Since we’re pretty serious architecture enthusiasts, not much gets us more hot under the collar than impassioned debates about the aesthetic quality (or poverty) of our built environment. After all, so much of our architecture is the work of developers looking to make a quick buck, rather than thoughtful designers, engineers and artists trying to [...]

Today is Leif Ericson Day, an occasion to celebrate the achievements of that valiant Norse explorer (approx 970-1020), most notably being the first European to set foot on the North American continent, likely somewhere near the tip of what is now Newfoundland. Given his broad region of influence–Iceland, Norway, Greenland, North America–you might find celebrations [...]

A very interesting article in yesterday’s New York Times explains that our brains are often at their most active, creative and effective when trying to process bad instructions, misinformation, or trying to find patterns when no signs are present. The accompanying image (pictured) shows a blank road sign on a desert road, which got us [...]

As you presumably heard, last week the International Olympic Committee made the right decision for once, and awarded the duties of hosting the 2016 summer Olympic Games to Brazilian megapolis Rio de Janeiro–rather cities in recent host nations Spain, Japan and the U.S. This marks the Games’s first visit to South America, and since it’s [...]

Sadly, we’ve never been to Japan, but if their taste for themed and simply spaced-out hotel decoration is anything to go by, we pretty much belong there.
So we’re going to start planning our trip right now, and being that we’re largely ignorant of Japanese culture and history (a shortcoming the journey will hopefully remedy), we’re [...]

TV-themed tourism hasn’t quite taken off the way movie tourism has (an NBC Studios tour isn’t quite as entertaining as one at Universal Studios, for instance), but that doesn’t mean you couldn’t make a cool itinerary out of visiting familiar TV show locales that are actual places.
Super Tremendous’s listicle of 8 Iconic TV Show Buildings [...]

Yesterday, we read in the New York Times that China has imposed a new Visa system on Tibet that makes it impossible for foreigners to visit the occupied mountain nation. This is worrisome for many reasons, none more so than the fact that whatever political and religious oppression takes place there will now be even [...]

Our rebellions actions as kids were never quite as high-profile or bad-ass as car theft or driving dangerously. Of course, nowadays we could probably pass such things off as some kind of displaced and confused environmental activism, but that doesn’t seem to work for the youthful offenders in BuzzFeed’s listicle of 10 Kids Stealing Cars. [...]

We live nearer than we’d like to a Hell’s Angels chapter. They’re irritating not because they seem violent or dangerous – by all accounts they’re very nice – but because they pass under our window nightly roaring engines that sound an awful lot like jackhammers. If we were rich we’d clandestinely substitute their gnarly Harleys [...]

In the ongoing saga of the latest plague to hit roads and highways the world over, people who can’t keep themselves from texting on their cell phones while at the wheel are killing themselves and others. Maybe we should start organizing Texters Anonymous meetings for them? Whatever has to be done about it, texting and [...]