City Car, a Carbon-Free, Stackable Rental Car by MIT Media Lab

learned about this Smart City Smart Cars design from a class. Thought it was pretty futuristically and pragmatically cool.

A team called Smart Cities have designed a two-seat electric vehicle which they call the “City Car” that can be “stacked” in convenient locations (say, just outside a subway stop), and then taken on short trips around urban areas. This technology is patented-pending and under design development at the MIT Media Lab.

The City car utilizes fully integrated in-wheel electric motors and suspension systems called, “Wheel Robots.” The wheel robots eliminate the need traditional drive train configurations like engine blocks, gear boxes, and differentials because they are self-contained, digitally controlled, and reconfigurable. Additionally, the wheel robot provides all wheel power and steering capable of 360 degrees of movement, thus allowing for Omni-directional movement. The vehicle can maneuver in tight urban spaces and park by sideways translation.

The MIT group sees the vehicles as the linchpin in a strategy that aims to mitigate pollution with electric power, expand limited public space by folding and stacking vehicles like shopping carts, and alleviate congestion by letting people rent and return the vehicles to racks located near transportation hubs, such as train stations, airports, and bus depots.

Where did alll the fairy tales come from?

I just realize all the "Danish fairy tales" or "Anderson fairy tales", the terms I grew up with, were mostly from the writer Hans Christian Anderson (In Chinese the translation sounds like "an tu sheng" so I did not register at all even though I saw Anderson's name everywhere here). Here I picked an introduction to this writer whom I appreciate for filling up my childhood with tales of adventures and relevance to what life means to an under-10-year-old.

from http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/hcanders.htm

Danish writer, famous for his fairy tales, which were not meant merely for children but for adults as well. Andersen used frequently colloquial style that disguises the sophisticated moral teachings of his tales. Before achieving success as a playwright and novelist, Andersen was trained as singer and actor. Many of Andersen's fairy tales depict characters who gain happiness in life after suffering and conflicts. 'The Ugly Duckling' and 'The Little Mermaid' are Andersen's most intimate works.

"He now felt glad at having suffered sorrow and trouble, because it enabled him to enjoy so much better all the pleasure and happiness around him; for the great swans swam round the new-comer, and stroked his neck with their beaks, as a welcome." (from 'The Ugly Duckling')

Hans Christian Andersen was born in the slums of Odense. His father, Hans Andersen, was a poor shoemaker and literate, who believed he was of aristocratic origin. Andersen's mother, Anne Marie Andersdatter, worked as washerwoman. Although she was uneducated and superstitious, she opened for his son the world of folklore. Later Andersen depicted her in his novels and in the story 'Hun duede ikke'. Anne Marie declined into alcoholism and died in 1833 in a charitable old people's home. Andersen's half-sister Karen Marie may have worked as a prostitute for a time; she contacted her famous brother only a few times before dying in 1846.

go back to Copenhagen, a little recap of what happended there

I am not trying to be nostalgia here by looking back what is now history. I went to check the Down to Earth issue on Copenhagen, reminded by a friend from Center for Science and Environment in India, where I interned last summer. I even met a co-worker then at the summit, which I'd never expected. I am fond of the sarcastic and still sharp and sober nature of their articles, even thought CSE to me is always romantic and idealistic (they probably won't put it that way).

Most people consider Copenhagen a failure. I think so too. But I also believe failure still means one step toward *success* (in relative terms always, I am a notorious Sophist in Socrates' word I just realize). I came up with a metaphor that descries the individual reflection on COP 15. I am a dandelion seed carrying with me however much enthusiasm, hope and sarcasm (does not appear to you, doesn't it? Well I keep it to myself). The seed was germinated, elevated and bloomed fully right at the beginning of the conference, when negotiations seemed to going and side events panel speakers all exciting about what they have done in the past in fighting climate change. And then it suddenly, but not without weather forecast, got smashed and blown away by the seaside wind in Copenhagen. The bits and pieces went all about. One piece of the new me residing in one of the fuzzy fragments, with my ever-lasting ever-optimistic ever-idealistic seed of hope, landed in a new place, ready to come out again in the spring. Yet it is the practical matters, after all, that keep the romantic me going. Practical matters at present refer to what I have observed and learned from folks all over the world working in the practical field of climate change mitigation and adaptation.

Okay, my metaphor stops here for now. Here is what the Down to Earth colleagues portrait what happened during the last two days of the now history COP 15.

