Hurricane Aid

A Paragraph to Ponder

From Meeting of the Minds:


"Vegetation-related issues are a leading cause of electricity outages; PG&E has thus built out LIDAR gathering capabilities to help manage vegetation risk and now collects data within PG&E’s rights of way (capable of going down to 2-3 cm of accuracy). Such data could also be leveraged by cities themselves for asset monitoring, solar irradiation analysis on any PV facilities, or any number of other use cases potentially via options like licensing or cost sharing."

Hurricanes Propel Forward Thinking on Risk, Resilience

Hurricanes Propel Forward Thinking on Risk, Resilience: Even as hard-hit areas of two of the country’s most developed regions push for normalcy after back-to-back hurricanes in early September, policymakers and construction industry experts are weighing the longer-term implications of the damage in Houston, Florida and the Caribbean from Harvey and Irma—and how and whether infrastructure resiliency can be accelerated and how that will affect coastal development.

Re-engineering Lego

Link to the article and podcast:


"Lego sets costing $100 or more face stiff competition from cheaper alternatives for today’s kids, Robertson pointed out. “Think about what you can get now for $10 – you can get a Raspberry Pi [computer], program it with a simple visual language program called Scratch, strap a couple of sensors and motors to it and for $30 you can do something pretty cool with it.” He noted that while Lego’s offering in that space called Lego Boost also teaches kids to program, the company has oversimplified that feature. Pricing is a critical issue for Lego because “$100 will buy you a pretty nice smartphone controlled drone,” he added.


Above all, Robertson wondered if the age profile of Lego’s target market is trending younger. “There are so many cool things for 8-year-olds and 9-year olds that weren’t there even five years ago,” he said. “I just wonder whether we are starting to see a shift in fundamental play preferences.”"

Why is Cement Exported?

Below are the 15 countries that exported the highest dollar value worth of cement during 2016:

1. China: US$692.4 million (7.6% of total cement exports)
2. Thailand: $612.2 million (6.8%)
3. United Arab Emirates: $544.4 million (6%)
4. Turkey: $494.8 million (5.5%)
5. Germany: $486.3 million (5.4%)
6. Spain: $477.3 million (5.3%)
7. Vietnam: $403 million (4.4%)
8. Japan: $391.3 million (4.3%)
9. Canada: $368.7 million (4.1%)
10. India: $267 million (2.9%)
11. Greece: $248.6 million (2.7%)
12. Senegal: $209 million (2.3%)
13. United States: $205.9 million (2.3%)
14. Pakistan: $185.6 million (2%)
15. South Korea: $162.9 million (1.8%)

The listed 15 countries shipped almost two-thirds (63.4%) of global exports in 2016 (by value).

The Last Centimeter Problem

A Paragraph to Ponder

From an article in Forbes -

"Over the last couple of weeks, I was in Houston, Texas working with a Search and Rescue (SAR) team helping to find, recover, and relocate individuals affected by Hurricane Harvey. I traveled with a team from Harbinger Technologies Group (HTG), comprised of special operations veterans, law enforcement, EMT/Firefighters, communications, etc. Within 24 hours of the storm hitting, we were on the ground with two units—water and land rescue. Having been at the tip of the spear for several natural disasters over the past 20 years, it is amazing how the evolution of technology—especially the Internet of Things (IoT)—has matured and is saving lives. Although the severity of the disasters might increase, the loss of life has been greatly reduced by improvements in communications and the distribution of information."

The Urbanization of Columbus, Ohio

The Economist's Absurd Proposal on Construction Productivity

The Economist's Absurd Proposal on Construction Productivity: When I was in college in the 1970s, my senior project involved designing affordable modular housing that could be transported to sites requiring minimal foundation and utility work.

Real Time Wind Speed Data

Link to the site.

European Economics 101

Graph of the Week

Export Update

From Brookings:

"Our new analysis of goods and services exports for 381 metropolitan areas shows that, in 2016, exports did not drive significant economic growth in most parts of the country. The export slowdown was linked to declines in manufacturing exports, particularly in the industrial Midwest.

