Cloudmoney: Cash, Cards, Crypto, and the War for Our Wallets
by
Brett Scott
Published 4 Jul 2022
The US Bitcoin trader Chad Elwartowski, for example, rigged up a seasteading dwelling fourteen miles off the coast of Thailand before being forced to flee after the Thai government accused him of violating its sovereignty. On his Facebook page he posted, ‘I was free for a moment – probably the freest person in the world.’ Seasteading was a theme at Satoshi’s Vision too, with a Bitcoin Cash promoter proudly showing me pictures of offshore living pods he was designing. He went on to tell me the story of Kowloon Walled City, a formerly ungoverned space on the outskirts of Hong Kong. In the absence of regulation, Kowloon’s buildings crammed together like overgrown concrete vines, creating a labyrinthine maze. It was demolished in 1994, but he saw it as a symbol of unregulated human endeavour on the periphery of governed zones.
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This shadow cyber-economy is one part real – crypto tokens do get countertraded in actual dark markets – but one part mythological: the story adds intrigue and excitement to tokens that are, for the most part, treated as collectibles by people living lives within mainstream corporate capitalist society. Kowloon Walled City Ian Lambot This latter element perhaps explains why the community is heavily male. The imagery of rugged heroic individualism alongside trading is enticing to men who might otherwise be working a standard day job. Launching digital collectibles that tap into this can be very lucrative, which means the factionalism is now as much commercial as it is political.
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To have any hope of providing a decentralised alternative to mainstream banking, though, crypto would need to go beyond one-way token-transfer systems. A deal involves two parties having to fulfil their side of the bargain, and this is often where our traditional leviathans thrive. If I run off with goods before paying a shopkeeper, they send the police after me, and even in the old Kowloon Walled City you might find yourself shot by gang bosses if you harmed someone under their protection. Similarly, Internet leviathans like Amazon have arbitration systems to ensure deals go through. But in the crypto realm there are no crypto-police (or gangs) to turn to if someone does not fulfil their side of the deal when you transfer tokens.
Atlas Obscura: An Explorer's Guide to the World's Hidden Wonders
by
Joshua Foer
,
Dylan Thuras
and
Ella Morton
Published 19 Sep 2016
Chun’an, 95 miles (153 km) southwest of Hangzhou. Dive season is April to October, with best visibility from April to June. For equipment and companions, contact Big Blue, a dive facility in Shanghai that organizes group trips to Qiandao Lake. 29.615849 118.990803 HONG KONG Kowloon Walled City Park KOWLOON CITY, KOWLOON From 1945 to 1993, the tiny, windowless apartments of Kowloon Walled City were stacked 15 stories high, the buildings crammed together into a concrete cube. Crooked stairways wound their way down to narrow alleys lined with dirt and reeking of sour garbage. Sunrise and sunset were irrelevant—constant darkness shrouded the city’s labyrinthine passages, hiding misdeeds and enabling squalor.
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With a peak of 33,000 inhabitants, or 111,450 per square mile, the city-within-a-city was one of the most densely populated areas in history. In 1987, the Hong Kong government finally decided to demolish Kowloon Walled City and replace it with a park. The enclave was torn down in 1994, revealing several relics from the original garrison, such as cannons and parts of the wall. These artifacts, as well as a scale model of the old, overstuffed village, are now on display at Kowloon Walled City Park, a collection of gardens that is as tranquil as the city was chaotic. Tung Tsing Road, Kowloon City. The park is a 15-minute walk from the Lok Fu Hong Kong MTR station. 22.33213 114.190329 A scale model of the dense, dangerous (and now demolished) walled city of Kowloon.
