A surprise report on Transportation and the New Generation – America is Changing

It is a surprise to read this report. After all these years of driving mania, the country is changing. The change is going to be big if it remain and will give a new dimension to American life.

From World War II until just a few years ago, the number of miles driven annually on America’s roads steadily increased. Then, at the turn of the century, something changed: Americans began driving less. By 2011, the average American was driving 6 percent fewer miles per year than in 2004. The trend away from driving has been led by young people. From 2001 to 2009, the average annual number of vehicle miles traveled by young people (16 to 34-year-olds) decreased from 10,300 miles to 7,900 miles per capita—a drop of 23 percent. The trend away from steady growth in driving is likely to be long-lasting—even once the economy recovers. Young people are driving less for a host of reasons—higher gas prices, new licensing laws, improvements in technology that support alternative transportation, and changes in Generation Y’s values and preferences— all factors that are likely to have an impact for years to come.

Some young people purposely reduce their driving in an effort to curb their environmental impact. In the KRC Zipcar survey, 16 percent of 18 to 34-year-olds polled said they strongly agreed with the statement, “I want to protect the environment, so I drive less.” This is compared to approximately 9 percent of older generations.

A full report can be accessed here or with the following link.

http://www.uspirgedfund.org/sites/pirg/files/reports/Transportation%20%26%20the%20New%20Generation%20vUS_0.pdf

Vote for this greener service – Advanced Baggage Handling System

Travelling with heavy baggage is a hectic experience. Most of the people who use air travel may know how difficult it is to bring all the baggages to check in at the airport and for families, it would be another level of inconvenient experience to handle all the baggages throughout their journey.

Thanks to: wn.com

How good it would be if you can check in all your baggages at home and travel to the airport with just your hand luggage or even without one. That is what I call an advanced baggage handling system.

If the passenger can be given an option while booking the air ticket for advanced baggage check in (for a nominal price), then the service provider can reach the customer and get their baggages checked in within 12-24 hours before they fly. The baggage will be taken to the airport directly by the service provider. This service can be operated with the coordination of the airlines, airport authority and the advanced baggage handling system service provider.

Thanks to: telegraph.co.uk

There are numerous advantages of using the advanced baggage check-in system.
1. Most of the people use their own vehicle, mostly to carry their baggages to the airport. If they can check in their baggages at their home, they may prefer to use public transport as it could be easier, more convenient and cheaper.
2. Less vehicles to the airport, less parking congestion at the airport means more energy saved and less pollution to the environment.
3. Advanced baggage handling system requires a new fleet of service industry, which means more jobs and opportunities.
4. The advanced check in provides sufficient time for the airport authorities to ensure the security of the travellers by having sufficient time to scan the baggages.
5. Finally, to the most is the comfort to the passengers as they will travel to the airport without any pressure as their baggages are already checked in and they can go through the security clearance and reach the boarding gate.

Having said the advantages of an advanced baggage handling system, I propose this idea as one which will make the world cleaner and more comfortable for its citizens.

Compared to the current hectic airport system, this new technology can help to make it less congested, more efficient and greener.

If you think this is an idea for a more greener and less congested world, then please vote for it. Please register and vote here.

Corporate empowered corner stores

It has been for a while since I started gathering information about this topic. The intention which motivated me to write this is the current economic climate.

There were blames on corporate companies for their irresponsible profit centric attitude which considered one of the reason for the current economic downturn. There are two ways to approach it. The collective failure of legislators to regulate the country, economy and the market with a long term vision. The second one could be the corporate recklessness.

Regardless of what damages had been done to the economy, I have found this local economy structure is fascinating. In a different and parallel perspective to the documentary, “Walmart- The high cost of low price”, I am writing this. In many ways, the documentary seems arguably fine. However, blames itself does not solve the problems. We ought to think beyond.

During these four year of my residence in Ireland, I have seen a supermarket system which I find sustainable to the society and I think similar approaches could benefit the small local economy. The title says itself “Corporate empowered corner stores”. What if all the big corporates started to offer small franchise across the country where local people will get goods delivered to their store and share the profit, instead of a big mall/supermarket in the outskirt of the town/village. I think that could lead to a sustainable supermarket franchise system where people get products at reasonable price while sustaining their jobs and businesses. Starting from groceries to hardware, all the items can be sold through various franchises.

