Archives for September 2009

Too Many (African) Babies?

Rapid population growth in the developing world does not significantly contribute to rising greenhouse gas emissions and focusing on the population explosion in poor countries diverts attention from the far more serious issue of over-consumption in rich countries, according to a new study. Introduction. Paper (pdf). Opinion.

Vintage Alloy Tools

Tools 1

Alloy Artifacts: online resource for 20th century hand tools and the companies that made them. Via Makezine.

Good Question

“How much of what we readily identify as ‘progress’ in urban-industrial society is really the undoing of evils inherited from the last round of technological innovation?” Quoted from: “Where the Wasteland Ends“, Theodore Roszak, 1972. (Amazon link).

The Blackpool Tramway

blackpool tramway

They have the worst weather in the world, but they also have the hottest looking open top trams (streetcars). Welcome onboard the 1930s Blackpool Balloon cars in the UK. Alan Robson has around 1,300 pictures of the vehicles, some of them below. Text and first picture from Wikipedia.

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Steampunk Cities

Trautrimas-the-measurement-district

By David Trautrimas via WebUrbanist.

Competing with Computers

dead reckoning

Magnetic deviation, lightning calculators, nomograms and more “lost arts in the mathematical sciences” at Dead Reckonings. Related: Satellite navigation in the 18th century.