June 30, 2007
Some Subways Found Packed Past Capacity with scary infographic
surprise, surprise: the L train is running over capacity
June 29, 2007
Hamburger v iPhone
Looking at the Shake Shack Camera at around 5:30 PM today and the above graphic came to mind.
June 23, 2007
How victim snared ID thief - She chased down woman who had given her 6 months of hell
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Nice:
Your next computer will be a big ass table.
I was away for a week of no cellphones and no internet, and am slowly patching myself back into the 21st Century
Bush Administration states OVP not part of Executive Branch; wants National Archives abolished
So while I was gone, Vice President Cheney told agency that Vice President's office is not part of the executive branch:
The Office of Vice President Dick Cheney told an agency within the National Archives that for purposes of securing classified information, the Vice President's office is not an 'entity within the executive branch' according to a letter released Thursday by the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.
Notwithstanding a little something called Article II Section 1:
The executive power shall be vested in a President of the United States of America. He shall hold his office during the term of four years, and, together with the Vice President, chosen for the same term, be elected, as follows:
Additionally, the Bush Administration wanted to abolish the National Archives as a retaliatory gesture. At least the Information Security Oversight Office is fighting back.
I think the only response to this is both scorn and incredulity. Cheney & the Bush Administration should be the butt of oh so many jokes concerning abolishing the National Archives. You know, the place where a copy of the Constitution is held at.
June 16, 2007
Fred Thompson: Against condoms and Right to Privacy
This is insane; Thompson believes that both Roe and Griswold are wrong. Good luck trying to get elected now, Mr. I want to take away everyone's birth control.
June 15, 2007
This is the hot article of the day: Earsplitting Symphony, With the Maestro in Blue - listen to the sirens. Adam G has some interesting commentary, NYPD’s taxonomy of sound
June 14, 2007
Boing Boing and Jonathan Adler Join Consumers in Naming Virgin America's Airplane Fleet, the new Airbus A320 names are: Airplane 2.0; An Airplane Named Desire; Contents May Be Under Pressure; Fog Cutter; Jane; Mach Daddy; Virgin & Tonic; and, Winner of Naming Contest; Unicorn Chaser (Boing Boing)and Chic Mobile (Jonathan Adler)
Video: Flying under Stockholm
A 2 meter, remote-controlled plane, flown at 70kmh through a 3.9km long tunnel, piloted from a moving car.
Tim Knowles Tree Drawings
Shore Scoty - Tim Knowles Tree Drawings
Artist Tim Knowles ties pens to trees to create Tree Drawings. The photos of the tree with pen reaching out to the canvas are mesmerizing.
Since it is early morning, I can't think of other artists who use exterior automata to create art (with an exception of Tim Hawkinson). Do you have any favorite artists like Knowles?
June 13, 2007
Oldish article about bus rapid transit: The Real Deal - New bus rapid transit plan could fuel outer-borough growth
Advocacy: Saint Louis' Former Pruitt-Igoe Site Should Be Developed as a Green Neighborhood
Recording: Jacques Derrida on Religion
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the video is great, shame they had to goto Canada to get married
Peek Inside the New Bay Bridge
DSCN0337.JPG, originally uploaded by SF Emperor
Flickr user SF Emperor has an extensive collection of photos of the New Bay Bridge. Also check out the official site and the Wikipedia page, Eastern span replacement of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge for more information.
June 12, 2007
Single Family Skyscraper, Revisited
Remember the single family skyscraper in Mumbai shown above?
Well, more information has been forthcoming since the story broke about Mukesh Ambani's mansion in the air. The Mumbai Mirror has a complete set of drawings and is reporting that the skyscraper is designed by USA firm Perkins+Will, who's website incidentally has as main navigation tab Sustainability as one out of four highlighted services.
Guess it is time to redesign their website.
June 11, 2007
Google Spy: Zooming in on neighbors, nose-pickers, and sunbathers with Street View
not as hysterical an article as some out in the ether, but close
So wrong: No iPhone SDK Means No iPhone Killer Apps.
By his reasoning, since the iPod didn't have a SDK then it shouldn't be the number 1 (by several magnitudes) leader in consumer products.
