City dwellers have long cultivated pots of tomatoes on top of their buildings. But farming in the sky is a fairly recent development in the green roof movement, in which owners have been encouraged to replace blacktop with plants, often just carpets of succulents, to cut down on storm runoff, insulate buildings and moderate urban heat.
Urban Farming...Read more here
On the streets of Amsterdam last week, major changes were afoot. The first of 1,200 households installed an energy-saving system aimed at cutting electricity costs. Others were given fresh access to financing from Dutch banks ING and Rabobank to buy everything from energy-saving light bulbs to ultra-efficient roof insulation. And on Utrechtsestraat, a major shopping avenue in the center of the Dutch capital, solar-powered panels on local bus stops were installed to transform the road into a "Climate Street" piloting clean technology.
Check out more on Amsterdam's latest climate initiatives here!
I may not be in NYC anymore but everything about it still interest me, even this silly blog from a fellow lover of NYC. here are some pix from his blog and more here too: NY Times Article
I may not be in anymore but everything about it still interest me, even this silly blog from a fellow lover of NYC. here are some pix from his blog and more here too: NY Times Article
Well I have still be too lazy to set up a new Houston blog so here I am again filling my New York blog with life down here in Tejas. Oh well one is lucky to have blog time at all :)
So here are a few pix from the past few weeks of good times with my family. Most of these are of my adorable niece and nephew who unlike myself and others never take a bad picture :p My favorite is the one of them sitting in the fridge, now what a place to hang out!
Here is one of me and Mo, he was not too thrilled to be sitting in the audience as his mother played bridesmaid on the stage.
My beautiful mom and sister
A little crazy eye action here but you can definitely see mine and Lola's family resemblance :
My lovely mom and I
butterpaper
and i really like the name of this one :)
Life Without Buildings
check out the post on Obama..too funny
architechnophilia
don't be deterred by the name :P thru this blog i discovered some of the above
once i decide i really like these I'll spend time to add them to my sidebar but thought i would post them here first as each one has links to a wealth of great architecture related stuff
Sunday evening I had the pleasure of enjoying a great FREE outdoor Jazz concert with my parents. The Miller Outdoor theater here in Houston host a series of great concerts sponsored by the local public radio station. One very good thing about Houston is it's fall weather, unlike NYC you can have an amazing evening of listening to music outside when it's nearly November and the temp outside is close to 70 :)
It's only in the last few years that I have really grown to appreciate Jazz, especially when I hear it live. Perhaps it's largely attributed to the fact that my first and only visit to Carnegie Hall while living in NYC was to hear the great Jazz musician David Brubeck. So when I heard about this past Sundays concert I was excited but a little unsure about it's main guest Ann Hampton Callaway. In the end I was pleasantly surprised how much I enjoyed it though I have never been into that type of Jazz Performer/ Broadway entertainer type :) Oh yes and she was accompanied by my Alma mater's (U of H) jazz orchestra too!
Although I have to say the whole evening was pretty great just to begin with for the shear fact that I was sitting under the stars on a beautiful night and I had managed to bring both my parents out to "downtown" on a Sunday night :P
"This Health Coverage poster speaks about the 40 million Americans living in the world's wealthiest economy without health insurance. It is beyond comprehension how we spend trillions on wars but there is not enough to protect the health of our own citizens, including children. Vote for Barack to change this injustice!"
"So many reasons. But the one I feel in my gut is this: When I look at Barack Obama's life story, I see America."
See more great Obama supporter graphics here
@ 30 resons.org
this is another interesting one too
http://www.fivethirtyeight.com/
read about it's creator here
http://nymag.com/news/features/51170/
Some disturbing but not surprising news heard last week on public radio.
"A new United Nations report has revealed major US cities, including New York, Washington, Atlanta and New Orleans, have levels of economic inequality that rival cities in Africa. The report found that the United States had the highest inequality and poverty after Mexico and Turkey, and the gap has increased rapidly since 2000. The life expectancy of African Americans in the United States is about the same as that of people living in China and some states of India."
Tonight I was looking for something on archived cd's and I ran across some photos of the time I lived in London last year. One group of pix in particular of my farewell sendoff from my colleagues. They surprised me by taking me to this amazing champagne bar called 360 as it has a complete view of all of London from the top of one of the tallest building in the city. To top it off it was a beautiful night too.
