Epic Manhattan ~ Architectural Record Covershot!

Stunningly beautiful fold-out cover photo by Iwan Baan of Epic Manhattan on the Architectural Record issue ten years after 9/11... (FYI, this is just the best of several 9/11 covers noted by SPD)

Muddy Charles Pub ~ MIT Extracurricular Hub!

Nice short piece in the latest Tech Review by Kenrick Vezina on The storied past and uncertain future of the Muddy Charles: A Physicist Walks into a Bar...

"On a campus dominated by cold concrete and hard science, the Muddy Charles pub exudes warmth [and] welcomes Nobel laureates and graduate students alike. [...] Begun as a Friday afternoon club, the pub became an official MIT institution (and got its current name) when the Graduate Student Council began running it in 1968. Roughly equidistant from many major departments at MIT, the Muddy pulls together people from across campus [...] The combination of cheap drinks and big ideas draws a smart, eclectic crowd and prompted Media Lab lecturer Joost Bonsen '90, SM '06, to hold his informal venture capital meet-and-greets there. (Bonsen was among the "venture catalysts" in Venture Café, a book about high-tech entrepreneurs that puts the Muddy on its list of places where great ideas can meet great funding.) Bonsen points to MIT's Energy Club as an example of a big idea hatched at the pub. Now one of MIT's largest clubs, it was originally "a small group of students who gathered over beer at the Muddy once a week to talk about various energy topics" [Indeed, the pub is] "a crucial aspect of the MIT experience." As of November, [ill-considered] plans to renovate Walker [and kick out the pub] were still up in the air, leaving the Muddy's fate uncertain. Yet one thing is clear: athletes, teachers, and scholars all feel welcome there, and the people who find their way inside seem to end up with a lifelong affection for the place."

It's a wonderful venue for ethanol-fueled ideation and creativity! Indeed, the Muddy is perhaps the single most important piece of extracurricular infrastructure at MIT and yet our current Institute senior administration is quite clueless about its legacy. Not only was the MIT Energy Club born there, but also the MIT Energy Conference, TechLink, TinyTech Club, Acoustic BBQ, i-Teams class, project collaboration, multiple startup companies, and more, nevermind all the Welcome-to-MIT initiations, PhD defense celebrations, alum reunions. We'll see if those currently in power figures out that Walker Memorial really ought to be a graduate student, post-doc, and alumni center or something actually useful. In any case -- for now -- the Muddy is still serving affordable joy by the pint & pitcher!

Star Peace ~ Sulu Brokers Trek vs Wars Dispute!-)

Ridiculous Star Trek vs Star Wars dispute brokered by Mr Sulu!-)

WindFlip ~ Simplifying Offshore Installations...

Thanks to Brit Liggett at Inhabitat for The WindFlip Barge Concept Installs Offshore Wind Turbines Inexpensively and With Ease...

"WindFlip barge concept was designed to simplify the installation of offshore wind turbines and in the process has managed to be a solution that also cuts cost. Installing offshore wind turbines can be an expensive task -- the process requires skilled technicians to assemble turbines at sea, and to anchor them at great depths. Alternatively, the WindFlip barge allows turbines to be assembled completely on shore, towed to their location, and then simply tipped into place -- thus minimizing the need for expensive work at sea."

Future Cities ~ Swissnex Boston on Living Labs...

Quick little nugget from Swissnex Day 2011 theme of Future Cities spotlighting public-private engagements focusing on lessons from Boston-metro. Note especially our Media Lab colleague Ryan Chin's description of Living Labs or urban testbeds...

Nature of Cities ~ Beatley on Biophilic Movement

Check out The Nature of Cities documentary trailer...

"...about the projects and people in cities across the world who believe that, even as we become more urbanized, we must reclaim an essential piece of our humanness -- our connection to the nature around us. Amazing projects in cities around the globe have already begun this task. It is our goal to raise the consciousness and understanding of this movement as we explore the need of moving not only to sustainability, but also to a regenerative way of living."

Also related new book by Prof Timothy Beatley on Biophilic Cities. Thanks to Landscape+Urbanism for spotting these!

