International icebreaker
I am not even twelve hours into the Italy trip and it is clear that the iPhone may be the surprise social lubricant of the journey. People are unabashed about asking about it, wanting to hold it, play with it. And I am of course obliging.
The great thing is that being wowed by the iPhone has nothing to do with language. It is visual and tactile and immediate. An Italian at O’Hare and an Indian in Milan (where I am now) were flicking through my kids’ photos in no time flat. A great conversation-starter.
For what it’s worth, the phone works great over here and EDGE isn’t too bad either.
Hi, I’m John Tolva!
I'm a co-founder of Cityfi, a strategic urban consultancy.This is all my other stuff.
Here's a little bit about me and how to get in touch.
Views From The Tank
Red Sea Sailfin Tang
Zebrasoma desjardinii
Speaking
- You wanna talk?
Marginalia
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I can validate this science.
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"From these experiments, we can take typeface as an important aesthetic element to understand cities. Apart from its artistic influence on our urban city, it also correlates significantly with amenity types, household incomes and other socio-economic characteristics."
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"Each of these grids scales information, whether domestic, geographic, musical, or textual, and on behalf of its user, by turns a bureaucracy, an empire, a church, and the emerging merchant class."
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In her comparative study of fallen empires, Jacobs identifies common early indicators of decline: “cultural xenophobia,” “self-imposed isolation,” and “a shift from faith in logos, reason, with its future-oriented spirit … to mythos, meaning conservatism that looks backwards to fundamentalist beliefs for guidance and a worldview.”
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“We're all just going forward, backward, on and off.”
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A font made from gerrymandered congressional districts.
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Whoa.
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Audio engineer on a coral reef = my dream job.
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You Had One Job → "Best Christmas tree ornament ever."
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Need a —? Here you go.