Did a Show HN about a month ago, but we're hard at work building dédédé [1] - it's a not-for-profit website that invites people to casually share the "good, bad, and why"s of urban spaces.
Haven't been to Chongqing in a while, but the vertical nature of the city is fascinating [1]. It's like they layered multiple cities on top of each other! Curious how that affects social interactions in daily life.
We have something similar here in Kyoto! But we're Japan so there's an actual anime [1] and a character relationship chart [2], both straight from the city government.
That also links to an older piece about a software project for knitting machines that's really neat. I've been wondering for a while how difficult it would be to build a primitive one at home.
Okay, one last project to share. If you are more a start from zero sort of person, see this wonderful set of videos on designing a 3d printable manual knitting machine. Realistically, more of a wonderful educational process you should see, than an economically viable one. (Meaning you can buy used mass produced hardware for cheaper.)
If out are willing to move the carriage back and forth manually, and transfer yarn manually (for increases and decreases, etc.), the route to go is buy an electronic Brother machine and replace the electronics. The old standard was the AYAB board that you constructed yourself. (the evilmadscientist.com version is no longer in production) https://www.ravelry.com/groups/ayab for help and to meet fellow travelers. (circuit board and components: https://www.etsy.com/shop/redpinkgreen)
The less DIY more professional looking way is the recently released eKnitter, which replaces the electronics, but in a manner that more closely resembles the original form factor of the machine. https://eknitter.com/produkt/eknitter/
A big Jacobs fan here, but I remember reading her book (The Death and Life of...) and also about Robert Moses and thinking "hmm both sides have a point" so she'd probably hate me if she was still alive.
I personally think she was a bit too trusting of the (cybernetics-adjacent?) idea of order spontaneously arising from chaos.
I live a ways outside of Boston. Local opposition did kill some prior projects that would have probably been unfortunate. But the Big Dig was a big net win at the end of a long day—thank you rest of the country for funding thanks to Tip O’Neill. Would never have happened as purely a grassroots thing.
The big dig seems like a profoundly expensive project that produced a small benefit for drivers compared to what building public transit and bike infra with the same money could have done
It was an enormous cost, but given that there was an elevated highway there before, I don't think "remove the highway entirely" was a real option; it'd be like trying to delete I-5 from Los Angeles. Burying it was the next best option. as part of the environmental mitigation for this, several good public transit projects were legally required to be built. Only some of them have actually been built, mostly very late and to a lower standard than was promised (e.g. bad fake BRT instead of light rail). If they actually built what they were legally required to build it would've been a huge win for transit too; as it is, it's a minor win for transit too. It's a real shame they didn't do the north-south rail connector at the same time.
The Big Dig was probably at least as much about aesthetics and reuniting neighborhoods as it was about improving driving. And indeed it succeeded in the former more than the latter though the elevated central artery was pretty much a disaster on both counts. But no one could say that out loud. There were some minor transit improvements though that was already pretty good in the area and cycling was pretty much not on anyone’s radar at the time.
Tangential but the name is a pun - "kezuroukai" translates to "shall we shave?" in Japanese, but "kai" can also mean something like "gathering" or "community".
Cool photos! My workplace is an old machiya [1] in Kyoto that's more than a hundred years old, so I kinda live like the people in these photos (not really of course - no konbini back then).
Thanks so much for checking out the website! I hear machiya are quickly disappearing in Kyoto (often turned into generic apartments) so it's great to hear your friend is keeping the old city alive.
I wonder if it's possible to design a new formal language (something like lojban [1], with a grammar strictly based on formal logic) but with better UX so that it can be used by regular folks like me? Maybe combine something like Attempto [2] with a dedicated visual UI?
I would think a language like that could speed up knowledge base construction. Maybe it can also serve as a substitute for natural languages in some situations where we want our communication to be logically airtight.
I remember in junior high, we kept a pack of much smaller and cuter planarians [1] for a science class. We cut them up into pieces (sorry worms!) and they really do regenerate! Fascinating creatures.
[1] https://dedede.de/en
We're based in Kyoto and the posts are heavily Japan-centric; we'd love to see posts from all over the world!