Manhattan, Science studies and red family members
Living with reds, it's very important for me as a liberal/environmentalist/war-protester/Ohio-despiser/urbanite/sane person to keep up to speed on the latest works proving that the mainstream/OHIO is dead wrong. The most recent of which is an essay in the New Yorker which describes how cities can actually be better for the environment than suburban communities like the one I've spent my entire life in.
The essay made many good points, some that I knew already and some that were new to me.
While other kids in my grade were learning their times tables, my dad taught me about urban sprawl and how, in towns like Inverness, we need a car to get anywhere whereas if we lived in a city where the buildings were more densely packed or there weren't laws keeping businesses from residential areas, we could walk to the store or our jobs or a friend's house (not mentioning that I never quite learned the times tables).
In my earlier years this concept of walking baffled me, but later on as I traveled more often, it made more and more sense. The use of public transportation in NYC, for example, cuts down on the use of cars and SUVs to get around. Thus lowering the amount of air pollution. There are also buses in certain cities that run off of natural gas.
There are also so many more things in such a smaller space in cities than in towns. In one block in New York City there might be your apartment, a cafe, a bookstore, a bank and a small gym whereas in Inverness you would have to drive around for miles to get to any of these, especially if you lived in Floral city or out towards Jake's house where the only thing within walking distance is a gas station (ahh, the irony).
The author of this article also mentioned elevators as the most energy-efficient way of travel since they are operated with a counter-weight system.
In the way of science this year I guess I'm most interested in the aspects of physics and chemistry I might actually use someday. Not so much in the whole "how to make nitroglycerine" area (although that would be interesting), but more like the angles involved in making a certain thing to be stable enough to walk on or hold something up.
How to mix chemicals to make certain effects on stage (fog machines, etc). How hot some certain thing has to be to burn, things like that. Little stuff.
Biology doesn't interest me in the slightest.
Psychology maybe. I'd like to know why humans have that instinct to harm one another.
Reg mentioned a class at WTI that would teach basic home improvement stuff. Plumbing, carpentry, fixing things etc. I want to learn that.
I want to be able to go into any situation and be able to fix things. Especially electronics, I have an uncanny ability to break those, especially when some moron of a tsa teacher says "This is a pretty foolproof program, you'd have to try really hard to mess this one up" (five minutes later: "Mr Tobin, Mab crashed another hard drive" *beats monitor with keyboard*)
hehheh...
Anyways, back to the Environmental thing.
I don't see how anyone could need to live in such a sprawled place like Inverness, where you're pretty much screwed if you don't have a car because, other than Walmart and the movie theatre there is NOTHING to do here. I could save so much on gas and insurance if I just didn't have a car. I could be perfectly happy living in an apartment the size of most peoples' living rooms. No lawn to constantly take care of, no driving for over an hour to get to a hockey game or a mall or good food. Just a trip down an elevator and across the street to the Metro station. Who can't love cities? So much more efficient, so much less money spent on gas and car repairs, no nice house on the hills away from the 'hustle and bustle" with a pool and three cars, two kids and a dog but for someone who wants to remain environmentally friendly without living in a treehouse, Manhattan is the place for you.
The essay made many good points, some that I knew already and some that were new to me.
While other kids in my grade were learning their times tables, my dad taught me about urban sprawl and how, in towns like Inverness, we need a car to get anywhere whereas if we lived in a city where the buildings were more densely packed or there weren't laws keeping businesses from residential areas, we could walk to the store or our jobs or a friend's house (not mentioning that I never quite learned the times tables).
In my earlier years this concept of walking baffled me, but later on as I traveled more often, it made more and more sense. The use of public transportation in NYC, for example, cuts down on the use of cars and SUVs to get around. Thus lowering the amount of air pollution. There are also buses in certain cities that run off of natural gas.
There are also so many more things in such a smaller space in cities than in towns. In one block in New York City there might be your apartment, a cafe, a bookstore, a bank and a small gym whereas in Inverness you would have to drive around for miles to get to any of these, especially if you lived in Floral city or out towards Jake's house where the only thing within walking distance is a gas station (ahh, the irony).
The author of this article also mentioned elevators as the most energy-efficient way of travel since they are operated with a counter-weight system.
In the way of science this year I guess I'm most interested in the aspects of physics and chemistry I might actually use someday. Not so much in the whole "how to make nitroglycerine" area (although that would be interesting), but more like the angles involved in making a certain thing to be stable enough to walk on or hold something up.
How to mix chemicals to make certain effects on stage (fog machines, etc). How hot some certain thing has to be to burn, things like that. Little stuff.
Biology doesn't interest me in the slightest.
Psychology maybe. I'd like to know why humans have that instinct to harm one another.
Reg mentioned a class at WTI that would teach basic home improvement stuff. Plumbing, carpentry, fixing things etc. I want to learn that.
I want to be able to go into any situation and be able to fix things. Especially electronics, I have an uncanny ability to break those, especially when some moron of a tsa teacher says "This is a pretty foolproof program, you'd have to try really hard to mess this one up" (five minutes later: "Mr Tobin, Mab crashed another hard drive" *beats monitor with keyboard*)
hehheh...
Anyways, back to the Environmental thing.
I don't see how anyone could need to live in such a sprawled place like Inverness, where you're pretty much screwed if you don't have a car because, other than Walmart and the movie theatre there is NOTHING to do here. I could save so much on gas and insurance if I just didn't have a car. I could be perfectly happy living in an apartment the size of most peoples' living rooms. No lawn to constantly take care of, no driving for over an hour to get to a hockey game or a mall or good food. Just a trip down an elevator and across the street to the Metro station. Who can't love cities? So much more efficient, so much less money spent on gas and car repairs, no nice house on the hills away from the 'hustle and bustle" with a pool and three cars, two kids and a dog but for someone who wants to remain environmentally friendly without living in a treehouse, Manhattan is the place for you.
posted by Mabreg at 11:29 AM
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