London: Holborn Overhaul and De-Fencing the Street

(From Architects Journal, used w/o permission.)

"Farrell unveils Holborn overhaul vision"
Merlin Fulcher, Architects Journal (June 14, 2012)

"[First look] Terry Farrell and Partners has revealed his masterplan to revamp the Holborn, Bloomsbury and St Giles areas of London

"Re-branded 'Midtown', the district is expected to undergo major regeneration with the arrival of Crossrail in 2018.

"Farrell's vision centres on the area's three major hubs: St Giles Circus, Holborn Crossroads and Holborn Circus – setting out roadmap for improving public realm, the urban environment and pedestrian and transport congestion.

"Proposals include phasing out High Holborn's one-way system, creating new pedestrian crossings and expanding the cycle network.

"Tass Mavrogordato, chief executive of project-backer InMidtown BID, said: 'We will be more impacted than anywhere else by the opening of London's two biggest Crossrail stations in Farringdon and Tottenham Court Road...."

That aerial view of Farrell's proposed London makeover is an attractive picture.

Making a nifty picture is one thing, planning a detailed renovation of even part of a city is something else. The Lemming didn't know whether this was one of those visionary projects that nobody really expects to work: or something that Londoners could actually use.

As it turns out, project planners seem quite serious about Farrell's St. Giles Circus — Holborn Crossroads — Holborn Circus project.

Trees, Umbrellas, and No Fences in the Streeet

(From Architects Journal, used w/o permission.)

Judging from those before-and-after pictures from the Architects Journal article, it looks like Farrell's idea is to take some of the fences out of the street, add trees, and set up a sidewalk cafe or two.

The sidewalk cafe may or may not work out; the trees look nice, but will need watering; and — how did anyone think that putting fences in a street was a good idea in the first place?!

No matter. Another four years, and at least one London street can be used as a street again. That's progress, the Lemming supposes.

Related posts:

• "Students and Duluth City Planning: Fresh Ideas"
  (December 14, 2012)
• "Lemming Tracks: Designing Better Street Lighting"
  (March 21, 2012)
• "New York City Metropolitan Museum of Art Makeover, et Les Mots Français (Mais Oui!)"
  (February 8, 2012)
• "Houston, Texas; Civic Pride; Futuristic Architecture; and Admiral Horatio Nelson"
  (February 1, 2012)
• "Minneapolis Skyways: Warm Winter Walking"
  (November 9, 2011)

Olympics 2012: "The Fans Will See Something Different"

First, the good news.

Someone convinced the North Korean football (soccer here in America) team to come back.

Now the bad news.

Somehow, a North Koran athlete's picture - with a South Korean flag - showed up on a one of those King-Kong-size screens at the football venue. Then the North Korean team walked out.

Can't blame them, in the Lemming's opinion. North and South Korea haven't been on particularly good terms for several decades: and North Korea's leadership has earned a reputation for being sensitive about insufficiently loyal subjects.

Even in a less tense situation, getting the flag wrong wouldn't win friends. Think about it: would a Canadian hockey player appreciate it, if the Olympic stadium megascreen showed his picture - with the United States stars and bars?

Not that Canada and the United States have the sort of relationship that North and South Korea have. Happily: the Lemming lives close to the Canadian border. It's just a couple hundred miles north.

Opening Ceremony - With 1/7 of the World Watching

"London Olympics final countdown begins"
(July 27, 2012 )

"The opening ceremony of the London Olympics is due to take place later after seven years of preparations.

"The three-hour spectacle in the Olympic Stadium is expected to be viewed by a global TV audience of a billion people.

"The final day of the torch relay will see the Olympic flame taken along the Thames on royal rowbarge Gloriana - and then used to light the cauldron that will shine during 16 days of sport.

"The Games will see the biggest UK peacetime security operation mounted.

"Organisers have released a video clip giving a sneak preview of Oscar winner Danny Boyle's opening ceremony, featuring groups in colourful stage outfits dancing to Tiger Feet by 1970s rock group Mud and cyclists with wings pedalling along to Come Together by the Beatles...."

From today to August 12, the Lemming is confident that there will be no shortage of 2012 Olympics news. The get-together's official website is www.london2012.com, by the way.

By the time you see this post, the opening ceremonies will probably have started: and the Lemming will almost certainly be sleeping. It's a matter of time zones. There's an ocean and about a third of a continent between the Lemming and London: and the Lemming needs sleep.

