“A mysterious sea creature up to 7 feet long, with 10 arms, a sharp beak and a ravenous appetite, has invaded ocean waters off Northern California. Packs of fierce Humboldt Squid attack nearly everything they see, from fish to scuba divers.
KQED’s Quest chats with the marine biologists who are working to discover why they’ve headed north from their traditional homes off South America.”
01) I BOUGHT the CHEAPEST street legal bike on Amazon
“I just bought the cheapest street legal bike on Amazon for only $1400 with my own money! The RPS Hawk Amazon motorcycle is a great budget buy and does everything that the more expensive dual sports can do! I put the bike to the tests by taking it offroad at a coal field!”
01) Habitat 67 stacks 354 prefabs that get urban/suburban balance
“Habitat 67 was a 1960s experiment in dense, downtown housing that tried to combine the best of urban and suburban living. Architect Moshe Safdie wanted to integrate the qualities of a suburban home- the access to nature and views- into a high-rise. Built for the 1967 World’s Fair, Habitat 67 was also a prototype of an affordable “3D modular building system” that he hoped would “reinvent the apartment building”.
Like the Japanese Metabolism movement (see Nagakin capsule tower: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sXRJE2caPNY), Habitat 67 is an interconnected web of prefabricated cells stacked so the emergent whole feels less coldly geometric and more organic.
“Habitat 67 comprises 354 identical, prefabricated concrete forms arranged in various combinations, reaching up to 12 stories in height. Together these units create 146 residences of varying sizes and configurations, each formed from one to eight linked concrete units. The complex originally contained 158 apartments, but several apartments have since been joined to create larger units, reducing the total number. Each unit is connected to at least one private terrace, which can range from approximately 20 to 90 square metres (225 to 1,000 sq ft) in size.” – Wikipedia
Originally, Safdie had aimed to create an affordable prefab system, but given the experimental nature of the project, costs reached approximately C$140,000 per unit (pricey for the 1960s). Today, the apartment owners all own shares in the building. Long-time resident George Boynton helped instigate changing the status of the complex from government-owned apartment building to a private Limited Partnership Complex. He gave us a tour of the 10-story building and a walk-through of Mosha Safdie’s newly-renovated apartment.
Not so sure I’d do well with the open heights…but, this is still awesome.
Nakagin: 140 plug n’ play capsules float in metabolist tower:
“Resembling clusters of space pods stacked 13 stories tall, the Nakagin Capsule Tower is the world’s first example of capsule architecture. When erected in 1972, tiny prefab apartments were stacked like LEGOs (by crane) around a concrete core. Attached by only 4 high-tension bolts, the capsules were designed to be plugged in and replaced when necessary.
Each pod was a micro apartment measuring 4 by 2.5 meters, intended for Japanese businessmen who wanted to avoid a long commute home. Everything came built-in: a bed, a sink, a refrigerator, bathroom, folding desk and even a TV, radio and alarm clock.
Built in 1972 in Tokyo’s Ginza District, the building is one of the only remaining examples of Metabolist architecture: a movement begun in the 1960s that treated cities as dynamic, evolving organisms. Designed by Kisho Kurokawa for sustainability and recycleability, the Nakagin Tower has not been maintained and now nearly 50 years after it’s construction, many of the capsules are uninhabitable.
In 2007, when the building’s residents voted to demolish the building. Kurokawa proposed “unplugging” the worn-out units and replacing them with newer capsules (an idea supported by the Japan Institute of Architects). Kurokawa died in late 2007. Given the high rents in the Ginza neighborhood, most of the residents continue to push to replace the entire building, but an online group has organized to save the building and its fate remains unclear.
Today, a few residents like Masato Abe rent their unit outs on AirBnB. We (the faircompanies family of five) rented it for a night. In this video, Abe shows us his neighbor’s unit which is in nearly original condition and we filmed our night with the five of us sleeping in a self-contained capsule built for one.”
01) The Inner Chronicle of What We Are – Understanding Werner Herzog
“In this extensive review of the work of Werner Herzog, I examine the philosophy beneath his unique approach to filmmaking, and explore the significance of the many stories he brought home from faraway lands.”
“Hjörleifur Hróðmarsson, the blood brother of Ingólfur Arnarson who was Iceland’s first Viking settler in around 874 AD. Hjörleifur was the second settler of Iceland, but sadly enough he was killed the year after in 875 AD.
Hjörleifshöfði is a 221 m-high (725 Ft high) inselberg in southern Iceland. It consists of palagonite. The mountain is located on the Mýrdalssandur outwash plain about 15 km east of Vík í Mýrdal, and was an island in the Atlantic Ocean.”
01) Edward VI – The Boy King (British Monarchy Documentary)
“Edward inherited the throne when he was only nine, his quest to change England was to tear apart his family and his country.
Written and presented by Dr David Starkey, this is the compelling story of two of England’s most striking monarchs: a brother and sister, tied by blood and affection, and torn apart by religion, power, and some of the bloodiest episodes in English history. Mary (who was to become England’s first reigning Queen since Matilda but who is best known to generations of British schoolchildren as Bloody Mary) was the first born child of Henry VIII. For 20 years she was heir to her adored father. Then came the birth of her little half-brother Edward, and Mary found herself cast into the shadows, ignored by her father and declared illegitimate by Act of Parliament. Nonetheless she became very attached to the motherless boy, and he to her, declaring her his dearest sister. When Edward was just nine, their father died and the young boy became King, surrounded by advisors and further distanced from his beloved elder sister. But by now they were divided not just by power and status, but also by faith. Mary was a staunch Catholic, Edward a reforming Protestant: at this time such matters were not an issue of personal choice but matters of life or death, treason or heresy. Within a few years Mary was under virtual house arrest and banned from celebrating mass; within a few more years Edward was dead at the tragically early age of 16 and Mary became Queen. She set about making England a Catholic country once more and hundreds of Protestants, including Edward’s most trusted advisors, were burnt at the stake because they refused to renounce their faith.”
“The EU says 93% of Mediterranean fish stocks have been overfished, and blames big trawlers in particular. The fish are getting smaller, and some species have disappeared completely. What comes next, Greek fisher Evgenia asks.
Five kilos of fish at three euros a kilo makes 15 euros per day. How can you make a living from it? Evgenia Floris asks herself this question every day. For over 50 years, she and her husband have been fishing on the Greek island of Chios. Although there are fewer and fewer fish now, the Evgenia and Georgios still keep going, because the sea is their life. They used to catch around ten to 20 kilos of fish off Chios in the past, which brought them in a good income. Today it’s no longer enough to live on: sometimes they can’t even afford fuel for their boat. State controls in Greece are virtually non-existent. Evgenia is 69 and Georgios 78, and they both say they will fish as long as they can, but they know that a tradition is finally coming to an end.”
