So, I admit I have read neither the book nor the article (either or neither nor right?), but I do see a pattern in this kind of analysis: While individual consumption is less, what about the cost of infrastructure? The construction of NYC is non-trival but also difficult to measure. What about maintenance? How much energy is used to bring resources like food and water into the city and how much is used to move waste out? While this may still be less than the average suburban dweller, they should not be ignored. There are hidden costs, such as the water pumps that are on 24/7 to keep the subway from flooding, that are invisible to metrics that only focus on an individual's impact upon the system. For a beautiful investigation of these kinds of infrastructures I highly recommend Bruno Latour's Paris: Invisible City http://www.bruno-latour.fr/virtual/index.html (read the PDF, the flash is too 1996).

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As I understand it, this measurement does account for all of these invisible infrastructures, averaging them over the number of people they serve -- and massive as they might be, including all the energy to move food and waste about, they are dramatically lower on a per-person basis. Manhattan's population is about 1.6 million; compare that to the state of Idaho at 1.5 million. Which takes more energy: moving food and waste in and out of Manhattan, or moving it around Idaho? Our energy consumption is much more apparent when we live in high-density places, but it's also much lower.

Thanks for the recommendation of Latour's Paris: Invisible City -- I hadn't heard of it before, and it's lovely.

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I am glad to hear they incorporated infrastructure, I am knee jerking b/c it is so often neglected. I totally agree that dense living yields significantly less energy consumption, that is a no brainer. I remember visiting south western Germany a few years ago, the geographic distribution of people was densely populated urban space surrounded by green rural space. Even a small town, of only ~1000 had a population density approaching any of the older cities in the US. The really tough question, which Owen hits, is how to restructure the US's habits and habitat? We *know* what needs to be done, but we don't know *how*. American's love their lawns...

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That's awesome news! After all, the Kindle demographic is exactly the tech/lit nerd you're after, right? (Initially?).

You may have inspired me to return to writing fiction, Robin... I just need to figure out if I was ever any good at it, or if I just like the idea of 'being a writer'.

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Couldn't find it on Sony's ebookstore, though. Wish everyone would just go to epub rather than multiple itunes/ipod style bookstores.

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One thing that those star wars and batman sets do bring are some pretty cool new pieces. I'm amazed by the Lego (engineers, designers?) to make spot on replications of items from these worlds.

Aywhoo, my son gets some of these branded sets, but really when we play With Legos it's all about using you imagination to create something new. Branded Lego sets haven't changed that.

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Yeah, I guess I don't buy the Indiana Jones Legos = decline of childhood stuff.

1) It's fun and useful to follow instructions and put things together. Imitatio!
2) It's fun to ignore instructions and build whatever you want - especially with the terrific pieces that you get with the customized sets.
3) Even if you don't break down the assembled Legos, it's more fun to build an Indiana Jones or Harry Potter castle than it is to buy one that's pre-assembled.

I think 2 and 3 are basically incontestable, but 1 is the crux, right? But I think it's the most important!

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The only part I take issue with is the second phrase of #2 -- "especially with the terrific pieces that you get with the customized sets." Some of them are, I agree, pretty cool; but some of them are just like, "here is a piece of the Millennium Falcon."

Eh, you know, I'm not using my imagination here. B/c of course you're right -- "here is a piece of the Millennium Falcon" can become the chest-plate of a battling war-mech without too much effort.

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Whoa. Congratulations, because I think it's a sign for a new and even more exciting era of Sloantasticness.

I am severely regretting not hitting you up for more lunch tours, though, or somehow persuading you to get me Gore's autograph.

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congratulations! just started reading the short story and LOVING it so far! I am so excited that you're going to be doing more writing!

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This is just one in a series of steps that will lead Robin (rather than Al Gore) to be crowned First Emperor of the Moon.

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This is, um, epic. I think of a Robin untethered from workaday pursuits, and for some reason, the phrase "Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world" keeps coming to mind. Also, it thrills me that your short story just got BoingBoing'd. I CANNOT WAIT TO SEE WHAT HAPPENS NEXT.

