UrbanWorkbench

Technology

The Lifesaver Bottle

by Mike Thomas on August 13, 2010

in Technology,Water

Clean water is something that most of my readers probably quite happily take for granted. Despite the fact that in most Cities the systems we use to clean and transport water are among some of the most decrepit parts of the infrastructure of the communities we live in, we assume that when we turn on [...]

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{ 0 comments }

Set Up for Failure

by Mike Thomas on June 16, 2010

in Energy,Sustainability,Technology

As a society, (or a species, take your pick), we are terrible at planning and strategising much further than what we are planning to eat for dinner. while Japanese companies plan for world domination in five generations, we are stuck in a revolving door of problems that need immediate attention. But even when we get [...]

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{ 4 comments }

Simplicity

by Mike Thomas on June 9, 2010

in Civil Engineering,Conference,Design,Technology

My whole life is surrounded by technology that has been discovered or invented in the past 50 years. I am a product of Generation-X, the epitome of consumerism. I love and want more technology, I crave the latest gadget, I consume therefore I am. But really, I am a poor example of a consumer, I [...]

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{ 8 comments }

The five P’s

by Mike Thomas on June 2, 2010

in Business,Energy,Environmental,Technology

Or “Why I don’t trust BP to clean up anything” I haven’t dedicated much space here to the ongoing saga going down in Louisiana as BP and the US government fumble to maintain the appearance of control of the situation. I’ll leave the blow-by-blow account of these mishandling to people with more time and patience [...]

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{ 1 comment }

It might just be the feeds that I follow in Google Reader, but I have been inundated with blow-by-blow posts, articles, pictures and video of the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill. I don’t want this to be yet another post on the oil spill, and although it is seriously enough to put the average pro-oil man [...]

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{ 2 comments }

Technology changes everything, in this case, it brings an old map to life. My job as a City Engineer takes me into the past quite often, and the ability to use historical mapping as a tool to determine the cause of issues today can be quite important. Since Google Earth and Google Maps have been [...]

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{ 2 comments }

Now why doesn’t this surprise me? The document from Houston University claims that governments wanting to use Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) have overestimated its value and says it would take a reservoir the size of a small US state to hold the CO2 produced by one power station. Previous modelling has hugely underestimated the [...]

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{ 0 comments }

I’m a twitterer. I’m bored of the monologue style of media that still dominates the old school thinking. Telling people what you want them to hear with no easy opportunity for dialog is so 90′s.   That’s why I think it is essential for municipalities to embrace social media and build participation in the demographics that are [...]

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{ 4 comments }