Oops: North Korean Athletes, South Korean Flag

"South Korean flag flies above North Korean football team at London Olympics"
news.com.au (July 26, 2012)

"GREAT Britain is known as the home of football so it should have been the last place on earth where a gaffe disgraced an Olympic Games....

"...Yet a diplomatic blunder - in which a North Korea player was introduced on the giant screen accompanied by a picture of the South Korean flag - sent the London Games into damage control just 48 hours before the official Opening Ceremony.

"The flag faux pas occurred as North Korea prepared to play Colombia at Glasgow's Hampden Park and it prompted the team to refuse to take the field, delaying the start of the game by more than an hour....

"...With FIFA introducing pre-match procedures to avoid match day disasters 24 hours before kick off, its appointed technical committee in Glasgow seemingly put its trust in Hampden Park's venue manager, Andy Mitchell.

"Ironically Mitchell - a former Scottish Football Association communications director - told The Scotsman on Wednesday 'the fans will see something different' before yesterday's embarrassing flag incident...."

Surely Mitchell didn't have the flag switch in mind when he said "something different."

Again, from news.com.au:

"...A FIFA source last night confirmed big screen graphics and stadium public address systems are in the hands of the London Organising Committee for the Olympic Games (LOCOG) during the Olympic football tournament...."
(news.com.au)

Then, in their apology, LOCOG called the country "North Korea." That's what folks in the English-speaking world call the Korean Democratic People's Republic. "North Korea" is shorter: but it's not the correct, formal, name of the country in English. On top of the flag foul-up, that error required another apology.

Eventually, LOCOG seems to have apologized without causing a new incident, and the Olympics got going again.

Maybe the flag fuss seems like a lot of protest over a small offense. Maybe not. The Lemming thinks it would have been nice of LOCOG, or whoever was running the show, had paid more attention to details. Like which flag goes with which country.

Related posts:

• "What do a wedding dress, an opera house, some purses, and a torch have in common?"
  (April 25, 2012)
• "Olympic This, Olympic That, and Chobham Academy"
  (March 14, 2012)
• "And Now, For Something Completely Different: Portable Buildings; and an Octopus Cartoon"
  (March 7, 2012)
• "Olympic Committee Rules for Social Media: Common Sense; or Signs of a Vast Conspiracy of Space Aliens?"
  (June 27, 2011)
• "Beijing Olympics Closes With Style: Next Stop, London"
  (August 24, 2008)

Olympic This, Olympic That, and Chobham Academy

"London Olympics Architecture : Buildings Information + Images"
e-architect.co.uk

It's basically a link page, where you can go to photos of the London Olympics Shooting Venue, Olympic Aquatics Centre, an areal view of the Olympic Park (under construction), Olympic Stadium, and Olympic Village.

And, for reasons that weren't immediately clear to the Lemming, Chobham Academy.

Related posts:

• "And Now, For Something Completely Different: Portable Buildings; and an Octopus Cartoon"
  (March 7, 2012)
• "Houston, Texas; Civic Pride; Futuristic Architecture; and Admiral Horatio Nelson"
  (February 1, 2012)
• "Rogers Centre / SkyDome, Toronto, Canada"
  (July 16, 2010)
• "Eco-Bridge or Not, This Looks Like a Good Idea"
  (February 20, 2009)
• "China's Cool New Buildings: Eco-Aware, Too"
  (October 15, 2007)

Data-Driven Art: For an 'Overwhelmed' 'Hive Mind???'

"Decode Exhibition Points Way to Data-Driven Art"
Underwire, Wired (January 25, 2010)

"The cryptic works on display at London's Decode: Digital Design Sensations exhibition manipulate raw data as a kind of virtual pigment, finding form and fun amid the sensory overload that threatens to overwhelm the 21st-century hive mind.

"Several exhibition pieces showcased at Victoria and Albert Museum depend on human presence to produce their full effect. A motion-detecting eyeball, for examples, blinks each time a visitor blinks. In another piece, a video screen enables visitors to 'paint' smears of color through the power of their gyrations...."

"Overwhelmed?"

"Hive mind?!"

I'll get back to that.

Some of the data-driven art is - weird. That "motion-detecting eyeball," for example. Some looks like fun, like a virtual dandelion with attached hair dryer. And some is quite easy to look at, like "Flight Patterns," a video "based on 24 hours of airplane tracking data provided by the Federal Aviation Administration." The picture above is a thumbnail of a still from that video.

