No cure exists, which is why back in 2003, the best Dr. Jay Alberts of the Cleveland Clinic Lerner Research Institute rode a tandem bicycle across Iowa with a Parkinson’s patient (to raise awareness). Unexpectedly, the patient showed improvements in her condition after the trip…

RESULTS: What the researchers referred to as “forced rate activity,” others might feel is more accurately labeled “torture.” But when they calculated the brain activation of the patients forced to pedal past their comfort level, they found lasting increases in connectivity between two areas of the brain responsible for motor ability: the primary motor cortex and the posterior region of the thalamus.

theatlantic, 26.11.12.

…NBD Nano is taking advantage of this technology to create a water bottle that can continually fill itself up. The company hopes to have the water bottle on the market by 2014. “We see this being applicable to anything from marathon runners to people in third-world countries, because we realize that water is such a large issue in the world today, and we want to try to alleviate those problems with a cost-efficient solution,” says Deckard Sorensen, co-founder of NBD Nano.

inhabitat, 23.11.12

Paulson and colleague Yifang Zhu measured pollutants in the air during Carmageddon last year and have recently released their pretty astounding findings. Air quality near the normally busy highway improved by 83 percent that day last July, relative to comparable weekends. Elsewhere in West Los Angeles, the improvement was equally dramatic. Air quality improved by 75 percent on that side of the city and in Santa Monica, and by 25 percent throughout the entire region, as a measure of the drop in ultrafine particulate matter associated with tailpipe emissions.

“We saw what we expected: you take motor vehicles away, the air gets really, really clean,” Paulson says, “which tells us that most of the pollution is from motor vehicles from one type or another in this area.”

read more: atlanticcities, 02.10.12.

Jobs of the Future: Cargo Cyclist

Research indicates that at least one quarter of all cargo traffic in European cities could be handled by cycles. And, by using special distribution hubs, larger vehicles and electric assist, this proportion could be even larger…

Cargo transport in cities is extremely inefficient. As it currently stands, almost 100 percent of it is done by motorised vehicles, ranging from personal cars to commercial delivery vans and trucks (lorries). However, these heavy vehicles often transport very light goods. The average payload transported in European cities weighs less than 100 kg (220 lbs) and has a volume of less than 1m3. Of the 1,900 vans and trucks that enter the city of Breda in the Netherlands each day, less than 10 percent of the cargo being delivered requires a van or truck and 40 percent of deliveries involve just one box.

read more: lowtechmag, 24.09.12.

photo from “Ich ersetze ein Auto”, a project to improve distribution efficiency, especially for the “last mile” of urban freight transport, by using electric cargo bikes. part of the Klimaschutzinitiativ (Climate Initiative in Germany).

about the iBullitt Pedelec Solar.

There’s a new scientific paper out in the journal Nature called “Approaching a state shift in Earth’s biosphere.” In a sane world, it would be front page news.

grist, 07.06.12.

Mariela Alfonzo and I just released a Brookings Institution study that measures values of commercial and residential real estate in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area, which includes the surrounding suburbs in Virginia and Maryland. Our research shows that real estate values increase as neighborhoods became more walkable, where everyday needs, including working, can be met by walking, transit or biking.

read more: nytimes, 25.05.12.

hyde park, chicago. 03.2012. my own photo.

At long last, Portland is set to install an electronic bicycle counter. The new tool, which will be placed on the Hawthorne Bridge, will provide a daily and annual, ongoing count of the number of people who pass by on a bicycle..

The new counter will be an Eco-Totem made by Eco-Counter, a Montreal-based company. Funding for the project was supplied via a $20,000 grant from Cycle Oregon. The City of Portland, Bureau of Transportation applied for the grant last fall and Cycle Oregon ride director Jerry Norquist says it was approved in February.

more: bikeportland, 21.05.12.

a cycle counter in copenhagen. photo by cycling embassy of denmark.

DNA tests reveal ‘natural’ remedies are anything but.

A recent study by researchers at Murdoch University in Australia investigated medicines seized at the Australian border and revealed some scary results: Of the 15 medicines they examined, some medicines failed to list ingredients entirely, while others listed illegal or carcinogenic ingredients.

takepart, 19.04.12.
via food inc. 

glad I have been a very ABC kid and refused to eat bitter traditional chinese medicine.