floating islands and climate change

A Belgian architect has designed a very sci-fi-ish floating island that could house people who have lost their homes to climate change and eroding coast lines. It looks a lot like a lilypad. As this is a sci-fi concept that has come up in a number of lovely books I've read (Greg Egan et al) I'd be interested to find out if the science adds up too i.e.

1 Will it actually float? This is a materials question I guess - and with the race for incredibly strong and long carbon nanotubes full on (see stuff on the space elevator), there may well be a timeline for this sort of development too if it's not viable right now.

2 Will it be resilient to current weather extremes that the world is getting used to? I'm thinking tsunamis, hurricanes, cyclones and anything else the planet can throw at us.

3 How much will it cost? If the answers to the above two questions don't push the concept out of reality then I can see some very rich individuals commissioning their own islands just for the hell of it. No man is an island - but having one is always a bonus :-).

elected mayor for bristol anyone?

I just got forwarded this link:

http://www.bristolmayor.com/

which, as the title suggests is about a bid to get an elected mayor for Bristol. I think it's a debate that needs to be aired so I've signed it. As for who it might be, I was thinking along the lines of Dick Penny (Watershed), George Ferguson (Tobacco Factory and ex RIBA president), John Savage (chair UBHT, Business West and many others), and John Hirst (Broadmead manager) as good candidates.

Someone mentioned Ken Livingston but do we really need someone from London to sort out Bristol's problems??

time will tell I guess - I hope the petition gathers enough momentum to go somewhere!

solar curtains anyone?

it stands to reason that if you use curtains to block out sunlight you could equally use them to do a spot of solar farming and help lower your leccy bill at the same time. Nice idea - I'm guessing solar Venetian blinds are next?

http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/science/07/01/solar.textiles/index.html

credit crunch hits starbucks

you know those articles that said that those people who spent a daily amount of cash on their daily starbucks fix would be the first to change their habits to afford the basics after the credit crunch hit?

Well Starbucks is closing 500 more of their outlets based on the ones that are most underperforming.

Somehow I don't think the tobacco companies will be closing their doors just yet (they'll just market harder in third world countries where kids aren't allowed to take out loans...).

nameless and the next bristol skillswap: when content management goes bad

Adam and Stu from the nameless crew will be taking the next Bristol
Skillswap session, this time covering content management and when it
goes wrong-diddly-wrong. Both design and technical perspectives are to
be discussed to death with free beer to help quench those argumentative
throats that form the Bristol interactive community.

Tickets are free but limited - if you want to come, go to the site below
and book your place!

http://bristolskillswap.eventwax.com/july-bristol-skillswap-when-content-management-goes-bad