Texas Size Me.

If Texas succeeded from the Union and became its own country, it would have the world’s 11th largest economy. This link shows economic charts for Texas including oil production. http://www.texasahead.org/economy/tracking/

Annexation of Schillinger Rd.

Copy and paste the link to see the recent annexation of part of Schillinger Road into Mobile City limits. Most of the area west of Cody on Schillinger is what has recently been annexed into city limits.

http://www.nbc15online.com/media/news/9/7/b/97b32242-3427-4678-b0ab-9906e488d369/Annexation_Areas_11x17.pdf

"All roads lead to Rome..."

The Agora was an open place of assembly in ancient Greek city-states. Early in Greek history (900s–700s BC), free-born male land-owners who were citizens would gather in the agora for military duty or to hear statements of the ruling king or council. Later in Greek history, the agora served as a marketplace where merchants kept stalls or shops to sell their goods.

The word agoraphobia, the fear of critical public situations, derives from agora in its meaning as a gathering place.

Here is a link to a site that has a virtual tour of the agora and resources to "blueprints" and useful links about the agora.

http://www.agathe.gr/index.html

China's Urban Revolution

China's plan to deal with world-wide recession of 2008-2009 is to build major cities, holding over half of the Chinese popultion. The density resulting from this massive building will help in cutting costs, transportation and communication, but will creat a different set of problems in the future. That is, to begin with, the amount of work created will be ideal for those who have lost their jobs. However, by bringing all thse people from the rural area into a dense city will create a severe social tension. Also, most of the jobs created will require physical labor with all of the infrastrucures that are to be built.

The positive results to this urbanization will bring in more competition, lowering the prices for consumers. As far as supply and demand are concerned, demand will increase pulling China out of the recession. A further factor to urbanization is the design side, if done correctly. In creating a dense city, the city must be built up rather than an urban sprawl which will dramatically
reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Urban density can result in many great outcomes, but it must be carefully planned and thought out. Too many people and too much competition will push costs up in the long run and the city will begin to disintegrate or crumble.
Bctteker, Ashley, Kent State University, 2009

THIS WEEK - INDUSTRY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=72cHfOKoA1c - video about domestic car industry

Prediction of Worst Economic Collapse Ever

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9nJ7LM3iyNg&feature=related

Late blog for last week on food

http://www.thebeijingguide.com/food/exotic.html