Reading List 08/01/26
Pepper-spray drones, China’s chip Manhattan Project, Commonwealth Fusion’s fundraise, and a proposed Dulles Airport renovation.
Welcome to the Reading List, a weekly roundup of news and links related to buildings, infrastructure, and industrial technology. This week, we explore pepper-spray drones, China's chip Manhattan Project, Commonwealth Fusion's fundraising efforts, and a proposed renovation for Dulles Airport.
Housing and Cities:
Icon, a company specializing in 3D printed buildings, has completed printing 10 barracks buildings for Fort Bliss. The first two buildings are now completed and occupied. In a surprising development, some schools are now equipping themselves with pepper-spray drones to deter active shooters. A total of nine schools, located in Florida, Georgia, and Colorado, will store these plastic, nonlethal aircraft made by Austin-based Mithril Defense.
The drones can be activated by teachers and reach a shooter within 15 seconds, distracting them with flashing strobes, blaring sirens, pepper gel, or ramming into targets at 60 mph. The Wall Street Journal reports a decline in the number of children living in big U.S. cities, with a 6% decrease over the past decade compared to a 1% decline nationwide.
The drop is particularly significant among families with young children, with a 15% reduction in children under age 5 in big cities, compared to a 7% nationwide decline.
Written by urgent.news from Construction Physics's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
