On what was my first train trip in Germany I went to Güstrow, Rostock, and eventually ended up in Warnemünde at the end of my journey. Although some would say that the charming houses by the tourist zone or the Teepot by the sea are main attractions, I loved seeing Read more…
Underground By David Macauley How do workmen lay utilities cables? Where does your sewage go? What’s underneath the ground floor of the building? These are all questions that you can find answers to in Underground by David Macauley. When I took an introductory course to civil engineering, I was in Read more…
Fact Flash: – Rubber takes 50 years to decompose in the natural environment – Nylon takes 30-40 years to decompose in the natural environment Anyone who needed to attach a pen to a clipboard at work or wanted to make a bracelet in class might have contemplated using a link Read more…
Death and Life of Great American Cities By Jane Jacobs First published in 1961, Jane Jacobs outlines the reasons for the failure of urban core areas in America and attributes it to the unsustainable sprawl of suburban housing, car-dependent culture, and flawed urban design philosophy based on what she calls Read more…
If you’re heading East towards Yellowstone National Park on the scenic and tricky US-14, then you have to take the time to stop by and touch real dinosaur tracks. Discovered only near the turn of the 21st century, the dinosaur tracks are very well preserved in what used to be Read more…
The Vocation Lectures By Max Weber While not a book in its original format, the bounded text is as influential in the field of social sciences as it was when first delivered as lectures in Munich in the late 1910’s. The lectures consists of two parts: “Science as a Vocation” Read more…
Mall City: Hong Kong’s Dreamworlds of Consumption Edited by Stefan Al With more shopping malls per square kilometre than any other place on Earth, there’s no better place to research the use of retail space than Hong Kong. This was the first book I bought from the Hong Kong University Read more…
In order of height from tallest to littlest, Andrew, Abraham, Casper, Charlie, and I were the closest of buddies from our days in high school. We each went our different ways shortly after graduation, but we always kept in touch and gathered twice every year for old times’ sake. Video Read more…
The Protestant Ethic and the “Spirit” of Capitalism By Max Weber This controversial piece of work was written at the turn of the 20th century by German philosopher Max Weber. I had the opportunity to read this text in depth when I studied under the direction of Prof. Joshua Derman, Read more…
Cities Without Ground By Adam Frampton, Jonathan Solomon, Clara Wong Between its many contributing authors, one of the core messages I understood from the book was Hong Kong’s lack of a sense of land. Where American and European homeowners would understand that the value of their home was somehow related Read more…