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cities
It’s nice to know poop’s good for something
Sep 24th
In one dog park in Cambridge, Massachusetts, dog owners can recycle the poop to light up the park at night.
The “Park Spark” poop converter is actually two steel, 500-gallon oil tanks painted a golden yellow, connected by diagonal black piping and attached to an old gaslight-style street lantern at the Pacific Street Park. Boston artist Matthew Mazzotta, who is not a dog owner, got the idea after he visited the park with a friend in 2009. Mazzotta had recently traveled to India and saw people there using poop in so-called “methane digesters” to cook food. As he watched the park’s trash can fill with bags of poop, he remarked to his friend, “In other countries, they use that.”
The “Park Spark” poop converter is actually two steel, 500-gallon oil tanks painted a golden yellow, connected by diagonal black piping and attached to an old gaslight-style street lantern at the Pacific Street Park. Boston artist Matthew Mazzotta, who is not a dog owner, got the idea after he visited the park with a friend in 2009. Mazzotta had recently traveled to India and saw people there using poop in so-called “methane digesters” to cook food. As he watched the park’s trash can fill with bags of poop, he remarked to his friend, “In other countries, they use that.”
Instead of putting bags of poop in the trash bin, signs on the tanks instruct owners to use biodegradable bags supplied on site to pick up the poop and deposit it into the left tank. People then turn a wheel to stir its insides, which contain waste and water. Microbes in the waste give off methane, an odorless gas that is fed through the tanks to the lamp and burned off. The park is small but has proven busy enough to ensure a steady supply of fuel.
Burning the methane, which is 30 times more potent as a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide, helps the environment. With dogs dropping tons of poop in cities everywhere, Mazzotta thinks the idea of using its untapped power has broad appeal.The project was funded by a $4,000 grant from Council of the Arts at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where Mazzotta earned a master’s degree in visual studies last year.
Air-purifying road surface!
Sep 17th
Researchers at the Eindhoven University of Technology in the Netherlands have tested pollution-eating concrete on about 1,000 square meters of roads in the town of Hengelo. The results? A 25 to 45 percent reduction in nitrogen oxides (NOx) over the special roads, meaning that someday our roads and other concrete structures could be used to clean up the air. Maybe the carbon emissions from out cars will be offset by the roads themselves?
Science News explains that vehicle exhaust gases contain NOx, which cause acid rain and smog. The pollution-eating concrete contains titanium dioxide, a photocatalytic material that removes the nitrogen oxides from the air and converts them with the aid of sunlight into harmless nitrate. These stones also have another advantage: they break down algae and dirt, so that they always stay clean. Titainium oxide is naturally occuring,
The pollution-eating concrete can also be mixed with regular asphalt for use where you don’t necessarily need a concrete road, so it could maybe be used in sidewalks, at playgrounds, and in plazas as well. Images after the break
Science News explains that vehicle exhaust gases contain NOx, which cause acid rain and smog. The pollution-eating concrete contains titanium dioxide, a photocatalytic material that removes the nitrogen oxides from the air and converts them with the aid of sunlight into harmless nitrate. These stones also have another advantage: they break down algae and dirt, so that they always stay clean. Titainium oxide is naturally occuring,
The pollution-eating concrete can also be mixed with regular asphalt for use where you don’t necessarily need a concrete road, so it could maybe be used in sidewalks, at playgrounds, and in plazas as well. Images after the break
Startup Of The Day: Cubit
Sep 15th
How often have you experienced that your cable service provider’s bill pay office is too far away from where you live? How often have civic agencies run through projects without taking the community into consideration? See the problem? Yeah, planning for a civic project is painful. Considering all the factors that affect the community is not easy and data might not be accessible at the right time to the right people. This is the problem Cubit Planning wants to solve. Cubit provides a click-to-plan solution to urban planners and we think this thing is out right amazing!
Cubit provides urban planners a planning interface that is so simple that it takes two mouse clicks to completely plan out a project. Just mark the boundaries of the geographical area you are planning to carry out your project on and wallah! you get a detailed civic data report of the area.
The data available at the planner’s disposal includes socio economic data such as population trends, population projections, minority races etc. and regional economic data such as median home values, median rent and employment statistics. Giving civic planners such a simple yet powerful tool makes planning not just fast and accurate, but also based on real information. This kind of in depth data makes our lives a little better since your needs are taken into consideration before they dig up that road.
