The Sunday Diigo Links Post (weekly)
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At Lincoln House: Teardowns and the value of land
Lincoln Institute comments on teardowns:
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…teardowns in established neighborhoods with good density can be a green concept — better than building something new in a cornfield miles away, smart growth advocates would argue. Teardowns take advantage of existing urban infrastructure. And while embodied energy is lost, demolition materials can be recycled; if the new building is energy efficient, so much the greener. Municipalities tend to like the increased property tax revenues from more robust assessments.
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GPS, Smartphones, and the Dumbing Down of Personal Navigation – Technology – The Atlantic Cities
Right on.
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A few days ago, I was walking home with my 9-year-old son when I came upon a young woman standing in the middle of Cadman Plaza Park in Brooklyn, a block-wide island of green in the city’s downtown. She was staring fixedly at her smartphone, which she held up in front of her as if using it to sense a magnetic field, or perhaps radioactive contamination.As I passed, she turned to look at me suddenly, her face drawn and anxious. “Excuse me,” she said. “Can you tell me which way to the Brooklyn Bridge?”
I turned around and pointed to the bridge entrance, which was in plain sight about 20 yards from where we were standing. “Thank you so much!” she said. “I just couldn’t figure it out with my GPS!”
“Wow,” said my kid as we continued on. “That’s really sad.”
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Urban Farming :: Welcome To Urban Farming!
Via Taja Sevelle, so inspiring:
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Urban Farming began in 2005 with 3 gardens and a pamphlet. We now have planted and facilitated over 43,000 community, residential and partner gardens around the world.
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Victory Gardens ftw. -
data and thoughts on the stakes of JSTOR, copyright, and open access // mattBernius.com
Bang-on analysis and critique of JSTOR:
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In theory, the point of publishing is to disseminate research for the development of knowledge. Further, many of those 3 million articles were built on data collected through publicly funded research. I have a hard time seeing how we can say the public is getting a solid return on its research investment when it still doesn’t have open access to research it helped funded over fifty-years ago.
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One eBook Platform to Rule Them All – Technology Review
This could get interesting!
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Right now Adobe and WoodWing are charging magazine publishers something like six figures just for a system that will transform their magazines into apps that can be sold through Apple. And magazines are basically just enhanced ebooks. Meanwhile, companies like OnSwipe are trying to become the de-facto system for publishing content to tablets—but only on the web. Companies like Arcade Sunshine, whom I’ve written about before, are also limited to Apple’s App store.The Atavist Platform, meanwhile, promises to do all of that, and then maybe turn its competitors’ bones into bread when it’s done.
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NASA video shows global warming is real | SmartPlanet
Very effective video, and sobering commentary.
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And if you’re wondering about the link between CO2 and global warming, here’s what the data from NASA shows:The carbon dioxide level in the atmosphere was about 285 parts per million in 1880, when the GISS global temperature record begins.
By 1960, the average concentration had risen to about 315 parts per million.
Today it exceeds 390 parts per million and continues to rise at an accelerating pace.While scientists don’t expect temperatures to rise consistently year after year, they do expect those figures to continue climbing over decades with extreme temperatures predicted in the next two to three years due to increased solar activity and the effects of El Nino on the tropical Pacific region.
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Rethinking the row home | SmartPlanet
Chad and Courtney Ludeman build LEED Platinum homes for ~$300K sales price. This is great, but consider building 3-BDR units so that people don’t move out when they’re expecting a second child?
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2012 holds much promise for Postgreen Homes. Despite suboptimal economic conditions, the company plans to construct 16 row houses, two condos and a retail space in a completely new area: South Philadelphia. Plus, Postgreen will try its hand at its first rental project and a six-unit co-housing building.
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Thanks for the list, I really enjoyed the quote with the kid and the GPS.
It’s true that we tend to rely to much on technology nowadays.
Comment by Visiter le Canada — January 29, 2012 #
Thank you for the great post. l liked the quote where the young boy makes a comment about someone who could not figure out how to use their GPS. What appears to be easy for the young technologically advanced youngsters can be a challenge to some.
GPS Navigation
Comment by GPS Navigation — February 9, 2012 #
True, but I think the author’s point was that her son remarked on the fact that the tourist/visitor didn’t really need GPS since the Bridge was right in front of her, something she would have noticed had she bothered to look up from her device. It’s certainly great to have GPS and maps that can be accessed from a mobile device, but we should also cultivate the ability to navigate by IRL landmarks, including simple things like being able to tell direction (at least on a sunny day and with a knowledge of what time of day it is) – all without the aid of a digital screen… 😉
Comment by Yule — February 9, 2012 #