EgoEimi's recent activity
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Comment on Scammers are targeting teenage boys on social media—and driving some to suicide in ~life.men
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Comment on An honest assessment of American rural white resentment is long overdue in ~misc
EgoEimi Link ParentTrue, but that's also true of every community, and especially true of people who lack education: they are susceptible to content that affirm their biases. The purpose of education is challenge...True, but that's also true of every community, and especially true of people who lack education: they are susceptible to content that affirm their biases.
The purpose of education is challenge one's own biases and to (hopefully) cultivate a mind that continually self-examines.
Aren't rural whites living a bubble though? I think there's little social crossover with liberal educated or POC societal bubbles.
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Comment on An honest assessment of American rural white resentment is long overdue in ~misc
EgoEimi Link ParentFinding racism in poor, uneducated communities disconnected from the social mainstream shouldn't be surprising. There's the same kind and intensity of racism in poor Black and Latino communities....Finding racism in poor, uneducated communities disconnected from the social mainstream shouldn't be surprising. There's the same kind and intensity of racism in poor Black and Latino communities.
That kind of relative low social status, lack of education, and social disconnection/isolation naturally produce racism.
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Comment on Vancouver’s new mega-development is big, ambitious and undeniably Indigenous in ~design
EgoEimi (edited )Link ParentMy academic background is in architecture with a focus on architectural history, and my interests are in Islamic and East Asian architecture, so I'm not approaching this from a lay perspective....Something being built with modern techniques, sensibilities, and materials does not mean it is "western" - or white, if you'd rather use that vernacular. Unless you, yourself, are a member of the Squamish nation, I don't think you get to tell them what is and isn't "their style."
My academic background is in architecture with a focus on architectural history, and my interests are in Islamic and East Asian architecture, so I'm not approaching this from a lay perspective. Architecture is, has been, and always will be a reflection of power and society of its time, and it can be critically analyzed.
There is no statement of revolution or of defiance against western modernism/the city/whatever. It's a statement that "they are still here" and that they matter, that they can make their own choices.
I think that it fails to make that statement; I think that the architectural statement this project makes in the larger arc of architecture and urbanism is: we have acquiesced to and are subsumed in the aesthetics and logic of the western modernist tradition and capitalism.
As for the rest of your post ... I can appreciate what you've accumulated there, and I will posit that they are all beautiful, and I'm certain that the locals all highly value each project! But Chilean neighborhoods, manufactured cities in Bhutan, and an EXPO Habitat built by an Israeli-Canadian are not examples of what Squamish design "should be".
They're not examples of what Squamish design should be, they're examples of how architecture could address resident and cultural needs and desires in ways that mainstream architecture doesn't. They aim to allow individuals to program their own spaces, to continue vernacular traditions, or to program for different ways to interact with space and community.
I read through Revery Architecture's brief for the Sen̓áḵw development, and it's just an ordinary mixed-use luxury development with ground level retail and above-ground-level apartments.
Anyway, I just wanted to present an alternative critical viewpoint because I think that the author is actually incorrect in presenting the design as indigenous.
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Comment on Vancouver’s new mega-development is big, ambitious and undeniably Indigenous in ~design
EgoEimi (edited )Link ParentI think that Alejandro Aravena's Quinta Monroy project has an interesting concept where the units are half-unbuilt to allow residents to finish them according to their needs, whether as gardens,...I think that Alejandro Aravena's Quinta Monroy project has an interesting concept where the units are half-unbuilt to allow residents to finish them according to their needs, whether as gardens, balconies, an additional bedroom, and so on. I think that concept allows people to organically participate in the formation of their environment, versus this project where Revrey Architecture (the project architect) plans the shape of people's environments from the outset.
Even though BIG is a Danish firm, the design they did for a Bhutanese master planned city did a better job of incorporating local design and architectural motifs like the bucket arch? (I put ? because it's structurally similar to the dougong), a vernacular structural feature, versus this project which is a fundamentally western luxury housing development with some indigenous art slapped on here and there.
