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Monthly archive for March, 2009
Subway Reading
Friday, March 6th, 2009
John Wray may be the only hot, young literary thing to start off an interview by saying, “I really think the word infrastructure is sexy.” (Thank you, so do we.) And now that his third novel Lowboy (Farrar, Straus, & Read more ›
Boring Machines — More Interesting than You Might Think
Thursday, March 5th, 2009
OK, the name really sold us. But this is also a remarkable piece of machinery–like the lovechild of one those fighting robots that teams of college engineers design and the giant worm that Kyle McLaughlin rode (he did ride it, Read more ›
Scammers Want You To Get Your Stimulus On
Thursday, March 5th, 2009
[SButtonZ button="digg"] Law enforcement agencies are starting to take notice of the rash of websites popping up promising to get you free government money. To explore the seamy side of the current national obsession with all things stimulus, we decided Read more ›
Cost of Construction Materials in NYC is Invitingly Low — Labor Still Pricey
Wednesday, March 4th, 2009
[SButtonZ button="digg"] Commodity prices have tanked in the last year along with every virtually every other class of financial asset, except for Krugerand rounds, market short mutual funds, and stored food. The decline is propitious for the current round of Read more ›
Branding the Stimulus: Depression and Frosted Flakes?
Wednesday, March 4th, 2009
In moments of economic crisis, we need government logos. That is the lesson of history. Now, just in time, we have two new ones that will be on display anywhere stimulus dollars are being spent to create jobs. The first Read more ›
Memo to the States (and President Obama): It Ain’t Just Highway Money
Tuesday, March 3rd, 2009
Obama visited the Department of Transportation today and offered some inspiring words about the infrastructure investments in the recovery bill that he just signed into law. Unfortunately, he erred in terming the largest single category of funding in those provisions Read more ›
You’re Hired! The 10 Hottest Job Opportunities in Infrastructure
Monday, March 2nd, 2009NYC Subway Conductors: Is that Robot Trying to Steal My Job?
Monday, March 2nd, 2009
[SButtonZ button="digg"] Last week New York’s MTA christened it’s first Robotrain—an automated L line that runs from Manhattan to Brooklyn with a computerized braking and accelerating system. The $326 million upgrade replaces a signals and communication network and allows trains Read more ›
Why American Traffic Jams Are Like Soviet Bread Lines
Thursday, March 5th, 2009[SButtonZ button="digg"] Last year, the US made more progress in reducing traffic congestion than any other time in memory. New data show that in the nation’s cities congestion declined by 30 percent overall and was improved at every hour of Read more ›