Maxim Bange

Yahoo has topped ComScore's list of the top 50 web properties in July 2013, outpacing Google for the first time since May 2011. The data does not include traffic from the company's most recent acquisition, the 133 million-blog strong Tumblr network. And while Yahoo has been on a buying spree, its other recent acquisitions did not have significant web traffic of their own.

That means Yahoo has upped its traffic to existing properties, although it's hard to know which. Popular Yahoo sites include Flickr, Yahoo News, Yahoo Finance, and yes, Yahoo Answers. In May, Yahoo redesigned Flickr and added new features, so the photo-sharing network may be responsible for the bump. However, it's hard to decisively say that from the data...

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When it comes to sharing and safety on the Internet, it turns out that your kids may be more sensible than you think.

More than half of U.S. adolescents aged 12 to 17 have taken steps to avoid downloading certain apps due to privacy concerns, according to a new study from the Pew Research Center’s Internet and American Life Project, with girls being more likely than boys to disable location and tracking features in their downloaded apps.

The study, carried out in conjunction with Harvard’s Berkman Center across a sample size of about 800 teens, found that while a simple majority of teens were indeed downloading apps to their phones or tablets (58 percent), nearly half were so concerned about the amount of data some apps requested that they either turned off some of the most sensitive tracking features (46 percent) or avoided downloading the app altogether (51 percent). And about a quarter of those surveyed actually uninstalled apps after learning that they collected personal data they didn’t want to share.

What’s more, the youngest users of the bunch, 12- and 13-year-olds, were more likely to avoid installing apps that required personal information to use them than the 14-to-17-year-old users in the group.

The study comes as Internet companies increasingly target younger users, an important demographic to the likes of outfits like Facebook, Twitter and even LinkedIn, all of which stand to gain from learning the user habits and preferences of the next generation of teens.

It also comes at a time where social media histories are used more and more often by employers to vet prospective job candidates, potentially a damning thing for those who have errant tweets or unsavory Facebook photos floating around the Internet.

Mind you, the study didn’t say whether kids were being sensible about everything they were sharing after downloading social apps (the category they would most likely install).

Still, it’s good news for concerned parents: Some teens actually believe there is such a thing as oversharing.

The pollution in Hong Kong is bad. Real bad. Besides the health risks, it makes the air all hazy. And that sucks for something far less serious: Photo ops.

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MALMÖ, Sweden–Pirate Bay cofounder Peter Sunde made a virtual appearance at Swedish media conference Media Evolution yesterday, in which he shared his thoughts on piracy, privacy, and his various projects dealing with both of those subjects.

One thing Sunde made perfectly clear during his talk? He doesn’t consider himself part of the entrepreneurial culture.

“I actually hate being called an entrepreneur,” Sunde said via a Skype video call that was broadcasted across multiple screens during the panel. “Most entrepreneurs, when they become successful, they turn into idiots… It’s the same thing with rockstars and entrepreneurs: big money and big egos.

“So I think we should stop celebrating entrepreneurs and just celebrate innovation instead,” he said.Sunde didn’t reference anyone in particular, but it’s easy to find some examples. For instance, wealthy entrepreneur Sean Parker of Spotify and Napster, who is arguably relevant to the new era of digital music for a completely different reason.

Sunde’s views on entrepreneurs themselves might seem a bit odd when you consider the list of wildly popular services he’s been involved with over the last several years. He’s cofounder of the decade-old torrent sharing site The Pirate Bay, cofounder of crowdsourcing platform Flattr, and most recently, cofounder of NSA-proof messaging app Hemlis. But then again, Sunde’s status as a fugitive for violating various copyright laws means he’d likely never see money from one of these projects anyways — making his motivation remain solely on making those projects really good.

A lot of what he mentioned in his talk has been touched on before in other Q&A’s or talks. I’ve embedded the audio from his talk via Soundcloud below, but here are some of the high points:

• Sunde wishes The Pirate Bay wouldn’t have chosen the “pirate” labeling, because of its negative connotation, which understandably takes away from the group’s views on copyright laws.
• Reaffirming earlier statements, when asked where he hopes The Pirate Bay will be in 10 years, Sunde said “shut down” — citing the need for new and better services to take its place.
• He’s wary of any new crop of innovations being branded as a “solution,” because it’s often times not innovation for the sake of creativity, only for consuming. “We don’t build things to be creative. We build things to consume,” he said.
• Spotify, Sunde said, isn’t a “solution” to piracy for the music industry, which is stuck on developing ways to consume music rather than providing ways to make it easier to create new music. “We never talk about the musicians who create for fun. Not all music is about making money.:
• Sunde said he’s all for theft, and for people taking what they need within reason. This is especially true when it comes to “taking” a copy of something, he said.