Habitat 67 is a pretty revolutionary design where it interlocked units so that walkways and garden terraces would flow around and between units. It has inspired and informed similar terraced buildings like BIG's Sluishuis. The residents have to interact with their community directly, versus residents of typical apartment/condo towers who enter the ground floor lobby and then take the elevator directly to their apartment floor, bypassing everyone in between.
I think that fundamentally this is just a run-of-the-mill western luxury housing development with some indigenous decor that just happens to be built on reserve land to generate income for the tribe. Good for them, but I think the author is way overselling this as some sort of indigenous architectural or urban revolution.
Edit: I also think that the author doesn't fully see that from a critical perspective the project architecture is actually just a continuation of western modernism. Not that it really matters, but whatever it is, it's definitely not indigenous defiance thereof.
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Comment on Vancouver’s new mega-development is big, ambitious and undeniably Indigenous in ~design
EgoEimi LinkSpeaking from an architectural perspective, the design is definitely western. It could blend in beside the Hudson Yards in NYC. Standard curtain wall system. Monolithic masses. Curved balconies...In Sen̓áḵw’s case, it’s Indigenous by design, whatever it might look like to others.
Speaking from an architectural perspective, the design is definitely western. It could blend in beside the Hudson Yards in NYC. Standard curtain wall system. Monolithic masses. Curved balconies with planters recall the Bosco Verticale by Stefano Boeri and the Aqua Tower by Jeanne Gang. The public spaces are excessively (pre-)programmed, allowing little or no organic landscape infill processes.
I think it was a missed opportunity to design something spectacular and revolutionary, but whatever, more housing is nice.
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Comment on US President Joe Biden's 2024 State of the Union address in ~news
EgoEimi Link ParentWe should take a moment to appreciate how this carefully choreographed and produced video — clearly no symbol went unconsidered — has the female senator not at a podium or in an office but... in a...We should take a moment to appreciate how this carefully choreographed and produced video — clearly no symbol went unconsidered — has the female senator not at a podium or in an office but... in a kitchen.
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Comment on Mundane Musings Monday in ~talk
EgoEimi LinkI just ordered a cappuccino with oat milk at a coffee shop and the barista rang me up for $7.27 before tip and after taxes and whatever new surcharges SF has come up with. The oat milk had a...I just ordered a cappuccino with oat milk at a coffee shop and the barista rang me up for $7.27 before tip and after taxes and whatever new surcharges SF has come up with.
The oat milk had a surcharge of $1. It's an outrage! Let's break it down.
A cappuccino has 6 oz. of steamed milk. This place claims to use Clover Sonoma Organic Whole Milk. A gallon of that costs $8.50 at retail (tax-exempt), so 6.64¢ per oz. So a normal cappuccino's milk would cost $0.40 in material even with pre-mo milk.
I don't know what kind of oat milk they use, but let's presume it's also the pre-mo stuff, Oatly Barista Edition, which costs $5.29 for a 32oz carton, or 16.53¢ per oz. But you can buy it in bulk for $90 for 24 cartons, so $3.75 for a 32oz carton, or 11.72¢ per oz. So this is our range. An oat milk cappuccino's 'milk' would cost $0.70–0.99 in material. Plus oat milk is much more shelf stable than regular milk, so there's less waste.
So, substituting in premium oat milk costs the coffee shop $0.30-59 more. But they could probably use cheaper oat milk and cut the absolute cost of the oat milk down by 25–35%.
Anyway, it's Monday and I'm George Constanza-ing over oat milk.
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Comment on What are your values? in ~life
EgoEimi LinkAnimal rights. I've been pescatarian for years but lately I've been on the rapid path toward veganism by phasing out eggs and milk. I'm not a true 'vegan' since I'm willing to eat shellfish and...Animal rights.
I've been pescatarian for years but lately I've been on the rapid path toward veganism by phasing out eggs and milk. I'm not a true 'vegan' since I'm willing to eat shellfish and insects because they're mindless even though they're taxonomically "animals".
The facts about the origin of animal products were never unknown to me. But I never felt their moral truth and I never sought it out. It only suddenly wrapped itself around me several years ago and refused to loosen its grip since.
