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Monthly archive for March, 2010
The Morning Dig: Full Body Scanners Cause International Incident
Monday, March 8th, 2010
• Today’s metaphor for America’s decline: The U.S. as LAX. Thomas Friedman makes a salient point. (Fresno Bee) • An international incident over full body scanners: A parliamentary delegation of Pakistani officials refused to go through scanners at Washington’s Dulles Read more ›
The Week in High Speed Rail
Friday, March 5th, 2010
• Conclusions from the High Speed Rail 2010 conference in Orlando: HSR’s success in the U.S. lies in “effectively promoting and selling it as a safe, convenient, environmentally friendly mode of transportation.” Yeah, that and actually providing the product we’re Read more ›
Innovative Building Idea of the Week: Houses Made from Beer Bottles
Friday, March 5th, 2010
In Quilmes, Argentina, a town of 500,000 people in the province of Buenos Aires, artist Tito Ingenieri decided to build his house using a unique form of recycled materials: Used glass bottles. He began collecting bottles from trash dumps, and Read more ›
The Ultimate Verdict on Amusingly Defaced Street Signs
Friday, March 5th, 2010
We’ve done quite a few galleries of amusingly defaced street signs. And while we like to celebrate their tongue-in-cheek lets-all-laugh-at-ourselves humor, we do have to acknowledge that the message printed above (itself on a defaced street sign — such is Read more ›
The Morning Dig: HSR Gets Pushed in the Sunshine State
Friday, March 5th, 2010
• Check out the slides from U.S. PIRG Transportation Advocate John Krieger’s presentation at the High Speed Rail 2010 conference in Orlando yesterday. Other guests include Governor Charlie Crist and representatives from Spain and Japan. (USHSR) • Time has an Read more ›
How to Make High Speed Rail Fail: Don’t Connect the Lines
Thursday, March 4th, 2010
We want high speed rail to succeed in the U.S. For one, there’s a lot of time, money, and other resources that have already been spent, or will be soon, on HSR. Also, it has enormous potential to galvanize travel, Read more ›
Over Two Centuries of Urban Expansion, Shown in Nine Minutes
Thursday, March 4th, 2010
Metropolis by Rob Carter – Last 3 minutes from Rob Carter on Vimeo. What does more than 200 years of urban expansion look like? Visual artist Rob Carter has developed a unique and entertaining way of showing the history of Read more ›
The Morning Dig: See That Light Rail, Breezing Past the Traffic
Thursday, March 4th, 2010
• Streetfilms goes inside Seattle’s new 13-station Link Light Rail, which opened in mid-2009. (StreetFilms) • California transportation activist Ken Gosting has drowned in an apparent suicide. A former transportation and emergency services adviser to Gov. Jerry Brown in the Read more ›
Chaos Averted! Obama Restores Transportation Funds
Wednesday, March 3rd, 2010
Take that, Bunning! Last night, President Obama signed a bill restoring transportation funds for, well, everyone, and ending the unpaid furlough for the 2,000 DOT employees that were given the proverbial boot earlier in the week. DOT Secretary Ray LaHood Read more ›
The Lab That Could Create an Earthquake-Proof Building
Wednesday, March 3rd, 2010
In the wake of the simply massive earthquakes in Haiti and Chile, the subject of destruction-prevention is on everyone’s minds, in the event that another Big One strikes. So is it possible to design a building that’s truly earthquake-proof? Plenty Read more ›
The Morning Dig: A Total Ban on Japanese Cars?
Wednesday, March 3rd, 2010
• Mad Cow redux? Republican Senator Mike Johanns from Nebraska has suggested that the U.S. ban Japanese cars entirely until the country’s government guarantees that the vehicles have no defects. (USA Today) • The green community is incensed at the Read more ›
We Have No More Federal Transportation Law, and That’s Bad
Tuesday, March 2nd, 2010
Here’s a rundown of what happened: Late last week, Republican Sen. Jim Bunning filibustered a bill to extend federal unemployment benefits, arguing that the government needed to add a provision stipulating how it would pay the $10 billion tab. As Read more ›
The Morning Dig: Will San Diego Become an Extension of Vegas?
Tuesday, March 2nd, 2010
• Stay classy San Diego: A group of “big thinkers” in the city are saying it should become part of a mega-region stretching from Southern California to Las Vegas. (Sign on San Diego) • The biggest private-public partnership in Australia’s Read more ›
The Evening Dig: Caterpillar Kicked Out of the Persian Gulf
Monday, March 1st, 2010
• With the Olympics over, eyes now turn to the Herculean construction tasks needed to turn the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi Russia into a success. (Kyiv Post) • Banned in Iran! Caterpillar, one of the leading building equipment companies Read more ›
The Power of Building Codes: Chile Death Toll Less Than 1% That of Haiti
Monday, March 1st, 2010
The earthquake that struck Chile on Saturday measured a whopping 8.8 in magnitude, making it 500 times more powerful than the 7.0 quake that struck Haiti in late January. Still, the death toll in Chile — which has recently topped Read more ›
