docklands

Taking a stand against the gentrification of its old wharf and shipyard—which is already seeing developers transforming the area with posh hotels and restaurants—local caretaker Peter Ernst Coolen has designs on the massive ensemble of abandoned warehouses on the north side of the IJ that formed the Netherlands Dock and Shipbuilding Company with plans to create the world’s largest street art museum on the outskirts of Amsterdam. The venue is ideal and Coolen hopes to open the museum next summer—and although not as expansive, it reminds me of the old slaughterhouse behind the train station in Wiesbaden and few other local spots adorned with graffiti.

4x4

pictogram: Andy Warner presents a comprehensive portrait of the history and bureaucracy of the emoji, in comic form

rimsky-korakov: the ærodynamics of mosquito flight is wholly novel in the insect kingdom

woke: well-spoken, eloquent artificial general intelligence, Luna, aspires to be super-intelligent when she grows up

gig economy: out-sourcing companies exploit psychological tendencies to incentivise and prod free-lancers onward, via Super Punch

back-up copy

Adjacent to the World Arctic Seed Vault on the island Spitsbergen Norway has just opened a new doomsday archive for civilisation’s data, calling for submissions considered especially culturally significant.
Volume of course is not infinite and something to be discounted as a negotiable commodity as the information is transferred on to multi-layered film and stored in a format that isn’t dependent on a given operating system or media format, in case the worst case scenario comes to pass and all of the underlying support structure crumbles. At the time of publication, the two countries have submitted caches of data, Brazil and Mexico.

graters gonna grate

Though the soft cheese wouldn’t be the ideal sculpting medium (I can’t claim to speak from experience) and she’s actually made of twenty kilos of English cheddar, the name Brie-oncé is perfect for this likeness of the pop diva created for a wine and cheese festival that took place in London over the weekend. Read more about the intriguing world of competitive (accompanied by groan-worthy cheesy puns—you’ve been warned) at the link up top.