The weird thing about going vegan-ish is that it has made me more tolerant of human moral failure. I'm not at all a tut-tutting vegan/vegetarian at the dinner table: I never try to debate animal rights and shame others for their dietary choices — at least in person with IRL friends and acquaintances. I only mention it here.
Controversial parallel: I find it a bit amusing that so many people like to rag on slaveowners like Thomas Jefferson, who himself had a moral quandary in owning slaves yet thought the institution was incompatible with personal liberty. It's incredibly hard to escape the moral milieu of one's society: we breathe it in like air, unaware. It's really easy for an average person to moralize from the modern era, but were they dropped back in the 1700s, they probably would have accepted it as an unfortunate but unfixable fact of life. I think it's certain that people in the distant future will view us similar to how we view people of the 1700s.
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Comment on A mistake in a Tesla and a panicked final call: The death of Angela Chao in ~transport
EgoEimi Link ParentI think people just enjoy being reminded that death—in all its mundanity—is the great equalizer.I think people just enjoy being reminded that death—in all its mundanity—is the great equalizer.
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Comment on Fertility rates are falling in the rich world. But there are still plenty of people to go round. in ~life
EgoEimi Link ParentI did some volunteer work for LGBT seniors in various assisted or independent living situations. All were childless. Honestly, their being childless and elderly struck me as an utterly lonely and...What am I giving up by not having kids? Sure, I save some dollars, but I give up literally every single positive experience I would ever have with said children. I will not see my kids learn and grow. I will not see their first steps. I will not hear their first words or be able to teach them to read. I will not die knowing that my genetics will go on. I will not die like my grandfather did, with three generations of kids, grandkids, and great grandkids at his bedside.
I did some volunteer work for LGBT seniors in various assisted or independent living situations. All were childless. Honestly, their being childless and elderly struck me as an utterly lonely and depressing existence. Friends often move on in life with their own partners and move to other cities and states and countries, as did these seniors'. So there I was: I was their sole phone call, chit chat, and helping hand. They were without the close network that a family often provides in the final chapter of their lives.
Maybe our culture will evolve and we will start considering certain friends as close as families and include them in our households, finances, life planning, etc.
Anyway, I agree, there are tremendous sacrifices. People think about childlessness in terms of having more free income and time. But they don't weigh enough what happens in the final third of their lives when their brunch/vacation couples friends move or drift away and it gets really hard to make organic social connections with non-related members of the younger generations.
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Comment on Romantic love is an under-rated driver of gender equality in ~life
EgoEimi Link ParentIt's worth noting that there is a non-western reaction to western progressivism and its ideals of gender equality and liberation, LGBT rights, and so on. Russia, China, Iran, and many African...It's worth noting that there is a non-western reaction to western progressivism and its ideals of gender equality and liberation, LGBT rights, and so on. Russia, China, Iran, and many African countries are finding common ground in their opposition to those ideals. I think it is worrying that opposition to those ideals have become an instrument for international political organization.
Straight from the Kremlin's mouth: http://en.kremlin.ru/events/president/news/71814 (Ok, technically from Patriach Kirill's, but everyone knows the church is just an extension of the state.)
We sometimes have to defend them under very difficult circumstances. The world has changed beyond recognition over the past decades. I do not mean so much the political map, or the economy, or technological progress as much as I mean the dangerous spiritual and moral climate, which Western countries are fostering actively and even aggressively. Moral relativism, the cult of consumption, freedom misinterpreted as permissiveness, and the eradication of the traditional family are only some of the problems of the system of values, which certain forces are promoting in the West, or rather anti-values because their adoption will inevitably bring humanity to deep cultural and spiritual degradation.
Thankfully, this danger is not only apparent to Russia, where laws are adopted to protect society from the propaganda of a culture that is alien to us and features that are amoral, but also to African countries.
I know that despite the powerful pressure placed on them, the absolute majority of African countries categorically reject the legalisation of the so-called same-sex unions, euthanasia, and other phenomena that are religious sins. This mutual rejection clearly brings our positions closer together. We proceed from the same basic principles, and therefore we are always happy to meet with likeminded people.
