Design Linkage: Bus Designs for London

Some of you who also check in on octranspo regularly may want to pass this along, which I found with the help of coudal:

HUH. Magazine - New Buses for London

The design is from the studio of one Thomas Heatherwick in close co-operation with the manufacturer Wrightbus.

The energy efficiencies as promoted sound like a very good thing indeed to have in one's public transit bus fleet component. No arguments on that point at all. And the interiors are striking in the implied level of luxury, even if they are in fact "bare-bones" amenities (which I suspect they are).

But that aft exterior "picture window"?

Not sure what to make of it. I'm not sure that I'd call it "unsightly", as that may be an undeserved insult to what took a lot of effort to put together.

But is it safe enough for street usage?

Anyone in the Metropolitan London area who expects to be using these - or has already tried them out? - who wants to weigh in, I'd be glad of you doing so!

Fiction: a matter of shorts

No, we're not talking underwear here.

Andrew Barton recently posted something that bothers me just a little over at his weblog, Acts of Minor Treason: a small commentary on the current state of short fiction and the anthology magazines that once hosted much of it in many genres.

He's got a point. I'll wait while you get to it.

And now that you're done reading his commentary, I'll add this: I came to anthology magazines later than some as well. After I moved to Ottawa, in fact. While I was certainly aware of their existence in the background, along with a large chunk of science-fiction and fantasy novels also on the market in those days - even back in the early 1980's. Regina was not exactly the sort of "podunk" town that Andrew looks back through somewhat grey-toned glasses to view Barrie, Ontario with, after all - I plead guilty to the charge of mass-media fixation. TV show and movie tie-ins and superhero comics were the focus of most of my attention back then.

(Some might argue that this is still the case. Guilty as charged, if they do.)

Analog, Asimov's, On Spec, Interzone, and a few others whose names are not coming immediately to mind...they're still there. Still being printed in actual hardcopy format. There are other venues on-line. I'm not going to advocate for either format over the other, because that's a fool's game.

Short stories should still be a vital part of the fiction mix, whatever the genre. Sometimes, the best stories are the shorter ones.

And in comics? Perhaps we need to revisit the idea there as well.

(Noting that jasonfranks - among others here on LJ and elsewhere - is already well emplaced to help rebuild that segment of the entertainment industry.)