World
Michael Klare believes that our transition from petroleum to sustainable energy sources will not be easy, smooth or peaceful.
TomDispatch
Fred Kent of the Project for Public Spaces was recently entangled in a dispute with architect Frank Gehry over the impact of iconic architecture in cities. Though Gehry's work has its moments, Kent says city emphasis on icons is a mistake.
The Project for Public Spaces
Interconnectedness is just as important to brains as it is to cities, according to researchers who've just released a study about the organizational similarities between cities and brains.
Science Daily
As it prepares to host world leaders for the G-20 summit, Pittsburgh is hoping to show to the world that it's no longer a dying city.
Los Angeles Times
The Broken Windows theory suggests that a high concentration of small, petty crimes leads to a higher incidence of bigger, nastier crimes. Some European cities run counter to that premise, according to this piece from <em>Next American City</em>.
Next American City
Matsys, an experimental architecture firm, used the book <em>Dune</em> as a starting point for its design of a terraced, sunken city form focused around preserving water.
BLDBLOG
By combing through images on Flickr, a team of researchers has created a 3-D model of the city of Rome constructed from 150,000 tourist snapshots.
Gizmag
Imagining cities of the future can bring about some pretty wild predictions. But when they're visions of existing cities, these futuristic predictions can be almost realistic.
io9
We've gotten a lot of responses on our Top 100 Urban Thinkers list, particularly those wanting to separate out the 'bad' from the 'good'. Mary Newsom was inspired by the list to ponder, who was the worst?
The Naked City
Witold Rybczynski bemoans the green movement's emphasis on sustainability measure that treat environmental action as a process of accessorizing rather than changing lifestyles.
The Atlantic
This piece from the <em>Guardian</em> looks at a handful of projects and ideas that are emphasizing the importance of sustainable metropolitan areas in an age of diminishing resources and environmental devastation.
Guardian
Achieving sustainability can take one of two paths, according to Richard Carson: centralized or decentralized policy. Choosing one will be crucial.
ArchNewsNow
A new picture book introduces the architecture and urban ideas of Le Corbusier to children.
Arcspace
Monitoring how much water is diverted from rivers and pumped from wells is notoriously difficult. But now, researchers have developed a new way to track usage.
The Washington Post
A new study from the University of Leeds claims that drivers are more careful and leave more room for bikers when there is no bike lane.
WorldChanging
Using a mishmash of highlights from cities around the world, musician and artist David Byrne talks about his personal vision of a perfect, livable city.
The Wall Street Journal
With names like Aspen Grove and Sunrise Park, you might mistake these suburb designs for the real thing. But something's not quite right in artist Ross Racine's birds-eye views of imaginary suburbs.
The Infrastructurist
As the race for high speed rail stimulus dollars gets underway, international firms stand to gain the most benefit as few if any U.S. firms are capable of building the rolling stock the new systems will need.
The Wall Street Journal
Mohamed Atta, one of the 9/11 terrorists, pursued a masters degree in city planning before the attacks. Slate's Daniel Brooks reads Atta's masters thesis, and finds a strain of anti-Western modernism that is revealing.
Slate.com
Monopoly: City Streets melds the board game with Google Maps gives you the chance to buy the world's streets and develop your dream project on them (in competition with other players, of course.)
The Guardian U.K.
