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Forget Curbing Suburban Sprawl (MIT Technology Review)
I have some questions about the source of this report/ research, which claims that density (including examples such as Vancouver's eco-density) "would yield insignificant CO2 reductions."
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Even if 75 percent of all new and replacement housing in America were built at twice the density of current new developments, and those living in the newly constructed housing drove 25 percent less as a result, CO2 emissions from personal travel would decline nationwide by only 8 to 11 percent by 2050, according to the study. If just 25 percent of housing units were developed at such densities and residents drove only 12 percent less as a result, CO2 emissions would be reduced by less than 2 percent by 2050.
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I guess the problem is with defining real density as a mere "twice the density of current new developments": if you consider that new developments include suburban greenfield spreads on 1/4 to 1/2 acre for each SFH, then doubling that density really doesn't amount to much.
Further down, the report just makes the case for building more fuel-efficient cars - so maybe that's where the report's agenda originates.
The Curious Link Between Parked Cars and Perched Birds (Technology Review: Blogs: arXiv blog)
Thought-provoking post about "random matrix theory."
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He has measured the gaps between parked cars and says that the
statistical patterns in the data bear an uncanny likeness to those in
the distances between perched birds. -
Šeba has stumbled across a
deep connection between the statistics of seemingly unrelated
phenomena. It has been known for some time that the statistics
associated with the gaps between parked cars can be described by a
branch of mathematics known as random matrix theory. - 1 more annotations...
Building Blocks of a New Interface - SIFTABLES - Technology Review: Videos
David Merrill, inventor of Siftables, interactive electronic building blocks, demonstrates his technology at the 2009 TED conference.
Amazing technology; when he started the demo, I was immediately reminded of what art historians _used to do_ when we still used slides: we used "slide tables" (basically light boxes) and moved the slides around to create and edit our lectures, really almost on the fly, as it were. It was a very creative way to put together a presentation and make connections between ideas, a tactile & spatial way, that you can't do anymore using only digital media. So it's kind of nice to see some of that spatial aspect coming back into how we (literally) manipulate information to make new connections.
Technology Review: Computer Clusters That Heat Houses
IBM has developed an "on-chip water-cooling system" that allows high-performance computer clusters to heat buildings and provide hot water. The technology also addresses data center energy use (currently very high) because it cools the computers themselves, while providing energy for other uses. Looks like a perfect win-win.
Technology Review: Simpler Data Visualization
Brief article with several useful links on advances in data visualization. Includes discussion of IBM's Many Eyes (complex) and Protovis's tools (easier).
Technology Review: Blogs: Predictably Irrational: The Symbolic Power Of Money (by Alon Nir)
Fascinating short article, which reports on a new study that suggests that "simply handling money can dull physical and emotional pain." Previous studies show that social exclusion and physical pain share (and trigger) common neural reactions, and it appears "that money and physical pain are linked to one another." The new study looks at this connection "as well as the connection money has to social distress."
Technology Review: Converting Garbage into Fuel
Brief article in MIT Tech Review on strides made in gasification processes (turning garbage/ waste into fuel & electricity), in this case *without* using incineration. That last bit is key, since incineration is a huge polluter.
And the new method(s) aren't commercially viable yet:
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There may still be hurdles to commercial success. Childress notes that waste gasification may still face problems with local regulations. And companies using similar technologies have failed in the past. Nevertheless, some waste-gasification companies are reporting initial success. For example, Enerkem, based in Alberta, Edmonton, has opened a commercial facility to convert used utility poles into methanol and ethanol. It has signed an agreement with the city of Edmonton to process 100,000 tons of municipal solid waste a year for 25 years, although that's still a relatively small amount compared with other options for disposing of waste.
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"Environmental Heresies; The founder of The Whole Earth Catalog believes the environmental movement will soon reverse its position on four core issues," by Stewart Brand
Great article from May 2005, by Stewart Brand, on scientific thinking v romanticist thinking, applied to environmentalism and predictions for the future. Great stuff. It starts like this (and doesn't slow down):
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Over the next ten years, I predict, the mainstream of the environmental movement will reverse its opinion and activism in four major areas: population growth, urbanization, genetically engineered organisms, and nuclear power.
