SHODAN LIVES
Notes and links from @colemanm.
Backdoor tour of the Vegas monorail »
We used the monorail for the first few days we were in Vegas, to go from Riviera on the north end of the Strip down to the main southern section. It’s expensive and kind of a pain to use. Riding the bus worked a lot better:
“On the Strip, as I walked south from the Sahara, I couldn’t help noticing the crowded bus stops. As it turns out, in 2005 the RTC started running a flashy double-decker bus called the Deuce up and down the Strip. It costs $3 a ride and is very popular, averaging 35,000 passengers a day. The monorail has been attracting about 17,000 a day, roughly a third of its predicted ridership.”
North Korea Uncovered »
“North Korea Uncovered” is a project by a Ph.D. student from George Mason University named Curtis Melvin. The objective is to map as many “unknown” points of interest in the super-secretive DPRK as possible, from data gathered on his trips to the country as well as information from other “local spies.” All sorts of infrastructure and military data is mapped, including mines, dams, missile facilities, military bases, prisons, and burial mounds. It’s a huge and fascinating dataset.
Download the Google Earth point data layer here.
(gadling)
Stimulus Ideals Conflict on the Texas Prairie »
Developers in Houston want to extend the Grand Parkway through a section of prairie known as Katy Prairie west of Houston.
This 15-lane toll connector from I-10 to US-290 will eventually become part of a third beltway around the Houston metro center. Third. 15 lanes.
The State of Texas wants to spend $181 million of it’s expected stimulus money on something that will promote exactly what the stimulus program is trying to prevent: massive urban sprawl. Activists in the Houston area claim, rightly so, that that money would be better spent improving areas where people already live, rather than opening up a new expanse to new development.
This is one of my primary concerns of the whole “stimulus” idea. How do you tell a region or municipality how to spend their money on a local scale?
The new concrete of St. Anthony Falls Bridge.
“The St. Anthony Falls Bridge used about 50,000 yards of concrete. Hoover Dam used more than three million. And the Three Gorges project in China contains more than a yard for every man, woman and child in Canada, population 33 million.”
33 million yards of concrete is certifiably insane. China’s at it again…
That new I-35W bridge in Minneapolis is beautiful. The contractor has even built sculptures bookending the bridge that can actually sequester airborne carbon dioxide, thanks to a chemical additive that makes the concrete’s footprint “carbon negative.” They also include additives that scrub pollutants from the air, keeping the bridge bright white.
Ribbon Storage Box Tutorial »
This is for Colette.