The recent decline marks a departure from the national post-recession trend. Between 2009 and 2014, exports accounted for 26 percent of the growth in U.S. gross domestic product (GDP). But U.S. exports declined in 2015 and again in 2016, hampered by a strong dollar and sagging global demand. Exports recovered slightly in the first quarter of 2017, but not enough to counteract losses in the previous two years."

Your Digital Office Mate

From Customer Think -

"Digital assistant technology has a long way to go, and their current usage patterns only provide some degree of insight into what their long-term capabilities will be. Nevertheless, it’s clear that the meta-platform battle for digital assistants is going to have a significantly broader and longer-lasting impact than the OS platform battles of yore. That, by itself, will make them essential to watch and understand."

Burgess & Niple presents at WVDOT/MPO/FHWA Transportation Planning Conference

Burgess & Niple presents at WVDOT/MPO/FHWA Transportation Planning Conference: Burgess & Niple presents Get Ahead of the Curve: Combatting Run-Off-The-Road Collisions

Rethinking the STEM Gender Gap

From NBER - 

"Women who graduate from university are less likely than men to specialize in science, technology, engineering, or math (STEM). We use detailed administrative data for a recent cohort of high school students in Ontario, Canada, combined with data from the province's university admission system to analyze the dynamic process leading to this gap. We show that entry to STEM programs is mediated through an index of STEM readiness based on end-of-high-school courses in math and science. Most of the gender gap in STEM entry can be traced to differences in the rate of STEM readiness; less than a fifth is due to differences in the choice of major conditional on readiness. We then use high school course data to decompose the gap in STEM readiness among university entrants into two channels: one reflecting the gender gap in the fraction of high school students with the necessary prerequisites to enter STEM, and a second arising from differences in the fractions of females and males who enter university. The gender gap in the fraction of students with STEM prerequisites is small. The main factor is the lower university entry rate by men – a difference that is due to the lower fraction of non-science oriented males who complete enough advanced level courses to qualify for university entry. We conclude that differences in course-taking patterns and preferences for STEM conditional on readiness contribute to male-female differences in the rate of entering STEM, but that the main source of the gap is the lower overall rate of university attendance by men."

When Bad Weather Does Bad Things

News from the BBC

"The BBC have already taken some steps towards producing content in virtual reality (VR) and 360-degree video. Now that has been solidified with the creation of BBC Reality Labs, a division of BBC R&D focussed on creating content in VR and augmented reality (AR).

BBC Reality Labs will be extending the work the BBC has already done in the VR area and looking into how VR and AR technologies can improve the BBC as a whole. The BBC Reality Labs team plans to work with the W3C web consortium as well as continuing to use the open-source WebVR standard to produce high-quality VR content that is viewable using only a web browser.

Part of the plan for BBC Reality Labs is to further developer WebVR content and examine how web browsers can be used to deliver VR content to audiences."

A Paragraph to Paragraph

From the Sacramento Bee -

"John France, the leader of the forensic panel, told reporters Tuesday that hints of Oroville Dam’s problems were embedded in records dating to the late 1960s. These include reports of cracks in the concrete right after the dam opened in 1969, documents showing uneven thickness in the concrete slabs and signs that the drains were handling more water than they should have. All were clues that could have foretold the spillway’s failure, France said."

Clashing With a Coworker

Graph of the Week

An Engineering History Lesson

From the AP --

"A report released two decades ago about the Harris County reservoir system predicted with alarming accuracy the catastrophic flooding that would besiege the Houston area if changes weren't made in the face of rapid development.

The report released in 1996 by engineers with the Harris County Flood Control District says the Addicks and Barker reservoirs were adequate when built in the 1940s.

But it notes that as entire neighborhoods sprouted over the years around the reservoirs in western Harris County, as many as 25,000 homes and businesses at the time were exposed to the kind of flooding Harvey has now brought.

Engineers proposed in the report, obtained by The Dallas Morning News , a $400 million solution that involved building a massive underground conduit that would more quickly carry water out of the reservoirs and into the Houston Ship Channel.

Arthur Storey, who in 1996 was director of the flood control district, says he's embarrassed that he "was not smart enough, bold enough to fight the system" and implement an action plan to prevent the damages of Harvey from occurring."

