Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Miscellaneous/2017 June 4

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June 4

How to clean up public places?

Everywhere I go, I see some kind of man-made object. It may be a fence, a bridge, a road, a utility pole, or some kind of plastic. The night sky is never really dark, and I can never see the stars. I can only see the moon and a bright glow on the horizon, as if it's a perpetual sunset/sunrise. Just recently, I was standing on a bridge, and right below me was a stream. Then, I saw a piece of plastic. Somehow, man-made artifacts are everywhere! I was reminded of an episode on Arthur, in which the titular character, Arthur Read, was assigned the job to clean up the park with a trash can and a pointy stick. How do I find a pointy stick like that Arthur TV show? Does it even exist in real life? Also, I browsed on Google Maps on a region somewhere in the Southwestern part of the United States just to find some place where it's not touched by humans. But nope, even in the middle of a desert, I found a little desert community with a large set of solar panels. Even the forests of the United States seem to have roads for some reason. The same thing occurs in China. I would zoom in on green land, thinking that it's uninhabited by humans, but I just found a human settlement or village. 50.4.236.254 (talk) 01:43, 4 June 2017 (UTC)

Google "trash picker" and you'll see all kinds of them. If you want to help with trash, maybe your community has an Adopt-a-Highway program, where groups gather to collect trash along the roads and make them look better. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 02:17, 4 June 2017 (UTC)

For a place untouched by man, you might try large glaciers, like the interior of Greenland. Until global warming melts them, that is. StuRat (talk) 04:20, 4 June 2017 (UTC)

No more pointy sticks - too much of a health and safety hazard. If you want to collect rubbish you have a gadget like pincers on the end of a stick, with a handle that makes them grip. Like this - https://www.amazon.co.uk/NoMore-Litter-Reaching-Mobility-Extension/dp/B01NCUT74B/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1496571964&sr=8-1&keywords=pick+up+rubbish+stick Wymspen (talk) 10:28, 4 June 2017 (UTC)

I'll bet the grabbers are more effective anyway. You're not going to pick up a glass bottle with a pointy stick. ApLundell (talk) 16:06, 5 June 2017 (UTC)

America says "Screw Elfin Safety": https://www.amazon.com/Ettore-49042-Trash-Picker/dp/B0042SNCGA/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1496715564&sr=8-1&keywords=garbage+pickup+stick —Nelson Ricardo (talk) 02:20, 6 June 2017 (UTC)

In my experience, the best way to clean up public spaces is to make them private spaces. That doesn't mean that the public cannot access them. It simply means that they are privately owned and operated. For example, I grew up in northern Kansas City. We had multiple public parks. They were run down, dirty, and overall rather trashy places. We also had a couple private parks. The public was allowed free access to the parks, but they were privately owned. They were always in good repair, clean, and safe. I noticed that throughout the midwest, I found a lot of Lions Club parks - private parks open to the public. They were consistently clean and safe. The correlation seems to be that if it is public, it isn't clean. If it is private, it is clean. I'm sure there are exceptions, but the overall rule tends to be that privately owned "public" spaces is better than public spaces. 209.149.113.5 (talk) 13:07, 6 June 2017 (UTC)

See degradation of the commons. StuRat (talk) 19:59, 7 June 2017 (UTC)

One counter-intuitive way to spend less money keeping parks clean is to hire a person whose job is to immediately clean up any litter. This makes people see a spotless park and think it would be a shame to litter there, versus an already messy park, where they wouldn't feel bad for adding to it. So, rather than having to hire an entire crew to clean it up periodically, one person can keep it clean, acting continuously. StuRat (talk) 20:14, 7 June 2017 (UTC)

Unknown Modern Architect

Was mentioned in an English Language book on Modern Architecture circa 1960s or 1970s as an Architect doing Ferrocement Houses in Madagascar (or Mozambique). Hailed as leading African exponent of modernism along with Aalto, Corbusier, Mies van der Roh, Nuetra and Nervi.

Visually the closest look is Fred Flintstone's house with curvaceous chimneys sat on concrete slabs on slender columns lifting them out of the jungle but connected to a driveway for car to be perched alongside. Possibly a mine managers residence lost in the revolutionary change from colonialism, or just time and corrosion. Roof topology similar to Ronchamp chapel scaled down.

No reference to the borrowed public library book just a vague memory it was bound, wider and shorter than a foolscap folder and more black and white photos than colour with text magazine style equal in coverage.

Need a name or image to get closer to who. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 49.178.44.189 (talk) 11:49, 4 June 2017 (UTC)

Here are many images of ferrocement buildings in Africa. Does any one look familiar? Blooteuth (talk) 13:59, 4 June 2017 (UTC)

You could try the Ferrocement Information Center, which has set up the Ferrocement Information Network (FIN) for Africa and Asia. Contact details are here:[1]. 81.148.187.1 (talk) 14:21, 4 June 2017 (UTC)

Pancho Guedes was a notable modernist architect that lived in Mozambique during that period and his houses included curved chimneys. I found an illustrated biographical essay on a website dedicated to him and his work here. There are examples of these chimneys on pages 4 and 26 of the downloadable (a pdf file) biography. He designed over 500 structures (according to the biographies) and at least some of them (like the one on page 30) are kind of like Flintstone's house. According to this article that reported on the destruction of a building he designed he was "in his day one [of] the Lusophone world’s most famous architects". Modocc (talk) 19:30, 5 June 2017 (UTC)