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Category: Systems Science

  • Do natural disasters redistribute wealth?

    NYC Crime Rate Drops After Storm thedailybeast.com HURRICANE SANDY Hur­ri­cane Sandy may have dev­as­tat­ed areas of New York City, but there was one sil­ver lin­ing in the oth­er­wise mas­sive­ly destruc­tive storm cloud: the city’s over­all crime rate dropped 27 per­cent com­pared with the sam… http://flpbd.it/NBBoL Related articles A History of Disaster Capitalism (motherjones.com) How capitalism…

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  • The new green barons

    The New Pot Barons: Businessmen Bank on Marijuana By Tony Dokoupil, thedailybeast.com Pot use in the United States is rising sharply, and voters may make it fully legal in two states this fall. Smart businessmen are banking on that happening. Full dark in down­town Den­ver, and inside one of the twin­kling high-rises that make th……

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  • Power grid flaws exposed by Sandy hurricane

    Superstorm Shines A Light On Power Grid Vulnerabilities Scott Neuman, npr.org The storm that has spawned so many worst-ever superla­tives man­aged a few more when it comes to elec­tric­i­ty, with record-breaking power out­ages across 18 states stretch­ing from Michi­gan and Indi­ana to Maine and North Car­oli­na, accord­ing… http://flpbd.it/hDP1l Related articles Preparing The Grid For The…

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  • Nano house: small building innovation

    Nano House: Innovations for Small Dwellings [Hardcover] Cristina Paredes Benitez, amazon.com “Pro­vides a fine sur­vey for archi­tects, design­ers, and home­own­ers alike.” (The Mid­west Book Review ) “ Small is sex­i­er. ” (Details ) Phyl­lis Richard­son is an archi­tec­ture and design writer who has pub­lish… http://flpbd.it/Hw95F Related articles Nano conference now includes Kaloyeros, other NanoCollege officials…

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  • Ubi monitors home and chores

    A Computer You Can Talk To Monitors Your Home And Helps With Chores BY ZAK STONE, fastcoexist.com The Ubi, a ubiquitous computer you plug into a socket, can do things like read you your email or tell you the temperature in the room. All you have to do is ask. You prob­a­bly have at least…

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  • Disruptive ideas to fix our cities

    5 Outside-The-Box Ideas To Change U.S. Cities For The Better BY ARIEL SCHWARTZ, fastcoexist.com The Mayor’s Challenge is a contest run by Bloomberg Philanthropies to find the best ideas bubbling out of our cities—from data mining to turning foreclosed houses into urban farms. It’s a theme that we’ve touched on over and over at Co.Exist:……

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  • Europe decides to get rid of acrylamide while we argue about soft drinks

    Cooking, fast and slow Blogus scientificus by Alex Reshanov, earthsky.org Euro­peans are so fash­ion for­ward. While peo­ple in the U.S. are still bick­er­ing over soft drink sizes and calo­rie label­ing for Big Macs, the Euro­pean Union is already tack­ling a chem­i­cal many of us have never heard of: acry­lamide. The… http://flpbd.it/k6HkE Related articles The Onion:…

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  • Marcin Jakubowski is building the DIY machines for a new civilization

    Open-source blueprints for a modern off-the-grid civilization By Aaron Souppouris, theverge.com Marcin Jakubows­ki dreams of liv­ing off the grid. Over the past few years, he’s been work­ing on a set of 50 machines he believes nec­es­sary to found and sus­tain an inde­pen­dent, mod­ern com­mu­ni­ty. He wants to “take every­thing that… http://flpbd.it/XhbyO Related articles What If…

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  • Why you should not build expensive cities near salt water

    FYI: Why Does Salt Water Make Hurricane Damage So Much Worse? By Colin Lecher, popsci.com The white stuff can stick around and ruin, well, pretty much everything. That puts the officials trying to fix it on a ticking clock. Sandy crip­pled the NYC sub­way sys­tem this week, knock­ing out power, dam­ag­ing switch­es, and dump­ing… http://flpbd.it/udDia…

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  • Climate scientists face death threats

    The Battle Over Climate Science By Tom Clynes, popsci.com Climate scientists routinely face death threats, hate mail, nuisance lawsuits and political attacks. How much worse can it get? There’s no police tape across Michael Mann’s office door­way this morn­ing. “Always a good start,” he says, jug­gling… http://flpbd.it/ibrtZ Related articles Climate Scientist Describes Death Threats And…

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  • New York Magazine captures post Sandy NY

    New York Magazine Captures the Look of Post-Sandy New York Arik Hesseldahl, allthingsd.com To the list of New York insti­tu­tions that saw their oper­a­tions dis­rupt­ed by the Super­storm known as Sandy last week, add New York Mag­a­zine. With offices on Var­ick and Canal Streets, it is sit­u­at­ed right at the bor­der­line between t… http://flpbd.it/Den3G Related…

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  • Chris Jordan’s Portraits of American Mass Consumption

    Chris Jordan’s Portraits of American Mass Consumption Kaushik, amusingplanet.com Amer­i­can pho­tog­ra­ph­er Chris Jor­dan using large-scale works depict the mag­ni­tude of our con­sumerism and its impact on our envi­ron­ment. Like Edward Bur­tyn­sky, Jor­dan uses large scale pho­tographs to depict scenes of infra­struc­ture a… http://flpbd.it/3sGTD Related articles Midway – A film by Chris Jordan (vinodkumartiwari.wordpress.com) Our Earth,…

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