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POPSSlow Cities Spreading Fast No matter our individual takes on the major issues facing us today whether they be local, national, international, the truth is we sure could use a dose of stepping back, re imagining our place and how we can modify the way we approche these issues.
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POPSEducation Not Oil As Empire For all the hard work of our good teachers, our system is failing to keep pace with the demands of a new century. Entrepreneurial charter schools such as KIPP, Uncommon Schools, Aspire, the Inner-City Education Foundation, the Alliance for College-Ready Public Schools and Green Dot demonstrate what a single-minded focus on excellence can achieve with low-income students" Try investing in we the people. It's an investment that will pay off.
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POPSGreen Roofs Offer More Than Color for the Skyline When sunshine hits a blacktop roof, it heats the building beneath it as well as the area nearby. When it hits plants on a roof, in contrast, the plants not only absorb the sunshine, but cool the air when the water in their leaves evaporates. Temperatures on buildings with green roofs are up to 30 percent lower during the daytime in the summer than they are on those with conventional roofs, which means that tenants on the floors below do not have to run their air-conditioning as much. Con Ed has teamed up with Columbia University’s Center for Climate Systems Research to evaluate the benefits, using rooftop sensors to measure the temperature, wind and water runoff. Con Edison said it hoped to use the findings to encourage customers to install green roofs themselves. David Westman, the resource conservation coordinator at Con Edison, said, “It’s not only the right thing to do, but it can make economic sense.”
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POPSMost wet behind the ears, Sarah Palin 4 President I am still in a state of shock over McCain's pick for a running mate. On the Internet there is a site (http://www.inews3.com/landing.php) where you can put in your own name for President and a propaganda video will appear announcing you or anyone you choose, as a candidate for president of the USA. Using Sarah Palin name is as apropos as any Jane/John Schmo. Holy cow, haven't we had enough of the PETER PRINCIPAL ("In a Hierarchy Every Employee Tends to Rise to His Level of Incompetence.") in the oval office? Goes to show what McCain really cares about... AND IT AIN'T "WE THE PEOPLE"! thinkingblue
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POPSZiggurat city Amazing if they could get this built, sounds like a good use of space; also it's rather pretty.
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POPSMysterious people who appeared in the village of Woolpit in Suffolk, UK, in the 12th century. The children were brother and sister and they had green colored skin. Their appearance was normal in all other areas. They spoke an unrecognized language and refused to eat anything other than pitch from bean pods. Eventually their skin lost its green color. When they learned English they explained that they were from the ‘Land of St Martin’ which was a dark place because the sun never rose far above the horizon. They claimed that they were tending their father’s herd and followed a river of light when they heard the sounds of bells - finding themselves in Woolpit.Some of the more unusual theories proposed for the origin of the children are that they were Hollow Earth children, parallel dimension children, or Extraterrestrial children.
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POPSbuffalo does nothing to reduce carbon footprint A shame. There is still a press release about mayor Brown signing this agreement after he took office, but we still have no action plan in place. The city is concerned about attracting green business, but there has been little effort to create sweeping changes that are necessary to develop the type of community these sought-after businesses would like to move into. Buffalo is not conducive for green business the way it is right now, because there is just too much work to be done. We have no green infrastructure. Hardly any workers skilled in green jobs, construction, too few citizens who have any idea what it is to live sustainably— we hardly recycle, our rainwater still blends with our shit, and permeable pavement is practically illegal in the hippest neighborhood we have.
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POPSWhy We Love Our Lawns Falk tested his theory by showing various groups worldwide photos of different landscapes, including their own. All groups said they'd prefer to live in savanna-like surroundings, even jungle-dwellers and city folk who'd never seen a savanna or a lawn.
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POPSBeijing's Space Age Olympic Stadiums These are the spectacular arenas that will host thousands of spectators and athletes in the Beijing Olympics next month.It is clear that the Chinese organisers have spared no expense - and hired some of the world's leading architects - to ensure their venues are of the highest standard. A total of 10,500 athletes and seven million spectators are expected to arrive in the city when the Games begin on August 8. The arenas - which for two weeks will be the focus of worldwide attention - have set a stunning precedent for the organisers of London's 2012 Olympics. Many of the buildings use recycled rainwater in their air-conditioning systems or have specially insulated walls to ensure they stay cool in the sun.