Hot Cities ~ Rockefeller Foundation's Urban Docu

Check out Rockefeller Foundation's 2009 eight-part Hot Cities documentary series about global change dynamics and conurbations...

District Solutions ~ City-Scale Trigen and More...

As part of our MIT Living Labs & Urban Ventures classes this past Fall 2011, we had a fascinating tour of MIT's Cogen facility, a so-called District Heating system paired with a cogeneration electricity generating gas turbine... ...which distributes the resulting heat via both steam and now hot water pipes throughout campus. By using absorption refrigerators, chilled water is also supplied. This combined cooling, heat, and power system -- more accurately trigeneration -- is remarkably thermally and economically efficient. Such cogen and trigen systems are already widespread -- for example, New York and many cities in Sweden, Russia, Finland, and other campuses besides MIT -- and together with water supply, sewage systems, infrastructural tunneling and connections, and pipe-based solid waste handling systems are fantastically interesting and relevant District Solutions for our vital cities.

Blomkamp Dystopics ~ District 9 & Alive in Joburg

South African Neill Blomkamp's dystopic SF short, Alive in Joburg... Followed by full-on District 9 blockbuster, trailer here...

Big Catch Movie ~ Seagulls, Shark, Sillyness;-)

Kuriositas salutes the Big Catch Movie by Moles Merlo;-)

Constellation of Companies ~ WSJ on 2011 IPOs

Check out interactographic by WSJ & Tableau on Constellation of Companies in 2011 for a look at how over 100 American-listed IPOs have performed since going public...

Sunspots ~ Incredibly Periodic Solar Dynamics

The Solar Storms imagery from yesterday got me wondering about Sunspots. It turns out there's a periodic pattern to spots, almost like a flu season, but for the Sun! Here's more imagery and data, first NASA Earth Observatory images of Solar Maximum & Minimum...

"Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) spacecraft compare sunspots on the Sun’s surface (top row) and ultraviolet light radiating from the solar atmosphere (bottom row) at the last solar maximum (2000, left column) and at the current solar minimum (2009, right column.) The sunspot images were captured by the Michelson Doppler Imager (MDI) using filtered visible light. On March 18, 2009, the face of the Sun was spotless..."

"The other set of images, acquired by the Extreme Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope (EIT), shows ultraviolet light radiating from the layer of the atmosphere just above the Sun’s surface. This part of the solar atmosphere is about 60,000 Kelvin -- a thousand times hotter than the surface of the Sun itself. On July 19, 2000, the solar atmosphere was pulsating with activity: in addition to several extremely bright (hot) spots around the mid-latitudes, there were also numerous prominences around the edge of the disk. On March 18, 2009, however, our star was relatively subdued..."

Here's a decade worth of min-to-max... SunTrek shows how Sunspots move over time (and change in shape)! Even more cool is that...

"Galileo was the first to discover how fast the Sun spins by studying the movement of sunspots. The Sun spins? You bet! Even more amazing, some parts of the Sun spin faster than others."

Here's observed spots graphed over the longterm... Another way of visualizing patterns is via this Butterfly Diagram... Finally, movies via the Helioviewer!

Fingerprints of Fraud ~ WSJ on Russia's "Votes"

Gregory White and Rob Barry write of Russia's Dubious Vote in the WSJournal and spotlight the many Fingerprints of Fraud...

"A comprehensive examination of the full results from Russia's nearly 100,000 voting precincts reveals statistical anomalies that experts say are consistent with widespread vote-rigging. These irregularities could cast doubt, by one rough measure, over as many as 14 million of the 65.7 million votes reportedly cast. [...] statistical analysis revealed phenomena that scholars who study vote data say are suggestive of vote-rigging.‬ "These are sometimes called the fingerprints of fraud," said Alberto Simpser, professor of political science at the University of Chicago. "If they all point in the same direction," he said, referring to statistical as well as observer and other evidence, "that's a very strong case."‬ The results are studded with groups of precincts that report exact round numbers for voter participation -- say, a turnout of 70%, 75% or 80%, up to 100%. Several groups of precincts also report similarly high round numbers of voters for United Russia. Such round figures occur significantly more frequently than nearby figures -- a phenomenon statisticians say is highly unlikely to come from a random distribution of numbers.‬"

Also includes explanation of methods and summary kleptographic...

