tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-263308802024-03-23T14:15:08.748-04:00Surviving the Futuredesign, strategy, and values for a world of limitations<br>
—a weblog by robert a. seeley</br>rasphilahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08760480070975362786noreply@blogger.comBlogger110125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26330880.post-29864522796868219992019-12-18T10:42:00.000-05:002019-12-18T10:49:03.238-05:00Christmas Letter 2019
Amid today’s chaos
and cruelty, it would be easy to lose heart. Fire and floods engulf
the planet, and there may be worse to come. Hatred stalks the land
and much of the world. Dishonor, cronyism, bigotry, and conspiracist
paranoia seem now to be governing principles in our democracy. It is
a dark time for our country and for all of humankind.
Yet it is also a
time when we rasphilahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08760480070975362786noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26330880.post-41347015032549325532019-09-14T16:15:00.004-04:002019-09-14T16:18:59.040-04:00Christmas Letter 2018
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It
has been a very strange and disquieting year. In the United States
and around the world, we have suffered from wars, terrible storms,
government corruption, and religious and racial hatred.
Yet
at the end of each year, we celebrate life, the power of love, and
the triumph of light rasphilahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08760480070975362786noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26330880.post-39222412825940537472017-12-09T12:40:00.003-05:002017-12-09T18:09:12.590-05:00
Christmas Letter 2017
For three months this year, our neighborhood park hosted an
installation that delighted and challenged everyone who saw it. We
were one of five parks selected for the city’s Monuments Lab, a
project that explored the nature and meaning of monuments in today’s
world.
The artist’s
concept was straightforward. She covered an existing monument with
reflective rasphilahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08760480070975362786noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26330880.post-16996026251033931202016-12-16T09:21:00.001-05:002016-12-24T09:26:35.827-05:00Christmas Letter 2016
Nearly three million years ago in East Africa’s Rift Valley, a new species appeared. It was both hunter and hunted, and the odds against its survival were great. It was weak, small and slow. Its senses—eyesight, hearing, and sense of smell—were no match for other predators. They would provide little protection against more powerful attackers.
As a solitary hunter, it would quickly have rasphilahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08760480070975362786noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26330880.post-888554076371695022015-12-10T09:59:00.000-05:002016-06-28T16:54:06.383-04:00Christmas Letter 2015p { margin-bottom: 0.1in; direction: ltr; line-height: 120%; text-align: left; widows: 2; orphans: 2; }a:link { }
A few blocks from
our house, there is a small neighborhood park. It is a quiet,
attractive green space, with old trees, a historic house, playground
equipment for children, and a space laid out for softball games.
Like most urban
parks, it had suffered over the years from rasphilahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08760480070975362786noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26330880.post-55599376113772711202014-12-16T15:04:00.001-05:002014-12-16T15:04:18.510-05:00Christmas Letter, 2014Just before Halloween this year, we turned on our holiday porch
lights. The days were getting shorter. Daylight Saving Time was about
to end. The headlines during the week had been discouraging. We hoped
that our lights might help to cheer up the neighborhood in a time
that seemed very dark.
It was a purely symbolic act. Two strings of white lights could
transform our porch, but they could not rasphilahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08760480070975362786noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26330880.post-45192496640780033652013-12-16T20:29:00.000-05:002013-12-16T20:29:37.149-05:00Christmas Letter 2013At the end of each year, the days grow short. Darkness prevails—but only for a brief time. We know this, and we celebrate not the dark, but the light that is coming and the hope that it brings. This year we also celebrate the life of Nelson Mandela, who brought liberation to South Africa and hope to a world that badly needs it. Mandela would say that he did not do this, that change in his countryrasphilahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08760480070975362786noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26330880.post-38783393982865539132012-12-11T10:53:00.001-05:002012-12-11T10:53:45.566-05:00Christmas Letter 2012<!--StartFragment-->
Every year after Thanksgiving, we decorate the house
for the year-end holidays. Our decorations are simple: some wreaths, a string
of lights and a small display on the porch, another string of lights in the dining room, and some tinsel
and ornaments on the mantelpiece in the living room.
