Skip the subway, take a ski lift to work instead

7 hrs.

The future of mass transit will come with sweeping views, private cars, and schedule-free travel if a proposed gondola-based system takes off from sketchpads at a design firm, which stands a shot at occurring in fast-growing Texas.

Gondolas are enclosed cabins that dangle from moving wires. They are commonly used to transport skiers and snowboarders up mountains and tourists around amusement parks. Michael McDaniel and his colleagues at ?Frog, an international design firm, believe the ski lifts can improve transit in big cities.

?Just given that the technology was developed for traversing extremes in elevation, it actually makes itself very handy for navigating through the urban fabric,? McDaniel told NBC News.

Construction costs for gondolas range between $3 million and $12 million per mile compared to $35 million per mile for surface rail, $132 million per mile for elevated rail and $400 million per mile for subways, according to Frog?s calculations.

In addition, the cabins are always moving through the station. If passengers want a private car for themselves and their friends, they can wait a few seconds for an empty one. Gondolas also eliminate the need for riders to plan their day around a bus or train schedule.

?They are getting the same freedom that they would have with their own automobile but without the burden or complexity of having an automobile,? McDaniel said. A hub-and-spoke design would permit a main line to circle an urban core and shoot out individual lines to more distant neighborhoods.

He and colleague Jared Ficklin came up with the concept while looking at a century-old photograph of their office building in downtown Austin, Texas. Rail tracks crisscross the intersection in front of the building. Today, the city plans to re-lay tracks for an expanded light rail system.

The designers saw irony in the fact that the future of their city?s transportation was a recreation of what existed during their grandparents? childhood. There had to be a better way, they thought.?

Ficklin drew inspiration from his ski-bumming days in Colorado, where resorts such as Telluride now use chair lifts to move people around town in addition to up the slopes. Why not extend the concept to bigger cities?

To find out if the idea was feasible, the designers used it as a training exercise for junior designers at their firm. ?About halfway through the research, we started looking at what we were discovering and were like, ?Wow this actually seems kind of feasible,'?? McDaniel said.

He presented the concept, called the Wire, at a design conference in San Francisco in November 2012. An article about the presentation caught the eye of Alan McGraw, the mayor of Round Rock, Texas, an Austin suburb. He is on a transportation planning committee for the greater Austin area.

McGraw went to Frog?s offices and met with the designers. He was impressed with the presentation and drawings, which show, for example, transit stations located in the top floors of skyscrapers and parking garages.

What?s more, since most of the infrastructure is overhead, real estate costs and right-of-way issues are minimized. ?You are going over all of your problems, literally,? McGraw told NBC News.

McGraw, who is a skier himself, said he had often wondered why overhead ski-lift-like transportation systems were absent from cities.

?When I bring it up, people just laugh and then they just kind of move on,? McGraw said. Dig a little deeper, though, and ?it goes from giggles to 'Okay, why not?'?? he added.

Some potential marks against the concept include unknown operation and maintenance costs, which could eat up the savings gained from the lower construction costs.?

In addition, the fastest gondolas move no more than 15 miles per hour. That?s fine for dense urban cores in places such as New York City, but less than ideal for covering the wide open spaces of Texas.

?It is not the answer to all of the problems,? McGraw said, but a gondola system is a potential piece to the transportation puzzle and worth considering, which he and his committee have begun to do.?

?From communication to the automobile, we are innovating,? he said. ?We are trying to make things work better and more efficiently. Well, why aren?t we doing that with mass transportation as well??

John Roach is a contributing writer for NBC News Digital. To learn more about him, check out his website. For more of our Future of Technology series, watch the featured video below.

Source: http://www.nbcnews.com/technology/futureoftech/skip-subway-take-ski-lift-work-instead-1B7872322

taylor swift taylor swift Texas A Texas A&m cotton bowl Fiscal cliff deal kathy griffin

EzineArticles Alert: Internet-and-Businesses-Online:PPC-Publishing

NEW YORK (Reuters) ? The S&P 500 extended gains to a fourth day on Thursday, putting it on the cusp of a new five-year high if Friday?s jobs report shows encouraging signs for the labor market. The rally was broad, with all 10 S&P 500 sectors up and financials in the lead. The S&P?s financial [...]