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The success of the environmental movement is driven by two powerful forces -- romanticism and science -- that are often in opposition. The romantics identify with natural systems; the scientists study natural systems. The romantics are moralistic, rebellious against the perceived dominant power, and combative against any who appear to stray from the true path. They hate to admit mistakes or change direction. The scientists are ethicalistic, rebellious against any perceived dominant paradigm, and combative against each other. For them, admitting mistakes is what science is.
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they need to recognize what caused the turnaround. The world population growth rate actually peaked at 2 percent way back in 1968, the very year my old teacher Paul Ehrlich published The Population Bomb. The world's women didn't suddenly have fewer kids because of his book, though. They had fewer kids because they moved to town.
Cities are population sinks-always have been. Although more children are an asset in the countryside, they're a liability in the city. A global tipping point in urbanization is what stopped the population explosion. As of this year, 50 percent of the world's population lives in cities, with 61 percent expected by 2030. In 1800 it was 3 percent; in 1900 it was 14 percent.
The environmentalist aesthetic is to love villages and despise cities. My mind got changed on the subject a few years ago by an Indian acquaintance who told me that in Indian villages the women obeyed their husbands and family elders, pounded grain, and sang. But, the acquaintance explained, when Indian women immigrated to cities, they got jobs, started businesses, and demanded their children be educated. They became more independent, as they became less fundamentalist in their religious beliefs. Urbanization is the most massive and sudden shift of humanity in its history. Environmentalists will be rewarded if they welcome it and get out in front of it. In every single region in the world, including the U.S., small towns and rural areas are emptying out. The trees and wildlife are returning. Now is the time to put in place permanent protection for those rural environments. Meanwhile, the global population of illegal urban squatters -- which Robert Neuwirth's book Shadow Cities already estimates at a billion -- is growing fast. Environmentalists could help ensure that the new dominant human habitat is humane and has a reduced footprint of overall environmental impact.
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"Wiki Your Town Council - New effort seeks a database on all U.S. elected officials," by David Talbot (MIT Technology Review)
Article about American Solutions, "a national grassroots group based in Washington, DC, that was founded by former Republican House Speaker Newt Gingrich but describes its Internet effort as nonpartisan, is preparing to launch a site that will, at first, allow people to enter basic contact information on all local officials. Then future users can enter their full nine-digit zip code to find the local officials who represent them."
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Over the following several months, American Solutions plans to build ways for users to rate the officials on job performance, create social-networking functions around local issues, and let users make free Internet-based phone calls to the officials.
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Existing online platforms share data about the more powerful elected officials, such as federal and state lawmakers. Congresspedia allows wiki-style editing of pages about members of Congress, while OpenCongress allows several ways for users to interact, including writing blog posts about specific bills.
And for detailed information about lobbyist activity and campaign contributions, there are sites that track such spending, including one for members of Congress and another covering major state elected officials. Such databases attempt to better organize information that is already available for public scrutiny but is cumbersome to obtain.
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Efficient Thin-Film Solar Cells - MIT Technology Review
New breakthrough in making solar cells:
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Researchers at MIT have unveiled a new type of silicon solar cell that could be much more efficient and cost less than currently used solar cells. (...)
The design combines a highly effective reflector on the back of a solar cell with an antireflective coating on the front. This helps trap red and near-infrared light, which can be used to make electricity, in the silicon.
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A New Twist on Hydropower - MIT Technology Review
Fascinating report on how a new mechanical device, which "mimics how fish harness energy from water flow," could contribute to the sustainable energy toolkit.
(Since the device is based on mimicking how fish do it, I'm adding the "biomimicry" tag to this article.)
VIVACE: Energy from Slow Currents - MIT Technology Review: Videos
Video demo of how VIVACE works (the device developed to mimic how fish harness energy from water currents).
