Float of Fancy
Oct. 25th, 2009 08:07 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
slowfoxMSN had this article about how these floating cities could be the solution to forced adaptation to rising sea-levels as a consequence of climate change:
I think they're pretty, certainly, although oddly they put me more in mind of the Arcologies of Old Earth rather than Pernik et al of Atlantis. If that sentence made no sense whatsoever, get thee to thy Peter F Hamilton pronto (Night's Dawn Trilogy).
Getting back to the floating metropli, though, it's all sadly impractical: the cities themselves are each designed to accommodate 50,000 people. The resource cost of construction looks as though it would be massive, which suggests that these floating conurbations are probably going to end up as pseudo-gated communities for the super-wealthy. That said, I'd be tempted.
For a slightly more realistic accommodation scenario, here's Tetris being played with Berlin apartment blocks.
In other news, I've finished S1 of True Blood.Um yes, it arrived yesterday. Moderation in all things 'n that...
Good series, even though bits are quite, quite different from canon, I do feel that the adaptation's mostly true to the spirit of the books. And even though we get to see so very little of him, I love Eric! And Pam! And Lafayette absolutely rocked (I really like how much more they made of him than in the books): indeed, I would rate him my favourite character.
Also, Jason Stackhouse is very well-played (just love the bit early on where he's in the Police station, and his defence is 'that couldn't have been me, I'm not that smart', and Andy and Bud just give each other a 'no arguing with that' kinda look). I gradually warmed to Sookie (wasn't that taken with her in the first ep), and learned to tolerate Sam (he's a little too smarmy for my tastes). Tara's mother was an intriguing plot-line, Tara herself is gloriously screwed up.
Bill... is still bland - although him playing Wii golf amused me. Eric just has a presence that Bill can't match, even though there were a couple of moments where Bill alludes to a slightly more scheming backstory than how things are being presented. I love the bit where Pam's the bouncer at Fangtasia when Jason turns up: Sure, you can go in. *pause* Good luck getting out.
A frustration I had with the book, and that carries through to the series, is that you're given relatively few clues as to who the murderer might be, until very late on, at which point clues all start to arrive at once.
The whole look and feel of the series is just about perfect - I like the cinematography, and the music. Very much looking forward to Hotshot, more Eric and more Pam. We caught a fleeting glimpse of Queen Sophie via flashback, and a token glimpse of vamp justice as meted out by ... was it the King of Texas? So there's so much more that they can run with for S2... but I'm guessing I have to wait a while for that.
I think they're pretty, certainly, although oddly they put me more in mind of the Arcologies of Old Earth rather than Pernik et al of Atlantis. If that sentence made no sense whatsoever, get thee to thy Peter F Hamilton pronto (Night's Dawn Trilogy).
Getting back to the floating metropli, though, it's all sadly impractical: the cities themselves are each designed to accommodate 50,000 people. The resource cost of construction looks as though it would be massive, which suggests that these floating conurbations are probably going to end up as pseudo-gated communities for the super-wealthy. That said, I'd be tempted.
For a slightly more realistic accommodation scenario, here's Tetris being played with Berlin apartment blocks.
In other news, I've finished S1 of True Blood.Um yes, it arrived yesterday. Moderation in all things 'n that...
Good series, even though bits are quite, quite different from canon, I do feel that the adaptation's mostly true to the spirit of the books. And even though we get to see so very little of him, I love Eric! And Pam! And Lafayette absolutely rocked (I really like how much more they made of him than in the books): indeed, I would rate him my favourite character.
Also, Jason Stackhouse is very well-played (just love the bit early on where he's in the Police station, and his defence is 'that couldn't have been me, I'm not that smart', and Andy and Bud just give each other a 'no arguing with that' kinda look). I gradually warmed to Sookie (wasn't that taken with her in the first ep), and learned to tolerate Sam (he's a little too smarmy for my tastes). Tara's mother was an intriguing plot-line, Tara herself is gloriously screwed up.
Bill... is still bland - although him playing Wii golf amused me. Eric just has a presence that Bill can't match, even though there were a couple of moments where Bill alludes to a slightly more scheming backstory than how things are being presented. I love the bit where Pam's the bouncer at Fangtasia when Jason turns up: Sure, you can go in. *pause* Good luck getting out.
A frustration I had with the book, and that carries through to the series, is that you're given relatively few clues as to who the murderer might be, until very late on, at which point clues all start to arrive at once.
The whole look and feel of the series is just about perfect - I like the cinematography, and the music. Very much looking forward to Hotshot, more Eric and more Pam. We caught a fleeting glimpse of Queen Sophie via flashback, and a token glimpse of vamp justice as meted out by ... was it the King of Texas? So there's so much more that they can run with for S2... but I'm guessing I have to wait a while for that.
