Christoph Niemann’s illustration collections in the New York Times are quickly becoming Gotham classics, but his latest work has a particular bent on roadway design and, specifically, the art of Google Maps.
A few of the best:
The official Christoph Niemann bio from the New York Times:
Two big stories in the news related to DNA and forensic work.
First, the New York Times is reporting that the FBI DNA lab is housing an ever-growing database of DNA samples:
The computers contain the National DNA Index System, a database of 6.7 million genetic profiles, the world’s largest repository of forensic DNA information. Under a 2005 federal law, the database will continue to include convicted felons, but it will also add genetic profiles of people who have been arrested but not convicted and of immigrant detainees — for an estimated 1.3 million more profiles by 2012.
Since it was established in 1994, the DNA database has helped identify thousands of suspects, and DNA evidence has exonerated more than 200 wrongfully convicted people. Law enforcement officials say they hope a larger database will help them solve more crimes, new and old, like the case of John F. Thomas Jr. He was recently linked by DNA to two homicides in Los Angeles that have gone unsolved for decades, and the police think he may be tied to several other killings.
But keeping pace with the expansion of DNA databases is a major challenge for the agency, which has sought ways to speed the processing of DNA evidence. As of 2007, the Justice Department estimated the backlog at 600,000 to 700,000 samples.
Second, Nucleix, a company based in Tel Aviv, believes they have proven it is possible to fabricate DNA evidence:
The scientists fabricated blood and saliva samples containing DNA from a person other than the donor of the blood and saliva. They also showed that if they had access to a DNA profile in a database, they could construct a sample of DNA to match that profile without obtaining any tissue from that person.
“You can just engineer a crime scene,” said Dan Frumkin, lead author of the paper, which has been published online by the journal Forensic Science International: Genetics. “Any biology undergraduate could perform this.”
Photo credit of the F.B.I.’s crime lab in Quantico, Virginia.
Some exciting developments in the field of three-dimensional renderings from the New York Times:
Computer science researchers at the University of Washington and Cornell University are deploying a system that will blend teamwork and collaboration with powerful graphics algorithms to create three-dimensional renderings of buildings, neighborhoods and potentially even entire cities.
The new system, PhotoCity, grew from the original work of a Cornell computer scientist, Noah Snavely, who while working on his Ph.D. dissertation at the University of Washington, developed a set of algorithms that generated three-dimensional models from unstructured collections of two-dimensional photos.
Fast Company has a great new graphic describing the new TIGER infratstructure plans (Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery).
There was a time when infrastructure spending was going to be a large part of the economic recovery, and that time may have finally arrived. Here we offer a sample of several of the more intriguing projects–for a full list, check the DOT site.
H/T: Infrastrucurist
Henry Fountain from the New York Times looks at Haiti’s infrastructure past to explain the devastation:
Engineers and architects who have worked in or visited Haiti say that substandard design, inadequate materials and shoddy construction practices likely contributed to the collapse of many buildings in the earthquake that struck Tuesday.
Cameron Sinclair, executive director of Architecture for Humanity, a nonprofit design group based in San Francisco, said he was “horrified” when he visited Port-au-Prince and Gonaïves last October to assess the quality of construction there.
Mr. Sinclair said that design and construction were far worse than in other developing countries he had visited. “In Haiti, most if not all of the buildings have major engineering flaws,” he said.
The New York Times also discusses the quality of concrete:
Most houses and other structures are built of poured concrete or block, there being very little lumber available due to mass deforestation, said Alan Dooley, a Nashville architect who designed a medical clinic, built of reinforced concrete, in Petite Rivière de Nippes, a fishing village 50 miles west of Port-au-Prince.
Concrete is very expensive — much of the cement for it comes from the United States, Mr. Dooley said — so some contractors cut corners by adding more sand to the mix. The result is a structurally weaker material that deteriorates rapidly, he said. Steel reinforcing bar is also expensive, he said, so there is a tendency to use less of it with the concrete.
The BBC looks at why so many more people died in Haiti than in Chile. Currently only 700 are reported dead compared to 220,000 in Haiti–despite the fact that the Chile quake was 500 times stronger. The article reviews what is called the ’strong columns weak beams’ system for keeping buildings upright:
The idea is that buildings are held up by reinforced concrete columns, which are strengthened by a steel frame.
