updated 24d ago
Kayaking the waters that shaped New York City
During an evening swim through big, slow swells, I floated on my back and peered across at San Francisco; the sun was sinking directly behind the city. All I could see was the water — dark, nearly black, the way it gets at that time of day — and the scalloped top of the city’s silhouette, like a floating citadel. Atlantean, in that light. I ha
... See morefrom The Plunge by robinsloan.com
Jonathan Simcoe and added
The geography of most modern urbanization can ultimately be traced back to navigable waterways and deep harbors, followed by hundreds or even thousands of years of network effects pertaining to industry (i.e., progressive integration of labor and capital) and the iteratively compounding Pareto distributions that naturally follow.
from Bitcoin Is Venice: Essays on the Past and Future of Capitalism by Allen Farrington
- " Historical geography depicts the river as a conduit for human interaction, a linear attractant for hunters and gatherers, for camping and for cooking hazelnuts, for erecting staked roundhouses and processional ways, for building civilisations and launching an Industrial Revolution."
from You Are Here: A Brief Guide to the World by Weidenfeld & Nicolson
Jay Matthews added