Bikes have their own traffic light in Budapest, Hungary.

The total area occupied by all Wal-Mart stores is equal to the area of Manhattan. Now you wouldn’t want to live in a ‘Manhattan’ of Wal-Mart, would you?

Following the story that having obese friends can make you obese, come yet another study that claims that you can determine the obesity of people by the zip code they are living in. Additionally, the researchers add that “adults living in ZIP codes with the highest property values were the
slimmest, and those living in ZIP codes with the lowest property values
were the fattest.” Now if only someone would map out the various types of eating establishments in the area within the zip codes and match them with the obesity levels.

I posted images of the Tokyo flood control system sometime back. In a similar trend, the BLDGBLOG talked to urban explorer Michael Cook who loves traveling to subterranean civic infrastructure of Canada and northern New York State – and into those regions’ warehouses, factories, and crumbling hospitals. Cook’s website is smartly named, Vanishing Point.

I find his images and exploration of the neglected spaces of our urban infrastructure quite fascinating. He not only travels to places that we rather avoid but also examines the ecological consequences of our infrastructure, existing or decaying. He looks at these remnants of our civilization from the perspective of future archaeologists.