Iklan VIP Iklan Anda Di Sini ? Sertai Program Affiliate Iklan-Tunai.Com ? Klik di sini ?? ?Buy Watches (COJ235868) [...]

When it comes to cookies, deliciousness usually arrives in the form of ingredients like flour, butter, sugar, nuts, and chocolate. So what happens when you can?t eat any of these foods? In my case, you start playing with coconut. Besides nut and chocolate allergies, I am currently on a restricted diet without gluten, soy, dairy, [...]

TORONTO (Reuters) ? AOL Inc entered the mobile gaming market with a social video guessing game available on Apple?s iPhone that uses voice recognition technology to keep players from cheating. For now, the game, Clucks, can only be played by iPhone users. The Android version of the app will be released by the end of [...]

Cain Velasquez hit Junior dos Santos really, really hard, and Yahoo! Sports photographer Tracy Lee was there to capture every punchface dos Santos made. See that and more from UFC 155. Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/mma-cagewriter/junior-dos-santos-punchface-lots-blood-more-ufc-200511950?mma.html zappos hacked jane fonda jon huntsman bit coin huntsman w.e. episodes

Source: http://nadalmurray.rappelzforum.net/169/ezinearticles-alert-internet-and-businesses-onlineppc-publishing/

nick cannon lindsay lohan saturday night live snl lindsay lohan valley fever project x the lorax lorax

Source: http://albertehalle.blogspot.com/2013/01/ezinearticles-alert-internet-and.html

666 Park Avenue Kara Alongi Sahara Davenport Resident Evil 6 arnold schwarzenegger revenge revenge

Nature's Sports Drink & Hangover Remedy - Sun Warrior

by Marni Wasserman ? MarnieWasserman.com

Can we say enough good things about coconut water? If you?re a follower of this blog, then you?ve read our internet version of ?singing praises? to the stuff. As you saw in the title, this drink has multiple uses. Sometimes we can get a little carried away on these warm summer nights, back yard parties, and veggie-q?s (yes, that?s how we refer to barbeque parties here in the office!) and we end up feeling like coconuts are knocking us on the head. You may have guessed that I?m talking about hangovers ? the lovely dehydrated state of regret that we sometimes find ourselves in. Instead of reaching for the ibuprofen, why not grab a glass of nourishing, electrolyte rich coconut water that hydrates your body? Coconut water is fat free, naturally sweet, and loaded with essential minerals (or electrolytes) such as potassium and sodium that help re-balance our electrolyte levels and make for a fully charged you! Coconut water is especially good for dehydration. Since alcohol robs our body of water, replenishing with coconut water is the perfect solution.

Read more and get the recipe at?MarnieWasserman.com

Source: http://www.sunwarrior.com/news/natures-sports-drink-hangover-remedy/

Rise of the Guardians Pumpkin Pie Jack Taylor Apple Pie Recipe black friday How long to cook a turkey green bean casserole

Mock Mars trek finds down-to-Earth sleep woes

FILE This Nov. 4, 2011 file photo released by Moscow's Institute for Medical and Biological Problems Russia, shows researcher Sukhrob Kamolov leaving a set of windowless modules after a grueling 520-day simulation of a flight to Mars. Astronauts have a down-to-Earth problem that could be even worse on a long trip to Mars: They can't get enough sleep. And over time, the lack of slumber can turn intrepid space travelers into drowsy couch potatoes, a new study shows. In a novel experiment, six volunteers were confined in a cramped mock spaceship in Moscow to simulate a 17-month voyage. It made most of the would-be spacemen act like birds and bears heading into winter, gearing for hibernation. (AP Photo/IMBP, Oleg Voloshin, Pool, File)

