The Daily Dig: Sunken Treasure Edition

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• More strife in the city of Brotherly Love: a fire on a Regional Rail train (not on strike) and pickets at a still-operating bus terminal are complicating the existing mess. No talks are scheduled to end the walkout. (Philly.com)
• Buried deep in the mud at the bottom of Arthur Kill, between Staten Island and New Jersey, is $26 million worth of 75 lb silver “pigs” that slid off a barge, poorly secured by drunks, in 1903. An intrepid scientist aims to recover the loot. (Hemispheres - pic via)
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• Would you pay $1,650 for a first-class train ticket from one end of the UK to the other? Folks of every political stripe are miffed that a complex fare structure raises rates; a rail minister says it “really takes the biscuit.”(BBC)
• The Bay Bridge is open for business. Vibration tests, stressing, truck tests all good. Wait, truck tests? What’s the hourly rate for driving a heavy truck over a bridge that might collapse? (KRON)
• A bus drivers’ union in Chicago says it’ll strike to protest planned layoffs of about 1,800 members, which were announced along with the $300 million CTA budget deficit. “I think you’re asking for a war,” says the union president. (ChicagoNow)

• Two lawyers at the EPA released an unsolicited report and a video challenging the consensus on greenhouse gas emissions. They ridicule the offsets program currently in the climate bill and propose a “carbon fee,” which would de-incentivize fossil fuels and drive investments towards renewables. (DotEarth)
• Toronto’s getting into some deficit spending, as it puts more than half of its capital spending for the next ten years into transit projects. These include adding 360 new subway cars and 390 new buses, a new light rail line, and $22.6 million for new bike lanes and paths. (The Star)
• JR is a French artist with a radically interventionist practice: in volatile places like Rio, the West Bank and Kenya, he photographs local people and pastes gigantic prints in public spaces. “The photos actually make people stop and ask questions,” he says. “That is the purpose of art.” (Hemispheres)
• As green projects catch fire in the construction business, start-ups are reinventing commonplace building materials. This means making bricks out of fly ash, a coal power byproduct, and a foam insulation spray with castor oil instead of fiberglass. (WSJ)
• At last, solar power without sunlight! A California company run by rocket scientists has applied to build a 150-megawatt solar farm that will store heat in molten salt that can be released at night to drive turbines. (Green Inc.)
• This year, a beetle epidemic wiped out two million acres of Colorado forests. Now, the dried remains pose a huge threat to the power grid should they fall or burn. Why not use the wood as fuel for renewable energy systems? (Colorado Independent)
• Looks like all those forecasts about oil consumption skyrocketing when the recession ends were a little premature. Improved energy-efficiency measures in developed nations and climate-change legislation are more significant that was previously thought. (WSJ)