How the car industry could morph into the community industry

How the car industry could morph into the community industry
1. Instead of making cars make the elements needed to create all the spaces of the future2. Spaces will require replaceable surfaces that are thin but soundproof, wired but attractive3. Surfaces of spaces will be connected in lego-like fashion on matrixes4. All of the elements needed for a future beyond cars can be handled by the existing infrastructure of the auto industry5. The money generated by this concept is vastly more than could be envisioned if it remained the car industry6. If we do this first we will lead the world in creating the next generation of  construction7. This seismic change is essential because we need new construction to create car-free communitiesto replace endless sprawl  
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My New Hampshire Notion

My New Hampshire NotionNothing being predictableMy notion is that Romney will not be deemed the runaway winnerMy notion is that Gingrish will emerge as equal to Santorum as an alternativeand that of the two Santorum is the more vulnerableI think Huntsman will function as a Romney spoiler This is written before the debatesIf Gingrish scores in both debates he will be the winner if he finishes second
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Creating Car-Free Communities from Scratch

1. Agree to keep cars in parking areas beyond the community2. Provide buses paid for by sponsors 3. Zone the area for all purposes4. Make existing spaces and vacant areas available for commercialsocial educational and recreational development5. Create community-wide eco options such as shared solarand shared waste processing and recycling6. Work to attract distance-learning and distance-commerce
Aim for a density of up to 10K
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Obama Refocuses Military Away from Ground Wars

Obama Describes Refocused Strategy for Leaner Military - NYTimes.com: "“We’re turning the page on a decade of war,” Mr. Obama said. He called it “a moment of transition” that allowed him to look ahead and determine the kind of force – a smaller one, he said -- that the nation needs in the future.

Mr. Obama’s strategy embraces hundreds of billions of dollars in cuts to the military, making it an awkward codicil to the uneasy relationship he has shared with the military since his first days in office.

In a letter accompanying the new strategy, the president wrote, “We must put our fiscal house in order here at home and renew our long-term economic strength.”"

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Too bad we did not understand the obsolescence of ground wars before Vietnam.

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Nick has a good first sentence

Waiting for Mitt the Moderate - NYTimes.com: "The reassuring thing about Mitt Romney is that for most of his life he probably wouldn’t have voted for today’s Mitt Romney"

+

Those of us who are scared of Romney do not want to wait to find out who he is.

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Don't blame Mitt he's from Massachusetts

Don't blame  Mitt He's from Massachusetts
Originally this is what Democrats in Massachusetts saidAfter the McGovern debacle in which the only state poor George won wasMassachusetts
Don't blame meI'm from Massachusetts
I like the feel of the updated one in the event of a Romney loss. He would join Dukakis as a defeated Massachusetts governor - even with the help of the Romney PAC guy who did the Willie Horton ad that initiated the present season of GOP attack politics.
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Gingrich Take on Romney - Timid Soul, Obama Clone (Video)

Gingrich Takes On Romney - NYTimes.com:

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Newt is being clever. He is defying the pundit chorus that he will get personal versus Romney. Here he is with a straightforward short ad and a significant I approve this to reming peopole of the vicious Romney PAC. Media will call this an attack. I call it ten points up for Newt and two down for Romney. Dead heat after the weekend debates.

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New Consumer Chief Means Business

New Chief at Consumer Bureau Promises Vigorous Agenda - NYTimes.com: "“The consumer bureau will make clear that there are real consequences to breaking the law,” Mr. Cordray, who had been in charge of enforcement at the agency, said in remarks prepared for a speech at the Brookings Institution.

“We have given informants and whistle-blowers direct access to us,” he said. “We took over a number of investigations from other agencies in July, and we are pursuing some investigations jointly with them. We have also started our own investigations. Some may be resolved through cooperative efforts to correct problems. Others may require enforcement actions to stop illegal behavior.”"

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A modest plus for U.S. manufacturing

U.S. Manufacturing Is a Bright Spot for the Economy - NYTimes.com: "And this week the Institute for Supply Management, which has been surveying American manufacturers since 1948, reported that its employment index for December was 55.1, the highest reading since June. Any number above 50 indicates that more companies say they are hiring than say they are reducing employment."

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The President is doing alright on the economy front regardless of the nefarious actions of the GOP. With GOP cooperation we would be recovered by now. Send them home in 2012. Seriously.

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It is difficult to get into the head of an infant

The Complete History of Adam Panflick: Book Two:

"It is difficult to get into the head of an infant, to know what goes on in there. In the case of Adam Panflick, this difficulty is eased a bit by an early photograph which clearly shows that he is the child of his parents. His dark brown eyes and their placement under a dominating forehead suggest not merely a dogged determination, derived from Melchizedek, but the aesthetic basis of Mildred’s character — not merely a surface sense of beauty but an existential, life and death thing, what theologians call ultimate concern."