The Wired article explains why the Decode: Digital Design Sensations exhibition was put together:

"...'Decode is about demystifying the black art or magic of digital while showing that this work can be poetic, emotional and poignant,' show co-curator Shane R.J. Walter told Wired.com in an e-mail interview. Walter, creative director for the OneDotZero digital arts site, said the exhibition pieces 'highlight issues in our everyday lives such as the overabundance of information and how we deal with this through data visualization.' The Decode artists, he writes, 'use code as a material to work with just as sculptors work with clay.'..."

Okay: That's clear enough.

But, again:

• "Overwhelmed?"
• "Hive mind?"
• "Demystifying the"
  • "Black art"
  • "Magic of digital?"
  • "Overabundance of information?"

"Overwhelmed" by Data? Are You Kidding??

Sure, I've read about how we have too much data to deal with: but I haven't experienced it myself. My problem, generally, is finding enough data, fast enough.

"Overwhelmed"? Hardly. For me, it's more "frustrated" at how comparatively little there is available sometimes, even now.

Sheets of paper with ink on them was pretty close to the ultimate in random-access data storage and retrieval system when I was growing up: and the codex form of books is still a pretty good technology.

But these days I'm able to get more data, faster, than before. Sure, a lot of what's online is tripe: but so is a lot of what's been published the old-fashioned way. That's where research and analysis skills come in.

I don't mind being able to get weather information straight from the National Weather Service: not relayed by some guy on the radio. Like yesterday, when I posted this in another blog:

• "Well, That's Interesting: Blizzard Warning"
  Sauk Centre Journal Blog (January 25, 2010)

I suppose it's like me and art. I've drawn and painted since my teens: and started working with digital art as soon as the software got down into my price range.

Granted, having the sense of touch in six of my ten fingers go offline several years ago had an effect: but I was 'going digital' before that happened.

There's so much more you can do, faster, more precisely, with software. Like the light and shade in that illustration for Halloween I did for 2007.

And no: the computer isn't making the art, any more that Rembrandt's brushes made his paintings. It's a tool.

My oldest daughter, on the other hand, only uses digital art techniques when she has to. She much prefers traditional tools. I don't think she's "overwhelmed," though.

"Hive Mind?" What Hive Mind?

I suppose it's spooky, the realization that people can communicate with each other, all over the world, providing that they speak the same language. Even that's not a strict requirement, but it helps: the automatic translation tools are helpful, but come up with gibberish fairly often. They have artificial intelligence, but not very.

Where was I? Communication. People. Spooky. Right.

This isn't the 'good old days,' where a few well-heeled people were able to travel around and gawk at the natives, and write about their experiences for the benefit of others of the better sort.

Quite a lot has changed.

Literacy isn't the rarity it was, not all that long ago. For America, about 99% of folks 16 years old and up can read and write. Not well, maybe, always,: but we can. It's 99% for Japan, too. We could do better, of course. Liechtenstein as a literacy rate of 100%.

Television was a 'threat to individuality' in my younger days. Because, I suppose, millions of people could be watching the same show at the same time.

Then came the Internet and the Web - why, these days, just about anybody can take pictures, write - and get noticed. If they've got something to say, there's a good chance that many others will notice them.

But is that a "hive mind?" Maybe not.

I see it as an opportunity for a great many people to get together and share ideas.

I'm not "overwhelmed," either.

Like I wrote, in another blog:

"Knowledge is Power: and I Like Power"

"Many of the ideas put forward online don't pass the 'stink test,' and fail in the marketplace of ideas. Others succeed.

"The great thing about the Information Age is that people can publish their ideas. Even if those ideas don't sit well with

• "Established academics
• "Yankee gentlemen
• "Publishing executives

"To someone who became comfortable with the well-regulated flow of information that a previous generation experienced, today's world of blogs and uncontrolled websites must seem like chaos.

"I like it.

"I also like individual freedom.

"And I like the way that the Information Age has opened by giving 'power to the people:' the power of individuals to enter the marketplace of ideas, even if their views aren't approved by the old gatekeepers...."
(Knowledge is Power: and I Like Power, in "DC Gun Ban, Online Censorship, Individual Rights, and Power to the People," Another War-on-Terror Blog (June 27, 2008))

Data-Driven Art? Cool!

Although I don't know how many people are really "overwhelmed" by the "hive mind," Decode: Digital Design Sensations looks like a lot of fun.

And probably is a taste of what my grandchildren will think is 'the same old thing.'