Putin on AI

From The Verge -

"Artificial intelligence is the future, not only for Russia, but for all humankind,” said Putin, reports RT. “It comes with colossal opportunities, but also threats that are difficult to predict. Whoever becomes the leader in this sphere will become the ruler of the world.”

Facing Up To The Facts

From the New Yorker -

"Politicians from New York and New Jersey have been quick to say that they will not mess with Texas the way that Texans messed with them. “I’ll vote 4 Harvey aid,” Representative Peter King, a Republican from Long Island, tweeted during the storm. Lawmakers from the Northeast should vote for aid to Houston, but with conditions. In the place of spending cuts, they should demand that Texas lawmakers and the President face up to the facts. The earth is warming, fossil-fuel emissions are the major cause, and the results are going to be far from “beneficial.” The U.S. needs to radically reduce its carbon emissions and, at the same time, prepare for a future in which storms like Harvey, Sandy, and Katrina increasingly become the norm."

A Paragraph to Ponder

From the Texas Tribune -

"State crews managed to clear roads four days after Ike. Hurricane Harvey lingered in Texas for nearly a week, resulting in record-breaking rainfall and extensive flooding. The longer duration of Hurricane Harvey is expected to have caused more damage to the state's transportation system than Ike.

“I think we're safe to say that it's going to exceed the $25 million,” Williams said."

Smile to Pay

From the South China Morning News -

"At KPRO, a new KFC restaurant that serves salads, paninis and fresh juice instead of deep-fried chicken in Alibaba’s home base of Hangzhou, customers can authenticate their payments by having their faces scanned."

Coke an AI

Link to the article - http://www.forbes.com/sites/greatspeculations/2017/08/30/how-coca-colas-ai-approach-to-customer-experience-can-boost-its-performance/#1649f3bb59c9

Big Data Update

From the Marginal Revolution -

"Newly minted sociologist Sarah Brayne spent two and a half years studying the LAPD as it shifted from traditional methods to what she calls big data surveillance.

This article examines the intersection of two structural developments: the growth of surveillance and the rise of “big data.” Drawing on observations and interviews conducted within the Los Angeles Police Department, I offer an empirical account of how the adoption of big data analytics does—and does not—transform police surveillance practices. I argue that the adoption of big data analytics facilitates amplifications of prior surveillance practices and fundamental transformations in surveillance activities. First, discretionary assessments of risk are supplemented and quantified using risk scores. Second, data are used for predictive, rather than reactive or explanatory, purposes. Third, the proliferation of automatic alert systems makes it possible to systematically surveil an unprecedentedly large number of people. Fourth, the threshold for inclusion in law enforcement databases is lower, now including individuals who have not had direct police contact. Fifth, previously separate data systems are merged, facilitating the spread of surveillance into a wide range of institutions. Based on these findings, I develop a theoretical model of big data surveillance that can be applied to institutional domains beyond the criminal justice system. Finally, I highlight the social consequences of big data surveillance for law and social inequality."

A Sentence to Ponder

From the Wall Street Journal today -

"The World Bank reckons that by 2050, 16% of the world's will live in large coastal cities exposed to cyclones, hurricanes and earthquakes, up from 11% in 2000."

Machine-learning earthquake prediction in lab shows promise

Machine-learning earthquake prediction in lab shows promise

Houston Area Transportation Infrastructure Largely Still Unusable

Houston Area Transportation Infrastructure Largely Still Unusable: Airports, rail and bus service in the Houston area were still being assessed Aug. 30.

Hurricanes and Debt Limits

From Fortune -

"The government's cash reserves are running low since the nation's debt limit has actually already been reached, and the Treasury Department is using various accounting measures to cover expenses. Billions of dollars in Harvey aid are an unexpected cost that at least raises the potential that Congress would have to act earlier than expected to increase the government's borrowing authority."

Still Looking Up

From the Washington Post -

"Forget the soaring stock market. Here's the real evidence the U.S. economy is getting better: Food stamp usage is down, and spending on entertainment — everything from Netflix to Disney World trips — is up."