

Most people are found in just couple of locations at any time, and don't go beyond few miles of home - ideas101
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/05/science/05mobile.html?ref=technology

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josefresco
Would like to see data from the US, as the EU is generally much smaller (per
nation) and doesn't have the same "open frontiers" mentality the US does.

There's a reason we have so many cars (er SUV's) and roads here.

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jonknee
The distances in the US might be larger, but the pattern similar. Most people
go between home and work. And then other trips are similar--shop at the same
stores, go out at the same restaurants, etc. Most weeks I don't leave a three
mile radius.

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popat
home-makers: home and home & shopping and shopping & internet and internet :-)

doctors: hospital and hospital and hospitals :-)

insurance agent: home, office, home, office and home (all homes are other
people's home) :-)

bloggers: home and coffee shops and library and barnes & noble :-)

taxi driver: no home; only taxi :-)

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gills
Now if only we would get out of our SUVs and talk to each other, real
communities could form...

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asdflkj
And why would that be a good thing? How would these "real" communities be
superior to our current "unreal" ones?

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stcredzero
See Kunstler's "Places not worth caring about." This is worth seeing because
of his stunning observations about how distorted our surroundings have become.
He gets into a rant, but he's spot on! (Except where it comes to the "end of
cheap oil.")

<http://www.ted.com/talks/view/id/121>

I love sitting in courtyards and squares in my visits to places in Europe. I
loved sitting in the courtyard of the Student Union in graduate school. I
loved sitting in a cafe on Ludlow Avenue in Cincinnati, which by US standards,
is a very European street in that town. It's relaxing. You can meet people by
accident and find yourself invited to dinner or chat with old friends.
Sometimes, you even get laid.

Maybe you can do all of those things online. I find the interpersonal
bandwidth and the quality of the experience superior in real life.

A lot of people may find this sort of experience foreign in the US. In the US,
the rampant use of the automobile has caused the loss of much of our public
space. Now, it seems like all we know how to build are public spaces where no
one normally wants to be. We have to entice people there with some event.
There are places that are conducive to community, however, where people are
actually drawn to in order to be together. Places near where people live, that
you don't need to pay to get into.

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asdflkj
I'm all for real life and for meeting new people, but it's important to make a
distinction between meeting a particular kind of people and meeting random
people. There are already many cities and neighborhoods in the US where
particular kinds of people gather and meet each other.

On the other hand, your average inhabitant of a "regular" place in the US
(including all of suburbia) is someone I want to keep as far out of my mind as
possible. "Real communities" would make this task much harder.

~~~
stcredzero
This says a lot about American society -- that we no longer have enough of a
civic life to promulgate manners. If there were more "real communities" with a
sense of both tolerance and manners, there wouldn't be any need to avoid the
"average" American. Such places exist in Europe. That they don't exist here
indicates that it's a peculiarity of the US, and not of "real communities" in
general.

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babul
...but the nice thing about having a web-based business is you can work
anywhere (that has internet), even travel the world without having to stop
working if you so want.

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jfoutz
This is unbelievably creepy. First, i wonder about the ethics of scientists
that do the study overseas because it's illegal here... It seems like the
moral equivalent of waterboarding.

Second, no data... this is no better than someone saying jesus loves you.
Maybe true, maybe not, but no actual knowledge is produced.

This article is the opposite of hacker news.

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dazzawazza
erm, I'm only ever found in _one_ location at any time and that location is
here, not over there.

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ideas101
this is so true:

working people on weekdays: home and work place

students : home and school

on saturday's (day): home and grocerry store (in evenings) : movie/night clubs
or home

sundays: home and church

