Dutch Dialogues

A New Orleans architect has organized a partnership between Dutch and Louisiana engineers, planners, and scientists.

History repeatedly shows the folly of living in a delta: disasters are common there. …

“Living with the water” has recently become an ordering, corollary principle of Dutch policy. Dutch Dialogues participants believe that adapting a Living with the Water principle is necessary in post-Katrina New Orleans; they likewise reject the false choice posited by those who see only a choice between safety or amenity from water in the Louisiana delta.

Recreation at highway speeds

More than 100 years ago, [the] Hudson River made the sport of ice yachting famous. Now, as the river freezes less frequently, a small but dedicated group of enthusiasts sail to keep history alive.

This collection of photographs from the Times’ Nathaniel Brooks also includes some plans for building your own ice yacht, excerpted from an article in the September 1881 issue of Scribners Monthly.

Unlike the folks who reenact Gettsyburg each July, the ice yachting reenactors feel the same emotions—the fear of crashing at highway speeds, for one—as their historical counterparts. It’s easy to replicate the same uniforms and equipment, impossible to simulate the same fear.

What was the last major war involving the United States that still elicits serious reenactment? World War II? Vietnam?

One-hundred and fifty years from now, will middle-aged men gather outside Fallujah in antique humvees? Will War on Terror buffs waterboard one another in suburban basements? (Are they already?) And if they do, will military reenactment have finally found a way to simulate the same fear as felt by historical participants?

What happens when we recreate war at highway speeds?

Historical superimposition

‘Untouched’ East German flat discovered
[via hawktrainer]

It appears the inhabitant of the humble flat fled in a rush.

Grocery brands from the Socialist state filled the kitchen and old bread rolls still lay in a string bag.

A wall calendar showed August 1988 and an empty bottle of Vita Cola, Marella margarine, Juwel cigarettes and a bottle of Kristall vodka were in the kitchen.

The only foreign product to be found was a West German bottle of deodorant.

See also the most popular bookmarks tagged ‘abandoned’ on delicious.com.

The Siege of Leningrad ended 65-years ago today
[via bldgblog]
Old photographs from the Siege of Leningrad superimposed over photographs from the city as it is today. (English translation of the original page.)

“rising like alien plants on the terraformed lakebed”
[via mtchl]
In order to minimize the carcinogenic dust storms off of barren Owens Lake, the City of Los Angeles built a series of over 5,000 irrigation bubblers on the lakebed at a cost of $425 million. Pruned compares these bubblers—sad, broken sprinklers, really—to fountains:

since time immemorial, fountains have been creating micro-climates, cooling gardens, palaces and sartorially bedecked aristocrats. The array of bubblers, you could say, is also a type of weather modification system: an anti-dust storm.

Looking toward EveryBlock’s future
[via migurski]
Adrian Holovaty announces the EveryBlock publishing system will go open-source when their grant ends five months from today. With so many smart people able to get their hands on that code, I wonder how long until we have the beginnings of a Craigslist for location-based local news.

I also wonder if this decision by EveryBlock will force Sufjan Stevens into open-sourcing his album-writing formula so the rest of us can release material based on the other states.