Grime-fighting garments aim to purify air Polymer chemist Tony Ryan and fashion designer Helen Storey have joined forces to create clothing which can purify the air. Catalytic Clothing contains the same nanotechnology found in self-cleaning paints and glasses but applies it to clothes via a special fabric conditioner. A catalyst -- titanium dioxide -- applied during a normal home washing cycle breaks down harmful airborne pollutants when exposed to ultraviolet light. Ryan discovered that treated jeans were particularly good at absorbing pollution. Although only small amounts of pollution -- around two grams per 500-gram pair of jeans -- is removed from the air, Ryan and Storey say if the technology was worn widely then city pollution could be reduced. A short film featuring British model Erin O'Connor and music by rock group Radiohead was released in 2011 to promote the idea to the public. But together, Helen Storey and Tony Ryan are fusing style and substance to create clothes that purify the air we breathe.
Proxima Mobile : applications et services gratuits sur mobile pour les citoyens Urban sprawl Urban sprawl or suburban sprawl is a multifaceted concept centered on the expansion of auto-oriented, low-density development. Topics range from the outward spreading of a city and its suburbs, to low-density and auto-dependent development on rural land (which can cause an expansion of the daily urban system), examination of impact of high segregation between residential and commercial uses, and analysis of various design features to determine which may encourage car dependency.[1] The term "sprawl" is most often associated with land use in the English-speaking world; in Continental Europe the term "peri-urbanisation" is often used to denote similar dynamics and phenomena.[citation needed] Discussions and debates about sprawl are often made unclear by the uncertainty of the meaning associated with the phrase. History[edit] Ruins at Tusculum, an ancient suburb on the ourskirts of Rome. Urban sprawl has been a feature of cities for as long as they have existed. Urbanization[edit]
The city of 2050 Sensor networks Experts predict that everything, from street furniture to roads to the homes we live in, will be connected to the network. All these objects will produce vast amounts of data and some cities may build Nasa-style control centres to make predictions about city life, including where crimes may be committed. Smart buildings Buildings will have taken on a life of their own, controlling heating, lighting and security with little human intervention. Buildings may be able to store energy in huge batteries, while homes put excess electricity back into the smart grid. Robo-taxis It is likely cars will be self-driving. Traffic lights will no longer be necessary. Farmscrapers Forget the skyscrapers that dominate our city skylines. Shopping Going to the shops may be very different in 2050. 3D printing is likely to be available in many shops allowing people to create bespoke items. Boundaries between the virtual and the real will blur. Urban spaces Pedestrians and vehicles may share space.
by Stanza. The Global soundmaps project. An online open source database of city sounds field recriding and soundmaps from around the world. Initially all sounds by Stanza you can now contribute your own found sounds. Soundcities is an online database of t The soundmaps and the database can be listened to, used in performances, or played on mobiles via wireless networks. Initially all sounds by Stanza, you can now contribute your own found sounds. Special feature if you go to the world soundmap you can click to go via KML files onto google earth. Soundcities is an open online database of the thousands of sounds from around the world and you can visits the various cities and create soundmaps.. Soundcities was the first online open source database of city sounds and soundmaps from around the world, using found sounds and field recording. The sounds of cities also give clues to the emotional and responsive way we interact with our cities. A growing labyrinth, a community of aural cityscapes and collages is now evolving. I have spent the last 20 years travelling to over 20 worldwide cities. The project is available for exhibition, workshops and live performance. The project is unfunded is you would like to make a contribution get in touch.
Can motors in wheels spark electric car revolution? There may have been more alluring electric cars on display at this year's Tokyo Motor Show, but the beauty of this prototype lies in its performance. The SIM-LEI can travel 333 kilometers (more than 200 miles) on a single charge, say its Japanese creators SIM Drive, and it also boasts supercar-like acceleration -- 0 to 60 mph in just 4.8 seconds. The key to these remarkable statistics lies not, as you might expect, underneath the hood but in its wheels. Most electric vehicles house a single motor in the area vacated by the petrol engine, but the SIM-LEI has four motors, which fit in the hubs its wheels. Each one delivers 65 kilowatts, giving the car a total output of 260 kilowatts, compared with the 80 kilowatts of output available in, say, the Nissan Leaf. A 24.5 kWh battery sits below the floor along with inverters and controllers, which fit into a unique steel monocoque helping reduce weight, according to SIM Drive.
