It is a truth universally acknowledged...

... that:

1) Triangular sandwiches taste better than square ones.
2) At the end of every party there is always a girl crying.
3) One of the most awkward things that can happen in a pub is when your pint-to-toilet cycle gets synchronised with a complete stranger.
4) You've never quite sure whether it's ok to eat green crisps.

More observations about random unbiquity can be found here. Lazy post for the evening completed, job done...

Cocoa, art and irony

From the nation that brought you spherical houses comes another tasty slice of strangeness in the shape of the Droste Effect:

The Droste effect is a Dutch term for a specific type of recursive picture.

An image exhibiting the Droste effect depicts a smaller version of the image within itself in a recursive manner.

In theory, the picture in picture effect continues deeper into the picture ad infinitum, but it really only goes as far as the image resolution will allow while still being visible, but it still has the feeling of being never ending....

The effect is named after a particular image that appeared in various forms on the tins and boxes of Droste cocoa powder, one of the main Dutch brands.

It displays a nurse carrying a serving tray with a cup of hot chocolate and a box of Droste cocoa depicting the same image...

The brand’s effect, maintained for decades, became a household notion. Reportedly, poet and columnist Nico Scheepmaker introduced wider usage of the term in the late 1970’s

In the 1950’s, one of the famous graphic artisits Maurits Cornelis Escher.C. Escher took the Droste effect to another level with his incredible drawings, and mapped images to a spiral.

Click here for images of the Droste Effect in action.

Meanwhile, breaking news from the World Memory Championships, being held in London. According to a report overheard on the BBC World Service, one of the British contenders for the title of World Memory Champion always wears a lucky hat during memory competitions. Sadly, he forgot to bring it along this year...

Grand Designs and A Place In The Sun

Following on from yesterday's post, a little more information about Holland's spherical houses can be found by clicking on this link. It confirms that the top half of the sphere was the living room, bathroom and kitchen, with the bedrooms in the bottom half, which I'd guessed from the position of the portholes. It also states that the houses were constructed in the 1980's not the '70's, as my original sources asserted.

I've not yet come across anything written by people who've actually lived in the Bolwoningen, which is a shame, as I'm curious to know how good / bad /impractical such radical dwellings really are. On paper, the shape seems like a good use of space, with the minimum surface area / footprint for a given amount of interior space, but there's the problem of fitting furniture and appliances with lots of straight edges into a space full of curving walls and ceilings.

On an unrelated topic, I'm also curious to know the truth about The Sun's conduct in the "lettergate" affair. If this is genuine and this post at Harry's Place is correct, The Sun's own web site managed to mis-spell the bereaved mother's name. Since the paper's already told us what an unforgivable blunder it is to make such a mistake, I'd be interested to know whether The Sun intend a) to apologise for being caught red handed or b) send in some high-powered lawyers to challenge the libellous allegation that they made such an insensitive mistake. So far News International have been uncharacteristically silent.

Property bubbles

When I were a lad, the 21st Century was a far distant time when we'd all be living in space-age pods. In 1970s Holland, an architect called Dries Kreijkamp was already building the future, in the shape of spherical houses with portholes. Sadly for those of us who believed that the future would be exciting and resemble science fiction, his globular Bolwoningen houses never caught on. Now they've made belated headlines after appearing in Travel and Leisure's list of the world's 15 ugliest buildings.

To hell with Travel and Leisure - I kind of like them in a retro-nostalgic kind of way. More interesting than a boring box by Barratt Homes, anyway. Links to more pictures of Kreijkamp's pods for living here and here.

Tube stops

Here are the results of some idle surfing. First, from over eighty years ago, the streets of London in living colour (thanks to Fearful Symmetry on the MetaFilter community weblog for finding that one).

Second, an infamous clip of Michael Palin singing along with Russian Pacific Fleet Ensemble. Compare and contrast Palin cheerfully murdering the tune with this atmospheric version of Polushko Polie on the solo balailaika.

And finally, from the ridiculous to the sublime - Bach's "Little" Fuge in G Minor, BWV 578, building from the first simple notes into a thing of intricate splendour.

Treason and plot

We celebrated bonfire night by inviting a few friends round and letting off a few fireworks in the back garden, with baked potatoes to keep the November chill out. The "Vote for a Change" party was a little more ambitious:

A super-sized duck house resembling the one in the garden of Sir Peter Viggers MP was towed up the Thames to the Houses of Parliament on Thursday afternoon...

The raft carrying the duck house set out from Butler's Wharf shortly before 3pm accompanied by 'ducklings' – a small speed boat with people wearing duck masks. Throughout the journey the flotilla was shadowed by the Port of London Authority Harbourmaster's launch to ensure that a threat to set fire to the duck house opposite the MPs' terrace was not carried out.

Being 5 November the demonstrators had originally planned a fireworks display to accompany the 'bonfire'.

Read all about it here.

Brown study

According to researchers at the University of New South Wales:

An Australian psychology expert who has been studying emotions has found being grumpy makes us think more clearly.

In contrast to those annoying happy types, miserable people are better at decision-making and less gullible, his experiments showed.

According to the BBC, the researchers found that dour individuals make fewer mistakes and can communicate more successfully than cheerful chappies. Personally, I'm skeptical - it doesn't seem to have worked for Gordon Brown...