Noisy Vietnam, ousted in India, the elusive dream, Penn’s Island, More…
Noise Pollution Plagues Ho Chi Minh City
Stepping outside most international airports brings you from a world of relative calm into your first direct encounter with a foreign environment. In the developed world, the main difference between the surreal quiet inside the arrivals area and outside on the city’s streets tends to be climatic or architectural. However, leaving Tan Son Nhat Airport, the unseasoned visitor soon learns of one of Ho Chi Minh City’s most inhospitable features – its volume.”
Second Life Planning
“UC Irvine computer scientist Crista Lopes was happy to do all her work in the real world – until February, that is.Now she also devotes time to programming in the computer-based world Second Life, where she is creating software to control a virtual rapid-transit system called SkyTran. Her software keeps SkyTran’s virtual cars from getting into virtual collisions at virtual interchanges of virtual tracks.
“She’s onto something,” said Chris Perkins, chief executive of Unimodal. The virtual version of SkyTran has already been useful in addressing urban-planning issues, such as demonstrating how close the tracks could be to buildings and vegetation without making passengers uncomfortable, he said.”
A New Approach to Public Health
“Michael Royster, who recently was named head of Virginia’s Office of Minority Health and Public Health Policy, said that whereas state health officials might previously have focused on smoking as a factor behind high cancer rates among minorities, they now are examining factors such as the high prevalence of tobacco ads in urban communities. He said, “What we’re looking at is not only health care, but the roles that health care, health behaviors and these broader social determinants play in creating health inequities.”
Hybrid Buses Hit New York City
“New York has ordered 850 and anticipates having a fleet of around 1,600 hybrid buses by 2010. The vehicles, which are powered by BAE Systems’ Hybri Drive(R) diesel-electric hybrid propulsion system, are designed for greater fuel economy and lower emission levels. This works via a single electric motor that’s driven by a diesel generator and an energy storage unit.”
Planning for Urban Sporting Events: Worst Practices
“For Manoj Kumar and hundreds of other unemployed labourers camped out under shredded tarps beside a chaotic intersection of this bustling capital, the forthcoming Commonwealth Games was a harbinger of new prosperity: more jobs, better roads and decent housing for their families.
But instead, as New Delhi tries to spruce up and transform itself into a modern city in time for the 2010 games, Kumar finds himself fending off city authorities from bulldozing the shelters where his family and 40 others have lived in tarpaulin and burlap tents for 25 years.”
One American Dream, and a Side of Wishful Thinking
The Economic Mobility Project, a research initiative led by the Pew Charitable Trusts, looked at the economic fortunes of a large group of families over time, comparing the income of parents in the late 1960s with the income of their children in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Here’s the finding that jumps out at me:
“The ‘rags to riches’ story is much more common in Hollywood than on Main Street. Only 6 percent of children born to parents with family income at the very bottom move to the very top.”
“A survey by Security Magazine has ranked the University of Pennsylvania No. 1 for safety in the educational market. Penn was ranked sixth out of 500 businesses and organization recognized for being proactive in improving security.“Based on the size of the Penn campus, having more than 50,000 students, employees and patients in the area daily, and being located within a major urban center, Penn has invested significantly in security and as a result finds itself atop the education market,” Security Magazine Publisher Mark McCourt said.
A great topic for discussion, as I’m sure many of you are familiar with the safety patrol officers that stand on the corners surrounding Penn, serving as symbolic protectors of the student population. While the rest of the city languishes in volatility, it sure is a privilege to be a Penn student. I wonder if they’re aware.
