24.2.05

Off the Island

"Is there a building you really hate? One that makes your life a misery? A building in your local area that is so badly designed and built that you would like to see it demolished?

"Now [BBC] Channel 4 have a solution -- a new four-part series, Demolition, which will allow viewers to nominate their most hated building and see one of the country's worst buildings erased.

"The series, which will be presented by Kevin McCloud and will transmit this autumn, will create a shortlist of hated buildings chosen by viewers. A team of experts, including President of the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA), George Ferguson, will then judge each of these buildings on its design and construction -- and, most importantly, whether it fulfils the purpose for which it was created. Plans for what goes in its place will be carefully considered as will the feasibility of its demolition. The 'winner' will then be demolished at the end of the series.

"The series aims to kick start a national debate about the built environment, about architecture and how bad buildings come to be built. After the demolition, the process of designing and constructing a replacement building will begin and a subsequent programme is planned to follow that process."

20.2.05

Surrational Calendar

Scott Mutter makes old-school photomontages often juxtaposing different scales or contexts of familiar objects. They hint at a familiar unreality that takes form only in dreams and emotions.

I have a 1996 calendar of his stuff that I'm about to get rid of. In looking back through it, the only notes I find seem fictional. There's a driving trip to Pheonix outlined that I never made. (I flew). There's a note about sending my undergraduate thesis materials back to the university for publication. I never saw them again. The rest of the days are blank except for the moon phases. Another familiar unreality.
Upload

I've created a "Magic City" group on flickr to share pictures of Birmingham. Everyone is invited to join and upload their own. You might see some of them appearing on the sidebar of this page.

8.2.05

Whatever happened to Larry Wilcox?

"In 1982, he left 'CHiPs' to pursue other projects. He formed his own production company, Wilcox Productions, which produced the acclaimed Ray Bradbury Theater for 5 years. He also continued acting and directing.
In the mid-90's, Wilcox ran a pharmaceutical company called Team Elite. He described it as 'a multidivisional company selling liquid vitamins, wholesale travel and long-distance communications through network marketing.'
Today he continues to succeed running Wilcox Productions and is also president of MediaCore, a software company specializing in CD-ROMs and Internet compression technology. He has also produced, directed, written, and starred in a childrens video called Lil CHP, which tells the story of two little boys who dream of becoming CHP motor officers. Wilcox returns in his 'CHiPs' role of Jon Baker, and former co-star Robert Pine returns as Sergeant Joe Getraer. The video also stars John Schneider (Dukes Of Hazzard) and Ron Masak (Murder She Wrote)."


- from the "CHiPs" Online: FAQ

3.2.05

Brilliant

Style.org's State of the Union Parsing Tool gives you a graphic display of words used in Bush's (and Clinton's, Reagan's, Lincoln's and Washington's) addresses.

1.2.05

Brown works for himself

As of November 9, 2004, the color brown is a registered trademark of United Parcel Service of America, Inc.

"The mark consists of the color chocolate brown, which is the approximate equivalent of Pantone Matching System 462C, as applied to the entire surface of vehicles and uniforms. The mark consists of the color brown alone. The broken lines indicate the position of the mark and do not form part of the mark. The drawing is lined for the color brown.

Other uses for Pantone 462:
1. The dark brown areas of the State Flag of California
2. The text in the logo for Credit Union 24.
3. The logo of the AG Bureau of the Spokane Regional Chamber of Commerce.
4. All station equipment at the TV Transposer Station, Hill 374, Lam Tsuen Country Park, Hong Kong.

U.S. ENCOURAGED BY VIETNAM VOTE

Officials Cite 83% Turnout Despite Vietcong Terror

by PETER GROSE
Special to the New York Times
(dredged up by Patachon at the Daily Kos)

WASHINGTON, Sept. 3 -- United States officials were surprised and heartened today at the size of turnout in South Vietnam's presidential election despite a Vietcong terrorist campaign to disrupt the voting.

According to reports from Saigon, 83 per cent of the 5.85 million registered voters case their ballots yesterday. Many of them risked reprisals threatened by the Vietcong.

The size of the popular vote and the inability of the Vietcong to destroy the election machinery were the two salient facts in a preliminary assessment of the national election based on the incomplete returns reaching here.

Pending more detailed reports, neither the State Department nor the White House would comment on the balloting or the victory of the military candiates, Lieut. Gen. Nguyen Van Thieu, who was running for president, and Premier Nguyen Coa Ky, the candidate for vice president.

A successful election has long been seen as the keystone in President Johnson's policy of encouraging the growth of constitutional processes in South Vietnam. The election was the culmination of a constitutional development that began in January, 1966, to which President Johnson gave his personal commitment when he met Premier Ky and General Thieu, the chief of state, in Honolulu in February.

The purpose of the voting was to give legitimacy to the Saigon Government, which has been founded only on coups and power plays since November, 1963, when President Ngo Dinh Diem was overthrown by a military junta.

Few members of that junta are still around, most having been ousted or exiled in subsequent shifts of power.

Significance Not Diminished

The fact that the backing of the electorate has gone to the generals who have been ruling South Vietnam does not, in the Administration's view, diminish the significance of the constitutional step that has been taken.

The hope here is that the new government will be able to maneuver with a confidence and legitimacy long lacking in South Vietnamese politics. That hope could have been dashed either by a small turnout, indicating widespread scorn or a lack of interest in constitutional development, or by the Vietcong's disruption of the balloting.

American officials had hoped for an 80 per cent turnout. That was the figure in the election in September for the Constituent Assembly. Seventy-eight per cent of the registered voters went to the polls in elections for local officials last spring.

Before the results of the presidential election started to come in, the American officials warned that the turnout might be less than 80 per cent because the polling place would be open for two or three hours less than in the election a year ago. The turnout of 83 per cent was a welcome surprise. The turnout in the 1964 United States Presidential election was 62 per cent.

Captured documents and interrogations indicated in the last week a serious concern among Vietcong leaders that a major effort would be required to render the election meaningless. This effort has not succeeded, judging from the reports from Saigon."