Reinforced concrete beams are joined onto the columns to make floors and the roof.
If there is an earthquake, the idea is that the concrete on the beams should break near the end, which dissipates a lot of the energy of the earthquake, but that the steel reinforcement should survive and the columns should stay standing, which means the building will stay upright.
The problem is that an 8.8 magnitude earthquake is “towards the top end of what you’re designing for”, according to Professor Colin Taylor, professor of earthquake engineering at Bristol University.
Another advantage for the Chilean quake was that its epicentre was 21 miles (34km) underground, off-shore and 70 miles (115km) from the nearest big city, Concepcion.
The energy from earthquakes falls the further away you are from the centre.
Newsweek.com has a great profile of famous corporate recalls through the years.
The automotive highlights:
1. Ford Pinto, 1978
From Newsweek: Because of the placement of the car’s gas tank, the Pinto had a tendency to burst into flames when rear-ended—even at moderate speeds.
2. Ford Ignitions, 1996
From Newsweek: Ford recalled 8.6 million cars and trucks in 1996 after reports that their ignition switches were catching fire. More than 1,000 blazes had resulted in 21 injuries—two of them serious—across a spectrum of Ford vehicles in the 1988 through 1993 model years, from the Taurus to F-150 pickups to the Mustang.
3. Firestone Tires, 2000
From Newsweek: The flaw caused an estimated 200 deaths and thousands of injuries. As a result, Ford said it would replace Firestones on 13 million vehicles, while Firestone itself recalled 6.5 million tires.
4. Toyota, 2009
From Newsweek: Toyota first issued a recall for more than 4 million vehicles in November 2009, saying that flawed floormats on the driver’s side of some cars were causing the accelerator pedals to become stuck, potentially causing accidents when the vehicles couldn’t stop.
Skyscrapers are in the news again. The recent opening of the Burj Khalifa turned the spotlight back on the engineering arms race. Popular Mechanics takes a look at the biggest skyscrapers on the drawing board and the current champ, Dubai’s Burj Khalifa:
The Burj Khalifa, currently the tallest tower in the world, officially opened in Dubai on Jan. 4 amid an impressive pyrotechnics display that highlighted the tower’s 2716.5-feet of aluminum and steel, and its 26,000 hand-cut glass panels. The Burj Khalifa blows away the next-nearest skyscraper, which is Taiwan’s 1670-foot Taipei 101, and the building has even surpassed ultra-tall, ground-cable-supported radio antennas.
Others are predicting the onslaught of new superstructures are the sign of economic calamity. Trevor Baker of The Guardian writes:
Skyscrapers, then, are the physical embodiment of “irrational exuberance” in the markets. The rule is that if there’s enough money sloshing around to pay for one, then don’t be surprised if, by the time the purple ribbon’s cut, the scissors have to be on hire purchase.
The best documentary on the science of building skyscrapers is still David Macaulay’s 2000 PBS series, Building Big:
As skyscrapers grew taller and taller, engineers were faced with a new enemy: wind. Today’s tallest skyscrapers, which are almost 1,500 feet tall, must be 50 times stronger against wind than the typical 200-foot buildings of the 1940s.
Time waster: Skyscraper the game.
Courtesy: Tom Vanderbilt
The Daily Beast ranked the 75 worst commutes in America:
Bumper-to-bumper traffic is America’s collective nightmare, and like the movie Groundhog Day it repeats on a daily basis. Congestion consumes billions of gallons of fuel, wastes hundreds of billions of dollars in productivity and causes billions of stress headaches. Yet over 100 million automobile commuters each day feel like they have little option.