Filed under: Media

On the eve of his retirement, Philip French, one of the most prolific film critics of the 20th century, has participated in a Q&A on the industry he knows so well. After reporting for the Observer, the sunday edition of the Guardian, for many years, French became the paper's film critic in 1978 and has written thousands of reviews since. In the Q&A, the respected critic answers questions from Observer readers and industry luminaries alike, including some from award-winning British directors such as Ken Loach and Mike Leigh. With topics ranging from the best film he's ever seen to the role of print media in the digital era, it's a rare opportunity to hear French's opinions on more than how much he dislikes Kick-Ass 2.

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The United Nations says that one of six vehicles carrying inspectors to the site of an alleged chemical weapons attack near Damascus, Syria has been hit by sniper fire this morning.  At this time, it's unclear if there were any injuries to the inspectors or who was responsible for the gunfire. The official UN spokesperson Twitter account posted an update describing the incident just before 7:00AM EST, about 2:00 local time, vowing to return to the area in a new vehicle. The UN spokesperson's office also issued the following statement on its website:

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While programs like the Connect America Fund have made access to broadband nearly universal in the US, less than three-quarters of Americans actually use it in their homes. A new study by the Pew Internet and American Life Project found that 30 percent of respondents didn't have a broadband connection at home, and 20 percent had no home internet access at all. This wasn't because it was impossible to get; the White House recently reported that 98 percent of Americans had access to at least basic broadband. Instead, people are declining to sign up because of cost, problems getting online, or a simple lack of interest.

While other factors play a role, internet subscription rates break down largely by age, income, and education level. A...

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Facebook is introducing a new feature that lets multiple users upload pictures to the same shared photo album. When users create a new photo album, they'll have the option to "add contributors" with a new button on the upper left hand corner of the page, as Mashable reports. The original creator of the photo album can add up to 50 contributors, each of whom can upload up to 200 photos to one album. There's also new privacy settings, letting the album creator share with just their contributors, the contributors' Friends, or the public at large.

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Don't save the baby talk until you've got a newborn to coo at: new research offers provocative evidence that an unborn fetus can not only hear sounds from the outside world, but is actually capable of recalling specific words in the days following birth.

In a study out of the University of Helsinki that builds on previous investigations, a team used EEG scans on 33 newborn babies to reach that conclusion. Their research started, however, when those infants were still in the womb: moms-to-be in their third trimester were divided into two groups, with only one group listening to repeating sequences of a nonsensical word ("tatata"). Occasionally, the word would be delivered with a subtle tweak in pronunciation or tone. In all, some study...

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Solid-state drive adoption will continue to grow and it will be more than 10 years before it is ultimately replaced by a new memory technology, experts said.

This week we have four newcomers in our chart.

Now You See Me is the most downloaded movie.

The data for our weekly download chart is collected by TorrentFreak, and is for informational and educational reference only. All the movies in the list are BD/DVDrips unless stated otherwise.

RSS feed for the weekly movie download chart.

Week ending August 25, 2013

Ranking	(last week)	Movie	IMDb Rating / Trailer
torrentfreak.com
1	(…)	Now You See Me	7.4 / trailer
2	(…)	Star Trek Into Darkness (Webrip)	8.1 / trailer
3	(…)	We’re The Millers (Webrip)	7.2 / trailer
4	(1)	Iron Man 3	7.5 / trailer
5	(2)	The Conjuring	7.9 / trailer
6	(9)	R.I.P.D (TS/Webrip)	5.5 / trailer
7	(4)	Pain and Gain	6.7 / trailer
8	(3)	The Great Gatsby	7.4 / trailer
9	(…)	The Frozen Ground (Webrip)	6.4 / trailer
10	(5)	Oblivion	7.1 / trailer

Source: Top 10 Most Pirated Movies of The Week

T-Mobile biedt vanaf 9 september een eigen webopslagdienst aan. Deze concurrent voor Dropbox biedt 5GB opslagruimte en tegen betaling van enkele euro's per maand kunnen gebruikers meer ruimte krijgen.

Reizigers tussen Schiphol en Utrecht hebben in de eerste maanden van dit jaar het vaakst te maken gehad met storingen. De websites treinreiziger.nl en rijdendetreinen.nl telden van januari tot en met juli 67 storingen op dat traject.

