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“Having followed [Richard] Florida on twitter for a while, I’ve noticed that his position goes beyond noting creative clusters. There’s a general pro-urban, anti-suburban flavor to his thought. Add a few bike paths and a vibrant gay community, and you’ve pretty much found his recipe for growth.
Florida’s work strikes me as a really elegant way to contrast New York or Boston with, say, Detroit or Pittsburgh. It also reasserts, correctly, the importance of geography in the digital age. There’s a distinct — and acknowledged — echo of Jane Jacobs in his work, updated for the age of the web.
All of that said, though, I can’t help but wonder about the urban/suburban distinction when you get to the second- and third-tier cities; spiked, rather than spiky, cities. It’s one thing to say that lower Manhattan is more culturally interesting than Long Island, and even a better place to raise kids. It’s quite another thing to apply that to, say, Syracuse and its suburbs.”
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“That phrase “willing suspension of disbelief” has become an umbrella term used to describe the work the reader must do to set aside reality and engage a work of fiction (in forms written and filmed). It is often used to describe how readers must, perforce, perform cognitive acrobatics to allow themselves to be convinced by a situation, trope, or a work of fiction as a whole.[…] The more outrageous a situation, the more readers must ignore their instinctive powers of reason and their knowledge of the real world to accept it. If the author cannot maintain a logical consistency on some level in their story, the reader’s reason cannot be prevented from crying out in consternation at this breach of lucidity and the tale falls apart, unable to convince the reader to allow it to continue with its tissue-thin cacophony of false notes.
The more I think about it, and the more I read about writing and reading, the imagination and the workings of story, the less sense this idea makes.” -
As a commenter says, “One MBA semester accurately represented in six panels.”
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“The sweeping new law prohibits all living beings within state borders from being born with random genetic mutations that could make them better suited to evade predators, secure a mate, or, adapt to a changing environment. In addition, it bars any sexual reproduction, battles for survival, or instances of pure happenstance that might lead, after several generations, to a more well-adapted species or subspecies.
Violators of the new law may face punishments that include jail time, stiff fines, and rehabilitative education and training to rid organisms suspected of evolutionary tendencies. Repeat offenders could face chemical sterilization.” -
“The concept was born at BrickWorld 2010. Kelso and I were talking and we thought “hey, wouldn’t it be fun to do a collaborative?” Sure it would. So after a little thought (and some other concepts that will remain nameless as they may be future projects) I said to him “Hey, I got it… let’s do Lord of the Rings.” He says to me “You mean like… a few of us build Minas Tirith or Barad Dur?” “No, no, no…” I replied “Let’s do Middle Earth… ALL of it.”
Of course the reaction was “You’re nuts” (or something to that effect… explitives deleted) but after a little probing and prodding the plan was put into action! What you see here is the realization of a year’s worth of planning, building and more than a little blood, sweat and tears. Little did we know that our final product would span about 200 square feet! Maybe I was nuts…
Let’s get started shall we?”