391
General Chaos / Re: Image Thread
« on: July 04, 2014, 09:47:00 AM »
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392
General Chaos / Re: What are you reading?
« on: July 01, 2014, 12:04:18 PM »
Just finished The Inconvenient Indian: A Curious Account of Native People in North America by Thomas King, a must-read for all Canadians and Americans in my opinion.
I'll probably read another story out of The Black Lizard Big Book of Black Mask Stories next, but I'll probably be digesting that book, one story at a time, for another year.
I'm not sure which book on my to-read list I'll get into next. I haven't found a paperback copy of The War That Ended Peace: The Road To 1914 yet, I may just dive into Tim Cook's At the Sharp End: Canadians Fighting the Great War 1914-1916 right away.
I'll probably read another story out of The Black Lizard Big Book of Black Mask Stories next, but I'll probably be digesting that book, one story at a time, for another year.
I'm not sure which book on my to-read list I'll get into next. I haven't found a paperback copy of The War That Ended Peace: The Road To 1914 yet, I may just dive into Tim Cook's At the Sharp End: Canadians Fighting the Great War 1914-1916 right away.
394
Role Playing Public Radio Podcast / Cow Tunnels!
« on: May 20, 2014, 06:40:30 PM »
Today's episode of 99% Invisible:
Cow Tunnels
Posting this here because Ross mentioned the Cow Tunnels of Manhattan in an RPPR podcast a while back.
Cow Tunnels
Posting this here because Ross mentioned the Cow Tunnels of Manhattan in an RPPR podcast a while back.
395
Role Playing Public Radio Podcast / Re: RPPR offends England
« on: May 13, 2014, 08:11:32 AM »
If you'll pardon yet another necro, I read this article and immediately thought of this thread:
Shard becomes London’s ‘eyeful’ tower
Shard becomes London’s ‘eyeful’ tower
Quote
The first guests at western Europe’s tallest hotel came expecting unforgettable views – but may have got more than they bargained for.
The bedrooms in Shangri-La’s luxury hotel, which opened last week in London’s 310m-tall Shard building, come with binoculars so guests can survey the city’s landmarks through the floor-to-ceiling windows. But thanks to a quirk in the building’s design, some rooms also come with potentially revealing views of other guests.
Renzo Piano, the Italian architect, envisaged the tower as a “shard of glass”, and its multi-faceted profile is achieved in part by glass panels that protrude several metres beyond the corners. During the day, these are barely noticeable from inside – hotel guests and workers in the offices below can look straight through them – but at night, with internal lights switched on, they act as mirrors, giving a line of sight straight back into neighbouring rooms.
It is a potentially embarrassing postscript to the story of the building’s long and difficult gestation. The Shard’s design was first sketched by Mr Piano on the back of a menu in a Berlin restaurant in 2000, and its opening was scheduled for 2009. However, tenants proved hard to find and the project was nearly derailed by the financial crisis – only being saved by the last-minute sale of 80 per cent of the building to a consortium of Qatari investors.
The Shard finally opened to the public in January 2013, but to date only 30 per cent of the office space has been let. The Shangri-La hotel finally opened last Tuesday, but with only 59 of its 202 bedrooms ready. The remainder will be finished in the coming months, along with the top-floor infinity pool and champagne bar.
When the Financial Times stayed at the hotel last week, guests in the neighbouring room were clearly visible as they prepared for bed, as was the bed in another room on a lower floor.
Of course, many hotels have bedrooms that look into the windows of others, but the Shangri-La is unique in that the entire walls are windows, and guests will naturally want to keep the blinds open so they can enjoy night-time views of the city lights.
The hotel said it was aware of the issue and that it would be pointed out to guests. “In some rooms, due to the unique shape of the Shard, guests may be able to glimpse into a neighbour’s room,” said Darren Gearing, the hotel general manager. “For this, blinds are available for guest privacy.”
The Shard is not alone among the new crop of London skyscrapers to have humiliating difficulties. The Strata tower at Elephant and Castle won Building Design magazine’s Carbuncle Cup “for services to greenwash” because the three huge wind turbines on its roof rarely appear to turn.
Last September, 20 Fenchurch Street (known as the “Walkie Talkie”) hit the headlines when sunlight focused by its glazed concave façade melted parts of a car parked below, prompting it to be nicknamed the Walkie Scorchie.
396
General Chaos / Re: HAY GUYS HAVE YOU SEEN THIS THING (Forum Shout Out Thread Thing)
« on: May 07, 2014, 10:06:43 AM »
This is a must-see movie, coming out on DVD on the 27th:
Review here
Oh, and before any True Detective fans freak out, Rhymes For Young Ghouls premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in September of last year. There's a lot of mask imagery in the movie, but it's not a King in Yellow reference, masks are a part of Mi’kmaw traditions.
