Reverse Mental Entropy

The leaves fell back into the ground

crumbled, wet, discarded as we looked

upwards, to the lights, the christmas music

fall is almost over so

CHINA-USA DEAL ON CARBON CUTS

The United States and China have unveiled a secretly negotiated deal to reduce their greenhouse gas output, with China agreeing to cap emissions for the first time and the US committing to deep reductions by 2025.

The pledges in an agreement struck between President Barack Obama and his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jingping, provide an important boost to international efforts to reach a global deal on reducing emissions beyond 2020 at a United Nations meeting in Paris next year.

China, the biggest emitter of greenhouse gases in the world, has agreed to cap its output by 2030 or earlier if possible. Previously China had only ever pledged to reduce the rapid rate of growth in its emissions. Now it has also promised to increase its use of energy from zero-emission sources to 20% by 2030.

The United States has pledged to cut its emissions to 26-28% below 2005 levels by 2025.

The European Union has already endorsed a binding 40% greenhouse gas emissions reduction target by 2030.

The built-up area of Atlanta and Barcelona represented at the same scale

Urban densities are not trivial, they severely limit the transport mode choice and change only very slowly

Because of the large differences in densities between Atlanta and Barcelona about the same length of metro line is accessible to 60% of the population in Barcelona but only 4% in Atlanta. The low density of Atlanta render this city improper for rail transit.

RACIAL DIVERSITY AND SEGREGATION: The San Francisco Bay Area, 1990-2010

The San Francisco Bay Area ranked as the most racially diverse metropolitan area in America in both the 2000 and 2010 censuses, after being second only to Los Angeles in 1990. The maps above show, by census-tract analysis, the dramatic increase in the Bay Area’s diversity over the last two decades:  in 1990, almost 78 percent of metropolitan census tracts were white dominated; in 2010, only 54 percent were. Over two decades, the region’s racial geography became increasingly complex, marked by the prevalence of moderately diverse neighborhoods. This pattern has been repeated all across America to some degree.

Source:  R. Wright, M. Ellis, S. Holloway, and S. Wong, “Patterns of racial diversity and segregation in the United States: 1990-2010, Professional Geographer, 66:2, 173-182.

- White people are less likely to be arrested for the same crime than black people, and black people serve longer (much longer!) sentences than white people.

- Marijuana use is similar among black and white populations in the U.S., but young African Americans are more than THREE TIMES more likely to be arrested for marijuana possession or use than white Americans. 

- Racial bias in hiring in the U.S. is well-documented and persistent.

- African American students are far more likely to be punished in schools, even though they are not much more likely to break school rules than their white peers.

- Even after accounting for reasons like education disparity, geographical distribution, and occupation, there is a persistent wage gap: White people make are paid more than African Americans due to racial discrimination. 

- White people in the U.S. on average have lower mortgage rates than African Americans.