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New York Magazine had an interesting article on the concept of “skyfarming” — building skyscrapers that would house vast amounts of agriculture. This idea has been explored, in a theoretical sense, by a professor at Columbia.

Of course, as with most big ideas, this one is supposed to solve most of the world’s ills, including global warming, the need for sustainable energy, the ability to feed a rapidly-growing population, clean water, fresh food, global terrorism and Tom Cruise’s love of Scientology. Ok, I made the last two up. But you get the idea.

In theory, it all sounds wonderful. The science behind the ideas is not entirely theoretical. However, unless billions of dollars suddenly appear out of nowhere (attention Bill Gates, Warren Buffet and George Soros), it will be difficult for these ideas to grow beyond the concept stage.

Courtesy of Suz’s Google Talk message, a nice link from Overhead in New York’s archive.

It sums up the conflict of two enduring problems: New Yorkers can be so rude, but sometimes, it’s entirely provoked. Tourists should not stop in the middle of sidewalks any more than they would appreciate people suddenly stopping in the middle of busy streets in their communities. Sidewalks are our streets.

But it does sound like those suits had a slight anger-management problem.

Rob, my good buddy from law school (he was one of the few normal people there), is back in the blogging business.

Rob blogged at el bloggo during law school. However, given his now-exaulted status as an official juris doctor, he believed that el bloggo was so 2006 (or possibly so “law student”). Seeing as Rob is always on the forward edge of the fashion, he quickly ditched el bloggo and went onto the next big thing.

And so, with great pleasure, I direct you to thisnextthing.

But this referral comes with a warning: Rob is whip-smart and frequently very funny. Do not read his blog while drinking liquids or eating food, or you may see your food/drink on your computer screen.

Saw a link to this tech blog at Yahoo this morning, which warns of yet another identity theft risk: newer copiers, which keep copies of everything they copy on hard drives.

I don’t know who the genius was who decided that it would be a good idea to build copiers so that they remember everything that they ever copy. However, it is apparently the standard technology now. So when your HR person copied your Social Security card and drivers license on your first day of work for your W-9 form, those id docs stayed on the office copier. When you ran into Kinkos to photocopy your taxes before sending them out, all your financial information stayed at Kinkos.

In short, just be careful what you copy, and where you copy it.

Zipcar sent out an email the other day announcing that they were about to launch a redesigned site.

If you don’t know about Zipcar yet, you should. It’s an hourly car rental service that helps car-deprived people in cities like NYC, Boston, and San Francisco get a car for those vital runs to Ikea or Costco, or daytrips to places where public transportation does not serve. (While it is true that most worthwhile destinations are served by some sort of public transportation, be it subways or commercial airlines, there are, believe it or not, places worth going where Continental or the MTA do not deign to run.)

Zipcar is fast, convenient and (relatively) cheap. Where else can you have the joy of driving a mini for $12 per hour?

The Zipcar experience, according to the online demo, is about to get even better. Their new flash-based website appears to make finding an available car matching your preferred time, location and style much easier. Plus, it makes heavy use of Google maps, which I adore.

The new system looks so cool that I want to rent a car just so I can have an excuse to use it.

When you’re closing large corporate deals, you typically have a long list of “closing conditions” — milestones that must be met prior to the money moving. It’s a long list of documents that have to be signed, opionions that must be given, collateral that must be secured, factual conditions that must be met and everything else necessary for the bankers to feel comfortable giving away a few hundred million or some billions of dollars.

Right now, 30 hours before the deal is supposed to close, I’m in my own “closing condition”: I’m tired and I’m drained. It’s two rather different conditions. Being tired can be cured with some sleep. Being drained is an ongoing condition, and no matter how much sleep you get, you aren’t going to suddenly feel “not drained.”

I need a break, not like a vacation (although that would of course be nice), but a break from the stress. I looked back at my time reports today, and since early November, I’ve had 15 days when I didn’t bill any time (note that that period contains six holidays). That’s a long time with no real weekends.

I would write more, because I actually had a fun weekend despite all the work. But the car service just called and said that my car will be here in two minutes. So I’m off for now — maybe I can get three hours’ sleep if I’m lucky.

Just now, I was responding to an eVite invitation. You know how when you are responding to eVites, they always take you to a red envelope ad. I presume the advertising logic goes something like this:
1.) You’re responding to an eVite, therefore you have friends.
2.) If you have friends, then you need to buy gifts for them.
3.) Your friends must want useless gifts that don’t really match their tastes, because nothing says “You’re a great friend” better than a random novelty gift ordered off the internet.

Anyway, today’s ad was for a “circle of friends votive holder.” I don’t know who designed this thing, and I don’t know who buys them, but all I can think of is some kind of cheesy cartoon with stick people of many colors holding hands, dancing across the screen while singing “We are the World,” with maybe a nice encore of “Kum by Ya.”

Of course, I’m sure some of my diabolical readers have already picked out my birthday gift.

Robert Moses, the master planner of New York, has long been regarded as a racist villan who destroyed local communities in his quest to build larger-than-life projects (among other things, Moses was responsible for Lincoln Center, the Tri-Borough Bridge, the Verazano Narrows Bridge, the Cross-Bronx Expressway, hundreds of public parks and swimming pools, and many other public works projects). His political power and disregard for opposing viewpoints is legendary.

However, his legacy seems to be getting a somewhat positive reevaluation, as three museums are hosting exhibitions dedicated to his work and historians are releasing a new book of essays about his legacy.

Two recent, interesting articles appeared in the New Yorker and the New York Times. Both articles are very interesting, particularly the one from the Times, which is much more indepth. It is instructive to see how development has progressed and how we got to where we are now. However, it seems to me that the Times is spinning the story in perhaps more of a positive light than it deserves.

But read about it, and judge for yourself. I know that Robert Caro’s biography of Moses is on my must-read list.

This is my second attempt at blogging.  My first blog, which has not been updated in 10 months or so, is going to be allowed to fade into ignomony and oblivion, which is probably the fate that it deserves.

Starting this site is somewhat more exciting than my last blog, on Blogger, since this is MY SITE. It makes me feel important in some marginal way to have my own website.

Of course, a large part of the point of having this website is to build a wedding website.  That is still a work in process.  And given that I’m spending all my waking hours at work, I’m not sure that is going to change anytime soon.

Maybe for this blog, I will am at posting less volume but greater consistency.  Or I will be diligent about it for awhile and then stop posting.  Something like that.