• Forget Dubai — Abu Dhabi is emerging as the new architectural powerhouse in the UAE. And the centerpiece is Masdar, an entirely carbon-neutral city that is currently under construction. Here are initial pictures from the nearly-complete Masdar Institute of Science and Technology. (Building.co.uk)
• What will it take to fix air travel in the U.S.? And once we’ve figured out what it takes, will we be able to do it? (USA Today)
• Meanwhile, Obama’s embattled nominee for TSA leader, Erroll Southers, has withdrawn his name from consideration. Southers’s confirmation has been blocked by Republicans who fear he would allow TSA employees to engage in collective bargaining with the government. (AP)
• Do mandatory bike-helmet laws for children discourage biking? A new working paper called “The Intended and Unintended Effects of Youth Bicycle Helmet Laws” draws some surprising conclusions. (Freakonomics)
• The 2010-11 budget that New York Gov. Paterson has proposed would include $3.46 billion less for transportation funding (so $8.8 billion total), primarily because of non-recurring revenue from the federal stimulus program and the 2005 bond act. (RecordOnline)
• And finally, a slideshow of the work of Lina Bo Bardi, the innovative Italian architect who made an indelible mark on Brazil’s mid-century design. (Dwell)
January 20th, 2010 at 12:31 pm
Please do not quote Freakonomics. The guy makes a living taking two unrelated correlative pieces of data, and combines them to make up some crap. For example, in his first book he claims that Abortions in the 70’s and 80’s caused a drop in crime in the 90’s, while completely ignoring thousands of other factors such as better city and regional planning and tougher penalties. Another chapter in his book describes the “negligible effects of good parenting on education”. In the chapter he quotes one case study (that wasn’t peer reviewed) and ignores decades of Educational research and theory.
I know “Di Vinci Code” style questioning, where one pieces together seemingly unrelated events and data to tell a story (very similar to conspiracy theory), is popular right now. I believe this is due to the Generation X’ers that are reaching middle age and gaining more power in society, and they largely don’t trust established methods of fact checking. This explains the popularity of Sarah Palin, Glen Beck, and Dan Brown, and subsequently Steven Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner.
January 20th, 2010 at 12:58 pm
Dallas, I agree with your reservations about Freakonomics. Was your assertion that the social phenomenon is because of a single factor (Gen X’ers not trusting fact checking) intended irony?
January 20th, 2010 at 10:00 pm
The linked Freakonomics piece quotes: “There is also robust evidence for an unintended and previously undocumented mechanism: helmet laws produced modest but statistically significant reductions in youth bicycling participation of 4-5 percent.” (emphasis mine)
Undocumented? Give me a break. The least they could’ve done is check Wikipedia for prior research.
January 21st, 2010 at 1:12 am
[...] The Morning Dig: Move Over Dubai Edition » INFRASTRUCTURIST [...]
January 21st, 2010 at 7:24 am
Dallas, so was it irony or just a bold faced generalization about Gen X’ers? Since Dan Brown is writing fiction, he can make whatever connections he wants to make that make for a good story. Political pundits are in the same business - neither should be construed as being vetted research.
January 24th, 2010 at 7:02 pm
[...] @Infrastructurist: The Morning Dig: Move Over, Dubai Forget Dubai — Abu Dhabi is emerging as the new architectural powerhouse in the UAE. And the [...]