Reposted from del.icio.us/pruned and elsewhere:
On the Edible Estates. Fritz Haeg wrote:
We are still looking for a front lawn and family in suburban New York City. We will remove the lawn and replace it with an edible landscape responsive to the local climate and context. We will work with the family to create the design and planting list. All labor and materials will be donated. We are hoping for a slightly more urban, inner city Edible Estate prototype garden for this third edition. This could be New Jersey, Connecticut, Queens, Staten Island, etc but ideally not more than 20 or 30 minutes from Manhattan.
And there's also the Edible Estate Challenge 2007.
On designing for the other 90%, an exhibition at the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum focusing on products and services that “help, rather than exploit, poorer economies; minimize environmental impact; increase social inclusion; improve healthcare at all levels; and advance the quality and accessibility of education” in developing countries. These include the Q Drum, the Day Labor Station, the Solar Home Lighting System, and the StarSight.
On privatizing infrastucture. Last week BusinessWeek told us “why investors are clamoring to take over America's highways, bridges and airports, and why the public should be nervous.” On the one hand, state and municipal governments get huge sums of money from the private sector that can then be put into education, local economic investments, and improving other public services while unburdening tax payers with costly maintenance. But on the other hand, commuters may face “aggressive” toll hikes. For instance, Chicago's Skyway, which was leased for 99 years for $1.5 billion in 2005, “could see car tolls rise from $2 in 2005 to $5 by 2017. For some perspective, if a similar scheme were applied to the Pennsylvania Turnpike during its 67 years of existence, the toll for traveling from the Delaware River to the Ohio border would be as much as $553 now instead of $22.75.”
On Aluna, the world's first tidal powered moon clock.
On wave generators, an overview of current technology and trends from Engineering News-Record. (If the link doesn't work, try this.)
On the spooky and surreal decaying site of Sevilla's Expo '92. Why is it that venues for world's fairs, expos and Olympic games invariably turn into wastelands, the future already turned to ruins before we even reach it?
On pietre dure, opus sectile, pictorial stones, and some pretty little pebbles.
On the moon, you can do 181 things.