A glance will show / Why Phoebe Snow / Prefers this route / To Buffalo.
And Phoebe's right / No route is quite / As short as Road / of Anthracite.
In 1908 the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad began work on the
New Jersey Cut-Off to make its New York to Buffalo mainline (the Road of Anthracite
so liked by
Phoebe Snow) even shorter and faster. It was to have no grade crossings, and was to be as straight and level as possible — through hilly terrain. The 28-mile
Lackawanna Cut-Off, as it is now known, was built over three years, cost $11 million, and was an
engineering marvel of massive reinforced concrete bridges, enormous cuts, and the largest railroad embankment in the world. All of this has been
abandoned for years, though there are plans afoot to restore the Cut-Off for
commuter rail.
[more inside]
posted by parudox
on Dec 24, 2008 -
17 comments
A new study in Science claims that
teaching math is better done by teaching the abstract concepts rather than using concrete examples. From an
article by the study authors in Science Mag (requires subscription):
If a goal of teaching mathematics is to produce knowledge that students can apply to multiple situations, then presenting mathematical concepts through generic instantiations, such as traditional symbolic notation, may be more effective than a series of "good examples." This is not to say that educational design should not incorporate contextualized examples. What we are suggesting is that grounding mathematics deeply in concrete contexts can potentially limit its applicability. Students might be better able to generalize mathematical concepts to various situations if the concepts have been introduced with the use of generic instantiations.
posted by peacheater
on Apr 26, 2008 -
27 comments
Fuck SCRaps,
RON N CANDY,
BIG Baby Jesus,
Rivise Your ideas,
WE'RE ALWAYS WILLING TO GIVE SOMEBODY A CHANCE BUT,
FUCK THE NEDS,
SOCIALISM IN OUR LIFETIME,
READ THE TESTOSTERONE FILES,
I love my Mom,
PASTRAMI DOT.COMMI,
You too deserve HAPPINESS!,
ZAPPA WAS OUR Beethoven,
Aug 2, 1943,
Paul is a weasal,
LED ZEPPELIN RULES,
FUCK YUO...
posted by serazin
on Mar 27, 2007 -
24 comments
A Concrete Solution to Pollution With concerns over global warming and pollution control reaching an all-time high, an Italian company has developed an interesting solution. It is called TX Active: a concrete that literally breaks down pollutants in the air. The effects are significant: 'In large cities with persistent pollution problems caused by car emissions, smoke from heating systems, and industrial activities, both the company and outside experts estimate that covering 15% of all visible urban surfaces (painting the walls, repaving the roads) with products containing TX Active could abate pollution by up to 50%.' Even more significant is that the cost is only 30% over that of normal concrete. Remarkable.
posted by PreacherTom
on Nov 10, 2006 -
22 comments
Giant Concrete Caterpillar. Driving on I35 south out of Dallas to Austin, you pass through Italy, Texas, and on the side of the road is
Bruco, the Texas Italian Caterpillar, and the home of the
Monolithic Dome Institute, makers of fine
homes,
restaurants, and
churches. These
domes are
green
and
disaster resistant. (See
previous thread). They also can be
visually interesting. These domes are
concrete as opposed to
R. Buckminster Fuller's
Geodesic domes, such as
Epcot Center or the incredibly interesting
Eden Project.
posted by dios
on Oct 10, 2006 -
19 comments
FOVICKS - Friends Of Vast Industrial Concrete Kafkaesque Structures - a photo essay on the concrete geometries of the Los Angeles River flood control channels.
[via inhabitat]
posted by carter
on Mar 31, 2006 -
24 comments
Concrete Ships Toward the end of the First World War, and during the Second World War, the United States commisioned the construction of experimental concrete ships.
posted by dhruva
on Oct 13, 2005 -
25 comments
Styrofoam + Ceramic Spray = Profit Instant Housing A styrofoam house sounds like a really stupid idea but, when the styrofoam is sprayed with a special ceramic spray called
Grancrete (
pdf), it becomes twice as strong as structural concrete.
It is also cheap, $10 a square foot to build a house as opposed to $150 a square foot for a regular home.
And, where regular concrete can take up to three weeks to fully cure, Grancrete dries in a single day.
The potential impact of this product for developing countries and natural disaster prone areas could be truly incredible.
posted by fenriq
on Apr 20, 2005 -
38 comments
Putzmeister! Saw it on a truck on the street; thought I was hallucinating; Googled it, and yes, they're into concrete pumping, and it's a German company, too. One for the
"Bad Business Name Hall of Shame" that I started with my
Blonder Tongue thread a year-and-a-half ago. Got any more? Think of it as a MetaTurkeyShoot for the day before Thanksgiving...
posted by wendell
on Nov 26, 2003 -
27 comments
