The Digital Urban site has a great series of entries on the theme of Cities in Games. They’ve done City 17 from Half Life 2, which you could say is a current pinnacle, but they’re easing off the more recent games and going a little retro with the first in a series based on Sinclair ZX Spectrum titles. First up is Ant Attack. I loved this game. And it’s beautiful isometric view coupled with the spot use of color still looks classy. To me. The game is playable here.
I’m a bit of a closet ornithologist, so this alarm clock that plays bird song appeals. As far as I can tell, though, this is a US only product, which might be a little disorientating. Being woken up by the Northern Cardinal in the wilds of Surrey might be a bit surreal. Plus, it may confuse our cat.
Link to Song Bird Serenade Alarm Clock: Replace the Beep with a Cheep – Gizmodo
These snow scenes from Walter Martin & Paloma Muñoz are beautiful, melancholic and quite unsettling. And now available in travel-friendly snowglobe form.
I’m a big fan of Lebbeus Woods. He’s an architect/artist who doesn’t actually build anything, but instead imagines these crazy, fragmentic, chaotic architectural environments made up of planes and lines. There are some great examples here. It’s not that I imagine living in one of his buildings, or even admire them as architectural constructions. I just love the way that they are drawn and rendered. They are beautiful, solitary fictional worlds.
He’s a lot like Piranesi, an 18th century Italian artist, famous for his fictional drawings of prisons. He imagined these dark, gothic spaces which are both stifling and vast. If you’ve ever played Ico for the Playstation (which I utterly recommend) you’ll have experiences the kind of spaces he drew.
Anyway, what got me on to this was a shot of the worlds tallest wooden house. Classic Lebeus Woods if ever I saw it.
Comfort & Support by rbanks.
Shannon is curled up with a fever and sore throat. Sidney is providing close support.
I’m a big believer that longer term we could end up generating a lot of our energy needs by exploiting our environment, and installing micro energy generators. Doors could be generating electricity for your home as they are opened and closed. Your doormat could be powering a light in your hallway by capturing the energy of footsteps.
This car ramp, installed in Japan, that generates energy when cars pass over it, is a great example. This BBC article provides some overview on Energy Harvesting. This sensor draws its power from vibrations, while this Japanese ticket gate draws its power from the constant opening and shutting of ticket doors.
These micro wind turbines still draw their power from a “traditional” renewable source, but they offer a new, more flexible way of fitting these kind of devices into your life then the existing, larger installations. You could spread these around your house, or put them in areas of the garden that are more discreet.
Grabbing a St.Patrick’s Day snack by rbanks.
We’re in London for a combo Mother’s Day/St.Patrick’s Day walkabout.
She’s been doing this for a while, but she went through a little wild, smiley phase of standing and sitting on Friday which is quite fun to see.
Knife disclaimer by rbanks.
A not-very-good Photoshop job done after seeing this warning on a bottle of sparkling wine. Label reads “Caution! Sharp Edge! Hold from other end. Consult manual for use.”
What are lawyers doing to us? by rbanks.
On the cork of a bottle of cheap sparkling wine we just opened. “Stop. Read Warning Below”. I guess that’s all the room they had for a disclaimer.
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