joeventures - Tumblr blog

[joeventures]

So many things about this project is just a repeat of terrible development patterns practiced all around the city for so many years.

Preserving only pieces of old buildings – this is a half-assed form of preservation that’s unworthy of Atlanta’s history.

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Where is North Korea? Here are guesses from 1,746 adults. Come on, people. China? India? Japan? AUSTRALIA!?!

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Back to Tumblr. Hi. Is this thing on?

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Mayor Reed & Senator Fort debate the T-SPLOST.

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Before I decided to support this referendum, I took time to check out the project list. It's not perfect. It's got some projects in there that I wish weren't. But this T-SPLOST also includes funding for projects I've long supported.

And on looking through the list, I also realized there are bike/ped projects incorporated into many of the road projects. Some might call it taking the "complete streets" approach.

If you want to talk about the idea of "solving traffic congestion," we could talk about Detroit, which solved its congestion problem by replacing valuable downtown real estate into parking lots, and hundreds of thousands of jobs subsequently moved away from the region.

But if you want to talk about having a genuine choice -- this referendum offers a huge step in that direction. When the only choice to get around in Atlanta is by car, that's not a choice. It's a tax. That tax won't be eliminated with this referendum alone. But there is a vision that I see behind that plan, and this is a step toward that vision. That's why I'm voting for T-SPLOST.

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As seen on Twitter - @AlexSteffen

One of the defining characteristics of our day is the end of the physical frontier. #

For at least 50,000 years, pushing into new territory has been one of humanity's defining actions. Now, we're out of places to go. #

The planet's been mapped+ bounded. Space is empty + hostile: there's really nowhere to go and nothing to do when we get there. #

One very difficult cognitive transition is simply coming to terms w/ idea that "further" is no longer much of a physical option. #

Real frontiers now: learning to live on the only planet we have; becoming more fully engaged w/ our own humanity+ its possibilities. #

Want to stir things up? Note the evidence suggest we rose randomly out of the Earth, have nowhere else to go + when we're gone, we're gone. #

Creation, destination and afterlife myths, despite their centrality in cultures, lend little-to-nothing to our understanding of reality. #

That said, I find what we're learning about the reality of our situation to be more interesting, marvelous. #

Wonder, to me, is the cognitive reward for apprehending a part of the nature of reality in some fresh way. #

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A few times in my life I’ve had moments of clarity, where the silence drowns out the noise and I can feel, rather than think.

Tom Ford, writing the last line in ‘A Single Man’ (Style Forum Special)

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Koyaanisqatsi sped it up 1552% and compressed to about 5 minutes.   (via)

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Lloyd Blankfein doesn’t get up in the morning and say, “OK. How are we going to defraud people today?” but I do think the relationship of these banks to social rules is fairly dodgy. Rules are viewed as potential obstacles that you try to get around if that maximises your profit. This is a deeper social issue that I think has to do with the economisation of a lot of thinking. Economists have this model of rational utility maximisation – that social benefit comes out of everybody pursuing their private rational self-interest. This has shaded over – imperceptibly over the past couple of generations – to a downplaying of social norms as constraints on behaviour.

Marbury: the erosion of constraint (via ninakix)

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Arts administrators:

@missionparadox: "Accepting that ur audience will always be this narrow slice of the world is the same as accepting your upcoming demise."

@halcyontony: "Completely agree. Also, contrary to current spin, these issues did not suddenly start with the economic woes in '08.

Amen.

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Ignite is a six-week, seminar series for artists and arts managers aiming to design actionable and effective strategies for answering their creative calling. Here is what some of Ignite's alumni have had to say about the seminar. For more information, or to support programming like Ignite, go to c4atlanta.org.

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The intersection of art and science as fertile ground for the future of health and innovation in medicine

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On Morning Edition today, NPR reported on a lab performing experiments on the capacity of rats to demonstrate empathy and altruistic behavior. One rat was trapped in a tube, while another rat had the capability to release the trapped rat. In all the cases, the free rat saved the trapped rat.

But the story doesn't end there.

The free rat was also trained to release a tube full of rat delicacies like chocolate. The free rat didn't simply release the chocolate and eat it. The free rat released the trapped rat before releasing the chocolate so that they could share in the feast.

In a follow-up experiment, the free rat was given a copy of Ratlas Shrugged. After reading the novel, the free rat released only the chocolate and ate it all. Afterward, the free rat explained to the trapped rat that the tube was built by the government, and the trapped rat should be able to use his own abilities to free himself.

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The Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra asked people to tweet their tips for surviving winter in Calgary, then sang them. Best thing since the Complaints Choir.

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Rural-Municipal Irony

In the late 20st Century, Georgia's Constitution was amended to allow counties to provide municipal services. This gave citizens living in unincorporated areas permission to pretend they live in the city.

In the early 21st Century, new cities formed in Georgia so that citizens living in newly incorporated areas could pretend they live on the farm.

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There's a rumor going around Tumblr that the Senate rejected SOPA. Wrong.

The Senate rejected a measure to reverse an FCC ruling on Net Neutrality. Thankfully, Net Neutrality won that battle.

There are now two more bills floating through Congress: SOPA (HR 3261), and the Protect IP Act (S 968). Follow those links and learn about them. Open Congress is a wonderful site that will let anyone track their favorite (or least favorite) pieces of legislation that fail to create jobs.

The fact of SOPA/ProtectIP's popularity on Capitol Hill -- not to mention Congress recently declaring that pizza is a vegetable -- demonstrates how Congress exists in a parallel universe, completely disconnected from the reality the rest of us face.