What is green, the size of a car, and costs $.25 an hour? A: The parklet. The parklet was created by the design firm, Rebar, in San Francisco in 2005. A parklet is a mini park placed in parking spaces in urban environments. Originally designed as a simple green space with a bench and a tree, some parklets now have Wifi and even a USB port so people can charge their … [Read more...] about Urban Inventions: Taking Back the City
Archives for October 2012
Brain Fodder: Bobby McFerrin Plays… the Audience!
What’s there to learn from TED this week? TED’s “Best of the Web” collection showcases speeches and performances gathered from across the web deemed worth sharing. Surely the viral hits TED collects will never be on the same caliber as the seventeen-second clip of “Surprised Kitty” or other similar hits on YouTube, but Bobby McFerrin’s performance of the pentatonic scale does … [Read more...] about Brain Fodder: Bobby McFerrin Plays… the Audience!
TV Culture: “The Mindy Project” Earns an A+ in Cultural Comedy
Mindy Kaling, widely known from The Office, successfully debuted her own project last month on Fox. The Mindy Project follows Mindy Lahiri (Kaling) through her professional and personal life as an OB/GYN in pursuit of love. As a 31 year-old doctor, Mindy is eager to find a good man and is devoted to quoting cheesy lines from her favorite romantic comedies until she finds him. … [Read more...] about TV Culture: “The Mindy Project” Earns an A+ in Cultural Comedy
Urban Inventions: To Fliz or Not to Fliz
Statistics show that chances are, if you are reading this blog, you are somewhere in a city – maybe you are sitting in traffic on the 110, waiting for the T, or sipping a cold iced coffee at Starbucks, trying to stay cool in this ridiculous Los Angeles heat wave. In 2008, half the world lived in an urban environment. By 2050, it is estimated that 70% of the world’s population … [Read more...] about Urban Inventions: To Fliz or Not to Fliz