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Vertical boring machine, via Industrial History . Welcome to the Reading List, a weekly roundup of news and links related to buildings, infrastructure, and industrial technology. Some housekeeping items: Continuing with the new reading list format this week, this time with a paywall ~1/3rd of the way down. I got some feedback that folks liked a little more analysis, so I’ve expanded that a bit more. As a reminder, this is intended to be a little bit more comprehensive than the older format...

A theory that has gained traction in the renewable energy space is that renewable energy sources like wind and solar are based on manufactured “technologies”, while fossil fuel energy sources like oil, coal, and natural gas are based on extracted “commodities”. Per this theory, technologies can take advantage of learning curves , and thus will continue to get cheaper as they’re deployed in larger and larger volumes; commodities , on the other hand, don’t have ...

Railcar launched ICBM, via Wikipedia . Welcome to the reading list, a weekly list of news and links related to buildings, infrastructure, and industrial technology. Experimenting with a new format this week, with more links but with shorter descriptions. My intent here is to try and make the reading list somewhat more comprehensive : to make it closer to a survey of everything notable that happened in the world of buildings, infrastructure, and related topics, in addition to a list of interestin...

This American Enterprise Institute chart , which breaks down price changes for different types of goods and services in the consumer price index, has by now become very widely known. A high-level takeaway from this chart is that labor-intensive services (education, healthcare) get more expensive in inflation-adjusted terms over time, while manufactured goods ( TVs , toys, clothing) get less expensive over time. But there are many types of goods that aren’t shown on this chart. One example ...

Vertical farming operation in China, via Mao Ning on Twitter . Welcome to the reading list, a weekly roundup of news and links related to buildings, infrastructure, and industrial technology. This week we look at ALARA, OLED screens, bus stop frequency, Ozempic and airlines, and more. Roughly 2/3rds of the reading list is paywalled, so for full access become a paid subscriber. Is ALARA dead? Nuclear advocates have long railed against ALARA, the nuclear power safety requirement that demands radia...

The last several decades of technological progress have, in large part, been about finding more and more things we can do with semiconductors and the technology for producing them. Microchips have found their way into virtually every car, aircraft, appliance, and electronic device. Light-emitting diodes are steadily replacing older, less efficient methods of generating light (such as incandescent bulbs). Solar photovoltaic panels have become the most rapidly deployed energy source in history. Se...

Bubble chamber scanner, via Reddit . Welcome to the reading list, a weekly roundup of news and links related to buildings, infrastructure and industrial technology. This week we look at Waymos as kid shuttles, naval reactors for data centers, welder’s anthrax, flood buyouts, and more. Roughly 2/3rds of the reading list is paywalled, so for full access become a paid subscriber. LA fridge law One annoying aspect of moving is that it’s often hard to coordinate your move to take place ex...