MARK BURRY

The white heat of Wilson A POINT OF VIEWBy Brian WaldenBrian Walden looks at the phases of fascination and disillusion with “new visions”.When I was first taught history it was done in a most enjoyable way. Personalities dominated the subject.Great figures were discussed in the lessons and the schoolbooks were full of kings and queens, who were often violent and impulsive. I learnt quite a lot about bygone centuries, because historical tales were so entertaining.

via BBC NEWS | UK | Magazine | The white heat of Wilson.

White elephants

• City of Culture, Santiago de Compostela

Construction of two of the six buildings for a huge culture campus in the capital city of the Galicia region has been postponed indefinitely. The cost of the scheme, designed by Peter Eisenman, is €300m (£257m) so far.

• Huesca airport

Built four years ago at a cost of €40m to bring tourists to the northern province’s ski resorts, it received just four commercial passenger flights in the three months to August.

• AVE train station, Guadalajara

Only 60 passengers a day use the high-speed trains at this station built in farmland six miles from the Madrid dormitory city of Guadalajara. Commuters say the service is too expensive and too far out of town.

• Castellón airport

Formally inaugurated in March, with a promise that it would start receiving passengers by September, this €150m airport on the east coast has now put back its first commercial flights to April next year at the earliest.

via Spain’s €44m Niemeyer centre is shut in galleries glut | World news | The Guardian.

Spain’s €44m Niemeyer centre is shut in galleries glut

Squabble over spending on hotels, trips and meals at complex designed by celebrated Brazilian architect

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Giles Tremlett in Madrid

guardian.co.uk, Monday 3 October 2011 18.50 BST

The Niemeyer Centre in Avilés, northern Spain, had been compared to the Guggenheim in Bilbao. Photograph: Rafa Rivas/AFP/Getty Images

A dazzling €44 million (£37.7m) arts centre in the northern Spanish city of Avilés is to close after six months amid political squabbling as the country asks itself what to do with a glut of glittering new museums.

The Niemeyer centre, which was designed by the celebrated 103-year-old Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer, was intended to have the same impact on the industrial Cantabrian sea port as the Guggenheim museum has had on Bilbao, 150 miles to the east.

via Spain’s €44m Niemeyer centre is shut in galleries glut | World news | The Guardian.

Architect Santiago Calatrava accused of ‘bleeding Valencia dry’

Leftists accuse top architect of raking in escalating amounts of cash from regional government to build giant cultural park

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Giles Tremlett in Madrid

guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 8 May 2012 19.11 BST

A view of a large part of the City of the Arts and Sciences, by architect Santiago Calatrava. Photograph: Heino Kalis/Reuters

Stunning bridges, airports and daring buildings have made him famous around the world, but now Santiago Calatrava is facing fierce criticism for his dealings with the local government in his home region of Valencia.

The architect, who designed the roof of the Athens Olympic stadium, is under fire from political opponents of the conservative-run authority, and a website highlighting fees paid to him by Spanish taxpayers has been launched.

Calatrava has charged some €100m (£81m) to the Valencia government, according to the website, established by the leftwing Esquerra Unida party. The party says it has managed to see copies of bills paid by the People’s party regional government to the architect, who is now based in Zurich.

Esquerra Unida says contracts were given to him via “an unpublicised negotiating system establishing his payments as a percentage of the final cost of each project, which doubled or tripled in respect to the original budgets”.

via Architect Santiago Calatrava accused of ‘bleeding Valencia dry’ | World news | guardian.co.uk.

Oops, I invented the rocket! The explosive history of serendipityVelcro, Vaseline, Teflon, penicillin, and now perhaps the rocket – they were all happy accidentsShare 49Comments 26 A man lets off fireworks during a festival in Guangzhou. Chinese alchemists created explosive mixtures in their quest for an elixir of life. Photograph: China Photos/GettyAny scientist will tell you – probably at length, if youre buying the drinks – that as much as they love their career, the day-to-day benchwork can be somewhat repetitive.Its the eureka moments that make science worthwhile, and such moments are all the sweeter when theyre unexpected. What the Dutch call geluk bij een ongeluk “happiness by accident” and English speakers call serendipity – although when an irritating colleague receives serendipitys blessing, were more likely to call him or her a jammy bastard.Happy accidents have a secure place in scientific history. Perhaps the best known example is of Alexander Fleming, who was working at St Marys Hospital in 1928 when he noticed that a culture of Staphylococcus aureus had become contaminated with mould – and the mould was destroying the bacteria. This chance observation led, ultimately, to the development of penicillin and other antibiotics. Similarly, x-rays, radiation and pulsars – and in a less exotic vein, Velcro, Vaseline and Teflon – all owe their discovery or existence to serendipity.Now it seems we should consider adding another item to that illustrious list: the rocket. Long held as an exemplar of Chinese technological inventiveness, the rocket – dating from the Sung Dynasty of AD 960-1279 – has changed the face of civilisation. But Frank Winter, working with colleagues from the Smithsonian Institution and Sydneys Powerhouse Museum, claims that the rocket was almost certainly an accidental invention.

via Oops, I invented the rocket! The explosive history of serendipity | Corrinne Burns | Notes & Theories blog | Science | guardian.co.uk.