The Art of the Perfect Pint Pour

more from Guy's blog...Guinness!!!...

link to full article and pictures from the Guinness plant...

Green Building at Stanford

It helps to have an good budget...

Stanford University is full of smart people, and now it has a smart building too thanks to Jerry Yang, the co-founder of Yahoo!, and his wife Akiko Yamazaki The building is called Yang and Yamazaki Environment and Energy Building (Y2E2). The size of the building is 166,000 square feet, and it cost approximately $470/square foot.

link to full article with pictures

Do you like Lists?

Listography

Tom Peters PSF Wiki...

PSF Wiki

Have fun!!!

Looking Forward to 2008...

Best Wishes (belated) for a Happy and Healthy New Year!!!

(back from a long holiday break, and looking forward to the new year...)

Las Vegas Hotel Implosion

only in Vegas!!!...

The short version...better video of the countdown



The longer version...better fireworks, and some interesting detail regarding the sequencing and placement of the charges



Enjoy...

German steeple challenges leaning tower of Pisa

BERLIN (Reuters) - The Guinness Book of World Records has ruled that a church steeple in Germany, not the famous leaning tower of Pisa, is the most tilted tower in the world.

The 25.7-metre steeple tilts at an angle of 5.07 degrees, while the tower of Pisa tilts at just 3.97 degrees, said Olaf Kuchenbecker, head of Guinness's German edition.

"When you lay photos of the two next to each other you can see it relatively clearly," Kuchenbecker said.

The new record, scheduled to appear next autumn in the 2009 edition of the Guinness Book of World Records, could strip the Pisa tower of its iconic status, Kuchenbecker said.

link to full article

MIT alleges flaws in Gehry building

They wanted this design...you need to know you're taking the whole package...

BOSTON - The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is suing renowned architect Frank Gehry, alleging serious design flaws in the Stata Center, a building celebrated for its unconventional walls and radical angles.

The school asserts that the center, completed in spring 2004, has persistent leaks, drainage problems and mold growing on its brick exterior. It says accumulations of snow and ice have fallen dangerously from window boxes and other areas of its roofs, blocking emergency exits and causing damage.

The suit says MIT paid Los Angeles-based Gehry Partners $15 million to design the Stata Center, which cost $300 million to build. It houses labs, offices, classrooms and meeting rooms.

link to full article

Theory and Practice

In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice. In practice, there is.

I could only find one reference that attributed this one to Yogi...it's still a good one...

Are You an Egomaniac?

Ten Questions with Steven Smith

egonomics: What Makes Ego Our Greatest Asset (or Most Expensive Liability)

great stuff

The very Big and the very Small...

I find these topics fascinating...as sort of an odd hobby...

Two Slits Are Better Than One

Cosmic Effort Sheds Light on Dark Energy

and I wonder why my kids think I am a boring conversationalist...

Link to "A Few Good Architects"...

Funny...

A Few Good Architects

Service Industry Re-visited

I had previously focused on issues regarding our "Service Industry"...

What we do is different from manufacturing a product. We deliver a service, and we like to think that “Service” is higher up the “Value Added” chain than a “Product” and maybe it is.

This often takes the form of answers to questions...

We are in the "Answers" business...

We get paid (a lot, I hope) to provide service (answers) to our Clients...

Clients have a right to be dis-satisfied if they pay the going rate and do not get their service, i.e. the answers

We do not get paid to provide excuses...

Mystery Solved: Mars Had Large Oceans

Since 1991, planetary scientists have floated the idea that Mars once harbored vast oceans that covered roughly one-third of the planet. Two long shore-like lips of rock in the planet's northern hemisphere were thought to be the best evidence, but experts argued that they were too "hilly" to describe the smooth edges of ancient oceans.

The view just changed dramatically with a surprisingly simple breakthrough.

The once-flat shorelines were disfigured by a massive toppling over of the planet, scientists announced today. The warping of the Martian rock has hidden clear evidence of the oceans, which in any case have been gone for at least 2 billion years.

"This really confirms that there was an ocean on Mars," said Mark Richards, a planetary scientist at the University of California at Berkeley and co-author of the study, which is detailed in the June 14 issue of the journal Nature.

link to full article

an interesting blog about space, rocketry, and associated topics...

well worth some time...

Rocketaholic Blog

Google Sketch Up

I was out to lunch the other day with two collegues...It was one of those "let's go out to lunch for your last day..." the changing times continue to change...

The discussion was pretty typical, who's hot, who's not...other industry stuff...

Drawing programs came up, and someone mentioned Google SketchUp

It a free 3D model sketching program...it's webdriven and compatible with Google Earth...

I got the download...it looks pretty fun...very powerful...I am going to try to convert some of my 2D sketch drawings into 3D models...

Check it out...

The power of many...

If you've worked in this industry long enough, you have had the opportunity to see the power of a group of people all focused on a common goal...

and the extraordinary things that can be accomplished...

If you are not sure this is really possible, take 2 minutes and 32 seconds out of your life to see for yourself...

Don't waste one minute...

Thon.org
.

Service Improvement...

What would we do if our service was a product? and we wanted to improve it...

Lots of people like Tom Peters, are always talking about moving up the service scale…
products, services, experiences…and I agree…

But that should not mean that we can’t learn something from looking back the other way…

Just the concept that there should always be an effort underway to improve…

Some quick examples…


Provide solutions for lingering problems- when the product is used, it leaves a mess in the container…solution squeezable tubes for clean product dispensing…
Improve product- from radical re-design to adding a single new feature…
Expand market segment- find another market segment to sell…expand existing market segment…
Make it cheaper…continuous improvement…
Develop related products…similar to the expanded market, have more things to sell…

In engineering, people are too quick to turn to cost as the most competitive aspect of selling engineering…it shows a limited review of the situation…

Pick Three Themes...

I have decided the following three themes will be my focus for 2007, and maybe beyond...

Client Service- what does it take to make the Client the Hero?...

Technical Quality- there is no substitute for the correct information during a construction project...

Safety- I don't think you can justify leaving this one out...

How to be creative in architecture

Another manifesto...

Being an architect in and of itself is supposedly a creative endeavor. But, it's not. The business model, the approach - not creative. It has become a commodity. Architects undercut each other to the point of insanity, creating a "low-baller's profession". The good architects transcend all of this. Joe Schmoe will not undercut Daniel Libeskind. You have to be creative, not just in your designs, but in your approach and mentality.

link to Josh's Architectural Manifesto...