Here is the infamous Top Ten:
#1, Hollywood Freeway, Los Angeles
Speed of worst bottleneck when congested: 14 mph
#2, Lunalilo Freeway (H-1), Honolulu
Weekly hours of bottleneck congestion: 347
#3, Capital Beltway, surrounds Washington DC
Worst bottleneck: Southbound, Exit 2A-B
#4, I-35, Austin
Weekly hours of bottleneck congestion: 460
#5, James Lick Freeway (US 101), San Francisco
Worst bottleneck: I 80 Northbound, 4th St/5th St
#6, Cross Bronx Expressway, New York City
Speed of worst bottleneck when congested: 11.2 mph
#7, I-5, Seattle
Worst bottleneck: Southbound, 45th St/Exit 169
#8, I-95, Bridgeport, CT
Weekly hours of bottleneck congestion: 272
#9, Kennedy Expressway, Chicago
Worst bottleneck: Westbound, I 90/I 94/Edens Expressway
#10, Airport Expressway (State Road 112), Miami
Worst bottleneck: Eastbound, 72nd Ave/Milam Dairy Rd
Railroad safety issues are in the news. The above accident in Los Angeles left 25 dead and spurred new interest in railroad-related legislation. The Wall Street Journal reports on the debate in Washington:
Passenger- and freight-railroad operators are pressing the White House to scale back proposed rules that would mandate billions in new safety hardware to prevent collisions, warning that the financial burden could lead to cuts in passenger-train service instead of the expansion President Barack Obama wants.
The rules, which the Federal Railroad Administration plans to put in final form in the coming weeks, would require freight railroads, Amtrak and commuter-rail operators to install “positive train control” systems by December 2015.
The goal is to prevent collisions like the one that occurred last year between a commuter train and a Union Pacific freight train near Los Angeles. That accident killed 25 people and spurred federal legislation mandating new technology that can automatically prevent trains from barreling through stop signals.
Popular Mechanics has an interesting piece on major railroad accidents and the resulting safety lessons. The following two examples, the first in England and the second in Japan, demonstrate what can go wrong and what we can learn from it.
Japan in 2005:
More than 100 people died in 2005 when a train jumped a curve in Amagasaki, Japan. The rail company, JR West, admitted the accident could have been avoided if the train had been equipped with an automatic stopping system to prevent the operator from taking the curve too fast.
The Lesson: The accident also provided a cultural lesson. While the driver took the blame for taking a corner 46 kilometers per hour faster than he should have, the rail company took flack for putting too much pressure on its drivers.
England in 1988:
Great Britain has seen plenty of rail accidents over the years. The deadliest in recent times occurred near Clapham Junction in southern London. Thirty-five people died in a rush-hour collision of two trains carrying an estimated 1300 people between them.
The Lesson: An inquiry into the accident recommended that the entire British rail system install automatic train protection. But the government balked at enormous bill—nearly £750 million—and instead privatized the rail system.
Finally, over at The Infrastructurist, they have examined “11 Beautiful Rail Stations That Fell To The Wrecking Ball”.
Almost like a rite of passage, cities across the country embraced the era of Interstates, Big Macs, and suburban sprawl by tearing down their train depots. (Frequently, they just did the Joni Mitchell thing and put up a parking lot.) But time and experience are showing that train stations are vital organs in a healthy city, and removing them deadens the entire organism.
The Wall Street Journal article ‘Shifting the Right of Way to the Left Leaves Some Samoans Feeling Wronged’ was one of the most read articles on the wsj.com website in 2010. It was interesting to learn that 30% of the world drives on the left side of the road.
Samoa is about to become what’s believed to be the first nation since the 1970s to order its drivers to switch from one side of the road to the other. That’s spawned an islandwide case of road rage. Opponents have organized two of the biggest protests in Samoan history, and a new activist group — People Against Switching Sides, or PASS — has geared up to fight the plan.
So what’s the motivation for the change?
The main reason for Samoa’s switch is that two of its biggest neighbors, Australia and New Zealand, drive on the left-hand side, whereas Samoa currently drives on the right, as in the U.S. By aligning with Australia and New Zealand, the prime minister says, it will be easier for poor Samoans to get cheap hand-me-down cars from the 170,000 or so Samoans who live in those two countries. It could also help more people escape tsunamis, says Mr. Tuilaepa.
Recent protests suggest the issue may not be resolved despite the government’s decision. According to the article, 15,000 people (of a nation with 17,000 left-hand drive cars) rallied against the change.
Collision statistics from Samao will be interesting for 2010.