MorpHex ~ From Innocent Ball to Insect-o-Bot!

Geek spots MorpHex, a hexapod robot by Norwegian Kare Halvorsen that transforms from sphere into perambulator!

3DP Strandbeest ~ Theo's Pneumatic Robot Art

Amy in .nl spots Dutch artist Theo Jansen's 3D printed Strandbeest with propeller propulsion and this nice write-up on Mocoloco. Further description at Shapeways.

Vibonacci ~ Hart's Spiral Doodling is Plant Math!

Thanks to Cynical-C for spotting the mathematically effervescent Vi Hart and her latest doodles...

Killed by Incompetence ~ Latest MIT Death...

Very sad to hear MIT alumnus Phyo Kyaw was slaughtered Tuesday 12/27/2011 by a criminally careless truck driver while riding his bicycle at Mass Ave and Vassar. While this death is quite tragic -- and ought to be a capital case against the truck driver and a bankrupting civil case against the liable owner -- it's also a direct consequence of gross incompetence and complete safety neglect on the part of urban planners, traffic engineers, lawless drivers, absent or uncaring police, AWOL lawmakers, and for those rare court cases, spineless judges. Specifically, we have in Cambridge and Massachusetts today...

• Unsafe and totally inadequate bicycle lanes;
• Hazardous & poorly designed intersections;
  
• Unenforced speeding, red light, & cross-walk rules;
• Minimalist punishment of traffic & safety violations;
• Total absence of driver safety culture;
• Rampant road-rage & driving-while-distracted;
• Missing traffic intersection video recording & tracking;
• Inadequately strict driver-fault liability rules;
• Too few indictments, scarce convictions, & liberal sentences;
  
• And more.

In a just world, those directly and indirectly responsible would all be held criminally culpable for this death -- and for the many other related and entirely avoidable safety incidents between motor vehicles and the bicyclists and pedestrians they threaten daily. Let's look at the evidence: the photos show the murder victim's bike is crushed under the wheels of the JP Noonan-owned truck which is completely on the wrong side of the road. That driver should get the electric chair and yet the latest press reports indicate he's not even being charged. Even worse, an MIT campus policeman told me yesterday -- with a completely straight face, mind you -- that the word is "the bicyclist just ran into the truck" and that's why he died. So this vicious murder by means of criminally negligent and reckless driving is actually either an unfortunate "accident" or it's really the victim's own fault. Are you F#CKing kidding me?! This is completely appalling.

Solar Storms ~ Ejections, Emissions, and Spots!

Beautiful image gallery curated by the Space.com folks at Stunning Photos of Solar Flares & Sun Storms! Here's just a sampling... Here modified by Randy Russell to show Earth scale vs sunspots...

Charting Progress ~ Per Capita GDP Doublings!

Lovely Economist infographic on rate of per capita GDP doublings...

"Average incomes in developing economies are growing more quickly than at any previous time in history according to a recent report by the McKinsey Global Institute. It took more than 150 years from the start of Britain's industrial revolution for GDP per person (measured at purchasing-power parity) to double from $1,300 to $2,600. [...] China did it in just twelve."

Medellín Escalator ~ Comuna 13's New Pathways!

Excellent to see Medellín residents in the Comuna 13 district Las Independencias I neighborhood benefiting from their new outdoor escalator system! Six sections of automated uplifting Connection Pathways take people from below to 28 storeys (130 meters) up in 6 minutes instead of the 35 by stairs. Hispanically Speaking News reports the escalators...

"...were inaugurated Tuesday by Medellín Mayor Alonso Salazar and the Urban Development Company, or EDU, that tackled the joint initiative four years ago. [...] The project, with a cost of 10 billion pesos (about $5.2 million), involved the Japanese company Fujitec, which designed the escalators and manufactured them at its plant in China, along with Conservicios, a local firm responsible for importing and installing the parts. [...] It’s a “transit solution that will give residents a better quality of life,” Campuzano said. EDU is a decentralized industrial and commercial organization of the municipality of Medellín, the provincial capital of Antioquia and the second most important city in Colombia. The escalators are not the first in the world to be installed outdoors, since there are several for purposes of tourism, but this is a first for urban transport. [...] The work as a whole includes 1,102 sq. meters (11,846 sq. feet) of public spaces, 343 meters (1,125 feet) of pedestrian walks, two public buildings -- one of them with a terrace overlooking the city -- plus benches and other urban furnishings."

Very interesting to consider this in light of the Hong Kong Mid-Levels Escalator project I wrote about a few weeks ago. Anyways, here's reporting from the scene of the unveiling...

Madrid Río ~ NYTimes Spots Urban Greenspace

Nice NYTimes piece by Michael Kimmelman on the Madrid Río -- In Madrid’s Heart, Park Blooms Where a Freeway Once Blighted...

"More than six miles long, it transforms a formerly neglected area in the middle of Spain’s capital. Its creation, in four years, atop a complex network of tunnels dug to bury an intrusive highway, also rejuvenates a long-lost stretch of the Manzanares River, and in so doing knits together neighborhoods that the highway had cut off from the city center. All around the world, highways are being torn down and waterfronts reclaimed; decades of thinking about cars and cities reversed; new public spaces created. [...] But Madrid Río is a project whose audacity and scale, following the urban renewal successes of Barcelona, Spain’s civic trendsetter, can bring to a New Yorker’s mind the legacy of the street-grid plan, which this year celebrates its 200th anniversary. That’s because the park belongs to a larger transformation that includes the construction of dozens of new metro and light-rail stations that link far-flung, disconnected and often poor districts on Madrid’s outskirts to downtown."

Very compelling! Plus check out photos by James Rajotte. And DotEarthling Andrew Revkin weighs in, noting how Madrid Joins Cities Replacing Concrete With Greenery and spots this Madrid Río promo...

What a Wonderful World ~ BBC's DA Reviews...

BBC's David Attenborough's Wonderful World... Here's the great Louis original! (Thanks to Miss Cellania for spotting!-)

Eco-Label Rankings ~ Key Aquaculture Standards

Thanks to Pew Environment for New Study Puts Eco-labels to the Test about the University of Victoria's How Green is Your Eco-label?

"...which uses a well-established quantitative methodology derived from the 2010 Global Aquaculture Performance Index to determine numerical scores of environmental performance for 20 different eco-labels for farmed marine finfish, such as salmon, cod, turbot, and grouper. These scores were used to rank performance among the various eco-labels. [...] “Eco-labels can help fish farmers produce and consumers select environmentally preferable seafood, but only if the labels are based on meaningful standards that are enforced,” said Chris Mann, director of Pew’s Aquaculture Standards Project. “Seafood buyers at the retail or wholesale level should demand that evidence of sustainability be demonstrated, not merely asserted.”

See here summary of how standards performed overall...

Container Innovator ~ Tantlinger's Lock & Tech

Thanks to David Leonhardt for saluting transport systems engineer Keith Tantlinger in the NYTimes The Lives They Lived 2011...

"Tantlinger developed a lock that connected to the corners of containers and that crane operators could mechanically open and close from their seats. The lock, which led to the adoption of uniformly sized containers over the next 15 years, caused a revolution in shipping. The time and cost of transporting goods fell sharply, which contributed to an astonishing boom in global trade. [...] Tantlinger’s lock deserves a place on any list of economically significant inventions of the 20th century. Unlike some of the other items on that list, however, it is fairly pedestrian from a technological standpoint. It is not a car or a jet engine or a silicon chip. It is a metal lock. But it ushered in a new way of doing things. “There was no breakthrough in terms of material,” says Marc Levinson, the author of “The Box,” which tells the story of containerization. “There was a breakthrough in thinking through the entire process and coming up with a neat and economical solution." Economists have long understood that technological advance is crucial to economic growth and, by extension, higher living standards. In recent years, thanks partly to the work of Paul Romer, a New York University professor, they have also begun to recognize the importance of processes, rules and systems.”

Tantlinger passed away this summer at age 92 having been able to witness a half-century of containerization progress and realize that his key inventions are used in hundreds of millions of container transhipments per year and some 90% of non-bulk cargoes! Epic!

Foodking ~ BBC on Sarath Babu's Tasty Venture

BBC's My Business correspondents Parul Agrawal and Heather Sharp tell of The slum dweller who founded a food chain -- Sarath Babu the Foodking who...

"...now employs 250 people in his fast-growing catering empire. Born to a family with next to nothing, Sarath dreams of an India without hunger. He has set himself the target of providing for half a million people, by creating 100,000 (known as one lakh) jobs. "I give a job, and that person takes care of four to five people -- so I take care of five lakh people directly," he says. [...] Sarath launched Foodking in 2006, supplying snacks to banks, software firms and other corporates, with just 2,000 rupees (£24; $38) to fund the first month. But with his impressive academic pedigree, he was soon able to secure a bank loan of 100,000 rupees (£1,205; $1,890), and employed eight to 10 workers. The expansion continued, and he now has seven outlets and an annual turnover of $1.3m. [...] Sarath's drive remains strong. He wants to have 100 outlets by the end of this year -- and 5,000 across the state eventually. [...] He already gives lectures at schools and business institutes, and spends time encouraging children in a local slum to continue studying. And he hopes to inspire 1,000 entrepreneurs across the state, who too would go on to create employment opportunities for others."

Caste-Free Capitalism ~ Money vs Prejudices...

Very interesting story by Lydia Polgreen of the NYTimes on Rags to Riches: Scaling Caste Walls With Capitalism’s Ladders in India...

"The untouchable boy had become golden, thanks to the newest god in the Indian pantheon: money. As the founder of a successful offshore oil-rig engineering company, Ashok Khade is part of a tiny but growing class of millionaires from the Dalit population, the 200 million so-called untouchables who occupy the very lowest rung in Hinduism’s social hierarchy. “I’ve gone from village to palace,” Mr. Khade exclaimed, using his favorite phrase to describe his remarkable journey [...] “This is a golden period for Dalits,” said Chandra Bhan Prasad, a Dalit activist and researcher who has championed capitalism among the untouchables. “Because of the new market economy, material markers are replacing social markers. Dalits can buy rank in the market economy [...] “We are fighting the caste system with capitalism” [...] Messy industries like construction are closer to the traditional occupations of the lowest castes. [...] “In this complex society, Dalits are turning disadvantage into an advantage”

Twitter Diffusion ~ Accelerating US Adoption...

US Twitter Adoption map over time...

"From late March 2006 through the early August 2009, nearly 3.5 million people signed up for twitter. 2.3 million of those users signed up in the 408 cities displayed here. As users sign up, the blue circles grow and size and turn read then that city reaches a critical mass of users. We defined critical mass as achieving 13.5% of the total number of users that city will gain over the three years. The graph represents the number of new users signing up each week."

Definitely read Traditional social networks fueled Twitter’s spread...

"...the site’s growth in the United States actually relied primarily on media attention and traditional social networks based on geographic proximity and socioeconomic similarity"

Merry Newtonmas ~ Reasons Greetings To All!

Merry Newtonmas to one and all! To quote the oracle...

"As an alternative to celebrating the religious holiday Christmas, some atheists, skeptics, and other non-believers have chosen to celebrate December 25th -- the birthday Newton shares with Jesus Christ -- as Newtonmas. Celebrants send cards with "Reasons Greetings!" printed inside, and exchange boxes of apples and science-related items as gifts. The celebration may have had its origin in a meeting of the Newton Association at Christmas 1890 to talk, distribute gifts, and share laughter and good cheer. The name Newtonmas can be attributed to the Skeptics Society, which needed an alternative name for its Christmas party. [Of course] Newton's birthday was December 25th under the Old Style Julian Calendar used in Protestant England at the time, but was January 4th under the New Style Gregorian Calendar used simultaneously in Catholic Europe. The period between has been proposed for a holiday season called "10 Days of Newton" to commemorate this."

