hippoblog

Treesome

Archinect is straying from its architecture bent more and more these days, and I don't mind that a bit. Here's a recent story:

pre-op, topless, thong-wearing 32 yr.old trannie and 17 yr.old boyfriend climb tree in Central Park to protest a news article; have oral sex in tree; demand diet Vanilla Pepsi from negotiators to come down

ny post and ny times

* Ray, 4/23/2004 10:52:00 PM

Go Whole Hog

Feisty Developer and His Oddball Inn Stood Apart

In Alex Madonna's world, nothing succeeded quite like excess. His motto was "go whole hog," and he did just that in designing one of the world's most eccentric hotels, with its Pepto-Bismol-pink color scheme and jaw-dropping waterfall urinal in the men's room that drew tittering tourists with cameras.

I believe I saw this in Nest many months ago. See the entire complex, room by room, here.

* Ray, 4/23/2004 10:45:09 PM

Firms

InsideArch - The inside view into firms and professional culture.
Just found this on archinect. It's evidently chock-full of info on architecture firms, all sorts of voting, browsing and so on. Who knew?

* Ray, 4/23/2004 10:41:38 PM

ARCH'IT update

ARCH'IT has been updated, full of strange architecture/art projects.

* Ray, 4/23/2004 10:38:54 PM

Abu Ghraib

Salon has a jaw-dropping story on the Abu Ghraib prison, now the "Baghdad Correctional Facility": "Guantanamo on steroids"

Abu Ghraib now houses thousands of prisoners. The military will not release specific numbers, for security reasons, but the Associated Press reported that 12,000 people are being held there. Prisoners are pouring into the system: According to Human Rights Watch, in December and January the U.S. military said it was arresting approximately 100 Iraqis per day. Each visit requires two guards -- one to supervise the prisoner and one to escort his family members.

* Ray, 4/23/2004 03:43:25 PM

Orwellian romance

Honestly, is there anything sexier than a strong state?

Please have a look at the website for Romancing Singapore, a new initiative designed to make Singaporeans more romantic. It's also linked to the government's goal of doubling the population to 6 million in the next twenty years. Hmmm. Similar campaigns that have been rolled out recently include the Happy Toilet program (see hippoblog archives) and a new push to make Singaporeans show up to weddings on time. Also notable is an initiative called "Speak Good English," which should probably be called "Speak English Well."

Available at the Romancing Singapore site are custom ringtones, links to "express yourself through pottery", and an amazing RS theme song. Or, buy yourself the official Romancing Singapore Eau de Parfum, designed by "local talented students from the Singapore Polytechnic School of Chemical and Life Sciences." Now THAT'S sexy...

* joshua, 4/23/2004 12:32:50 AM

fold yerself some porn

And following on those: erotic origami. Of course, this must have been going on in Japan for yonks. But the "Lonely Man" is particularly good.

[added 23apr by ray]
Slow Josh, slow: look.

* joshua, 4/22/2004 10:59:57 PM

Bored at work

Three things from Fleshbot:

Door Sex
Naughty Automata (don't miss the animations)
Mojo

That last one, the vibrating object, is designed by Marc Newson, the guy who designed the O21C Pantone car that sat in the lobby of the GSD for a time. The shape of the Mojo looks a bit like the Bucky Installation (Fondation Cartier, 1995). But those were chairs. Hm.

* Ray, 4/22/2004 09:17:38 PM

Strip, Clear, Fill, Flatten

Photographs of the changing American landscape:

John Ganis has documented the environmental detriments of the extraction industries in every region of the United States over the last 17 years--desolate strip mines, clear-cut forests, industrial parks, landfill sites, and terrains flattened for housing developments.

* Ray, 4/22/2004 08:58:11 PM

It is easy being green.

The Green Matrix summarizes stuff you ought to do to make a green building. Lots of links, lots of information. Handy.

* Ray, 4/22/2004 08:51:07 PM

Bite-sized Woodward

The Condensed Bob Woodward - Slate reads Plan of Attack so you don't have to. By Bryan Curtis

Think of these quote-quotes as the Condensed Bryan Curtis, I guess:

Page 9: The first sign of the Bush administration's desire to attack Iraq comes days before Bush's 2001 inauguration. Dick Cheney asks outgoing Defense Secretary Bill Cohen to brief the president 'about Iraq and different options.' During the briefing, Cheney falls asleep.

Karl Rove, a Norwegian-American, is obsessed with the "historical duplicity" of the Swedes, who seized Norway back in 1814. This nationalism manifests itself as hatred for Swedish weapons inspector Hans Blix.

Page 186: Bush aide Nick Calio declares his intention to vitiate a congressional filibuster. Bush says, "Nicky, what the fuck are you talking about, vitiate?"

Page 244: Woodward meets Bush at a White House Christmas party in 2002. Though it's months before the prez would declare war on Iraq, Bush suggests that a sequel to Woodward's previous best seller, Bush at War, should be in the works. "Maybe it will be called More Bush at War," Bush says. Laura Bush responds, "Let's hope not."

* Ray, 4/22/2004 04:38:55 PM

Nihil-Sim

Wired has a silly article on games that build a conscience, not just bloodlust. It's silly because it doesn't really point to any good examples. September 12th is a simple Flash "game" that gives you rockets and leaves it up to you to kill or not. If you do kill, the dead bodies attract mourners, then the mourners transform into gun-toters. Then you decide again whether you ought to kill them too. Seems to me like a lesson in nihilism, not conscience-building. I mean, you could walk away from that game with fantasies of genocide.

