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FLOAT House | Morphopedia | Morphosis Architects
The FLOAT House is a new kind of house: a house that can sustain its own water and power needs; a house that can survive the floodwaters generated by a storm the size of Hurricane Katrina; and perhaps most importantly, a house that can be manufacture
Unboxed - I.B.M Tries to Help Cities Work Smarter - NYTimes.com
With money very tight, state and local officials hope to mine vast troves of government data for insights to streamline services and guide policy.
In Mitch Epstein’s Images, a Nation’s Thirst for Energy - NYTimes.com
The photographer Mitch Epstein routinely came under suspicion while taking pictures of dams and power plants for his new book, “American Power.”
Beauty in Destruction - Hack a Day
Unnatural selection: Birth control pills may alter choice of partners
There is no doubt that modern contraception has enabled women to have unprecedented control over their own fertility. However, is it possible that the use of oral contraceptives is interfering with a woman's ability to choose, compete for and retain her preferred mate? A new paper published by Cell ...
US gun maker arming Wii shooter game
Legendary rifle maker Remington Arms Company said Friday it has teamed with videogame maker Mastiff to put virtual versions of its guns in a hunting title tailored for Wii consoles.
The Fall of the Maya: 'They Did it to Themselves'
For 1200 years, the Maya dominated Central America. At their peak around 900 A.D., Maya cities teemed with more than 2,000 people per square mile -- comparable to modern Los Angeles County. Even in rural areas the Maya numbered 200 to 400 people per square mile. But suddenly, all was quiet. And the ...
Downhill bike race in Brazil | Flabber
In een Braziliaanse sloppenwijk werd de downhill bike race Desafio no Morro georganiseerd. Bekijk hoe dat er uit ziet vanuit het perspectief van de
Super-Efficient BMW Concepts Are Simple and Clever | Autopia | Wired.com
BMW, the company that brought you Gina, that wild shape-shifting concept car made of cloth, went even further off the deep end with a pair of wacky concepts
CBC News - Toronto - Ont. researchers tout cheap eHealth alternative
Researchers at McMaster University say they have devised an electronic medical records system that can be implemented across the province for two per cent of the money the provincial government has spent in its bid to do the same.
Samso Journal - From Turbines and Straw, Danish Self-Sufficiency - NYTimes.com
A tiny island just completed a 10-year experiment to see whether it could become energy self-sufficient, and its residents say they have met the goal.
BBC NEWS | Science & Environment | 'Scary' climate message from past
Refined measurements of past climate suggest some current political targets on CO2 are "playing with fire".
Legal Cost for Throwing a Monkey Wrench - NYTimes.com
Tim DeChristopher decided to make bids on oil and gas leases with no interest in drilling. Now he may pay for it.
Swine Flu Rates Up to 5 Times Higher for Native Groups
Today's announcement that U.S. swine flu deaths among children are "shooting up" is generating headlines. Meanwhile swine flu is infecting another group up to five times more often than the general public, advocates say.
Polyface, Inc.
Joel Salatin - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
YouTube - UWO arrest October 14 2009
Arresting a drunk on campus
"Coal" Is A Dirty Word In Troubling New Documentary : TreeHugger
Image credit: Photo of mountaintop removal coal mining at Kayford Mine, West Virginia. © 2006 B. Mark Schmerling, courtesy Sierra Club Library A new award-winning film premiering on Planet Green on November 14 will change the way you think
Technology Review: Biofuel from Sewage
Qteros forms a partnership to use sewage as a feedstock for making ethanol.
Building a Bridge of (and to) the Future - NYTimes.com
Carbon- and glass-fiber fabric tubes filled with concrete offer strength, light weight and resistance to corrosion.
Some Canadian rivers at risk of drying up
(PhysOrg.com) -- Some Canadian rivers are at risk of drying up as impacts of climate change intersect with growing water demand from the country's cities, industries and agriculture, a new WWF report has found.
Oct. 16, 2002: Second Great Library Opens in Alexandria | This Day In Tech | Wired.com
2002: The Bibliotheca Alexandrina is officially dedicated in the Egyptian port city of Alexandria. It is a conscious attempt, even down to its Latin name,
YouTube - The spider that invented the wheel
The Golden Wheel Spider (Carparachne aureoflava) is truly a unique and amazing creature of the beautiful Namib Desert. It builds burrows that extend 40-50cm ...
Climate Change Threatens Rice Production
Once-in-a-lifetime floods in the Philippines, India's delayed monsoon, and extensive drought in Australia are taking their toll on this year's rice crops, demonstrating the vulnerability of rice to extreme weather.
Arctic Lake Sediments Show Warming, Unique Ecological Changes In Recent Decades
An analysis of sediment cores indicates that biological and chemical changes occurring at a remote Arctic lake are unprecedented over the past 200,000 years and likely are the result of human-caused climate change, according to a new study.
