Earth-Sheltered Housing?

I still think this might be of some interest if we are thinking about developing a fire proof community from scratch:

These are some links to various sites about underground living\building:

http://www.undergroundhousing.com/

Also, a site discussing this kind of solution ( and others) for housing on Mars (maybe not so relevant for L.A at this point, but amusing at any rate..):

http://www.iit.edu/~mars/housing_report.html

And, a pdf covering some of the specifics surrounding earth-sheltered building methods:

http://www.uaf.edu/ces/publications/freepubs/EEM-01359.pdf

(Cat)

WILDFIRES

Here is a link to information on the so-called “big blow up” that we are now experiencing with modern wildfires.

State of Green Business 2008

posted Mari Nakano

Here is the PDF for Joel Makower’s State of Green Business 2008. Makower was one of the speakers at the Sustainability Conference Pre-Summit.

download the PDF here and check out the site while you’re at it.

You can also visit greenbiz.com for more information.

Fantasy NBA System Model

This is a model of the network of relationships in a NBA fanatsy sports league. The lines between clusters show patterns of influence. The chart flows from left to right in terms of a timeline: for example, the NBA exists first, then the fan, then the fan makes a fantasy league, and so on. The size of each circle indicates its step in a process; bigger circles mean that they are things that happen before events in smaller circles. Each circle only touches events that directly relate to it. The color of the circle is dependent on which of three real life factors influence it: NBA players and their statistics are orange, Individual decisions are green, and decisions influenced by the people you are playing against are brown.

Social Networks in Cuba: Committees for the Defense of the Revolution (CDR)

by Mari Nakano

Committees for the Defense of the Revolution (CDR’s) are neighborhood-based organizations that were initally formed in defense of the Cuban Revolution. They are networked all across Cuba with anestimated 122,000 chapters and approximately 7.6 million members. Committees for the Defense of the Revolution (CDR), are citizen-based forces meant to reinforce the Cuban government’s goals and ideals. They
exist so that information can be disseminated rapidly in a fashion that is not dependent soley on the affordances of mass media. Their initial purpose was to protect Cuba from the United States Counter Intelligence Agency (CIA) spies, but over the years has transformed in a way that gears itself more towards the needs of the community.

View the visual interpretation here.

Burning Edge Cities Brainstorm

This image is our brainstorm about suburban communities in Southern California and their interactions with wildfires. This relationship that became more explicit during the Summer and Fall of 2007 with whole sections of these homes burning to the ground. We looked at possible alternate structures and community activities that might integrate some of the ecological renewal that comes from the fire ecology into these neighborhoods. Look at our notes from the session here.

Steam Engine System Map

This is a map of the systems of a steam locomotive, and it’s relation to external networks such as energy resources and the environment at large. The steam locomotive was chosen as a symbol of the industrial age and mobility of goods and people. In reading the Web of Life by Frijtof Capra, the governor of the steam engine was used as an example of a negative feedback loop. This generates a self balancing system between the speed of the train and the pressure in the boiler. Check out these links on steam engines and feedback. View a larger image of the system map.

A Working Brain Model

Our header image at the top of the site this week comes from a post on Visual Complexity about scientists in Switzerland who have been creating models of the neocortex in the brain of mammals. View article here.