Photo via the New Republic It's a widely held notion that politicians have long been in the pocket of Big Oil. And there's good reason for that perception: oil companies' huge campaign donations, vast lobbying power, and close ties to politicians have ensured that their taxes remain low , that hidden subsidies are around to provide extra funding, and that they receive preferential treatment in US energy policy. But there could be a new, ... View original post here: The Next Big Oil: Big Smart Grid?
So there really isn't anything that deep to this image. It's just a (more or less) life-sized blue whale eye. And on the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society site you can educate yourself/be mesmerized/ waste some time for a while staring at it while the entire life-sized animal scrolls across your browser window. Believe me, it's way cooler than you might think:... Read more from the original source: Ever See a Blue Whale Life-Sized on Your Computer? Now You Can
published April 6, 2009 and has No Comments
This Thursday 9th April the Barbican Centre in London will host a heavyweight architectural showdown. The Barbican Debate , inspired by the Barbican's current Le Corbusier exhibition, will see celebrated architects debating the question: 'Can good design change the world?’ At the risk of sounding reductive, clearly the simple answer is yes it can. I'm not sure there's much ...
Read more...published April 5, 2009 and has No Comments
In the early 1900's, a new city was founded in the sand dunes north of the ancient port city of Jaffa. Seeking more aesthetic and hygienic surroundings, the city's founders bought up several parcels of land and built a leafy garden suburb. Times have changed, and today that same city is the center of a metropolis which is home ...
Read more...published March 23, 2009 and has No Comments
Images by Jim Wark from a Field Guide to Sprawl I thought I knew a lot of these terms from my days in architecture and development, but there is a whole new vocabulary out there, catalogued by Dolores Hayden in her book A Field Guide to Sprawl. Above is an "Alligator" - "Real estate that eats money – for ...
Read more...published March 22, 2009 and has No Comments
photo Josh Sommers @ Flickr Land degradation is the decline in soil, water, and vegetation quality - the very things we depend on for life. For the first time scientists have used satellite pictures and GIS software to assess the degradation of land over the entire Earth. They found that from 1981-2003, 24% of the globes land surface has ...
Read more...published March 19, 2009 and has No Comments
Flooding in Sri Lanka. Photo by trokilinochchi via Flickr Perhaps it was just the rain pouring down outside the conference hall windows, but issues related to floods conjured up particularly vivid images at the 5th World Water Forum today. While the world as a whole faces an ever-more-acute water shortage , cities and regions struggling to deal with an ...
Read more...published March 14, 2009 and has No Comments
Image courtesy of Urban Re:Vision . We at TreeHugger have been following Urban Re:Vision 's innovative design competitions for a while now. First, they set out to rethink the basics: energy, community, transport. Now they're out to put the ideas they've collected into action. Re:Vision Dallas , their latest competition, which challenges visionaries to design a radically sustainable city ...
Read more...published March 13, 2009 and has No Comments
The appropriation of public space for private use is a problem almost everywhere. In commercial districts you can almost not walk down the sidewalk, and in residential areas fences creep into the road allowances, particularly at corner lots. But I have never seen anything like this- In Sao Paulo, people bending their fences to hang out into the sidewalk ...
Read more...published March 10, 2009 and has No Comments
Photo: Zachary Zavislak Architectural models are beautiful things, and even in these days of Google Earth and electronic modelling they are still being built and updated. Wired displays a lovely collection of them in an article about their use in urban planning. ... See more here: Are Miniature Cities Useful "Models for Urban Planning"?
Read more...
Save the sea creatures! Handcraft your own natural specimens using these these simple patterns, some yarn and a crochet hook. View post: 8 Enchanting Sea Creatures You Can Crochet
A Finnish designer has made a working surfboard from broken skateboards. Read the original here: Hollow Surfboard Is Made from Broken Skateboards