Via Laura Rozen comes this story of a woman detained by the CDC prior to flight; when I flew to London two weeks ago, a college kid was visibly sick and the gate agents took him aside and had the doctors take a look at him, "as a precaution"
Pentagon Confirms It Sought To Build A 'Gay Bomb' in the mid-1990's
South Carolina License Plates
South Carolina has seen fit to redesign their license plates, and (luckily) the public can vote on them. I think they left a fourth option out of the voting page...
The London 2012 Logo Which Could Have Been
While I've stayed somewhat agnostic about the London 2012 logo kerfluffle, I can't help but like the logo, especially the 1960's Awesome video which reminds me of watching dated British animation in the 1980's. I can't help but think the positive outcome will be the publics' discussion about design. The shame is that most of it falls into one of two categories:
- You spent £800,000 on that!? I could have done that quicker and cheaper that that hoity-toit design firm. A corollary response has the speaker's child of indeterminate (but less than 10 years of age) coming up with the same thing.
- It's ugly (with no other actual criticism).
Both responses are juvenile, ignorant and depressing. In due course, there has been a counterrevolution of sorts consisting of tepid support in the face of the media onslaught which feels (no offense) more a defense of graphic design as a profession than the design itself, and outright praise the London 2012 logo.
We must be reaching Phase Three of our Kübler-Ross model (Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression, Acceptance) because some interesting designs are popping up as a reaction to the logo. For example, Daniel Eatock's London 2012 alternate logo design is excellent, not because it is hip in a Poochie way, but because it is the definition of refined elegance:
Daniel Eatock's London 2012 alternate logo design
Combining the Olympic Rings and the Royal Air Force Roundel (svg file) Eatock has managed to use two very conservative and historical elements in a new and fresh way. Besides the choice of type and location (which seems like an afterthought), the design is a simple and elegant throwback to past Olympic logos (see all modern Olympic logos).
What are your thoughts on the London 2012 logo & branding and have you seen any alternates of merit?
June 10, 2007
The original article, Something's Got To Give, was the basis for the OK movie, Pushing Tin
June 9, 2007
What I've Been Listening to for the last 6 Months
Looks like I've been listening to a lot of the Amelie soundtrack, especially in February, and I went through a big Arcade Fire spree in March.
June 8, 2007
June 6, 2007
The Big Yellow One is the Sun
Sun Squared, originally uploaded by SoopahViv
Data from this year's General Social Survey has this stunning revelation: Toleration of Interracial Dating Now More Prevalent than Heliocentrism.
The question was, Now, does the Earth go around the Sun, or does the Sun go around the Earth?
, and the results were:
- Earth around sun 73.6%
- Sun around earth 18.3%
- Don’t Know 8.0%
- Refused 0.1%
I wonder how many of those Heliocentric Disbelievers, are the same who believe that Saddam is linked to 9/11 and of that subset think that Saddam was harboring al Qaeda?
But really, I want to meet the .1% of people who refused to answer whether or not the Earth revolved around the Sun. That would be a fun conversation, I wonder what other gems Mr. .1% believes in?
Battle of Normandie
Normandy Beach, originally uploaded by stardove07
63 years ago, the Battle of Normandy (Normandie) began at sunrise; the beginning of the end of World War II. History and photos like those above undeniably illustrate our current situation in sharp relief.
June 5, 2007
Governor's Island Designs unveiled: The Park at the Center of the World
Conservative Candidates All Support Banning Gays From The Military
Let me get this straight: on one hand we have all 9 of the GOP candidates repeatedly invoke war, war, war - which incidentally is currently breaking the Army and National Guard - and on the other you have a large group of willing, abled and talented Americans who want to fight for their country, and are turned away. Makes perfect sense.
On the transformation of the ‘Lollipop’ Building
On the Six-Day War: an overview from the BBC and from The New Yorker, The Seventh Day: Why the Six-Day War is still being fought,
Mike Tyson Wants To Do Bollywood Movies
can his life become any stranger?
