From the Mind of the Lemming: Xanadu Springs

From time to time the Lemming goes for a walk. That's how the Lemming puts it.

Notes in the Lemming's album are a bit cryptic. For example, this one's labeled "Xanadu Springs."

Related posts:

• "Angst and the Artist: Interview With Narcissus-X"
  (May 30, 2014)
• "From the Mind of the Lemming: The Lemming's Walking Stick"
  (May 23, 2014)
• "From the Mind of the Lemming: A Far Horizon"
  (May 16, 2014)
• "From the Mind of the Lemming: Just Outside Hobbiton (maybe)"
  (April 18, 2014)
• "Coffee Cup, Doughnut: the Lemming's Back "
  (March 28, 2014)

From the Mind of the Lemming: The Lemming's Walking Stick

The Lemming and an old: walking stick? That's what the Lemming calls it.

Allegedly-related posts:

• "From the Mind of the Lemming: Just Outside Hobbiton (maybe)"
  (April 18, 2014)
• "Night of the Creeping Tree"
  (February 21, 2014)
• " 'Anchovies and Peanut Butter?!' "
  (October 30, 2013)
• "From the Mind of the Lemming: Guest Speaker"
  (September 6, 2013)
• "From the Mind of the Lemming"
  (January 6, 2012)

Architecture of Star Wars: a List of Favorites

"The Architecture of Star Wars"
Sebastian J, ArchDaily (June 16, 2009)

"Many of us, long before we even knew about architecture[,] dreamed about a fantastic world in a galaxy far far away. Nowadays, Star Wars continue to surprise people all around the world, and we can now see the movie with a different eye. Perhaps, the architect's eye.

"At The Architect's Journal, they selected the best Star Wars buildings. The top ten, after the break...."

"...4. CORUSCANT, THE WHOLE THING. Like adding New York to Kuala Lumpur and Hong Kong, then squaring the result. The capital of the Old Republic takes urban sprawl to the extreme and realises the vision of Greek City planner Constantinos Doxiadis of an ecumeonpolis: a single city that covers the whole of a planet. The 'New Architecture' style common to the Senate Area of Coruscant is characterised by Manhattan-like skyscrapers nestled among blade-thin obelisks that resemble the soaring minarets of Cairo...."

Each of the countdown's 10 items has a picture - some of which look like clips from the Star Wars movies. It's mostly fun, but the Lemming thinks Sebastian J made an important point with that first sentence. It's likely that some architects got interested in that field after going 'wow!' during a Star Wars movie. Or seeing a warehouse getting built.

It's a huge stretch to call the Star Wars movies 'inspirational:' but the Lemming thinks it's okay for folks to let their imaginations get fired up by shows like that.

"Ecumenopolis?"

Here's what Wikipedia says about the word: "Ecumenopolis (from Greek: οικουμένη, meaning world, and πόλις (polis) meaning city, thus a city made of the whole world; pl. ecumenopolises or ecumenopoleis) is a word invented in 1967 by the Greek city planner Constantinos Doxiadis to represent the idea that in the future urban areas and megalopolises would eventually fuse and there would be a single continuous worldwide city as a progression from the current urbanization and population growth trends...."

It's a cool idea, and one that's been a science fiction staple for generations. We've got something that's almost like part of an ecumenopolis today: the stretch of urbanized land between Washington, D.C., and New York City, on North America's east coast. A word for real-world analogs to Isaac Asimov's Trantor, or Lucas's Coruscant, is "megalopolis." That's "a very large urban complex (usually involving several cities and towns)." (Princeton's WordNet) There's one on the east coast of North America, running from around Boston to Washington, D.C..

The Lemming's discussed whacking great cities in science fiction, in another blog:

• "Daniel Boone and the Megalopolis"
  Drifting at the Edge of Time and Space (March 5, 2010)
• "Getting Details Right: The Vast, Huge, and Very Large City Of The Future"
  Drifting at the Edge of Time and Space (June 25, 2009)

What Star Wars' architecture has going for it is partly that it borrows from more-or-less familiar science fiction art of the 20th century - and that someone saw to it that structures in the movies looked like someone might actually be able to use them.

And that's another topic.

Not-entirely-unrelated posts:

• "Sydney Opera House: Lego Version"
  (February 22, 2012)
• "Houston, Texas; Civic Pride; Futuristic Architecture; and Admiral Horatio Nelson"
  (February 1, 2012)
• "A 21st Century Look at 19th Century Visions of the 20th Century"
  (January 4, 2012)
• "Minneapolis Skyways: Warm Winter Walking"
  (November 9, 2011)
• "Shanghai World Financial Center: Amazing Architecture, a Disgruntled Dragon, and Getting a Grip"
  (October 19, 2011)

"The Future is Wild:" Giving Your Imagination a Workout

The Future is Wild

"How will the world look in 5 million, 100 million and 200 million years? How will the continents look? Will it be hot or cold? And what kinds of fantastic creatures will be walking the Earth?

"These are the questions The Future Is Wild Set out to answer, by involving the world’s leading scientists in creating a fully animated vision of what we might find, if only we could travel in time.

"By blending good science with real imagination our team has created three very different worlds along the timeline; exotic places you can explore through animatronics, films, theme parks, books and even Manga comic books...."


(from The Future is Wild, used w/o permission)

Make no mistake: The folks who are developing The Future is Wild's website would love it if you bought their products. This is a commercial website.

And a pretty good one.

That picture is of a 'Great Blue Windrunner,' in my opinion one of the more plausible critters imagined by the project's team. It's a four-winged bird - the aft pair of wings are its legs, equipped with flight feathers. They're probably not all that efficient as wings, since they're also used as legs when the bird lands: but I can see how a creature like that could exist.

CAUTION! IMAGINATION IN USE!