Global Surface Temperature Was Second Warmest For September
The combined global land and ocean surface temperature was the second warmest September on record, according to NOAA. Scientists also reported that the average land surface temperature for September was the second warmest on record, behind 2005. Additionally, the global ocean surface temperature was tied for the fifth warmest on record for September.
NZ Feature Project: Broken Barrier - The New Zealand Film Archive
Food Experts Worry as World Population and Hunger Grow - NYTimes.com [via claudio]
The number of hungry people in the world rose to 1.02 billion this year, according to the United Nations, despite a 12-year concentrated effort to cut the number.
$13 an Hour? 500 Sign Up for One Opening - NYTimes.com [via claudio]
A trucking company in Indiana realized that the recession allowed it to be methodical in picking one candidate from among nearly 500 applicants.
Hydropower industry braces for glacier-free future | Green Business | Reuters
RHONE GLACIER, Switzerland (Reuters) - Standing on the glacier at the source of the Rhone river, glaciologist Andreas Bauder poses next to a 3-meter high pole sticking out of the ice, and gestures above
Technology Review: Next Stop: Ultracapacitor Buses
A U.S.-Chinese venture is out to prove the benefits of quick-charge buses.<br />
Pollution Turns Leaves Magnetic | LiveScience
Magnetic pollution particles stick to leaves, provide easy way to track pollutants.
'Paranormal Activity' Review: A Horror-Film Phenomenon - TIME
Art That Illustrates the Danger of Antibacterial Everything - Boing Boing
Art Review - 'Art of the Samurai' - Way of the Artful Warriors, at the Metropolitan Museum - NYTimes.com
This sumptuous, revelatory and long-awaited exhibition is a once-in-a-lifetime event for children, war buffs and connoisseurs of all ages.
Scientists reveal secrets of drought resistance
A team of biologists in California led by researchers at The Scripps Research Institute and the University of California, San Diego has solved the structure of a critical molecule that helps plants survive during droughts. Understanding the inner workings of this molecule may help scientists design ...
Algae may be secret weapon in climate change war
Driven by fluctuations in oil prices, and seduced by the prospect of easing climate change, experts are ramping up efforts to squeeze fuel out of a promising new organism: pond scum.
Gittes,
ReplyDeleteAs usual, I found a great collection of linked articles on your most recent blog.
I was craving my link fix pretty severely.
The Joel Salatin link lead me to Polyface Farms and the article
http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2006/05/no-bar-code
That article, contains the following passage,
“Shortly before I traveled to Virginia, I’d reread an essay by Wendell Berry in which he argued that reversing the damage done to local economies and the land by the juggernaut of world trade would take nothing less than “a revolt of local small producers and local consumers against the global industrialism of the corporations.” He detected the beginnings of such a rebellion in the rise of local food systems and the growing market “for good, fresh, trustworthy food, food from producers known and trusted by consumers.” Which, as he points out, “cannot be produced by a global corporation.” Berry would have me believe that what I was seeing in the Polyface salesroom represented a local uprising in a gathering worldwide rebellion against what he calls “the total economy.””
“a gathering worldwide rebellion against what he calls “the total economy””
What a wonderful idea.
claudio
Gittes,
ReplyDeleteI am back in my office for a little journey into the world of, “Thermo I”.
This afternoon, I will be visiting “steam tables” and applying their tabulated treasures to some delightful college level problems.
I treated myself to a pre-tutorial visit to your blog.
I was drawn to the linked article entitled,
“The Fall of the Maya: 'They Did it to Themselves' “
which contains the following passages,
“"We believe that's what happened," says Griffin. "The Maya stripped large areas of their landscape bare by over-farming."
Not only did drought make it difficult to grow enough food, it also would have been harder for the Maya to store enough water to survive the dry season.
"The cities tried to keep an 18-month supply of water in their reservoirs," says Sever. "For example, in Tikal there was a system of reservoirs that held millions of gallons of water. Without sufficient rain, the reservoirs ran dry." Thirst and famine don't do much for keeping a populace happy. The rest, as the saying goes, is history.
"In some of the Maya city-states, mass graves have been found containing groups of skeletons with jade inlays in their teeth - something they reserved for Maya elites - perhaps in this case murdered aristocracy," he speculates.”
Perhaps the title of an article describing the final global collapse of our modern society would be,
“The Fall of Mankind, The Ruling Elite Convinced Humanity to Do it to Themselves”.
My favourite phrase within the linked article, “perhaps in this case murdered aristocracy," he speculates.”
claudio
P.S. Don’t forget the best low-cost deer hunting weapon, that funky Chinese rifle, the SKS.
Gittes,
ReplyDeleteI am jonesing bad for your blog links.
No doubt you are buried behind a hideous mound of undergrad engineering midterms/assignments.
claudio