The Null Device
2003/11/16
Saboteurs derail Melbourne-Ballarat train with parked car on track; meanwhile, the latest extreme sport among Melbourne's mooks is throwing rocks at trams.
Rupert Murdoch has hinted that his papers may switch allegiances to the Tories in the next UK general election. If they do so, it will be an interesting test of exactly how much influence the Sun has over who forms the government.
A mother of three recently found out that she was not the biological parent of her children, all of whom were naturally conceived. As if that wasn't weird enough, it turns out that her DNA isn't her own either. "Jane", 52, is a tetragametic chimera, someone whose body is made up of two genetically different lines of cells. She is one of only 30 such individuals ever discovered. (via Lt. Wilkes)
100 artists design alternate album covers for their favourite records; not surprisingly, Shag chose Frank Sinatra, and Ralph Steadman's choice of the Rolling Stones is not too unusual either. (via bOING bOING)
(Hmmm... there could be a blog meme in this, given how it combines two cornerstones of online self-expression: assertion of musical tastes and playing with Photoshop.)
Apparently FourPlay are finally able to make it down to Melbourne to do a gig; they will be playing at Bar Open on Sunday the 30th of November. They're very impressive live and well worth seeing.
From the Viridian mailing list, an article on the new era of biomorphic design; i.e., doovy-looking curvy blobjects and organic forms made possible by computer simulation and high-tech materials:
There is a new, witty nouveau afoot, from the Vallo watering can by Monika Mulder at Ikea, which looks like a stork, to the coffee and tea set by Greg Lynn for Alessi, which opens like a clove of garlic. Tord Boontje's chandeliers for Swarovski look like clouds of slender branches surrounding a light. A great deal of building in Britain has biomorphic roots, for instance, Snohetta's whale-shape museum addition planned for Margate, Foster & Partners' Swiss Re sea sponge building going up in London and Ushida Findlay's proposal to build a starfish-shape country manor house in Cheshire.
The movement has spawned a number of terms to describe it: Bruce Sterling's "Tech Nouveau", Ross Lovegrove's "organic essentialism", and even "sexy math".