With their soaring ramps and sweeping bridges, the grandest interchanges of major highways mix the thrill of a roller coaster with the grandeur of a Roman aqueduct. NYT H/T to BldgBlog

On the anniversary of Berlin Wall's collapse, contemporary philosopher Slavoj Zizek writes in a NYT op-ed, second chance must be given to “Socialism with a human face.” NYT

Two decades since the Berlin Wall came down, BBC Mundo looks at walls and barriers around the world which are still standing - or have been put up - since 1989. BBC News

The plan is to add "flow based" theories of urban traffic movement to conventional radar/camera based tracking of vehicles. TheRegister

Is Moscow or St. Petersburg Russia's cultural capital? Neither one, apparently, now that Perm is seen as the hot new contender for the title. Der Spiegel

Fewer Americans are relocating than at any time since 1962. That's good news for families, communities ... and even the environment. Newsweek Via here

Building a bridge of (and to) the Future. A bridge that is cheaper, quicker and easier to build. NYT

Life inside Sri Lanka's vast refugee camp. BBC News

The Independent Florida Alligator explores "le parkour" and talks with some of it's practitioners in the Gainesville area.
Excerpt:
Since then, he has been using videos as a guide and trains around Gainesville at the Sun Center, the Alachua County Courthouse and the Shands Emergency Care Center. Waite said these are prime spots for parkour because they have what he calls "useless architecture." The walls, platforms, benches and even trees are collectively a jungle gym for Waite. He can barrel straight at a 6-foot wall and will be up, over it and dashing toward his next obstacle with the agility of a spider monkey. Read and Related

The BBC examines the politics behind the White House's selection of Pittsburgh as the site of the upcoming G20 summit.

No-one puts it better than Frank Coonelly, president of the city's baseball team the Pittsburgh Pirates: "It's a remarkable transformation, not just of the economy but of the city itself from an industrial steel town to a city that now really is driven by hi-tech and service sectors. Read

Margaret Thatcher met with President Gorbachev at the Kremlin in 1989. She insisted that the West would not do anything to put at risk the stability of the Soviet Union. Times Online

For hundreds of years, mariners have dreamed of an Arctic shortcut that would allow them to speed trade between Asia and the West. Two German ships are poised to complete that transit for the first time, aided by the retreat of Arctic ice that scientists have linked to global warming. NYT

(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times / August 29, 2009)

Firefighters predicted another difficult day battling a wildfire that has burned 35,000 acres and threatening more than 12,000 homes from Acton to Altadena on the edge of city's grid. Coverage: latimes + full entry...

In the new issue of Harvard Design Magazine (Issue # 30) which examines the topic(s) of Sustainability and Pleasure, Sloterdijk interviews himself and discusses; Spheres Theory and the Poetics of Space. Read And watch a related lecture from early 2009 at GSD.

The lost Roman city of Altinum has been found in Italy. Sophisticated aerial images released this week reveal fascinating new details about Venice's predecessor, which was abandoned by its citizens and then sank into the lagoon. Der Spiegel