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Antanas Mockus, mayor of Bogotá, hired street-corner “traffic mimes” to make fun of reckless drivers or walkers–and cut the city’s pedestrian death rate in half. Mockus’ seemingly wacky notions have a
respectable intellectual pedigree. His measures were informed by, among others, Nobel Prize-winning economist Douglass North, who has investigated the tension between formal and informal rules, and Jürgen Habermas‘ work on how dialogue creates social capital.
Somehow this reminds me of K. R. Munson’s show-tune-self-defense strategy: If you all dont lower your voices and
cease calling me Satan, I will have to sing show tunes. The other straphangers look at me with stony faces. I begin to sing…. The aptly named Mockus, says BoingBoing, just hired 400 more traffic mimes. But, for fending off road rage, shouldn’t they also sing show tunes? |
Marcel Marceau, the city of Paris needs you!
December 22nd, 2004 · Comments Off
Tags: Heroes and funny folks
Here comes the Sun!
December 22nd, 2004 · Comments Off
The longest night of the year (winter solstice) is over!
Northern Hemispherians (Hemispherites? Hemisphericals?) can
rejoice–our days now start getting longer, the sunshine gets warmer.
The lovely gray midday twilight of snowy we enjoyed in Kiruna now starts to stretch out and get brighter. On the morning of New Year’s Day, a real sunrise will happen.
Southern Hemispherosians, you just saw midsummer pass by. But your
equivalent months for July and August still lie ahead–so I can’t feel
too sorry for Southern Hemispheratics.
Tags: Life, the universe, and everything
Here comes the Sun!
December 22nd, 2004 · Comments Off
The longest night of the year ( winter solstice) is over!
Northern Hemispherians (Hemispherites? Hemisphericals?) can rejoice–our days now start getting longer, the sunshine gets warmer. The lovely gray midday twilight of snowy Kiruna now starts to stretch out and get brighter. Not too long from now, a real sunrise will happen.
Southern Hemispherosians, you just saw midsummer pass by. But your equivalent months for July and August are just ahead–I can’t feel too sorry for Southern Hemispheratics!