CNBC looks at the world’s best airports from a design perspective. LaGuardia is not going to make the list…
Denver International Airport
Singapore Changi Airport
Beijing International Airport
Archive for the ‘Engineering’ Category
World’s Best Airport Designs
Wednesday, January 4th, 2012NASCAR Right Turns?
Tuesday, January 3rd, 2012Freakonomics looks at innovation in NASCAR.
With the exception of a few road course races, most of the NASCAR races are held on ovals. The cars always race counter-clockwise on the ovals, meaning the cars only turn left.
Given all the attention that learning and expertise has been getting, I’m deeply curious .Read more...
Examining Trucking Fuel Efficiency
Tuesday, December 20th, 2011Fast Company looks at the fuel efficiency of America’s trucking industry.
“Trailer aerodynamic improvements are much less developed,” the 2009 DOT study reported.”There is little interaction between tractor and trailer manufacturers, and as a result, there has been no effort to treat tractor-trailer aerodynamics as an integrated whole.”
A rectangular metal box, it .Read more...
Visualizing Skyscrapers
Wednesday, December 7th, 2011Wired Magazine looks at a new book visualizing the effect of skyscrapers.
Kate Ascher’s 2005 book, The Works: Anatomy of a City, was essentially a wiring diagram of the city of New York—every city, really—intricately detailing the mechanics of urban infrastructure. (You’ll never be more enthralled by a sewage-system infographic.) Now Ascher’s .Read more...
Design Meets Border Crossings
Monday, November 21st, 2011
Fast Company looks at the new border crossing in Georgia (think USSR, not the Bulldogs).
Border crossings are supposed to feature somber, vaguely intimidating architecture. Georgia, apparently, didn’t get the memo. The former Soviet republic commissioned German starchitectJürgen Mayer H. to design a security checkpoint between Georgia and its southern neighbor, Turkey, .Read more...
Considering Bus Rapid Transit
Tuesday, October 18th, 2011FastCompany.com looks at ideas to reduce carbon emissions.
Bus Rapid Transit (BRT): This is far from a new technology, as the first bus rapid transit was introduced in Curitiba, Brazil in 1974. BRT is generally associated with dedicated lanes, elevated bus stops to expedite exit and entry, and high frequency. When implemented .Read more...
One Ticket to a Neighboring Star
Friday, October 14th, 2011DARPA is awarding one lucky company $500,000 to study the possibility of sending a human to a neighboring star. The New York Times looks at the new ‘star shot’.
The awarding of that grant, on Nov. 11 — 11/11/11 — is planned as the culmination of a yearlong Darpa-NASA effort called .Read more...
Saudi Arabia’s bid for Tallest Building in the World
Wednesday, September 21st, 2011Fast Company looks at Saudi Arabia’s bid for tallest building in the world.
Saudi Arabia is set to shatter the record for the tallest building in the world, with a slender, asymmetrical spire that rises at least 3,280 feet in the air — more than twice the size of the Willis Tower, .Read more...
The Future of Comfort in Air Travel?
Tuesday, August 23rd, 2011The Wall Street Journal discusses the future of air travel as the airlines would have us believe:
A new generation of planes—including jets from Airbus and Bombardier Inc. and led by BoeingCo.’s 787 Dreamliner, which is slated to enter service with Japan’s All Nippon Airways Co. sometime this summer—promises to offer passengers a .Read more...
Black Box Technology 2.0
Tuesday, August 16th, 2011Wired magazine looks at the future of black box technology, specifically black box technology in planes. New units could use ‘the cloud’ to prevent data loss in an accident.
The Iridium network, which covers the entire globe with 66 orbiting satellites, could probably accommodate the bandwidth needed to transmit at least .Read more...
Congestion: On our roads, in Congress
Monday, August 15th, 2011The Wall Street Journal looks at congestion on American roads and how to get things moving.
We have tremendous technology available that could help make transportation smoother and more efficient. Traffic signals that are centrally controlled by computer can optimize the flow of traffic. Electronic toll-collection tags let drivers pay without .Read more...
Can Technology Chance the Car Insurance Industry?
Tuesday, August 9th, 2011Progressive Insurance is looking at new ways of approaching the car insurance business. Malia Wollan and Fast Company look at the new technology they are considering to change the policy pricing models of today.
When Glenn Renwick, the chief executive of insurance giant Progressive, sits down to dinner with his wife .Read more...
