The London Beacon

The London Beacon (image from quietrevolution)

A group of London designers, architects and engineers recently unveiled The Beacon, a visionary new form of urban energy generation. The Beacon is a 40 m high Y-shaped structure, and is designed to be ‘planted’ along major roads and public spaces, reaching up to the stronger breezes above London’s buildings, while the top of it rotates into the wind direction. Each Beacon supports 5 vertical ‘triple-helix’ wind turbines, aka quietrevolution or QR5 (see relevant July 12 2006 post). Also, the QR5 turbines can become suspended video screens or colour-change lighting displays, thanks to LEDs integrated within the blades!

Cartoonists vs. Republicans on Climate Change

Tom Toles cartoon for the Washington Post

I was very happy to see Tom Toles' August 27th's post. Since many people are still not convinced by the vast amount of scientific evidence proving anthropogenic climate change, then maybe some cartoonists are helping us out with this, since they are kind of "preaching to the choir" as someone once said. Oh and please remember to rock the vote this coming November!

Another Greek island ferry experience

...love the fine red print

Just like every summer, this year again there has been a lot of hype concerning how old some of the Greek ferry boats are and how bad it is for tourism and that they should be taken off the shipping routes. This poster is from Romilda, a boat well known for its problems and it just goes to show that since rabies has been erradicated in wildlife, especially canine, in most EU countries since the 1990's, nobody has bothered with this really trashy ferry since. Today rabies is spread and maintained in the EU by red foxes only...and I sure as hell haven't seen any on the boat. Rock on Mr Kefallogiannis I say!!!

Off to Mystery Island

( Google Earth photo)

I'm finally leaving tomorrow for my long-awaited, 3-week summer holiday. So no posts for a while. I'm not revealing where though...whoever can guess which Cycladic island this is - wins 5 kg's of fresh lobster!

M. Ward - The new troubadour

Matt Ward, a timeless folk-rocker, from Portland – Oregon, who at times may sound like Tom Waits, Johnny Cash or Nick Drake, but still plays and sings in his own eccentric, authentic perspective, is releasing his new album, Post War, on August 22nd, and here’s a sweet glimpse of it:

Chinese Translation - mp3

Crystal Palace Concert Platform

The balance - gravitas v levitas

Stage upon the lake

View from SW

I stumbled upon this really interesting concert platform today on the web, it’s located in the park that was laid out by Joseph Paxton in 1864 to accommodate the Crystal Palace (Sydenham Hill, London SE20, UK), originally created for the Great Exhibition of 1851. It was designed by Ian Ritchie Architects (1996), who have a great range of environmentally beautiful projects.

The platform and stage are positioned within a small lake overlooking a large bowl in the landscape that is capable of holding 8000 people. Concerts take place throughout the summer and the platform has the world's first computer controlled - outdoor active acoustic system. The platform contains a total of 46 speakers; 2 columns either side of the platform contain more speakers plus the amplification system.

Straight (and not) out of the comics!

Kate Kane is Batwoman (52 - Week 11)

Kate meets Renee & Charlie (52 - Week 7)

Renee Montoya is outed (Gotham Central: Half a Life)

Renee and Two Face (Gotham Central: Half a Life)

All images © DC Comics

Renee Montoya is a former police detective in the Gotham City Police Department assigned to the Major Crimes Unit (MCU). She’s often had a central role in the Gotham Central comic book series, which focuses mostly on the members of the MCU.

In Half a Life, when Gotham City was destroyed by an earthquake, Renee formed a friendship with the criminal Two-Face. She was able to reach the kinder 'Harvey Dent' persona, and he fell in love with her. However, Two-Face was still mentally unstable. Believing that the only way to have her was by taking everything else away from her, his more sinister side later outed her as a lesbian to the public and had her framed for murder. He then had the bus carrying her to prison attacked and kidnapped her, making it look like she had escaped. When Renee discovered that it was Two-Face who was behind everything, and that he did it because he was in love with her, she was incredulous:

HD: "You're the only person who never treated me with pity. You've been kind to me. You visited me at Arkham. It's obvious how I feel about you, Renee. And I thought that, perhaps, you felt the same. That you loved me, too."
RM: "Harvey, you outed me! I'm gay! I'm a dyke, a lesbian, I like girls! Didn't you look at the picture before you started sending it around?"

In 52 (the real-time weekly limited series chronicling a year in which Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman have all mysteriously vanished from Gotham City) - Week 7, Renee meets Kate Kane, her former lover (as we gladly find out) and part of one of the wealthiest families in Gotham City, in the park. So, after weeks of teasing and taunting appearances, Batwoman is finally out. Kane has her first full appearance as the costumed Batwoman in 52, Week 11, where she won’t be fighting Intergang, a major crime organization, alone, but she’ll have Montoya’s help.

Ocean guard rails

The full english version of "The Future Oceans: Warming Up, Rising High, Turning Sour" released by the German Advisory Council on Global Change (WBGU) is now available for download at http://www.wbgu.de/wbgu_sn2006_en.html. This is an excellent report that focuses on key linkages between climate change and the oceans.

Goodbye suburbia...

My old, super-chill, apartment
... full of movers boxes
... and empty today :(

"Metakomisi" Soundtrack: ESG - Keep on moving