Bij elkaar duurden die storingen 155 uur. Ook tussen Amersfoort en Schiphol hadden reizigers veel last van storingen: in totaal 59 keer. De websites baseren zich op storingsinformatie op ns.nl.

De minste storingen waren er op het traject Leiden-Den Haag HS. Daar was het treinverkeer maar één keer verstoord. Tussen Leiden en Den Haag was het treinverkeer vaker ontregeld, maar die treinen gingen allemaal naar Den Haag CS. Het traject Haarlem-Zandvoort werd drie keer door een storing getroffen.

Defecte treinen

Sein- en wisselstoringen komen het vaakst voor. Defecte treinen zijn een andere belangrijke oorzaak, daar kwam 175 keer een storingsmelding van binnen. Die storingen zijn het snelst opgelost, vaak binnen een uur. Storingen door een kapotte bovenleiding duren het langst, gemiddeld meer dan 5 uur.

De onderzoekers benadrukken dat dit niet betekent dat de bron van de storing ook 67 keer tussen Schiphol en Utrecht lag. Als treinen op het traject uitvielen doordat ergens anders op het spoor een storing optrad, is dat meegeteld als een storing tussen Schiphol en Utrecht.

Bovendien kunnen sommige storingen dubbel zijn geteld, schrijven ze. Als voorbeeld noemen zij een traject waarop NS in eerste instantie een storing meldde vanwege "een aanrijding met een persoon". Later werd dat bericht vervangen door een storing "op last van de politie". Een dergelijke storing is twee keer geregistreerd.

Goed beeld

Desondanks geeft de analyse een goed algemeen beeld, zeggen de onderzoekers. ProRail bevestigt aan treinreiziger.nl dat het treinverkeer tussen Utrecht en Schiphol het vaakst verstoord is.

"Het spoor rond Schiphol is het drukst bereden traject van Europa", zegt een woordvoerder tegen de site. "Doordat het zo druk bereden is, kan er eerder iets kapot gaan."

Following an apparent chemical weapons attack on a Syrian rebel stronghold, there are multiple reports that the U.S. is preparing for a potential military strike against Bashar al Assad's regime.

Most sources say that President Obama has not made a final decision on any strike, but that it would involve cruise missiles fired from ships in the Mediterranean. This option would not risk any U.S. lives, but send a clear message that the use of chemical weapons would not be tolerated.

From Reuters:

The United States said it was realigning naval forces in the Mediterranean to give President Barack Obama the option for an armed strike on Syria and a senior U.N. official arrived in Damascus to seek access for inspectors to the gas attack site.

From the Associated Press:

Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel declined to discuss any specific force movements while saying that Obama had asked the Pentagon to prepare military options for Syria. U.S. defense officials told The Associated Press that the Navy had sent a fourth warship armed with ballistic missiles into the eastern Mediterranean Sea but without immediate orders for any missile launch into Syria.

From CBS News:

CBS News has learned that the Pentagon is making the initial preparations for a cruise missile attack on Syrian government forces. We say "initial preparations" because such an attack won't happen until the president gives the green light.

One official suggested to NBC News that any strike would be limited in scope:

"If the president wants to send a message" — most likely with limited airstrikes against a few targets — "we're good at sending messages," one official said. But if the White House wants to topple Syrian President Bashar Assad, "We're not able to do that" without a long-term military commitment, the official said.

Obama has previously warned Assad against crossing a "red line" on chemical weapons, saying it would be a "game-changer" toward his military approach to the conflict.

It has been reported that hospitals in Damascus were flooded with thousands of victims after this weeks alleged attacks, with hundreds of victims alleged to have died.

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Instant access and convenience are the hallmarks of the Internet age.

SINGAPORE - Budgetmaatschappij Scoot uit Singapore heeft een kindvrije zone in haar vliegtuigen geïntroduceerd. Voor een upgrade van, omgerekend, ruim 10 euro per enkele reis kunnen reizigers plaatsnemen in de "ScootinSilence" zone. Dit deel van het vliegtuig beschikt over 41 stoelen waar kinderen tot de leeftijd van 12 jaar niet welkom zijn.

Microsoft employees are stunned Steve Ballmer is retiring in the next twelve months. 

We spoke with multiple senior level executives, as well as former employees still connected to the company. 

The reaction is unanimous: They did not see this coming. At least, not right now. 

They all knew it was going to happen eventually, but they were thinking it would be in the next three to five years. 

