When architects steal terms like Post Modernism or Deconstruction from the, shrouded in bullshit, fringes of philosophy called ‘literary criticism’ and the like, what they really mean is: ‘new buildings with decoration’ or ‘buildings that look like they are falling apart’, respectively.

That does not mean that the buildings aren’t beautiful - just that the justification is pointless and the understanding of other people’s field’s limited. Because of the nature of the scale and function of architecture, architects can pretend to be scientists when they are poor craftsmen and artists when they are bad engineers.

Seed magazine has a new piece on innovations in architecture - its true that composite materials, intelligent skins and energy efficiency concerns have created a scientific edge in some styles, but the combination of the fact that you can pretty much build anything these days with the counter swing against minimalism means that by and large architecture is more art than a science then ever.

The bottom line is that there is something deeply geeky and philistine about needing to find gadgetry in architecture for it to be innovative.

In fact practitioners of the baroque decorative style were more likely to be scientists, such as Guarini who was a mathematician and geometer.

If artists misunderstand science sometimes, then equally scientists misunderstand artists. Here is Seed getting taken in by architects who appropriate scientific jargon, when they never would be hoodwinked like this by research scientists:

“This recent project in Wolfsburg, Germany, from Zaha Hadid’s London office, is essentially a study in the displacing of the horizon… the nested lines of diverging parallels; and the exhibition spaces, whose traditional homogeneity is refigured as a quasi-random scattering of particles, like billiard balls on a crooked table. Quantum indeterminacy and undecideability reign.”

This is pure metaphor, yet the Wolfsburg project has been described as using ‘fractal geometry’ as if that is true or even innovative. Fractal geometry in the way that it exists in Hadid’s buildings has been used by architects for thousands of years.

Seed: Architecture’s Scientific Revolution

The French have a tradition of Bourgeois revolutions and this is no different.

Young, predominantly white students, who are by definition not part of France’s growing underclass, are protesting to keep protections that benefit themselves. Trade unions have followed suit, since striking has become a national sport in France - you can’t beat a good strike.

What is being proposed is an employment contract that means people don’t get the same job protections for their first job. The empirical results of removing benefits at the bottom of the ladder is that employers can take risks, and in a culture with sectors of society with long term unemployment this creates more of a hiring meritocracy.

That is not to say that all benefits should be removed. It would be naive to think that, in a globalized economy, the bottom of the ladder is being filled according to the law. If you live in the US and have ever eaten in a restaurant, you are part of the economy that relies on people who have no job benefits at all. All the more reason to make the legal job environment a balance between incentivizing as many employers to join it as possible, while offering some benefits to employees.

With these actions French students and workers are squandering the crucial powers that legalized trade unions and social activism offer to combat injustice and create a more equal society.

If you are employed in France, you have far more protection than almost any other country - being laid off triggers large redundancy, you have a legally mandated shorter working week and far more paid vacation and benefits than people in the US could dream of.

Extremes produce extremes. Both rational and irrational unfair prejudices are the norm in the hiring process in France. Resumes have photos and marital status and people are regularly asked things like ‘are you planning on having children’ at job interviews. In the US this is rare.

As a result, if you are a fecund young woman a Muslim or a fifty year old looking for work, France is not the best place to be.

A first time job contract would improve the distribution of wealth in France. Is that not what socialism is about?

Comment is free: Strikes: French national therapy

US based BBC journalist Matt Wells launches his blog - worth checking out.

Rhapsod

Microsoft employee on Vista: “I wouldn’t buy it with someone else’s money. Then again what do I know, I’ve only been testing the dog for the last 2-3 yrs”.

… and the built in search could be called something lucky like Alta Vista.

PC Pro: News: Microsoft employees call for Ballmer to go

Information Theory Primer With an Appendix on Logarithms Postscript version: ftp://ftp.ncifcrf.gov/pub/delila/primer.ps web versions: http://www.lecb.ncifcrf.gov/toms/paper/primer/