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I remember very well being simultaneously excited and concerned about your decision to move to CA w/o a job to become a blogger, or something (hmm, maybe vaguely envious of the courage too). I thought it was pretty crazy to move across the country on faith. I wondered how you'd make out.

I won't make that mistake again. I'm not even going to wish you luck, Sloan. I'll save that wish for someone who needs it.

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congratulations, sloan! we all stand rapt for what's next.

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Whoa! Don't get me wrong; I loved the story in the first place. But there's something about having an mp3 of someone reading your story aloud that just takes the cool factor to the next level!

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:-)

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I love the story about the dentist and the nurse escorting trembling patients up the elevator, both before and after. I have often regretted the fact that due to various life circumstances, I've lost much my pre-Gmail Email, but in particular the period after 9/11. It's exactly b/c of this--memory is so hard to pin down. I have a pretty good one, but I would really like to read, again, what I wrote to my friends and family after 9/11, and what they wrote to me.

I imagined a lot of things, but I certainly did not imagine the invasion of Iraq for weeks, at least. I think my father grimly suggested it would be proposed when I went home that Thanksgiving. Now there's a before and after, an interview with the past I'd love and hate to read.

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I *absolutely* wish I still had access to my MSU and UChicago email accounts. I remember on September 10th, 2001, right after I'd moved to Chicago, I sent a mass email titled "Life During Wartime" - taken after the Talking Heads song, a commentary on moving around from place to place. One by one, my friends responded in the next few weeks, many of them commenting on the title.

I have such visceral, powerful memories of the invasion of Iraq in 2003 - I was in the hospital, going through what was probably the hardest time of my life. I'll write a book about it someday.

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Lower : )

First time I'm reading about your project. Could you link to your short stories?

I think it's interesting that it's an equal split of pledges at the $19 & $39 levels.

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I'd leave it lowercase. Not sure why, or what rule that follows, but it feels right.

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General rule for "title case" is that prepositions and articles are lowercase. This covers both "to" and "the." But there's no perfect agreement on this one, especially when graphics are considered.

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i've never heard of this album but it's gotten a lot of acclaim apparently! wow. how are the other tracks?

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Reminds me of Haroun and the Sea of Stories. "It's the mixing of the streams that makes them new." Or something like that.

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You know I've been teaching all day! ;-)

I think I actually kinda liked it better when Battles said "It took a few hundred years, but the book's Terms of Service are second to none." I think in particular that had to do with the technology of books being really, really good at storing and preserving text. Which may not totally be a terms of service issue. I almost want to substitute "the culture of the book" for the "public sphere," which is a slightly more elusive idea, at least for me.

I'm very interested in Striphas's book, which I first learned about, I guess, a week ago - maybe. I was definitely more charitable to Joni Evans than Nash or Battles might be, in part because she seems to be delivering the same message, that the ruptures in rumbling have been happening a long time. (There's a confusion here between the two Evanses - Evans the protagonist didn't see Darwin in the room until the end, but I think Evans the narrator does, did.)

I like MB's observation that publishing still has sounds and smells - reminds me of Mark Hansen's constant reminders that, in some ways, as the materialities of media become less evident, that our bodies actually become more important as physical intermediaries than before. No getting around them, anyways.

But Benjamin! Yeah, you know - so many different ways to read that Angel of History idea. One, which I think WB would be sympathetic to, is not to see the trash as meaningless detritus, but as the repository of a series of failed utopias. This is why I'm so interested in different ways of paleoblogging ideas of the future. It's almost like, with each of these gadgets, you're watching a different generation-old dream die.

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I'm grateful for all of your expansive thoughts on my recent posts! And your magnanimity towards Joni Evans makes me see the merits of a more patient reading. The Angel of History is indeed a fraught and rich trope�and the image of its trash as the remnants of failed utopias is most beautiful. She needs to put all that stuff in a bag & sling it over her shoulder!

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