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POPSBeyond Zero-Energy: The World's 1st Positive Energy Building Generates more energy than it consumes. The building’s aggressive approach to sustainability enables it to offer the lowest energy consumption per square meter for its class. The complex will utilize sustainable materials and feature integrated wind turbines, outdoor air quality monitors. In addition to serving as the Masdar headquarters, the building will accommodate private residences and ‘early bird’ businesses starting up in the city. The Masdar development will be constructed over seven phases and is due to be completed by 2016.
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POPSWill "Th!nk" Ignite an Electronic Car Revolution in the U.S.? Think City is one of two models that are out already, together with the Think Ox, with a choice of either lithium or a sodium battery, it's range is enough to take a suburban dweller to the downtown office and back, with zero carbon footprint. The car is thoughfully fully computerized and allows a key-less entry. It features real time navigation, web, e-mail and open source interfaces, intelligent and sustainable driving and route calculations. The DNA-key gives the user feedback on charging status and sends messages, for example, for pre-heat or pre-cool options via GPRS. Pricing has yet to be announced, but the company's current vehicles cost less than $25,000.
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POPSHow Does San Francisco Keep 70% of Their Trash Out of Landfills?
“When we look at garbage, we don’t see garbage. We see food, paper, metal, glass.” The 70 % diversion rate includes recycling, composting and source reduction (meaning reusing things instead of throwing them out.) The city has 12 recycling streams, or programs, devoted to different materials, including regular garbage, construction debris, furniture and paint. For example, much of the concrete from demolished buildings is recycled in new sidewalks. Unwanted paint is blended it in 55-gallon drums: resulting in 3 colors — off-white, beige and green — are packed in 5 gallon tins and sent to local nonprofit organizations, schools or charitable institutions in Mexico. They can collect scrap paper to re-sell because of low levels of glass contamination. Garbage trucks can compress mixed loads of paper, cans and bottles without breaking the bottles. Compare 2006 diversion rates: Chicago 55%, New York City 30.6%, Milwaukee 24%, Boston 16% and Houston 2.5%.
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POPSCool Globes Public Art Exhibit: Hot Ideas For a Cooler Planet "Cool Globes" is public art with a purpose – to increase awareness about and motivate people to implement simple solutions in their day-to-day lives to help combat global warming. I am showing you the 2007 Globes from Chicago: To remind you that from April 17 to September 1, 2008, a selection of globes will once again be on display in Chicago, Washington, DC and San Francisco. Cool Globes debuted in Chicago on June 1, 2007 with over 100 sculpted globes. Cool Globes was launched in Chicago because of the City's leadership and dedication to promoting environmentally sound policies. For the 2007 globes, there was a charity auction of select large and mini-globes from the Cool Globes exhibit. The auction raised $500,000 to fund the expansion of environmental education programs.
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POPS12 Ways to Build with a Smaller Carbon Footprint Buildings consume 76% of electricity generated & they create 48% of our greenhouse gases. Main Points: * Every brick in building required the burning of fossil fuel in its manufacture, every piece of lumber was cut and transported using energy * Aim for a complete ban of formaldehyde use in building products * Building demolitions account for 48% of the waste stream (65 million tons a year), renovations account for 44% and renovations account for 8% * A solar water heater can save $ 450 a year and keep a ton of CO2 emissions out of the air; multiply that by 80 million houses in the USA * While smaller is better almost every city has minimum floor area requirements * The losses are higher in AC than in DC because it grounds so easily * The average 1950’s house was 983 sq feet; by 1970 it was 1500 SF; last year it was 2350 SF * We can no longer afford to lose agricultural land close to our cities and towns
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POPSNew Mexico: Land of Enchantment , Clean Energy State. Although 25 states have approved their own RPS, a national standard has stalled in the face of resistance from traditional coal-powered utilities and their allies in Congress. Wind and biomass are popular in New Mexico, but the desert sun that draws millions of tourists here also makes its solar power potential the second largest in America. So it is that the Clean Energy State's future just may lie in the south corner of the capital city, at the end of a dry road marked by a mile-long sculpture of a snake with jewelled eyes. ... Guardian
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