They interrogated me for almost two hours, and I don’t feel that my answers were sufficient. But they sent me out of the room for fifteen minutes, and when they welcomed me back in, it was “Congratulations, Dr. Potter”. And then it was immediately on to “Here are the minor revisions you have to make” as everyone started rushing toward their next appointment.
I’m sure the reality will sink in soon, but right now things don’t feel particularly different.
In honour of my upcoming application to the University of Sheffield (and because an enterprising soul posted the article on the Reclaiming Spaces listserve), I offer you this piece on “supermarket-led mixed use developments” planned by Tesco, the enormous UK supermarket chain. The developments center around a Tesco superstore but include homes, schools, and other public facilities. The explanation for the advent of the Tesco Life is the concept of bartering over “planning gain” between developers and local authorities. Basically, if developers provide enough social benefits, like sports facilities and schools, local authorities are now more likely to approve projects they would have rejected in the past. As funding for social infrastructure is cut, this kind of horse-trading appears to become a necessity.
I just spoke with Susan to determine whether or not we would be able to use Skype in my defense. Along the way, of course, there was no way not to talk in general about the dissertation. She described it variously as “wonderful” and “a model thesis, in fact”. I believe that indicates that optimism that I will soon pass is warranted. Yea!
Of course, someone else may disagree. We’ll see what Peter says tomorrow.
This video depicts the recovery of air traffic after the volcano eruption in Iceland. That southeastern hub is Basel? Munich?
Somehow I have managed to finish, distribute, and file the appropriate paperwork today. The dissertation is done, gone, finis, complete, out of my hands. For now. All 250 bound pages are on their way to my committee. And all I can do is wait now.
Corners were cut and words were minced, but it’s done. Gone. Finished. Oh, wait! I already said that. Of course, that doesn’t change the fact that it’s done, complete, out of my hands,…
Of course there will be revisions. Assuming that they pass me, I can only hope that the revisions will be minor. I’ll learn that on May 14th.
[Update: Just wanted to add that I finished my draft in the Rose Room of the NYPL, which tickles my NYC academic, romantic imagination.]
[Update 2: If for some reason you're interested in seeing it, you can access the entire dissertation or just chapters here.]
A scan from, I believe, a South African newspaper with the mayor of Johannesburg about the city’s claim in advance of hosting the World Cup that it is a world class city.
Beta website that is a ‘”go to” place to find the latest news and trends on fresh ideas, approaches, ways to help the world’s cities work better for all their people’.
I just heard from Korea University (Godae) that I didn’t pass the first screening. Fortunately, this saves me from scrambling even more over the next couple of days to send them a hard copy of basically everything I’ve ever written, including the yet-to-be completed dissertation.
I was a bit bummed out that I didn’t even make the first cut, as good a university as Godae is (in Korea’s top three). Fortunately, however, I also received a follow-up letter explaining that it was because of the strict rule about having a PhD when you apply: and they had asked me about my situation in an earlier email. They also asked me to keep my eyes open for future announcements. So, at least it seems I was desirable.
In the meantime, I still haven’t heard a peep from the New School, so I presume that isn’t happening either. Altogether, the lesson seems to be that I just have to finish the darn dissertation before looking for work and, of course, that there is a more appropriate position coming my way in the future.
And so, back to the writing.
[via Metafilter] Some peculiar housing communities. But why would anyone in their right mind name a housing complex after the movie Alphaville?
[From the website:]
John Stow’s Elizabethan classic, A Survey of London, was first published in 1598, with a second edition following in 1603. Stow (c. 1525-1605) was a chronicler and antiquary who transcribed manscripts and inscriptions relating to English history, literature and archaelogy, but his Survey is perhaps his most famous work, with its evocative ‘perambulation’ of the streets of the Tudor capital, which forms the main framework of the book. In 1908, C.L. Kingsford produced a scholarly edition of the 1603 text, which still remains authoritative, although Stow the scholar and antiquary has continued to be investigated by historians since that time.
In the century following Stow’s death, however, the Tudor capital so lovingly depicted and recorded in Stow’s Survey was dramatically transformed. The huge growth of the metropolis, the devastation wrought by the Great Fire of 1666 and the subsequent rebuilding of the City made an updating of the Survey highly desirable. It was to answer this need that John Strype (1643-1737), the ecclesiastical historian and biographer, published a new, hugely expanded version of Stow’s Survey of London in 1720.
Funded by the Leverhulme Trust, the project has produced a full-text electronic version of John Strype’s enormous two-volume edition of 1720, complete with its celebrated maps and plates, which depict the prominent buildings, street plans and ward boundaries of the late Stuart capital.
Folks, I’ve been busy. I’ve been flooded with work. It seems that I’ve somehow committed myself to defending my yet unfinished dissertation on May 14th. That means I have exactly three weeks to get it done, while I teach my class. So I’m off the grid for the next three weeks.
However, I couldn’t keep from sharing this video of the village center near where I grew up. The region is at the epicenter of the recent flooding that has closed down I-95 and Amtrak. I’ve never seen it like this.
GM has introduced an new Aramis in the form of a two-person Segway with GPS and high-speed wireless. And it will autopilot you to your destination.
Arundhati Roy, who spoke yesterday at the Left Forum, has an article in Outlook on her visit to Naxalite territory. I started the piece. It reads wonderfully. But I don’t have time right now. I think I’ll have to assign it to my students so that I have an excuse.
The Financial Times has an interesting tribute to Claude Levi-Strauss, who passed away in the fall at 100 years old. It’s by the same folks who brought you Logicomix.
According to this article on inHabitat, China is funding a high speed rail network from China, across ten countries, able to reach the UK. There are to be three lines: one south to Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia, and Myanmar; one to India; and one to Germany via Russia. Some of the countries are paying in kind. For example, Myanmar is going to pay for their link in lithium. It’s a brilliant use of their reserves. It pumps money into the world market today in exchange for guaranteed stream of raw materials, presumably at good prices. And they get a solid, fast, later cost-effective landlink direct to Europe. And it links a number of new countries.
Perhaps this should be my next research project. After all, it functioning at even greater than continental scales.