FILE This Nov. 4, 2011 file photo released by Moscow's Institute for Medical and Biological Problems Russia, shows researcher Sukhrob Kamolov leaving a set of windowless modules after a grueling 520-day simulation of a flight to Mars. Astronauts have a down-to-Earth problem that could be even worse on a long trip to Mars: They can't get enough sleep. And over time, the lack of slumber can turn intrepid space travelers into drowsy couch potatoes, a new study shows. In a novel experiment, six volunteers were confined in a cramped mock spaceship in Moscow to simulate a 17-month voyage. It made most of the would-be spacemen act like birds and bears heading into winter, gearing for hibernation. (AP Photo/IMBP, Oleg Voloshin, Pool, File)

FILE - This Dec. 19, 2006 video file image provided by NASA TV shows Commander Michael Lopez-Alegria working aboard the International Space Station. Astronauts have a down-to-Earth problem that could be even worse on a long trip to Mars: They can't get enough sleep. And over time, the lack of slumber can turn intrepid space travelers into drowsy couch potatoes, a new study shows. Lopez-Alegria, who holds the American record for longest space mission, said he could relate to the study findings. (AP Photo/NASA TV, File)

FILE - This Nov. 4, 2011 file photo released by Moscow's Institute for Medical and Biological Problems Russian shows researcher Sukhrob Kamolov greeting his relatives after completing a grueling 520-day simulation of a flight to Mars. Astronauts have a down-to-Earth problem that could be even worse on a long trip to Mars: They can't get enough sleep. And over time, the lack of slumber can turn intrepid space travelers into drowsy couch potatoes, a new study shows. In a novel experiment, six volunteers were confined in a cramped mock spaceship in Moscow to simulate a 17-month voyage. It made most of the would-be spacemen act like birds and bears heading into winter, gearing for hibernation. (AP Photo/IMBP, Oleg Voloshin, Pool, File)

WASHINGTON (AP) ? Astronauts have a down-to-Earth problem that could be even worse on a long trip to Mars: They can't get enough sleep. And over time, the lack of slumber can turn intrepid space travelers into drowsy couch potatoes, a new study shows.

In a novel experiment, six volunteers were confined in a cramped mock spaceship in Moscow to simulate a 17-month voyage. It made most of the would-be spacemen lethargic, much like birds and bears heading into winter, gearing up for hibernation.

The men went into a prolonged funk. Four had considerable trouble sleeping, with one having minor problems and the sixth mostly unaffected. Some had depression issues. Sometimes, a few of the men squirreled themselves away into the most private nooks they could find. They didn't move much. They avoided crucial exercise.

"This looks like something you see in birds in the winter," said lead author David Dinges, a sleep expert at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine.

The experiment was run and funded by Russian and European space agencies. A report on the simulation's effect on the men was published online Monday in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Dinges said scientists can't tell if the men's lethargy was just lack of sleep or was also caused by other factors: the close quarters, lack of privacy with so many cameras or being away from their families for so long.

It's a problem that has to be fixed ? and can be ? before astronauts are sent to Mars, as President Barack Obama proposes for the mid-2030s, Dinges said. The trip to Mars, Earth's closest neighbor, would take about six months each way.

The world record for continuous time in space ? 14 months ? is held by Dr. Valery Polyakov, who was on the Russian space station Mir in 1994 and 1995. American astronaut Scott Kelly and Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko are scheduled to spend an entire year in space on the International Space Station, starting in 2015.

When leaving confinement in November 2011, the six volunteers ? three Russians, a Frenchman, an Italian-Colombian and a Chinese ? called their experience successful: "We can go forward and now plan to go to Mars and move confidently," said volunteer Romain Charles of France.

The data scientists collected wasn't as rosy. Devices on the volunteers' wrists measured their movements and showed that when they were asleep and awake they were moving much less than they should have been, an unexpected and disturbing finding, Dinges said.

One of the six volunteers ? who were paid $100,000 to live in the mock spaceship with limited and time-delayed contact with the outside world ? slept nearly half an hour less each night than he did when he started the mission, affecting how he went about his day, Dinges said.

The loss of sleep matters because astronauts will have to perform intricate tasks on the way to Mars and while on the red planet. And they have to do vigorous exercises daily to fight the toll that near-zero gravity takes on the bones and other parts of the body. And most of the volunteers weren't doing that.

