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Post by beth on Jan 6, 2010 1:52:01 GMT
This is such a great article by Bono, who, if he ever decided to leave music, could have a second successful career as a writer. I'm not sure how to best present it. Instead of making a retrospective list for the past decade, he's gathered together "10 ideas that might make the next 10 years more interesting, healthy or civil", and they are definitely worth a look. I like the first one and the "Matter Doesn't Matter" on the second page. www.nytimes.com/2010/01/03/opinion/03bono.html?pagewanted=1&th&emc=th
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Post by beth on Jan 6, 2010 19:05:47 GMT
I'm going to take each of the 10 ideas, one at a time to see if they have discussion possibilities. 1) Return of the Automobile as a Sexual Object How is it that the country that made us all fall in love with the automobile has failed, with only a few exceptions, to produce a single family sedan with the style and humor and grace of the cars produced in the ’40s, ’50s and ’60s? Put aside the question of whether those models were male (as in longer, lower and wider, Dr. Freud) or female (as in fender skirts, curvy belt lines and, of course, headlights). Either way, they all had sex appeal. (In Ireland in the ’70s, it was the E-Type Jag that made sense of puberty.) Today, however, we have the mundanity of our marriage to the minivan and the S.U.V. and long-term relationships with midsize cars that are, forgive me, a little heavy in the rear cargo hold. Are aerodynamics to blame? Economics? Or that most American of inventions, design by committee? It hurts me to say this about democracy (and I know because my band is one), but rarely does majority rule produce something of beauty. That’s why the Obama administration — while it still holds the keys to the big automakers — ought to put some style fascists into the mix: the genius of Marc Newson ... Steve Jobs and Jonny Ive from Apple ... Frank Gehry, the architect, and Jeff Koons, the artist. Put the great industrial designers in the front seat, right along with sound financial stewardship ... the greener, the cleaner, the meaner on fossil fuels, the sexier for me. Check out the Tesla or the Fisker Karma car, designed by the same team that gave the world the Aston Martin. .......
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Post by beth on Jan 7, 2010 1:15:48 GMT
I agree with this point. It would seem, with the importance of our automotive industry to our economy, the big 3 could design more appealing products. Here is a 2010 Camaro (Chevrolet) and, a 2010 Tesla Which would you rather take for a test drive?
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