Sublime

But on the edge, by the wall, there used to be a flat ledge where one can put the morning cup of coffee: it is hard to read a book while holding a coffee cup. The designer (who either doesn’t ride trains or rides trains but doesn’t drink coffee while reading), thinking it is an aesthetic improvement, made the ledge slightly tilted, so it is impossi

MANHATTAN AS MECCA If—in America—dense, transit-served cities are better, then New York is the best. This is the clear and convincing message of David Owen’s Green Metropolis, certainly the most important environmental text of the past decade. This book deserves a bit more of our attention, so profound is the revolution in thinking that it represen

2. Skills take time.

(Following the algorithmic logic of “if you like this one thing, you’ll definitely like more and more of it.”)

The introduction of traffic lights, combined with safety campaigns, the demonization of dangerous drivers, and attempts to codify traffic rules might have been expected to reduce road…

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