Previously, Ballmer told Microsoft executives he planned to leave once his kids were done with high school. This would allow him to travel and see the kids more. That time frame had him out in 2017. 

There was no indication in the last year that Ballmer had changed his mind about that timeline. Employees says he seemed energized and focused on the company. 

He spent almost a year working on reorganizing the company. He wanted to kill the various silos and business groups that fought with each other in order to make "One Microsoft," which would have the company working together. 

Through his reorg, he seemed to be saying, "I'm here for the next few years." 

Now that he's out, employees are asking, "Why now?"

We've heard, and Microsoft's press release says, that Ballmer just thought now was a good time to go. He felt like a transition opened and he decided to take it. 

But something about that explanation feels off. It just doesn't square with the very ambitious reorg plan that Ballmer laid out just over a month ago. 

In fact, it completely disrupts his reorganization plan.

All employees we talk to at Microsoft seem to be still trying to sort their way through how their jobs are different under the reorg. They're trying to figure out who they report to, and what's new. "It's definitely a work in progress," says one. 

To do a complete reorg, employees need to have faith in the plan.

Now that Ballmer has turned himself into a "lame duck" to quote one employee that reorg is going to be harder to keep going. Who knows if the next CEO will agree with Ballmer's plan?

We've been told the board signed off on Ballmer's re-org plans, and is likely to find someone that will follow through on Ballmer's vision. But, right now employees aren't sure they believe that. 

They've been totally blindsided by this news. They all want to know why it happened when it happened and what comes next. 

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Australian pornographer Garion Hall, who runs the "happy, healthy, and natural" porn site Abbywinters, moved to Holland in 2010 because of its more liberal pornography laws.

Apparently he loves it in Amsterdam. Hall offered the following answer on Quora to a question about facts about a country are mind-blowing to foreigners [republished with permission]:

In Holland (Netherlands). I'm an ex-pat, so these things really stood out to me:

• School finishes at midday on Wednesdays. This is so parents can spend more time with their kids, and many employers allow parents to go home at midday on Wednesdays.
• Amsterdam really could not be less about prostitution and marijuana. They are small parts of the city that some tourists (and few locals) enjoy, but there's so much more to Amsterdam than that!
• Riding a bike is the primary means of transport for most people in cities, regardless of the "event" - going to a wedding (bride included!), dressed up, dressed down, wearing a suit, going to the beach, taking kids to school, moving house, going to work, shopping, having breakfast, talking on the phone, putting on makeup at the lights. Any time a person in LA might consider using a car, Dutchies will ride a bike. No one wears helmets.
• On warm summer evenings, many people will eat on the street (or on their front steps), cos most homes do not have air-con, and the streets are generally lovely.
• Parties often happen on open boats that motor around the canals (as opposed to, at someone's home). They stop near public toilets every so often (and at bottle-shops, to stock up). I find it very weird seeing parties motor past our house, just like a party in someone's living room... but on the water.
• Many people leave their curtains open, so people walking down the street can see right into their home. It's not uncommon to see people going about their lives, including moments that others might consider private, when looking thru windows. It's considered impolite to look thru windows at these times, however.

As for his Web site, Hall told The Age that it was harder to find outdoorsy, sun-tanned girls or good natural light and outdoor shooting space in Holland, which is why he continues to do much of his work with models in Australia.

DON'T MISS: 13 things Americans do that seem bizarre to the rest of the world

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Director JJ Abrams, who recently signed on to direct the next installment in the Star Wars series, has shots his movies exclusively in film — and it turns out that won't be changing any time soon. Boba Fett Fan Club reports that cinematographer Dan Mindel discussed the use of Kodak film on the set of Episode VII at an industry event in Los Angeles this week, a bold move more than a half-decade after 4K digital shooting first became practical. Episodes II and III were shot digitally, so Abrams' decision is a return to the old school — he may be looking to preserve the look and feel of the original three movies.

Shooting images on a physical roll of film is starting to feel like a ludicrous concept to most of us, but until Hollywood's...

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You've probably never heard of Xiaomi. But if you know someone in China, chances are pretty good that person is a fan of the company.

Xiaomi is easily one of the most interesting tech companies right now, and it has been dubbed the "Apple of China" by a lot of industry watchers. That's mostly because it's done a great job of mimicking the way Apple announces and markets its products. 

Oh, and Xiaomi is worth about $10 billion now. Oh, and it sold more phones in China than Apple did last quarter.

