(Untitled)- April 28, 2008 Pitfalls in paradise: why Palm Jumeirah is struggling to live up to the hype: 'Low-paid workers and villa gripes cast a cloud over 'eighth wonder of the world' in Dubai'. There's a lot of schadenfreude swilling about this part of the world, a relentless and unquenchable fascination with the process, but also the unspoken expectation that this new fantasia will eventually all come crumbling down. Nice comment here on the Ballardian potential of these man-made spaces: 'It can only be a matter of.http://www.thingsmagazine.net/2008/04/pitfalls-in-paradise-why-palm-jumeirah.htm (Untitled)- April 24, 2008 General linkage. Military Acronyms, Initialisms, and Abbreviations, a mixture of the mind-numbingly prosaic and the inappropriately optimistic. We like the two variations of WYSIWYG, WYSBYGI ('what you see before you get it') and WYSIAYG ('what you see is all you get') Illustrated Histories of Various Recording Technologies (via). Artist Lilly McElroy (via Coudal) Doug Lemoine's Journal, thanks for the link Bed Tea, a weblog BeatEd, a marvellous little drum machine application for S60...http://www.thingsmagazine.net/2008/04/general-linkage.htm (Untitled)- April 17, 2008 The fantastic architecture of Mormonism. The recent scandal in Texas has had a relatively minimal impact on UK news, but we were struck by the genuine strangeness of the architecture. The Yearning For Zion Ranch in Eldorado, Texas, home of the now notorious Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, LDS Churches are a disciplined, uniform bunch. 'Throughout its history Mormon architecture has been more functional than experimental, more temperate than ornate, more restrained.http://www.thingsmagazine.net/2008/04/fantastic-architecture-of-mormonism.htm (Untitled)- April 15, 2008 A post-war taxonomy. The NATO Codification System is a means of classifying practical any object imaginable, with a view to easing the complex chain of military logistics between the member states of NATO, 'based on a "One Item of Supply, One NATO Stock Number" concept'. The artist Suzanne Treister has used NATO Supply Classification in her work: 'Within the codification system the NATO Supply Classification (NSC) uses a four-digit coding structure. The first two digits of the code number...http://www.thingsmagazine.net/2008/04/post-war-taxonomy.htm (Untitled)- April 12, 2008 Paradise Is A Lie: A History Of False Utopias. Speaking of which, we were amused to see that the Eiffel Tower extension story just won't die. It ran in the Guardian late last month (since corrected): apparently things was one of the first sources for a story that has since been discovered to have no foundation. The power of the computer to generate the architecturally extravagant and structurally near impossible is accepted without question. Iconic architecture - and computer presentation of...http://www.thingsmagazine.net/2008/04/paradise-is-lie-history-of-false.htm |