"The Brain Unveiled," by Emily Singer (MIT Technology Review)
Stunning imagery of the brain's neural structures. Must-see. Also includes a couple of links to video/ time-lapse imaging.
Technology Review: 3-D Printing for the Masses
From p.2 of this article:
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"Ultimately, I think people will have these [3-D rapid prototyping] printers at home," says Lipson. The idea is that people will pay a nominal amount for blueprints and then download them, in much the same way that music is shared over the Internet now, he says.
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Exciting, especially in relation to Larry Lessig's REMIX ideas -- see his TED presentation, 11/07, where he talks about culture getting the creative remix treatment. Having RPT technology enter the home-use market means manufacturing will get that same treatment. Interesting days ahead...
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A new online service aims to bring customized manufacturing to the masses by allowing consumers to submit digital designs of products that are then printed, using 3-D printers, and shipped back.
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the new service, launched last week, makes this technology accessible to anyone: budding artists, architects, product designers, and general hobbyists.
A Concrete Fix to Global Warming (MIT Technology Review)
A company in Nova Scotia says it has developed a process by which manufacturers of precast concrete products can store 60Ts of CO2 in every 1000Ts of concrete product. This would be factory carbon dioxide (produced by heating the plant, running the machinery, etc.), which would be redirected onto the concrete, and absorbed (sequestered) by it, effectively negating the initial production of CO2. From the article:
QUOTE:
Concrete accounts for more than 5 percent of human-caused carbon-dioxide emissions annually, mostly because cement, the active ingredient in concrete, is made by baking limestone and clay powders under intense heat that is generally produced by the burning of fossil fuels. Making finished concrete products--by mixing cement with water, sand, and gravel--creates additional emissions because heat and steam are often used to accelerate the curing process.
But Robert Niven, founder of Halifax-based Carbon Sense Solutions, says that his company's process would actually allow precast concrete to store carbon dioxide. The company takes advantage of a natural process; carbon dioxide is already reabsorbed in concrete products over hundreds of years from natural chemical reactions. Freshly mixed concrete is exposed to a stream of carbon-dioxide-rich flue gas, rapidly speeding up the reactions between the gas and the calcium-containing minerals in cement (which represents about 10 to 15 percent of the concrete's volume). The technology also virtually eliminates the need for heat or steam, saving energy and emissions.
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One of the comments to the article notes that carbonated concrete wouldn't be good for use in reinforced concrete buildings because the carbonation reduces the alkalinity of the product, and that in turn affects the durability and strength of the rebar/ steel, but that it would work well for sidewalks (and presumably cinderblock type materials?).
Interesting development, at any rate, as concrete production accounts for 5% of the world's human-caused carbon-dioxide emissions annually.
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A Canadian company says that it has developed a way for makers of precast concrete products to take all the carbon-dioxide emissions from their factories, as well as neighboring industrial facilities, and store them in the products that they produce by exposing those products to carbon-dioxide-rich flue gases during the curing process.
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Concrete accounts for more than 5 percent of human-caused carbon-dioxide emissions annually, mostly because cement, the active ingredient in concrete, is made by baking limestone and clay powders under intense heat that is generally produced by the burning of fossil fuels. Making finished concrete products--by mixing cement with water, sand, and gravel--creates additional emissions because heat and steam are often used to accelerate the curing process.
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"The Future of Mobile Social Networking" by Kate Green (p.2) (MIT Technology Review)
P.2 of Kate Green's "the Future of Mobile Social Networking" - fascinating stuff.
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Whrrl is most useful when members of the user's social network actively contribute reviews. This requires that the user's friends have smart phones--and the motivation to critique the places they go.
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the biggest obstacle faced by services like Whrrl is privacy concerns.
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"The Future of Mobile Social Networking" by Kate Green (MIT Technology Review)
"IPhone users will soon be able to enjoy Whrrl, software that combines activity recommendations with real-time location data."
This sounds very intriguing...
