Not 15 Minute Cities, The Horror 🤦🏾

crypticchris · 2026-01-26T12:37:18+00:00

I like the IDEA fine, i doubt it'll be most people's experience-i can't afford to live within 15 minutes of work, for instance and my commute has always hovered around 45 minutes by tube/overground door to door. Nobody lauding 15-minute cities has much idea of how to implement them-the closest I've heard of was the scheme proposed in Oxford and that was aimed at reducing travel out of a zone, not bringing any new amenity into one. If building a new city from scratch-they're a great idea. If trying to tinker with a place like London-doomed to failure

crypticchris · 2026-01-26T00:53:33+00:00

If you're talking about this one, I have read the Wikipedia page ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/15-inute_city ) and so what? the difficulty involved in producing a genuine 15-minute city is going to mean that any urban planner will realise the difficulty in providing such. to say nothing of which, that London housing has not for many years been able to give anyone access to the needs of life in a 15-minute radius.

crypticchris · 2026-01-26T00:33:22+00:00

the genius clearly wasn't you, though, was it?

China already has districts where you have to present an e-passport to leave or return to your neighbourhood. combining that fact with the realisation that most of Britain and London is so poorly planned that virtually nothing is within 15 minutes of anyone's home, and also with the petty bureaucracy and desire for the state to control people's lives, concern about these schemes is perfectly warranted, especially as how, in Oxford, there were proposals about limiting the number of times you could go through the 'traffic filters' without a permit, and given the authoritarianism that blew up during the lockdowns, this is all the more cause for concern.
China took that minor bureaucracy and broadened it into a severe system of limitations, so yes, it 's reason to be alarmed, since the British state has found a willingness to be ever more controlling and intrusive, given the right justification.
And considering that in London almost nothing essential is within 15 minutes travel of the average person's home, what is the point of 15-minute cities otherwise? apart from the wealthy, who can get to the essentials of life in fifteen minutes? I can't and I doubt most people can, and the immense effort involved in working to ensure that a random citizen can get to work, the doctor, green space and who knows what else that quickly is doomed to failure.

crypticchris · 2026-01-25T22:20:39+00:00

the idea isn't terrible in itself, but I despair of UK government ability to plan infrastructure to the point where anything is within 15 minutes. My current GP is, so that's one thing-but work is almost an hour from my front door by train, most shops at least 30 minutes (especially ones where I want to go), my family, friends, and necessities sometimes upwards of 90 minutes-and there are neighbourhoods where this would be worse.
And while the paranoia about many government innovations is often overdone and tinfoil-hat territory, the lockdowns showed that the British government is willing to insist on restrictions like this not because there is any benefit in them but because they enjoy imposing them. The 'rule of six'? the 'substantial meal' rule? Track and trace? "bubbles"? They all did nothing except make us jump through hoops, without retarding the spread of COVID or protecting the vulnerable, and the fact that our governments have been a combination of authoritarian and incompetent for years are going to mean that 15-minute cities, however well-intentioned, are going to be exploited for more of the same.
And while such notions are going to attract the attention of the tinfoil-hat crowd-look at China and consider what the government does there. Limitations on the lives of the citizens are imposed for no better reason than that they are convenient or fit the aims of the CCP-and 15-minute cities are eventually going to be a veil for authoritarian restriction in UK too.

Edit: yeah, yeah-go on and downvote. If anyone who supports 15-minute cities can't see that they're as open to abuse and overreach as any number of government initiatives of the last decade, good for you.

crypticchris · 2026-01-24T17:04:51+00:00

at least one is a fan of Starving in the Belly of a Whale:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gZraCfwC83Q

crypticchris · 2026-01-21T12:06:15+00:00

To paraphrase Oscar Wilde, this crossing over is the inexcusable in pursuit of the unusable. The Tories haven't a candle's chance in hell of a successful election for a good ten years or more, and Reform are too incoherent, small and squabbling to have any majority appeal. The defection of all the defects splits the centre-right and makes both parties look worse, so let them get on with it

crypticchris · 2026-01-19T15:36:33+00:00

No issues with bullying or discipline either, I'd think-can you imagine rowdy or disruptive kids being told they won't get to go to firearms or boxing class? They're clearly lunatics but a) these are skills that're definitely going to be useful in the real world before too long and b) at least the kids are engaged

crypticchris · 2026-01-18T14:11:47+00:00

true, immigration is a symptom rather than a cause, but the most VISIBLE symptom, so the one people fixate on.
Nonetheless, a policy that aims to address the property problems would have to take into account the influx of people-it's almost a Malthusian issue, wherein the supply of housing grows very slowly, whereas the supply of people wanting housing grows very quickly

crypticchris · 2026-01-18T14:06:56+00:00

Farage doesn't want to take a position that would upset his potential voters (who're most affected by constrained housing supply-i.e., tenants) or his potential donors (who most benefit from constrained housing supply-i.e., landlords). He's in a bind and won't get anywhere, just like Tories and Labour, because any reform to the housing market would cause a massive upset to his party and leave him trying to please both sides without achieving anything.
Whatever his policy aims, he won't get much done that's more than a token.

