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Tag Archives: Technology
Songs of electric car silence
One of the endearing features of electric and hybrid cars is the silence of their engines. So of course that feature is about to meet its maker. U.S. and E.U. regulators are calling for noisemaking electric engines for safety reasons. … Continue reading
Posted in Architecture, Humor
Tagged Apocalypse Now, Beethoven, Electric Cars, Jimmy Carter, Mozart, Music, Providence Schools, Shawshank Redemption, Silent Engines, Technology, Wagner
6 Comments
The sinister self-driving car
The Atlantic has a very interesting article, “How Self-Driving Cars Will Threaten Privacy,” by Adrienne LaFrance. It actually ran a couple of years ago, and looks forward to the convenience of life with a self-driving car. The car will listen … Continue reading
Posted in Urbanism and planning
Tagged Adrienne LaFrance, Atlantic Magazine, Automobile, Computers, Google, Privacy, Self-Driving Car, Technology
4 Comments
Hooked on bridges, are ya?
Well, here’s a treat for you. This collection of 29 “Stunning Bridges From Around the World” has some real beauts, plus a few bummers thrown in to help you appreciate the beauts a little more. The group, from the website … Continue reading
Posted in Architecture, Photography
Tagged BabaMail, Beauty, Bridge Engineering, Bridges, Strength, Technology
1 Comment
Mehaffy on “gentrification”
All change is bad. Take gentrification. Gentrification is when rich people suddenly take a liking to a poor part of town, move in, raise property values, and force longtime residents – that is, the poor – to move out. Right? … Continue reading
Posted in Architecture, Development, Providence
Tagged Edward Glaeser, Gentrification, Jane Jacobs, Livable Portland, Michael Mehaffy, Providence RI, Sustasis, Technology, Urban Policy
9 Comments
Behold the GPS landscape
In his recent essay in New York Magazine, “I Used to be a Human Being,” on how social media almost killed him, Andrew Sullivan wrote: Our oldest human skills atrophy. GPS, for example, is a godsend for finding our way … Continue reading
Self-driving auto-da-fe?
Auto-da-fé has come to mean, in common lexicon, the burning of a heretic. Give it more time and the phrase will mean self-immolation. Let me push it along a bit. The recent first death in an accident involving a self-driving … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged BLDGBLOG, Geoff Manaugh, Google, Scientific American, Self-Driving Cars, Technology, Tesla Motors
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The driverless car fiasco
Driverless cars are fast becoming the next big thing, with timelines for their arrival collapsing at breakneck speed. They remind me of the Minions. Craaashhh! The website grist.org has an article by Katie Herzog called “No One Wants Driverless Cars … Continue reading
Posted in Architects, Architecture, Art and design, Development, Urbanism and planning
Tagged Computers, Driverless Cars, Elon Musk, Google, Grist.org, Katie Herzog, Technology, Tesla, Urban Planning, Urbanism
6 Comments
“Up from Ugliness” at NYT
Here is what I wrote about a New York Times column before learning it was published not recently but in 2011. Sigh. Well, the points do remain valid. * * * Ross Douthat, a regular columnist at the New York … Continue reading
In defense of AutoCAD!
My post on CAD – which I wish I’d called “CAD or cad?” – has drawn some comment on TradArch from the technique’s defenders. Among the most eloquent and entertaining is Nathaniel Walker’s assertion that computer aided design is just … Continue reading
Posted in Architecture, Art and design, Humor, Uncategorized
Tagged ArchiCAD, art, AutoCAD, CAD, Drawing, Technology
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