At Copenhagen, unfortunately, industrialized countries sabotaged all possibilities of progress. They had something else in mind. When the COP-15 (Conference of Parties) started, negotiators were barely closer to a deal than they had been in Bali.

If anything there had been regression during the last one year of negotiations.

But failure was not an option. One hundred and ten heads of state were flying to Copenhagen to sign a declaration; they could not all return with their pens unused. More than that, the Nobel prize-winning US president had to emerge as a dealmaker. So in the final 48 hours, negotiators—who had laboured for years for a comprehensive deal—were brushed aside; heads of state, ministers and their top advisers took over.

Leaders started making deals in secret, in the middle of the night, in backrooms, on the fly. Carrots were offered; sticks were wielded. In the end, industrialized countries, with the last-minute complicity of India and China, penned an alarmingly weak deal—the so-called Copenhagen Accord—that appears designed to undermine the negotiations to date. Certain basic rules seem to have been changed forever. Under the captaincy of the US, historical responsibility of the developed world in creating the climate crisis has been erased. The differentiation between rich and poor countries is gone. The rich world does not want to reduce emissions, but is trying hard to stunt the development of the poor world.

The Copenhagen Accord was not officially endorsed. A few developing countries vocally opposed the document and the drafting process. But the accord—rather than any of the documents drafted through two years of multilateral negotiations—emerged as Copenhagen’s only substantive outcome. It could well become the new starting point for future negotiations. This will be disastrous for the developing world.

Copenhagen as the classroom:sustainable urban design

Classes started today. Way better than the orientation. I begin to have a sense of what the Danish school means by Copenhagen as the classroom and Europe a learning and testing ground. There is of course so much to discoverfrom the heavy history of the Old world--Germany for one thing, a study of its own right. Many of the instructors are real-time practitioners in the field of the subject the teach--they work in Danish urban design, architecture, etc. firms, and do projects all over the world.

Never expect to find out so much about the science behind the way Copenhagen as an urban environment was built and is being built. CPH was the second (or maybe the first) to have pedestrian street, and its pedestrian priority streets work out pretty well as fine (cars and bikes are allowed but pedestrians are given the priority and these streets are usually mixed with pure pedestrian streets at 20% vs 80%).

A big complex of buildings are usually left free space in the center, mostly to get sunlieght into the buildings.

The marble surface in the Store Plaza was once too smooth and slippery. One day after it rained an old lady slipped on it and broke her hip. She sued the city and a shop owner donated some money to hammer the surface to make it somewhat rocky (individual philanthropic gestures were uncommon in Europe at that point, quite a difference with that in the U.S. but not without reason.



Copenhagen as the classroom: living with a Danish family. Having essentially stayed with three families in the last month or so, I deserve to have a say over.The difference I had with the British couple, the Danish host family and the American/Danish/Swedish family.



The Ronsholt family's comments about Danes being the happiest people in the world.Things generally work here. But maybe it is just a matter of communicational barrier or maybe there is more to be discovered and understood. Life seems so monotonic with these middle-class families but it just takes a little bit of initiatives to stir up some fun. And cooking is always the most fun thing to start with!

From Haiti's ruins, a chance to rebuild a nation

I have always fancied about reconstruction after a calamity of this magnitude, just like a Hollywood cliche that is played over and over again. But here is a real one and the challenge is how could something revolutionary, futuristic and sustainable could be planned and realized upon the ruins if at all. While it is undoutedly the golden time to implement a blueprint from scratch, who is to plan this and how will it be implemented really for the benefit of the Haitian people? Do the world other than the Haitian government at a rightful position to plan this all? Just just some general outsider questions. I am sure the "development veterans" will come up with specific appropriate planing that fits what the Haitians really need and all that. But anyway despite all that, I think this is a very provocative article that invites deep thinking and also have good points on how the Haitian economy before the earthquake was crashed by U.S. domestic agricultural and trade policies.

Washington Post

Sunday, January 17, 2010

Even as rescuers are digging victims out of the rubble in Haiti, policymakers in Washington and around the world are grappling with how a destitute, corrupt and now devastated country might be transformed into a self-sustaining nation.

Development efforts have failed there, decade after decade, leaving Haitians with a dysfunctional government, a high crime rate and incomes averaging a dollar a day. But the leveled capital, Port-au-Prince, must be rebuilt, promising one of the largest economic development efforts ever undertaken in the hemisphere -- an effort "measured in months and even years," President Obama said Saturday in an appeal for donations alongside former presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush. And those who will help oversee it are thinking hard about how to use that money and attention to change the country forever.

