Under or Over, the Book Is Good

    Hardly a single word has been raised to counter the critical praise for writer Robert Macfarlane's latest book -  "Underland: A Deep Time Journey." It's long at 488 pages, and deep (literally) from both a physical and philosophical perspective.  The British writer goes subterranean, on a mission that he calls "the subculture of urban exploration," which he defines as "adventurous trespass in the built environment."
   Among requirements for participation he cites "claustrophobia, lack of vertigo, a taste for decay, a fascination with infrastructure, a readiness to climb fences and lift manhole covers and a familiarity with the varying laws of access across different jurisdictions."
No limits, in other words.
   This is obviously not your everyday travel book. W.W. Norton & Company. $27.95. Should keep you engrossed when it doesn't 'gross' you out, so vivid are his encounters with some terrifying terrains.

CUSP What?

 The letters CUSP are short for New York University's Center for Urban Science and Progress so a person is inclined to write - they are on the 'cusp' of a mission. But what would that be, exactly?
  To see from their statement online, the Center is an 'interdisciplinary research center dedicated to the application of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics in the service of urban communities across the globe."
Whoa - no small ambition. No single program is listed, beyond the fact that a Master of Science in Applied Urban Science is offered by the institution. That invites another question: just what is such a science, beyond development of even more digital tools to apply to the vastly increasing numbers of city dwellers (i.e. more than half the world's population now lives in urban areas)?  And then - what is 'urban'? What improvements to their lives do most urban dwellers want?
  CUSP considers itself a 'laboratory' so perhaps some answers will be forthcoming. Eventually. Mayor Bloomberg and his money has a lot to say about it, apparently. He announced the institute's launch way back in April 2012.
  Stay tuned.
  But be watchful. According to  May 26, 2019, article in the Washington Post , "any attempt to make a clean break between urban and rural will look arbitrary" -- due to ongoing absorption into greater metropolitan areas of previously so-called rural areas. The character of a place doesn't necessarily change with a new designation, the reporter notes.  Is urban a 50,000 or more resident mark? he writes. He sites many useful and important statistics, many due to changing definitions and who or what organization decides them.
  Always try to read past the headlines and the first few paragraphs of any material in print form. But please keep reading print.