fistful of links

The 1900 Paris World Expo, via the FlickrCommons.

The locus of links that leads straight to our hearts: some news.

There are not enough tampons in Williamsburgh. Not at all related, Auschwitz is now on facebook. Still not related, man seeks Glaswegian translator. Probably not related, The WHO has decided to ban booze. Finally related, this is bad news for the inventors of the Beer Belly (don't miss their equally amazing Wine Rack). Blurring the human-machine interface: the talking Piano (via Shawn Sims) and Vocaloid (via Tokyo Bling). Looks like the robot workers of the future will be... Mexicans? Pretty much related, the possibility for a ten-fingered mouse/keyboard: 10GUI.

American readers (you make up over 50%) will no doubt have been following the Balloon Hoax fiasco: Gawker's exclusive; The Balloon Boy Game. Coincidentally, the Queen recently wrote to a different Balloon Boy. Related, only in the sense that playing with ants was something I did as a boy, the man who makes casts of ant colonies.

In case CCTV seems too impersonal, there's now a camera to capture your life. Related, the camera to capture your dog's life. Related, the company that will look after your dog when the apocalypse comes. Related, a spectacular anti-evolution poster (via unknown Tweet). Still related, the end of the world is probably not 2012 after all, according to reliable sources; movie (is it just me or are apocalyptic films getting lazy?) sticks by its guns: Kids with Guns; Bullets from Guns.

Old man caught in doors by faulty Tube, abused by Underground staff (via the Londonist). Also in this City of Cities: London After The Rain (a film by the AVATAR); map of London brownfields (via Things). Not related, Hi-Rise– hi-res images of mars. Related, the beautiful art of Florian Maier-Aichen (via But Does It Float?) Related, but is it art: the 4th plinth. Also art, dead flies.

Finally,

fistful of links

Map of the deforestation of Bolivia, via Earth As Art (a NASA initiative).

My life's love, architecture, absorbed my week – seven days of preparing for the AA. Not posting frustrated me, and worse, I fear that in the future this love, love will tear us apart. Again.

By contrast, the links will bond us back together: some news.

"Maybe now I'll get the respect I so richly deserve", says Wayne White. He also recently told Esquire to "Run down the road to your mamma's house and tell her I'm back." In a swine-flu fuelled rage Cairo slaughtered all its pigs and is now paying the porcine price. Not related: Norman Foster is forced to work on space-architecture in a bid to find a low-gravity solution to the immense weight of his own ego. Related, How Many People Are In Space Right Now? Not related: the CNN/FOX debate heightens with a poorly acted piece of drivel: shame on both of you. Further distanced still: after all this time Carl Jung's Red Book is going to be published.

Iran was having some UFO problems earlier in the week, but they now confirm that fortunately they managed to shoot them down. The Telegraph asks whether it might not have been ET tourism? Talking of alien technology: Tomy's talking dog collars (via Designboom) allow you to have a conversation with your dog – puts me in mind of the new one from Pixar. Also techy (but in a geeky way) Microsoft have launched a tupperware party spin-off to introduce people to Windows 7. Why can't they just go back to copying mac like they used to?

A video thats doing the rounds: TED & Bjarke (another BIG ego, also apparently with a big.dk) Related: Nouvel gets his icon chopped off (hopefully soon I will stop including a Jean link in every bunch). Not related: apparently religious piety = teen pregnancies. Although I have suspected this for some time, ever since I found out that medieval pilgrimages were mostly excuses for crazy orgies – in Middle English the expression "Going to Jerasulem" meant getting pregnant while unmarried. In design news, Hermes have designed a yacht, but its really a floating building. Unrelated: National Geographic do a special on the Geoducks who look a lot like something out of Dune – the formers' wiki entry here.

Other blogs getting a nod this week: What We Do Is Secret (they went off for a bit, but they're now back on form with top archi-porn); Landezine, a landscape architecture weblog; old powerstations (part 1; part 2) over at beloved Dark Roasted Blend; some amazing Feral Houses (via Architecture My Ninja Please); Sweet Juniper! Worst themepark in the world!



