Some interesting areal photos of farms around the world, as interesting in their juxtaposition as they are individually.
Though it would be interesting a telling to also see all of them at the same scale. As the last picture shows, some of the complex interweaving of fields are collectively the same size as a single one of the large industrial farm fields in the later pictures.
From build blog.
Also farm yard art from strange harvest.
The question then is where does the space go.
A band out of Seattle with the abstract touches of Rasputina about them, playing rock with a distinct folky steampunk flavor.
Although a difficult to navigate Flash-driven thing, their Web site is still beautiful to look at.
An essay by Christopher DeWolf from urbanphoto.
The concept of “living heritage” is far from new, but it is still not widely understood. “Heritage is anything that carries memories,” said Dinu Bumbaru, policy director of Heritage Montreal, on a sunny morning this spring, shortly after I returned from my trip to Hong Kong. “We tend to look at buildings and then very quickly turn technical. We forget there is the know-how of the artisans, the story of the families who lived there and so on.” Vital, often intangible, heritage exists in the present, not as part of some nostalgic past.
Definitely a good read.
Another odd little build that caught my eye.
A castle in a winter sim. It is a museum, built into the side of a hill, with the only ground access involving climbing up a few ropes. Like my post from yesterday morning, it is not a masterpiece, in fact, it is rather tacky, but it works in a wonderful way that makes it a nice place to amble about.
Both were found because I decided to walk (well, fly) home from a party instead of just teleporting. I wonder how much it would alter second life if we could have huge swaths that you had to walk through (and which had paths on which to walk). I wonder how many interesting places are going undiscovered because teleporting tend to reduce the serendipity of the random encounter with something unexpected.
Hmmm, now think about that question in the real world. Okay, so we can't teleport in the real world, so just replace teleport with drive ... it is not that different in some ways.
An interesting article on the future of suburbia from the New York Times.
It looks like it is front-loaded with the more radical, and humorous, commentary, then gets down to the more pragmatic analysis.
I remember being at a talk given by James Howard Kunstler once (who gets first rant in the article) as part of a Ph.D colloquium series. I found it interesting because many people seemed downright offended that he even had a right to make the claims that he did when he didn't have a degree in the topic. Yes, he was, as usual, talking about suburban form. No, the program was not in any way, shape or form and urban design program. Yes, the program prided itself on community outreach and community activism and participation. Apparently, that had to be qualified as obedient community participation.
I don't remember the outcome of someone making this protest, just at my being offended at people who claim to respect indigenous knowledge getting bent out of shape when actually faced with it. Apparently, indigenous knowledge is something to be used by authorities to further professional knowledge, but the gods forbid that it should become anything close to professional knowledge without their sanction.
This is probably why I like Kunstler's ideas so much. I think some of them border on nut job (to be fair, so do some of mine), but there are many kernels of inconvenient truth there that many of us don't want to have to face.
Okay, this is funny. Or maybe not.
Being a little pudgy myself, I can sympathize. That is pretty much what I feel like when traveling abroad. A little disconcerting when a Japanese friend says "we're only worried about your health" and then pokes you in the midriff. Poke, poke. Of course, the person who did it has discovered ice cream since then. I am avenged! Mwahaha!
From NextNature.net.
I really don't know why, but I found this build in Loveland sim to be a very nice place to be in. The images don't do it credit. For being done in what should be a collection of cheezy textures with mostly empty stores and an odd sort of Italian-American Community Center feel about (or Polish-American, or what have you), the space was oddly pleasant to walk through. No idea of why.
A music video creates humor out of censorship bars and provided ironic commentary at the same time.
Warning: YouTube thinks this contains mature content, which means, in this case, decidedly NSFW.
All the ingredients were there, but they didnt look like the advertisement photos and they tasted like greasy sadness.
From blogadilla.com.
Speaking of movement as a driving factor in design, and much design as the act of congealing movement in solid form ...
Zaha's Shoes ... from bdonline.uk.
