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16 Ways Asian Cities Are Making Their US Counterparts Look Like The Third World
Business Insider ^ | 01/03/2013 | Joshua Berlinger

Posted on 01/05/2013 7:53:42 PM PST by SeekAndFind

Despite the global economic slowdown, Asia's cities are continuing to widen the perceived technological gap between its American counterparts.

The juxtaposition is visible from the moment your feet leave the plane. Many of the airports in Asia's biggest cities are stunning, engineering marvels — and make those in the U.S. seem outdated.

Has America's early leadership in technology and engineering evaporated? Or is it hidden at first glance?

1) The Shanghai Magnetic Levitation (Maglev) floats on magnets and is the world's fastest commercially operated train, traveling at speeds up to 268 mph.

2) Seoul's local government has launched a $44 million plan to blanket the city with free Wi-fi.

3) Some Japanese street signs have heat maps to relay congestion information to drivers and directly influence traffic patterns

(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Science; Society
KEYWORDS: asia; cities
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To: Vigilanteman

We were at a restaurant over the holiday. A local landmark where they post autographed pictures of notable patrons. One wall was of state and federal politicians. While we were waiting I loudly dubbed it the wall of shame. One of the toothy ones, current congress creep Dan Boren, I pointed out. My B-I-L asked if I meant the one visited by the tooth fairy. Yup, that is the one. All mouth, ears, teeth and eyes and nothing in between. Good friend of Paul Ryan.

I would dub them not the sharpest collection of arrows in the quiver but they are sharp enough to fleece the hell out of us, collect $178,000 a year, a fat pension, insider trading, all they can steal and come out millionaires. The Civil War should start in their offices.


21 posted on 01/05/2013 10:17:11 PM PST by Sequoyah101
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To: SeekAndFind

I don’t know a single city I’d choose to live in.

Grew up outside DC; When I had to professionally, I spent at least a few years each in Memphis, Albuquerque, Cincinnati, San Diego, Nashville; more than brief visits to New York twice, Boston twice,Tucson, San Francisco, Dallas a number of times; a few days or more in Chicago, Minneapolis, Milwaukee, Denver, Richmond, Phoenix, Las Vegas, LA. And all those were back when they those cities were a heck of a lot better than I hear they are lately.

Currently live an hour and a half drive from Seattle and avoid it like the plague.

Concerning American cities, I agree with Steve McQueen: “I rather wake up in the middle of nowhere than in any city on earth.” I enjoyed London for several months when young, and a number of months in Chengdu back before China modernized. Probably not the same now.


22 posted on 01/05/2013 10:45:16 PM PST by dagogo redux (A whiff of primitive spirits in the air, harbingers of an impending descent into the feral.)
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To: SeekAndFind

Last year we flew out of Barcelona and I think Munich and Frankfort and those airports put ANY and ALL of ours to SHAME!!! OMG!! The shopping was like 5th AVenue and you could eat off the floors, they were so clean!! ANd then we flew into La Guardia......PUKE!!


23 posted on 01/05/2013 10:57:18 PM PST by Ann Archy (ABORTION........the HUMAN sacrifice to the god of CONVENIENCE.)
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To: 9YearLurker

Sorry, but NY is a dirty, ugly hellhole.....well, mybe you’re right, it IS the cultural center of the world.


24 posted on 01/05/2013 11:01:25 PM PST by Ann Archy (ABORTION........the HUMAN sacrifice to the god of CONVENIENCE.)
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To: SeekAndFind
I was watching CNN at the airport this Christmas, and some guys were breathlessly, and I mean breathlessly, hyping the idea that the federal government needs to get into more infrastructure investment. This article may be a coordinated talking points push for more infrastructure spending.

But we don't need more spending.

1. A mere three years ago we passed a $600 billion stimulus package for "shovel ready" jobs. Now we need another stimulus for infrastructure? Where did the other money go?

2. The real estate bubble itself, 2003-2007, was a stimulus in real estate, including property taxes gushing into cities and states, which spent the money on things like Taj Mahal schools.

3. There aren't any cities that I know of in the US which do not have a serious pension underfunding problem, so that any rational city council would need to spend on getting pension funds funded, not buying gigantic metal "trees."

Of course Asian infrastructure is more modern, they have been building the most dazzling parts of it for only the last ten years. The Empire State building is 80 years old now. Most of the infrastructure we need, we already have.

25 posted on 01/05/2013 11:33:13 PM PST by Vince Ferrer
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To: Vince Ferrer

Underfunded pensions?????? Gaaak!!!!!! You’re being sarcastic.....right? The taxes you refer to gushing into cities and states and going “missing” paid for CONTRACTS with PUBLIC SERVICE EMPLOYEE UNIONS which specified RETIREMENT PACKAGES pegged at FULL ANNUAL WAGE LEVELS in perpetuity for every single union retiree. It is what has sunk ALL of the cities in California, DETROIT in Michigan, AND the U.S. Postal Service.


26 posted on 01/05/2013 11:58:47 PM PST by 4Runner
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To: SeekAndFind
Its ain't all milk & honey....Driving in Asia - Taiwan <--YouTube video.


I see most of these every week.
27 posted on 01/06/2013 12:25:38 AM PST by Tainan (Cogito, ergo conservatus sum -- "The Taliban is inside the building")
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To: Ann Archy

What happened to you, did you visit NYC 30 years ago? Go to stay with relatives living in a slum section of the city? What cities, if any, do you prefer?


