Reverse Mental Entropy

A collection of my thoughts and my experiences. And random pictures of cities, transportation, physics, and stars.

[vitna-deactivated20151005]

San Francisco by SamAlive

[thethingtobomb]

Wait... But how can this be San Francisco? This isn't San Francisco.

[portlandtogo-deactivated2014082]

The leaves fell back into the ground

crumbled, wet, discarded as we looked

upwards, to the lights, the christmas music

fall is almost over so

watch out for the street tracks. 

[humansofnewyork]

“What has been your proudest accomplishment?” “Surviving in America. I’ll be honest— I crossed the border about eight years ago. I had no job, no money, no place to live. I spoke zero English. I started as a dishwasher, then eventually got a job working behind the bar. I taught myself English. Now things are going pretty well. I want to open up my own coffee shop one day. I just want my son to have it easier than I did.” “Were you scared when you were crossing the border?” “No. I had nothing back then. And it’s hard to be scared when you have nothing to lose.”

[thethingtobomb]

Literally the American Dream. Guess a lot of Republicans would love to deport this guy.

[urbangeographies]

CHINA-USA DEAL ON CARBON CUTS

The United States and China have unveiled a secretly negotiated deal to reduce their greenhouse gas output, with China agreeing to cap emissions for the first time and the US committing to deep reductions by 2025.

The pledges in an agreement struck between President Barack Obama and his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jingping, provide an important boost to international efforts to reach a global deal on reducing emissions beyond 2020 at a United Nations meeting in Paris next year.

China, the biggest emitter of greenhouse gases in the world, has agreed to cap its output by 2030 or earlier if possible. Previously China had only ever pledged to reduce the rapid rate of growth in its emissions. Now it has also promised to increase its use of energy from zero-emission sources to 20% by 2030.

The United States has pledged to cut its emissions to 26-28% below 2005 levels by 2025.

The European Union has already endorsed a binding 40% greenhouse gas emissions reduction target by 2030.

Source:  The Guardian, 12 November 2014

[thethingtobomb]

Such big news.

[kataflush]

[thelandofmaps]

Time Zone Deviation (Legal Time vs. Solar Time [1200x600] CLICK HERE FOR MORE MAPS! thelandofmaps.tumblr.com

[thethingtobomb]

I have always wondered about this.

Is China seriously all in one time zone?

[aizea]

[a--t--m--o--s--p--h--e--r--e]

[allterraincrocs]

THE MOTTO

[neuromaencer]

original image by kl.lau

[burning-stmandard-deactivated20]

[burning-stmandard-deactivated20]

New York City Aerial

by Tim Sklyarov

[wolverxne]

NYonAir by: { Jose Tutiven }

[humanscalecities]

The built-up area of Atlanta and Barcelona represented at the same scale

Urban densities are not trivial, they severely limit the transport mode choice and change only very slowly

Because of the large differences in densities between Atlanta and Barcelona about the same length of metro line is accessible to 60% of the population in Barcelona but only 4% in Atlanta. The low density of Atlanta render this city improper for rail transit.

By Alain Bertaud

[thethingtobomb]

Ugh American cities.

[utcjonesobservatory]

[itsfullofstars]

utcjonesobservatory

[thethingtobomb]

[urbangeographies]

RACIAL DIVERSITY AND SEGREGATION: The San Francisco Bay Area, 1990-2010

The San Francisco Bay Area ranked as the most racially diverse metropolitan area in America in both the 2000 and 2010 censuses, after being second only to Los Angeles in 1990. The maps above show, by census-tract analysis, the dramatic increase in the Bay Area’s diversity over the last two decades:  in 1990, almost 78 percent of metropolitan census tracts were white dominated; in 2010, only 54 percent were. Over two decades, the region’s racial geography became increasingly complex, marked by the prevalence of moderately diverse neighborhoods. This pattern has been repeated all across America to some degree.

Source:  R. Wright, M. Ellis, S. Holloway, and S. Wong, “Patterns of racial diversity and segregation in the United States: 1990-2010, Professional Geographer, 66:2, 173-182.

To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00330124.2012.735924

[kayinnasaki]

[fishingboatproceeds]

I don’t really understand how that is a question up for discussion on television news. I mean, even putting aside the gajillion ways that white people are privileged by, for instance, being able to think that whiteness is “normal,” studying world history from Eurocentric perspectives,  and etc etc:

- White people are less likely to be arrested for the same crime than black people, and black people serve longer (much longer!) sentences than white people.

- Marijuana use is similar among black and white populations in the U.S., but young African Americans are more than THREE TIMES more likely to be arrested for marijuana possession or use than white Americans. 

- Racial bias in hiring in the U.S. is well-documented and persistent.

- African American students are far more likely to be punished in schools, even though they are not much more likely to break school rules than their white peers.

- Even after accounting for reasons like education disparity, geographical distribution, and occupation, there is a persistent wage gap: White people make are paid more than African Americans due to racial discrimination. 

- White people in the U.S. on average have lower mortgage rates than African Americans.

White privilege is a fact of every facet of American life. I realize I’m mostly preaching to the choir here, but this is not a political issue or a subject for debate. It is well-documented and irrefutable.

[kenyatta]

Last year, in total, British police officers actually fired their weapons three times. The number of people fatally shot was zero. In 2012 the figure was just one. Even after adjusting for the smaller size of Britain’s population, British citizens are around 100 times less likely to be shot by a police officer than Americans. Between 2010 and 2014 the police force of one small American city, Albuquerque in New Mexico, shot and killed 23 civilians; seven times more than the number of Brits killed by all of England and Wales’s 43 forces during the same period. The explanation for this gap is simple. In Britain, guns are rare. Only specialist firearms officers carry them; and criminals rarely have access to them. The last time a British police officer was killed by a firearm on duty was in 2012, in a brutal case in Manchester. The annual number of murders by shooting is typically less than 50. Police shootings are enormously controversial. The shooting of Mark Duggan, a known gangster, which in 2011 started riots across London, led to a fiercely debated inquest. Last month, a police officer was charged with murder over a shooting in 2005. The reputation of the Metropolitan Police’s armed officers is still barely recovering from the fatal shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes, an innocent Brazilian, in the wake of the 7/7 terrorist bombings in London. In America, by contrast, it is hardly surprising that cops resort to their weapons more frequently. In 2013, 30 cops were shot and killed—just a fraction of the 9,000 or so murders using guns that happen each year. Add to that a hyper-militarised police culture and a deep history of racial strife and you have the reason why so many civilians are shot by police officers. Unless America can either reduce its colossal gun ownership rates or fix its deep social problems, shootings of civilians by police—justified or not—seem sure to continue.

Armed police: Trigger happy | The Economist (via kenyatta)