Headlessness

Golders Green, a place of delightful prospects: At the...

Thu, 09 Jul 2009 10:34:55 +0100

Golders Green, a place of delightful prospects:

At the bottom:
‘The soonest reached at any time
GOLDERS GREEN
(Hendon and Finchley)
A place of delightful prospects.’

And in the scroll, under the title ‘Sanctuary’, the words of William Cowper:

‘Tis pleasant, through the loopholes of retreat,
To peep at such a world; to see the stir
Of the great Babel, and not feel the crowd;
To hear the roar she sends through all her gates
At a safe distance, where the dying sound
Falls a soft murmur on the uninjur’d ear.

From Goodman and Chant’s ‘European Cities and Technology’ p.145. The book’s caption reads:

“London Underground poster of 1908 promoting a semi-rural suburban ideal (reproduced from Weightman and Humphries, 1983, p.124; © London Transport Museum)”

From a time when new transport and communications technologies were redefining the city, it’s interesting that people thought the suburb needed selling.

I Have You Now, by Balakov.

Thu, 09 Jul 2009 10:21:46 +0100

I Have You Now, by Balakov.

A replica of the first British designed and built triplane will be unveiled on Walthamstow marshes

Thu, 09 Jul 2009 10:00:37 +0100

A replica of the first British designed and built triplane will be unveiled on Walthamstow marshes: All happening this weekend, by the sounds.

"It’s nearly time for a twitter. I can feel one coming on."

Wed, 08 Jul 2009 17:29:13 +0100

“It’s nearly time for a twitter. I can feel one coming on.”

- Bumble (David Lloyd) commentating on the first Ashes Test.

Pachube2SketchUp: realtime sensor data in SketchUp

Wed, 08 Jul 2009 16:40:28 +0100

Pachube2SketchUp: realtime sensor data in SketchUp

"This programme was recorded and played as live for your convenience."

Wed, 08 Jul 2009 09:56:53 +0100

“This programme was recorded and played as live for your convenience.”

- Not for the convenience of your outsourced producers and presenters? Thanks, beeb. Appreciate it.

Popes and Johnsons

Wed, 08 Jul 2009 08:56:00 +0100

A recent post on Hackney Freecycle about some lovely old books that could use some expert care:

“I have these two sets of old books, in very poor condition sadly. Is
there a bookbinder/collector/student out there who would like them?

“The Works of Alexander Pope, Esq, with notes and illustrations by Dr
Joseph Warton, DD, London, 1797 (eight volumes out of nine)

“Lives of the English Poets, by Samuel Johnson LL D, London, 1821 (two
volumes)”

There’s always a risk with Freecycle that the items will go to someone that talks a good game, but really just wants to sell your stuff on ebay. Any Hackney, or London bookbinders out there? Or anyone else that can make good use of these? I’m happy to pick them up and pass them on, or put you in touch. You can contact me at james holloway [of the] gmail [dot] com.

"We designed Google Chrome for people who live on the web."

Wed, 08 Jul 2009 08:06:44 +0100

“We designed Google Chrome for people who live on the web.”

- It’s official. Google Chrome is for spiders.

Southsea, 2109? Well, obviously not, because photographs of the...

Tue, 07 Jul 2009 22:35:00 +0100

Southsea, 2109?

Well, obviously not, because photographs of the future aren’t possible; and this is unmistakably Mediterranean architecture. In fact this is a villa near Menaggio in Italy.

But to meet housing demand in Britain, we’d apparently have to build 240,000 houses per year (though I’m not sure for how long — surely not indefinitely?)

Assuming we want houses to last more than thirty years, do we need to be thinking more about some of the more worrying global warming predictions that have been made lately? If it’s going to be a few degrees warmer in the not too distant future, might it be worth adopting a few Mediterranean design features?

I’m not suggesting we abandon the prevailing styles of British housing (I’ll do that later), but just adopt a few of the continental coping mechanisms, such as:

Nice thick walls made of stone, brick, or concrete, that having a cooling effect in summer.
Smaller windows to minimise solar heat gain.
Shutters on the outside of windows, again, to minimise solar heat gain. Closing your curtains might help, but it’s better to stop all that radiation before it gets through the glass and is converted to heat. Incidentally — how do you close upstairs exterior shutters? I’m sure there’s a simple answer to that, I’ve just never noticed or thought about it.
No carpets, which I’m sure must have some insulating effect that prevents the floor sucking heat out of a room.

