Modern Europe was formed by milk-drinking Russians: Mass migration brought new genetic make-up to continent 5,000 years ago from the Daily Mail
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3119310/How-white-Europeans-arrived-5-000-years-ago-Mass-migration-southern-Russia-brought-new-technology-dairy-farming-continent.html
Sunday, September 20, 2015
Saturday, September 19, 2015
Sharing economy in Seoul, South Korea: Great perspectives from a Fulbright scholar
Sharing economy in Seoul, South Korea: Great perspectives from a Fulbright scholar
http://techcrunch.com/2015/08/14/lessons-from-seouls-two-sharing-economies/
http://techcrunch.com/2015/08/14/lessons-from-seouls-two-sharing-economies/
Monday, September 14, 2015
DC gentrification: flipping a city
Good visualization below of DC gentrification nudging eastward and southward into once-black neighborhoods.
I counted six new condos on a single block in the Mt. Vernon Triangle area last weekend. Driving through these areas the contrast could not be starker: young yuppie millenials supported by their parents sipping lattes on the way to the new Wal-Mart alongside the residents from the housing projects two blocks away. It feels like the whole city is in the process of being flipped.
From 2002 to 2013 according to this site there were 600 new condos built plus another 680 rental apartment buildings.
http://dcinno.streetwise.co/2014/10/07/map-fix-see-where-all-of-dcs-new-condos-have-been-built-over-12-years/
What I don't get is how there are that many people who can afford these luxury apartments--and they all seem to be luxury apartments. I believe people who really can't truly afford them are buying them anyway, that's the housing addiction we live by in America. See the Housing Bomb
http://www.amazon.com/The-Housing-Bomb-Environment-Threatening/dp/1421410656
Affordable housing in DC does not exist, unless you live in a bedroom in somebody else's condo.
Take a look at this graph: all the growth has been at the highest-rent levels while the lower-rent levels are phasing out. The Founding Fathers thought DC should never become a place of luxury where elites could take root, now it is becoming a boutique town.
http://dcinno.streetwise.co/2014/10/07/map-fix-see-where-all-of-dcs-new-condos-have-been-built-over-12-years/
And notice the highest growth is in $1500 "or more." In DC there "or more" is often a lot more.
I love the new "cool" names they are giving to the gentrified neighborhoods:
Mt. Vernon Triangle
NoMa
Atlas District
Each of these is essentially just a motherload of condos with the obligatory smattering along the street level of Starbucks and wanna-be chic bars and cafes, Wal-mart, Potbelly, these are the faces of the new DC--the same faces we see at every shopping center.
Even the new independent restaurants are still just restaurants, just more consumption. How about a High Line for DC, something to do?
What strikes me is how, despite the newness of the buildings, there is so little that is innovative about the construction.
By the way, whenever you hear someone say "there's nobody who is really from DC," that tells you two things: 1) that person is not really from DC and 2) they have no idea what they're talking about. My grandfather came to DC in the 1860s.
What a divided city!
I counted six new condos on a single block in the Mt. Vernon Triangle area last weekend. Driving through these areas the contrast could not be starker: young yuppie millenials supported by their parents sipping lattes on the way to the new Wal-Mart alongside the residents from the housing projects two blocks away. It feels like the whole city is in the process of being flipped.
From 2002 to 2013 according to this site there were 600 new condos built plus another 680 rental apartment buildings.
http://dcinno.streetwise.co/2014/10/07/map-fix-see-where-all-of-dcs-new-condos-have-been-built-over-12-years/
What I don't get is how there are that many people who can afford these luxury apartments--and they all seem to be luxury apartments. I believe people who really can't truly afford them are buying them anyway, that's the housing addiction we live by in America. See the Housing Bomb
http://www.amazon.com/The-Housing-Bomb-Environment-Threatening/dp/1421410656
Affordable housing in DC does not exist, unless you live in a bedroom in somebody else's condo.
Take a look at this graph: all the growth has been at the highest-rent levels while the lower-rent levels are phasing out. The Founding Fathers thought DC should never become a place of luxury where elites could take root, now it is becoming a boutique town.
http://dcinno.streetwise.co/2014/10/07/map-fix-see-where-all-of-dcs-new-condos-have-been-built-over-12-years/
And notice the highest growth is in $1500 "or more." In DC there "or more" is often a lot more.
I love the new "cool" names they are giving to the gentrified neighborhoods:
Mt. Vernon Triangle
NoMa
Atlas District
Each of these is essentially just a motherload of condos with the obligatory smattering along the street level of Starbucks and wanna-be chic bars and cafes, Wal-mart, Potbelly, these are the faces of the new DC--the same faces we see at every shopping center.
Even the new independent restaurants are still just restaurants, just more consumption. How about a High Line for DC, something to do?
What strikes me is how, despite the newness of the buildings, there is so little that is innovative about the construction.
By the way, whenever you hear someone say "there's nobody who is really from DC," that tells you two things: 1) that person is not really from DC and 2) they have no idea what they're talking about. My grandfather came to DC in the 1860s.
What a divided city!
Strange time zones: +14
There is actually a +14 time zone. It is found in Kiribati (pop. just over 100,000) and the Line Islands which are split between Kiribati and the US. These islands are mostly coral atolls including Kiritimati the largest atoll in the world by area.
So it is actually possible to be 26 hours ahead of another place on earth.
Kiritimati one of the Line Islands and part of the country of Kiribati
Kiritimati one of the Line Islands and part of the country of Kiribati
Saturday, September 12, 2015
Profile of Kerala a unique state in India
Profile of Kerala a unique state in India situated along the tropical Malabar Coast.
-Highest human development index (HDI), literacy rate, life expectancy and lowest population growth in India
-Extremely multicultural and multireligious: 55% Hindu, 27% Muslim, 18% Christian
-Kerala has a communist state government yet also has an electoral system... hence the term "democratic communism"
-Gets massive monsoon rains in June-Aug and contains large areas of rainforest.
-Has been a key stop on global trade routes for centuries
Kerala's Democratic Communism
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v3AlXiCtaB8
-Highest human development index (HDI), literacy rate, life expectancy and lowest population growth in India
-Kerala has a communist state government yet also has an electoral system... hence the term "democratic communism"
-Gets massive monsoon rains in June-Aug and contains large areas of rainforest.
-Has been a key stop on global trade routes for centuries
Kerala's Democratic Communism
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v3AlXiCtaB8
Mongdragon Cooperatives of the Basque region of Spain
Mongdragon Cooperatives of the Basque region of Spain
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ZoI0C1mPek
The companies' goal is not just to make money but to create jobs. Employees are the owners.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ZoI0C1mPek
The companies' goal is not just to make money but to create jobs. Employees are the owners.
Geography of languages
Jorie Graham discusses the benefits of writing in English vs. other languages.
Why Is English Better for Poetry Than the Romance Languages?
-Romance languages are based on common Latin from the Roman empire mixed with the underlying existing languages in the Roman provinces. She makes the point that the farther you go away from the center of the Roman Empire, the more influence the preexisting native language had on the modern Romance language that developed there.
Why Is English Better for Poetry Than the Romance Languages?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b5zEuks2DmI
-Romance languages are based on common Latin from the Roman empire mixed with the underlying existing languages in the Roman provinces. She makes the point that the farther you go away from the center of the Roman Empire, the more influence the preexisting native language had on the modern Romance language that developed there.
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