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I'm originally from New England but also lived in NY and NJ. While in the military I was stationed all up and down the east coast as well. I'm now in Washington state. IMO I much prefer the weather out here. I hate heat + humidity like back on the east coast.
I do not agree w/ humid cities being hi-tech. The birth and advancement of civilization was/is a response to difficult environments. Lack of water necessitates large public works projects, which then leads to cities and government. The first sedentary societies are typically in areas that are extremely difficult to live and thus required organization and innovation to survive.
China and India (historically and today) have the largest populations because of a large growing season and a staple (rice) that provides a high calorie content to keep populations growing/stable. Historically, innovation arises in environments where survival is most challenging- irrelevant of the humidity.
Seoul and Shanghai are FAR from being high tech cities. Is this a joke? Have you ever lived there? Copying Japanese and Western technology does not make a city "high tech".
WTF??? Have YOU even frigging lived in either of these cities recently? I usually am very silent on these threads even when I disagree, but your post made me exceedingly mad as someone who's native to Seoul and has lived in "high tech" cities all over North America since young to know how to compare reasonably. You must be thinking post-Korean war zone in Seoul and dirt-poor slums in Shanghai.
Just for the record, China, Japan and South Korea now all OUTRANK the “european patent office” and other advanced western societies in terms of patents applied AND granted in 2014, not to mention South Korea ranking NO.1 for patents applied PER population and capita in 2012 (see link). Sure there may have been some borrowings of knowledge from other countries, but does that mean these cities completely fail to be “high tech”? Geez, because that's what it seems like you're implying with your use of the extreme modifier "FAR FROM".
Even the most "innovative" western cities have started out borrowing ideas from other places, only to innovate and produce something completely new in time.
Now, don’t you start a lecture on how the West is more creative than the East; before you speak, please study the long list of original innovations coming out of Asia and other world-class civilizations. If you’ve actually studied history you’ll know that at different points in time different parts of the world had had its heyday, not just the West. The West are simply experiencing it now; nothing more. Historically these are the four great ancient civilizations: Mesopotamia, ancient Egypt, Harappan civilization of the Indus Valley, and ancient China. Yep, that's right, many ancient civilizations were OUTSIDE of the typical climatic zones of Europe/N.America, aka "West".
This is why I was WTF about your statement, “innovation arising in environments where survival is most challenging”. It is very likely that you wrote that WITH prejudices against non-Western societies featuring "exotic" temperatures in mind. Just please just read your statement slowly, sloooowwly. Does that even make sense to you? How can a society flourish in an environment to the point of innovating, when the environment is detrimental to its survival?
Throughout world history, the most advanced societies started near bodies of water (an absolute must), and in climates that are neither too hot nor too cold for human survival (so not Antarctica and not desert). None of these features scream “challenging environments for survival”. And it’s only when these necessary ingredients for society are met, do we even BEGIN to see the innovation you appear to be so fond of talking about. So your logic, if “survival is most challenged” then “innovation” fails because I have just given you plenty of examples where the necessary condition is met without the sufficient condition. So what does that mean? That means you need to temper your language when it comes to making statements about these things, ideally avoiding talking in the absolute so as to prevent yourself from using flawed logical reasoning.
You may have written “where survival is most challenging” as to mean “where jobs are scarce and competition is high, as characteristic of the most advanced post-modern societies in the 21st century”. Well guess what? In Seoul you are competing against 82% of everyone who has at least a bachelors, if not higher (highest percentage in OECD). So yeah, not quite right on that one, either.
I prefer temperate monsoon climate with cloudy summers and sunny winters.
Humid climates: good, though winters could be cloudy.
Arid climates: Mongolian variety is ok, but others are too hot for me.
Mediterranean climates: hell: droughts in summer and flooding in winter.
I also totally hate this type of climate. I like oceanic and humid continental, especially with dry winters.
You may hate the climate that poster labeled as Mediterranean, but that isn't really a Mediterranean climate. Take LA, the average high's downtown are in in the mid-80's in the summer through Sept, but with lower humidity it's quite comfortable. You will get a get heat waves a couple of times a year that push temperatures to 100+, but all together that's maybe a week or two total, certainly not half the year. And it's not wet and gloomy half the year. It's still 70% sunshine in winter, and even during May Gray and June Gloom, it's still sunny about two thirds of the time.
I have never heard anyone like Denvers climate. It's way too windy and also cold in the winter but with no lasting snow. The nights are cold probably 8 months of the year. The smell of cattle manure is rampant on the North side and it has more flies than I've seen elsewhere.
Quote:
Originally Posted by CO.Native.SW
Denver doesn't have a Mediterranean climate, the coastal areas of California, Oregon, and Washington do. Denver has a semi-arid/arid climate, very dry climate with little precipitation.
Denver can be dry and pleasant and not particularly hot too often. Plenty of people like it.
For me, it depends on the temperature. Warm/hot with any humidity is soul crushing. Cooler places that qualify as humid are probably my favorite since I like trees and grass but otherwise the drier climates are pretty tolerable as long as they’re not ridiculously hot.
I have never heard anyone like Denvers climate. It's way too windy and also cold in the winter but with no lasting snow. The nights are cold probably 8 months of the year. The smell of cattle manure is rampant on the North side and it has more flies than I've seen elsewhere.
I have the opposite experience. I use to work in hospitality for years and one thing people consistently use to praise about Denver was the climate. How it's not too hot or too cold. I personally don't like the snow but you hear all the time from out of towners how great it is that the snow melts quickly or how nice it is that there are weeks of 60F+ day in the Winter. Opinions on how dry it is are kinda mixed though
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Have YOU even frigging lived in either of these cities recently? I usually am very silent on these threads even when I disagree, but your post made me exceedingly mad as someone who's native to Seoul and has lived in "high tech" cities all over North America since young to know how to compare reasonably. You must be thinking post-Korean war zone in Seoul and dirt-poor slums in Shanghai. 
Denver?? Your kidding
