“Windows has found new hardware….found clapped out land rover….searching for drivers….”
(complete with acceleration simulator)
“i like this little mosaic space invader tucked in beside the vibe bar, not graf zacly but an example of ambient art of which there are other examples to catch another time”
There are plans afoot…anyone Cambridge-ish interested in a trip to Woodchester Mansion, where there will be an incomplete mansion, a tea shop and killer robots in the bushes, or something. And its just down the road from another Cambridge, too, so its not like you’re really going far.
What about Oxford peoples? Its nearer for you lot…
Idiotisms and Proverbs…including:
“A horse baared don’t look him the tooth.
Take the occasion for the hairs.
To do a wink to some body.”
(with thanks to evilmattikinz)
The more I hear about the situation across the pond the less happy I am.
Let me introduce Hurricane Pam. That storm wasn’t real, but it was an exercise to help the authorities to deal with a storm like Katrina.
What amazes me about the summary of actions is the fact that communications is missing from the list. It is clear that communications infrastructure is vulnerable to disruption by such a storm, the first and most important thing to do is to allow the authorities to coordinate properly. Emergency comms infrastructure should be back up and running within hours of the storm receeding. If that means dangling a GSM base station from the bottom of a helicopter thats what you should be doing, at least until you can get a more permanent solution sorted out. The japanese have zeppelins armed with base stations ready to send up as soon as an earthquake strikes, they’ll be back online in a matter of mintues – true, the situation is different, the atmosphere isn’t hazardous in that scenario.
Without comms everything else falls apart, nobody knows what anyone else is up to, coordination disappears, its difficult enough to keep the city running at the best of times but when stuff like this is going on it is vital that all agencies involved are pulling in the same direction. Ideally there would be a single agency that takes the lead for all decisions being made across the disaster area, so theres no conflict of interest. Sure, there are problems about the integrity of that agency, but they’re going to be less of an issue than the troubles encountered by the kind of miscommunications that have been seen in the NO area.
Which brings me on to another thought. Do we need to reconsider our desire to live in cities? If, as the global warming I-told-you-so bunch would have it, we are going to be seeing more of these kinds of extreme conditions over the next few decades then we need to consider whether cities really are the right way to house our population growth. Cities are all well and good while everything behaves itself. But there is a risk that when such a disaster strikes it causes such an impact that the advantages of city living are outweighed by the problems when the infrastucture breaks.
I know you’ve probably all seen interdictor by now….I’m not sure I can add much to what he says.
Nice to see the internet is getting to be the kind of place where you can find out what is actually happening in the middle of such a disaster without the spin of mainstream media. Sure, this guy probably has a political bias, he’s from a military background (hence his work now as crisis management for an ISP), but you know where you stand with that and don’t have to try to see through the corporate message (particularly amused by his shortness with people who read his comments about the city being taken over by ‘animals’ as racist comments).
The video feed isn’t too bad either, considering its being relayed out of a city thats had no power for three days via New York and being viewed by upward of 4000 people at a time.
I’ll be interested to see how the situation develops, I’m hoping that things aren’t as bad out there as they seem right now, and that we can learn a lot about being prepared for this kind of disaster in the future and about how we organise our lives in cities in the future. But I’ll think some more about that once they’re out of the immediate problems.
Once again the Creating Passionate Users guys come up with another hit, this time its a total immersion skunkworks prototype factory.
Anyone up for setting up a lodge in the UK? Or something equivalent….
Cats in sinks, except they’re almost exclusively in basins.
Decadence for those who consider two spikes to be extravagence.
…and wheres that thunder storm gotten to?
During the week I found a copy of Therapy – the boardgame. This was, by looks of things, published back in the days when therapy was an aspirational passtime, rather than the necessary evil it has become today.
Still, doesn’t stop it being an interesting piece of social commentary, and worth the 2 pounds the charity was asking for it, if only for the “Tiny psychiatrist couches [that] make for unusual playing pieces.”
Anyone up for a gaming session at my house tomorrow? Probably kick off around 2:30, and probably playing something more sensible than Therapy.