tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6395564333682113597.post6531873038327508894..comments2024-03-12T11:27:58.144+13:00Comments on Black Poison Soul: Social Microclimate Black Poison Soulhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07378635809751908950noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6395564333682113597.post-90746752343202447692016-02-20T04:14:14.973+13:002016-02-20T04:14:14.973+13:00Well, Warsaw in the year 1945 must have been an in...Well, Warsaw in the year 1945 must have been an interesting sight, if you search for its images. The restoration efforts under Soviets were less than impressive. It was another soulless modern city of drab concrete and glass like hundreds of others, when I lived there. Starówka was one of rare exceptions.Mindstormhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02949097462978386911noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6395564333682113597.post-88813509466814462052016-02-13T17:26:55.556+13:002016-02-13T17:26:55.556+13:00Thought experiment for doing the job right the fir...Thought experiment for doing the job right the first time:<br /><br />Imagine cities with no traffic issues, because the roads were built plentifully and properly. You need to go 120mph, you can do it without fear of tearing up the surface of the road or being slowed by road-works.<br /><br />Instead the roads are relatively narrow, restrictive, and there is quite often road-works making the traffic situation worse. To boot, you're stuck in a traffic-jam in a place with drab vertical walls and nothing that looks even halfway good around you. (I've seen some cities in America without even narrow sidewalks. Nasty. Some parts of New Zealand are not much better.)Black Poison Soulhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07378635809751908950noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6395564333682113597.post-34155170014781862072016-02-13T17:22:05.274+13:002016-02-13T17:22:05.274+13:00I tend to think that a sane society would build th...I tend to think that a sane society would build the best possible at the time. The 200 year old roads would be built - then the freed-up future work potential is used to build more. Instead we waste our future energy/potential on constant repair rather than intermittent repair.<br /><br />Though perhaps I'm the insane one, claiming that a sane society would do X.Black Poison Soulhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07378635809751908950noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6395564333682113597.post-26657474310822267222016-02-12T16:11:48.107+13:002016-02-12T16:11:48.107+13:00Brilliant post. My dad was a mechanic for a long t...Brilliant post. My dad was a mechanic for a long time, and quit shortly after they started putting computers in cars. He used to lament about how much plastic went into them, but then always came back to the fact that they never cheap out on the parts that could kill you if they fail; namely, the suspension. Though it seems they are even doing that now. I think you hit the nail on the head with planned obsolescence. The thinking is if you make it TOO good, it will be too expensive to buy. And you can't make enough profit selling people a good once every generation. Think of how many people would be out of work if we built 200-year roads? Or 30-year cars? <br /><br />Langdon Winner offer some great insight regarding what to do about our technology<br /><br />http://www.amazon.com/Autonomous-Technology-Technics-out---Control-Political/dp/0262730499/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1455246520&sr=8-1&keywords=langdon+winner+autonomous+technologyEduardo the Magnificentnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6395564333682113597.post-18539567689546344092016-02-10T06:31:41.208+13:002016-02-10T06:31:41.208+13:00True, anything abandoned doesn't last well. I ...True, anything abandoned doesn't last well. I should have been clearer on that. Interesting, I noticed those seams when I drove some of those highways - it didn't bother me that much. The reason might be that I'm used to the constant potholes in NZ highways plus growing up with gravel roads (no seal at all).<br /><br />You might be right that it's a conscious decision.<br /><br />Interesting re St. Michaels Cathedral. I visited Dresden in Germany about twenty years ago. The place had been bombed completely flat, yet they'd taken the effort to restore and rebuild the old buildings (the Semper Opera House, museum, guild buildings, etc).<br /><br />They were in the process of restoring the Church of Our Lady, the Frauenkirche, though they had stopped temporarily. The construction had revealed an old village that nobody had known about, so for a while it was turned into an archaeological dig. Now it is <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/history/world-war-two/11397715/Dresden-The-wounds-have-healed-but-the-scars-still-show.html" rel="nofollow">completed</a>.<br /><br />It is strangely funny, the will to beauty in some places and the will to drabness in others.Black Poison Soulhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07378635809751908950noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6395564333682113597.post-86954959867671939462016-02-10T01:33:51.713+13:002016-02-10T01:33:51.713+13:00I grew up near one of those concrete highways in P...I grew up near one of those concrete highways in Pennsylvania. It's still in good shape decades later (with maintenance -- abandoned concrete roads don't last so well). <br /><br />The trouble is the transverse seams every 20 feet or whatever. Driving along, you feel every one. It gets annoying. I think people just don't like them. <br /><br />I think you're wrong about the impetus behind lousy modern architecture, by the way. I think they're consciously putting us in our place. They have our money, and they're going to spend it on shit to teach us a lesson. <br /><br />Remember St. Michaels Cathedral in Coventry, which was famously bombed by the Nazis? They replaced it with a shitty brick jail. Just to say "So sorry the Nazis took your cathedral, but we've decided you can't have it back. Because fuck you, that's why". <br /><br />Sven Svennsennoreply@blogger.com