I saw parts of the original The Future is Wild series, and was impressed with the CGI art and technology - and the degree to which the scientists made occasionally-bizarre critters seem plausible.

They're quite clear on this point: The Future is Wild is not, strictly speaking, prediction. They don't say that this is what will happen. Just that, in principle, it could.

I enjoyed browsing through this website - particularly the part where the world of 5,000,000 years, 100,000,000, 200,000,000 years in the future is sketched out.

No people, by the way. Apart from the drearily familiar 'and we're all gonna die' attitude that's been fashionable for a few decades now, adding what people would be doing to the mix would have taken the original show in a quite different direction.

Like I said, I enjoyed looking through the website: but I also enjoy making my imagination to push-ups at frequent intervals.

I'd recommend The Future is Wild for folks who don't mind using their imaginations - and are willing to think about things that are possible, but which don't actually exist.

Thought for the Day: About Imagination

"It is feeling and force of imagination that make us eloquent."
Marcus Valerius Martialis, via Quotes.net

A Thought for the Day, About Wonder

"He who wonders discovers that this in itself is wonder."
M. C. Escher, Dutch artist (1898 - 1972), via The Quotations Page

Giant Walking Houses and Other Weird Ideas From Science Fiction's Early Years

"Betelgeuse"
Tales of the Stars, Tales of Future Past, DavidSZondy.com

"Giant walking houses. Say that slowly with me: Giant. Walking. Houses."

"What in the name of a fitful Welsh rarebit fiend nightmare made the people of Betelgeuse think that walking houses would ever be a good idea; let alone a giant conga line of perambulatory dwellings? There had to be mass buyer's remorse on an epic scale...."

That picture is half as wide as the original on DavidSZondy.com.

Of all the strange, improbable, implausible, and simply crazy notions in his Tales of the Stars collection, This may be my favorite.

Of course, there is the grimly sophomoric humor of "Lyra."

Then there's "Mizar:" "...This idyllic form of habitation is so original, so picturesque that it is universally regarded as the stupidest idea ever hit upon...." Considering the competition, that's impressive.

Mr. Zondy doesn't take old-time (or more contemporary) science fiction very seriously - but he knows what it's supposed to be about: which makes his commentary something I come back to at intervals.

15 Cool Product Ideas

"15 Incredible Conceptual Designs You Wish Existed"
Creative Closeup (February 17, 2009)

"Imagine the first person that ate a shrimp. That ugly little creature from the sea ended up to taste so damn good. On the other side, consider the poor guy who first tried some stunningly good looking, bright red, little fruits hanging from bushes only to find out that they were deadly poisonous.

"It clear that both shrimps and poisonous red berries didn´t have a product test before being exposed to the humans, just like we have today with consumer products.

"This article gathers a group of 15 useful and enticing conceptual designs that for several reasons may never reach the production stage, but may set a trend and definitely make us whish they really existed...."

It starts out with "Nike Hindsight by Billy May" - sunglasses with Fresnel lenses that let you see (a little) behind you. I wouldn't recommend them for someone suffering from vertigo, but it's a pretty good idea.

Each design has a photo or rendering, and a description.

There's the folding bicycle, a Juke Brick (you'll have to read about that one), and the very weird "Paint or die but love me by John Nouanesing." Wouldn't you know it: The bright red table doesn't really exist, and it's French.

Some of these concepts may not go anywhere, but I wouldn't be surprised to see something like the "Sand+Time watch by Pavel Balykin" or "Flying Stick Camera by Tsunho Wang" on the shelves in a year or so.

A Subway Car Full of Identical Twins: the Video

"Human Mirror"
Improv Everywhere (we cause scenes) (July 6, 2008)

"For our latest mission, we filled a subway car with identical twins, creating a human mirror. Enjoy the video first and then see below for our report with tons of photos...."


YouTube video
2:12

Quite an idea: enjoy!

Virtual Wall: Stop or be Zapped?? - Or - Virtual Wall: Son of Bug Zapper

"Virtual Plasma Crosswalks Will Protect Pedestrians"
Walyou (April 21, 2008)

"On congested city streets with many pedestrians, couriers and drivers, it is often difficult to cross. Many things are going on the same time, and even the best of drivers make an error here and there. The pedestrian has his/her own responsibility as well, looking and making sure they are out of harm's way, but still…accidents happen and should be prevented.

"The Virtual Wall is envisioned to reduce the amount of hits (pedestrians or vehicles). It is a wall created with plasma laser beams, which is to be placed on congested streets."

Even assuming that this imaginative concept is based on science, and not post-production Hollywood special effects, I don't think I'd want to sit in a car with a wall of plasma less than a foot from the radiator.

And I know I wouldn't want to walk within a yard of the wall.

Still, it looks pretty cool.

CGI-enhanced photo and graphic.

Three Flavors of Impossible: Telepathy, Time Travel, and Perpetual Motion Machines

"Physicist Says Time Travel Is Not Only Possible, but Likely"
FOXNews (April 2, 2008)

A professor at the City University of New York, Michio Kaku, has a new book, "The Physics of the Impossible." He may also be a good businessman. In America, at least, putting outlandish ideas into a book is a pretty good way of selling books.

On the other hand, the professor says (repeating common sense for speculators from decades ago) that there are three kinds of "impossible" things:

1. Possible soon
2. Possible in the far future
3. Really, truly impossible

The article is pretty good light calisthenics for the brain.

Word-Only Ads Can Stand Out With ASCII Art

"Using ASCII Art on Google Adwords - Brilliantly Innovative!"

This post, with a screenshot, shows how one company made their text-only ads stand out: and boosted clicks 47%.

A Sliver of Wood and A Large Chunk of Imagination

"Ghost" (July 23, 2007) the tale of one of the Fisher Price Little People and the character he became