Some of it sounds right: Now let’s implement it

Embedded video from CNN Video

“We will build the roads and bridges, the electric grids and digital lines that feed our commerce and bind us together.”
“We will harness the sun and winds and the soil to fuel our cars and run our factories.”

“All this we can do. All this we will do.
“There are some who question the scale of our ambitions, who suggest that our system cannot tolerate too many big plans. Their memories are short. For they have forgotten what this country has already done, what free men and women can achieve when imagination has joined a common purpose.”
“The nation cannot prosper long when it favors only the prosperous.”
“…Know that your people will judge you based on what you can build; not on what you can destroy.”

View full post

Filed under: community, green, housing, Obama, sustainability, technology, transportation

Let there be light: Daylighting Saves $, Yields Natural Beauty

Photo credit
“Daylighting contributes to the public good by reducing the need for electrical lighting,” says Mike Crosbie, chairman of department of architecture of Univ. of Hartford, on AIA Podnet. It also reduces light pollution and ostensibly improving health and productivity. Still, it’s slow to take off. Who likes sitting under godawful florescent lights, what with their blue/green algae-like coloring?

What is daylighting technology? A way to control supplemental lighting or to control natural sunlight through shades.

Why hasn’t it been implemented more? Lighting systems should become integral to the building design; it is directly tied to space planning. Convince clients that lighting design affects long-term utility consumption and user comfort.

One brow-raising point raised during this podcast: let’s get rid of the status of windowed offices. While there are more alternatives (sidelights, clerestories, etc.), it doesn’t have to be like working in a tomb, what is your opinion about this?

Learn more about daylighting and/or listen to the full podcast for free.

View full post

Filed under: AIA, technology

This is a democracy?

Below are some key numbers for the House’s first draft of the economic stimulus bill, acc. to Stateline.org:

* $43 billion for increased unemployment benefits
* $20 billion to increase the food stamp benefit
* $30 billion for highway construction
* $19 billion for clean water, flood control and environmental cleanup programs
* $4 billion for state and local anti-crime initiatives, including $3 billion for the Byrne Justice Assistance, which pays for programs to battle drug trafficking.

No fighting drug trafficking. For god’s sake how long must this unwinnable war continue? Legalize the stuff, make $ off of it so taxes don’t take up so much of politicians’ hot air, and turn the jobs from fighting the war to their safe sales. Look at the alcohol industry, people. Not that complicated. For a nation supposedly so progressive, we are tragically left in the 19th century.
No, not $30 billion in highway construction, unless by that you mean these: installation of telecommunications, plugins for electric cars, alternative energy sources such as wind turbines and solar panels lining highways. We do not need to proliferate an instrument that helped us get into Iraq, global warming, a nationwide obesity epidemic, and economic woes. No more roads!

View full post

Filed under: legislation, Obama, technology, transportation