Robot Swans

Robot swans are gliding across Singapore’s reservoirs, monitoring water quality. The buoyant birdbots, which automatically return to shore bases when their batteries weaken, look a bit less swan-like when the water gets choppy.

More:

“Singapore recruits swanbots to test water quality,” BBC

______________________

Short link: https://wp.me/p6sb6-r1t

Comments are welcome if they are on-topic, substantive, concise, and not boring or obscene. Comments may be edited for clarity and length.

Add to: Facebook | Digg | Del.icio.us | Stumbleupon | Reddit | Blinklist | Twitter | Technorati | Yahoo Buzz | Newsvine

Standing Rock

“Mni Wiconi: The Standing at Standing Rock,” a short film by Lucian Read about the Native American people of the Standing Rock  community who oppose the Dakota Access Pipeline project. “Mni Wiconi” means “Water is Life” in the Sioux language.

This week, some people are choosing to join them for the Thanksgiving holiday.

Updates:

“Medics Describe How Police Sprayed Standing Rock Demonstrators With Tear Gas and Water Cannons,” Alleen Brown, The Intercept

“Police defend use of water cannons on Dakota Access protesters in freezing weather,” Derek Hawkins, Washington Post

“Trump owns stock in Dakota Access parent company,” Harper Neidig, The Hill
________________________

Short link: http://wp.me/p6sb6-oV8

Comments are welcome if they are on-topic, substantive, concise, and not boring or obscene. Comments may be edited for clarity and length.

Add to: Facebook | Digg | Del.icio.us | Stumbleupon | Reddit | Blinklist | Twitter | Technorati | Yahoo Buzz | Newsvine

Giant Machine Tunnels Under Nation’s Capital

Lady Bird, a 400-foot-long, $30 million, 1,300-ton German-made tunnel boring machine, will soon be carving miles of 22-foot-wide tunnel 100 feet below the Potomac riverbed. It’s part of DC Water’s Clean Rivers Project, the second-largest civil engineering project in DC history (only Metrorail is bigger). When completed in 2025, the $2.6 billion EPA-funded dig will keep raw sewage from flowing into the Potomac and Anacostia when it rains hard. That’s what happens now (it’s called CSO, “Combined Sewer Overflow”).

Lady Bird will be underground and out of sight, but you can follow her on her own Twitter account.

Surf’s Up: America’s Most Bacterial Beaches

Summer’s here, and microbes are cavorting in the waves at beaches across the country. If you like to body-surf with bacteria and paddle through pathogens, the Natural Resources Defense Council has your itinerary ready. It’s their annual Guide to Water Quality at Vacation Beaches.

Call the local visitor’s bureau before you pack the car, though. At a time when great white sharks terrorize bathers on both coasts, some spoil-sport health agencies close down beaches just because some teeny critters might cause stomach flu, skin rashes, pinkeye, respiratory infections, meningitis, and hepatitis. Wimps.

More:

“America’s Dirtiest Beaches,” Kate Sheppard, Mother Jones

___________________

Short Link: http://wp.me/p6sb6-dzl

Image (“The Great Wipeout Off Kanagawa, after Hokusai”) by Mike Licht. Download a copy here. Creative Commons license; credit Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com

Comments are welcome if they are on-topic, substantive, concise, and not boring or obscene. Comments may be edited for clarity and length.

Add to: Facebook | Digg | Del.icio.us | Stumbleupon | Reddit | Blinklist | Twitter | Technorati | Yahoo Buzz | Newsvine