It seems to me that any game cannot usefully teach anyone about conscience. Games teach capitalism, maximization, efficiency, strategy, exploitation. A conscience is defined internally, according to your own rules, and those rules usually have nothing to do with beating other people. Now, if there were a MMORPG where you "succeeded" by landing in the middle of the pack (not too weak, not too strong), then maybe there's a chance you'd pick up a thing or two about conscience. But then, why play the game when you're already middle-of-the-pack in real life?

* Ray, 4/22/2004 04:26:48 PM

Over at Dover

Word is out in the blogosphere that finally pictures of the coffins at Dover AFB are available, thanks to the Memory Hole. Unfortunately it's too much traffic for the Memory Hole to handle. I expect some mirrors to pop up soon. You can see some of the pictures at Warblogging. Apparently the government's done fired a woman who was responsible for releasing some of those pictures. They sacked her husband too.

[added 22apr]
Warblogging mirror

* Ray, 4/22/2004 04:05:58 PM

"Bring 'em on" not enough; Bush continues talking despite lobotomy

This is nigh-unbelievable.

In my judgment, the whole world should have said, 'Thank you, Ariel. Now we have a chance to begin the construction of a peaceful Palestinian state.

* Ray, 4/22/2004 03:29:13 PM

Architecture Radio

I just found a link to Architecture Radio:

Architecture Radio is a non-profit educational project created to promote learning and discussion about the pressing issues of design and the built environment.

I haven't poked around much yet, but I see that they want to publish lectures (with video) on architecture. There's also a bunch of links to architecty things. I'm always glad to see architects using technology well. Refreshing.

* Ray, 4/22/2004 03:04:30 AM

Multistory City

You can see Local Projects' City of Memory demo online.

City of Memory is a narrative map of New York City that allows visitors to create a collective memory by submitting stories. Visitors link stories together by theme, creating new "neighborhoods" of narrative that can be explored by others. Stories can be recommended, giving new visitors a sense of the narrative created by the populace. City of Memory was last shown at New York City's Eyebeam Atelier in August 2002.

They say it'll be interactive again this month, which ought to be fun. Or not. Depends on whether you like doing things or just reading about doing things. They really ought to link it to GPS and SMS. This whole point-click-and-type thing doesn't seem very realistic.

* Ray, 4/22/2004 02:58:00 AM

Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow

Sure, you've seen fake images of celebrities nude (and worse), but have you seen them bald?

* Ray, 4/22/2004 02:48:48 AM

Fingerbutt

I once had an idea for a short story or movie where the premise is that people aren't allowed to photograph genitalia. Very quickly, close-up images of armpit hair and bent elbows become extremely popular. After that, armpits and elbow cracks become truly erotic, possibly supplanting the turn-on of real naughty bits. I haven't worked out the ending yet. Until then, check out images from The Secret Finger Trick. Eerie.

* Ray, 4/22/2004 02:47:05 AM

Vernal VR

The World Wide Panorama - QuickTime VR Panoramas:

On Saturday, March 20, more than 180 photographers in 40 countries around the world celebrated the Equinox by creating VR panoramas. This site showcases the results of their efforts.

Be careful looking through these. You might find yourself becoming terribly wistful, or wanderlust will set in.

I don't quite get why simultaneity is important for this project (all March 20, 2004), but there you go. Maybe it's just easier to give people a deadline, what with all the short attentions spans in the

* Ray, 4/21/2004 12:24:43 PM

F1ckin' hot

I always thought that the idea of the "steaming jungle" was a bit of British Colonial hyperbole. This is because I had never actually seen a jungle steam before. This shot was taken on route back to Singapore from Sepang Circuit, home of the Malaysia Grand Prix. It was so hot at the F1 this year, the emergency services staff slept in the ambulance instead of watching the cars overheat on the track.

* joshua, 4/20/2004 09:06:43 PM

pew-mahs

A new report, following up on multiple reported sightings, has confirmed that pumas and other big cats are roaming the British countryside. These animals are assumed to have escaped from private zoos, and have slowly formed wild colonies. I'm guessing that this was aided by the fact that British hikers have been forbidden to walk on country trails for several years due to concerns about the spread of Foot and Mouth Disease--as a result, large colonies of birds and flowers thought to be locally extinct have suddenly reappeared (radically changing the appearance of popular spots in Derbyshire and elsewhere).

At any rate, this article might be your only opportunity to see the words "wild" and "Cornwall" printed in the same sentence.

* joshua, 4/20/2004 08:41:16 PM

still crazy after all these years...

terry jones, of monty python fame, has still got it

* Rami, 4/20/2004 09:38:13 AM

Miguel Fisac

And this one's still moving! Add to the list of good architects a Spaniard named Miguel Fisac, who is inexplicably little-known outside the Iberian peninsula. Born in 1913, Fisac produced a number of buildings that combined a bit of Scharoun's geometry with the wild, brutalist surface experiments of late Rudolph. He also produced some of the most beautiful roofs in Spanish architecture. Find a list of works here.

* joshua, 4/19/2004 10:42:24 PM

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