Now you may ask what is the benefit to the corporates.I think this system can enable higher volume of sales while giving them credit for their social responsibility, which in turn can lead to a sustainable local and broader economy.

Centra is a local supermarket and a corner store in Irish towns and villages. Each store is run by private franchisees and the stores get supply from a big corporate company called Musgrave. You can learn more about them by following the links.

The way the supermarket operates is really promising in terms of sustainability of the business. You may easily find at least two stores in any Irish town and minimum one in any village. Centra is only a grocery store, but what if that model could be expanded to clothes, hardware etc, you name it.

I think a business model similar to what Musgrave operates is something should be achieved through the rest of the world with proper regulations. Shared profit and sustainable business can prevent places becoming ghost towns and cities due to closure of local businesses.

With a competing corporate, it has always been difficult to sustain their business in economic hard times as people always prefer cheaper price, which most of the time the local stores unable to meet. In such a situation, corporate empowered corner stores can be a way forward.

Mexico’s record-setting bridge to open this year – Washington Post

FRP composites in Civil Infrastructure – Series 1

Fibre reinforced polymer (FRP) composites are an emerging new technologies find its way to replace steel and other corrosive material in civil infrastructure as FRP material demonstrates excellent durability compared to steel. The main intension of this article is to disseminate the knowledge in this area. The article will have three main series and several sub sections as it will be discussed in wide array of occasions where FRP is widely used.

Courtesy: Shinsung Basic Materials, Korea

The problem

Concrete considered one of the most durable material man to invent. However, the corrosion of steel in reinforced concrete often raise concerns over the durability of concrete structures. Structures exposed to corrosive conditions such as roads and highways, coastal structures, underground structural elements and water retaining structures requires frequent repair and maintenance due to corrosion damages.

Repair and maintenance of steel reinforced concrete structures is an additional expense which results in huge burden on the authorities which maintain those structures. In the United Kingdom, repair cost due of concrete infrastructure exceeds £500 million/year (Broomfield et al. 2002) and much higher in the United States and Canada (Bedard 1992). Even sometimes the repair and maintenance costs have exceeded the original cost of the bridges. Due to these concerns, there were considerations either to protect steel from corrosion or replace it with non corrosive materials.

Better quality concrete, steel protection methods such as epoxy coating, galvanizing have been practiced in the last decades in an effort to prevent the corrosion in steel reinforced structures (Clarke 1999). However, the efficiency of these methods raised concerns when corrosion was detected on epoxy coated steel reinforcement (Keesler & Powers 1988).

Less is more if we want to be sustainable with concrete: Guardian.co.uk

Using concrete wisely, and sparingly, will increase the sustainability of our roads, buildings and bridges

Leon Kaye for the Guardian Professional Network

Cement is to our buildings as corn is to our food supply. Just as corn is an ingredient in countless food products, cement is a building block for much of what is around us: our roads, our buildings, and our bridges. And, as with corn, plenty of cement substitutes promise to make our environment cleaner. But swapping conventional cement for “greener” equivalents is proving to be a tough challenge.

While many companies tout a more sustainable product than the limestone-based cement that dates back to the ancient Macedonians, cement in its current form is here to stay. One reason is logistics – most of us live within 20 miles of a cement plant, which means any drastic change will involve an overhaul of infrastructure, not to mention the massive education that will be required to retrain everyone from truck haulers to civil engineers. As more buildings rise while others are remodelled, the key to sustainable development will be the smart use of this material.

Efficiency and design has a prominent role in developing smarter cement and concrete structures. Less promising are the expectations of cement alternatives that perform well in a laboratory, but not in the concrete jungles of Seoul, Sao Paulo, and Los Angeles. Efficient design can help reduce the cement industry’s global impact, which contributes about five percent of the globe’s total carbon emissions. And yet cement and concrete are materials that offer durability and thermal properties, and can reduce energy and water waste throughout the places in which we live and work.

The holy grail of sustainable cement is for the material to be carbon-neutral or even carbon-negative. Novacem is one company that promises a more viable alternative to conventional portland cement. The UK-based firm’s product has a base of magnesium oxide and magnesium silicates (ie talc). The cement only needs be heated to a lower temperature than conventional cement, which is why Novacem touts its product as a carbon-neutral or even carbon-negative process. Novacem stands behind its twenty years of research and has won a bevy of awards – but its product and those of other companies have yet to scale.

