ideas observations thought fodder

My Unscientific Observations About Rising Death Rates

Since my dad died 2 1/2 years ago, I’ve been paying especially close attention to the local obituaries. Perhaps because my dad died after having just turned 71, which seems much too young to my 48-year-old soul, I noticed that I was seeing an awful lot of deaths among the 40 to 60-year-old cohort, joining those who were over the age of 85. (It’s not uncommon to see people reach the high 90s or even…

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design ideas thought fodder

The 500-Year Building

Historic preservation is an ever-changing field. Twenty-some years ago, people in the field concerned themselves with trying to save as many “old” buildings as they could, “old” meaning primarily Victorian-era, with the goal being to bring these buildings (or, at the very least, their facades) back to how they were originally conceived. In many cases, that meant stripping off any modern skins that had been applied during the 1940s to 1970s, removing insensitive architectural features…

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ideas inspiration reading

Current Reading: Saving Capitalism

I follow economist Robert Reich on Facebook and appreciate the way he explains complicated financial topics. When he announced that his new book, “Saving Capitalism: For the Many, Not the Few”, was due to be released, I pre-ordered it from the library. When it arrived, I gobbled it up because Reich once again delivered complex subjects in his easy-to-understand style. The overall premise of the book, which should be obvious to anyone paying attention, is the…

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