TOKYO — Japan on Tuesday urged the evacuation of more than 1.2 million people ahead of a typhoon that will bring heavy rain to areas already hit by record rainfall. Typhoon Roke has prompted concerns of landslides and flash flooding, particularly in the industrial city of Nagoya, where downpours could cause a main river to burst its banks. Read full article > >

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Japan asks 1.2 million to evacuate ahead of Typhoon Roke

ZAWIYAH, Libya — Rebels fighting troops loyal to Libyan leader Moammar Gaddafi took full control of the key western city of Zawiyah on Saturday after nearly a week of battles . The rebels have made a series of advances in recent days, pushing Gaddafi’s forces to just 27 miles outside the capital, Tripoli. News reports early Saturday said the rebels had also seized the town of Brega, in eastern Libya. But a rebel military spokesman, Col. Ahmed Bani, told the Associated Press that his fighters lost the industrial section of the key oil port to government forces later in the day. Read full article > >

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Libyan rebels seize Zawiyah

The manifesto of the man known as the “Unabomber” is going up for auction on May 18. The infamous manifesto, in which the terrorist and Harvard-trained mathematician rails against technology and the industrial revolution, will be sold online along with…

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Unabomber Manifesto Up For Auction

Celebrating achievements of first hero of Industrial Revolution

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What about Watt?

Henry Fountain’s feature on uses of spider silk in the New York Times lauds the material but is pessimistic about its production: There has been a big fly in the ointment, however: spiders cannot spin enough of the stuff. Although a typical spider can produce five types of silk, it does not make much of any of them. Obtaining commercial quantities is a practical impossibility — spiders are loners and require a diet of live insects; some are cannibals. In other words, spider ranching is out of the question. But is this right? When growing up in the midst of the industrial cornucopia that was Chicago in the 1950s I regularly saw from the elevated tracks a slide rule factory where silk from real spiders was used in making cursors. Maybe some of the more senior scientists interviewed by Mr. Fountain actually used them as students, since electronic calculators did not prevail until the 1970s. Searching the other Web, I discover I missed an exhibition last year at the Hoboken Historical Museum about the Hoboken plant of the same company, Keuffel and Esser. According to the exhibition page: One of the displays will explain a fascinating aspect of K&E’s Hoboken operations: A spider ranch! Read about how spider web filaments were used as crosshairs for telescopic sights, and the “Spider Lady,” Mary Pfeiffer, who ran K&E’s spider ranch from 1889 to World War II. So spider ranching can be done! There’s an excellent piece by the historian of science Silvio Bedini here , from catch-and-release in English gardens to recent efforts (2005) to produce spider silk with transgenic goats.

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Bring Back Spider Ranching

by Mark Bernstein Unnerved by an IBM publicity stunt pitting a computer program against a human “champion” in a television game show, the New York Times ran John Markoff’s coverage of the contest beneath the headline, ” A Fight to Win the Future: Computers vs. Humans .” Markoff is worried that natural language understanding will throw legions of workers out of work. Agricultural and industrial automation were one thing, but won’t this new technology be the last straw? Of course it won’t. We’ve experienced this anxiety before — not just in the industrial revolution, but when we invented books and signage. We could employ people to stand on street corners and help people find their Aunt Martha’s house. We don’t do that anymore; we put up signs  and we teach everyone to read them. The Romans did this  too, though sometimes they made things tricky  for outsiders who would need to identify themselves and get help. Today, we have street names and systematic addresses and postal districts and zip codes — Anthony Trollope  did a lot of the original work for this — so now you can find Aunt Martha yourself, and so can her letter carrier. When books were invented, people worried a lot about the philosophers and tutors who would be out of work. Who needs a teacher when you can run down to the library  and look things up in Old Pliny? Medieval scholars worried that, if students were permitted to use books, they would confuse themselves and their classmates. They did; progress has its costs. Today, much thinking about thinking machines is muddied. We’re accustomed to assume that anything that talks back to us is partly human. If a program asks its users whether it has done a good job, even computer scientists tend to give it higher scores than they report if someone else asks; we know the computer has no feelings to be hurt, but everyone wants to be polite. Chemists once thought there were two entirely different kinds of matter — stuff from living things, which was “organic,” and everything else, which was “inorganic.” This idea was called vitalism and nobody believes it anymore — except when it comes to machine thinking. Markoff does make a nice point about two strands of computer research: artificial intelligence, epitomized by John McCarthy , and tool-making, epitomized by Doug Engelbart . But Engelbart’s goal of “designing a computing system that would instead ‘bootstrap’ the human intelligence of small groups of scientists and engineers” was always a personal vision, and I think most of Engelbart’s followers and supporters have always edited out that embarrassing word “small.” Why not help everyone? We’ve made machines that answer questions for a very long time. We need better ways to get answers and better answers. When we decided that it was self-evident that all men are created equal, lots of people were worried: Won’t this be the end of civilized life? Who will make dinner and clean up the mess? I think we can manage.