MIT's Free Urban Planning Software Will Help Build The Cities Of The Future | Fast Company Most of the world lives in cities. That number, now at about 3.3 billion people, will keep going up. During the next five years, urban populations are expected to soar well beyond half the world's total. Yet most of those urbanites are also likely to live in poorly, or at least haphazardly, designed cities. Avoiding that future just became a bit easier with the launch of the Urban Network Analysis, an open-source software released by MIT. It measures traits such as "reach, gravity, betweenness, closeness, and straightness," which, in laymen terms, express features such as the number of services, buildings, and resources within a certain walking distance, or the volume of traffic along sidewalks and streets. What this means is that city planners can look at their cities and see, for instance, that some neighborhoods are closer to jobs than others (the map at the top is the "reach" map for jobs in Cambridge, MA. The UNA toolbox can be downloaded here. [Image: MIT]
Growing Your Own Garlic - Planting Growing Harvesting and Storing Garlic As far as I'm concerned, garlic gets the blue ribbon for growing your own. It's absurdly easy to plant and care for; it tastes great; it looks beautiful and it takes up so little ground that even those with very small gardens can raise enough to be self-sufficient in garlic for a good part of the year. All you have to do is choose the right varieties; plant at the right time, in the right soil; then harvest when just right and store correctly. 1. Choosing Types of Garlic If you look in a specialist catalog like the one at Gourmet Garlic Gardens, you'll find dozens of varieties of garlic listed. You see where this is going – and you can see a lot more types of garlic on either of those websites, but for general purposes the most important difference is the one between softneck and hardneck. Softnecks are so called because the whole green plant dies down to pliancy, leaving nothing but the bulb and flexible stems that are easy to braid. Gardeners in most of the U.S. can try some of both. 2.
What Would Real Democracy Look Like? | New Compass Rather than aiming for yet another change of politicians and parties in power, why not aim for a change of the political system itself? As representative democracy sinks into crisis, we need to go back to democracy in its original meaning as rule of the people. It is time to imagine what real democracy would look like and to create institutions and mechanisms that could be the building blocks of genuinely democratic societies. Today, democracy is equated with representative government based on free elections of political elites that rule on the citizens’ behalf. This system, referred to as “representative democracy”, has been the dominant one in the West for the last two hundred years and is now being exported across the world and promoted as the only possible alternative to outright dictatorship. But this system is now in a deep crisis. Participatory Budgeting A major dilemma of participatory budgeting is the question of legislative power. Communal Councils Sortition and Mini-publics
OpenCities — Opencities 40 Witty Campaign Posters for a Cause Non-profit organizations use posters to deliver a particular message. These help inform people about current issues, problems and even the possible consequences of their actions. With a sentence that contains strong words or images, these posters give more impact than common commercial posters. To give you an idea, here are 20 sample campaign posters to provoke your imagination. Enjoy! Wildlife is becoming harder to find in Vietnam. Winter. Who are the real monsters? When they speak, we listen. Shit is not a cool band. Say no to child labor. Can you treat yourself better than your doctor? Nothing we do will ever bring them back. Please don’t dive with white sharks. All under 25 who are sexually active should test for Chlamydia every year and avery time they change partner. For some people, life is that expensive. Preparing today reduces the consequences of disaster tomorrow. Two thirds of college students in Mississippi don’t smoke. Please clean up after your dog. One mistake is all it takes.
Est-ce que la technologie désurbanise la ville Pour la sociologue et économiste américaine Saskia Sassen (Wikipédia), qui introduisait la 3e édition de la conférence Lift France qui se tenait la semaine dernière à Marseille, la ville est devenue un espace stratégique pour tout type d’applications technologiques, mais dans quelles mesures ces capacités technologiques déployées dans l’espace urbain urbanisent-elles véritablement la ville ? « A l’heure où tout le monde se demande comment utiliser la ville, diffuser ses services dans l’espace urbain, la question de savoir si les technologies urbanisent ou pas la ville me semble d’importance. » La ville doit pouvoir être hackée « La technologie donne des capacités technologiques qui vont au-delà de la technologie elle-même. Quand la haute finance utilise les technologies, elle ne le fait pas de la même manière que la société civile. La ville est un espace complexe, anarchique, rappelle la spécialiste du sujet. Il nous faut comprendre autrement « l’urbanitude ».
Revenu social, gratuité et monnaie locale : comment passer d'une économie globalisée à une économie locale et solidaire Revenu universel, salaire citoyen, allocation d’existence … il existe de nombreux termes permettant de décrire la socialisation des salaires et des revenus. Le débat pour un revenu pour tous sans condition est souvent associé à plusieurs problématiques : si nous n’avons plus besoin de travailler pour vivre alors qui fera les tâches indispensables à notre société ? Un tel revenu ne remet pas en cause notre société de consommation, ne va-elle pas encourager à aller vers encore plus de production ? Et si c’est pour acheter des produits qui viennent du bout du monde et faire travailler ceux qui ont moins de protection sociale, on y voit un paradoxe. Qui va décider de la somme à distribuer ? On voit à travers ces questions qu’on ne peut pas aborder le revenu social (nous utiliserons ce terme dans la suite du texte), sans aborder la problématique de la monnaie, de l’accès aux biens et services (gratuité ou accès pour tous) et de la relocalisation de l'économie. 1. 1.1. 1.2. 1.3.