Archive for November, 2009

Black is the new … black

I’m usually the last person to notice something like this, but … does the Hamamatsu have some sort of dress code I don’t know about?

Ann Soo-Jung Anna Shelest Francesca Vidal

Mai Asakawa Julia Kociuban Helene Tysman

Moon Hyun-Jee Marie-Helene Trempe Margarita Muzychenko

Ye Sijing Tamila Salimdjanova Zhang Qiongna

I mean, what gives? Is this supposed to be a piano competition or a funeral?

Saturday, November 14th, 2009

Stat of the day

I’m getting claustrophobic just looking at this:

“A thorough government survey in 1987 … estimated that 33,000 people resided within the Walled City’s area of 6.5 acres.”

Given a limit of fourteen stories on buildings (imposed due to nearby Kai Tak Airport), that works out to a maximum 120 square feet of land per person—and that’s making the absurd assumption that every square inch was used as liveable space.

By way of illustration, that would be six people living in my one-bedroom apartment.

Saturday, November 7th, 2009