An indispensible urban tool: the titanium spork

...preparation for a long hiking trip, but it soon proved its utility in the urban environment. It’s always in my bag, a permanent part of my “everyday carry”, and I use when I’m eating food from home as well as in situations where I’d otherwise be forced to use plastic flatware. I love its simplicity and utility. The prongs of the spork are substantial enough to work as a fork, but aren’t hard on the mouth when it’s used as a spoon. I have another...

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Saturday Tweets: Barbra Streisand, Urban Farm Troubles and Thoughtful Plants

...ttp://t.co/xu3ZRI8aGU — Root Simple (@rootsimple) December 5, 2014 Seized! Urban farm troubles in Detroit: http://t.co/QLvb5ex0dP via @JewishNewsDet — Root Simple (@rootsimple) December 4, 2014 Inhofe's grand climate conspiracy theory: It's all about Barbra Streisand http://t.co/ajhqjEzvBZ via @motherjones — Root Simple (@rootsimple) December 3, 2014 Six Myths About Climate Change that Liberals Rarely Question http://t.co/RoxuTeQxot — Root...

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Your Open Floor Plan is a Death Trap

...shorter time to flashover, rapid changes in fire dynamics, shorter escape times, shorter time to collapse.” It turns out that nobody was considering fire safety as trends in materials and living arrangements have changed in recent years. While the number of structure fires has stayed the same since the 2000s the death rate has increased (U.S. Fire Service Fatalities in Structure Fires 1977-2009 Rita F. Fahy, Ph.D. June 2010). Let’s take a closer...

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Saturday Linkages: Forklift Furniture and Pickled Turnips

...t-dog-encrusted shrimp tempura pizza, with mayonnaise: http://boingboing.net/2013/02/06/pizza-hut-chinas-hot-dog-enc.html … Yuckylicious: Salami Bouquet http://yuckylicious.blogspot.com/2013/02/salami-bouquet.html?spref=tw … Urban Farm Magazine owner BowTie sold – Business – The Orange County Register http://www.ocregister.com/articles/bowtie-414242-fancy-company.html … For these links and more, follow Root Simple on Twitter: Follow @rootsimple...

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Dystopia Report: The I-710 Corridor Aesthetic Master Plan

...reeway builder’s utopian promise of speed and liberty delivers, instead, exurban sprawl, congestion and waves of urban decay and gentrification. That utopian vision of Freeway building is personified in mid-century figures like Robert Moses and the city fathers of early 20th century Los Angeles. But Jameson goes on to question, “does anyone believe in progress any longer? . . . are the architects and urbanists still passionately at work on Utopian...

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