Economist.com, how bored are you?

Was surfing the net aimlessly and came across this article on Chinese Zodiac signs offering some hope for John McCain. The logic goes that since a lot of former presidents who are of the rat zodiac sign have made it to the top position in the white house, so McCain might have some faint hope over Obama.

I mean, come on. Even newspapers in the East (where the zodiac sign comes from) aren't this entertaining. If you've got no good news to run, sometimes, it's better not to run random news (it's good for laughs though).

...looking down from above are robots, not angels...

Just spent the morning watching a programme called Britain from Above on BBC iplayer. (For readers not from UK, you will be unable to view it because you do not subscribe to the overly charged UK broadband network).

This programme is about comparing aerial photographs taken by German planes in World War II, as they slid into the British skies to find targets for bombing jets that would later scorch the landscape, with that of contemporary aerial photos.
I came across this poetic line when the Scottish, Glasglow born narrator Andrew Marr talked about weathermen gathering climatic data from outer space:

"...looking down from above are robots, not angels..."

That sentence totally took away my concentration from the programme as I pondered about how even space now is taken over by technology and how our lives revolve around technology. We are thrown into this age of technology and it embraces us disregarding our preferences.

But again, how many relationships (be it love, friends, business, research-based, creativity-based) are started over email, text messages and instant messaging. Humanity now runs in the veins of optical fibers and the music of frequencies bonuces off our own building walls.

I couldn't help but think of the great forces at work here. Perhaps,
Looking up from below are angels, not humans.

The rain is coming at the window from all sides while the sun shines high above, another typical day for Edinburgh.

A bit restless

I should be writing my essays which is due in 2 weeks. But my mind is restless because I cannot answer questions. (Excuses....)

Questions that doesn't concern the wealth of nations, but the wealth of humans.
My question is simple.
What is our epoch?

I struggle to find a definition for it. Maybe there's an article floating somewhere out there that attempts to answer this question.

But as creation itself is brought under trial, is there anything that cannot be questioned or achieved by us? And how should this madness be stopped? If ever it should be stopped.
Or is it more like America dropping the atomic bomb into Hiroshima, it's a new weapon, so we use it and then learn from that mistake, that happened with the gas attacks in world war I, so why not stop inventing and experimenting?

What about our moral ethics? After the Death of God, after the emergence of culture relativism, what governs our land, is it law, is it personal conscience?

How should society be organized? The rivalry with capitalism has failed because our greed and the invisible hands do contribute to the wealth of nations. But it is, afterall, the wealth of nations rather than the wealth of humans. Would freedom, prosperity, a lack of worry in society be the ultimate goal of a government? If so, why does so many people kill themselves in Scandinavia?

This is an age of non-rebellion, of timidness, of numbness (I'm writing this article, when there's a war being waged on another continent, but we keep on living our lives, read the news and do nothing about it.)

Our perhaps we are at a transitional period of a great pendulum, anticipating, waiting for the coming of a new age.

Our is this the final balance we have struck after thousand years of struggling?

Or maybe I am just moaning when there's no pain 無病呻吟是也

Architect's responsibility in the 21st Century

Just read a nice article on Renzo Piano's new California Academy (he was the one who co-designed Pompidou Center in Paris with Richard Rogers).

My favourite part of the article was Piano's view of archhitect's responsibility in our contemporary world. His view is that "19th century was about new kinds of construction...Steel and so forth. And the 20th century created a language for that. Now architects must develop an aesthetic for our discovery about the fragility of nature."

I have always wondered whether there will be a coherent movement around the globe that would lead all architects to design buildings that reflect the concerns of our time.

I have a childish dream, a dream of the co-existence of nature and city. As taller and bolder skyscrapers are built, the community living or working in the skyscraper will take turns in helping in farming at the grounds (or different floors) which would create a sufficient amount of produce to sustain those living within.

I don't see how people can be harmful to their land if they cultivated their own.