The technology probably won't be quite the same, of course. Think about it: how long has it been, since you heard a theremin being played?

Related post:

• "Leon Theremin, Inventor of the Theremin: a Weird-Sounding Instrument"
  (November 3, 2009)

Christmas Pudding? Certainly: Just Sign This Indemnity Form

"Diners sign Christmas pud waiver"
BBC (December 24, 2009)

"A central London restaurant has insisted that diners sign an indemnity form before eating Christmas puddings, some of which contained silver pieces.

"Some 350 diners at High Timber signed the waiver before eating the desserts, which contained silver charms.

"It read: 'I absolve High Timber from blame should I come to harm including a chipped tooth, or any injury as a result of swallowing it.'

"Restaurant owner Neleen Strauss said it had 'created a bit of a stir'.

"She said: 'I thought it was going to be a pain but decided to do it to cover my backside....'..."

---

A tip of the hat to irish_brigid, on Twitter, for the heads-up on this holiday legal oddity.

Design Museum, London: The Website

Design Museum London

"The Design Museum is one of the world’s leading museums devoted to contemporary design in every form from furniture to graphics, and architecture to industrial design. It is working to place design at the centre of contemporary culture. It demonstrates both the richness of the creativity to be found in all forms of design, and its importance. Design is a hugely fertile field of inventive new work, as well as a key component underpinning the modern economy. It provides a means for understanding the contemporary world, and, potentially, for making it a better place. The Design Museum’s mission is to celebrate, entertain, and inform...."

The best way to see it would be to, well, see it: in London, England.

The website is a fairly good resource for photos and ideas - if you keep following links.

The Telectroscope: New York - London Live Link

"The Telectroscope - 11 May-15 June 2008"

"Hardly anyone knows that a secret tunnel runs deep beneath the Atlantic Ocean. In May 2008, more than a century after it was begun, the tunnel will finally be completed. Immediately afterwards, an extraordinary optical device called a Telectroscope will be installed at both ends which will miraculously allow people to see right through the Earth from London to New York and vice versa."

This sounds like quite a piece of art. I like the story that goes with it, and am intrigued by the technology. However it works, the link really is in real time.
"Artist's imagination at work as optical invention connects New York and London in real time"
International Herald Tribune (May 23, 2008)

"New Yorkers could see their English cousins across the pond Thursday without benefit of cable TV or video conferencing, courtesy of an unusual live optical hookup created by a conceptual artist with a fanciful tale of a long-lost tunnel.

"An optical device called a "telectroscope" was placed at the Fulton Ferry Landing in Brooklyn and another one on the Thames River in London on Thursday.

"Spectators stepped up to the machine on both sides of the Atlantic and waved and wrote greetings to each other in real time on wipe-off message boards. ...

"The contraption is the invention of Paul St George, a London artist known for his tiny replicas of monumental pieces of art

"Publicists will say only that it uses fiberoptic communication. St George prefers to stick to his story that the machine was started by his great-grandfather in Victorian times and transmits images via a tunnel under the ocean.

"According to the project's Web site, St George's work "has always been concerned with questioning the relationship between the viewer and what is viewed. His work is also often associated with different realities, spectacle and viewer participation. ..."

Northwest London Scenes, Past and Present

"Past & present in NW London" Skyscraper City (February 15th, 2008)

Lots of photos, and a little description.

The Microcosm of London: A Nineteenth Century Book

"The Microcosm of London"

A complete nineteenth century book about London, illustrated, in pretty-high-resolution photographic reproduction.

Smog Blogs, About Pollution and/or Environmental Concerns

Kermit would love these green blogs or posts, each and every one dedicated to the premise, 'the greener, the better.'

• LA Smog Blog "we breathe it"
• Frogs: the Canary in the Biodiversity Mine? This one could have gone with the frog blogs
• The Accidental Environmentalist a look at Eco-friendly living
• The Green Blog "Where Green Bloggers Speak Out"
• U.S. Air Quality / The Smog Blog "USAQ is a daily diary of air quality in the U.S. using information from NASA satellites, ground-based lidar, EPA monitoring networks, and other monitors. Interpretation and analysis is provided by the staff of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County Atmospheric Lidar Group."
• the great smog of 1952 a post from "Robs' Blog: ramblings of an american ex-pat from exotic beijing, or: how i learned to stop worrying and love bureaucracy" If you think it's bad now, check out London, 1952.
• The haze/smog is back! a post about Malaysia's annual air pollution, on the "Being Unreasonable" blog