基礎設施觀察

當我開始撰寫關於使我們生活成為可能的基礎設施系統的書《On the Grid》時,我將其設想為現代世界基礎設施的彼得森指南。

加入我們的科學愛好者社群!

本文發表於《大眾科學》的前部落格網路,反映了作者的觀點,不一定反映《大眾科學》的觀點


當我開始撰寫《On the Grid》,這本關於使我們的生活成為可能的基礎設施系統的書時,我曾把它想象成現代世界基礎設施的彼得森指南。但它從未成為那樣——首先,基礎設施實在太多了,無法真正包含在一本敘事書中;其次,即使可以,我也無法理解你可能遇到的所有具體部分;第三,類似彼得森風格的袖珍指南已經以簡略形式存在於《路邊技術實地指南》中。

真正的問題是,每個系統都需要自己的指南。你可以為不同型別的電線杆製作一本指南;為廢水處理的各種管道、泵站、處理設施和生物固體處理工藝製作另一本指南;再為供水系統的水塔、閥門和人孔製作一本指南。

然後你可以擁有這本:《集裝箱指南》,作者蒂姆·黃和克雷格·坎農灣區基礎設施觀察站的創始人,正如其名:這是一個由公民組成的團體,致力於關注他們在舊金山灣區周圍的基礎設施,儘管他們對任何想向他們指出基礎設施的地方都非常感興趣。他們會參觀當地的橋樑和處理廠等地。他們的網站上有來自法國的橋樑和來自冰島的漁塘的照片,所以他們顯然全身心投入到基礎設施這件事中。當然,這對每個人來說都是好訊息。


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如果您喜歡這篇文章,請考慮透過以下方式支援我們屢獲殊榮的新聞報道 訂閱。透過購買訂閱,您正在幫助確保有關塑造我們當今世界的發現和想法的具有影響力的故事的未來。


《集裝箱指南》是他們的第一本出版物,他們為此進行了一個完整的Kickstarter活動,該活動將在未來一兩天內結束。當然,它已經超過了既定目標,因為本質上很酷的東西往往會這樣做。坎農順便說一句,曾是《洋蔥報》的圖形編輯,現在是Cultivated Wit(無限精彩的Fuck You Congress的幕後團隊)的聯合編輯。所以:很酷的傢伙。

無論如何,《集裝箱指南》將印在防撕裂和防水紙上,它將收錄傑出的羅斯·喬治和其他酷人的文章,而且它不會很貴,如果你住在任何靠近港口航運業務型別的地方,以至於能夠識別集裝箱本身就顯得很重要,那麼你就需要擁有它。

另外:如果你在他們的 Kickstarter 活動中捐款 10,000 美元,你將獲得大亨級別,除了你的《指南》副本外,他們還會送你一個你自己的二手集裝箱,拜託。世界上還有比這更酷的事情嗎?

為了一個每個人都關注他們基礎設施的世界,致以問候。

 

 

Scott Huler was born in 1959 in Cleveland and raised in that city's eastern suburbs. He graduated from Washington University in 1981; he was made a member of Phi Beta Kappa because of the breadth of his studies, and that breadth has been a signature of his writing work. He has written on everything from the death penalty to bikini waxing, from NASCAR racing to the stealth bomber, for such newspapers as the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Philadelphia Inquirer, and the Los Angeles Times and such magazines as ESPN, Backpacker, and Fortune. His award-winning radio work has been heard on "All Things Considered" and "Day to Day" on National Public Radio and on "Marketplace" and "Splendid Table" on American Public Media. He has been a staff writer for the Philadelphia Daily News and the Raleigh News & Observer and a staff reporter and producer for Nashville Public Radio. He was the founding and managing editor of the Nashville City Paper. He has taught at such colleges as Berry College and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

His books include Defining the Wind, about the Beaufort Scale of wind force, and No-Man's Lands, about retracing the journey of Odysseus.

His most recent book, On the Grid, was his sixth. His work has been included in such compilations as Appalachian Adventure and in such anthologies as Literary Trails of the North Carolina Piedmont, The Appalachian Trail Reader and Speed: Stories of Survival from Behind the Wheel.

For 2014-2015 Scott is a Knight Science Journalism Fellow at MIT, which is funding his work on the Lawson Trek, an effort to retrace the journey of explorer John Lawson through the Carolinas in 1700-1701.

He lives in Raleigh, North Carolina, with his wife, the writer June Spence, and their two sons.

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