Category: Urbania | Beneath City Streets
Norway’s floating underwater traffic tunnels
Submerged megastructures are exactly what humanity needs to drive our aquatic evolution, and it’s great that some folks are thinking, and planning, that way. Recent news from Norway has revealed ambitious plans for submerged tunnels that allow traffic to cross its fjords, without an obtrusive bridge hopping from land. Now, it goes without saying that…
Read MoreChristmas Trees and the Environmentalists Dilemma
Tis the season – we highly complex hominids decide it’s a good idea to put a pine tree in our homes despite warnings of fire hazards, sap all over the furniture, and pine needles throughout the house until springtime… So, what’s this absurdity all about? Well, there are stories that take us back over a…
Read Morebah humbug to our failed state
‘Tis the season and that time of year, where the consumerism that now resides deeply embedded within our American heritage is at the forefront and is cause for nothing short of hysteria and pandemonium on the streets. Sounds like a bad movie but it’s actually just the Christmas shopping season. Bah humbug I say to…
Read MoreOak Island | shedding some light on the value of discovery based science
I am first to admit that I stayed up late last night to take in another new episode of History Channel’s Oak Island. Oak Island itself is fascinating – ranking up there with the Pyramids, crop circles, the Bermuda Triangle, ancient alien theory, Atlantis, ‘the Flood’, and so on. Any of these taboo “science” topics…
Read MoreThe a[l]lure of an Aquarium on Ice?
Just when you thought you’ve seen it all… A Japanese theme park tried to draw visitors by freezing 5,000 fish beneath its ice rink, but a public outcry forced it to close the attraction after just two weeks. Source: Aquarium on Ice, a Lure for Skaters in Japan, Appalls Them Instead – NYTimes.com From an…
Read Morea lot to digest…
Here in the US, consumerism has evolved to reach scales of excess that most cannot even imagine. Most people go about their day, making trash, flushing toilets, and throwing away food without any second thought of how this post consumer waste is managed. Frankly, once the trash man takes it away, it is out of…
Read MoreConfined Spaces and Atmospheric Management 101
Confined space entry is among the most hazardous occupational activities in the industrial sector. The issues that must be addressed are clear ingress/egress of the space, collapse, and of course atmospheric management. The latter is what makes the activity very similar to diving, and in fact, advanced techniques for extended range confined space penetrations are…
Read MoreThe Space within Milan’s Manholes
I’ve visited my share of manholes as a working diver, but never have I ever found one that looks like these: https://www.cnn.com/2016/04/27/arts/street-artist-milan-manholes/index.html Milan artist Biancoshock has transformed several of Milan’s abandoned manholes and other underground space into purposeful artistic installations. This is exactly the type of industrial art and experimentation that we need a whole…
Read MoreCreating ‘Space’ for Space
Having ‘space’ within space seems to be a critical bottleneck in manned space exploration, second of course to cost-effective round trip travel. Regarding the latter, the various recent private initiatives are certainly making progress, though like anything groundbreaking, there remains a long road ahead. Once we get there, what are we going to do? Answering…
Read MoreCowspiracy | a Review
Just when you think the root of the climate change problem is finally recognized, you realize that we’ll be screaming til the cows come home. Fossil fuel consumption, yes, certainly a problem. But what about methane? My weekly Netflix mind-melting activities caught the attention of the documentary film ‘Cowspiracy‘ which focusses on the apparently taboo…
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