Alternate Titles to Barack Obama's Audacity of Hope

if it had been written by President Bush... from McSweeney's. (My favorite? The Insolence of Public Sentiment)

Solar Symphonies and Extraterrestial Landscapes

Some interesting (you might even say stellar) things being discovered by telescopes these days.

1. It appears that the sun's atmosphere produces music:

...explosive events at the Sun’s surface appear to trigger acoustic waves that bounce back and forth between both ends of the loops, a phenomenon known as a standing wave.

In the cosmic equivalent of a guitar pick, so-called microflares at the base of loops could be plucking the magnetic loops and setting the sound waves in motion, the researchers speculate.
-space.com

[image from space.com as well]

If musical landscapes or astronomic architecture interest you, you might want to (a) start reading BLDGBLOG and (b) click on these links for singing Antarctic geology or a heliocentric interpretation of the Parthenon.

2. New Planet could be earth-like.
Well, that's promising, isn't it?

The most enticing property yet found outside our solar system is about 20 light-years away in the constellation Libra, a team of European astronomers said yesterday.

It is the smallest of the 200 or so planets that are known to exist outside of our solar system, the extrasolar or exo-planets. It orbits its home star within the so-called habitable zone where surface water, the staff of life, could exist if other conditions are right, said Stephane Udry of the Geneva Observatory.
-NY Times

While discovering planets in other solar systems is nice, so are the objects that we use to look for them. For instance, the European Southern Observatory in Chile, where the Gliese 581 planet was spotted:

[image from onera's website]

For a nice set of shots of the ESO, check out this flickr set. I wonder if you can take a vacation to a radioastronomy observatory?

Seamarks

seamark (n) - an elevated object serving as a beacon to mariners

[image from flickr user admiral awesome]

[image from flickr user aixcracker]

[image from flickr user mori]

[image from flickr user aixcracker]

Not in My Backyard Produces In Your Cornfield

[image from slate]

If Witold's previous books are any indication, Last Harvest should be a good read (for those of us inclined to read a history residential real-estate development before bed). Slate has a couple of excerpts up (one on why Americans live in single family homes, one on the rise and fall of the ranch house) including a decent slideshow following the transformation of a Chester County cornfield into an ex-urban subdivision.

[image from slate]

With the above image, I was hoping that the slideshow might take a more interesting turn than it did, perhaps examining the reasons that developers/engineers feel compelled to erase a site before working with it (and hopefully the impact of those decisions). Or why standard home plans can't be developed that show a bit more willingness to accomodate themselves to their eventual sites (you could imagine a future home buyer choosing between the simple, two-level 5% slope model and the multi-tiered maze that is the 23% slope model).

Not to worry, though. I'm sure that the subdivision will make a fascinating folly for some future landscape architect:

[image from habs]

Mogwai

Finally got around to listening to last year's new Mogwai and it definitely delivers.

Download the single "Folk Death 95" here or stream the entire record at Matador's site. I'd say streaming is definitely worth it for the first two, "Auto Rock" and "Glasgow Mega-snake". Admittedly Glasgow Mega-snake is a pretty absurd title but it brings the guitar like Mogwai haven't done since "My Father My King" (which is, in my opinion, probably the crowning achievement of post-rock, if there is such a thing).

the lair of a wicked fairytale character

This Russian ex-con, by the name of Nikolai Sutyagin, has built what is apparently the world's tallest wooden house (13 floors and 144 feet). Sutyagin describes it as a "happy accident", which sounds about right to me:

[image via the telegraph, link above]

The neighbors want to have it torn down, calling it a "monstrosity" and a fire-hazard. I think those neighbors need a dose of Miyazaki.

[Picked up at BLDGBLOG; here's google maps link to the city of Arkhangelsk]