The recession has hurt the shark attack industry...

As the article states:

One supposes that sunburns, jellyfish stings, and cases of "bocce wrist" are also off.

Link
Via The Economist Blog

How much of the stimulus will go to the DoD?

Here's a good quick rundown of the Department of Defense line items in the stimulus bill that was just signed. It's about $10,000,000,000 altogether for the armed forces.

Link

Via Armchair Generalist

Stimulation

There's an interesting thread running through the three articles linked below.

Enormous government injections of money into the economy have the effect of distorting market forces and shifting the foundations of the economy for a long time. The best historical example: the federal government's huge investment in the interstate system in the 50s made suburban development relatively cheap because transportation infrastructure costs were borne by the government.

In different ways, the authors below are all making the point that we should be deliberate about how this stimulus happens, because it will inevitably affect the economy's ground rules for years to come.

The first article (Link) argues that if we really want to use less energy, we'll never get there by designing more efficient cars.

In 1865, English economist William Stanley Jevons discovered an efficiency paradox: the more efficient you make machines, the more energy they use. Why? Because the more efficient they are, the better they are, the cheaper they are and more people buy them, and the more they’ll use them.

The next editorial (Link), written by Peter Calthorpe, takes the same sentiment to the next level and argues that the stimulus package should be focused on three areas:

• Transportation funding that moves away from a bias for highway projects and toward transit investment.
• Environmental policy that protects air quality and opens space.
• Federal housing assistance that moves beyond its historic orientations toward single-family hosing to encourage urban redevelopment.

The final article (Link) makes the point that we shouldn't neglect design in our haste to jump into the massive backlog of "shovel-ready" projects:

We need to ensure that the money spent goes to creative, sustainable buildings that will stand the test of time and will still be used by our children and our grandchildren. After all, they are the ones who are going to be paying for these debt-financed projects.

Via Planetizen

Ants as architects and community planners

This is an interesting video about uncovering the extensive and complex megalopolis that is an ant colony.

Link

Via Planetizen

Changing Places

This interactive site from the Pew Research Center explores migration flows in the U.S. on state and regional levels. To tie this into the planning realm, I’d guess there is at least some interplay between these flows and different types of land use/real estate development regulation among the states. (Of course, that'd be just one factor out of many). Beyond planning, it will also be worth watching how state-to-state policy differences in dealing with the general economic and budget difficulties affects these flows in the years ahead.

Link

Via Pew Social Trends

Landmark Preservation, 'Chicago'-style

A law prof offers an alternative approach to preservation policy:

Link

Via Forbes

Design and Branding

The goofy picture of the baby first caught my attention, but the topic is interesting. Branding has changed over the years, to the point that today, the design of logos and other marketing features is a huge tool. Interesting concepts to consider in our marketing, designs, and even our personal consumer decisions!

To see the full post...

http://www.designobserver.com/archives/entry.html?id=38882#more

Enjoy!

Via Design Observer

Matt sent me this link about high speed rail.

Link

Via Getting Rich

Igloo Construction

Did you know that the blocks are arranged in a spiral?!




Via Kottke

Blondie

Link

Do relatively poorer people join the military?

The short answer is no.



A key quote:

But still, this much is clear: when discussing the U.S. military in the aggregate, the common notion that the military is a stop of last resort, increasingly staffed by low-income desperadoes with slim future prospects, cannot be right.

Link

Architecture and Interface

This is an interesting article from one of my favorite blogs about the parallels between the process of designing a building and the process of designing an interface. What could be more perfect for HB&A, since we do both every day!

One quote:

Good design supports intuitive pathways within the structure. The design accounts for the most common use cases and makes solving these use cases obvious. In our work, we always want users to have a sense of where they are and where they can go.

Link

Great Exploration Maps

Nifty map showing some of the great voyages in history and literature. If you're in the travelling mood.

Link

via Kottke

Military Installations are Pretty Walkable

Streetsblog has an interesting post analyzing census data to list the places that house the highest percentage of people who walk to work. On the list:

Naval Academy, Maryland
West Point, NY
Air Force Academy, Colorado
Lackland AFB, TX

These are all relatively low-population places, but even if you increase the total population threshold to 20,000, Fort Bragg and Fort Hood are both on the top ten list.

So, the moral of the story is that military installations have good conditions for a pedestrian environment to thrive, they just need the planning to encourage it.

Link

Via Planetizen

Clever Wayfinding

This parking garage is painted so that you can see which way to go if you're looking at it from the right angle.

Link

Thanks, Doug

Walmart's Spread

Doug sent this out to everyone, but it's worth putting up here too. Some smart person has put together a really cool looking visualization of the spread of Walmart stores across the country.

Link

Thanks Doug

Brad Pitt Wants to be an Architect

In the tradition of aspiring architects, Brad takes his turn building architectural models with Frank Gehry.



More here

Microsoft Trying to Compete With Sketchup

Microsoft has purchased a 3-D modeling program called trueSpace and released it for free. You can build models and place them in Microsofts Virtual Earth.

You can get trueSpace here.

via Digital Urban

Walking Directions in Google Maps

Now you can get walking directions from Google Maps. It looks like they're still not aware of all of the walking paths available, but still cool.

See below:


View Larger Map

via Google LatLong

"Planners waste architects' time"

An article from Ireland.

Eighty percent of architects believe that planning decisions made by local authorities do not support good quality design.

Energy Modeling

In doing a little bit of research, I ran across this Sketchup application for doing basic energy modeling at the conceptual stage. I love the idea of this. It would be awesome to be able to compare area-wide energy performance of different alternatives at the early planning stages.

It's called Demeter

Pedestrian Environment in Melbourne

Thanks, Doug.

Las Vegas CityCenter

"At 18 million square feet, the new sustainable spot on the strip called CityCenter boasts a square footage that is bigger than all current LEED certified buildings combined."

Link

Economics Blogs

How long should you wait for an elevator?
The incentives for violence in hockey
The wisdom of crowds
Time travel back to 1000 A.D.: Survival tips
Singularity Special
Happiness and redistribution
Ballerinas and Information Asymmetry
Safety dog
Commodity meat

These are just some titles of recent posts on economics blogs.

The world of academic economists keeping blogs is one of the most vibrant parts of the internet. For whatever reason, reading these economists exercising their considerable intellects while discussing everyday topics in a non-academic mode is fascinating. Anybody who's looked through Freakonomics knows that the way economists think can be a great way to dig into non-economics topics.

Here are my favorites:

Marginal Revolution
Free Exchange
Growthology
Freakonomics
Assymetrical Information
Edward Glaeser's Academic Papers (thanks Matt P.)

Dubai

Underwater hotels, 25% of the world's cranes, a building 40% taller than the current tallest building in the world, another building that will be 3X the height of the empire state building, indoor skiing, etc.


http://view.break.com/506730 - Watch more free videos

Thanks to Orsillo for the tip.