Unfortunately, today, not everyone in the international arena is always ready to engage in a dialogue of equals. Several Western countries still cannot overcome their colonial past and continue to think and act according to this template. Hopefully, the development of good relations between Russia and the African countries will help further promote traditional moral values around the world.
(anyway, in that conference Russia and a slew of African countries co-signed a declaration to that effect.)
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Comment on A man who crashed a snowmobile into a parked Black Hawk helicopter is suing the government for $9.5M in ~transport
EgoEimi (edited )Link ParentI'm sympathetic to the plaintiff and think that the defendant is at fault. As a parallel, I was involved in a personal injury lawsuit where a city had built a bike lane through unmarked and...I'm sympathetic to the plaintiff and think that the defendant is at fault.
As a parallel, I was involved in a personal injury lawsuit where a city had built a bike lane through unmarked and unsigned speed bumps that were materially identical as the pavement rendering them invisible, so I got a decent look at how this would play out. For the plaintiff to have a strong case, they have to prove constructive or actual notice.
Basically, actual notice is where the property owner actually knew that the dangerous conditions existed; constructive notice is where the property owner reasonably should have known.
It could be argued that the helicopter's stealth technology is a kind of weapon, and the property owner, the airstrip owner and the government had together placed but failed to secure the weaponry on their premises where the airstrip has invited the public to enjoy.
There's also comparative negligence, a type of negligence where each party contributes negligence. So depending on Mass. law, the plaintiff's modest intoxication could shift some but not all negligence to him, thereby reducing how much he might win from the government.
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Comment on 350,000 Californians are now on the FAIR Plan, the last resort for fire insurance. Now what? in ~finance
EgoEimi Link ParentI'm in favor of managed retreat, but I'm sympathetic to the holdouts. Living in the forests of California was their dream; their communities and lives are rooted there. And if they sell or take a...I'm in favor of managed retreat, but I'm sympathetic to the holdouts. Living in the forests of California was their dream; their communities and lives are rooted there.
And if they sell or take a buyout they'll never have enough money to afford an equally nice life within California. They'd be scattered to become strangers in distant states or, if they choose to stay in California, in some bad area.
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Comment on Climate deniers don't deny climate change any more. They do something worse. in ~enviro
EgoEimi Link ParentFundamentally, people want status and creature comforts, so people will consume more, so they will produce more. Even the poorest 10% of Americans have a carbon footprint comparable to 90% of...Fundamentally, people want status and creature comforts, so people will consume more, so they will produce more.
Even the poorest 10% of Americans have a carbon footprint comparable to 90% of India (excluding India's wealthiest 10%), according to the NYT. Our lifestyles are not sustainable at any socioeconomic level, whether it's Taylor Swift's or some poor American living in Mississippi.
Ultimately, it's up to people to redefine status outside the paradigm of consumption.
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Comment on American teachers are missing more school, and there are too few substitutes in ~life
EgoEimi Link ParentI mentioned in another comment that the democratic (electoral) process that controls education enables parents and their children to be the consumers of education as a product and influence its...I mentioned in another comment that the democratic (electoral) process that controls education enables parents and their children to be the consumers of education as a product and influence its production.
There really ought to be appointed officials who are relatively insulated from politics who wield power to enforce long-term educational objectives that are in the long-term interests of parents and their children, much like how the FDA acts in the interests of consumers who are unable to watch their own interests when it comes to food and drugs.
I've also mentioned in a controversial comment on another thread that there ought to be parenting classes. The parents who don't care or, maybe worse, think that they're helping their children by enabling their poor behavior or school performance—they don't want their children to get left behind by their peers and feel bad, etc.—in the short term are unable to foresee the long-term consequences: their children come out of the school system dumb and socially maladjusted with little to offer to our society and an advanced knowledge economy, perhaps destined for a lifetime of crap jobs or the prison-industrial complex.