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Don’t Hail Our Computer Overlords Just Yet

Built more than ten years ago on an abandoned Soviet military base in Germany at a cost of $110 million, the airship hangar seen above is the largest freestanding building in the world. Measuring more than 1,100 feet long and nearly 700 feet wide, the building was meant to serve as the construction site for a massive helium machine designed by entrepreneur Carl von Gablenz that would, he hoped, function as a delivery vehicle for oil rigs, wind turbines, and other industrial equipment. When von Gablenz’s company ran out of money, a Malaysian firm bought the building and converted it into a huge water park that now sees nearly one million visitors annually. The resort feature the world’s largest indoor rainforest, which includes more than 50,000 trees; a swimming pool that is larger than four Olympic-sized pools together; 600 feet of faux beach; a nine-story waterslide; and other amenities. Read more about the Tropical Islands Resort, and the story behind von Gablenz’s failed company, in the current issue of Air & Space magazine. View more Pictures of the Day .

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Picture of the Day: Airship Hangar Turned Into a Waterpark

The last decade has been the best for rivers since the industrial revolution, the Environment Agency says.

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River quality ‘good for wildlife’

Sens. Joe Lieberman (Left) and Diane Feinstein (Right) with the publisher/founder of WikiLeaks, Julian Assange (Center).

Indie design powerhouses join forces for a new shop in L.A.’s furniture marketplace H.D. Buttercup As a one-stop furnishings marketplace, H.D. Buttercup’s enormous Culver City showroom filled with furnishings, art, rugs, bedding and accessories leaves most interiors junkies wanting for little. Last Friday saw the launch of the one thing the complex might be missing with a new 3,700 square-foot section bringing together the indie fashion of Apartment 3 and designers from the gift fair Unique LA . We checked in with Sonja Rasula, who founded Unique in 2008, and Kristin Knauff of Apartment 3 while they were setting up their H.D. Buttercup digs. Originally founded in 2003 as a boutique on La Brea, Apartment 3 has developed into a full-service fashion production company. Unique LA, one of the biggest shows for independent crafts in the country, features wares made by area designers and encourages the consumption of local products. Together at H.D. Buttercup, the two brands have created a forum to shop for children’s and baby products, clothing, art, accessories, edibles, gifts and more. In store, Rasula is proud to offer designs by Sub_urban riot , Chemline , 28 Squares , Eva Franco , sugarhigh + Lovestoned , Detroit Sprinkles , Maiden Voyage , Misha Lulu , Rock Socks and others. We spotted the hand-woven scarves by Loomlab that interpret Braille, computer circuits, and QR coding into the pattern and color palette. The Original Record Wallets fashion leather and nylon into billfolds sporting images of Prince, The Clash or astronauts. Apartment 3 collections span denim, bowties, vintage clothing and footwear, including exclusive pieces from Smoke & Mirrors that hang on one of the industrial metal racks. Both companies plan to showcase many of their favorite designers in a carefully-curated collection of merchandise. Photos by Justin Sullivan

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Unique LA

The chief executive of the industrial plant at the centre of the toxic sludge spill in Hungary has been taken in for questioning by police.

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Hungary toxic spill boss arrested

Sponge and cork in a former architect’s surprising handbag collection Sylvia Pichler, a young Italian architect, prefers designing handbags over skyscrapers. Drawing on industrial materials typically reserved for insulation, interior decoration or even air filtering, Pichler creates curiously elegant bags under the moniker Zilla . The Zilla Spring/Summer 2011 collection consists of simple yet extremely feminine bags in a variety of styles. Special filters, artificial cork, aluminum foils, bast fiber, rubber and synthetic sponge combine with fine leather and linings for a collection that spans both day and night looks. Prices vary but the distinct handmade bags typically sell for around $480 from select fashion and design shops around the world. For more information, contact Pichler through the Zilla website . Check out some of our favorites from the Zilla Autumn/Winter 2010 collection in the gallery .

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Zilla Spring/Summer 2011

Our video on Coalesse’s lounge-inspired conference furniture with designer Scott Wilson In this Cool Hunting video we visit the industrial designer Scott Wilson, founder of the Chicago shop Minimal and former Global Creative Director for Nike Explore. Taking us behind the scenes of Coalesse’s new SW_1 furniture collection, he walks us through the concepts and design processes that it took to realize this fresh alternative to the generic conference room.

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Cool Hunting Video Presents: SW_1