"It's terrible to look at it this way, but out of crisis often comes real change," said C. Ross Anthony, the Rand Corp.'s global health director. "The people and the institutions take on the crisis and bring forth things they weren't able to do in the past."

The early thinking encompasses a broad swath of issues. Policymakers in Washington are considering whether to expand controversial trade provisions for Haiti and how to help fund the reconstruction for years into the future. The rule of law needs to be strengthened, particularly with regard to matters of immediate concern, such as property rights, inheritance issues and guardianship in hard-hit neighborhoods.

And somehow, development officials agree, the recovery effort must build up, not supplant, the Haitian government and civil society, starting with putting Haitian authorities at the center of a single, clearly defined plan to rebuild Port-au-Prince and its environs in a far sturdier form.

"National disasters, as awful as they are, you want to seize those moments, use that awful, awful opportunity, to strengthen the ability of national and local authorities to act for the benefit of their citizens," said Jordan Ryan, the assistant administrator of the U.N. Development Program. There is, to an extent, a development framework in place from efforts underway before the earthquake involving the Obama administration, the United Nations, a huge network of international aid groups and a Haitian government that, despite corruption, was viewed as more reliable than any in years. The United States budgeted $292 million in assistance to Haiti this year, including food aid, infrastructure funds and money to fight drug trafficking. And the Haitian economy grew by 2.5 percent in 2009, despite the global recession.

But some development veterans say a full rethinking is now in order. Gerald Zarr, who was the U.S. Agency for International Development's director in Haiti from 1986 to 1990, said even more must be done to involve the Haitian government. Too often, he said, understandable distrust of local authorities has led the United States and the United Nations to work mostly through the many aid groups in Haiti.

"Haiti's going to have to change. And if they do, we ought to make a commitment to stick with the government of the day to keep the institutional development going," Zarr said. "Unless we are committed to institutional development, I fear Haiti's never going to get off this terrible treadmill it's been on."

Others aren't so sure. Putting more faith in Haitian authorities can be done only if there is a crackdown on corruption, said Stuart W. Bowen Jr., who has witnessed the tension between local empowerment and wasted aid money as special inspector general for Iraqreconstruction.

Because nongovernmental organizations will play a central role for years to come, development veterans say, it will be up to the United Nations to ensure that their efforts are coordinated, as was done after the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami.

...

But creating a new economy will rest on more than sacks of food and aid dollars, which is why others say the United States should revisit trade policies with Haiti. Over the protest of American textile manufacturers, the United States granted tariff exemptions in 2006 to Haitian-made apparel and, after seeing middling results, in 2008 eased restrictions on using fabrics from certain low-cost countries. By 2009, more than two dozen Haitian companies employed 24,000 people making T-shirts, men's suits and more.

Some experts say that the answer is a rice revival. Until the 1980s, Haiti grew almost all the rice that it ate. But in 1986, under pressure from foreign governments, including the United States, Haiti removed its tariff on imported rice. By 2007, 75 percent of the rice eaten in Haiti came from the United States, according to Robert Maguire, a professor at Trinity Washington University. Haitians took to calling the product "Miami Rice."

The switch to importing rice was driven by U.S. subsidies for its own growers, said Fritz Gutwein, co-director of the social justice organization Quixote Center and coordinator of its Haiti Reborn project. The result in Haiti was a neglect of domestic agriculture that left many of the country's farmers, still the majority of its population, unable to support themselves, fueling waves of urban migration and environmental degradation.

"America needs to look at how its own agricultural policies affect Haiti," Gutwein said.

No one is expecting controversial trade policies to be taken up overnight. But the broader rebuilding effort needs to begin as soon as the initial rescue is over, said Mark Schneider, a former USAID official now with the International Crisis Group. "You can't hope to create any kind of sustainable development if this process doesn't start quickly," he said. "If you don't start it now, something will take the world's attention away from Haiti."

Copenhagen semester has kicked off!

From then on this blog will be dedicated my daily experience living and studying in Copenhagen, with special focus on the Danish sustainability and also bluntness, with a curiosity to seek Danish spirituality, if any. It will also include relevant, irrelevant, serendipitous, reasonless and biased observations, thoughts and quotes.

I stay with a very nice pure Danish host family who are just a little bit less enthusiastic about food than I am (by my standard this is considered to be very good, for those don't know me and food). It takes about 40 minutes to commute every day, including 10 minutes bike ride from home to local train station, 25 min train ride and another 5 minutes bike ride to school. It is a lot of time compared to at MHC. It is a norm here of course. Anyway I am generally excited to bike except now it is a little bit too cold so I take the bus to train station and walk.

