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26 Dec 07

BLDGBLOG: Planet Battery

BLDBLG reports on an article in Nature (magazine) that the "Earth beneath our feet might act as a gigantic circuit built by microbes to power their metabolic systems." Reminds me of Thomas Gold's theories.

bldgblog.blogspot.com/...planet-battery.html - Preview

bacteria biology biosphere bldgblog earth_science_theory science

It's not a planet at all, then, but a bio-electrical deposit rotating itself in space. A living battery.
And while that obviously sounds far-fetched, we actually read that these microbes function as a "geological battery," and that this battery is made from "networks of tiny wires linking individual bacterial cells into a web-like electrical circuit." These circuits could extend for miles – hundreds of miles – whole continents and island chains, linked by reefs.

20 Dec 07

BLDGBLOG: Church of God, Elevator

- starts with a great story about Mark Twain, and asks a trenchant question about the adventurousness (or absence thereof) in architectural design today

bldgblog.blogspot.com/...church-of-god-elevator.html - Preview

architecture bldgblog innovation montreal

- - Chartres, not Montreal... - on 2007-12-20
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When Mark Twain visited Montreal in 1881, he said that it was the first time he'd ever been in a city "where you couldn't throw a brick without breaking a church window." Montreal, you see, has lots of churches.
Twain was then told, however, that the city would soon build another church – and perhaps another, and another – and "I said the scheme is good," Twain responded, "but where are you going to find room? They said, we will build it on top of another church and use an elevator."
Church of God, Elevator.
Does this off-the-cuff remark from a 19th century novelist exhibit a more adventurous sense of space and structure than the buildings which pass for architectural design today?
- - ha! brilliant good old Mark Twain! - on 2007-12-20
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