The Moscow study, based on the ground, couldn't take into account the added difficulty of near-zero gravity.

Former astronaut Michael Lopez-Alegria, who holds the American record for longest space mission, said he could relate to the study findings. During his 215 days in orbit on the space station, he sometimes had trouble getting back to sleep because he didn't have a sense of lying down or having his head on a pillow.

The lack of sleep and lots of work caused him to sometimes nod off during the day, and the lack of gravity meant that when he fell asleep accidentally he would float away and awaken elsewhere in the station, he said.

"It happened more than once, but I never thought it was a big deal. I thought it was amusing in a way," Lopez-Alegria said in an interview.

Excerpts from astronaut diaries in a NASA report show prevalent sleep problems, with space station residents talking about nodding off while typing and obsessing over getting too much or too little sleep.

"I just need sleep," one unidentified astronaut wrote.

"The morning started disastrously. I slept through two (wake-up) alarms... My body apparently went on strike for better working conditions," wrote another.

Jerry Linenger, a medical doctor and NASA astronaut who spent more than four months on the Russian space station Mir in 1997, said he watched cosmonauts fall asleep in mid-conversation. And after a couple months, Linenger started having sleep problems despite his best efforts, which included using eye shades and bungee cords to put pressure on his body.

"It's kind of like you're wiped out after New Year's Eve, kind of like a hangover or something," Linenger said. "You are aware you're not performing. So I'd be extra careful if I had to switch some buttons."

Later in 1997, a cosmonaut on Mir who had a sleepless night accidentally disconnected a system that gathered solar power for the aging station, said Charles Czeisler, a sleep professor and space researcher at Harvard Medical School.

Czeisler, who wasn't part of the Dinges study, said the new work was important in demonstrating the challenges of a Mars mission.

Astronauts do use sleeping pills to help them sleep.

And one solution experts like Dinges and Czeisler agree on is lighting. Blue evening light is essential for resetting a body's natural rhythms, Czeisler said, and changing the color and timing of lighting has been shown to help people sleep on Earth.

___

Online:

Journal: http://www.pnas.org

___

Seth Borenstein can be followed at http://twitter.com/borenbears

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2013-01-07-Sleepless%20in%20Space/id-49c3ff6bf32f4dafb4c10e5724464b7a

W S B H c mitt romney mark zuckerberg

Community Colleges With Dorms Can Provide You With a Great ...

Not everyone can afford to go off to some big university and live on campus once they graduate from high school. That doesn?t mean that you can?t still get a quality education close to home. There are plenty of good community colleges with dorms that you can go to, as well. Instead of spending thousands dollars on a high priced education, you can save that money and use it for something else. There is no reason for you to go into debt while trying to get the best education that is available to you.

There are several benefits to going to community colleges with dorms over going off far away to a university. Besides saving money, since you are still somewhat close to home, you don?t have to worry about the emotional stress and feelings that come with living away from home for the first time in your life. Studies show that a large majority of students experience homesickness, and often encounter issues trying to cope with those feelings and still handle their educational obligations the first year. Since you will be living on campus at a local educational institution, you don?t have to worry about becoming a part of that statistic. You can spend more time focusing on your schoolwork.

Let?s face it; paying for a good education can be a pain, and a stressful burden for you and your parents to have. With the current economy and the instability in jobs, it can become very challenging to try to pay for your education while staying afloat with all of your other obligations. This is why community colleges with dorms are so convenient and popular. As the demand for low cost and quality education continues to grow, more and more highly qualified professional educators will take up tenures at these educational facilities. This improves the quality of the education you can receive, without having to compete with students from all over the country.

Take these things into consideration when it is time for you to go off to school. As alluring as it may be to go off to a university, take some time to explore your options at community colleges with dorms. You will be surprised to see that you can get the same quality education for only a portion of the price. At the same time, you can enjoy seeing some of your high school friends. Experience what it?s like to get an education without the added burden of trying to balance your finances.

