videos and links on their website with more information. 

I love the innovative use of the water bottle, and they answered all of my questions as to why they did certain things and how they prevented others.  When I first heard about this, I wondered why they would put chlorine in the water if it was sealed, and the video answered that, I also wondered how well they sealed them and if they were going to leak, and the video showed their sealing techniques (the Brazilian one is a little different than the one from the Philippines, but both seem like they would work). This is a really cool invention and a great solution to the problems they are facing.

S

Walking!

Many of you know that my family is full of "step monsters", as my uncle likes to call us. My mother, 2 of my aunts, my grandmother, and both of my sisters wear pedometers. While that may not seem totally out of the ordinary, we also keep track of our step progress in a shared spreadsheet on Google docs. Naturally, when an article is about walking I read it. These articles are not actually about walking as a health practice or anything related to pedometers, but they are still very interesting.

First there is an article about pedestrian patterns in the world. It is interesting to hear that cultures have vastly different behaviors in groups of pedestrians. This article, from "The Atlantic Cities" (one of my new favorite transportation related blogs), talks about how Indians slow down slower when approaching a crowd than do Germans, probably because of their smaller personal bubbles. The idea that 70% of people walk in groups is also very interesting from a pedestrian's point of view. I know when I'm walking, I usually walk faster than most people and get stuck behind groups of people all the time. I, of course, slow down as I get closer to them and find a gap to run around them (yes... I feel like I'm running even though I'm actually not most of the time). These groups of people definitely change my personal walking patterns, and I am sure they change everyone else's as well. I'm not saying that no one should walk in groups, I love walking with friends, and talking to them, but it does congest the sidewalk. However, the article points out that it is important to study these behaviors for safety reasons at large gatherings, and possible evacuation procedures.

The other articles I found recently brought memories back of a topic from a few of my classes last semester. Drunk walking, which is technically the right thing to do when you're drunk, is actually statistically more dangerous than drunk driving! The article in Good Magazine states that 1/3 of pedestrian fatalities happen when the pedestrian is drunk, and Levitt, a Freakonomics contributor, states that drunk walking is 8 times more dangerous than drunk driving, at least for the drunk person. While Levitt argues that drunks should probably drive because more people die from drunk walking, I feel that the issue is more about external costs rather than personal costs. You can risk your own life, but getting behind the wheel and risking the lives of others might be more harmful, however.. I've also never killed someone who crossed unsafely in front of me, which I'm sure also has terrible emotional effects. Both of these articles bring up an important point of safety in general. We need to be aware of the safety implications of our actions not only as drivers, but as pedestrians.


Similarly, I posted on my Google+ page an article about pedestrian safety signs in the city of Chicago. These seem to be targeted at pedestrians by placement but drivers by content. I think both parties need to be aware about the safety requirements of pedestrians in the city, but maybe we need to do a better job at reaching out to drivers.....

R