more surfing stuff

picture courtesy bbc spotlight

I was interested in this story. I was it on local bbc tv this evening it seems that a run of northerly winds, though that is onshore for the beaches in question. I would have thought that off shore winds would have done this but I haven't looked in to the science, but I have seen it at the beach. what ever has caused the sand to blow away from the beaches into the sea, it is certainly making a bit of news. with even the idea that sand should be brought in from other beaches to make the popular surfing beaches sandy again. I have noticed over the years the shape of the beach changes and sometimes it looks good as far as sandy and the waves are less good, whereas sometimes rocky exposed areas create better waves, anyway all it would need would be a storm with a swell from the right direction to put all the sand back anyway. it is strange that the major concern apart that of potential injury to novice surfers is what it looks like. read/watch more

ilectures!

ilectures - it had to happen and whilst I am not completely sure that apple should have the monopoly (perhaps it will be that other audio formats will be available soon). I am sure that giving access to lectures through itunes as university college london, the open university and trinity college dublin are, will be very successful. I can see so many advantages to having information in another format that students (in fact all learners) will be comfortable with. as well as the written word of course. read more on the bbc web site

designer marc newson >>

it could hardly have escaped your attention that for sometime now mark newson has been much praised in the product / design world. I have to say he seems to have a great working life and in most respects I think his work is wonderful.
watching the bbc tv programme imagine last night and again today on bbc iplayer I couldn't help thinking that even the usually carefully worded questions from alan yentob were just a bit lazy, perhaps bowing to 'celebrity' that is success.

I have to say that some of the work marc newson has produced is to me astonisingly, as a person of a smiliar age (well ok 4 years older) I remember the effect that space travel and the space race had on me and my peers while at school. I would draw and create stuff very heavily influenced by the ever increasing technology that was happening around me.

the way that newson seems to work with a driven ideal and a search for the next project is so good. I have often argued that when I left working as a 'textile designer' to work in clothing retail that I was spending more time designing while trying to manage a group of people and selling products created by other people than I did as a little designer on my own.

I think what I am trying to say is that to me designing is about so much more than answering a given problem, it is about almost everything we do. so the fact that newson works accross so many different aspects of the the design world doesn't seem at all strange to me.

it's snow >> 2 years ago

two years ago this weekend we had an unusual event for this part of the country (cornwall) in that snow pretty much stopped everything. I was at work but got snowed in as the weather didn't come in until about 8.30am so others were stuck on their way to work.
it was unusual as being the warmest part of mainland uk, the mild air normally stops the snow from staying very long.
this photo is taken from my desk looking towards the sea, and even got some other pictures published by the bbc on their web site.

it was also the day that the only two snow ploughs the area of cornwall I live in skidded into each other, but that is another story.

stormsurf >> probably the best

in another web presence I maintain. I spend ages looking at weather charts on the internet in order to produce the data for surf98 the uk surf site. along with actually looking at the ocean which is almost at the end of my road (I do feel lucky).
of the many different weather forecast sites the one that stands out and probably is my favourite along with the bbc, is stormsurf.
This picture /chart shows what will be reaching the shores of the uk in the next few days. to me it is a thing of beauty not just because it means that we will have some very good surf (probably the best weekend so far this autumn) but as an image it is also very pleasing to look at.