Xiaomi is most famous for its flagship Android phone line called the MiPhone and its founder and CEO Lei Jun, an extroverted character who has been called "China's Steve Jobs."

It's not that Xiaomi is doing anything particularly innovative with its products either. Its phones are pretty standard Android devices. Nothing special.

But it has the same charm and flare that has caused millions to become devoted fans of the brand. It's not unusual for new Xiaomi phones to sell out online within a minutes.

How does Xiaomi do it? To be blunt, it pretty much rips pages out of Apple's playbook. Jun wears a black shirt and jeans, just like Steve Jobs did. He stands in front of a big screen with a well-designed presentation that shows off the product. He gets the audience pumped.

It's like watching an Apple keynote from an alternate reality. 

Here's Xiaomi CEO Lei Jun taking the stage for the launch event of the newest MiPhone, the MiPhone 2. He's wearing his trademark outfit: A black shirt and jeans.

Look familiar?

Xiaomi charged fans to attend the smartphone launch. All the money went to charity though. Plus, everyone in the audience got some cool gifts like a free t-shirt and a smartphone-controlled toy car.

See the rest of the story at Business Insider

Are iPads the future of education? The Dutch think so.

Seven "Steve Jobs Schools" opened in the Netherlands this week, giving each student an iPad instead of textbooks to encourage individualized learning and, potentially, replace traditional teachers. The initiative is run by O4NT, a Dutch foundation advocating a one-on-one student to iPad education model to cultivate individual strengths and prepare children for a future supported by technology.

Various apps have been developed to help facilitate this new style of learning, including Tiktik sCoolTool — which manages a student's schedule and assignments — and sCoolProjects — which allows students to work on group research projects. Parents and teachers will also be able to follow students through the iDesk Learning Tracker.

One major shift under O4NT's system is the role of teachers. According to the press release from O4NT, "teachers will no longer simply convey knowledge to a group of children; they will be transformed into coaches that support children with their individual and group projects." 

Additionally, because the student's educational resources will be available 24/7, parents will be able to determine their child's school hours and vacations.

Check out these photos to see how the new Steve Jobs Schools are using iPads to change education:

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Want to pump up your desktop from simple to wild? Check out our collection of amazing wildlife wallpapers ranging from the majestic killers such as whales and sharks, which dominate the sea to the carnivorous cat family wild animals.

 

See how important and inspiring these wild animals are and how well they play their role by being part of the eco-system. Choose from a range of high definition wildlife wallpapers from our collection in an easy, hassle-free, quick manner and transform your simple looking PC/laptop to a wild one.

Be inspired, captivated, and informed by the world’s wildlife, such as bears, birds, tigers, sharks, whales, and many other animals, along with their habitats and amazing behaviors.

Ouders weten vaak niet hoe seksueel actief hun kind is. Ook praten ze thuis nauwelijks over seks. Dat blijkt uit onderzoek van het tijdschrift J/M voor Ouders onder bijna 700 ouders.

Het College Bescherming Persoonsgegevens (CBP) heeft een Nederlandse producent van smart-tv's op de vingers getikt. TP Vision, producent van Philips tv's, verzamelt gegevens van kijkers, meestal zonder dat die dat weten en zonder hun toestemming. Dat is in strijd met de Wet bescherming persoonsgevens, zegt het CBP na onderzoek.

Met een smart-tv kunnen televisiekijkers internetten en apps gebruiken. TP Vision verzamelt en bewaart gegevens over kijkgewoonten en internetgedrag. Zo weet het bedrijf welke apps de kijker gebruikt, welke gemiste uitzendingen worden opgevraagd en welke films online worden gehuurd.

Maatregelen

De gegevens worden gebruikt om de kijker op zijn persoon gerichte reclames en aanbiedingen toe te sturen.

Volgens het CBP weten de meeste mensen niet "dat hun smart-tv als het ware terugkijkt." Het college spreekt van "grootschalige verwerking van gegevens over hun privésfeer".

Naar aanleiding van het onderzoek heeft TP Vision nu maatregelen genomen, zegt het CBP. Als over enige tijd blijkt dat TP Vision nog steeds in overtreding is zal het CBP "handhavend optreden".

On Monday Mark Zuckerberg announced the formation of Internet.org, a partnership with some of the biggest players in the smartphone space, to bring internet connectivity to poor people in the developing world who can't afford or access it yet. The group positioned itself as a charitable effort, but make no mistake: this is also a sober business move that puts Facebook and its friends in the smartphone world front-and-center to court the biggest group of untapped customers left on planet earth.