28 posted on 01/06/2013 12:50:24 AM PST by 9YearLurker
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To: dagogo redux
"middle of nowhere"

My youngest brother couldn't understand when my wife and visited him and his family last year why we didn't especially want to visit Seattle. He lives in Olympia. We explained to him, with some difficulty, that we enjoy the "empty" spaces of America far more than congested cities no matter what attractions the big cities may occasionally offer as far as services and entertainment. Nothing makes me happier on a trip out west than to look out the car window and see "nothing." By that I mean no signs of "civilization."

29 posted on 01/06/2013 3:19:09 AM PST by driftless2
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To: dagogo redux
"modernized China"

Some parts of China are modernized. And even certain civilized parts, for example Beijing, are only modernized in certain touristy areas. Even so my younger brother and his wife took a trip to China a few years ago and said they'd never go back. Off the beaten path was exceptionally filthy and many of the Chinese were rude to foreigners. Nevertheless, I'd like to visit China some day. But after she heard my brother and his wife describe their horrible experience, I'll have a difficult time convincing my wife to go.

30 posted on 01/06/2013 3:23:54 AM PST by driftless2
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To: SeekAndFind



31 posted on 01/06/2013 5:42:55 AM PST by Bon mots (Abu Ghraib: 47 Times on the front page of the NY Times | Benghazi: 2 Times)
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To: dagogo redux
Post of the Day ! !
32 posted on 01/06/2013 5:45:09 AM PST by tomkat (-/\/\/\-)
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To: Vigilanteman

How could forget Chicago and LA? Atlanta? Dallas? Yes, our cities are becoming Third World.


33 posted on 01/06/2013 6:25:33 AM PST by autumnraine (America how long will you be so deaf and dumb to the tumbril wheels carrying you to the guillotine?)
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To: MattinNJ
FWIW, I spent 15 years of my professional life living in or near two of the biggest cities in Japan, Tokyo and Kobe.

I have vivid memories of walking through high rise housing projects near Tokyo which, according to the theories of BO and JJ, should have been breeding grounds for poverty induced crime. The loudest sound I heard was a kid, a couple of floors up, practicing a piano. What is it about these parents in crowded substandard public housing buying their kids pianos?

Then there was Kobe, after the quake, my eldest daughter, then 10 years old, stood in line for over an hour to get fresh water for the household. She reported the loudest sound in the line were other people trying to get an elderly woman to move to the front of the line and she insisting she could wait her turn. Can you imagine anything like that happening in New Orleans post Katrina?

34 posted on 01/06/2013 6:27:12 AM PST by Vigilanteman (Obama: Fake black man. Fake Messiah. Fake American. How many fakes can you fit in one Zer0?)
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To: SeekAndFind

Have the Supertrees already been built?


35 posted on 01/06/2013 6:52:15 AM PST by tbw2
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To: tbw2
Have the Supertrees already been built?

They are part of Gardens by the Bay - a botanical park - so they are more of a demonstration of the technology. If they are going to get deployed anywhere, Singapore would be the place.

Libertarian though I am, I have become convinced that no large city filled with fallible humans can be governed without imposition of a Lee Kwan Yew- or Rudy Giuliani-style benevolent dictatorship. An efficient and honest system for detention or deportation of undesirables is essential. Otherwise, criminals and deadbeats quickly game the system and overwhelm the good citizens.

Obama is trying to take this human failing national for political gain...and he's doing a damned good job.

36 posted on 01/06/2013 7:12:48 AM PST by Mr. Jeeves (CTRL-GALT-DELETE)
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To: wolficatZ
Where are the MILLIONS of 3rd world muslims flooding into Japan and S. Korea?

I did see a lot of well-dressed, wealthy Gulf Arabs and Iranians in Shanghai, where they were on vacation and busy shopping in a country that is much friendlier to their money than our own. China, of course, isn't letting economic refugees flood across their borders from any direction.

Traveling to Asia makes me feel poor and backward, these days. The way an Asian visitor to the USA might have felt fifty years ago...

37 posted on 01/06/2013 7:18:30 AM PST by Mr. Jeeves (CTRL-GALT-DELETE)
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To: tbw2

RE: Have the Supertrees already been built?

I believe they already have.

See here:

http://www.nst.com.my/red/landscape-singapore-s-garden-of-eden-1.192225


38 posted on 01/06/2013 7:23:07 AM PST by SeekAndFind
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To: tbw2

Visitors watch as the super trees dazzle with lights display and music.


Surrounded with 12 towering giant trees up to 50 metres tall, visitors were mesmerised.


The man-made trees came to life with magical lights and music

It's part of Singapore's goal to become "a city in a garden"

SOURCE: New Corp.
39 posted on 01/06/2013 7:28:56 AM PST by SeekAndFind
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To: 9YearLurker

I’ve lived in NY, downtown Chicago, and Kensington, London......New York is the UGLIEST and DIRTIEST and has almost no tree-lined streets like Chicago and London. We go to NY at least once a year.


40 posted on 01/06/2013 11:20:38 AM PST by Ann Archy (ABORTION........the HUMAN sacrifice to the god of CONVENIENCE.)
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