S For Africa

Number 2 in the line of "hooked-on-Illustrator-mapping-of-Africa". S.

Circus Smithfield

Last week was spent in entertaining London. Been there several times, both business and/or pleasure, this time was an "and" but with a twist. Ms. T and I went over there (with tormenting Ryanair) to find a site, well Ms.T was looking for a site, I was looking for a system/singularity. Found Smithfield Meat Market, close to Farringdon Station. This establishment is more than 800 years old, and has always functioned as a meat market. In the early days, the meat was alive. Transported on hoof from surrounding farms. Some gentlemen actually sold their wives as well, since the concept of "divorce" was not yet invented. Etiquette. Anyway, later when London grew bigger, the meat arrived with railway in underground tunnels. Today, they use trucks. The trucks arrive 00.00 in the night, transforming the area into a world of men in bloody white clothes, precisely choreographed truck and forklift dances, look-a-like cafè activity and smelly boxes patterns. This continues throughout to the morning hours. The first costumers are the restaurant owners, buying huge amonts of meat, sheep and/or chicken. Later, private people show their sleepy faces in "the halls of meat". The clock is now 02.30, at least. The business continues to 07.00, then the bloody white men walk down to the basement of the Poultry section, where you`ll find "The Cock Tavern". Here they order a Guiness and a portion of "The Butcher`s Breakfast": Black pudding, rump steak, cumberland sausage, bacon, pan fried liver and Carmen`s famous recipe kidneys. And relax after work with work on plates. I can inform the people that the tables are sticky in this tavern. Ms. T and I couldn`t cope with the idea of the butcher`s breaky and went for an old English one and a pint, at 09.00...tipsy before lunch on a weekday was a new experience for me.

PS: By the way, in the end Ms. T and I managed to smuggle 3 kg overweight through the Ryanair system. We had to perform some "property-juggling" no less than 3 times, but we made it. Eat that, Ryan-suckers-air!

10 Years 100 Photos

The newsagency Reuters have searched through their archive and collected 100 important photos from the last decade. The selection ranges from tragedies to peaceful beauty. You can see them all here: ReutersPictures.

|\/| () /\ |-| /\ |-| /\


New kind of alphabet:
= I, ( = C, () = O, ) = D, _ = L, \ = N, \/ = M, \/\/ = W, \/ = V, /\ = A, < = K, > = P, _ = U, _ = J, (/) = Ø, - = H

I + C + O + D + L + N + M + W + V + A + K + P + U + J + Ø + H. Lot`s of opportunities for complicated writing.

1. - /\ _ _ (), \/ /\ \ ! _ _ \/ >! \ () \/\/, \/\/ /\ ( < ().
Hallo, man! Jump! Now, wacko.

2. \/ _ \/ + ) /\ )
Mum + Dad

3. \/\/ () \/\/ ()
Woi Woi

4. > _ - /\ () -
Puha oh

5. - /\ - /\ - /\! - () - () - () ! \/\/ () \/\/!
Hahaha! Hohoho! Wow!

6. - \/ \/...
Hmm...

7. - /\ > >
Happi

To give a few examples.
Damn it, didn`t work! Supposed to be vertical lines almost everywhere, as in the "Moahaha" title. Why blogspot? Why? Shit.

Tokyo Sky Tree

Did you know that they`re building the second tallest building in the world in Tokyo?! Just beaten by the crazy guys in Dubai...and I mean, they are in a totally different league anyway. Indoor skiing centers in the desert, the world as islands, a palm. I`m surprised that next on the menu is a simple building around 800 m. Come on, juice it up a little.

Back to Tokyo. Sky Tree will (if they stick to the present plans) reach the height of 634 m. The view will be spectacular. Kampai!

More: SkyTree

1: Cuba Man

Ms. E just came tiptoing over to my desk with her little white Mac, showing me a clip on YouTube called "The Perfect Human, Cuba" taken from Lars von Trier and Jørgen Leth`s 5 Obstructions. A challenging task was given to Mr. Leth by von Trier. He wanted Leth to "remake" the film (von Triers favourite film) "The Perfect Human" from 1967, 5 times. Each time with a different obstruction dictated by von Trier. Wikipedia:

The 5 Obstructions:
1. Leth must remake the film in Cuba (but with no set) with no shot longer than 12 frames, and he must answer the questions posed in the original film; Leth successfully completes this task.

2. Leth must remake the film in the worst place in the world but not show that place onscreen; additionally, Leth must play the role of "the man". The meal must be included but the woman is not to be included. Leth remakes the film in the red light district of Bombay, only partially hiding it behind a translucent screen.