"It may not actually be profitable for us to serve the next few billion people."By using the .org domain, the group not-so-subtly implies it's a non-profit, and in fact numerous articles covering the launch of Internet.org mistakenly assumed...

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Silicon Valley recruiters and former Apple employees say Apple hardware engineers are sending out more resumes than ever before, according to Reuters reporters Porrnima Gupta and Peter Henderson.

The reason: under CEO Tim Cook, Apple is not the company it used to be under Steve Jobs.

One "recruiter with ties to Apple" told Gupta and Henderson, "I am being inundated by LinkedIn messages and emails both by people who I never imagined would leave Apple and by people who have been at Apple for a year, and who joined expecting something different than what they encountered."

Gupta and Henderson's report jibes with what we've heard from the startup investor community and close Apple-watcher John Gruber.

A big part of being a Silicon Valley venture capitalist is helping portfolio startups recruit talented engineers and executives. 

That means a lot of poaching from more established Valley technology companies.

For years, one company that VCs did not bother with much was Apple.

The company had a reputation for hanging onto its employees for decades despite minimal title inflation, lower pay, and fewer perks.

Apple's reputation is starting to change, two venture capitalists told us in April.

"More generally there is a growing level of dissatisfaction among Apple executives and employees, and a greater willingness to explore leaving," said one investor.

Another VC  told us that his firm has recently seen a noticeable increase of resumes coming in from people at Apple.

After speaking with some of these job-seekers, this source says the cause for the increase is two-fold: startups are paying more and "Apple culture has started to change with the new leadership on top."

In March, top Apple reporter/analyst John Gruber of Daring Fireball said that retention has become "the single biggest problem that Apple faces, and almost nobody is talking about."

He said: "I think if there's going to be a problem coming up with big new things I think it's more likely a draining of really bright engineering and design talent at the rank and file level."

Gruber is a useful source on this topic, because he's very plugged-in with Apple employees, and he does not have a reputation for being an Apple alarmist.

Reached via email, Gruber said that in the month or so since he sounded the alarm, departures from Apple have not "accelerated."

"But it hasn’t slowed down either."

Gruber said: "The consensus among the people I’ve spoken to is that this is in no way a "rats leaving a sinking ship" scenario, but rather the inevitable churn of talented people capitalizing on the success of the company."

"Apple employees are in high demand, pure and simple. That’s why retention is going to be such a tricky problem for the company."

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A parish official in Louisiana shot a crazy video Wednesday of a giant sinkhole that has been growing for a year.

In the video the sinkhole can clearly be seen swallowing a clump of trees in swampy land near Bayou Corne and Grand Bayou.

The YouTube video is embedded below. The action starts about 10 seconds in:

The Advocate in Baton Rouge reports that the sinkhole has been growing since last August and is likely the result of salt dome cavern collapsing deep underground. Scientists speculate that the sinkhole might keep growing for years.

Some sections of the 24-acre sinkhole might be hundreds of feet deep.

Sinkholes are caused by water underground that carves out caverns. They're common in the South, and just last week a Florida sinkhole made news when it caused buildings to collapse at a resort near Disney World.

SEE ALSO: The Most Terrifying Sinkhole Pictures You've Ever Seen

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Walking through Le Corbusier's exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art, I was surprised by how many of the great modernist architect's designs were never built. They were simply too radical, and none more so than his 1925 proposal to demolish two square miles of downtown Paris.

It's probably a good thing the architect, born Charles-Édouard Jeanneret-Gris, didn't get his hands on Paris. The area he would have destroyed, including the 3rd and 4th arrondissements on the right bank of the Seine, is today among the prettiest, hippest, and most architecturally significant neighborhoods in the city. What's more, the replacement of organic urban areas with huge new developments has been criticized since the 1960s for sapping the vitality of cities.

All of that said, let's take a moment to appreciate how cool Le Corbusier's Plan Voisin would have been.

To start, demolishing central Paris made a lot of sense in the 1920s. The formerly aristocratic Marais district had fallen into squalor, characterized by poor sanitation, disease, and overcrowding, as chronicled by Marybeth Shaw in "Promoting An Urban Vision: Le Corbusier and the Plan Voisin." By 1921 in the Beaubourg area, 250 out of 276 houses were marked uninhabitable due to tuberculosis contamination.

Le Corbusier wanted to replace this urban blight with something incredible.

SEE ALSO: The 65 Best New Buildings In The World

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