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Nikos A. Salingaros on tall buildings: How students of the Oslo School of Architecture and Design (AHO) envision Oslo year 2111 : Oslo year 2111? Very important new article by James Howard Kunstler: Back to the Future The vision of the students of AHO is utopia: The End of Tall Buildings Skyscrapers are fetishes: Uninhabitable high-rises Article in Aftenposten: Byfortetting? «Look to Shanghai

Etter mitt tidligere  blogginnlegg  har jeg blitt kontaktet av The Salingaros Group , som har fattet interesse for det som skjer i Oslo og Norge innen byutvikling og arkitektur. De ønsker nå å etablere ei gruppe av filosofer, politikere, skribenter etc., som kan samarbeide med The Salingaros Group og ISB i Italia. Jeg tar den frihet å gjengi fra en email jeg mottok av Nikos A. Salingaros : As we discussed, the problem is that the public has been intentionally misinformed for several decades, and thus needs to be educated today through a massive and determined effort. We are capable of building hypermodern buildings and urban spaces that match the healing and human qualities of the best examples from the past. But the architectural press and academia continue to insist with their inhuman forms, and to promote their favorite international architects who can only destroy cities. The Gruppo Salingaros is ready to help Norway, but we need to work with a group of Norwegian  w...

Da kona er fra Filippinene og dattera mi er halvt filippinsk, er dette gode nyheter! Filippinene er en av verdens virkelige "hot-spots" når det kommer til endemiske arter og unikt dyreliv, hvorav 64 prosent av landpattedyrene, 77 prosent av amfibiene og minst 31 prosent av fuglene er endemiske for landets 7100 øyer. Selv har jeg hatt gleden av å snorkle utenfor Balicasag , min største naturopplevelse ved siden av fuglefjellene utenfor Røst. Balicasag Island  Dessverre er landet truet av befolkningsvekst, palmeoljeplantasjer  (75 prosent av landets opprinnelige skoger har gått tapt) og koralldød , med en befolkning som har passert 102 millioner med en økning på to prosent i året, er det nå det folkerikeste landet i Sør-Øst Asia etter Indonesia. Les artikkelen fra Science Daily: More Than 300 New Species Discovered in the Philippines .

James Howard Kunstler Very important new article!!!! Back to the Future A road map for tomorrow's cities By James Howard Kunstler Published in the July/August 2011 issue of Orion magazine From the article: I depart from a lot of current thinking on the subject. For instance, many people seem to think that there will be more of everything — more people, taller skyscrapers, greater suburbs, bigger airplanes, larger metro regions, or even super-gigantic slums. I don’t go along with this bundle of bull, except for the slums, which I think will be short-lived, contrary to the vision of popular author Mike Davis’s Planet of Slums. Of course, trends won’t proceed with the same timing everywhere in the world. But I think the general theme going forward, certainly in the U.S., will be the comprehensive contraction of just about everything. Read the whole article here . Visit his blog kunstler.com here . Visit KunstlerCast here . James Howard Kunstler: Audio of Live Web Even...

In this interview for CSSC Encounters, Dr. Vandana Shiva gives the history of her engagement and explains the situation we are in now, facing a new fascism as corporations and governments merge. Still, she is always using an optimistic tone, in spite of corporate grabs of our common heritage, the natural world — a world caught in a system where the ecology and the economy are fierce enemies, when they should have been best friends. How to reunite them? Vandana gives the answer, through true community!

Passiv røyking (eller bedre, tvungen røyking) blant barn er et mye større problem enn tidligere antatt, særlig gjelder dette for barn som vokser opp i leilighetsbygg, konkluderer en ny studie fra the University of Rochester Medical Center, USA. Den bygger på data fra nær 6000 barn som fikk målt kontinin -verdiene i blodet, en markør for nikotineksponering. Av barn som vokser opp i flerfamiliebygg viser blodprøvene at mer enn 84 prosent eksponeres for tobakksrøyk. Afroamerikanske barn i leiligheter er 45 prosent mer eksponert for tobakksrøyk enn gjennomsnittet for afroamerikanske barn. For hvite barn som vokser opp i leilighetsbygg er disse hele 207 prosent mer eksponert for tobakksrøyk enn gjennomsnittet blant hvite amerikanske barn! Det er all grunn til å anta at situasjonen er like ille her til lands, både fordi vi har en høy andel kvinnelig røykere og fordi vi neppe bygger bedre boliger enn amerikanerne. Men samme hvor bra vi bygger, det eksisterer ikke ventilasjonsanlegg s...

Demurrage = An economic proposal by Silvio Gesell to make bills lose their value gradually . Read more here , here , here , here and here .

Modernism has turned "green" and more seductive than ever! Read the article: Street fight: Landscape Urbanism versus New Urbanism. Anyway, in this discussion we must NOT forget the eternal truth of the Alexandrine pattern 104 , to be found in A Pattern Language ! Conflict Buildings must always be built on those parts of the land which are in the worst condition, not the best. Resolution On no account place buildings in the places which are most beautiful. In fact, do the opposite. Consider the site and its buildings as a single living eco-system. Leave those areas that are the most precious, beautiful, conformable, and healthy as they are, and build new structures in those parts of the site which are least pleasant now. Related: GLASS AND GRASS LANDSCAPE URBANISM BULLSHIT GENERATOR

What's fascinating about Generation OS13, and about the new culture of resistance in general, is that it's trying to carve out a new ideological niche that is firmly critical of our present world order without falling into the trap of the old-fashioned socialist or communist clichés. After all, we need new critiques, new narratives, new inspiration. - Jérôme E. Roos

 Det er derfor klart at stopper den økonomiske veksten opp, går samfunnet opp i limingen! Economic growth is part of the glue that holds together the social contract between the rich and poor, and between citizen and state. It stands behind our expectations of technology, the rise of China, population growth, and pensions. Growth shaped the specialisation of our occupational roles and the forms of social relations. It acclimatised us to increasing wealth, both personal and in the goods and services we expect from society and the state. We are now claiming as rights, services that only fifty years ago would have been considered miracles. It shaped our identity as the tormented consumer and the anxious lover. - David Korowicz Er det noe rart at våre politikere "digger" økonomisk vekst? Les hele artikkelen: In the world, at the limits to growth . GDP is a good measure of the throughput of resources in an economy, or more bluntly, the rate of converting natural resources into...