Subject: Viridian Note 00361: Beautiful Things

(((In this Note we Viridians are vigilantly giving considerate space and time to things that are Not-Inferno. If you see one that you fancy, by all means help make it endure.)))

(((Okay, yes, that Australian observatory we mentioned horribly caught fire. But they SAVED THE DATA!)))

"Valuable data collected by the Mt. Stromlo Observatory in Canberra, Australia were not lost in a firestorm that destroyed the facility thanks to a 'comprehensive data recovery plan.' Data from the telescopes had been being sent to a StorageTek 9310 Powderhorn library at the Canberra campus of the Australian National University (ANU); administrative and research data had been being backed up regularly and stored at two separate remote locations."
http://www.zdnet.com.au/newstech/enterprise/story/0,2000025001,20271482,00.htm

(((Beautiful open-source web-art toys.)))
http://www.levitated.net/daily/index.html

(((London's Design Museum. Stay all day.)))
http://www.designmuseum.org/

(((The National Building Museum showcases big, green buildings.)))
http://www.nbm.org/Exhibits/current/Big_and_Green.html

(((Touchingly retro-prescient art by Boris Artzybasheff. Stun your friends.)))
http://www.enter.net/~torve/art/artzy/markiii.html
http://www.enter.net/~torve/art/artzy/executive.html

(((Now that you're unemployed, why not write some science fiction stories for cool pulp magazines? These lovely relics of a lost media age are barely surviving today, but people always write for magazines during Depressions. A great entertainment bargain. Subscribe now and save them for a later generation!)))
http://www.asimovs.com/
http://www.sfsite.com/fsf/

((((Ten bucks a month for your own Linux computer online.)))
http://www.workspot.com/

(((The strange and provocative WonderWalker.)))
http://wonderwalker.walkerart.org/

(((Hey Baby Boomers. Remember that weird, trippy, British LP cover art by Roger Dean, on big vinyl "progressive rock" records of the 1970s? Well, soon you can LIVE INSIDE IT!)))
http://www.homeforlife.co.uk/

(((Bangalore isn't just computer chips. It's also Indian eco-housing.)))
http://inika.com/chitra/projects.htm

(((Enjoy emergent, bizarre, toroidal circulation phenomena, and get wasted on Tia Maria liqueur at the same time. Yes, this stunt has been home-tested in the Viridian Vatican, and it works.)))
http://www.newscientist.com/lastword/article.jsp?id=lw201

(((Never mind the Bush push on fuel-cells == if you're a rich guy with a generous tax break, you can buy nifty-keen fuel-cell desktop toys.)))
http://www.fuelcellstore.com/products/index/demonstration_gift_index.html

(((Solar cells have quietly re-entered the White House.)))
http://www.buildinggreen.com/news/white_house.html

(((Convulsively funny Viridian comic relief from an old Onion article.)))
http://www2.gol.com/users/coynerhm/hippie_update.htm

(((Duncan Stewart of the Viridian Curia remarks: "Decasia is a film for the Viridian Movement. Deliciously analog. The film is made from black and white movie clips from the early days of the previous century. All in various states of corruption, from the celluloid of the film itself to the silver nitrate which provides the canvas. A stepping stone to a new level of organic artistry.")))
http://www.decasia.com/

(((An Arts and Crafts mall. That's right, a mall.)))
http://www.lileks.com/bleat/archive/03/0103/013103.html