Essess is doing drive-by thermal imaging in high density urban areas across the US, hoping to target possible building energy efficiency opportunities. Another company is using urban satellite imagery to choose the best rooftops for solar energy siting. Big Brother may be watching you… but at least occasionally he’s got the right idea.
Tag: google
How Google’s Driving Costs Misses the Train
A fun critique of the estimated driving costs that you get from Google Maps, from Alex Steffen. The costs of driving are largely (mostly?) systemic, and external to the individual, and predicated on an assumption of car ownership, and a mile-for-mile interchangeability between driving trips and walking/biking/transit trips, which is empirically wrong. People who don’t rely on cars for transportation do the same things in far fewer miles (3 to 9 times fewer, depending on the urban fabric they are embedded within).
Links for the week of October 5th, 2010
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Links for the week of March 19th, 2010
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Links for the week of January 3rd, 2010
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Links for the week of October 31st, 2009
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Links for the week of August 28th, 2009
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Shared Links for Jun 25th – Jun 26th
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- James Hansen Arrested in Coal Country – And then there are those admirably pursuing the softer side of direct action. I have to imagine that Thoreau would also be getting arrested in this context. It will be interesting to see how the "resistance" evolves over the coming decade. (tagged: coal protest police climate nytimes politics )
- Make Me Greener, Please – Hire someone to come in and tell you how to be more greener. "I just don't see composting working with my lifestyle". Weird combination of moralizing and home consultant. But maybe that's just how the article is painting it. The idea isn't bad though. Problem is most people aren't willing to make significant changes, or the way our laws or society are structured makes those changes difficult. (tagged: green energy propaganda society )
- On Bus Tours, Seeking a Better Way of Living – A recent NY Times article about co-housing, and a tour of several developments in the East Bay. Would love to believe it does constitute a movement… (tagged: nytimes cohousing architecture sustainability design urban green )
- The Month the Censors Stopped Taking Their Medication – In June, 2009, China's state internet censorship took a turn for the more and the aggro. What changed? Where? Why? Interesting. (tagged: china google censorship privacy )
- Census of Marine Life – The Census of Marine Life is one of many ongoing projects to figure out just what the Earth is like, before we change it any more. Incredible images and visualizations. Cool project: historical reconstructions of marine populations, tracking fish size and frequency through time. We've been changing the oceans in measurable ways for tens of thousands of years. (tagged: science sustainability ocean fish life )
Shared Links for Jun 7th
- Home by Yann Arthus-Bertrand – It's like his photography, but moving. Visually stunning. About 2/3 of the film is great, especially the almost mythologized story of our creation. Poetic, without being flowery or playing too fast and loose with the facts. Short on concrete suggestions for what to do, unfortunately. (tagged: sustainability green earth climate film )
- Web Site Helps Bicyclists Avoid Crash Hotspots – LA's local CBS affiliate did a story on Bikewise, featuring… me! (tagged: bicycle transportation technology maps google urban planning tv )
- The Artvertiser – Ad replacement technology not for your browser, but for your ad encrusted urban reality. Augmented reality goggles not included. (tagged: urban art technology advertising )
- L.A. County raids homeless camp under 10 Freeway – This is like something out of a William Gibson novel. A vast vault underneath the 10 freeway called "The Cave" by its denizens. Drugs, cooking, bicycles, babies, rats. What would LA be like today with 30% unemployment I wonder? (tagged: losangeles freeway homeless society police urban design architecture )
- HEET: Home Energy Efficiency Team – HEET is a bunch of collaborative energy efficiency "barn raisers", volunteering their time and knowledge in Cambridge, Massachusetts, to get home weatherized, insulated, and otherwise energetically improved. Now, it might be even better if one could, um, get some support (or at least a lack of obstruction) from the powers that be for this kind of behavior, but failing that, this is nothing short of brilliant civil disobedience. (tagged: sustainability architecture energy efficiency volunteer cooperation )
Shared Links for May 29th
- Post-Scarcity Prophet: Economist Paul Romer on growth, technological change, and an unlimited human future. – Reason Magazine – An excellent interview with Paul Romer from Stanford, who has apparently been thinking along the same lines as I have about the deep differences between material and informational goods (he calls them "things" and "ideas"). I don't think he's skeptical enough about the motives and powers of large "market" players to subvert the markets they participate in, but he certainly gets that all growth, in the fullness of time, must be based on knowledge and not stuff. Malthus and Erlich aren't wrong, they just haven't been right yet. Will have to look up much more of his writing! (tagged: economics science history capitalism technology growth non-linear wto corporations interview )
- This is not "socialism" – Semantic arguments are both catastrophically boring, and necessary. What does "socialism" mean? Is the Wikipedia socialist? Is the Internet inherently socialist? Do the ideas associated with "socialism" even have meaning when considered in the context of informational goods that once produced, are non-rivalrous and non-excludable? Why are so many people unwilling (unable?) to try and understand what a speaker or writer actually means, instead tending to just attach all their own cultural baggage to the words they use. All important words subtly change their meaning… (tagged: economics capitalism politics internet socialism copyright technology lessig )
- bikewise – Hooray!!! Somebody implemented basically exactly what I wanted in a bicycle issue reporting system, and licensed under Creative Commons to boot! It lets you report hazards, crashes, and thefts, register your bike, subscribe by e-mail or RSS to changes in your area, etc. Absolutely fantastic, clean, and easy to use. I'll populate it single handedly for Pasadena if I have to! (tagged: bicycle transportation maps wiki google planning policy )
- Housing and Transportation Affordability Index – a nice little application that allows you to browse geographically through several interesting slices of census tract data, looking at transit and housing affordability in various big metro areas in the US. (tagged: maps economics transportation economy urban )
- A Low Impact Woodland Home – A beautiful hobbit hole in wales. Left alone for a century, it would just melt back into the hillside, like many well-designed things. (tagged: sustainability green design architecture )