The Ultimate Archive

As reported in today's NY Times, scientists are putting together a Book of All Species online at www.eol.org. The archive will eventually have an entry for every species known. If printed as a book, the known 1.8 million species would be over 300 feet long....and that's not counting the fact that it's estimated that 10 times that number of species are still waiting to be discovered. 

What's especially interesting is that the entries are compiled using an algorithm that searches through scientific databases and publications. As libraries and their content go digital through new media and the scanning and digitizing of old media, we may be looking at a prototype for a new kind of knowledge infrastructure.

Network Hydrology

History Channel's recent "City of the Future" competition winner by San Francisco architects IwamotoScott.
More details at bldgblog.

SOM's proposal for a 'green island' in Shanghai

"In SOM’s conception, Chongming was positioned as a 'green island' with its urban development confined to eight new, distinct, and highly-compact coastal cities. Each would consist of walkable, transit-rich districts built at a high-enough density to enable a population of nearly a million people to live and work in only 15 percent of the island’s total area"


SOM's website has disabled the ability to copy images so click below.

http://www.som.com/content.cfm/an_island_in_the_sustainable_stream

Brownfield Restoration

"After years of industrial pollution on the shores of Syracuse's Onondaga Lake, the Solway Settling Basins is now setting a precedent for the restoration of contaminated brownfield sites, or parcels of land that previously housed industrial facilities.

Rather than fencing off the area, capping it with clay and plastic, and then posting "Keep Out" signs, a partnership of engineers, scientists, and new corporate owners decided to restore the ecosystem, remediate the environmental concerns, and turn the site into something beneficial."

via Treehugger.com