Redevelopment of private property in urban areas is generally a good thing for the regional economy, as is renewal of public infrastructure. It can be good for people and the environment too, if there are well-thought-out and well-implemented policies in place to make sure that is the case. But when those policies are not in place, or when enlightened and well-intentioned policies founder on the rocks of change-resistant and dysfunctional institutions that are supposed to implement them, I think the default is that this is not the case. Case in point: Seattle is experiencing a redevelopment boom, and has set goals to increase its tree canopy, but the development boom has resulted in a loss of tree canopy. The city is considering measures to try to reverse that trend. I would like to see my city (Philadelphia), which is also experiencing a development boom and (anecdotally, at least, from what I see with my own eyes) also losing trees, take similar measures. But after seeing a number of enlightened and well-intentioned local policies founder on the rocks of poor implementation, my confidence in the city’s political and bureaucratic leadership at the moment is not particularly high.
Category Archives: Web Article Review
RFK Jr. doesn’t believe Sirhan Sirhan killed his father
Maybe people are a little tired of Kennedy conspiracy theories, but they just won’t go away. RFK Jr. actually went to the prison where Sirhan Sirhan is and interviewed him after examining the evidence. His conclusion, apparently, is that Sirhan Sirhan fired shots and intended to kill RFK, but a second shooter actually made the fatal shot at close range.
The Washington Post article has actual footage from the press conference just before and the confusion just after the killing, which I had never seen. You can hear a reporter saying “we don’t want another Oswald”.
microgrids in Puerto Rico
The Puerto Rico blackouts have provided some opportunities to test microgrids, or small-scale combinations of intermittent renewable energy with battery storage.
Broken transmission lines and utility poles have been repaired–at a painfully slow pace, though the majority of Puerto Ricans finally have power again–but the grid is still vulnerable (last week’s blackout followed another blackout two weeks ago). The next hurricane season is a little more than five weeks away. In the event of another storm, a network of microgrids could keep going even if the larger grid fails again…
Though the current microgrids are used at individual buildings, in theory, larger systems could support a whole community. Jonathan Marvel, a Brooklyn-based architect working with Resilient Puerto Rico, is talking to mayors about the possibility of microgrids that could provide power to 20,000 people.
Individual microgrids could also be linked together. In Arizona, Sonnen is adding solar and energy storage to thousands of new homes in a community to create a “virtual power plant” that can share energy between homes. When connected to the grid, the system helps stabilize the overall grid, but it can also operate if a disaster takes the larger grid out. Sonnen has done the same thing in Germany.
the French AI strategy
Other countries (than the United States) are developing strategies for how artificial intelligence will affect work, productivity, and growth in the near future.
France’s national strategy also reveals that Macron’s government is wrestling with how to ensure that AI supports inclusivity and diversity, and to make certain that its implementation is transparent. The French aren’t just theorizing; they’re taking action. France plans to invest 1.5 billion euros (almost $1.8 billion dollars) in the next five years in artificial intelligence research. The French are looking to create their own AI ecosystem, train the next generation of scientists and engineers, and make sure that their workforce is prepared for an automated future.
France isn’t alone. Last month, the European Union’s executive branch recommended its member states increase their public and private sector investment in AI. It also pledged billions in direct research spending. Meanwhile, China laid out its AI plan for global dominance last year, a plan that has also been backed up with massive investment. China’s goal is to lead the world in AI technology by 2030. Around the world, our global economic competitors are taking action on artificial intelligence.
It’s therefore striking that the United States doesn’t have a national artificial intelligence plan.
The fact that I don’t find it striking reflects my lowered expectations more than anything. We don’t really have a strategy for infrastructure or education either, for example.
sitting is the new smoking
“delusions of merit”
This long article describes how people who have made it tend to have have “delusions of merit“. In other words, they believe they have earned their place in society through effort or self-discipline, that those less fortunate have not made the effort or do not have the self-discipline, and therefore they feel no moral obligation to help those beneath them. The problem is, we are not talking about a vast middle class refusing to help a small underclass here. We are talking about a small minority failing to feel compassion for the vast majority of fellow people.
Philadelphia’s new rail park
This article on Philadelphia’s new rail park sounds kind of cool. Sure, we are copying an idea from New York with the typical one-decade lag, but it sounds like the designers have given some thought to ecology.
The Rail Park’s horticultural design is a “simple palette” with three main layers, he explained.
Hardy London plane trees — “the classic park tree” found along the outer lanes of the Ben Franklin Parkway and throughout the city — will dominate the upper layer. Multi-stem oaks and Kentucky coffee trees will fill in the medium layer, along with shorter redbuds and other flowering trees, American holly and Eastern red cedars. A birch grove will “play off the window boxes” that adorn a neighboring apartment building, like “a domestic landscape writ large,” Hanes said.
The lower level of plants will be more diverse, with arrangements of shrubs and perennials that include:
- Bottlebrush buckeye
- Oak leaf hydrangea and viburnums
- Sedges, tall grasses and ground covers
- Several varieties of fern
- Sumac
- Asters
- Sage
- Goldenrod
- Milkweed
- Alum root
- Wild petunias
- Wild indigo
I can vouch for this part of town being sorely in need of some wildness.
simulating animal movement in R
That’s right, this post is about simulating animal movement in R. I don’t mean movement of parts of the body, I mean movement around a habitat.
Uber Air
Google leading the self-driving car race
There has been some talk of the traditional Detroit car companies competing with Google (aka Alphabet, aka Waymo?) head to head in the development and commercialization of self-driving cars. But according to Bloomberg, that isn’t going to happen. Losers.