Brandon DonnellyCanada must become a global superpower
The silver lining to the US starting a trade war with Canada and regularly threatening annexation is that it has forced this country out of complacency. Indeed, I'm hard pressed to remember a time, at least in my lifetime, when patriotism and nationalism has united so much of Canada. According to a recent survey by Angus Reid, the percentage of Canadians expressing a "deep emotional attachment" to the country jumped from 49% in December 2024 to 59% in February 2025. And as further evidence of...
Brandon DonnellyThe bank robbery capital of the world
Between 1985 and 1995, Los Angeles' retail bank branches were robbed some 17,106 times. In 1992, which was the the city's worst year for robberies, the number was 2,641. This roughly translated into about one bank robbery every 45 minutes of each banking day. All of this, according to this CrimeReads piece by Peter Houlahan, gave Los Angeles the dubious title of "The Bank Robbery Capital of the World" during this time period. So what caused this? Well according to Peter it was facil...
Brandon DonnellyThe story behind those pixelated video game mosaics in Paris
If you've ever been to Paris, you've probably noticed the small pixelated art pieces that are scattered all around the city on buildings and various other hard surfaces. Or maybe you haven't seen or noticed them in Paris, but you've seen similarly pixelated mosaics in one of the other 79 cities around the world where they can be found. Or maybe you have no idea what I'm talking about right now. Huh? Here's an example from Bolivia (click here if you can't see...
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Brandon DonnellyCanada must become a global superpower
The silver lining to the US starting a trade war with Canada and regularly threatening annexation is that it has forced this country out of complacency. Indeed, I'm hard pressed to remember a time, at least in my lifetime, when patriotism and nationalism has united so much of Canada. According to a recent survey by Angus Reid, the percentage of Canadians expressing a "deep emotional attachment" to the country jumped from 49% in December 2024 to 59% in February 2025. And as further evidence of...
Brandon DonnellyThe bank robbery capital of the world
Between 1985 and 1995, Los Angeles' retail bank branches were robbed some 17,106 times. In 1992, which was the the city's worst year for robberies, the number was 2,641. This roughly translated into about one bank robbery every 45 minutes of each banking day. All of this, according to this CrimeReads piece by Peter Houlahan, gave Los Angeles the dubious title of "The Bank Robbery Capital of the World" during this time period. So what caused this? Well according to Peter it was facil...
Brandon DonnellyThe story behind those pixelated video game mosaics in Paris
If you've ever been to Paris, you've probably noticed the small pixelated art pieces that are scattered all around the city on buildings and various other hard surfaces. Or maybe you haven't seen or noticed them in Paris, but you've seen similarly pixelated mosaics in one of the other 79 cities around the world where they can be found. Or maybe you have no idea what I'm talking about right now. Huh? Here's an example from Bolivia (click here if you can't see...
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Brandon DonnellyWhy flying delivery drones are a big deal
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Brandon DonnellyWhy flying delivery drones are a big deal
One of the biggest news pieces of the last few weeks—at least in retail and tech circles—has been Amazon’s unmanned aerial delivery drones (also known as Amazon Air Prime). In case you missed it, here’s a video from Amazon showing them in action.
The goal:
"To get packages into customers’ hands in 30 minutes or less using unmanned aerial vehicles."
Now, this won’t happen for another few years, if even that soon, but I think it’s pretty clear that this is something epic in the making. If successful, it’s going to completely rewrite, not only the retail landscape, but probably the landscape of our cities.
If you think about it, cars enabled a certain kind of retail. They enabled big box stores and those, in turn, changed our cities (for the worse, I would argue). Now what happens when the undifferentiated products of a big box store can be flown to my door step in less than 30 minutes? Suddenly getting into my car seems archaic.
There’s a great article covering Amazon’s drones and the history of American retailing in Atlantic Cities. They do a better job conveying the potential magnitude of Amazon Air Prime and so I suggest you have a read if this topic interests you.
One of the biggest news pieces of the last few weeks—at least in retail and tech circles—has been Amazon’s unmanned aerial delivery drones (also known as Amazon Air Prime). In case you missed it, here’s a video from Amazon showing them in action.
The goal:
"To get packages into customers’ hands in 30 minutes or less using unmanned aerial vehicles."
Now, this won’t happen for another few years, if even that soon, but I think it’s pretty clear that this is something epic in the making. If successful, it’s going to completely rewrite, not only the retail landscape, but probably the landscape of our cities.
If you think about it, cars enabled a certain kind of retail. They enabled big box stores and those, in turn, changed our cities (for the worse, I would argue). Now what happens when the undifferentiated products of a big box store can be flown to my door step in less than 30 minutes? Suddenly getting into my car seems archaic.
There’s a great article covering Amazon’s drones and the history of American retailing in Atlantic Cities. They do a better job conveying the potential magnitude of Amazon Air Prime and so I suggest you have a read if this topic interests you.
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