Airport Land Art Is (Acoustic) Baffling Http://ift.tt/1SEHBCD

Mapping the World’s Air Pollution in Real Time

[Image: Air Quality Index China]

Spatial Agency: Other Ways of Doing Architecture

Nishat Awan

This book offers the first comprehensive overview of alternative approaches to architectural practice. At a time when many commentators are noting that alternative and richer approaches to architectural practice are required if the profession is to flourish, this book provides multiple examples from across the globe of how this has been achieved and how it might be achieved in the future. Particularly pertinent in the current economic climate, this book offers the reader new approaches to architectural practice in a changing world. It makes essential reading for any architect, aspiring or practicing.

Well I’M ready for the holidays. 

Turns out, in addition to leaving our mark on surfaces, we’re also emitting a bacterial signature into the air—what scientists call a “microbial cloud.” And according to a new study conducted by the Biology and the Built Environment Center at the University of Oregon, this invisible aura is so specific that it can be used to distinguish between individual people.

Our Bodies, Our Microbial Clouds

[Graphic: Viputheshwar Sitaraman/Draw Science]

A Mesmerizing 3-D Vision of New York as Pure Data

Send me to Mars with party supplies before next august 5th

The Fantastically Strange Origin of Most Coal on Earth

The absence of the tiniest creature can shape the world in the biggest way.

Ever wonder how coal formed?

One of the many data-driven projects to make the world a better place over at DataKind.

Question

Information can be very valuable. But it loses value with age. It becomes history, and less of a tool for change.

What value does information about poverty have? Well, when it’s timely—which historically poverty data has not been—that information can trigger reactions: in monetary policy, in foreign aid, in any imaginable channel of support. Time can mitigate starvation and disease, and save untold lives.

So we wanted to know: What kind of data could be secured easily, cheaply, and quickly that might provide nearly real time analysis on poverty? We thought the answer might be written in the lights.

Check out their findings: (via DataKind | Shining a Light on Poverty)