Mark Luthringer: Typologies
The typological array’s inherent ability to depict prevalence and repetition make it the perfect technique for examining the excess, redundancy, and meaningless freedom of our current age of consumption. Part of my intent with this work is to answer the question implied by the title of Robert Adams’s book What We Bought: If there is some kind of big sellout occuring, what are we getting in the deal?
June 4, 2007
On Delta's new logo: Delta: Dealt a Good Hand
of all the brand refresh/redesigns of the last 5 years, this is the best (which isn't really saying much)
Exploring the Massive, Viscous Oil Blob That Lies Just Beneath the Streets of Greenpoint
June 3, 2007
Serra @ MoMA
» x « · comments (1) | older photos »
Went to the Serra exhibit at MoMA and was both overwhelmed and underwhelmed. His early work is interesting from the historical point of view, but lacks the feeling of his sculptural work with steel which force interaction upon the viewer.
Cavaliers beat Pistons 98-82 to clinch series title
This will be the first time Cleveland will go to the NBA Finals to face the Spurs
TB Andy's Worldwide Trip
Andrew Speaker's, infected with Tuberculosis, itinerary on his "Spread TB Throughout the World 2007" trip
It is always uncomfortable when world events touch close to home, especially to a loved one. So it was the case with Andrew Speakers world-spanning trip to get hitched all the while he was knowingly infected with drug resistant Tuberculosis. Even though Speaker, dubbed TB Andy by the tabloids, was told not to fly and was specifically told at one point to stay in Rome, he carelessly continued traveling. Speaker even changed plans and flights to specifically evade US customs and immigration because he was told his passport was flagged.
Speaker is a lawyer, if this willful evasion of the law and ethics isn't a high enough bar to begin disbarment proceedings, than I'm not sure what is.
June 2, 2007
Schrodinger's lolcat
Schrodinger's lolcat, originally uploaded by dantekgeek
And that's the first and last lolcat I'll post about.
June 1, 2007
Letterpress Housesitting
Matrix, originally uploaded by Jaypeg
House sitting a letterpress workshop:
Every year I housesit an old 13th Century monastery in the Oxdforshire countryside and tinker around in their big old barn which houses a letterpress workshop.
Much better than cat/dog sitting.
The Single Family Skyscraper
For those of us who think that our 2 bedroom flats are spacious, comes this story of a single-family skyscraper:
This 60-story house is for just one family.
India's richest man, Mukesh Ambani, is planning a palace in the heart of Mumbai with helipad, health club, hanging gardens and six floors of car parking.
His wife, mother and three children will live there with him, looked after by 600 live-in staff.
The building, already worth £500 million, could start a rush on skyscrapers.
Luckily the BBC has more information:
His skyscraper home in the city will be over 170m tall and will have an army of 600 staff to manage it.
Its 27 floors on a 4,532 sq metre plot will provide a panoramic view of the entire city of Mumbai (Bombay) once it is completed next year
I wonder who the architect is? MVRDV? Rem Koolhaas brought back from the 1990's? Anyone taking bets?
Oops
A Tunnel Too Far - photo by NY Times
Yes, this is exactly what you think it is, Inches Too Tall for Tunnel, Rig Plies It Anyway:
It was just six inches.
That was what made the difference at 4:40 a.m. yesterday as Gilberto Cantu, a truck driver from Texas, approached the New Jersey entrance of the Lincoln Tunnel in his big rig, loaded with bathtubs, toilets and plumbing fixtures. The truck was 13 feet 6 inches high. The tunnel has a height limit of 13 feet. Six inches can make a big difference.
Mr. Cantu drove the entire 1.5 miles of the tunnel from Weehawken, N.J., to Manhattan, tearing his way under the Hudson River in the tunnel’s center tube and peeling back the roof of his tractor-trailer as if it were a tin can. No one was injured, but an undetermined number of decorative tunnel ceiling tiles were ripped off.
Not much you can say about that.
The LeBron Show
Did anyone see last night's Cavs-Pistons Game? It was all LeBron all the time. As someone who is predisposed to dislike anyone who was hyped to the level LeBron was, I have this to say: He was amazing. James in overtime, scored 29 of Cleveland's last 30 points for the 109-107 double-overtime victory.