The net is almost as awash with images as Sydney is with dust – the city is shrouded by a red cloud of desert particles. Drought and wind is thought to blame. Makes sense. Many are comparing the atmosphere to Mars, but I heard it wasn't always that way. The amazing way news travels to London: facebook updates only narrowly beat Dan Hill's tweet (City of Sound), both well in advance of the mainstream media (NY Times, BBC, New Scientist). The SMH had some pretty great pics, and there are some roundups on flickr. By chance, I spotted Godzilla making an appearance, over at the Japanese Scientists. Related, if somewhat less spectacular, one of my favourite artists Olafur Eliasson installs some Yellow Fog.

Finally,

Via Vintage Ads.

fistful of links

"Remember the old Simon and Garfunkel song 'slow down, you're moving to fast'? Well that says a lot about life, and about cat massage." Related, 'Glorious Scarves'.

An iron fistful of the weekist links: some news.

CNN asks if there's going to be a 9/11 sequel: I agree, there were just so many plot holes in the first one. Controversial: America the gift shop. Raunchy: Pixxxel (safe for work). Of course, CNN are not the only people who have been making up film titles (Seinfeld). Also film: Creation, a film about Darwin, is not released in the US – supposedly because only 30% of Americans believe in evolution and studios think it will flop. Comments are a laugh.

Pictures of Nouvel's bust... Air France stewardesses like lactating on the great man, but Aer Lingus prefer to simply tell the French they're about to die. Vaguely related, I met one of the guys working on this last year when he passed by Jean's in Paris. I'm not even sure how to respond, to be honest.

A paragraph about social change: watching this video influences public policy, easy as that. Laser graffiti is used to fake a gaol breakout (made funnier because its in Dutch). Homeless man tazered, catches fire– oily skin thought to blame. Man in home oiled, catches fire – portion of Nando's chicken to blame. In the same vein, so to speak: 'fat kid loves bacon.' Related, a man makes some averagely ok art with hamburger grease, but I quite like a plane of strawberries hit by a bird. Bust some space. Related, bust a move: why don't we dress like Grandmaster Flash anymore?

No links, shake a fist. Ramble: I cannot stand women that lecture me on child psychology (for a man with no children, it happens remarkably more frequently than you might think). I really don't care whether a child is incapable of understanding the concept of death before the age of 8 – I'm just going to flat out tell him: Jimmy. Your. Dog. Is. Dead.

Nick Sowers indulges my love for bunkers and all architecture military– to my intense delight (good luck finding the Arrested Development version). An ex-Jockey helps the cops out by running down criminals on horseback. Similar, the amazing Hawaii chair. There are over 50 things that are being killed by the internet, including:

A man recently went through a mid-life crisis, but through quiet negation his wife manages to delude him into accepting his own happiness. What? Effective: one crime solved per 1000 CCTV cameras. Londoners unite: Meta Loca London. Unrelated, Lovefoxxx sells out to Vice, and gets a blog.

Finally, NSFW: after doing a google search for "christian dildo america teenagers" (to settle an argument about statistics, you understand) it lead me to: Christian teens being encouraged to use "saddlebagging" ("unprotected anal sex") as a means to preserve their virginity. Related, I also discovered that Dildo is a bay in Newfoundland, (Canada) just beneath the Spread Eagle, between Chapel Arm and Norman's Cove (map).

fistful of links

New Babylon: crazy utopian dreams.

Chain chain chain. Chain of fools: some news.

Banning porn may harm soldiers' morale, presumably because since 1917 soldiers have been discouraged from getting any from prostitutes ("for the sake of the girl back home chaps, don't take risks, the hospital is full of fellows that did"). Puts me in mind of this real-time WW1 blog. And while I'm on audacious public safety films, this has to be the worst ever made, via 30gms).

But I feel for the soldiers. Ask anyone, it's not easy being a young man (as the graph makes clear). Still on war, my cousin Ivan's stop motion lego videos (I particularly like the grenade effects). Related, Lego Escher. Not related, the photography of Terry Evans.

Friends recently compared my blog activity to this fathead, which I tried to laugh off. If only I could be as witty as the 60's answer to Oscar Wilde: Marshal McLuhan ("LSD may just be the lazy man's form of Finnigan's wake"). I diverted my negative thoughts by looking at a whole bunch of mining explosions and the top ten scenes from Twin Peaks.

Ah, Mother London! But what do they do? Unlikely to be related, current affairs from the Londonist. Although I tend to get more interested by the city's possible future than its present: 40 awesome futuristic cities; Sisto's tunnel of automotive love; underwater NY by Alex Lukas. Or equally, how it might have been: the Guggenheims that never were.

