So much to read, so little time. Another scoopage of articles on the fronts of global urbanism.
Mapping

Mapping urban densities and energy: How can we build higher-density, more efficient, and still attractively livable cities without triggering either the LA "infill density" problem or the SF "hyperexpensive density" problem? Are there examples of high-density, high-efficiency, livable cities that have managed to avoid both fates?

NASA computer simulation of air traffic over US.

Manhattan Air Flow Mapping: Urban Dispersion Program’s 180 “tracer” boxes and 6 vans have been/are tracking air flow patterns of deliberately released harmless gas in NYC to create a computer simulated model in preparation for chemical attacks.

Hack Sabbath: Hasidic Jews are way cooler than you, and it has to do with something called 'psychogeography'


Military urbanism

Savings for closing bases may be way off: Most of the independent commissioners studying the Pentagon's proposed list of domestic military base closings say the Defense Department probably overstated the projected $50 billion in savings by up to nearly 50 percent, the New York Times reported.

Uranium rush?: Would-be uranium miners are dusting off their Geiger counters. A worldwide shortage of uranium is pumping up prices and has led to a rush for mining claims in the western United States.

Recycling communist concrete: Eastern Germany's population is shrinking and leaving hundreds of thousands of empty buildings behind. With plans afoot to demolish 350,000 apartments worth of hideous, communist-era buildings made from pre-fab concrete, a Berlin architectural firm is recycling the material into immensely livable single-family homes.

Making the Involuntary Park Permanent?: Looking at the "involuntary park" that has become of the DMZ between North and South Korea.

No-fly zones for military recruiters: A wide variety of activists - including teens, parents, teachers, lawyers, and clergy - have been mobilizing this summer to draw a clearer line in the sand against the military's access to students

Terror attack sims under way at Los Alamos: A team of scientists at the Los Alamos National Laboratory are conducting a giant simulation of the United States and its population -- people, cities, infrastructure -- and blowing it up. The idea: determine how, when, and where the country is vulnerable to attacks.

Law enforcement training architecture: In a post on *Design Observer*, William Drenttel writes about disaster preparedness exercises in Manhattan and West Virginia, in which fake catastrophes are role-played in an otherwise everyday landscape. BLDGBLOG takes it from there.


Border politics

Arizona Governor goes as far as to declare a border state-of-emergency, and now Arnie is being urged to do the same in CA.

U.S. Lutherans criticize Israeli security wall: The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America on Saturday agreed to launch a campaign for peace between Israel and the Palestinians that Jewish advocates said could be seen in the Arab world as evidence of a growing condemnation of Israel by U.S. Protestants.

Interactive Map of Gaza Pull out & Flickr photos

Stop the Wall: official site of the grassroots palestinian anti-apartheid wall campaign



Surveillance Watch

The age of surveillance: a new “dotcom boom”?: Will the era of digital networks and terrorism produce the worst of both worlds: a society of mass surveillance that increases insecurity? William Davies maps a new political-technological frontier.

Critics Slam Net Wiretapping Rule: An FCC ruling that internet telephony services must provide the same built-in wiretapping capabilities as conventional phone companies has civil libertarians feeling burned.

Knowing me, knowing you: There is not much doubt now that the world has entered the age of surveillance - with the UK at the leading edge. Britain now has over 4 million CCTV cameras in operation, the guardian angels of a secular society.

Orchestra of Anxiety: The security industry is one of the fastest growing sectors this decade, and is worth hundreds of billions of dollars annually. A participative installation piece--to be shown at Watermans Gallery--Orchestra of Anxiety deploys security and surveillance technologies in an unusual and playful context, prompting visitors to reflect on their personal sense of security and their relationship with public fears (of petty crime, terrorism, etc.).

ACLU testifies to Congress on dangers of biometric passports (jav: del.ic)

Squatter urbanism

Schooling on barrowed farm land in South Africa: THABAZIMBI, SOUTH AFRICA – In this land of vast fields and never-ending sky, the Deo Gloria primary school is tightly enclosed by a barbed-wire fence draped in rough, green netting.

Using the homeless for advertising: A Seattle entrepreneur is putting the homeless and panhandlers to work for a low-cost marketing campaign. He says it's a highly visible (but aren't we looking away whenever we see a homeless?) way to publicize his Web site — he calls it "bumvertising."

Atlanta's ban on panhandling: The ordinance, approved 12-3 Monday, makes it illegal to ask strangers for food or money near downtown museums and the Martin Luther King Jr. National Historic Site. The measure was pushed by business owners who say the area is awash in aggressive beggars, but it got spirited opposition from civil rights groups and advocates for the poor.

Housing prices outstripping low inc worker wages: Housing prices are far outstripping salary increases for low- and moderate-income jobs, putting the American dream of owning a home beyond the reach of teachers, firefighters and other community workers in many cities, said a study being released Tuesday.

The future of the human race depends on public spaces . They are the starting point for all community, commerce and democracy'

A place for remembering those who die homeless: a design competition sponsored by the AIA Seattle due 10.13.

of economies and bubbles ...

A New World Economy: The balance of power will shift to the East as China and India evolve

Watching the bubble, or how China can burst U.S. housing bubble: In the new global economy, almost everything's connected to everything else. Case in point: China will let its currency rise against the dollar and America's housing bubble will burst.