First a baby will be born in one, then a baby will be conceived and born...

(AP) BEIJING -- A massive traffic jam in north China that stretches for dozens of miles and hit its 10-day mark on Tuesday stems from road construction in Beijing that won't be finished until the middle of next month, an official said.

Bumper-to-bumper gridlock spanning for 60 miles (100 kilometers) with vehicles moving little more than a half-mile (one kilometer) a day at one point has improved since this weekend, said Zhang Minghai, director of Zhangjiakou city's Traffic Management Bureau general office.

Some drivers have been stuck in the jam for five days, China Central Television reported Tuesday. But Zhang said he wasn't sure when the situation along the Beijing-Zhangjiakou highway would return to normal.

The traffic jam started Aug. 14 on a stretch of the highway that is frequently congested, especially after large coalfields were discovered in Inner Mongolia, Zhang said. Traffic volume has increased 40 percent every year.

New technologies - cement trials

From the ABC:

Council workers will build a footpath in Toowoomba on Queensland's Darling Downs this morning using a new environmentally-friendly form of concrete. Local firm Wagners has developed the material using waste from coal-fired power stations and iron production and says the footpath is the first commercial trial of the product.

Project manager Tom Glasby says every tonne of traditional cement needed for concrete production produces a tonne of carbon emissions. He says the new concrete produces 90 per cent less carbon emissions than traditional forms of the building material. "We take these two mineral by-product waste materials, being ground-up slag and fly-ash, and we actually use them as the cementing agent in our concrete," he said. "It is also a very low energy product."

A bit more than a blow I would have thought

From the ABC:

Geraldton Greenough's image as an environmentally sustainable city has been dealt a blow after the local council put plans to introduce kerbside recycling on ice.

The council has spent nearly $390,000 on investigative works but this week voted not to proceed with the initiative.
...As a result of the decision, the council will forfeit nearly $600,000 in State Government funding.

 But they haven't yet told the people who do their web-site....

There are a limited number of recycling options available within the City at the moment. In the near future, the City is planning to introduce Kerbside Recycling.

Interesting China focus on cities

From The People's Daily Online:

The National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) launched a national low-carbon province and low-carbon city experimental project in Beijing on Aug. 18. The project will be implemented in five provinces, namely Guangdong, Liaoning, Hubei, Shaanxi and Yunnan, and in eight cities, namely Tianjin, Chongqing, Shenzhen, Xiamen, Hangzhou, Nanchang, Guiyang and Baoding.

Relevant government officials of those provinces and cities have promised to research and develop a low-carbon development plan, accelerate the establishment of an industry structure featuring low carbon emissions and actively promote low-carbon lifestyles and consumption patterns in order to help tackle global climate change.

Not mad just opportunistic

 ABC NEWS reports on a new urban event and picks an angle that was so expected:

Tasmania's workplace safety authority is seeking guarantees yesterday's wind turbine failure in central Hobart will not happen again.

Less than a month after installation, wind turbines on Hobart's Marine Board building were shut down yesterday after they started spinning out of control in strong winds. Police closed streets surrounding the building amid concerns the blades were coming loose. A spokesman for the company which installed the turbines, Rob Manson, says the incident was caused by a brake failure and there was no threat to public safety.

Roy Ormerod from Workplace Standards says some questions need to be answered. "We'll be in contact with the building owners and we'll be asking them for information on what caused the failure," he said. Mr Manson says the company will conduct an internal investigation.

Hobart alderman Darlene Haigh says wind turbines should never have been erected in the city centre.
Alderman Haigh opposed their installation on heritage and public safety grounds She says concerns were raised on an environmental website. "[It] said that they were safe out further from the city but not where there was high populations of people nearby because of the possibility of a blade dislodging and I do recall at the time that a lot of people thought I was quite mad," Alderman Haigh said.

"Everyone else is doing stuff with all the new technology, so why shouldn't they?"

Perhaps not the rationale... and that notion of embracing "the technological age"?

THE Tweed Shire Council is gearing up to embrace the technological age, with the launch of a smart phone application to allow ratepayers access to key council information.
The software, developed in collaboration with a private mobile phone technology firm, will be launched at the weekend to coincide with Local Government Week celebrations and a technological overhaul of the shire council's e-planning system.