World Travel Links

Yes, I went to Amsterdam and took photos of crossings and counted cars at one of the Grachtengordel junctions!

"The real threat isn’t catching fire, but the slow violence of breathing bad air."

"a 50-year baseline may be unstable if the rain is so rare that a few downpour events can alter the statistics"

"Fifty percent of public space is occupied by private cars, which are used mostly by the richest, and mostly by men... So if we give the space to walking, biking, and public transit, you give back public space to the categories of people who today are deprived."

(201 years after the Treaty of Kortrijk)

(I have climbed both, back in 1994.)

even if this is with the coming elections in mind, it's notable that admitting failure seems best (contrast UK, Australia, etc)

"an approach that has emerged in the last decade that demands China's minority ethnic groups become more 'Chinese' by reducing or outright eliminating their limited cultural autonomy"

meanwhile, UK schools are pushed to start wider opening

public health is one area where communism really does shine

can we please build something like this within cycling distance of central Oxford?

"During his 204 days, all three strands of the Good Friday Agreement improved and one of the festering elements of Brexit was resolved."

in contrast, Oxford's Barton Park will house 2,000 people on a site 50% bigger, with easy car access but horrible cycling

big changes done quickly and cheaply, using bollards and bus gates

but they are doing this after first reducing how much those cars are used

"systematically banishing anything but emergency and delivery vehicles from a large network of streets and squares that are not just central, but axial"

"there were an estimated 220 million cases of malaria last year, and about 435,000 deaths"

"100,000 children were sent to seek out the oldest person in their community to root out the darkest, oddest and weirdest traditional beliefs, secrets and customs"

"a hard Brexit would cost the UK 18% of GDP growth until 2030 ... £11,500 per British worker"

"London agreed to fund a transport project, with no cost ceiling, that primarily benefitted a Conservative marginal seat outside of the capital."

"In Amsterdam I could hear my children talking to me."

"For each project a simple litmus test was applied: would you be happy letting your child cycle there?"

"16,000 committees, 16,000 separate systems of fundraising and finance, 16,000 different approaches to maintenance and repair"

(I think property taxes are a good idea, though)

explaining how "global mean sea level has been 6–9 metres higher as recently as the Last Interglacial (130-115 thousand years ago)"

"The gathering violated a 1935 Playing Cards Act that prohibits the possession of more than 120 playing cards at any one time"

are Britain's National Parks 'ecological disaster zones'?

"Wearing visible clothing or a helmet, or having more cycling experience did not reduce the risk of being involved in an accident."

"In the mid-1990s, the government's curriculum-redesign committees eliminated history as a standalone subject"

German, French, Italian, Vietnamese, Tagalog, Navajo, Korean, but also Russian, Dakota, Hmong, Arabic, Portuguese and Polish

"antineutrinos from these human-made sources accounted for less than 1 percent of the total detected"

the choice for at least Indonesia seems wrong to me

xkcd: "defending a claim by citing free speech is the ultimate concession: you're saying that the most compelling argument for it is that it's not illegal to express"

defintely a better indicator of countries I'd like to live in than per capita GDP

"Antarctica has been losing more than 100 cubic kilometers of ice per year since 2002"

carbon dioxide remains the real problem

"a voyeuristic fascination with Japan's strangeness, spurred on by irresponsible journalism and sensationalised headlines"

one place that is not going to fare well with sea level rise

Masters: "a 50% chance that Sandy's storm surge will end up flooding a portion of the New York City subway system"

"sales of condoms have fallen 25%, most probably because a packet of Durex costs twice as much as it used to"

"in a place like Dubai, you have a 24-hour-long line of trucks waiting to dispose of the waste from those buildings"

the cycling infrastructure looks really nice

outdone only by Tokyo and a few Swiss and Scandinavian cities

brings back memories of my 2003 Iceland trip

the giant catfish may not be so important in itself, but the fisheries are vital in Cambodia and Vietnam

$150/tonne carbon taxes, 1/4 of energy from biomass, etc.

this may be a bit rough in places, corrections or feedback would be welcome

"Last year saw the largest exodus from the country since 1887."

we found out because our computers stopped agreeing with our clocks

the High Commission won't provide any information about the status of appeals/applications, so I've heard nothing since I got notification of its receipt on December 17th