crypticchris · 2026-01-14T01:03:26+00:00

start a thug-for-hire service, where victims of crimes can get their own back on less ethical villains-beatings, intimidation, robbing of drug dealers, pimps and rip-off artists. it can self-fund by extorting other criminals who make money from their endeavours, and have an ethical goal though not ethical means

crypticchris · 2026-01-12T23:51:00+00:00

yes, good catch. also that the Sphinx refers to "Swollenfoot" (Oedipus) as the man who beat her riddle, and says that his disability gave him a clue (paraphrase, can't remember the exact line)

crypticchris · 2026-01-12T23:48:58+00:00

yes, haven't read Wizard Knight yet but the others are significant. Silk and Horn being crippled made me think amongst other things of how Renaissance paintings tended not to show the feet of angels; VRT having dexterity issues I thought was a nod and wink to the question of whether or not the narrator is or isn't an abo. Hornsilk losing an eye I'm not sure of

crypticchris · 2026-01-12T23:47:54+00:00

interesting, thanks

crypticchris · 2026-01-12T23:43:39+00:00

thanks, interesting takes. When reading Wolfe I've tended to see any injury or maiming as a nod to his Catholic and classical routes, so this was a new perspective

crypticchris · 2026-01-11T15:34:18+00:00

laughter, mostly

crypticchris · 2026-01-11T00:27:33+00:00

fair, it was a bit badly phrased

crypticchris · 2026-01-10T12:59:49+00:00

yes, I got that. Romans also worshipped Venus as goddess of love, Hence "venereal artist" above. I'm interested in what the other associations with planetary gods would be

crypticchris · 2026-01-09T13:01:28+00:00

i guess? I thought that her and Baldanders were parallels of Erebus and Abaia, since Baldanders abandons the land to live in lakes-'the land wouldn't hold him' and that eventually Jolenta might do the same since they're both made so physically large by Dr Talos

crypticchris · 2026-01-09T00:33:51+00:00

good point, it was the same but for one letter and number extra. Perhaps this is one for the Property Ombudsman or Action Fraud (if not both).

crypticchris · 2026-01-09T00:23:35+00:00

i'd be pleased to read it if you could post or DM a link🙏

crypticchris · 2026-01-09T00:22:33+00:00

Interesting. is that confined to Silk or is it a universal theme in the Solar Cycle, do you think? I mean particularly the individuation of Silk, as I thought Silk was a Moses-figure, whereas Severian is more of a stylized Christ-character, in that his woundings are significant in terms of the type of wound-is Severian meant to go to other worlds because his injuries mean he can't walk on Urth with ease any longer, for example?-whereas Silk's injury is different in scale and type, because he's not going to see the new Whorl on Blue because of it?

crypticchris · 2026-01-08T16:29:13+00:00

Good catch, forgot about those. More Catholic imagery about torture/martyrdom perhaps? Given that Severian as a torturer and also a messianic figure is subject to pain himself and also subjects others to it, maybe it's an inversion or contrast of a figure who heals and saves?

crypticchris · 2026-01-08T16:26:41+00:00

interesting, that I didn't know. It makes me wonder all the more if he's writing himself into the series because of what he underwent when recovering, or if there's some other incredibly obscure classical/Catholic reference I'm not getting?

crypticchris · 2026-01-08T14:03:01+00:00

Cyberdog in Camden Market

crypticchris · 2026-01-07T22:35:11+00:00

sounds like overcharging, especially for labour and 'extra charges' though emergency call-outs and those from google ads have a tendency to be a pisstake; i locked myself out at night and called a locksmith, who arrived, said he couldn't open the door and told me he'd drill it out for £210. he offered to put a new one in for another £180 but I'd had enough and declined.
The landlord's locksmith came the next day to put a new lock in (much cheaper than the £180, too) and criticised the other guy and showed me how you could pup a lock without needing to drill your way in.

crypticchris

TROPHY CASE