Hobbyists take to the skies with their addiction

Posted on November 18, 2014 by Writer

Local State

Peake bill on medical cannabis is first in the hopper

Article source: http://www.macon.com/2014/11/16/3427501/hobbyists-take-to-the-skies-with.html

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What the shape of our cities says about the way that we live

Posted on November 17, 2014 by Writer

Even a roaming cartophile, looking through an airplane window at night, would be challenged to identify a city by its sodium-glow footprint. There are exceptions, like peninsular San Francisco or the archipelago of New York. But few cities can be said to have more famous footprints than skylines.

There’s a reason schoolchildren aren’t called on to memorize the outlines of cities. In the modern metropolis, settlement spins outward from the center, hurtling through administrative boundaries, over hills and through swamps, claiming cheap land in all directions. Who can tell one blotch of light from the next?

The major exception to this pattern occurs when cities straddle, as they often do, major geographic obstacles. Rivers may blur to irrelevance at a metropolitan scale, but lakes, bays and mountains have thus far formed strong barriers to human settlement. Lakefront cities, like Toronto and Chicago, are rough semicircles; island cities like Hong Kong and Singapore have their own distinctive shapes.

A growing body of research indicates that this question of urban shape may be more than just trivia. A metropolitan pattern, at the regional level, may be associated with particular urban characteristics.

New evidence for this comes from Mariaflavia Harari’s paper “Cities in Bad Shape.” For her job market paper at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Harari analyzed more than 450 Indian cities to elucidate what influence, if any, a city’s shape would have on indicators like rent, wages and commute time. (Measuring cities by their nighttime lights, Harari uses a neat proxy for developed land that

Article source: http://www.salon.com/2014/11/16/what_the_shape_of_our_cities_says_about_the_way_that_we_live/

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Surveillance is sneaking its way into cities – U

Posted on November 17, 2014 by Writer

SACRAMENTO — In 1966, the then-Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas warned about an “alarming trend whereby the privacy and dignity of our citizens is being whittled away … .” Each step is imperceptible, he wrote, “but when viewed as a whole, there begins to emerge a … society in which government may intrude into the secret regions of man’s life at will.”

What would Douglas think about the post-9/11 world, where the National Security Agency conducts warrantless Internet searches and government agents track cellphone conversations from high-tech airplanes? The latter program, revealed last week by a Wall Street Journal report, has sparked little outcry.

Perhaps people feel powerless to confront federal programs. But a new effort hopes to empower them to confront local authorities who embrace similar technologies by prompting cities and counties to pass an ordinance requiring a public debate and oversight of any such new technologies.

Like most California communities, San Diego area officials employ many devices — license-plate readers, facial-recognition software, video-surveillance systems, etc. These technologies can have advantages — body cameras help monitor police interactions with the public, and can

Article source: http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2014/nov/17/surveillance-sneaking-cities-model-ordinance-aclu/

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Print Thyself

Posted on November 17, 2014 by Writer

A 3-D printer used by researchers at Harvard Universitys Wyss Institute creates a model vascular network.
A 3-D printer used by researchers at Harvard University’s Wyss Institute creates a model vascular network.
Credit Courtesy Lori K. Sanders

In February of 2012, a medical team at the University of Michigan’s C. S. Mott Children’s Hospital, in Ann Arbor, carried out an unusual operation on a three-month-old boy. The baby had been born with a rare condition called tracheobronchomalacia: the tissue of one portion of his airway was so weak that it persistently collapsed. This made breathing very difficult, and it regularly blocked vital blood vessels nearby, including the aorta, triggering cardiac and pulmonary arrest. The infant was placed on a ventilator, while the medical team set about figuring out what to do. The area of weak tissue would somehow need to be repaired or replaced—a major and dangerous operation in so small a patient. The team consulted with the baby’s doctors at Akron Children’s Hospital, in Ohio, and they soon agreed that they had just the right tool for this delicate, lifesaving task: a 3-D printer.

As its name suggests, a 3-D printer prints ink not on a flat substrate, such as paper, but in three dimensions, in successive layers; the ink is substrate and substance in one. The first 3-D printers

Article source: http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/11/24/print-thyself

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James S. ‘Chambie’ Chamberlin – Glens Falls Post

Posted on November 17, 2014 by Writer

LAKE GEORGE — James S. “Chambie” Chamberlin, 65, passed away Thursday, Nov. 13, 2014, at Glens Falls Hospital.

