The World’s Most Stunning City Skylines
from MSNBC
What makes a skyline great? It has to be more than merely memorable, it must have some exceptional characteristics: It not only should be instantly recognizable but, from the traveler’s perspective particularly, it should be an enticing view of great buildings and monuments. If it’s really special, you want to be a part of it. MSNBC asked a group of star architects to help them make their choices. More

Crab Shells Hold the Secret to Self-Healing Paint
from GreenerDesign
A breakthrough in self-healing materials, with the help of crab shells, may lead the way to cars, cell phones and other items that can fix their own scratches with a little time in the sun. A team of researchers at the University of Southern Mississippi led by Professor Marek Urban created a coating material that repairs tiny scratches after being exposed to ultraviolet light, the team reported in the journal Science. More

Billion People Invited to Switch Off Lights
from Associated Free Press
Around a billion people living in the world's major cities are being invited to turn off their lights at 8:30 p.m. local time on Saturday, March 28, for "Earth Hour," described as the biggest mass campaign to demand action on climate change. The Empire State Building, the Great Pyramids of Giza, the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur, the Acropolis in Athens and the Taipei 101 skyscraper in Taiwan are among the buildings whose illuminations will be switched off for an hour. More

New Workplace Equalizer: Ambition
from The Wall Street Journal
After decades of glacial change in gender roles, a new generation of working women is proving to be as ambitious as their male counterparts, as measured by their eagerness to move up the career ladder. More

A Flying Building?
from Inhabitat
It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s…a building? The latest from Geotectura is a concept for Delft University’s Architecture Faculty—a flying structure called AIRchitecture that’s already making heads spin. The campus building concepts combine a static learning center for libraries, offices, lecture halls and an auditorium, with flying workspaces and off-site “zeppelins” to allow for more dynamic collaboration and exchange. This concept might sound crazy, but it is certainly a great example of a minimal footprint. More

Face-to-face Communication in Today’s E-mail Workplace
from McGuire Air Force Base
In conventional communication, 55 percent of what we learn or perceive from other people comes from their body language; 38 percent comes from the tone of their voice, and only seven percent is derived from their actual words. Improving poor communication is one of the most challenging problems in the workplace. The truth is: How you say something is vastly more important than what you say? But in the age of e-mail, these visual and aural nuances are no longer available. Do you or your employees spend a significant amount of time communicating via e-mail or instant messenger—even when you can get up and walk over to the other person's desk? Why should this matter? Sometimes e-mail can be misunderstood and cause confusion. If you have to e-mail back to clarify, you may be wasting time and adding the frustration of waiting for the e-mail reply. More

Controversial London Skyscraper Gets the Go-ahead at Last
from 24dask.com
A distinctive 550 foot-high tower which will include a 261-room hotel was given the final go-ahead by the government. The green light from Communities Secretary Hazel Blears means work can start on the project called One Blackfriars Road at the southern end of Blackfriars Bridge in London. After objections, the tower's developer the Beetham Organization has had to reduce the height of the slender building from around 740 feet to just under 560 feet. More

Making Wood a Clean, Efficient Energy Source with New Process
from Science Daily
Is wood the new coal? Researchers at North Carolina State University think so, and they are part of a team working to turn woodchips into a substitute for coal by using a process called torrefaction that is greener, cleaner and more efficient than traditional coal burning. More

Two Skinny Skyscrapers Make their Mark on Manhattan
from The New York Times
Two pencil-thin towers are making their mark on Manhattan. Construction will end in May at the very skinny 60-story site, which packs 65 apartments into a building that measures 50 feet across the front. Farther up Madison Avenue is another tall drink of water, the 55-story Sky House, which also measures 50 feet across the entrance (and 37.5 feet in the rear). More

Future Looks Brighter for Solar Hot Water Heating Systems at Hotels
from GreenerBuildings
Historically, owners of lodging establishments throughout the United States and Canada have ignored the sun as a source of potential energy to heat water. Whether because of concerns about cost or misperceptions about how solar thermal technology works, solar hot water heating systems have been rare. More

Make Your Workplace A Happy Place, Even Now
from Forbes
These days it feels like we should be grateful just to be employed. But that doesn't mean it's always easy to go into the office—especially in the aftermath of layoffs and the midst of uncertainty. Peter Barron Stark and Jane Flaherty, the authors of several books about corporate leadership, have just written Engaged: How Leaders Build Organizations Where Employees Love to Come to Work. In it, they offer advice on how managers can get their staffers enthusiastic about being on the the job—and doing their best work. More