The little six-year-old girl at my host family bikes to nearby school on her own and it is a norm here.

Driver's licences is allowed at the age of 18, but most Danes do not own a car until much later. Denmark has no car production whatsoever. Cars are imported goods with heavy tax on it. Cars were just like a rather new thing for a lot Danes. Gas of course if very expensive here as well as most European countries. Our Survival Danish class professor had a comment on how cheap gas is in the States and he wished it was the same here. But I mean, gas is by all means a little bit more properly priced than in the US, considering all its external environmental and social cost. It could be more expensive. It should be.

"Denmark is the Italy of the north, Sweden the Germany."

Danes could be both sky and blunt, and like to drink of course. At least most of them.

Spanish Tapas and Portuguese Nata: three weeks of immersion on the passion land (keep updating)

It took me a week to finish, with quality time spent, my three final papers after the drama in COP 15. I then went on a trip down south, in search of warmer weather, Spanish guitar and Portuguese beach, for some crazy three weeks. Without much planning before hand, I did it (a friend was with me for the first part) within the 1000 USD budget I had estimated to stay in Copenhagen for a month. This was achievable mostly because I "couch surfed" (couchsurfing.org, new way of traveling!) in local people's beds or couches for free and of course I cooked Chinese cuisine in return, exerting the "Chinese Food Diplomacy" I am getting better and better. The couch surfing turned out to be most interesting and memorable part of my trip, giving it a whole new perspective and experience. Because new semester has started here in Copenhagen, I will just briefly lead you through my journey with highlights on the way. I have uploaded most of the pictures at this address: http://photo.163.com/photo/superwangyit/?u=superwangyit#m=0&p=1&n=12 I heard Flickr was blocked also? Just word on the street I have not tried. This is a Chinese website which is really strict about what word I use to descript my picture. I was refused twice for having too "sensitive" words, but it was just about a royal garden!!

Anyway, again, stories by pictures.

Spain and Gaudi:

Our time spent in Barcelona was basically devoted to Gaudi. A great master and driving force of modernism, Gaudi drew great inspirations from the nature environment and its inhabitants. And of course there is always this unreasonable human twisting of reality into something unreal and changing. But one has to maze at Gaudi's pieces and wonder how on earth this man thought of this.

Our Barcelona host. A young IT professional, he has a small apartment with a big couch for the two of us. We invited him for a Spanish guitar performance and he brought us to this what he said probably the oldest bar in Barcelona in return. A spit spot left on the mirror was believed to be left by some Spanish philosopher whose name I just slipped away for now. He is actually from southern Spain. But, this guy's got problems as well. We could chat about this over an afternoon tea or sth if you are curious.

A Chinese fruit shop in Barcelona. I just randomly walked in to buy some apples. We started chatting with the Chinese woman--she and her husband owned the shop. I have somehow taken on an anthropological point of view in digging out the story lines behind these Chinese immigrants, after a wonderful immigration/landscape class with Susannah. Just to know more their motives behind all this great human circulation, and there is always more to know from each single one of them.

Tavira, Portugal:

Martin and Beth, a British couple I stayed with in the countryside of a little cute town Tavira. Best part of my journey I consider, as it is always feels at home to come off cities and have a seemingly pollution-free rural life.

Martin Jackson, the husband. Very british and English. He said he and Beth were both hippies were after the green movement during the 70s. But now, he had almost given up on that. He maintained that it had always been that only 2 percent of the population are conscious and know what is really good for themselves and the world. The rest 98% just don't know what is going on. He said he was of course like me 30 years ago and assured me that 30 years later I would be the same as him. I am a little bit concerned, especially because their life right now is where I want to be ultimately. But hell, that is 30 years of "good work" I have done. I just feel that they more he insisted on that the world won't change much the more I am determined to prove him wrong. Well nothing can really be proved and what is really "wrong"?

Beth the wife, very cute woman. She like to recite verses from the Bible to me. It was such a pleasure to listen, her very soft voice. She said despite how crazy the world was now, she just wanted to wait for the New Earth the Bible descried, where lions would slick the sheep and snake plays with rabbit or sth like that. She and Jack met while they were both traveling in India when they were under 20. They were seekers, she said. (Jack would say hippies). They decided to settle in where they are now 30 years ago when they visited their friends nearby. Their two children died in a car crash when they were very young.

To be continued