Saturday, February 16, 2008
Friday, February 15, 2008
Cloud City airships to float New Yorkers above post-apocolyptic maelstrom
What if New York City were totally trashed in a disaster? That was the premise for a design competition that spawned this Cloud City idea by Studio Lindfors. It was one the Selected Entries in the "What if New York City…" design competition, where designers dreamed up this concept where New Yorkers are lifted above the rubble in blimp houses, staying together as a community while crews clear away the mess below.
The fanciful design doesn't mention what the blimp inhabitants will do while suspended above the city, or how they might get down from there if they want to, say, get some food. And what happens if an airship's wires are somehow cut loose or lose their grip on their tempest-tossed moorings below? Perhaps floating above New York, with a expansive panoramic view of the devastation would be cathartic, but some disaster victims might find it downright depressing. There are pretty pictures of the concept in the gallery below, but we're thinking it might just be better to get outta town if havoc strikes.
- more here -
Thursday, February 14, 2008
Scans from 1962 book that tries to predict life in 1975
Derrick Bostrom kindly scanned pages from a book called 1975: And the Changes To Come by Arnold B. Barach.
The book was published in 1962 and has photos and captions about the ways in which technology will change our lives in the coming decade. Here's some of the wonderful things we can expect when 1975 rolls around: Utrasonic dishwashers, combination electronic oven and food freezers, portable ovens (for tabletop cooking and broiling), toaster bacon, triple purpose TV unit ("for the housewife, enabling her to watch her children at play or identify visitors at the door or watch her favorite color television program"), wireless cardiac monitors, irradiated canned beans, and automatic language translation.
Caption for photo above:
Film Based Teaching Machine. Student pushes one of four buttons to give answers and his score appears on paper slip at upper right. Teaching machines, expected to boom in the next decade, usually operate on the principal of repetition until the pupil understands. They aim to speed up the learning process and relieve teacher of much paper work in the classroom.
I can't wait for 1975 to get here. I am saving up for a Hi-Fi Sphere. Link
Belated Christmas Gift from Hell
Surely your loved one can't live without a black velvet painting of Lynndie England.
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