Review here
Oh, and before any True Detective fans freak out, Rhymes For Young Ghouls premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in September of last year. There's a lot of mask imagery in the movie, but it's not a King in Yellow reference, masks are a part of Mi’kmaw traditions.
397
RPGs / Re: Eclipse Phase
« on: September 03, 2013, 07:16:09 PM »
NASA wants to put SpiderFabBots in orbit. Another step closer to the horrible, horrible future.
NASA Plans to 3D Print Spacecraft in Orbit
NASA Plans to 3D Print Spacecraft in Orbit
Quote
As revealed in an article on Gigaom, NASA has recently added an extra $500,000 into a collaboration with Tethers Unlimited, a company researching ways to 3D print and assemble structures whilst in orbit. Using this technology, their SpiderFab robots reduce the size of the rockets needed to launch materials into space, and also allow for much larger structures to be created than in any previous technique – opening up new possibilities for construction in space. You can read the full article here.
398
RPGs / Re: Eclipse Phase
« on: June 04, 2013, 06:50:19 PM »
Anyway...
Buzzing factories: Maker bots by NSTRMNT
Fabberbots! They could fab a house for you!
Buzzing factories: Maker bots by NSTRMNT
Quote
Nicknamed A_FAB, these automated manufacturing operatives by NSTRMNT suggest a way past the highly restrictive bed-size issues associated with current 3D printers. Swarms of these bots might crawl over a manufacturing zone adding or subtracting material to the work piece depending on their tooling.
These creatures have both a syringe to deposit material, and a routing head to remove it. They have 9 standard servo motors and 7 linear actuators that allow it to work, whilst locomotion is controlled by a further 12 motors. Live data is fed from Firefly and Grasshopper whilst tool paths are also generated from Grasshopper.
With technologies like this, there are implications for factories as there would be no reason for a dedicated production line churning out identical products but for small variations. With this paradigm one corner of the factory might be making a car whilst the other was creating a dress. In fact why have a factory at all.
Nests of these machines could live in small buildings on the end of a street churning out all the material goods a community needs.
Fabberbots! They could fab a house for you!
399
Role Playing Public Radio Podcast / Re: RPPR offends England
« on: March 01, 2013, 06:43:19 PM »
Pardon the necro, but I just wanted to share:
400
RPGs / Re: Eclipse Phase
« on: February 20, 2013, 03:06:08 PM »yeah I sure want to live there in the creepy nightmare spider silk houseAnd the best part is that the building services (electricity/HVAC/plumbing/etc.) will probably be delivered in tubes woven into the fibrous structure of the house. It'll be like living inside a living creature!
401
RPGs / Re: Eclipse Phase
« on: February 20, 2013, 11:33:39 AM »
eVolo, my favourite magazine of batshit crazy speculative architecture is running this article:
ProtoHouse 2.0 – First 3D Printed Dwelling by Softkill Design, London
This is just so Eclipse Phase it hurts:
ProtoHouse 2.0 – First 3D Printed Dwelling by Softkill Design, London
Quote
The ProtoHouse project was initially developed by Softkill Design, in the Architectural Association School‘s Design Research Lab within the ‘behavioral matter’ studio of Robert Stuart-Smith. It investigated the architectural potential of the latest Selective Laser Sintering technologies, testing the boundaries of large scale 3D printing by designing with computer algorithms that micro-organize the printed material itself. Softkill is now announcing plans for the first actually printed plastic dwelling, which would be assembled in one day.
This is just so Eclipse Phase it hurts:
402
RPGs / Re: Eclipse Phase
« on: October 18, 2012, 06:34:17 PM »
This was in the paper a couple of days ago:
This thread just seemed like the best place to share it.
This thread just seemed like the best place to share it.
403
Role Playing Public Radio Podcast / Re: What have you bought because of the podcast?
« on: October 02, 2012, 11:18:54 AM »
Bought:
Eclipse Phase: all the hardcopies & Rimward PDF
And since that list is pretty short, already had:
CoC
Delta Green
TMNT & Other Strangenesses
D&D 4e
Dark Sun
Eclipse Phase: all the hardcopies & Rimward PDF
And since that list is pretty short, already had:
CoC
Delta Green
TMNT & Other Strangenesses
D&D 4e
Dark Sun
404
Role Playing Public Radio Podcast / Re: RPPR offends England
« on: September 15, 2012, 02:13:53 PM »405
Role Playing Public Radio Podcast / Re: RPPR offends England
« on: August 30, 2012, 10:01:13 AM »
Just found this on archdaily.net and thought I'd share it here:
BWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
BWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA