31 May 2011

ResilienCity ~ Boston's Innovation District 2035

Thanks to Inhabitat for pointing to map-lab's ResilienCity visionary proposal for the Boston Innovation District circa 2035...
"...a new neighborhood built on greyfield and brownfield sites that will provide residences and workplaces for over 300,000 people [...] Our design proposal for Boston’s Innovation District incorporates a strategy of new canals that gives 100 acres of land back to the sea and provides for roof gardens and living walls throughout the district with the goal of re-establishing long lost ecological conditions. In total our proposal provides over 15 million square feet of green spaces for recreation and green roofs. In addition, we transform a major downtown Boston street into a pedestrian friendly boulevard modeled after the Ramblas in Barcelona. [...] We have designed ResilienCity to encourage all visitors, workers, and occupants to be active and educated about their health."
Check out their overall proposal...

Urban Inhabitats ~ Green Design Delighters...

Inhabitat delivers great green city designs...

30 May 2011

FEMEN ~ Righteous Ukranian Protest-Babes!

Thanks to the Economist for spotting FEMEN's Indecent exposure...
"Founded in 2008, the woman's-rights group is best known for for staging topless protests in the streets of Kiev, Ukraine's capital. Marching bare-breasted underneath banners with slogans such as "Ukraine is not a brothel," the women of Femen have organised protests against corruption, next year's European football championships (held jointly with Poland) and the sex-tourism industry in Ukraine."
Lovely! And here Der Spiegel views the situation.

Nuclear Luddites ~ Euro's Abandoning Future...

In a knee-jerk reaction to recent Japanese tsunami disaster and safety malfeasance, both Germany and Switzerland have renounced nuclear power joining even more backwards Italy. This neo-Luddite move signals that incompetents are in charge and listening to the greenie-weenie protesterati. According to the AP...
"Europe's economic powerhouse, Germany, announced plans Monday to abandon nuclear energy over the next 11 years, outlining an ambitious strategy in the wake of Japan's Fukushima disaster to replace atomic power with renewable energy sources. Chancellor Angela Merkel said she hopes the transformation to more solar, wind and hydroelectric power serves as a roadmap for other countries. "We believe that we can show those countries who decide to abandon nuclear power -- or not to start using it -- how it is possible to achieve growth, creating jobs and economic prosperity while shifting the energy supply toward renewable energies," Merkel said. Merkel's government said it will shut down all 17 nuclear power plants in Germany -- the world's fourth-largest economy and Europe's biggest -- by 2022"
How disgustingly stupid.

Urban Density ~ WSJ Celebrates the Endless City

The WSJ spotlights The Ups and Downs of Urban Living...
"Today, 53% of the world's population lives in cities, up from 10% in 1900. By 2050, that figure is expected to rise to 75%. The new book "Living in the Endless City" (Phaidon), edited by Ricky Burdett and Deyan Sudjic, looks at the challenges cities face as their populations boom. Drawing on research from the Urban Age Project [...] Here is a look at Mumbai, New York and Istanbul, with diagrams of each city's urban density (showing the number of people living in each square kilometer, with tall spikes indicating denser areas), along with a bird's-eye view of the area of peak density..."

End of Mail? ~ BW on USPS's Big Challenges...

The U.S. Postal Service Nears Collapse writes Devin Leonard in Businessweek coverstory...
"The USPS is a wondrous American creation. Six days a week it delivers an average of 563 million pieces of mail -- 40 percent of the entire world's volume. For the price of a 44¢ stamp, you can mail a letter anywhere within the nation's borders. [...] It may be the greatest bargain on earth. It takes an enormous organization to carry out such a mission. The USPS has 571,566 full-time workers, making it the country's second-largest civilian employer after Wal-Mart Stores. It has 31,871 post offices, more than the combined domestic retail outlets of Wal-Mart, Starbucks, and McDonald's. Last year its revenues were $67 billion, and its expenses were even greater. Postal service executives proudly note that if it were a private company, it would be No. 29 on the Fortune 500. The problems of the USPS are just as big. [They are...] ubiquitous, relied on, and headed off a cliff."
Surely this is an organization and service asset that can be reinvigorated. With more reasonable union agreements, more rational pricing, and competitive and vibrant delivery practices, much more should be possible.

Shimizu's Dreams ~ Luna Ring and More!

Fascinating to read about Japanese construction company Shimizu and their epic construction ideas -- Shimizu's Dream! The latest is the Luna Ring, a Moon-based solar energy system which would transmit power to Earth via microwaves and laser... Their other ideas include Space Hotels, Lunar Bases, Urban Geo-Grids, and Desert Aqua-Nets. Fantastic! P.S. Thanks to Inhabitat's Timon Singh for spotting this story.

VLT ~ Epic Timelapse of Stars and Scopes!

Thanks to PopSci's Clay Dillow for spotting this epic timelapse by Stephane Guisard and Jose Francisco Salgado shot at the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) in Chile’s Atacama Desert!

28 May 2011

Anthropocene ~ Economist on Man-Made World

The latest Economist gives a geological timeline of the earth as part of their story on The Anthropocene...
"In 2000 Paul Crutzen, an eminent atmospheric chemist, realised he no longer believed he was living in the 10,000-year-old Holocene epoch, a peculiarly stable and clement part of the Quaternary period, a time distinguished by regular shifts into and out of ice ages. Mr Crutzen decided he was living in some other age, one shaped primarily by people. From their trawlers scraping the floors of the seas to their dams impounding sediment by the gigatonne, from their stripping of forests to their irrigation of farms, from their mile-deep mines to their melting of glaciers, humans were bringing about an age of planetary change. With a colleague, Eugene Stoermer, Dr Crutzen suggested this age be called the Anthropocene -- “the recent age of man”

Energy Inclusion ~ Hande on Social Innovation

Compelling piece by SELCO founder and D-Lab advisor Harish Hande on India’s Growing Energy Disparity: Need for Energy Inclusion and Social Innovation in the Schwab social entrepreneurs blog where he notes the...
"Majority of world’s 1.6 billion un-electrified population lives in India. More than half of the women and children who die in the world because of indoor air pollution are Indians. [...] at-least 500 million people in India survive on one dollar or less per day. Most, if not all of them, are the very population that do not enjoy the benefits of energy services which most us, in urban India and rest of the world take it for granted. The growing disparity, in energy consumption, which is resulting in the increasing divide between rich and the poor is socially, economically and environmentally unsustainable for India. [...] To provide energy access to the poor, a complete ecosystem needs to be built. The sustainable ecosystem consists of the poor as clients and owners, customized solutions, innovations in business and financial models (many of them do not exist today) and pro-poor policies."
And SELCO's been one of the pioneers in doing just that. But much more is needed, especially the replication and scaling of affordably customized solutions.

27 May 2011

Modern Metro ~ Coolest Subway Stations...

Steph at WebUrbanist spots the World's Coolest Subway Stations, including these delighters...

Prostitutes as Perks ~ German Sex "Incentives"

Frank Patalong sheds light in Der Spiegel on the role of Prostitutes as Perks: Sex Incentives 'No Exception' in German Business World...
"Germany has some 400,000 prostitutes, estimates the Berlin-based sex worker advocacy group Hydra. Each of them caters to a number of clients, which means millions of men are buying sex -- even if few of them will admit it. Germany legalized prostitution in 2001, giving sex workers the right to job contracts, social security and public insurance. But the profession remains taboo. Sex as an "incentive" or means of bribery in the business world -- such as the corporate prostitution party for German insurance salesmen organized by Mannheimer International -- is incompatible with western values. A businessman mixed up in red-light parties can't be tolerated -- at least not officially. [...] Sex as a business incentive is "widespread," confirms Mechthild Eickel, who works for a sex worker educational association called Madonna. "It's in every branch, it's just that not every company can afford it." [...] corporate orgies have grown in popularity. There are agencies that specialize in organizing events similar to the Mannheimer International sex party in Budapest. Larger escort services will also make such arrangements."
You learn something new every day. In fact, 'Corporate Sex Parties Are Commonplace' writes Julia Jüttner in a related piece...
"Companies routinely hire call girls to spice up excursions and parties, say two Berlin prostitutes following a furor over last week's revelation that a German insurance firm organized a sex party for high-performing salesmen in a Budapest bathhouse. The men start out coy -- but usually jettison their inhibitions after a few drinks, they say. [...] corporate bashes with prostitutes are commonplace. "Many large firms have an extra budget to fund such parties in such a way that they don't show up in the official accounts," [...] "These days you've got to motivate your staff."
Indeed.

26 May 2011

Hospital Design ~ Optimizing Amid Constraints

Having spent far too much time in hospitals lately, I'm keenly aware of their positive and negative qualities. So it's interesting to read Chronicle urban design critic John King's recent piece Bay Area hospitals keep getting bigger about the latest in new designs...
"Hospitals are very program driven -- it's all about what's inside the building," said Ratcliff principal Tom Patterson. "At the same time, you want it to be a nice piece of architecture. That's a challenge." It's a challenge with no easy solution in already developed neighborhoods and cities where expansion space is cramped. There's also the push for more centralized facilities. [...] When we're inside a hospital, we want every conceivable service close at hand. When we're outside, we want it to defer to its surroundings. The conundrum? We can't always have both.
Here's the photo gallery of recent examples...

The First Grader ~ Maruge's Literacy Quest

Thanks to Hearst movie writer Amy Biancolli for spotting The First Grader...
"...the uplifting account of an 84-year-old Mau Mau warrior who stubbornly pursues the right to learn alongside 6-year-olds. [...] the movie is the true story of Kimani N'gan'ga Maruge and his late-life quest for literacy."

25 May 2011

"Before this Decade..." ~ JFK's 1961 Moon Goal

50 years ago today, May 25th 1961, JFK rallied US to...
"Commit... before this decade is out, to landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth"

24 May 2011

Prometheus Plume ~ Io's Sulfurous Eruption!

Another daily dose from NASA...
" Two sulfurous eruptions are visible on Jupiter's volcanic moon Io in this color composite image from the robotic Galileo spacecraft that orbited Jupiter from 1995 to 2003. At the image top, over Io's limb, a bluish plume rises about 140 kilometers above the surface of a volcanic caldera known as Pillan Patera. In the image middle, near the night/day shadow line, the ring shaped Prometheus plume is seen rising about 75 kilometers above Io while casting a shadow below the volcanic vent."

20 May 2011

Prelude FLNG ~ gCaptain Spots Shell Supership

Thanks to Mike from gCaptain for spotting Shell’s Prelude FLNG, the...
"...world’s first FLNG [Floating Liquified Natural Gas] facility [and] world’s largest floating object ever constructed [...] From bow to stern, the Prelude FLNG measures 488 meters long (that’s more than 1,600 feet) and 74m wide That’s longer than 4 football fields laid end-to-end, including end zones. That dwarfs the massive Emma Maersk by 300 ft and even the late Knock Nevis supertanker by nearly 100 ft."
What I especially like about this is it's the most sophisticated example yet of "containerized infrastructure" which offer economies of flexibility and even urgency -- i.e. many examples are standard shipping container-based, whereas others -- such as the Shell Prelude -- are floating superstructures, e.g. power plants, hospital ships, even prisons! Amazing in scale and ambition!

19 May 2011

Cargohopper ~ Utrecht's Clean Logistics Solution

Thanks to Velo Mondial for spotting the Cargohopper, the electric delivery vehicle and system in Utrecht, Netherlands...

Optogenetics ~ Boyden's Neurotech Talk @ TED

MIT Media Lab colleague Professor Ed Boyden shares some of his work and interest in optogenetics as a tool for neurotechnology in his TED talk...

Explosive Images ~ Thrainsson Spots Volcanoes

The DailyMail delivers Explosive Images by daredevil nature photographer Skarphedinn Thrainsson...

GIKEN ~ Great Japanese Eco-Construction Toolco

Japanese eco-construction tools company GIKEN supplies some of the most innovative equipment and enables truly remarkable urban and infrastructural designs! I first came to know of GIKEN because of their fantastic ECO Cycle robotic underground bicycle storage system, which I've written about in Bicycle Parking, More Robotic Storage, and Tokyo Bike Tower. The core of the GIKEN suite of solutions is the Silent Piler which uses the "Press-In Method" of inserting pilings underground for a variety of construction purposes. Here's an example Silent Piler in action... And here a great demo of vibration-free operations! Check out their GIKEN 'Tube channel for more goodies! This innovative company out of Japan is a great example urban venture!

18 May 2011

Transparent Displays ~ Everyday Surfaces Alive!

Thanks to Gregg Favalora for spotting the coolest thing at SID -- transparent displays! As gfav says...
"On a fridge door. With beer inside. Look, yeah, it looks like a commercial, but c'mon. This is awesome!"

Fraunhofer CSE ~ New Green Building Showcase

Erin Ailworth writes in the Globe about A showcase for building green, why the Fraunhofer Center for Sustainable Energy Systems (CSE) is relocating to the Boston Innovation District from northeast of Kendall Square, Cambridge...
"The firm, which is a subsidiary of the German research organization Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft, helps start-up energy efficiency companies commercialize cutting-edge products and services. [According to CSE's Managing Director Nol Browne] "We want to be the center where people can come to learn about the next generation of building technology." [...] The Fraunhofer center will begin retrofitting its new offices -- originally constructed in 1913 for a leather merchant -- to create a roughly 50,000-square-foot "living lab" where employees will work to advance power-saving ideas."

17 May 2011

Revival Technologies ~ Improving Survival Odds...

Ron Winslow in the WSJournal spotlights the remarkable experience of Howard Snitzer who survived 96 Minutes Without a Heartbeat...
"Mr. Snitzer collapsed from cardiac arrest outside a grocery store in January, two men at a gas station across the street sprinted to his aid. Both volunteer firemen, they were soon joined by two dozen local police, firemen and rescuers from two neighboring towns in what became a 96-minute marathon to get Mr. Snitzer's heart started again. [...] Of the 300,000 annual cases of sudden cardiac arrest outside a hospital, 125,000 victims are found too late to be helped [...] The big worry in sudden cardiac arrest beyond restarting the heart is protecting the brain. [...] Recent AHA guidelines, which were published last fall, call for a more sophisticated and continuous monitoring of CO2 [...using the capnograph] After about an hour and 15 minutes had elapsed following Mr. Snitzer's collapse, [and 11 unsuccessful shocks with the defibrillator] the two decided that an additional dose of an anti-arrhythmia drug and one more shock -- the 12th -- would be the last chance. CPR continued as those steps were taken. At the 96th minute, soon after the shock was administered, Mr. Snitzer's pulse returned. [..] About five days later [he] was out of intensive care. In a report on the case published online last month by Mayo Clinic Proceedings, Dr. White and his colleagues reported that Mr. Snitzer "experienced a complete neurologic recovery" and described the episode as the "longest duration of pulselessness in an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest with a good outcome." Mr. Snitzer goes regularly to the Mayo Clinic for cardiac rehabilitation. He says he had hardly any idea what happened to him or how he came to survive it. But as he learned about the quick response from rescue workers and how the signals from the capnograph convinced them not to quit, he said: "I'm a regular guy. I happened to die at the right place at the right time."
Amazing stuff. And the capnography technology is just one example of our growing toolset for reviving victims and surviving trauma.

Tintin ~ Trailer for Spielberg's Upcoming Movie!

The Adventures of Tintin movie by Spielberg! I can't wait!

"Fairy Story" ~ Hawking on Heaven and Religion...

Ian Sample in the Guardian shares exclusive interview with cosmologist Stephen Hawking who asserts...
"There is no heaven or afterlife [...] that is a fairy story for people afraid of the dark. [...] "We should seek the greatest value of our action." [...] "I have lived with the prospect of an early death for the last 49 years. I'm not afraid of death, but I'm in no hurry to die. I have so much I want to do first."
Blunt, honest words from a remarkable intellect unbroken by the irrational religiosity all around us.

16 May 2011

Decoupling ~ Sustainable and Scalable Growth...

Interesting piece in Fast Company by Ariel Schwartz on Do More With Less Or Things Will Get Ugly...
"As it stands, economic growth is largely dependent on resource consumption. As a country grows, so does its use of natural -- and limited -- high-quality resources like oil, gold, and copper. But this is untenable in the long run, especially as growing countries like India and China model themselves increasingly on American habits of consumption (a car, two cell phones, and 30 pounds of meat for all!) The seemingly impossible solution: separating resource use and environmental impact from economic growth -- a process with the unfortunate moniker "decoupling." According to a new report [Decoupling Natural Resource Use and Environmental Impacts from Economic Growth] from the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), decoupling is already happening, albeit at a small scale. The resources required per $1,000 of economic output dropped from 2.1 to 1.6 tons between between 1980 and 2002"
Also check out my previous posts on The Sustainability of Economic Growth ~ Material vs Intangible Economics?, Energy Intensity, and Ever More Efficient GDP.

Physics Works ~ MIT's Extraordinary Walter Lewin

MIT's inspiring and extraordinary Professor Walter Lewin speaks tonight Monday May 16th at 7p in 26-100 to celebrate publication of his book For The Love of Physics: From the End of the Rainbow to the Edge of Time -- A Journey Through the Wonders of Physics. (P.S. MIT News writes about Lewin and this last lecture) We're fortunate to have captured some of this master-lecturer on video... Watch also this longer piece on How To Make Teaching Come Alive...

Ice Pilots ~ Buffalo Airways Delivers the Goods!

Just saw for the first time reality TV show Ice Pilots about the people and business stories of Buffalo Airways, a logistics and flight services firm up in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, Canada. Cool!

Test-Tube Burgers ~ Meat Without Slaughter...

Thanks to NYTimes Dot Earthling Andrew Revkin for writing Meat Without Slaughter spotting Michael Specter's New Yorker piece on Test-Tube Burgers. He writes about in vitro meat inventor Dutchman Willem van Eelen who...
"...was seized by an idea: “Why can’t we grow meat outside of the body? Make it in a laboratory, as we make so many other things.” [...] A new discipline, propelled by an unlikely combination of stem-cell biologists, tissue engineers, animal-rights activists, and environmentalists, has emerged in both Europe and the U.S. [...] Lab-grown meat raises powerful questions about what most people see as the boundaries of nature and the basic definitions of life. [...] “The goal [of cultured meat] is to create the volume previously provided by a million animals.”
See also Humanity+ article by Hank Hyena on Eight Ways In-Vitro Meat will Change Our Lives and my past posts, including on Synthetic Food and In Vitro Meat .