We grew up with Christmas, so we think of our
decorations as Christmas rasphilahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08760480070975362786noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26330880.post-86340053061136145942011-12-10T10:56:00.001-05:002012-12-11T10:54:02.471-05:00Christmas Letter 2011We dance round in a ring and suppose,
But the Secret sits in the middle and knows.
—Robert Frost
A few weeks ago I watched a video of the planet Jupiter from the Pic du Midi observatory in France. The clarity of the film and the sheer beauty of the planet left me feeling awestruck, small, humble, and proud of my species all at the same time.
We will probably never know all the secrets of rasphilahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08760480070975362786noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26330880.post-45174054406767960742010-12-09T17:30:00.001-05:002010-12-09T17:30:00.510-05:00Christmas Letter 2010Every year at this time the days grow shorter. We celebrate the end of the year with light—the Menorah, the Christmas tree, even the strings of lights on our porches—because we know that light will grow in the new year, and in the end, darkness will not prevail. This year it has been harder than ever to see light and hope. The financial crisis continues, and millions are suffering. Yet our rasphilahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08760480070975362786noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26330880.post-21186333105244465212010-06-10T11:35:00.002-04:002010-06-11T17:32:22.244-04:00An Ethic for the FutureAt a recent PEN World Voices forum on climate change, the Norwegian novelist Jostein Gaarder proposed an expansion of the ethic of reciprocity (the Golden Rule) to include the effects of our actions on future generations. A video of his presentation will be found in Andrew Rivkin's Dot Earth blog (Warning: the video is 1 hour 35 minutes long).Gaarder's presentation is timely. The Golden Rule is rasphilahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08760480070975362786noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26330880.post-51103079439985325932010-05-07T13:00:00.001-04:002010-05-07T13:00:03.700-04:00Oil Now and in the FutureAndrew Revkin's New York Times blog, Dot Earth,has an excellent article on the implications of the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. The article looks at the future of oil, the spill itself, and policy changes that will need to be made.The article will be found here.Well worth reading.rasphilahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08760480070975362786noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26330880.post-5024926397975562622010-04-08T11:25:00.007-04:002010-04-09T10:03:51.866-04:00The Wasteland at the End of the StreetThe shopping district in our neighborhood has two main streets. Germantown Avenue, the older of the two, follows an old Indian trail (later a turnpike) starting from the oldest part of the city and meandering through Northwest Philadelphia and into suburbs that were once countryside. Its shops are struggling or abandoned in many places now, but it was once a major retail center in many of the rasphilahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08760480070975362786noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26330880.post-79024619502100620142010-03-05T15:18:00.000-05:002010-03-05T15:24:28.852-05:00The City Fix Highlights Noteworthy StoriesThe City Fix, an excellent blog on sustainable cities, has inaugurated a new Friday series "highlighting the newsy and noteworthy" stories about cities that appeared in the past week. The series will cover five general themesMobility;Quality of life;Environment;Public space, andTechnology and innovationThe first two in the series are full of useful links:February 26: Driving on the Rise, rasphilahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08760480070975362786noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26330880.post-2914654975302748412010-02-28T12:30:00.002-05:002010-03-01T21:02:47.132-05:00An Unintended IronyThroughout the Winter Olympics, energy companies have been busy selling themselves to viewers. From the sheer volume of the advertising, one might think the United States was about to abandon fossil fuels entirely and that oil, gas, and coal were fighting a rearguard action.Some of the ads, like those praising "clean coal" and linking it to national security, are simply misleading. "Clean coal" rasphilahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08760480070975362786noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26330880.post-71829271868983544832010-02-14T11:40:00.004-05:002010-02-19T08:17:28.564-05:00The Great SnowpocalypseIt has been snowing in Philadelphia—a lot. Since February 5, the city has had over 40 inches of snow from two blizzards in rapid succession. Just before Christmas, the city got nearly 24 inches. Altogether, the winter of 2009-2010 has set a new record for snowfall in the city, with just under six weeks until the official beginning of spring.Philadelphia is not the only city with record snowfalls.rasphilahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08760480070975362786noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26330880.post-11401433752664708652009-12-09T12:53:00.001-05:002010-02-28T12:27:23.867-05:00Christmas Letter 2009In difficult and frightening times, it is often helpful to