3. Because Leth failed to complete task 2 perfectly, Von Trier punishes him, telling him to either remake the film in any way he chooses, or redo obstruction 2 in Bombay again. Leth chooses the first option and remakes it in Brussels using split-screen effects.

4. Leth must remake the film as an animation. He does so with the aid of Bob Sabiston, a specialist in rotoscoping, who creates animated versions of shots from the previous films.

5. The fifth obstruction is that Von Trier has already made the fifth version, but it must be credited as Leth's, and Leth must read a voice-over narration ostensibly from his own perspective but in fact written by Von Trier.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQxYKishmH0 1:43 min. - 2.13ish.

Weird But Wired

Have a slightly embarrassing announcement to make. I`ve been a fan of Wired since 2006 when I was first introduced to the magazine, but it didn`t hit me until a couple of days ago that they might have a website. They do. Of course. Here: Wired.

The picture is taken from the article: Huge Holes in the Earth: Open-Pit Mines Seen From Space. And there are many more. Splendid!

Return Tokyo

Yesterday I took a short trip to Tokyo, with a helping hand from my good friend Google . He let me walk in the narrow streets of my neighbourhood, "buy" a coca cola from my local vending machine and he also accompanied me to work. Thank you, Google!

This beautiful pink building was my home for 4 months, I lived on the top floor (penthouse baby), room B402R. I had the best view of my life, bright green curtains, thinnest walls ever, a bed, a desk+chair and approximately 6 sq.m. Joy! I shared two showers and a filthy kitchen with 11 others. The washbasins were in the hallway. Days of luxury. Some day, I`m going back.

By the way, I don`t think the red car is a car. I think it`s a fake. Never saw it "out of position" once.

1 - 10

This is the starting point of my 8th semester, fall 2008. It`s mapping of people crossing a road in Århus. I filmed the sequence from the first floor in McDonalds, asking a mom and two kids to move so that I could shoot this very important piece for an "art project". Rude as always. A funny thing about people in Denmark, is that they never cross the road if the light is red, even if you can`t see a car for miles. Absurd, but true. Therefore, a (huge) crowd accumulates on each side during red, and the second it turns green (or blue, as they say in Japan) everyone starts walking. The picture is 10 seconds, from red, until a pedestrian blend. Line = distance per second. Dot = standing still during a second.

Diagram Of War

"Map representing the losses over time of French army troops during the Russian campaign, 1812-1813. Constructed by Charles Joseph Minard, Inspector General of Public Works retired. Paris, 20 November 1869.

The number of men present at any given time is represented by the width of the grey line; one mm, indicates ten thousand men. Figures are also written besides the lines. Grey designates men moving into Russia ; black, for those leaving. Sources for the data are the works of messrs. Thiers, Segur, Fezensac, Chambray and the unpublished diary of Jacob, who became an Army Pharmacist on 28 October. In order to visualize the army`s losses more clearly, Charles has drawn this as if the units under prince Jerome and Marshall Davoust (temporarily seperated from the main body to go to Minsk and Mikilow, which then joined up with the main army again), had stayed with the army throughout."

I can`t remember why I googled Napoleon, and this beauty came up. But it could be to find out how tall he was. And if you`re wondering, the answer is: 168 cm. That`s actually 4 cm taller than the average Swedish soldier at that time (if i remember correct). Must say, tiny people.

Foodtish

Imagine if it was possible to "beam" food from different parts of the world, like the characters in Star Trek do in space. As an online service. You just select your food of preference from an international internet menu, and push: Order. Voila! Two seconds later a plate with todays dinner appear in front of you. Perfect solution if the target group is people like me; wannabe-chefs-without-success, anti grocery store shopping and spends too much time in school..(without actually doing anything).

PS: Had to go black`n`white, the food just looked so disgusting in color, even though being Japanese and tasting like heaven.

Sky The Limit

Believe it or not, this is Århus in September/October, from my window. I`m planning a photo in progress, this can`t be it. Bring it on, Sky.

Peace `n` Prize

As many others, my initial thought when I heard that President Barack Obama, was awarded with the Nobel Peace Prize 2009, was: Really? The Man has been President for less than a year, and with all due respect, what kind of peace activity has he performed? But then, I read an interview with Michael Moore. At first Moore was a loud critic of the Nobel committee`s decision, but then he went home and had a little chat with his wife (you know, behind every smart man, there`s an even smarter woman) and he totally changed his position on the subject. Reason (Google translated from Norwegian):

“Never before has the election of one person, made people of all nations also felt they won. When you manage that, the Peace Prize, is the least you deserve” Moore

When reading the article and listening to “As long as you follow” – Fleetwood Mac, I have to say, the tears of sentimentality was knocking on my door. Maybe it`s naïve, but what the hell, that`s me.

Architecture + Elephant

The elephant is the largest animal on dry land, the biggest one ever recorded, was a male specimen in Angola. He had sholders at 4,2 m. (average 3 m.) and a 12 tons body. The females have to carry their child for as long as 22 months, and they deliver huge babies. Elephants are famous for their memory and intelligence, very much unlike my annual brief encounter with the bottled versions. No memory nor intelligence in sight.

E Co. Font

It`s time to save the world. There are many different ways to do that; you can do efficient showers (even if you really don`t want to), wash your clothes at 30 degrees, shut tap while brushing teeth, turn off light when leaving room, bike instead of car, recycle paper/glass/metal, eat local food, etc. All this is very good, keep it up, but now you can even write eco friendly! With the fantastic Ecofont. You may download it at the following webpage. I haven`t succeeded yet, but I guess that says alot about my downloading skills.

More: http://www.ecofont.eu/downloads_en.html

Future Future

Check out the webpage: Information.dk. On the top, there`s a link (or what you call it) saying Informations fremtidsavis, click on that and you will now read "fictional" news about the world in the future. (If you know how to read danish, of course.) There are two versions; to the left the world have managed to find a way to cooperate on climate changes, to the right the cooperation didn`t work out so well.

More: http://www.information.dk/2059

B For Africa


About a year ago, I got hooked on Illustrator. And since my all time favourite occupation is studying maps and/or Atlas (to be honest, I like Atlas more, that`s why I always spell it with capital letter), I combined the two obsessions.

Party Time

If you`re planning a party, call North Korea, they know how to organize parties with capital P. All you need is approximately 70.000 well trained and disciplined kids between the age of 6 to 10, let them skip school for 6 months to practice flipping boards in different colors on certain moments during a 3 hour long performance in a football stadium. They call it the opening of the Arirang festival. I call it loco, but impressive. The festival celebrates Kim Il-sung and his day of birth, April 15th. It last for 2 month, and it`s the only occasion where foreigners get to visit the country as “legal tourists”.

Configure Your Body

Again, rereading a Wired magazine. And listening to Elton. Shit. I see a pattern. Rediscover an article about the former owner of the Oakley sunglasses, Jim Jannard, he sold this company for lots and lots of money to start a new one. Red Digital Cinema. Probably his long time dream and passion. (At the picture he looks like the hospital chief in that hospital series from the 90s...something Chicago. Really). The fantastic thing about the Red One, is that even though being a digital camera, it`s able to control the "depth of field" in the picture, in other words, you can focus on spesifics. HD cameras force everything into focus, foreground and background, making a flat image. The two first prototypes are named; Boris and Natasha. The camera is quite cheap compared to other professional movie making cameras, at 17500$. And then it`s already digital.

On his door into the workspace, there`s a sign saying:
1. Please knock
2. Take two steps back
3. Kneel

Classic.

(Thought Jim inspired me to buy the brilliant book "Archipelago", but guess not. Not mentioned in text. For the record, Brilliant. Great. Huge. Go shopping round.)

More info: http://www.red.com/

Float On

I have always wondered how this is possible. What happens if someone cut the line and give this guy a gentle push to the left? Will he drift away into space, living his last days as space waste, orbiting the earth? What`s the suit made of? And what if he really have to go to the toilet? Questions.

Now answers...well, to different questions actually. Ops. The reason why the suit (called EMU: Extravehicular Mobility Unit) is white, is because white reflects light and heat better than other colors, and also the fact that you can easily see the floating crew. All in all, it weighs 140 kg. But that doesn`t really matter up there. Underneath the 17 layers of some sort of white fabric, the guy wears a kind of underwear with water tubes in it, to regulate body temperature. Outside environment differs from +100 to -100 degrees C, depending on were astronaute is located, sun or shadow. In this high-tech outfit they breath 100% oxygen (on earth 20% oxygen/80% nitrogen), from what I know this doesn`t affect their voices, like helium. (That would have been a suitable EMU bonus though, imagine the radio communication). The "backpack" contains the already mentioned oxygen, emergency system, battery, watercooling device, ventilation fen and radio communication. As an extra feature, it`s possible to attach gas dispensers (called SAFER: Simplified Aid for EVA Rescue), used to navigate during emergencies...IF the line should somehow "disappear" or be cut. The helmet protects against radiation and light. Helmet bonus: video camera.

I have no idea how long it takes to get this thing on, but when on, they wear it for 6-8 hours...this leads me back to the toilet question. Googled it. Conclusion: americans...crazy people.