According to Peter Taylor of the National Concrete Pavement Technology Centre, smarter design and usage would be a more effective solution. Taylor and other engineering professionals with whom I spoke suggested that cement and concrete will never be truly sustainable.

The question to ask is: can we make cement better?

Fly ash is one material that could contribute to greener concrete. The byproduct of coal combustion could replace up to 30% of limestone-based portland cement. Taylor, however, points out that the conservative nature of engineers lends them to stick with construction practices that have been in place for decades. But even small reductions in portland cement can reduce concrete’s CO2 impact. One example is the reconstructed Interstate-35 bridge in Minneapolis, which used a base of only 15% portland cement. The 30-foot tall sculptures that grace both sides of the bridge also contain a cement with photocatalytic qualities that remove carbon monoxide and other pollutants from the atmosphere.

The concrete industry is listening and focusing on both sustainability and resilience, according to Kevin Mlutkowski, the American Concrete Institute’s sustainability director. Mlutkowski explained that enhanced durability will be the key for the concrete industry to meet increased building demands without compromising the environment.

What architects, designers, and consumers all must do is to start looking at cement and concrete as valuable resources. Recycling concrete into kitchen countertops, instead of slicing granite out of mountains and quarries, is just one small example. Encouraging architectural features that repurpose concrete, instead of energy-intensive processes that involve pulverising and firing it, are another idea. New approaches, and an emphasis on smart use, reuse, and design, can burnish concrete’s reputation as a sustainable, not polluting, material.

Leon Kaye is founder and editor of GreenGoPost.com

Why Google should start a publishing service for academic and technical journals!

Few days ago, there was an article on Guardian (David Colquhoun, 2011) reporting academic publishing and the way the publishing companies operate. Well, finally few were strong enough to stand up for it.

More often, the research and development in science aimed for dissemination of your findings to the rest of the world and every researcher expects it to be utilized someway or other anywhere in the world. There his work gets a fulfillment. Nevertheless, the way publishers operate and restrict the access lead the work to be contained within a circle. The way this operate is quiet a complex formula.

The first loop of this complex formula starts with Universities and funding bodies who expect their research to be published in a reputed journal. Well, they have to revise whether they need reputation or dissemination of the knowledge to a greater audience. It is very important to understand that any new technology or development should not have any restriction on further development. If happens, it cannot be a pure academical/human factor advancement. As once Bill Gates mentioned, “if the other technologies are so open as software industry, the you can see miracle in every sector of the world”. So this gives a flavour that how important is knowledge for technological advancement and greater socioeconomic development of the human race.

When it comes to technical or scientific journal, the researchers and professionals approach Google to find out those unless otherwise they explicitly have an idea about the source. In such a situation, what if Google itself owns the publishing business. They of-course know how to generate business  while keeping the source free for users.

In this perspective, I strongly believe that the Google’s entry into publishing business by acquiring a big publishing house will break all the barriers that scientists and professionals face while getting the access to journals and articles in respected streams.

Reference:

David Colquhoun, 2011, “Publish-or-perish: Peer review and the corruption of science”, Guardian.co.uk

What you really call a life? How to make it?

The village and the district where I was born, on average people had enough food to feed themselves and their families, good houses with lands, good clothes and a bicycle or motor bicycle to carry out their job and day to day activities. There were no pubs and clubs. Fun times were filled by temple festivals and family events. People had enough facility to have a good healthcare, educate themselves and to obtain a degree too. But, I didn’t understand the meaning of life.

Then I displaced from my hometown with another nine hundred thousand people, and spent days in streets without proper shelter and food. People died along due to several diseases. Days spent without education, proper health care and there was no space for fun. But, I didn’t understand the meaning of life.

Later, I moved to the capital city of the island, where people had everything we had in our village. However, bicycles were replaced by buses. An average person can travel by bus as cycles and motorcycles were assumed to be dangerous on those city roads. About 20% of the city population lived a life equivalent to what is offered in the western cities. Another 20% suffered for food even. The rest 60% called average, struggled to make a decent living. Traveling on buses and trains was neither joyful nor pleasant. However the 60% left with no other choice. The lawmakers, entrepreneurs and business people were in the top 20%, never thought about improving the 60%’s life while making a good business. They were busy with making their life more comfortable by importing the most luxurious vehicles, building world class restaurants, pubs and clubs to serve their fellow 20% by selling basics to those struggling population. They had everything they wanted. But no one really cared about the 60%, even the law makers. Thus 60% continued the same life. The big picture of the city never changed. Because the majority still remain the same. You find nothing other than more chaos on the city roads and other facilities with time. But, I didn’t understand the meaning of the life.