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The software enables something Pelago's chief technology officer, Darren Erik Vengroff, calls social discovery: using the iPhone's map and self-location features, as well as information about the prior activities of the user's friends, Whrrl proposes new places to explore or activities to try.
"If you think about your day-to-day life and how you discover things around you and places to go, to a great extent the source of that information is your friends," Vengroff says. With Whrrl, a user can "look through the eyes of friends and see the places they find compelling." The software begins with the user's position on the iPhone's map and indicates a smattering of nearby establishments. If the user's friends have visited and rated these places, the software indicates that as well. The map also shows the positions of nearby friends who have enabled a feature that lets them be seen by others.
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Whrrl may turn out to be the leading edge of a wave of new location-based applications. "I think we're going to see a lot of new players showing up in this space," says Kurt Partridge, a research scientist at the Palo Alto Research Center who works on a similar project called Magitti. "Part of the reason," he says, "is the universal availability of GPS or access to location, which hasn't been available to application writers before." The iPhone and Nokia's N95 phone are two examples of phones that provide location data to computer programmers. Google's forthcoming Android mobile operating system may also help push location-based applications onto the market.
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MIT students show power of open cell phone systems (MIT Technology Review)
Fascinating report on MIT class project to design software programs for Android (Google) mobile operating system. Upshot? Location, location, location. All but one of the projects involved location-based applications.
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What do you want your cell phone to be able to do?
Massachusetts Industry of Technology professor Hal Abelson put that question to about 20 computer science students this semester when he gave them one assignment: Design a software program for cell phones that use Google Inc.'s upcoming Android mobile operating system.
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If the brainstorms of these MIT students are an indication, phones will soon challenge the Internet as a source of innovation.
Multimedia guide helps tourists track down remains of Berlin Wall with GPS - MIT Tech Review
- It's too bad this isn't a guide that you can download, and instead is a guide / gadget that you have to rent. "The hand-sized minicomputer, to be introduced May 1, is linked to global positioning satellites mapping the wall's former path."
The underlying idea could be great -- downloadable walking tour guide, with many enriched features (interviews, newsclips, etc.). But not if it means renting the actual gadget, without some sort of online accessible aspect.
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The hand-sized minicomputer, to be introduced May 1, is linked to global positioning satellites mapping the wall's former path.
Boasting a headset and a touch-screen, it features a colorful map of the city that can zoom in and out, showing the users where they are. The route of the former barrier between East and West Germany is marked in red while a yellow line guides the visitor from one wall section to the next, calculating the distances via GPS in meters.
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The city government commissioned the multimedia guide as part of a bigger project to improve existing memorials to the wall, most of which were torn down after Communist East Germany collapsed and the border was opened in 1989. The project is scheduled for completion by Aug. 13, 2011, the 50th anniversary of the wall's construction.
Apart from guiding tourists from one wall memorial to the next -- among them the Brandenburg Gate, Checkpoint Charlie and the mural-covered East Side Gallery -- the digital assistant gives information about 22 historically significant spots along the wall's route.
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Filtering Internet Content - MIT Tech Review: Blogs: TR Editors' blog
Clay Shirky was right when he emphasized "filtering" in that WorldChanging interview. But as Kristina Grifantini, the MIT Tech Review blogger, puts it, is "hand-holding" during search really the way to go? (I think NOT.)
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Mark Moran, the CEO of Dulcinea Media of New York, presented a Web search engine the company launched last year. The engine's findings are based on editorially reviewed content and links. Taglined "the Librarian of the Internet," findingDulcinea.com is a good idea in theory. According to Moran, users are inundated with information and often don't get what they're really looking for. "Internet search engines are powered by math-based algorithms--ones that lack the judgment and adaptability of the human mind," he says.
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While this hand-holding portal to the Internet might be appealing to people like my mom, who doesn't have an e-mail account and just recently learned to Google, the site still has gaps in many subject topics. That's not surprising--how can a group of 30 people write guides and find good links to every single subject?
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