Word from home is that the Australian National University has found a way to de-salinate water using nanotubes. I love my Mac, and I love you Steve Jobs: Apple creates a micro-camera for the new Nano. But I don't love you Michael (you kiddie-fiddler): finalists for the memorial, over at Bustler.

Finally, all the world is in uproar about Ikea's font decisions (I first heard from Canabula, and last heard from Things) but at an emotional level, I am far more concerned by this, from Carrefour. Unlike Things I make no effort to put the web in context: the gingers are out in force, and blondes get their own keyboard (can they do that?).


Keith Loutit presents a moving maquette of Australia – this one reminds me of home... (similar)

a fistful of links

via Eric's Little Dark Star.

The daisy chain of links that groups us all together: some news.

Its was the Awaodori festival in Tokyo last Sunday – whose enchanting dances I first saw in Chris Marker's Sans Soleil (sorry I can't actually find the video). The results for the worst british architecture awards are in – funnily enough, partly judged by Bad British Architectecture. I'm still in love with the stop-motion architecture site of Flores Prats, (thanks to the Twitter source for the reminder). In the world of photography Nick Veasey has some dope x-rays, and Alex Prager tries to capture the 70's girl. Bit of a thinking one, Michael Tawa's design lexicon, a dense site of interesting etymology.

Saudi Arabia is pretending that the country has no history before The Prophet. Cause and effect: the Bush-Saudi connection / the last column from the Twins is back at square one. Possibly also related, Kevin Spacey and George Clooney star in a new film about psychic soldiers. Certainly related, MyNinjaPlease also goes back to NY, and visits Frank. ClickMuslim, a dating service. Another religious group trying to capitalise on the internet: Laser Monks (sadly, apparently not like an existential laser tag) – just "Real Savings. Real Monks." Mum, if you're reading, blessed toner for Christmas please.

Young, amazingly self-obsessed women seem to be getting louder (or maybe I'm just receiving a heavy dose at the moment) and they're asking the hard webcam questions: 'How do I do a neutral midde-school look?', 'How do I fake abs?' Still, it is amazing the difference a bit of make-up can make. Natalie Portman plays with some kittens, Arrested Development's George Michael (Michael Cera) is abused Between Two Ferns, and Charlie the sci-fi writer goes on tour of a nuclear facility.

A lonely housewife is driven to insanity by her boring husband and trains her cat to eat with fork. Why Hooters waitresses are the most coveted sexual partners. A video that did the rounds in Paris a while back, even though the song is of dubious quality: a naked woman walking down the street, sex sells I guess... Your New Reality, a blog. Volcanoes versus lightning, not as exciting as Mothera versus Godzilla. Segway: what does the phrase 'post-nature' mean, anyway?

Robot hookers of the future will recognise you and remember your preferences, but I can't work out if that will make it better or boring. Time Team's Mick Aston tells us about his work (Star Trek and Dungeons and Dragons have become acceptable as nerd activities, but I still get no respect for my 'archaeology, yes!' t-shirt). Some of those dead bodies in the Thames I mentioned are much older than you might think. Confusingly, there are spaces in space that are going no place, and we want to go to them; Nasa chews over the possibility of sending astronauts on a Venus flyby in a lunar lander (not exactly what I had in mind).

Copy or original? Larry David makes a show about making a show about a Seinfeld re-union that's about a Seinfeld re-union. The Call of Duty city, real versus digital: Hexkey on informatic dross. New type of photography? Time captured in some amazing animated gifs. Detroit is in ruins, while the tallest building in the world has some surpisingly normal interiors.

To wrap things up, a good old fashioned On This Day: 1902, humanity starts thinking seriously about going to the moon; 1939, Hitler invades Poland (don't mention the war); 1974, the Blackbird flies London to New York in a little over an hour; 1985, the Titanic is discovered (Conrad on its loss).

composite memories

The Parthenon.

After seeing Jason Salavon's 'Every Playboy Centerfold' series, in which he overlayed a decade of sexy pin-ups at a time, I was inspired to write my own little photoshop droplet and produce these images – which I will call 'composite memories'.


A game of tennis with two close friends. Australia.


The Barbican.


Sparklers and fireworks. Woy Woy.


LCD Soundsystem, Sydney 2007.