Go online and contact the representatives at some of your community colleges with dorms. Take a trip and tour the school grounds so you can see how impressive these institutions are. Talk with some of the students and find out why they chose to go there, and see what you may have in common with them.

When you?re ready to attend a university, consider michigan community colleges with dorms. Visit http://www.swmich.edu for more information, and find out if this option is right for you.

Source: http://www.articlesrx.com/community-colleges-with-dorms-can-provide-you-with-a-great-learning-experience-away-from-home/10587

leap year moratorium dwts season 14 cast leap day michigan primary results olympia snowe davey jones dead

The Importance of A Reliable Property Management Software ...

Property management is just similar to any other type of information management and the only difference between them is the type of information that they are managing. Each information that is being recorded is very vital for the evaluation and analysis of the owner or manager to clearly see whether their kind of business operation is done well or not. With that, it is easier for the owner to decide if he is going to make some changes in his business strategy or just to keep doing it.

Honestly, property management is very difficult to do since we do not only focus on the information itself but as well as on the monitoring and the flow of business transactions. Hence, we should be happy and grateful for the existence of some Software that are developed to help property owners and managers handle their business really well.

In what way does a Property Management Software can help property managers and property owners? Well, with the aid of this software, vital information such as personal and accounting related can be kept with fuller security. This software has a user access level which only allows authorized users to access these information. In addition, these information can be easily recorded and retrieved making it a lot easier for the owner to run through any details that he may want to check. Usually, this software creates backup files for all the information and records which eliminate the problem of data loss. These are just some of the most important factors that make a property management application software very important.

If you are now planning to have your own property management application software, see to it that you will only have the most reliable and expert provider to ensure it can really help you. If you are based in Grants Pass, OR, US, the best place for you to avail of this software is only at Rentec! They are widely known for the high quality property management software that they are providing to their customers. Rentec has already satisfied a great number of property owners not only in Grants Pass but also s in all parts of America!

For information about their offer, you may call them at: (800) 881-5139 or you can simply visit their website: rentecdirect.com

===============

I am Eric Carter, I own a lot of properties and I also have many tenants renting them. I am using a tenant software I bought from a reliable company to help me manage my tenants well.

Source: http://www.articleswide.com/article/12918-The_Importance_of_A_Reliable_Property_Management_Software.html

golden globe winners the express zappos hacked jane fonda jon huntsman bit coin huntsman

Ascend D2 Takes the Torch as Hauwei's Flagship

Huawei isn't the biggest player in the phone game, at least here in the States, but it's making moves to step up. Huawei's taking another stab at high-end relevance with its new Ascend D2, which looks like it could be a nice device if it isn't plagued by delays. More »

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/QHomfmUu0dM/ascend-d2-takes-the-torch-as-hauweis-flagship

WWE peter frampton smokey robinson smokey robinson Sandy Hook Elementary School Colors Cassadee Pope denver broncos

Intel announces new Lexington platform: up to 1.2 GHz, supports 1080p video and HSPA data speeds

Intel announces new Lexington platform: up to 1.2 GHz, supports 1080p video and HSPA+ data speeds

During Intel's press conference at CES 2013, the company outed a brand new platform for mobile devices known as Lexington (Z2420), intended mainly for devices headed to emerging markets. The Atom processor is optimized for Android apps and runs at up to 1.2 GHz with the company's hyper-threading technology. It supports dual 5- and 1.3-megapixel shooters with burst picture-taking at 7 fps, and it'll also decode and encode 1080p video at 30 fps; PowerVR's SGX 540 GPU will take care of graphics. The chip can deal with HSPA+ data speeds, microSD cards, dual SIMs (with dual standby), FM radio and WiDi streaming. It's already destined for handsets made by Acer, Safaricom and Lava.

Continue reading Intel announces new Lexington platform: up to 1.2 GHz, supports 1080p video and HSPA+ data speeds

Filed under: , ,

Comments

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/01/07/intel-announces-lexington-platform/

david crowder band natalie wood van halen annalynne mccord billy the kid neville neville