15 May 2011

Palestinian Transition ~ Morally Savvy Strategies

Since the state of Israel was unilaterally declared in 1948, the many displaced Palestinian refugees and those who became partial-citizen Israeli-Arabs have marked Nakba Day today, on May 15, to commemorate the Catastrophe of their expulsion and occupation. But as Karin Laub of the Associated Press notes in Palestinians test tactic of unarmed mass marches, this year we are witnessing the growing Palestinian Transition away from terrorism, suicide bombings, and armed resistance towards unarmed mass demonstrations and peaceful protests (e.g. as documented in Budrus) plus clear articulations of the moral case for fully equal, secular, democratic human rights -- and also crucially -- accelerating entrepreneurial economic development (e.g. as evidenced by Rawabi)...
"Palestinian activists are calling it a preview of new tactics to pressure Israel and win world support for statehood: Masses of marchers, galvanized by the Arab Spring and brought together by Facebook, descending on borders and military posts -- and daring Israeli soldiers to shoot. [...] Israeli officials openly puzzled over how to handle an unfamiliar new phase. "The Palestinians' transition from terrorism and suicide bombings to deliberately unarmed mass demonstrations is a transition that will present us with difficult challenges," said Defense Minister Ehud Barak."
This Palestinian pincer strategy of non-violent moral rightness combined with pro-growth prosperity policies will force Israelis to finally actually share the land and riches of Canaan instead of continuing their racist "Jewish majority", ethnic cleansing, and law of return practices, repeated gross violations of international law and multiple UN resolutions, outright criminal behavior including land seizures as well as raw material and water theft, and irrational Apartheid-like policies, including illegal settlements, concentration camps, and barrier walls, all of which are morally reprehensible, politically indefensible, and culturally barbaric. There's room for many creative solutions here, whether this is a separate two-state future with strong freedoms of cross-border movement, or a federalized bi-national state with strong local rule, or even a one state solution -- or perhaps a blend of these over time with trust-building and peace-keeping measures phased over many years. Or maybe now's the time to be thinking about post-nationalist solutions which instead empower individuals instead of ethnic or tribal collectives. P.S. As added context, please see Palestine's Hidden History of Nonviolence by Yousef Munayyer in Foreign Policy...
"You wouldn't know it from the media coverage, but peaceful protests are nothing new for Palestinians. But if they are to succeed this time, the West needs to start paying attention."

Military-Industrial Complex ~ Ike's 1961 Warning

President Eisenhower's 1961 farewell address warned against the Military-Industrial Complex a half-century ago...
"In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist. We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted. Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together."

Dying Sucks ~ The Cruel Reality of Decline...

We're all born with aging genetically "programmed" in -- or, at least, it hasn't yet been evolutionarily selected against. Perhaps God and the Devil are both bloody Darwinians? And when you compound aging with the environmental ravages and behavioral burdens we bear or self-inflict, it's little wonder that our bodies and brains wither away too soon. But worst of all, in the final stretch, when we can consciously see our flame flickering low, the cruel reality of our decline and doom really hits home. That's dying and it sucks. P.S. I'm going to do something about this too. As far as I'm concerned, Gerontechnology merits a 12 figure global R&D budget. Governments planet-wide burn that much per year in tax dollars on military "defense" killing people, so it's not crazy to instead invest at least as much money on something that's the constructive exact opposite.

Future Cities ~ CNN's Quest on Urbanization...

CNN's Quest Means Business has a series on Future Cities with spotlight on conurbations, including Abu Dhabi...
Curitiba...
And even LA...

13 May 2011

Cityscope ~ McKinsey on Top 600 Global Cities...

The McKinsey Quarterly writes about Global cities of the future: An interactive map...
"Over the next 15 years, 600 cities will account for more than 60 percent of global GDP growth. Which of them will contribute the largest number of children or elderly to the world’s population? Which will see the fastest expansion of new entrants to the consuming middle classes? How will regional patterns of growth differ? Explore these questions by browsing through the interactive global map which contains city-specific highlights from the McKinsey Global Institute’s database of more than 2,000 metropolitan areas around the world."
This is part of larger McKinsey Global Institute report, Urban world: Mapping the economic power of cities.

World in 2100 ~ Future Population Pyramid...

The Economist daily infographic spots World Population Pyramid...