An argument for preserving slums when they clearly serve more good in maintaining them then the benefits of anything that could replace them.
Or to put it another way, just because a region is dirt poor doesn't mean it isn't a thriving, self-sufficient community that is making a positive contribution to the urban landscape.
This is in fact the kind of self-sufficient, self-sustaining 'village' community that Mahatma Gandhi -- the Father of the Nation -- dreamt of and wrote about in his books on India’s path to development.
Wales Springs Sim
An awesome job of using huge prims for wallpaper. Where does the sim end?
Yes, the photos were taken on or around Speak Like a Pirate Day, which is the reason for the outfit. Though I must confess to really liking it. And no, I haven't gotten the bunny to say "pieces of 8" yet.
An interesting article on the new Constitution Bridge over the Grand Canal in Venice from the Guardian.
Interesting because it shows what happen with aesthetics clash with simple usability (though I confess that in a situation like this I might opt for the aesthetics too).
Interesting in that is looks to be inspired by, or is at least evocative of, the Kintaikyo (錦帯橋) Bridge in Iwakuni (岩国) Japan (see also, Wikipedia entry). It's one of those must see destinations your friends in Japan drag you off to when you leave it up to them to decide where to explore.
The Kintaikyo Bridge shares the a comparable flaw, perhaps inevitable in an arched bridge of this style. It has relatively level top forming a short, shallow arc. This end, on either side, with steps of variable heights as the bridge becomes to steep for the level surface. And, it is also in a scenic location where it is far to easy to be watching the scenery and not your feet. Result, as you head back down the slope, you step off into space at the first step, oblivious to what your feet are doing.
Having done just that, I know.
And the complaint about the Constitution bridge? People twisting their ankles because they were too busy admiring the scenery to attend to their feet.
On the other hand, the Kintaikyo Bridge is a restoration of an older bridge on that site from 1673. At the time it was meant to balance functionality with elegance, providing the bridge between the town and the Shogun's estate. So perhaps it has better excuse to be difficult than a modernist piece of glass and steel designed specifically for the flow of tourists.
Full-scale, working model of a Roman siege catapult for sale.
I remember that episode!
Case in point of letting our movement systems dictate our lives, even when we don't want them to.
Cities rethink wisdom of 50s-era parking standards from NPR.
Reversible Destiny Lofts in Tokyo. For those who think the difficult lifestyle is important to a long and healthy life.
Okay, except that I don't know where I would put my books, I so would live there.
And so he is.
Playing the best Ragtime guitar to be heard in SL ... well, okay, so far as I know, playing the only Ragtime guitar in SL. Correct me if I am wrong. I love Ragtime. So he is playing something I like and also doing something I haven't heard anyone else doing in SL. That's a double win. It helps that he's good too.
Give him a listen.
With fuel costs skyrocketing, and airlines hurting because of it ... maybe this should be the future of trans-oceanic flight.
An article from the BCC on the Soviet Ekranoplan, aka. The Caspian Sea Monster.
This is a salient quote:
What they were looking at was, in fact, an Ekranoplan; a wing in ground effect or WIG craft designed to fly at very high speed a few metres over the top of the sea. It sounds not unlike a hovercraft. But where a hovercraft floats on a skirt of air, the Ekranoplan sits clean above the surface and relies on a well known, if little understood aerodynamic phenomenon called "ground-effect".
In very simple terms the wing produces a dynamic cushion of air when it's close to the ground and the Ekranoplan effectively rides upon this. It's the same effect that pelicans use when flying low over the sea and it's a remarkably efficient way of flying, actually increasing lift by as much as 40%. All of which means the Ekranoplan was far more efficient than conventional aeroplanes.
Now, update the technologies to the modern day ... all the while thinking about a 40% increase in efficiency.
For those who can't reach her in person: the Sarah Palin interview generator.
Unfortunately, it only has two questions, though I have been assured that as soon as we understand those answers, more questions will be asked.
Posts