Perhaps schools should offer these parents a Child Future Simulator, where you plug in the child's academic and behavioral record, show their remaining K-12 school trajectory sans intervention, and then show their probabilistic futures, to help them better connect the dots between their short-term enabling and the long-term consequences.
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Comment on American teachers are missing more school, and there are too few substitutes in ~life
EgoEimi (edited )Link ParentI'm not sure. Corporate America wants reliable, educated workers. American education culture is all about questioning authority, compared to European and especially Asian education cultures. We're...I'm not sure. Corporate America wants reliable, educated workers. American education culture is all about questioning authority, compared to European and especially Asian education cultures. We're also failing to educate many students to even push a button.
I think the 'dismantling' of education is just an emergent process, resulting from:
- Mainstream American culture not valuing education much
- The consequences of underfunding education are felt decades late, so voters feel little urgency
- The democratic process that controls education actually harms it by subjecting educators to local whims
edit:
- Mainstream American culture not valuing education much
On this point, we do see that certain communities that do value education have good academic results, exceeding expectations even when adjusted for income: Jewish, Chinese, Indian, Nigerian, etc.
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Comment on American teachers are missing more school, and there are too few substitutes in ~life
EgoEimi LinkI recently caught up with a friend who's trying out substitute teaching in the Bay Area. He's Jewish, and he recounted how some students have straight up told him that they're not going to respect...When teachers do miss work, there often are not enough substitutes available to fill in. In Des Moines, officials can typically find substitutes for a little over half of the 300 daily absences.
Some substitutes were reluctant to return after the pandemic closures; others took different jobs and never came back. The pay for substitutes, which averages around $20 an hour, is less competitive in a strong economy.
I recently caught up with a friend who's trying out substitute teaching in the Bay Area. He's Jewish, and he recounted how some students have straight up told him that they're not going to respect him because he's white. He's not going to stick with it. The pay is meh, and the children suck.
I see a lot of it boiling down to:
- Teachers are underpaid relative to cost of living.
- Students have more discipline issues nowadays.
Together it gives teaching the impression of being a financially and emotionally unrewarding as a profession. There's a part of me that wants to teach children — but I also met this one teacher from Stockton who walked with a cane because her students had pushed her down the stairs twice; she told me to avoid teaching at all costs.
I think the underfunding and under-supporting of education and our teachers will have major ramifications down the road. Half of California students don't meet state standards for language; for math, that's two-thirds not meeting standards. How are these kids going to make it in an increasingly competitive, knowledge-intensive world? (My guess is they're not.)
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Comment on The hottest trend in US cities? Changing zoning rules to allow more housing. in ~design
EgoEimi Link ParentI want to have children someday. I want them to run downstairs excited to hop on their bikes and ride — on friendly, safe, car-free streets lush with vegetation — to go meet their friends. I want...I want to have children someday. I want them to run downstairs excited to hop on their bikes and ride — on friendly, safe, car-free streets lush with vegetation — to go meet their friends. I want them to have lots and lots of other friends living within 10 minutes of biking distance, so they can go on lots of adventures instead of feeling stuck at home.
I want to bump into my neighbors gardening and working on neighborhood projects and chit chat.
I'm really happy to see US cities slowly changing course.
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Comment on Alexei Navalny, galvanizing opposition leader and Vladimir Putin’s fiercest foe, died in prison, Russia says in ~news
EgoEimi LinkThe world is full of tragedies, but this one really hurts. Alexei Navalny was not a perfect person and had troubling aspects. But his commitment to higher principles of democracy was deeply...The world is full of tragedies, but this one really hurts.
Alexei Navalny was not a perfect person and had troubling aspects. But his commitment to higher principles of democracy was deeply admirable. He chose to return to Russia. He had to have known that he would someday Putin's government would eventually kill him, yet he still chose to return to stoically engage in non-violent opposition and die for it.
The human race produces very few of these individuals.
I think your reaction may stem from how paedophiles and ephebophiles are driven by a nature they did not choose, and which there is little/no treatment and no community support.
But these scammers could do literally anything else for money: even selling MLM schemes would be a big moral step-up.