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Peters, 20 Ruins of the MV Plassey, 14 Sacred City of Caral-Supe, 405 Santa Claus, 297 Sewell, 397 Spreepark, 45 Steetley Magnesite, 5 Steinart Hall, 372 Suakin, 194 Sunken City, 281 Umatilla Chemical Depot, 292 Uranium City, 264 Val-Jalbert Ghost Town, 274 Varosha Beach Resort, 51 White City Ruins, 281 see also Lost Cities and Towns SCIENCE MUSEUMS AND EXPERIMENTS Alchemy Museum, 78 American Computer Museum, 313 Birthplace of Tesla Museum and Memorial Center, 77 Boomeria, 287 California Science Center, 281 Centennial Bulb, 286 Dymaxion Chronofile, 279 Edison’s Last Breath, 328 Electronic Museum, 80 Ether Dome, 372 Gottfried Knoche’s Mummy Lab, 411 Griffith Observatory’s Tesla Coil, 281 Hessdalen AMS, 107 Holmdel Horn Antenna, 356 IceCube Research Station, 447 Instituto Butantan, 394 Integratron, 279 Mapimí Silent Zone, 417 Marconi National Historic Site, 268 Mark I, 372 Moore Lab of Zoology, 281 Musée des Arts et Métiers, 37 Nikola Tesla Museum, 94 Phone Booth on a Roof, 322 Pitch Drop Experiment, 232 Quiet Zone, 366 Reed College Research Reactor, 291 Sound Garden, 294 Wilhelm Reich Museum, 370 World’s Quietest Room, 329 SELF-BUILT CASTLES Bishop Castle, 298 Cano’s Castle, 299 Château Laroche, 333 Coral Castle, 299 Don Justo’s Self-Built Cathedral, 68 Moussa Castle, 120 Mystery Castle, 299 Palais Idéal, 38 Rubel Castle, 299 Solomon’s Castle, 299 Taródi Vár Castle, 80 Tower of Eben-Ezer, 30 STRANGE ARCHITECTURE Abita Mystery House, 346 Abuja Airplane House, 203 Amargosa Opera House and Hotel, 284–285 Arcosanti, 297 Arctic architecture, 262–263 Ateneo Grand Splendid, 383 Atomium, 30 Aurora Ice Museum, 377 Binoculars Building, 281 Blackfriars Playhouse, 351 Bob Baker Marionette Theater, 281 Bok Tower Gardens, 342 Boswell Embalming Bottle House, 260 Boulders of Monsanto, 66 Bridge to Nowhere, 243 Britannia Panopticon Music Hall, 20 Bruno Weber Skulpturenpark, 72 Carriolu Miniature Village, 40 Chan, 405 Chand Baori Stepwell, 132 Cigar Band House, 65 Clown Motel, 300 Concrete Parthenon, 351 Dans le Noir, 37 Discovery Hut, 447 Drottningholms Palace Theater, 110 Dunmore Pineapple, 20 Free Spirit Spheres, 259 Gbadolite, 207 Gold Pyramid House, 322 Greatstone Sound Mirrors, 8 Hobbiton, 240 House of Balls, 329 House of Evgeny Smolik, 92 House of Plastic Bottles, 386 House on the Rock, 334 Igloolik Research Station, 263 Infinite Corridor (MIThenge), 372 Karl Junker House, 45 Kowloon Walled City Park, 151 Kremsmunster Observatory, 25 Kruševo Makedonium, 83 Kyaiktiyo Balancing Pagoda, 177 Loretto Chapel Stairs, 305 Lumilinna Snow Castle, 102 Magic Mountain Hotel, 397 Maison Picassiette, 33 McElroy Octagon House, 287 Mini Taj Mahal, 128 Minimundus, 25 Mistake House, 321 La Mona, 418 Moonhole, 442 Mudhif Houses, 116 Nakasuk School, 263 Naucalpan, 417 New Lucky Restaurant, 132 Newgrange Mound, 15 Nördlingen, 41 Painted Village, 85 Palacio Barolo, 385 Paper House, 373 Passetto di Borgo, 58 Ponte City Apartments, 216 Pope Leo’s Bathroom, 57 President’s Room, 118 Quinta da Regaliera, 67 Radio City Music Hall’s Secret Apartment, 359 Rundetårn, 100 Ryugyong Hotel, 164–165 Salar de Uyuni, 388 Sam Kee Building, 258 Santa’s Workshop, 104 727 Fuselage Home, 421 Shackleton’s Hut, 449 Skellig Michael, 15 Solar Power Towers, 70 Solomon’s Castle, 299 Stiltsville, 340 Swallow’s Nest, 98 Tash Rabat, 137 Teatro Amazonas, 395 Tower of Eben-Ezer, 30 Trick Fountains of Hellbrunn Palace, 28 Upside-Down House, 83 Venetian Palace Diorama, 372 Watts Tower, 281 Wilson’s Stone Igloo, 447 Winchester Mystery House, 279 Wishbones of McSorley’s Old Ale House, 359 Wuppertal Suspension Railway, 46 see also Pyramids; Self-built Castles, Towers, and Homes STRANGE FLORA AND FAUNA Abu Dhabi Falcon