The Sunday Diigo Links Post (weekly)

• Potentially Amazing Technology: Is Spray-On Liquid Glass About to Make Everything Greener? : TreeHugger

  From PAM to GLAM (spray-on glass)? This sounds so odd you could write a sci-fi story about it: how the Age of Silicon is taking over! On the other hand, if it works and is safe, then the applications are intriguing indeed:
  QUOTE
  The flexible and breathable glass coating is approximately 100 nanometres thick (500 times thinner than a human hair), and so it is completely undetectable. It is food safe, environmentally friendly (winner of the Green Apple Award) and it can be applied to almost any surface within seconds . When coated, all surfaces become easy to clean and anti- microbially protected (Winner of the NHS Smart Solutions Award ). Houses, cars, ovens, wedding dress or any other protected surface become stain resistant and can be easily cleaned with water ; no cleaning chemicals are required. Amazingly a 30 second DIY application to a sink unit will last for a year or years, depending on how often it is used. But it does not stop there – the coatings are now also recognised as being suitable for agricultural and in-vivo application. Vines coated with SiO2 don’t suffer from mildew, and coated seeds grow more rapidly without the need for anti-fungal chemicals. This will result in farmers in enjoying massively increased yields . Trials for in-vivo applications are subject to a degree of secrecy, but Neil McClelland, the UK Project Manager for Nanopool GmbH, describes the results as “stunning”. “Items such as stents can be coated, and this will create anti sticking features – catheters , and sutures which are a source of infection, will also cease to be problematic.”
  UNQUOTE

  tags: sprayon, sprayon_glass, treehugger

• Stroke recovery as a model for cities – Urban Review STL

  St. Louis urban blogger Steve Patterson had a massive stroke 2 years ago. In this post, he makes a compelling analogy between strokes and recovery from them to what has happened to cities and how they should structure their recovery.

  I thought this section was excellent – cities are like bodies:
  QUOTE
  “Cities need to start with the basics, one step at a time. Cities need to examine what no longer works and what can come back first. In stroke therapy they leg returns before the arm. Fingers come back very late. I can barely move my left ankle and I still can’t move my toes on my left foot. Cities, I think, have been trying to move their big toe rather than get their leg back first.

  The therapy I would suggest for cities is to focus on minimal basics needed to function, focus on what makes a city a city. Walkable. Parking is on the street or behind buildings. Density higher than the edge.”
  UNQUOTE

  This also suggests that micromanaging the details is exactly the wrong way to go.

  tags: st_louis, steve_patterson, urban_renewal, analogy, cities

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.