Walking the World visits Phoenix by H. Pike Oliver

"Chris Arnade Walks the World" is a project by photographer and writer Chris Arnade who shares dispatches and photos from his walks around the world. He documents his experiences and observations in a Substack newsletter. His work often provides a unique perspective on the places he visits, as seen in his documentation of homelessness and the drug crisis in Phoenix.

After visiting and lamenting the most downtrodden parts of Phoenix, this is how Arnade summarized the area: Phoenix is a large grid of mile-long four-lane sides, with shopping plazas at the corners and an inside of twisting single-lane roads and simple ranch homes on half-acre plots. Those residential insides are the nice parts, and showing that they’re nice is partly why I’d come to Phoenix: to highlight a version of the American Dream, which, while I might not love and isn’t necessarily “walkable,” is still very appealing to lots of people.

You may view his entire post here.

Mitigating methane emissions by H. Pike Oliver

Former University of Washington Vice Provost for Research Mary Lidstrom is researching how to reduce methane emissions. To do so, she plans to utilize bacteria that can consume the greenhouse gas, which accounts for 30% of global warming emissions.

For nearly three years, Lidstrom’s lab has been working to address two primary challenges associated with harnessing bacteria for methane mitigation. The first was to find the right methane-eating bacteria, methanotrophs, for the job.

Lidstrom and her team are designing a bioreactor to house the methane-consuming bacteria in a shipping container-like structure. The goal is to deploy the technology by 2030 to slow global warming by 2050. Scale-up projections indicate significant reductions in methane emissions can be achieved by 2050.

Learn more here.

Tim Berners-Lee CRITIQUES the Web on its 35th birthday by H. Pike Oliver

In a post on Medium, the web's creator concludes that the first decade of its life was great but as it moves towards middle age, things are not so great. He concludes that two issues need to be addressed.

The first is the extent of power concentration, which contradicts the decentralised spirit I originally envisioned. This has segmented the web, with a fight to keep users hooked on one platform to optimise profit through the passive observation of content..

Compounding this issue is the second, the personal data market that has exploited people’s time and data with the creation of deep profiles that allow for targeted advertising and ultimately control over the information people are fed.

Lee wants an online world that is focused on profit to become one that addresses the needs of humanity. It’s a big wish!

Perspective on the US economy by H. Pike Oliver

The Economist news magazine offers perspective on the strength of the U.S. economy and concludes that both Donald Trump and Joe Biden have ideas that endanger it. It’s worth a read, and you can access it by clicking on the image below.

AI by H. Pike Oliver

Michael J. Trotten on artificial intelligence's potential pluses and minuses. He concludes with this: "So what do we actually know? That AI is coming faster than almost anyone realizes, that the pace of change will accelerate, and that nobody—not computer researchers, not economists, not historians, and definitely not me—knows where we’re heading. But for what it’s worth, I see artificial intelligence as something like fire: it will warm us, and it will burn us." 

His article posted on City Journal is available here.

Revisiting Brasilia by H. Pike Oliver

Pat Finn, a high school English teacher and a freelance writer on art and architecture, says, “The urban planning of the 1950s wasn’t perfect. But we need something like it if we are going to solve the housing crisis today.” This led him to revisit the master-planned city of Brasilia and write an article posted by Architizer.

He notes the faults or problems with Brasilia. And then he asks and answers several rhetorical questions.

Is Brasília really less workable than, say, Los Angeles? The latter is also car-dependent but has far more congestion. And is the class segregation in Brasília really worse than in Rio? Are isolated housing blocks really worse than favelas? And if Brasília failed to achieve its aims, does this mean it wasn’t even worth attempting?

Finn’s answers these questions with a resounding NO!

After reading the article, you may find that you have changed your perspective on Brasilia, or at least you will learn more about the place.

AI and the government by H. Pike Oliver

I asked Microsoft’s Copilot AI bot to describe Palantir, and here is what I received.

Palantir Technologies Inc. is a public American company specializing in big data analytics software platforms. It was founded in 2003 by Peter Thiel, Nathan Gettings, Joe Lonsdale, Stephen Cohen, and Alex Karp. The company's name is derived from The Lord of the Rings where the magical palantíri were "seeing-stones," described as indestructible balls of crystal used for communication and to see events in other parts of the world.

Palantir is best known for three projects: Palantir Gotham, Palantir Apollo, and Palantir Foundry. Palantir Gotham is used by counter-terrorism analysts at offices in the United States Intelligence Community (USIC) and the United States Department of Defense. Palantir Apollo is a platform that facilitates continuous integration/continuous delivery (CI/CD) across all environments. Palantir Foundry is used by corporate clients such as Morgan Stanley, Merck KGaA, Airbus, Wejo, Lilium, PG&E and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles. Palantir believes institutions can solve hard problems and improve the world with good data and the right software. With Palantir, investigators are: uncovering human trafficking rings, finding exploited children, and unraveling complex financial crimes. 

Humanitarian response organizations are directing resources more effectively to communities affected by natural disasters. Prosecutors are building more robust cases against insider traders. Public health officials are tracking and containing the spread of deadly diseases.

Now, please look at this video presentation by U.S. Army General Gustave F. Perna (Retired) about how Palantir helped with the logistics of delivering the first doses of the COVID-19 vaccine. Then please read this opinion piece by Josh Tyrangiel of the Washington Post.

Elite universities in the USA by H. Pike Oliver

An article posted by The Economist news magazine highlights how the elite universities of the United States have become bloated, complacent, and illiberal. American universities still dominate the top rungs of most international league tables—but their lead is becoming somewhat less secure.