Density and It's Role in Civilizing Man

A new paper in Science makes the argument and Jonah Lehrer from Wired discusses:

The larger implication is that the birth of human culture was triggered by a new kind of connectedness. For the first time, humans lived in dense clusters, and occasionally interacted with other clusters, which allowed their fragile innovations to persist and propagate. The end result was a positive feedback loop of new ideas.

WE are smarter than ME. S-M-R-T.

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Grist puts statistics to Herman Daly:

It’s almost like the economy is embedded in an environment, and degrading the latter ultimately degrades the former.

Please tell me that line was written facetiously.

NPR on High Speed Rail

Bear with me as it seems Firefox has developed some screwy formatting issues with regards to pictures...

On the fast track (link).

LaHood has sent Obama a memo outlining a half-dozen rail corridors across the country that could be in line to get some of the high-speed rail money.

Of all the things Obama has to face, this is the one opportunity for a real legacy project, perhaps not greater in significance, but more influential than the trans-continental railroad or Eisenhower's interstates. One that shapes the future of this country and stimulate increased investment in our left behind urban cores.

While it is good to see the hometown of Harrisburg, PA get on the list, it is interesting that a Texarkana to Little Rock connection is more important than Dallas to Houston. There is a full size map of the entire country and all lines at the link above. Here is a zoom in locally:

















So what this is telling me is that if I could somehow get to Houston, greyhound of the skies or actual greyhound, I could hi-speed train it all the way back to mama's house. With the new green line, I would be able to DART to Love Field, Southwest it to Houston, somehow get to wherever their train station might be and then get on the 1500 mile trek home.

Meh, it would be easier to just fly. How about we focus on the Megalopoli [sic] as I mentioned previously and worry about linking them later (and to second/third tier cities). Bo-Wash, Charlotte-Richmond-Atlanta-RDU, DFW-Houston-Austin-San Antonio - California corridor, etc.

Here was my take from a couple of months back on a full hierarchy of new routes from Hi-speed, to commuter, to streetcar: