"The microscopic plants" - otherwise known as plankton - "that underpin all life in the oceans are likely to be destroyed by global warming, a study has found." This means that the entire marine ecosystem will also die. Oops. Independent. View full entry
Design Hope Toronto is a volunteer initiative to raise funds and awareness for Dixon Hall's Homeless, Hostels and Housing program. Based on a successful program in Dundas, Ontario, artists, architects and designers are invited to create one of a kind works of art around the theme of shelter... View full entry
A whale swam up the River Thames past Parliament and Big Ben in central London on Friday, then beached itself. The whale was a Northern bottlenose, said Richard Sabian, a zoologist at the Natural History Museum in London, who went to the scene. link View full entry
Paul Goldberger reports on the newest Disney-style mockup of a city, a new-old piece of town in Shangai with the incredible claim to being a new heaven and earth. | New Yorker View full entry
Amazonian hunter-gatherers who lack written language and who have never seen a math book score highly on basic tests of geometric concepts, researchers said on Thursday in a study that suggests geometry may be hard-wired into the brain. Reuters View full entry
Next month, an "edible townscape made of biscuits and sweets" will go on display in London. "These sweet, crunchy, dunkable works of art take around 10 days to complete and are divided into zones: business, cultural and traditional Asian. Once a city is topped out, the hungry public are invited... View full entry
The Reina Sofia Museum in Madrid says that in 1990 it put a sculpture they commissioned from Richard Serra, and later bought from him, in a warehouse for long term storage. However, now that they want to put it on display again, it's nowhere to be found. BBC View full entry
If the Pentagon/CIA can have a TV show starring Dennis Hopper why can't Hamas have a kids show? Welcome Uncle Hazim to the Gaza Strip. NYT View full entry
This week the Institute of Contemporary Art in Philadelphia will present a site-specific commissioned installation by renowned architects Ben van Berkel and Caroline Bos of UN Studio in collaboration with Imaginary Forces. The “Holiday Home“ is an experiential installation exploring... View full entry
Carsten Höller , Belgian artist, has been selected as the next candidate to fill Turbine Hall at the Tate Modern. | indy | related View full entry
James Lovelock, of Gaia Hypothesis fame, says it's too late, the game's up, the climate is already in a feedback loop - "and before this century is over billions of us will die and the few breeding pairs of people that survive will be in the Arctic where the climate remains tolerable."... View full entry
A report issued by the City of New Orleans this week would make it tougher for some homeowners to start over. CSM View full entry
As the polar ice melts and new seaports / routes open, developers waste no time in the artic land grab, and miners make claims to the petroleum-laced seabed floor. (Kind of ironic. This begins & ends with fossil fuels.) NYTimes very good article | via Radio Open Source very good episode |... View full entry
An epidemic of Japanese teenagers locking themselves into their rooms to listen to Radiohead for months at a time has broken out. It's called "hikikomori, which translates as 'withdrawal' and refers to a person sequestered in his room for six months or longer with no social life beyond his home."... View full entry
The discovery of an ancient map documenting the exploits of Chinese Admiral Zheng He from 1405-1435 suggests that China may have beat Columbus to the discovery of the New World. To be unveiled in Beijing on Jan 16, and then at The National Maritime Museum in Greenwich a day later. Economist | via View full entry