Friday, November 12, 2010

Deterministic Footfalls

Here's a fascinating RadioLab podcast on deep patterns in cityscapes, "Cities."

After listening, follow it with a sip--a chaser--from Calvino's Invisible Cities:

In vain, great-hearted Kublai, shall I attempt to describe Zaira, city of high bastions. I could tell you how many steps make up the streets rising like stairways, and the degree of the arcades' curves, and what kind of zinc scales cover the roofs; but I already know this would be the same as telling you nothing. [...] The city, however, does not tell its past, but contains it like the lines of a hand, written in the corners of the streets, the gratings of windows, the banisters of the steps, the antennae of the lightning rods, the poles of the flags, every segment marked in turn with scratches, indentations, scrolls. (10-11)

Posted by Derek Mueller at November 12, 2010 9:10 AM to Distances