Hospital, 123 Adak National Forest, 378 African Dream Root, 393 Archie the Giant Squid, 12–13 blue-ringed octopus, 228 box jellyfish, 228 Chocolate Hills, 178 coastal taipan, 229 Cochrane Polar Bear Habitat, 273 Colossal Squid, 244 Dzanga Bai, 206 eye worm, 154 Firefly Squid of Toyama Bay, 156–157 Franklin Park Zoo Bear Pens, 372 Grant Museum of Zoology, 10 Guinea worms, 154 gympie gympie, 229 hemlock, 4 Huachuma, 392 Huberta the Hippo, 216 Iboga, 393 Impaled Stork, 47 Jellyfish Lake, 248 Jigokudani Park, 160 Knight’s Spider Web Farm, 375 lake monsters, 368–369 Litchfield Termite Mounds, 234 loa loa, 154 Maasai Ostrich Farm, 210 Manú National Park, 405 Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve, 417 Musk Ox Farm, 377 Narcisse Snake Orgy, 261 Pablo Escobar’s Hippos, 399 Pangolin Rehabilitation Center, 169 Pitcher Plants of Kinabalu, 176 Rat King, 38 Sacred Crocodile Pond, 199 Salvia divinorum, 392 Seneca White Deer, 360 Skunk Ape Research Headquarters, 341 Sloth Sanctuary, 422 Socotra Island, 124 stonefish, 228 Swimming Pigs, 426 Sydney funnel-web spider, 229 Synchronized Fireflies of Kampung Kuantan, 176 tapeworms, 154 Thousand-Year Rose, 44 Three-Century Labyrinth, 65 Tortoises of Aldabra, 222 Ueno Zoo Escaped Animal Drill, 155 University of Florida Bat Houses, 340 Vallée de Mai, 221 Victoria Amazonica, 395 Wallabies of Lambay, 17 Wichita Mountains Buffalo Herd, 317 Zoological Museum at Vietnam National University, 184 Zoological Museum (Bologna), 52 Zoological Museum (Cluj-Napoca), 86 see also Trees STRANGE TOWNS AND CITIES Auroville, 132 Castellfollit de la Roca, 70 Ciudad Mitad del Mundo, 402 Colonia Tovar, 410 Darra Adam Khel, 140 Dwarf Empire, 146 Fordlândia, 395 Fucking, Austria, 25 Ganvie, 196 Garbage City, 188 Giethoorn, 64 Hallstatt, 150 Kampong Ayer, 168 Kijong-dong, 163 Kingdom of Women, 146 Nova Cidade de Kilamba, 213 Oyotunji African Village, 350 PhinDeli Town, 318 Setenil de las Bodegas, 70 Villa Baviera, 397 Vulcan, 257 Walled City of Shibam, 124 Whittier, Alaska, 377 SUPERNATURAL Badlands Guardian, 258 Betty and Barney Hill Archive, 374 Cassadaga, 342 Child-Eater of Bern, 73 Devil’s Footprint, 41 Devils’ Museum, 83 Devil’s Tramping Ground, 348 Fairy Circles, 215 Gurdon Light, 339 Hook & Ladder 8, 359 International Cryptozoology Museum, 367 Lily Dale Assembly, 360 Marree Man, 234 Mary King’s Close, 20 Mumtaz Begum, 140 Musée de la Magic, 37 Museo de las Brujas, 70 Museum of Witchcraft and Magic, 7 Oregon Vortex, 289 Robert the Doll, 342 TAXIDERMY Agriculture Museum of Budapest, 81 August von Spiess Museum of Hunting, 87 Deyrolle Taxidermy, 34 Grip the Raven, 364 TEMPLES, CHURCHES, AND MONASTERIES Angelus Temple, 281 Astronomical Clock of Besançon Cathedral, 33 Beer Bottle Temple, 183 Cao Dai Holy See, 184 Cathedral of Junk, 308 Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels, 281 Chained Books of Hereford Cathedral, 5 Chapel Oak, 33 Chapel of the Snows, 447 Chicago Temple, 320 Church of St.
City: A Guidebook for the Urban Age
by
P. D. Smith
Published 19 Jun 2012
Jonathan Barnett, The Elusive City: Five Centuries of Design, Ambition and Miscalculation (London: Herbert Press, 1987), 2. 96. Peter Clark, European Cities and Towns, 400–2000 (Oxford: OUP, 2009), 12. 97. Clark (2009), 80. 98. Mumford (1961), 251. 99. Clark (2009), 195–6. 100. ‘Kowloon Walled City’, Newsline, University of Columbia: <http://www.arch.columbia.edu/gsap/21536>. See Greg Girard and Ian Lambot, City of Darkness: Life in Kowloon Walled City (Watermark, 1993). 101. Girard and Lambot (1993). 102. ‘Bid to rescue Berlin Wall artwork’, BBC News Online, 16 October 2008 ; <http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/world/europe/7674135.stm> <http://www.eastsidegallery.com/> 3 Customs 1.
