Boing Boing

In Dubai, the Burj Khalifa is the tallest building in the world. But it shares one problem will all skyscrapers in Dubai - there is no central sewage infrastructure to accommodate the waste they produce.

In Antelope Valley, Calif., questionable code enforcement practices encroach the Fifth Amendment taking clause while the obfuscation of facts by public officials mars the transparent aspect of the planning process.

In Seattle's Green Lake neighborhood, a local with a wicked sense of humor has taken planning into his/her own hands, posting a plan to turn an empty eyesore of a lot into a public park.

Toronto artist Caroline Macfarlane found a rusted bicycle that had been locked to a bike rack for a very long time. She decided to make it into art, painting the whole bike neon pink and adding a basket of flowers. The city responded by fining her.

Maggie Koerth-Baker digs into the history of monorails, and finds examples in the United States as early as 1876.

The Australian documentary series Dateline examines the enormous and unprecedented property bubble building in China [video].

Public domain activist Carl Malamud explains in this brief talk why he believes building, fire and safety codes should be taken out of the hands of the private companies that distribute them and made publicly accessible.

A group in Detroit has begun an effort to sell of one-inch parcels of land in the city for $1.

Boing Boing interviews author and futurist Bruce Sterling about global cities and how vastly expanding urban scale is not necessarily a problem.

Peter Vaernet, aka the "Mad Viking", transformed a pocket park known for drugs and violence into a safe, active place by bringing lots of women and children into the park.

Steorn, an Irish company that claimed six years ago to have invented an engine that puts out more energy than it uses, finally presents a model of the technology for the public to see.

At a digital security conference in Las Vegas, a presenter showed that newer "smart" parking meters can be hacked, giving the hacker free parking wherever they go.

Author Kurt Andersen's new book describes the last three decades as a period of wanton growth, from homes to waistlines. He sees the economic bust as a way to return sanity and size appropriateness.

An Italian company is using an RC model submarine to run fiber optic cable through sewer systems.

In this video, police in Denmark stop cyclists without helmets, hug them, and give them new helmets.

The P.U.M.A. is an experimental prototype that takes Segway technology and fits it to a two-person commuter car frame.

Brad Templeton, chairman of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, hopes that robot-driven cars will become commonplace on our roads in the next decade or two.

At the Japanese website Nioibu.com, visitors are geomapping odd odors, from gasoline fumes to curry.

The Magic Power System plugs into your car's 12v port, and purportedly improves your gas mileage by 30%, increases torque, reduces emissions, improves car audio quality, and cleans the entire car 'electrically'.

That's how developers at Google describe the release of Google Earth for the iPhone. Boing Boing's Joel Johnson wonders why it wasn't released for Android first.