I don’t really know how to conclude this, except to say I don’t know an awful lot about these passive sorts of methods of cooling buildings. Clearly there are many new, exciting technologies that should help make buildings much less environmentally damaging, but I am drawn to the idea that, when presented with a problem, it’s worth checking to see if anyone has solved it before.

Lengthy quotes

Tue, 07 Jul 2009 21:59:54 +0100

I should stop posting long quotes without setting the context up front. They must be quite annoying to read. It’s a case of me shoe-horning a lengthy quote into Tumblr’s quote post-type, which isn’t really what it’s for, I don’t think. How about a character limit for quotes, Tumblr? It’ll annoy some of your users, but readers might thank you.

SoundCloud Threatens MySpace as Music Destination for Twitter Era

Tue, 07 Jul 2009 18:46:55 +0100

SoundCloud Threatens MySpace as Music Destination for Twitter Era: Via roamin.

notes.husk.org: In Praise Of Highwalks

Tue, 07 Jul 2009 13:25:00 +0100

notes.husk.org: In Praise Of Highwalks:

“Beech Street itself is remarkably nice for a traffic-dominated underpass. (In fact, I’d rather use it than some of London’s 1960s pedestrian subways, which are themselves far less pleasant than most highwalks)”.

I agree with this, and actually, I think the reason Beech Street is as pleasant an underpass as it is, from a pedestrian point of view, is precisely because it is traffic-dominated. This dictates that it has plenty of height, and is well illuminated. In combination, you have a safe, non-claustrophobic space that feels glorious in comparison to the minor hell of all the pedestrian-only underpasses we’ve all used. You can see the faces of passers by. That makes a huge difference. Maybe a design criterion of all future pedestrian underpasses is that they should allow two double-decker buses to pass through side by side.

Babysitter unwanted

Tue, 07 Jul 2009 12:57:27 +0100

Judging from the number of tabs torn from two adjacent babysitter ads in a local cafe, I am able to offer the offer the following advice to unemployed babysitters:

Don’t describe yourself as a “Babysitter!!!!”
Don’t adorn your flyer with unnecessary borders and motifs. (N.b. they are all unnecessary).
Don’t fill a sheet of paper with a single paragraph. Especially not one beginning “20 year-old fashion student…”
Make yourself sound as frumpy and middle-aged as possible. Stating this explicitly is okay.
State that you can provide your own transport; especially if you travel by umbrella.

This is all I was able to deduce.

"The only circumstances under which I would be persuaded to twitter is if a live songbird flew into..."

Tue, 07 Jul 2009 11:15:15 +0100

“The only circumstances under which I would be persuaded to twitter is if a live songbird flew into my mouth.”

- Will Self on Any Questions, July 4.

You can tell a lot about someone from the way they arrange their shopping on the supermarket...

Tue, 07 Jul 2009 10:41:51 +0100

You can tell a lot about someone from the way they arrange their shopping on the supermarket conveyorbelt.

misanthropolis: The Google Maps alphabet UK: an A to Z of the...

Mon, 06 Jul 2009 14:40:20 +0100

misanthropolis:

The Google Maps alphabet UK: an A to Z of the British Isles - Telegraph

Never? What about in 3009? Stupid short-termists.

Sun, 05 Jul 2009 00:01:00 +0100

Never? What about in 3009? Stupid short-termists.

Splasm Software: Brightness Control

Sat, 04 Jul 2009 22:03:48 +0100

Splasm Software: Brightness Control: Essential imac app for rectifying the annoyingly bright imac screen in low-light conditions.

I grabbed a second copy of the Korg DS-10 synth in order to sync...

Sat, 04 Jul 2009 19:38:29 +0100

I grabbed a second copy of the Korg DS-10 synth in order to sync with the first copy and make richer and/or more elaborate tunes. This is my first stab. It wasn’t til I’d finished it I realised I’d basically subconsciously covered the Mass Effect theme.

mp3 download link.

Pushy coot: I swear to you the one on the left up and pushed...

Sat, 04 Jul 2009 14:16:40 +0100

Pushy coot:

I swear to you the one on the left up and pushed off the other.