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Slowly but hopefully surely I am posting the eight books of the Panflick history to their own blog and posting excerpts here to indicate its themes and possible interest. Ultimately the number of books should at least double. Book two deals with the infancy of our hero during the late 1930s.

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This is a movie in prose I think

Texas Prisoner Burials Are a Gentle Touch in a Punitive System - NYTimes.com:

"They were Mr. Davis’s gravediggers but also his mourners. No one who knew Mr. Davis bothered to attend his funeral, so it was left up to Damon Gibson, serving 14 years for theft, and the rest of the prison crew to stand in silence over the grave of a man they had never met. Then Mr. Gibson and the others put their gloves on and lowered the coffin into the ground using long straps, providing him eternal rest in the one place in Texas where murderers and other convicts whose bodies are unclaimed can be interred, remembered and, if but for a few moments, honored."

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Salient Michael Dummett Remembered Mention

Michael Dummett Remembered - NYTimes.com:

"If the cultural relativist persuaded most people to cease taking the truth claim of their assertions seriously, then “curse upon us worse than that which God called down on the builders of Babel; rather than our speaking different languages, not to be speaking a genuine language at all.”

How grateful I was to my Oxford supervisor for throwing such a clear light on the recurrent puzzlement I used to suffer about the hermeneutic, Derridean narratives which any Italian student had to fill her pads with in those days. How grateful I am still, in this dark time of Europe.

Roberta De Monticelli, San Raffaele University, Milan"

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My My Does Google Want A Fire All Its Own?

Google's alleged tablet: Four huge hurdles ahead | ZDNet: "Marketing magic. Google’s Eric Schmidt said that the search giant was planning a tablet of the highest quality. Already, Google is boxing itself in. Remember when Schmidt said Google was going to reinvent TV? Right. Simply put, the days where Google entered a market and you assumed success are over. Like Microsoft, the 800 pound Google gorilla doesn’t always succeed. Does Google have the venues to really push a tablet? Sounds crazy to ask given all the ads Google could use, but it lacks a unified store front like Amazon."

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Good luck guys.

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I speak a way of childlike ignorance

I speak a way of childlike ignorance,

A wisdom past most all philosophy.

For Abba is the author of our truth;

And we can only see what we can see!

Thus free yourself from false authority;

I do not speak submission, I speak strength.

But not a strength that relies on brute force;

I speak the strength of standing tall and free.

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You were saying ... To All The GOP Candidates in NH (Video)

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Plutonomy on a single page

Can the Middle Class Be Saved? - Magazine - The Atlantic: "In a plutonomy, Kapur and his co-authors wrote, “economic growth is powered by and largely consumed by the wealthy few.” America had been in this state twice before, they noted—during the Gilded Age and the Roaring Twenties. In each case, the concentration of wealth was the result of rapid technological change, global integration, laissez-faire government policy, and “creative financial innovation.” In 2005, the rich were nearing the heights they’d reached in those previous eras, and Citigroup saw no good reason to think that, this time around, they wouldn’t keep on climbing. “The earth is being held up by the muscular arms of its entrepreneur-plutocrats,” the report said. The “great complexity” of a global economy in rapid transformation would be “exploited best by the rich and educated” of our time."

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Some wheels within wheels: 1. we are no longer educating the bulk of the "educated" 2. Occupy will I hope create the proper agenda for the one percent to follow beginning with investment in car-free communities where all aspects of cities are within walking distance and stratified zoning is a forgotten nightmare and 3 We need some wisdom about the complicity between philanthropy and capitalism and why it keeps the crack through which unfortunates fall open at roughly the same rate year after year. It's going to be an interesting spring.


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Good would be get out there and suffer some more, right?

Phys Ed: Icing Can Make Sore Muscles Worse - NYTimes.com:

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The objective would seem to be athletic performance. Right.

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Won't Iran sanctions will have exactly the opposite effect of what is intended

In Bold Step, Europe Nears Embargo on Iran Oil - NYTimes.com: "PARIS — European countries have taken their boldest step so far in the increasingly tense standoff with Iran over its nuclear program, agreeing in principle to impose an embargo on Iranian oil, French and European diplomats said on Wednesday."

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Odds on that this thing will either end up in a peace conference or a war. Obama should call the peace conference now.

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The War of Drugs Continues on Its Sad and Gory Way

Utah Police Officer Dies Following Shootout - NYTimes.com: "The shooting occurred as an anti-drug strike team was serving a warrant. The Standard-Examiner in Ogden reported that more police responded upon word of at least one officer shot.

