From Archimedes to Sim City

Archimedes, the brilliant Greek engineer, once said, "Give me a platform, and I can move the earth."

More than two millennia later, we can say, "Give me a 3-D printer, and I can create a whole new world."  Sim City is just a game, but it gives us plenty of ideas about how to create new things--and with the advent of 3-D printing, it's easy to see how anyone could be part of this exciting new prospect.

Of course, we would also need to factor in the need for new infrastructure, to accompany this new construction.

Robo-Cars in Sweden "no one should be killed or seriously injured in a new Volvo"

Wired reports: 

Volvo is bring its robo-car army to its home country of Sweden, with 100 autonomous vehicles taking to the roads of Gothenburg in the next three years.

In a move that one-ups Nissan’s promise to bring autonomous vehicles to market by the end of the decade, Volvo says it believes that “that no one should be killed or seriously injured in a new Volvo car by 2020.”

Michio Kaku, writing for The New York Times: 

As transportation is digitized in the next decade, driverless cars, guided by GPS and radar, will share our highways. “Traffic accidents” and “traffic jams” will become archaic terms. Thousands of lives will be saved every year.

Ray LaHood: Transportation Stimulus Should Have Been Bigger

The Washington Times reports:

Mr. Lahood, who led the Department of Transportation from 2009 until 2013, said that the $831 billion stimulus package that President Obama signed in 2009 should have included more money for transportation projects.

“Should it have been more money? Of course,” he said. “Rather than $48 billion, it should have been $480 billion.”

New Airport Terminal in Shenzen, China

CNN has the story.