"I'm very interested in using voice and face recognition to set lights and temperature as well depending on who is in what rooms, etc," he writes. [...]

The really interesting part of Zuckerberg's AI plan is when it moves past standard smart home controls and into his work. Describing the "simple AI" that he intends to build, Zuckerberg writes, "On the work side, it'll help me visualize data in VR to help me build better services and lead my organizations more effectively." — theverge.com

Researchers at Cranfield University in the UK have created a prototype of a toilet that works without being connected to water or sewage systems, and that can generate electricity and clean water as it composts waste. [...]

The Nano Membrane Toilet, which has been developed with funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, would be a kind of ‘super-toilet’, helping to improve sanitation for people without access to utilities – at present some 2.5 billion people around the world. — globalconstructionreview.com

The companies that made and installed the exterior panels on The Address Downtown Dubai hotel say that most of the towers built in the city prior to 2012 used non-fire-rated exterior cladding.

The disclosure comes as investigators probe the causes of the spectacular blaze [...] on New Year’s Eve.

An investigation by The National into the origins and specification of the exterior panels used on the building raises serious questions over the fire safety of hundreds of buildings. — thenational.ae

“Intermittently, over the past thirty years it’s been the internet is going to kill libraries, Google is going to kill the libraries, eBooks are going to kill the libraries, and it never has actually happened.” — Business Insider Australia

The 2,000-year-old arch is all that remains of the Temple of Bel, part of the Syrian Unesco World Heritage site, captured by militants in May.

It will be recreated from photographs, using a 3D printer.

The institute behind the project hopes the arch will draw attention to the importance of cultural heritage. — BBC

The optics of the camera obscura ha­ve faithfully served photographers for ages. The recipe has been simple: a lens, aperture, dark box and something to record the light.

But the camera as we know it is changing. A revolution in digital imaging research could surpass the camera obscura in almost every technical way... It’s called computational photography, and it stems from the idea that if you can capture visual data instead of a true image, then the picture can be reconstructed with software. — NY Times

It is well established that white roofs can mitigate the urban heat island effect, reflecting the sun's energy back into space and reducing a city's temperature. In a new study of Guangzhou, China, researchers found that during a heat wave, the effect is significantly more pronounced. Reflective roofs, also called cool roofs, save energy by keeping buildings cooler, thus reducing the need for air conditioning. — Science Daily

Back in 1 A.D., ancient civilizations like the Mayans experienced “urban booms” of their own. This mind-boggling interactive map made by Esri puts thousands of years of global population growth into perspective, ultimately showing us that NYC is kind of just a blip on the radar—or in this case, the 2,000-year timeline of life. — 6sqft

Starting on Monday, individuals who own recreational drones will have to register their devices with the Federal Aviation Administration. The mandatory registration program applies to drones that weigh between 0.55 and 55 pounds. — CNBC

Made possible by a special change in law, a building that is set to claim the title of world’s tallest timber tower is now under construction in Vancouver, Canada.

When complete in 2017, the 18-storey (53m) tower, called Brock Commons, will house hundreds of students at the University of British Columbia (UBC).

[...] the CAN$51.5m residence is set to be the world’s tallest, beating the 13-storey ‘Origine’ apartment block now being built in Quebec City. — globalconstructionreview.com

Imagine visiting a museum while playing a video game. DiMoDA is essentially that: the museum in the machine, the shell in the ghost. Whoever has played Super Mario 64 will be right at home. With “wings” that you visit through portals housed within the museum’s “walls,” DiMoDA is a gateway station to art. With that in mind, Salazar-Caro took an iconic approach to the design of DiMoDA, making it recognizable and striking amid what will be a mutable, shifting cosmos of wings... — Hyperallergic.com

The impact of data centers—really, of computation in general—isn’t something that really galvanizes the public, partly because that impact typically happens at a remove from everyday life. The average amount of power to charge a phone or a laptop is negligible, but the amount of power required to stream a video or use an app on either device invokes services from data centers distributed across the globe, each of which uses energy to perform various processes [...] — the Atlantic

Elon Musk has plenty of other ideas. If anyone asks and he has a moment to explain, he'll talk distractedly of as-­yet-­unrealized concepts—a vertical takeoff­-and­-landing supersonic electric jet for long­-distance travel; an entirely new form of transport that he's named the Hyperloop... He is a man with the rare problem of having more ideas for how to radically change our world than the time to realize them.

Still, you do what you can. And so this Monday evening, his mind is on space suits. — GQ

How do building shapes vary from one city to the next, in particular with city size? And could this lead to a more general understanding of how energy consumption changes as cities grow or shrink? [...]

They conclude that on average, the shapes of buildings in North American cities converge on a cube-like shape as cities get bigger—that’s the most energy efficient shape.

That should have important implications for energy use in future megacities. — technologyreview.com