notes.husk.org

Left: the Golden Gate Bridge in London, a scale comparison...

Tue, 21 May 2013 05:12:21 +0100

Left: the Golden Gate Bridge in London, a scale comparison from “Triumphs of Engineering” (posted by WP Wiles).

Right: a screen shot of MapFrappe, a tool by Kelvin Thompson that allows you to place outlines of one feature on another part of the world, showing the Golden Gate Bridge in London.

If MapFrappe had a rotation feature, I’d be able to more exactly match the 1940s illustration, but that’ll have to wait for vector maps, I suppose.

A London taxi and a micro-scale Battersea Power Station...

Sat, 18 May 2013 00:02:55 +0100

A London taxi and a micro-scale Battersea Power Station (complete with flying pig) made from Lego, from Warren Elsmore’s book Brick City (via buzzfeed).

deathbeard: John Betjeman - film critic of the Evening...

Mon, 06 May 2013 19:52:00 +0100

deathbeard:

John Betjeman - film critic of the Evening Standard

It’s true; “In 1934 he became film critic for the Evening Standard but was fired less than a year later for his overly enthusiastic reviews. “

All of this serves as a rebuttal to Seth Godin, who wrote recently that “No one has ever built a statue to a critic”.

(Meanwhile, they’re doing construction work on St Pancras again already? The new station’s barely been open five years. Edit: apparently this is a five year old picture. Never mind.)

c86 via ASX: Don McCullin - Protester, Cuban missile crisis,...

Fri, 03 May 2013 17:54:53 +0100

c86 via ASX:

Don McCullin - Protester, Cuban missile crisis, Whitehall, London 1962

"It allowed researchers to establish exactly where drivers directed their vision, which was often at..."

Mon, 29 Apr 2013 18:39:49 +0100

“It allowed researchers to establish exactly where drivers directed their vision, which was often at clouds, buildings and passersby.”

- Tracy McVeigh in Helmet cameras highlight divisions between cyclists and drivers | Life and style for The Observer (via iamdanw)

NYC Subway Atmosphere News

Fri, 26 Apr 2013 06:16:19 +0100

studiox-nyc (via chriswoebken):

Today in subway atmosphere news, we learn from WNYC that the NYPD is partnering with Brookhaven National Laboratory to study how chemical weapons might disperse through the city’s underground tunnels. The researchers plan to release a “non-toxic, odorless gas that mimics how chemical, biological and radiological weapons would disperse” in twenty-one subway stations across the five boroughs in July, with 200 sampling devices deployed to monitor its spread.

“We want to be able to determine how toxic material can flow through the transit system, it’s one of the concerns that we’ve had for a while and how it flows on the streets of our city,” Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said in a statement.

The image at the start of this post comes from the invaluable 1908 classic,The Air and Ventilation of Subways, available to read online here. For more on New York City’s subway vents, check out this BLDGBLOG post.

St Paul’s Cathedral in Lego, complete with Occupy London...

Tue, 23 Apr 2013 18:09:24 +0100

St Paul’s Cathedral in Lego, complete with Occupy London camp, by Mechalex (via).

"As the mental maps of each of the islands grew, they started to merge together and the islands of..."

Mon, 22 Apr 2013 20:16:11 +0100

“As the mental maps of each of the islands grew, they started to merge together and the islands of London metaphor began to gradually fade away. Eventually, I switched to a small shirt-pocket sized map of inner London and left my islands of London map book at the hotel.”

- dabcanboulet: Islands of London on Everything2.com (via)

It’s been over a decade ago since I had that experience regularly, but I know exactly what this feels like. He’s right: this is a great way to learn the city.

"…it was an American story, too, in what could only be called a hysterical and insular overreaction..."

Mon, 22 Apr 2013 07:50:22 +0100

“…it was an American story, too, in what could only be called a hysterical and insular overreaction that allowed it to become the sole national narrative. I happened to be in London on 7/7—a far more deadly and frightening terrorist attack—and by 7 P.M. on that horrible day, with the terrorists still at large (they were dead already, but no one knew that) the red double-decker buses were rolling and the traffic was turning and life, though hardly normal, was determinedly going on. The decision to shut down Boston, though doubtless made in good faith and from honest anxiety, seemed like an undue surrender to the power of the terrorist act—as did, indeed, the readiness to turn over the entire attention of the nation to a violent, scary, tragic, lurid but, in the larger scheme of things, ultimately small threat to the public peace.”

- Adam Gopnik: Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, Lost and Found for The New Yorker (via.)

Quoted for truth.

“Above ground” and “Above Ground...

Mon, 15 Apr 2013 20:29:16 +0100

“Above ground” and “Above Ground 2050…” posters for the Piccadilly line.

“Above ground” was designed by Steven Potter et al at Global Vision for London Underground in 1996, while the 2050 version was designed by Nils Norman for TfL’s Platform for Art in 2007. The last time I checked, both could still be seen on Piccadilly trains.