And thanks Lisa Wade of Sociological Images for spotlighting this piece from Brit TV show QI on the Pagan Roots of Christianity -- i.e. before Newtonmas was Xmas it was Mithrasmas and Cavemanmas...

Life Vest Inside ~ Yes, Kindness Boomerangs!

UniqueDaily spots Life Vest Inside's Kindness Boomerang...

"...the camera tracks an act of kindness as its passed from one individual to the next and manages to boomerang back to the person who set it into motion"

(It's worth noting that I champion this very human and ethical message entirely independently of and thoroughly disconnected from the messianic wingnut nature of the singer and any other irrationally theistic and stupidly religulous backers of this movement.)

Boom Curse? ~ AlJaz on Aussie FIFOs & Abos

Al Jazeera's 101 East spotlights Australia's boomtown curse...

"...minerals are powering Australia's economy to record highs. And as demand from China for more resources grows, new mines continue to open across the country. But critics say there is a dark side to this success story. Mining regions attract transient workers [FIFO's] keen to make a quick buck, creating social and environmental problems and a rising crime rate. Mines are also draining Australia's pool of skilled labour from other industries and driving up wages. 101 East asks: What is the cost of Australia's mining boom?"

Suzilla vs Big Fat Fatty ~ Could Feed a Village!

Competitive eating is completely ridiculous -- and mesmerizing at the same time! Watch Suzilla taking on the Big Fat Fatty übersandwich! (Of course, why this TV show is on Planet Green is completely beyond me;-)

Luggage Cam ~ Delta's Bags Behind-the-Scenes!

Thanks to Jarrett Goetz for spotting Delta's Behind-The-Scenes: Your Bag's Journey "after they pass through those black rubber flaps at the airport."

O'Leary Slams EU ~ Ryan Air Innovation Formula

Thanks to International Liberty's Dan Mitchell for spotting the In-Your-Face Smackdown of Europe’s Bureaucratic Empire by Ryan Air's Michael O'Leary. Brilliant evisceration of unmitigated bloatocracy!

Wealth Curves ~ Surging Global Middle Class

NextBigFuture comments on A global middle class world with a lot less extreme poverty in the 2020s and spotlights these rising wealth curves in China and globally...

Santa Physics ~ Xmas Eve Workload Infographic

Atlantic's Philip Bump calculates Santa's Christmas Eve Workload...

"There are just over 526,000,000 Christian kids under the age of 14 in the world who celebrate Christmas on December 25th. In other words, Santa has to deliver presents to almost 22 million kids/hour, every hour, on the night before Christmas. That's about 365,000 kids/minute; about 6,100/second. Totally doable."

Thanks to Freakonomics for spotlighting this!

MIT 2030 ~ Hockfield Spins Future Campus...

President Hockfield narrates campus flyover and MIT 2030 thoughts...

Xmas Wishlist ~ Ingersoll’s Essential Wants!

Thanks to Cynical-C for spotting Robert Ingersoll’s What I Want for Christmas. Some favorite highlights...

"If I had the power to produce exactly what I want for next Christmas, I would have all the kings and emperors resign and allow the people to govern themselves [...] I would have all the cardinals, archbishops, bishops, priests and clergymen admit that they know nothing about theology, nothing about hell or heaven, nothing about the destiny of the human race, nothing about devils or ghosts, gods or angels. I would have them tell all their “flocks” to think for themselves [...] I would like to see all the politicians changed to statesmen -- to men who long to make their country great and free -- to men who care more for public good than private gain -- men who long to be of use. I would like to see all the editors of papers and magazines agree to print the truth and nothing but the truth, to avoid all slander and misrepresentation, and to let the private affairs of the people alone. [...] I would like to see the millionaires unite and form a trust for the public good. I would like to see a fair division of profits between capital and labor, so that the toiler could save enough to mingle a little June with the December of his life [...] I would like to see the whole world free -- free from injustice -- free from superstition. This will do for next Christmas. The following Christmas, I may want more."