Posted September 14, 2009
The National Alliance for Healthy communities, in partnership with the professional soccer team Chivas USA, will be sponsoring the most significant health outreach event in the largest hispanic population in the United States on October 17th. Los Angeles city council member Ed Reyes, along with city agencies, health care partners and others will be participating.
Chivas USA will be putting on clinics and providing tickets to soccer games. Chivas USA players and coaches will be in attendance. Helath screening will be done for diabestes and other issues of concern. Referrals to health care professionals will also be provided.
This event will demonstrate the importance of proactive health care in combination with having FUN!
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Cities across California are excited about the energy and maintenance savings potential of LED street lights. Lighting manufacturers across the nation, the Department of Energy, and state and local customers to help bring this technology to market.
Financial incentives for metered customer-owned street lights will follow at a later date, as will incentives for other types of outdoor LED lighting.
Key advantages of quality LED street lights include:
* Improved night visibility due to higher color rendering, higher color temperature and increased illuminance uniformity
* Significantly longer lifespan
* Lower energy consumption
* Reduced maintenance costs
* Instant-on with no run-up or re-strike delays
* No mercury, lead or other known disposable hazards
* Lower environmental footprint
* An opportunity to implement programmable controls (e.g. bi-level lighting)
Posted
Recycling of tires in asphalt pavement is an idea that has proven as resilient as rubber itself. Yet in the approximately 50 years since first being tried, the idea has failed to revolutionize the United States paving industry.
That could change.
New technology and old concerns about the environment seem to be re-energizing the rubber asphalt revolution.
The primary obstacles to more widespread reuse of tires in asphalt have been relatively high cost and uniform testing processes that tend to work against rubber asphalt while standards for highway projects are set.
These fundamental barriers to acceptance have been offset to some extent by repeated demonstrations in the United States and abroad that rubber asphalt holds up well under heavy traffic and absorbs the weight of passing vehicles in a way that reduces freeway noise. And the indisputable advantage of rubber asphalt is that it recycles tires that otherwise are piling up in landfills and ditches.
Federal and state environmental agencies are on the side of anyone wanting to reuse tires in new pavement. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency promotes the concept in the Resource Conservation Challenge section of its Web site. Noting that rubber asphalt is the single biggest user of crumb rubber (12 million tires a year), the agency lists the benefits of the rubberized asphalt - “longer lasting road surfaces, reduced road maintenance, cost effectiveness over the long term, lower road noise and shorter braking distances.”
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Mobility over the years has changed. The advantages of new technology has contributed to the change. Today “being mobile” can mean simply having wireless access or a cell phone.
The challenge has become cost service access.
First, the need. Cell phones have become a necessary service to voice and data. To a great extent a life line for 911 service emergencies. The challenge has become service reception. In many areas of the country there is no service. This can be due to the restrictions on large communication towers or “cells”, or simply the geographic nature of the terrain (tunnels, mountains, valleys, rural areas, subways, etc). Now there is technology that can bring service that is reliable to challenged regions through loss of small senders or repeaters. This allows for hikers, those in rural communities, mountains and subways to be able to communicate at all times…emergency, personal or professional. As an example, in Washington DC the subway was involved in an accident. Due to the lack of cell services, first responders went to a wrong location at first. With the new technology in place this could have been prevented.
Second, the cost. The costs are mostly in construction and not in service, so the consumer bill does not reflect any significant cost for services.
The key is public safety and the need has become greater since the events of 9-11. If for no other reason then our own security and ability to be in touch at all times, it is vital that we support the technology both as consumers and as government.
The National Alliance for Healthy Communities, with the support of think tank City Solutions, has compiled significant information on the issues and how to address them. The information is available for transit agencies, local, state and federal governments.
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The National Institute of Standards and Technology’s (NIST) Technology Innovation Progran (TIP) announces that it is seeking white papers from any interested party. White papers will be used to identify and select areas of critical national need and the associated technical challenges to be addressed in future TIP competitions.
The Technology Innovation Program (TIP) was established for the purpose of assisting U.S. businesses and institutions of higher education or other organizations, such as national laboratories and nonprofit research institutions, to support, promote, and accelerate innovation in the United States through high-risk, high-reward research in areas of Critical National Need. TIP holds competitions for funding based on addressing areas of critical national need. TIP identifies and selects topics for areas of critical national need based on input from within the NIST, the TIP Advisory Board, the science and technology communities, and from the public.
TIP is interested in receiving input on the identification and definition of problems that are sufficiently large in magnitude that they have the potential to inhibit the growth and well-being of our nation today.
