Media Mindfulness

I’m attracted to the idea that civilizations are organisms that metabolize. I first came across this idea when reading a book about the history of the Anasazi, a sophisticated and complex society in the Southwestern desert region of the United States that collapsed suddenly. The book’s author suggested that the more centralized a society becomes, […]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A7os_UPGl-Q

Sci-fi writer Bruce Sterling on future cities. Here he surveys contemporary Belgrade, but demonstrates how the present future composts the past. What he writes is very similar to what I see in Rome. Life goes on, cities mutate, people adapt and change their environments.
(Via BoingBoing)

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The Global Urban Real Estate Boom - Newsweek: International Editions - MSNBC.com:
From San Francisco and Seattle to Moscow and Shanghai, prices for prime residential property are surging, even as overall national numbers in some markets continue to be depressed amid worries of global recession and a real-estate bubble. The triumph of the glamour cities turns […]

As reported earlier, things are heating up in several oil rich countries on the Arabian peninsula to become new Vegas-like destinations of the global jet set (for what it’s worth, now Halliburton Co. is reportedly moving its headquarters to Dubai). Now Abu Dhabi is trying to outdo Dubai in capitalist swank, art being a new […]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-CwmWDwix4A

This video was written, edited, produced and directed by 12 year old Walees Crittendon, resident of Big Mountain.
Source: Indigenous Action Media

I think every step towards greening, as small as it might be, is a great (see linked article below). I’m still concerned, however, about the amount of electricity consumed by the Las Vegas strip. It […]

I’d work here! The Encounter Restaurant at LAX
AdAge reports that some corporate offices are becoming hybrid spaces that are also lounges, bars and coffee shops. This buttresses the trend that we are increasingly moving into more “non-spaces” (see Remediation) that are required of knowledge work. In our post-work economy, we are producers and consumers of […]

Photo by David Burnett, National Geographic

Yet another dispatch from the sci-fi front, this time brought to us by none other than Disney and Co.:
Disney World, Orlando Beyond Disney - National Geographic Magazine:
The Theme-Parking, Megachurching, Franchising, Exurbing, McMansioning of America: How Walt Disney Changed Everything
Everything happening to America today is happening here, and it’s far removed […]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kTyks-IRFPY

Forget Vegas, forget Disney. Meet Dubai. Nice beach-front property, just a stone’s throw from Iran and WWIII. God willing for oil economy investors, may the Straits of Hormuz remain open and sea levels even.
If the above promotional video isn’t convincing enough (yes, it’s real), read a sample of Mike Davis‘ remarkable piece on Dubai, sci-fi […]