A small but informative book by author Mary James and titled “Recreating the American Home: The Passive House Approach” is replete with excellent photographs, floor plans and construction details to complement the well-written text. The book does a great job explaining the passive house approach to construction and describes each of the eight featured homes with a perfect balance of project background, builder motivation, economic considerations, technical details and final performance results.

Over the past 150 years, at least one Russian czar and several American entrepreneurs have devised plans for linking the continents.  William Gilpin (1813-1893), first Governor of the Territory of Colorado, proposed a rail link as early as 1849. Gilpin’s Isothermal Axis Theory is still used in the study of geopolitics. The idea at that time was to link the rail networks of the Americas, Asia and Europe.
In the late 1890s, E.H. Harriman of the Union Pacific Railroad envisaged a similar concept. The Trans-Siberian Railroad had recently been completed (c. 1900; 1903). Harriman’s vision included an 800-mile rail corridor from Alaska’s Cook Inlet to Cape Prince of Wales, where a rail-ferry crossing was also planned. “The Harriman Plan” was shelved due to the advent of the Russo-Japan War of 1904-05.
In 1942, the Bering crossing was resurrected as the ‘Delano initiative’ to provide matèrial to the USA’s then allies – the Russians. A rail corridor was surveyed (not for the first time) by the Army Corps of Engineers all the way along the Rocky Mountains trench as far as the Bering Strait region.
An intermodal East-West trade corridor evolved in the interim. The rail networks of North America and Siberia are now effectively linked by the shipping lanes between Seattle and Vladivostock.
In 1992, The Interhemispheric Bering Strait Tunnel & Railroad Group (IBSTRG) was formed to revisit the notion of a fixed transport link across the strait.
Aevia — Consider the Source (Slideshow)

In the past year or so, there have been some important developments that have dramatically changed the startup landscape.
First, entrepreneurs involved with startups have grown more sophisticated, experienced and creative about how they start, operate and finance a new business.
These are people who have been earning their stripes and valuable experience working for startups without the benefit of growth capital. As a result, they have learned to be flexible and creative.
Just as important, they have a keen appreciation for how to squeeze as much as they can from every dollar they spend. It means that with even a small amount of financing, they can go a long way and get a lot done.
Second, there has been a healthy expansion in the amount of seed and startup capital available from venture capitalists and angels. Given how lean and mean startups can operate, investors can inject $250,000 to $500,000 into a startup to support major growth in the product or service plus sales and marketing activities.
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The National Science Foundation wants to take researchers’ big ideas from the laboratory to marketplace through a new program called Innovation Corps.
The public-private partnership between NSF, the Kauffman Foundation, and the Deshpande Foundation will provide $50,000 grants to help scientists turn research into viable products, says NSF program manager Errol Arkilic. The grants are limited to researchers who have already been funded by NSF. They’re intended to support the projects for up to six months while the teams research how their technology could benefit society.
The program will use the curriculum of Stanford University’s Lean Launchpad, a class developed by serial tech entrepreneur Steve Blank to teach entrepreneurship to engineers, scientists, and other professionals. Blank will also be an I-Corps instructor. He says the main goal of his course is to get students out of their labs to see if what they have to offer is what a customer really needs.
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Spanish debt has again been in the firing line on financial markets after a review for possible downgrade from credit rating agency Moody’s on Friday. It cited weak growth and hefty regional spending as key challenges for the euro zone’s fourth largest economy.
Spain’s prime minister called early elections on Friday, gambling that a summer jobs boom may allow his Socialists to snatch victory despite economic stagnation that has contributed to the euro zone’s debt crisis. Although polls suggest the conservative opposition will easily win the Nov. 20 vote, Socialists have narrowed the gap in recent months as the economy begins to show faint signs of recovery.
Most economists expect strong employment figures during the tourism season, a key driver of the Spanish economy.
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The prime minister said his government had initiated three “revolutions”: First, by “changing the way we treat land that the government holds, [as] our aim is not to maximize profit on land, but rather the opposite, to cut the price of land”; second, by correcting a market failure and introducing housing for low-cost rent; and finally, by utilizing unused land inside cities “for the good of the public.”
The program would include discounts on land for construction, new homes for long-term rental at reduced rates and 10,000 new dormitory units for students.
Calling the nationwide tentcity protests “justified,” Netanyahu said he understood the urgency of taking measures to alleviate pressure on the housing market. “The housing crisis in Israel is real, it’s not something that somebody fabricated,” he said.
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In Somalia, the first shipment of food was delivered Wednesday to Mogadishu, the first shipment since the official declaration of a famine just over a week ago. But the U.N. said it cannot get aid to more than two million people who are unable to flee the country’s south – territories controlled by rebels linked to al Qaeda and where some of the most desperate can be found.
Many of the refugees find their way to the Dadaab camp in Kenya, the world’s largest refugee camp, housing some 380,000 people – nearly four times its intended capacity. Close to 11 million children and families are suffering from the effects of the worst drought in 60 years. Thousands are fleeing Somalia on foot, leaving behind a nation plagued by malnutrition, disease and poverty.
Aevia — Consider the Source