Spring is here and with the sun burning so brightly over head, I don’t think it will last long.
This is my first year spending spring in an office rather than on the green campus of Jordan University, and although our office is quite a hot one with all the glass, paper, and steel, I really miss taking pictures of Amman. But hey, on the bright side, we’re switching back to DST (right?) in a few days and that means that I have a few more hours of daylight after work.

For now, I’ll share this picture, courtsey of Mahmood, which I could not help but stare at for a few minutes.

 

She looks pretty gorgeous there, doesn’t she?

Quite honestly, I have no idea how I feel towards additions to historical monuments. On one hand, it’s changing history, on the other hand, it just really becomes a part of the accumulated history of a certain monument.

But anyway, my opinion aside, they’re pimping up the Eiffel Tower for its 120th anniversary by adding an observation deck designed by Serero that will go up next year. I think it looks like my grandmother’s crochet tablecloths.

The concept of the design is rather amusing:

Generative Design: The design is based on a generative script,
creating branches out of the primary structure of the tower. Inspired
by the structural concept of Eiffel of three-dimensional cross bracing
beams, the script unfolds along curved lines the “DNA” of the tower.
The script used the existing structure at the top of the tower ( a 10
by 10 meters cube) to generate 3 structural weaves, which are
interconnected. These layers are combined to create a woven complex,
which is based on the redundancy and the non-repetition of patterns to
increase its structural performance. In opposition with modern
engineering (based on the concept of repetition and optimization), the
project for the Eiffel tower extension is based on an alternative model
of high performance.

So, what do you think? Cool or not cool?

(via, link)

Josef Hartwig’s Bauhaus Chessmen ($450) via Uncrate

I’m currently not in a pro-Nike phase, because the quality of their shoes have degraded to such a level that a 150 JD Nike shoe really isn’t much better than its fake counterpart downtown for 5 JDs. I’m also especially annoyed at how the canvas material traditionally used to make Converse shoes has changed to plasticy BS after Nike acquired Converse in 2003.

But anyway, I guess sometimes when a person takes the trashy stuff they produce to produce something acknowledged as trashy, it’s actually cool. The Nike Trash Talk, in collaboration with Steve Nash, features an upper that’s made of leather and
synthetic leather pieces collected from the factory floor. In addition,
the mid-sole uses factory scrap foam, and the outsole uses less toxic
rubber and incorporates Nike Grind material from outsole manufacturing
waste.

Not only is it recycled, it also looks pretty good.

(via Uncrate)

I am at that stage where I really have no idea whether to enjoy the gorgeous August temperatures in mid-March or feel sorry for the spring that’s already burning away before it even started. I guess I’ll take the first option… I love the summer.

It never occurs to me to think about yet undiscovered fruits, vegetables, flavours.
Then I found this list of foods that were generally unknown in the Middle Ages. It makes me laugh to think how all the medieval-portraying cartoons such as Sword in the Stone and Robin Hood are full of feasts of turkeys, potatoes, and bananas!

Here are some items that the European Middle Ages never tasted: bananas, spices, peppers, cocoa, coffee, peanuts, potatoes, tea, turkey, and tomatoes. Check out the entire list here.