Blog

How the cities of yesteryear reacted to the automobile

Debate over the role of the automobile is a mainstay of urban politics. A quick scan of the last few months' headlines reveal a debate over surface parking in Minneapolis, Washington Metro's push for more transit-oriented stations, mixed messaging from Hamilton's downtown parking study, and …

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Exploring permaculture in Portugal

I first came across the word permaculture while looking for volunteer opportunities online. Melissa and I had our hearts set on visiting Portugal and we were finding lots of organic farms that were willing to host us in exchange for a few hours' work each day. At first I glossed it over as another …

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Jakriborg, the medieval suburb

After turning off the highway, we travelled for a couple of minutes down a dirt sideroad and arrived at the entrance. A man in a neon green vest waved us through a set of gates. It sure didn't look like a medieval town -- all I could see were large sheet-metal storage sheds and, as we cleared the …

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Operation polyglot

Starting next week, I'm going to be teaching English to kids in Paris. So it only seems fitting that I should hone my language skills at the same time. I've made it my new years' resolution to improve my skills in four languages. By the end of the year, I want to be able to: Read a Henning Mankell …

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