I really enjoyed the article. I don't agree with all of the specific ideas, but I heartily agree with the general principles. Architecture should serve its occupants. Providing a practical environment is the first requirement. Making that environment pleasant is the second. Any design that fails either of those requirements may or may not be art, but it is always bad architecture. If someone can afford to have their designs built as oversized art installations, more power to them, but people should not have to live or work in them.
Where I differ from the author is their idea that old buildings and ornamentation are inherently better. Minimalist designs that feature attractive materials, like wood and natural stone, can be lovely. Beauty can take many forms, but it should always be considered. People do live better around beauty. And if a building design is too "sophisticated" to be appreciated by most of the people using it, the architect has failed.
Understandably, people keep bringing up these obvious contradictions in GOP positions. The problem is that none of their supporters care. Inconsistency and outright hypocrisy are perfectly fine. They have no real values or principles, so they can't violate them. What matters is that the right people are being hurt.
One of the many things I like about Subaru is that they seem to move useful features from optional to standard, once they've had a chance to prove themselves. I bought an Outback in 2016 and paid extra for the EyeSight safety system. Two years later that car was destroyed in an accident (I was T-boned and rolled over twice, without anyone being hurt). I bought another Outback to replace it, but by that time the EyeSight was a standard feature. Subaru now includes EyeSight on all their cars because it saves lives.
They had done similar things with other safety features. Four-wheel disc brakes, anti-lock braking, and all-wheel drive became standard on Sabarus relatively early.
It is also worth noting that the more intrusive EyeSight features, like lane assist, are easy to turn off. There's a button on the steering wheel for that one. Even if you turn it off, the car will still warn you if you start to cross lanes without using your turn signals, but it will not adjust for you.
Let's always be careful to differentiate ourselves based on meaningless characteristics, like when we were born. That's nothing like differentiating based on race or gender.
The oligarchs want our attention focused on each other, not on them. Our only hope is to work across those lines.
It amazes me how often I see the argument that people react this way to all tech. To some extent that's true, but it assumes that all tech turns out to be useful. History is littered with technologies that either didn't work or didn't turn out to serve any real purpose. This is why we're all riding around in giant mono-wheel vehicles and Segways.
No, they are not. False equivalence just takes the focus off the people who really are responsible. Trump, his enablers, and his supporters created this disaster.
A lot of useless Democrats failed to stand up and try to stop it. They have much to answer for, but they are in a different category.
Curious Canid @ Curious_Canid @lemmy.ca Posts 27Comments 870Joined 2 yr. ago
I put puncture resistant tires on my bike and my wife's bike a few years ago. Since then we've seen nothing but a few slow leaks from aging tubes.