Beyond Politics, Poverty, and War
Sep 12th
Is it possible? Well, the Venus Project will try. The Venus Project “advocates an alternative vision for a sustainable new world civilization unlike any social system that has gone before.” This project is seeking to make natural resources a common heritage and cultural value for all of humankind and to create a resource-based economy instead of a monetary-based one. The project is based in Venus, Florida, where Phase One of this alternative vision has already taken shape with domed-shape buildings and a conference center. They also have plans in motion to develop futuristic transportation, clean energy sources, city architecture and efficient housing. The project’s plans for city systems includes Research City, a brand new city that would expound these ideals without replacing old cities and solving the problems of the old ones. The new city would come without all those problems. Research City has a circular arrangement that will be surrounded by, and incorporated into the city design, parks and lovely gardens. This city will be designed to operate with the minimum expenditure of energy using the cleanest technology available. This system facilitates efficient transportation for city residents, eliminating the need for automobiles. Images and Video of the vision after the break
Video: Population growth explained with IKEA boxes
Sep 6th
Swedish global health professor Hans Rosling demonstrates the past, present, and future of population growth with a “new technology”: IKEA boxes. Global population is expected to hit 9 billion by 2050, but it doesn’t have to continue increasing. Rosling says 9 billion can be the sustainable population of the earth by encouraging green technologies and having the West be the foundation, instead of leader ahead of the masses like its always been. Rosling argues that by raising the living standards of the poor and promoting family planning, the global population can be curved and held at a sustainable level.
Rosling began his career as a physician, spending many years in rural Africa tracking a rare paralytic disease (which he named konzo) and discovering its cause: hunger and badly processed cassava. He co-founded Médecins sans Frontièrs (Doctors without Borders) Sweden, wrote a textbook on global health, and is currently a professor at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm. Rosling has also argued with many heads of state, including Fidel Castro. Video after the break.
Rosling began his career as a physician, spending many years in rural Africa tracking a rare paralytic disease (which he named konzo) and discovering its cause: hunger and badly processed cassava. He co-founded Médecins sans Frontièrs (Doctors without Borders) Sweden, wrote a textbook on global health, and is currently a professor at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm. Rosling has also argued with many heads of state, including Fidel Castro. Video after the break.
Less roads signs equals increased safety
Aug 31st
In the town of Bohmte, Germany, all roads signs and traffic lights have been removed in order to make the roads more of a “shared space”. Drivers negotiate their behavior with each other, rather than according to any rules or regulations. Since drivers have to pay more attention to each other than a green light or a road sign, in theory, there will be less accidents. “The many rules strip us of the most important thing: the ability to be considerate. We’re losing our capacity for socially responsible behavior,” said Dutch traffic engineer Hans Monderman in treehugger.com. “The greater the number of prescriptions, the more people’s sense of personal responsibility, dwindles.” Could this work in the United States? Maybe if we went through a couple of courses of road rage management.
Next time You Party In DC, Get Home Safely
Aug 30th
Getting drunk after an hour or two at a DC bar is one and getting robbed when you are drunk when you are on your way home is another. Stumblesafely, a website that lays out maps with a crime map overlay lets people decide the route they are going to take home after dark. So, the next time you are partying at a bar in Washington DC, do check stumblesafely for a safe route or you may get robbed. Or mugged. Or stabbed. Or..
It’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s ‘Super bus’
Aug 28th
To improve traffic congestion, Beijing is developing a bus that could hold up to 1,400 people. This bus would straddle two traffic lanes and run on rails, but would allow for small and medium-sized vehicles to pass underneath. Tests are expected to start in a few months on a four-mile stretch of highway, upon which it would be decided whether to make the bus more ubiquitous. If it works, the Super bus could reduce congestion by 30 percent.
It’s a real life role-playing game without the role-playing
Aug 24th
Imagine going to Starbucks and earning points and rewards with every shot of espresso (I mean something way better than the shiny Gold Membership card). That’s just what SCVNGR is all about, a game about going places, completing challenges, and earning points for doing those challenges. Already in 44 states and 20 countries, SCVNGR is a mobile game that can be played on the Android or iPhone and is constantly evolving.
Weird: A Civil Strike Against Taxis And Auto Rickshaws In Bangalore
Aug 11th
Citizens of Bangalore, the silicon valley of Asia are observing a rather weird strike, almost unlike any strike the world has seen. The citizens will not utilize services of the auto rickshaws and taxis on the 12th of August. The strike aptly called “Meter Jam” is a protest against the taxi and auto rickshaw transport