Police blocked off the area from 34th Street and Jackson Avenue to 32nd Street and a SWAT team took positions.

Authorities have not released information on how the remaining officers and the suspect were shot. The paper said police eventually surrounded the suspect near a backyard shed."

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Blaring trumpets, insecure and vain

Abba's Way:

Blaring trumpets, insecure and vain,
Can’t carry us an inch along the way.
The vicious, vengeful ways of jealousy,
Are seen for what they are when Abba reigns.
I speak a way of shaking dust from feet,
And praying simply any time at all;
And letting the sun set upon our rage,
And leaving all who deal with us amazed.

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Democracy is teetering some in Turkey

Turkey’s Glow Dims as Government Limits Free Speech - NYTimes.com: "Human rights advocates say they fear that with the Arab Spring lending new regional influence to Turkey, the United States and Europe are turning a blind eye to encroaching authoritarianism there. “Turkey’s democracy may be a good benchmark when compared with Egypt, Libya or Syria,” said Hakan Altinay, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. “But the whole region will suffer if Turkey is allowed to disregard the values of liberal democracy.”"

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Nothing that can't change with a little will power at the top. Journalists don't bite. Truth doesn't hurt the way lies do.

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Only one out for Yahoo - last time I'll say it

Scott Thompson, PayPal Executive, to Become Chief of Yahoo - NYTimes.com:

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The world is going local, work at home. That means free lance. Yahoo could outbid all the writing sites and corner the free-lance content market. But it does not have the stuff or the vision to get that done. To accomplish it requires a willingness to limit content to what is actually original and well written. To hire real editors who can develop writers and other content producers. This would set Yahoo apart from its competitors. It could become the king and queen of citizens' content.

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I gave up vacations long ago, flying too

19 Web Sites for Travel Savings in 2012 - NYTimes.com: "HIGHER hotel prices, airline capacity cuts and rising travel demand mean travelers will have to work harder to find a good deal in 2012. But there are plenty of online tools to help keep your vacation expenses in check. Here are 19 go-to Web sites to help you save money this year."

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Maybe I'll take a train and watch a ballgame in Tampa in March. Never say never I know. But it seems to me there must be a category between the 99 percent and the one percent. How else could anyone afford to travel. Then there is the implicit reification in the name your own price dynamic. From the corporate point of view it translates to squeeze the last nickel. There I've rained on everything. In defense of sitting on the front stoop. Oh I forgot, we don't have one.

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Internet Access Is Definitely A Human Right

Internet Access Is Not a Human Right - NYTimes.com: "But that argument, however well meaning, misses a larger point: technology is an enabler of rights, not a right itself. There is a high bar for something to be considered a human right. Loosely put, it must be among the things we as humans need in order to lead healthy, meaningful lives, like freedom from torture or freedom of conscience. It is a mistake to place any particular technology in this exalted category, since over time we will end up valuing the wrong things. For example, at one time if you didn’t have a horse it was hard to make a living. But the important right in that case was the right to make a living, not the right to a horse. Today, if I were granted a right to have a horse, I’m not sure where I would put it."

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This is a red herring. It will get tons of response. But it is simple. The relative cheapness is an invitation to universal use. Since the suppressing of access will mainly come from oppressive elites and regimes, the rights matter is obvious. Rights include the right to access. And will.

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The crunch will come when higher education is completely unaffordable

Harder for Americans to Rise From Lower Rungs - NYTimes.com: "One reason for the mobility gap may be the depth of American poverty, which leaves poor children starting especially far behind. Another may be the unusually large premiums that American employers pay for college degrees. Since children generally follow their parents’ educational trajectory, that premium increases the importance of family background and stymies people with less schooling."

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Tyler Brûlé - Mr. Zeitgeist - This is The Fate of the Liberal Arts

Tyler Brûlé - Mr. Zeitgeist - NYTimes.com: "ON a rainy Thursday last month, Tyler Brûlé huddled over a cappuccino at Le Pain Quotidien in Greenwich Village, offering a peek at the future: a Heritage G2 tabletop radio designed for Monocle 24, a new radio station he is starting."

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Seems to me that the liberal arts devolved into this content-free piece which exemplifies the NYT's long term commitment to assisting its readers to become power consumers without reflecting too much on the way the system actually works. It's a permission thing. A nod to ignore the beast.

Then there is this:

Should Tyler Brûlé get his just deserts after MediaGuardian 100 vote scandal? | Media | guardian.co.uk: "An investigation revealed that Brulé's 160 last-minute votes were all cast from a single internet address. And the IP address corresponded to ... the London headquarters of Brûlé's publishing group, Winkreative."


Shades of Sarah Palin.



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