Also see Le Corbusier and La Ville Radieuse.

E. chromi is a collaboration between designers and scientists in the new field of synthetic biology. In 2009, seven Cambridge University undergraduates spent the summer genetically engineering bacteria to secrete a variety of coloured pigments, visible to the naked eye. They designed standardised sequences of DNA, known as BioBricks, and inserted them into E. coli bacteria.

Each BioBrick part contains genes selected from existing organisms spanning the living kingdoms, enabling the bacteria to produce a colour: red, yellow, green, blue, brown or violet. By combining these with other BioBricks, bacteria could be programmed to do useful things, such as indicate whether drinking water is safe by turning red if they sense a toxin. E. chromi won the Grand Prize at the 2009 International Genetically Engineered Machine Competition (iGEM).

E. chromi

News to me: besides having a Congestion Charge zone, London also has a Low Emission Zone

The Low Emission Zone (LEZ) was introduced in 2008 to encourage the most polluting heavy diesel vehicles driving in the Capital to become cleaner. The LEZ covers most of Greater London. To drive within it without paying a daily charge these vehicles must meet certain emissions standards that limit the amount of particulate matter (a type of pollution) coming from their exhausts.

The low emission zone started operating on 4 February 2008 with phased introduction of an increasingly stricter regime until 3 January 2012, and as shown below, covers pretty much all of metropolitan London (the congestion charge zone is shaded orange).

The LEZ is monitored using Automatic Number Plate Reading Cameras to record number plates checking vehicles against the records of the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency to enable Transport for London to pursue owners of vehicles for which the charge has not been paid.

It would come as little surprise to my reader that I am a proponent of the London Low Emission Zone; much like the congestion zone, the low emission zone prices (ever so bluntly) an externality: particulate matter which is being dumped into the air by commercial vehicles. A charge both prices in this externality and will drive innovation to reduce vehicle emissions.

I also love the graphic sensibility of the advertising and communication on their website and in collateral, examples shown below.

Living in New York City I’ve never been to where the state government is located: Albany; I can count on one hand my friends who have been to Albany. It is fairly clear that Albany has no clue, or care, about the needs of New York City, cf., denying the city the right to police bus lanes using video cameras, denying the city the ability to raise money and regulate automobile usage in Manhattan’s urban core through the implementation of a congestion charge, and on, and on; to the point that I’ve agitated, in half-jest, for partition creating a separate state for New York City.

So it comes as no surprise that a 2012 research paper from the Harvard Kennedy School and Singapore Management University entitled Isolated Capital Cities, Accountability and Corruption: Evidence from U.S. States (PDF) makes the case that US State capital cities are robustly associated with greater levels of corruption. Their findings:

1. There is a strong empirical connection between isolated capital cities and greater levels of corruption across U.S. states. Holding a very robust connection… with different measures of corruption, and different measures of the degree of isolation of the capital city.
2. There is more money in state-level political campaigns in states with isolated capitals.
3. Newspapers provide greater coverage of state politics when their audiences are more concentrated around the capital. Greater media coverage is most strongly associated with lower levels of corruption, and capital cities that have weaker newspaper coverage tend to have higher levels of corruption.
4. Voter turnout in state elections is greater in places that are closer to the capital.

Isolated capitals are often smaller than the cities which drive the economy:

1. Albany and New York City;
2. Sacrament and San Francisco & Los Angeles;
3. Springfield and Chicago;
4. Tallahassee and Miami

Which means that voter turnout in those states are lower. Furthermore, the authors find the following conclusion:

We have explored the connections between the spatial distribution of population, accountability and corruption, in the context of US states. We first established the stylized fact that isolated capital cities are associated with greater levels of corruption. This holds true for different measures of the isolation of the capital, and of corruption.

We also saw evidence that state politicians tend to get more money from campaign contributions in states with isolated capitals, belying the fear that having the capital in a major economic center would lead to a greater risk of capture of state politics by economic interests – and consistent with the idea that lower levels of accountability in isolated capitals would actually increase that risk.

From a policy perspective, in particular, one is led to conclude that extra vigilance might be needed, when it comes to polities with isolated capital cities, in order to counteract their tendency towards reduced accountability.

*Q: Excuse me? A: These previously published entries have been updated with new information recently. You can find past updates here.

One of the points I was trying to make in Reader Response on the Eisenhower Memorial, was that the tenor of critique I am hearing is more often than not full of snark and personal criticism. Which is less than helpful. A recent example of this comes from John Massengale, who descibes himself as a recovering architect:

It’s cold. It’s winter. It’s minus 20 degrees, an arctic wind is blowing in from the Russian steppes, and you’re walking on the biggest street in Moscow. Above you in the swirling snow loom three towers that increase the wind chill factor to minus 100 degrees. All the vokda in Russia won’t fix this picture.

Haha Hadid? No no Nanotchka!

via Veritas et Venustas: The Second Semi-Annual Slouching Towards Alphaville Award Redux.

Less snark, more criticism; please.

Aaron Sorkin says it best in his Syracuse University commencement address this year (quote starts at 12m 48s but the whole speech is worth listening to):

Don’t ever forget that you’re a citizen of this world, and there are things you can do to lift the human spirit, things that are easy, things that are free, things that you can do every day. Civility, respect, kindness, character. You’re too good for schadenfreude, you’re too good for gossip and snark, you’re too good for intolerance — and since you’re walking into the middle of a presidential election, it’s worth mentioning that you’re too good to think people who disagree with you are your enemy.

Check out The Noun Project for all your icon/pictogram/pictograph needs!