return to first principles. How are we to live? How shall we act toward our neighbors—those who are next door, and those who, in a world of instant communication, are thousands of miles away? Few have answered these questions more compellingly than the prophet Micah. We are required, he wrote, to do justice; to love mercy; and to walk rasphilahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08760480070975362786noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26330880.post-14283636245889603512009-09-09T12:45:00.002-04:002009-09-09T12:45:00.662-04:00Strategy and the PlanetClimate change, with its disruption of traditional farming and living patterns, its effects on food and water supplies, and its economic repercussions, has always posed a strategic threat to all nations. The world's dependence on fossil fuels has also been a problem in its own right, regardless of its effects on the environment. Commentators, including some in the Pentagon, agree that ignoring rasphilahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08760480070975362786noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26330880.post-9392759019032765042009-08-27T09:50:00.003-04:002009-09-02T10:22:03.168-04:00Three Modest ProposalsBuildings and transportation are the sectors of the U.S. economy that generate the most greenhouse gases. Refitting our houses, public buildings, and neighborhoods to make them sustainable will take time. It will create new industries and jobs, but it is a long-term, not a short-term solution.Transportation is both a long-term and a short-term problem. The Cash for Clunkers program, which rasphilahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08760480070975362786noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26330880.post-61290251218777019342009-08-11T09:20:00.001-04:002009-08-11T09:20:00.306-04:00Cash for Clunkers: Not Very GreenThe City Fix has a good roundup of reporting on the environmental effects of the popular "Cash for Clunkers" program. The conclusion? That the program will have little or no effect on overall emissions.The clearest presentation of the arguments is in a Washington Post article by Lee Schipper, founder of EMBARQ, and his colleagues.On the evidence so far, the program is helping car dealerships a rasphilahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08760480070975362786noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26330880.post-74694591969012181472009-07-23T11:00:00.005-04:002009-07-24T09:54:00.550-04:00The Best, the Worst, and the GoodThe climate change bill that passed the House earlier this month is predictably full of compromises. Climate change deniers, of whom Congress has more than its full share, wanted no bill at all. House members who supported the bill were under pressure from energy companies, mining interests, and car manufacturers to preserve jobs and industries. The result was a cap and trade approach to rasphilahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08760480070975362786noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26330880.post-34071215531260294672009-07-17T18:20:00.000-04:002009-07-17T18:27:12.694-04:00Car Sharing Reaches a New MilestoneThe City Fix reports that Zazcar, a Brazilian company,has launched a car-sharing service in Sao Paulo. Sao Paulo thus becomes the 1,000th city in the world to have a car-sharing service, and the first in Latin America.rasphilahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08760480070975362786noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26330880.post-90421837397260612102009-07-02T15:15:00.001-04:002009-07-02T15:15:00.965-04:00Fixing Transit, Creating JobsThe City Fix reports that a Portland, Oregon, firm has begun producing streetcars—a type of transit vehicle not produced in the U.S. for 60 years, yet common in many other developed countries.The posting includes links to United Streetcar, the manufacturer, and its parent company, the Oregon Iron Works. Also included is a link to a history of streetcars in the U.S.Those who think the bankruptcy rasphilahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08760480070975362786noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26330880.post-32252055972959679602009-06-17T12:47:00.003-04:002009-06-19T10:00:58.899-04:00Two Suburbs—An American JourneyA few weeks ago, I had a business appointment in Springfield, Pa. From my neighborhood to my appointment in Springfield it is just under 15 miles. There is no practical public transit route, so I reserved a car from PhillyCarShare for the journey.Google Maps was handy for finding a route, but its estimate of travel time was, to put it mildly, overoptimistic. The computer estimated a 27 minute rasphilahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08760480070975362786noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26330880.post-58663097900173553212009-06-10T09:30:00.003-04:002009-06-10T09:30:06.408-04:00Two Good Articles on TransportationThe City Fix, an excellent blog on cities, has just posted two major articles on transportation policy. One, Call for Wholesale Reform, Not Just Reauthorization, of Transportation Bill, is particularly timely with so much stimulus money going to infrastructure repair. The second posting is a summary and link to a good overview of transportation policy posted on the WorldChanging blog.Both items rasphilahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08760480070975362786noreply@blogger.com1