…
Like every aspect of life in the Walled City, building was unregulated. Fires were a constant threat. The Walled City of Kowloon, China, before it was demolished in 1993. Following agreement between Britain and the PRC, the Walled City was demolished in 1993. Today it has been transformed into the Kowloon Walled City Park. Within it still stands the Yamen, the last remaining remnant of the original Walled City – a brick and granite building that was the headquarters of the military officials who governed the original garrison town when it was built in 1847. The Temple of Hathor and Nefertari, Abu Simbel, southern Egypt, c. 1275-1225 bc.
…
Northcott, Urban Design in Western Europe: Regime and Architecture, 900–1900 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1990) Galantay, Ervin Y., New Towns: Antiquity to the Present (New York: Braziller, 1975) Gates, Charles, Ancient Cities: The Archaeology of Urban Life in the Ancient Near East and Egypt, Greece, and Rome (London: Routledge, 2003) Girard, Greg, and Ian Lambot, City of Darkness: Life in Kowloon Walled City (London: Watermark Publications, 1993) Jones, Colin, Paris: Biography of a City (London: Penguin, 2006) Kargon, Robert H., and Arthur P. Molella, Invented Edens: Techno-cities of the Twentieth Century (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2008) Kostof, Spiro, The City Shaped: Urban Patterns and Meanings Through History (London: Thames & Hudson, 1991) Leick, Gwendolyn, Mesopotamia: The Invention of the City (London: Penguin, 2002) Lindqvist, Cecilia, China: Empire of Living Symbols (Cambridge, MA: Da Capo, 2008) Meller, Hugh, London Cemeteries: An Illustrated Guide (Aldershot: Scolar, 1994) Mieroop, Marc van de, The Ancient Mesopotamian City (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999) Rosenau, Helen, The Ideal City: Its Architectural Evolution in Europe (London: Methuen, 1983) Sloane, David Charles, The Last Great Necessity: Cemeteries in American History (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1991) Southall, Aiden, The City in Time and Space (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998) Steinhardt, Nancy Shatzman, Chinese Imperial City Planning (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1990) Williams, Richard J., Brazil (London: Reaktion, 2009) Wheatley, Paul, The Pivot of the Four Quarters: A Preliminary Enquiry into the Origins and Character of the Ancient Chinese City (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1971) 3 Customs Beard, Mary, The Parthenon (London: Profile Books, 2002) Ferguson, Ronnie, A Linguistic History of Venice (Florence: Leo S.
One Billion Americans: The Case for Thinking Bigger
by
Matthew Yglesias
Published 14 Sep 2020
This is the key insight that makes the idea of one billion Americans start to go from fantastical to plausible. To get there would require a number of changes, some of them discomforting. But the outcome we are talking about is extremely reasonable—not a transformation of the United States into a continent-straddling version of the Kowloon Walled City or even anything in the neighborhood of the density of East Asian countries like Japan and South Korea. To have one billion Americans, we need to transform the forty-eight contiguous states from being dramatically less dense than Western European countries to being only moderately less dense than they are.
Idoru
by
William Gibson
Published 2 Jan 1996
Gibson William Idoru Idoru William Gibson Idoru Thanks Sogho Ishii, the Japanese director, introduced me to Kowloon Walled City via the photographs of Ryuji Miyamoto. It was Ishiisan's idea that we should make a science fiction movie there. We never did, but the Walled City continued to haunt me, though I knew no more about it than I could gather from Miyamoto's stunning images, which eventually provided most of the texture for the Bridge in my novel Virtual Light. Architect Ken Vineberg drew my attention to an article about the Walled City in Architectural Revieu~, where I first learned of City of Darkness, the splendid record assembled by Greg Girard and Ian Lambrot (Watermark, London, 1993).
Unfinished Empire: The Global Expansion of Britain
by
John Darwin
Published 12 Feb 2013
They handed it back as a symbol of transfer. The proclamation of cession was then read aloud, the royal standard was raised and a volley was fired. With three cheers for ‘Old England’, three more for ‘the Queen’, and a fresh blast of gunfire, the transaction was over: Kowloon was British (except for a fortified enclosure, the ‘Kowloon walled city’, which the negotiators unaccountably forgot in their haste).5 Crude ceremonies such as these symbolized the decisive act of imperial expansion: the annexation of territory. Annexation converted vague zones of influence and interest into formal possessions of the British Crown. Henceforth, they could not be lightly abandoned, however troublesome or unprofitable they proved.