As of yet SMAs are manufactured mainly for biomedical uses and those in production are not large enough for architecture, but with enough demand it could be the next big thing. louver systems could function just as human hair does. Shape Memory Textiles
During the design and the first construction stage, a heated debate ensued about the high cost of the project. In 1987, Congress was told the project could be completed for $4.4 billion, but by 1993 the cost projection exceeded $12 billion. An especially recurrent argument was the contrast with NASA‘s contribution to the International Space Station (ISS), which was of similar amount.[citation needed] Critics of the project argued that the US could not afford both of them.
A high-level schematic of the lab landscape during the final planning phases.
The project was canceled by Congress in 1993. Many factors contributed to the shutdown of the project, although different parties disagree on which contributed the most. They include rising cost estimates, poor management by physicists and Department of Energy officials, the end of the need to prove the supremacy of American science with the collapse of the Soviet Union, belief that many smaller scientific experiments of equal merit could be funded for the same cost, Congress’s desire to generally reduce spending
The closing of the SSC held drastic ramifications for the southern part of the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex, and resulted in a mild recession made most evident in those parts of Dallas which lay south of the Trinity River.[3] At the time the project was cancelled, 22.5 km (14 miles) of tunnel and 17 shafts to the surface were already dug and nearly two billion dollars had already been spent on the massive facility.
I can’t help but wonder if there is an end to the need to prove the supremacy of American Architecture?
Annie Residence on Modern Homes Tour. Sunday, December 14th 2008 from 11 am – 5 pm at 306 W. Annie St.
Scramjet technology.
The engineering challenge for the engine is akin to keeping a candle lit in a hurricane.
After reading and discussing Tom’s post, I thought I’d throw out some more ideas. I think the biggest challenge to start with is developing a coherent message about how we think the country should go about addressing the ‘green revolution’
Charles Perrow published an interesting book called ‘Normal Accidents‘, which is an anthropological study of catastrophe. He argues that all systems fail given enough time and that to reduce the frequency and severity of catasrophes we must address the systems which fail (rather than blaming actors in such systems, ie blame the people). His basic argument is that there are two fundamental factors which influence the probability of a system failure: the complexity of the system and the interconnectedness of the system. Complexity here refers to non-linear causation chains; a complex system is one in which a cause cannot be clearly determined by observing an effect. Interconnectedness refers to the degree of coordination required between components of a system. He argues that as complexity and interconnectedness increase, the probability of failure must also increase.
Click to continue reading “Some thoughts about complexity and interconnection”
I would like to take a minute to memorialize the bird that tried to fly into our office yesterday. Here’s a link to a small collection of ghost pigeons, “the imprint a pigeon makes on a glass window of a building when it unwittingly flies into it.”
Infoaesthetics just posted a link to a new web page called GeoCommons which allows “non-technical professionals” to view and analyze geo-located data, without the traditional GIS overhead.
As a quick example of why this is cool – here’s a map of the percentage of bridges in each state which are classified as ‘structurally deficient’. 20-25% of the bridges in those states with the big circles are structurally deficient. Makes you wonder if road trips are such a good idea after all. Maybe spending some money on roads and bridges isn’t such a bad idea.