Finally, I went to western world, where every single person had everything including luxuries, world class restaurants, pubs and clubs. A very small percentage of people struggled to make that living. Although they struggled, the opportunity was definite. Still there are complaints about lack of social life, instability in the society due to the pursued mechanical life. However, still I didn’t understand the meaning of life.
What could I really say a life? I had the advantage of a very few to witness all four states and I do not understand that where do we really begin and end. What is the real purpose of a government other than fighting the wars and making the world a bad place to live. Do they really care about giving all the world citizen a decent life. If then what is that decent life. Would you call having all luxuries by giving up what we had in my little village. Or, all the governments and law makers are really trying to put all people to the stage where we were during the displacement times. Did we chose them to do so.

Else we all be at the state of the top 20% living in the capital by ignoring the poor 20% and struggling 50%. So that we will have some sort of achievement in our life by having some elements to compare your well being. Can it really be called a life?

Or are we all going to make all the efforts to bring all the world population to the state of the life lived by most of the industrialist nations. How did really make it happen. Does any of us really think about this, or at-least our law makers? Or they aren’t capable of doing such great transformation.  If they don’t what is the real meaning of life to them?

I am so terrified and stupefied by the meaning of life. Where do we start and where do we end and what we all will have at the end. All the countries on earth and communities on earth will have some meaning for a real life. Until they achieve that, my question will always remain unanswered.

IBM at 100: A BBC Document

Soon We May All Live In Prefab High-Rises – Fastcompany.com

The recession has highlighted the need for affordable, efficient, quick-to-build structures in urban areas. Because while many of us want to live in pricey cities like Seattle and San Francisco, few people can afford the steel and concrete structures that are nice to live in (and hold up in earthquakes). You probably think of prefab houses sitting alone, out in the desert, or something like the post-apocalyptic Habitat 67. But Sustainable Living Innovations is going to soon unveil the beginnings of the new urban built environment: the prefab skyscraper.

Next week, Sustainable Living Innovations, a group made up of architectural design, construction, and engineering consultants, will unveil its first model unit in Seattle–a one-story prefab structure that shows off the design SLI hopes to use for sky-high buildings. Arlan Collins, principal at CollinsWoerman (the architecture firm behind the group) explains that in Seattle, a wood-frame apartment building with parking is $130,000 a unit. It also takes an interminable 36 to 40 months for design and construction. SLI’s building costs the same–but it can be designed in less than 20 months. So for the same price as a building featuring a wood frame, vinyl windows, a popcorn ceiling, and an ugly beige carpet, SLI can build a steel-framed building with concrete floor slabs and ample natural lighting, right out of an IKEA catalog.

“From the time we’re ready to lift the building, it will only take us 90 days to finish. If you’re an observer, this building will go from not being there at all to being done and having someone living in it in four months,” says Collins. That’s because the SLI design consists of ready-made parts that are put together like an Erector Set on site (see the video below). For people who have seen construction projects languish for years with little progress, this could be something of a miracle.

One thing you’ll have to forgo in your modern, quickly built apartment: rooms. An SLI-designed building contains 20% less gross building area than a comparable building because the apartments lacks interior partitions or hallways. In the future, everyone will live in open spaces (though the bedrooms and bathroom have walls). That saves significantly on building materials. Each building is also, but of course, LEED Silver certified.

This is the kind of thing that could revolutionize the building market–one day. First, SLI has to work out the tiny detail of getting its high-rise steel prefabs adapted to existing building codes; no small feat considering that no one really anticipated this kind of thing happening.

SLI is confident it can make its designs compliant. Until then, the group can use its design to build structures up to six stories tall, and it is already in talks to build a dozen projects in the U.S. Soon, our skylines will be dotted with quickly erected buildings. Just wait until the construction worker unions get wind of this.

Photo Credit: Doug Scott

Reach Ariel Schwartz via Twitter or email.
Reproduced from Fastcompany.com