![theatlantic:
Here’s What a Ride in the ‘Taxi of the Future’ Will Get You
Yesterday, at the New York International Auto Show, Nissan unveiled the NYC “Taxi of the Future.” And the vehicle — most notable for the fact that it’s not a car, in the old Crown Victoriamodel, but a minivan — sounds approximately 1,000 times more user-friendly than the current NYC cab. For example:
The doors on the vehicles slide open, so no more risk of hitting a passing bicycle messenger, and they’ll all come with a navigation system, so no more getting lost in the outer boroughs. There are floor lights, to help find anything that may have fallen to the floor, as well as overhead lights for reading. Luggage can go into the cargo space in the rear.
The cabs will also feature a “low-annoyance horn,” more leg room, a skylight, and — in a move that may bring a well-deserved death blow to the strawberry-scented air freshener — odor-reducing fabric.
One of the most exciting selling points, though? The cabs will feature charging stations for riders’ electronics, including one 12-volt outlet and a pair of USB ports.
Which: AWESOME. This is great news for taxi riders — what better time to charge a juiceless phone or tablet, after all, than when you’re stuck in cab? — and it’s good news for the overall movement toward the ubiquitization of charging stations. But it also makes you wonder: How much power, actually, might one expect to get from the Taxi of the Future? Cab rides are short; charge times are long. Are the taxi-bound stations really the Amazing Life-Changers that they seem to be?
Read more. [Image: Kasia Cieplak-Mayr von Baldegg]
The Atlantic’s first rage comic.](http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m20ec7niKr1qcokc4o1_500.jpg)
Here’s What a Ride in the ‘Taxi of the Future’ Will Get You
Yesterday, at the New York International Auto Show, Nissan unveiled the NYC “Taxi of the Future.” And the vehicle — most notable for the fact that it’s not a car, in the old Crown Victoriamodel, but a minivan — sounds approximately 1,000 times more user-friendly than the current NYC cab. For example:
The doors on the vehicles slide open, so no more risk of hitting a passing bicycle messenger, and they’ll all come with a navigation system, so no more getting lost in the outer boroughs. There are floor lights, to help find anything that may have fallen to the floor, as well as overhead lights for reading. Luggage can go into the cargo space in the rear.
The cabs will also feature a “low-annoyance horn,” more leg room, a skylight, and — in a move that may bring a well-deserved death blow to the strawberry-scented air freshener — odor-reducing fabric.
One of the most exciting selling points, though? The cabs will feature charging stations for riders’ electronics, including one 12-volt outlet and a pair of USB ports.
Which: AWESOME. This is great news for taxi riders — what better time to charge a juiceless phone or tablet, after all, than when you’re stuck in cab? — and it’s good news for the overall movement toward the ubiquitization of charging stations. But it also makes you wonder: How much power, actually, might one expect to get from the Taxi of the Future? Cab rides are short; charge times are long. Are the taxi-bound stations really the Amazing Life-Changers that they seem to be?
Read more. [Image: Kasia Cieplak-Mayr von Baldegg]
The Atlantic’s first rage comic.
When I’m at the bar, and my friend suggests that I go over and talk to my crush
I’m just like,
- Don’t prematurely blow your load
An endless supply of free alcohol all day and all night for several days is enticing, but don’t be the dude who’s partied out by 3 pm everyday. I understand that we all have our slip ups, but pace yourself so you don’t miss out on the night shows. In…
SOPA: A Bad Solution to a Very Real Problem
But even as we celebrate the declining congressional support for these bills, we shouldn’t forget that this isn’t simply a fight about the future of free speech; it’s also a battle about whether the financial interests of the new media will triumph over those of the old media. And, if they do, it’s not clear that the public interest will always be served. As the protest song that sprang up this week put it, “Our web means more than lawyers, lobbies, and lies, so speak up before the Internet dies.” There are lawyers and lobbies on both sides of the debate, however, and neither side is devoted to the promotion of creativity for its own sake.
Recommended.
Taking trains and trams in Berlin, I noticed: people reading. Books, I mean, not pocket-size devices that bleep as if censorious, on which even Shakespeare scans like a spreadsheet. Americans buy more than half of all e-books sold internationally — unless Europeans fly regularly to the United States for the sole purpose of downloading reading material from an American I.P. address. […] I began asking the multilingual, multiethnic artists around me why that was. It was 2 a.m., at Soho House, a private club I’d crashed in the former Hitlerjugend headquarters. One installationist said, “Americans like e-books because they’re easier to buy.” A performance artist said, “They’re also easier not to read.” True enough: their presence doesn’t remind you of what you’re missing; they don’t take up space on shelves.Joshua Cohen, My Berlin Airlift - NYTimes.com (via housingworksbookstore)
(via housingworksbookstore)
Nice.
Daaaaaang. What a cool project. What book would y’all like to see on the sidewalk?
Wow!
This is the biggest picture I’ve drawn in the past three years. It was for a banned book week in 2010. I like working big but it’s so much more expensive (except when it’s sidewalk chalk).
Three line poems from the NYPD police blotter.
Why didn’t we think of this? WHY?
“At 4 a.m. on an Upper East Side subway platform, a stare-down between two men was being held. One blinked, and Joseph Owens, 32, attacked.”Félix Fenéon, meet
@neofeneon: Three line poems from the NYPD police blotter.