Born March 6, 1949, in Syracuse, he was the son of the late Edwin and Ann (Cleghorn) Chamberlin.

Chambie worked as a self-employed skilled carpenter. He was chief of North Queensbury Volunteer Fire Company in 1988 and 1989 and was a longtime member of Lake George Winter Carnival and the Academy of Model Aeronautics.

Chambie had a passion for Lake George that included sailing, boating, ice skating, water skiing and swan dives from Calf’s Pen. He had a lifelong interest in building and flying model airplanes and boats. He was extremely proud of his son, a career Marine who served four tours of duty in Iraq and who retired as master sergeant.

Chambie is survived by his son, Todd Chamberlin and his wife, Tina, of Tennessee; his grandson, Brett Chamberlin; his granddaughter, Brooke Ann Chamberlin; his brother, Peter Chamberlin of North Carolina; his sister, Carol Myers of South Carolina; his sister, Ann Clugstone of Cleverdale; several nieces, nephews, grandnieces and grandnephews; his special friend, Sundae Milko of Lake George, and lifelong friend, Gary P. Moore of Queensbury.

At Chambie’s request, there will be no calling hours.

A celebration of his life will be held at a later date.

In lieu of flowers, donations can be made in memory of Jim to the J. Clark Towse Scholarship, c/o North Queensbury Volunteer Fire Company Ladies Auxiliary, P.O. Box 286, Cleverdale, NY 12820; or the North Queensbury Volunteer Fire Company, P.O. Box

Article source: http://poststar.com/lifestyles/announcements/obituaries/james-s-chambie-chamberlin/article_a5b50e34-6d37-11e4-835e-f32b391eb6e8.html

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3-D Printer

Posted on November 17, 2014 by Writer

Rocket engine parts, chocolate figurines, functional replica pistols, a Dutch canal house, designer sunglasses, a zippy two-seater car, a rowboat, a prototype bionic ear, pizzas—hardly a week goes by without a startling tour de force in the rapidly evolving technology of three-dimensional printing.

What sounds like something out of Star Trek—the starship’s replicator could synthesize anything—is increasingly becoming a reality. Indeed, NASA is testing a 3-D printer on the International Space Station to see if it might provide a way to fabricate meals, tools, and replacement parts on long missions.

Back on Earth, long-term business plans are being reimagined. Airbus envisions that by 2050 entire planes could be built of 3-D printed parts. GE is already using printers to make fuel-nozzle tips for jet engines. And interest isn’t limited just to corporate giants.

“We all know that 3-D printing is going to play a big role in the future,” says Hedwig Heinsman, one of the partners in the Dutch architectural firm DUS, which is printing a house on the banks of Amsterdam’s Buiksloter Canal.

Over three years a 20-foot-tall printer, the KamerMaker (Room Maker) will create walls, cornices, and rooms, trying out materials, designs, and concepts. “I can see a time coming where you will be able to choose and download house plans like you were buying something on iTunes,

Article source: http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2014/12/3d-printer/smith-text

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Northlandz a truly special Central Jersey attraction

Posted on November 16, 2014 by Writer

Northlandz, the Home of the Great American Railway Doll Museum Art Gallery, certainly is a prominent and special Central Jersey destination point. One would be hard pressed to name another place in the region that is such a landmark that draws visitors from near and far.

Northlandz, located at Route 202 South at River Road in Raritan Township just north of Flemington, is a 16-acre attraction developed by Bruce Williams Zaccagnino and his late wife Jean. Included in the complex is a doll museum, La Peep Doll House, a 2,000 pipe theater pipe organ and art galleries.

Northlandz features up to 100 trains on more than 8 miles of track, a more than 200-item doll collection and a 94-room dollhouse in a 1-mile visitors walkway.

Zaccagnino, who for many years loved trains, said the Great

Article source: http://www.mycentraljersey.com/story/news/local/hunterdon-county/2014/11/16/northlandz-truly-special-central-jersey-attraction/19044587/

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