tingilinde

death by ionizing radiation?

there's an app for that...

average house size

Homes in the US are large - via the BBC

if you aren't comfortable with square meters here is the conversion to square feet

US 2303

Australia 2217

Denmark 1475

France 1216

Spain 1044

Ireland 947

UK 818

 

great storm photography

the first tornado photo is astonishing - fine collection

 

the current state of cycling in north america

A new paper by John Pucher, Ralph Buehler and Mark Seinen (pdf)

 

Bicycling renaissance in North America? An update and

re-appraisal of cycling trends and policies

John Pucher a,⇑, Ralph Buehler b,1, Mark Seinen a

a Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy, Rutgers University, 33 Livingston Avenue, Room 363, New Brunswick, NJ 08901, USA

b School of Public and International Affairs, Virginia Tech, Alexandria Center, 1021 Prince Street, Suite 200, Alexandria, VA 22314, USA

a b s t r a c t

This paper reviews trends in cycling levels, safety, and policies in Canada and the USA over the past two decades. We analyze aggregate data for the two countries as well as cityspecific case study data for nine large cities (Chicago, Minneapolis, Montréal, New York, Portland, San Francisco, Toronto, Vancouver, and Washington). Cycling levels have increased in both the USA and Canada, while cyclist fatalities have fallen. There is much spatial variation and socioeconomic inequality in cycling rates. The bike share of work commuters is more than twice as high in Canada as in the USA, and is higher in the western parts of both countries. Cycling is concentrated in central cities, especially near universities and in gentrified neighborhoods near the city center. Almost all the growth in cycling in the USA has been among men between 25–64 years old, while cycling rates have remained steady among women and fallen sharply for children. Cycling rates have risen much faster in the nine case study cities than in their countries as a whole, at least doubling in all the cities since 1990. They have implemented a wide range of infrastructure and programs to promote cycling and increase cycling safety: expanded and improved bike lanes and paths, traffic calming, parking, bike-transit integration, bike sharing, training programs, and promotional events. We describe the specific accomplishments of the nine case study cities, focusing on each city’s innovations and lessons for other cities trying to increase cycling. Portland’s comprehensive package of cycling policies has succeeded in raising cycling levels 6-fold and provides an example that other North American cities can follow.

 

 

 

 

 

wacom inkling

If this works well, I need one. About $199 and coming next month...

the oil curse and the norwegian miracle

I caught the Planet Money podcast, which focused on what a country does with oil wealth - fascinating and recommended   (25 minute mp3)

a dual birthday

 

 

Happy Birthday Bob

 

 

and 

 

 

Happy Birthday Brian! 

 

 

aha! in elephant

From PLoS one ..  an elephant's insight in problem solving.  (very accessible)

Insightful Problem Solving in an Asian Elephant

• Preston Foerder¹, Marie Galloway², Tony Barthel², Donald E. Moore III², Diana Reiss^1,3*

1 Biopsychology and Behavioral Neuroscience Program, The Graduate Center, The City University of New York, New York, New York, United States of America, 2Smithsonian National Zoological Park, Washington, D.C., United States of America,3 Department of Psychology, Hunter College, The City University of New York, New York, New York, United States of America

Abstract Top

The “aha” moment or the sudden arrival of the solution to a problem is a common human experience. Spontaneous problem solving without evident trial and error behavior in humans and other animals has been referred to as insight. Surprisingly, elephants, thought to be highly intelligent, have failed to exhibit insightful problem solving in previous cognitive studies. We tested whether three Asian elephants (Elephas maximus) would use sticks or other objects to obtain food items placed out-of-reach and overhead. Without prior trial and error behavior, a 7-year-old male Asian elephant showed spontaneous problem solving by moving a large plastic cube, on which he then stood, to acquire the food. In further testing he showed behavioral flexibility, using this technique to reach other items and retrieving the cube from various locations to use as a tool to acquire food. In the cube's absence, he generalized this tool utilization technique to other objects and, when given smaller objects, stacked them in an attempt to reach the food. The elephant's overall behavior was consistent with the definition of insightful problem solving. Previous failures to demonstrate this ability in elephants may have resulted not from a lack of cognitive ability but from the presentation of tasks requiring trunk-held sticks as potential tools, thereby interfering with the trunk's use as a sensory organ to locate the targeted food.

 

make the world go away...

you can't ignore nature over the long term - but of course stupidity can rule for awhile...  

Paul Krugman on the Republican war on science...

 

 

sky safari for os x

I'm a fan of Sky Safari from Southern Stars for iOS.  There are a number of astronomy applications, but this one works best for me.  I've also been using Voyager from Carina Software on Macs for a long time. Carina and Southern Stars are connected and now there is Sky Safari for OS X.  It has the feature of being very inexpensive with one version starting at $2.99 until September 15 through the Mac App Store.  A nice introduction to star maps.

recommended