About Your Driving
the gory images of smushed babies on asphalt and mangled limbs in car wreckages didn't work. not scary. apparently because people have become desensitized to such images in movies and video games. so now the australian government is trying a new campaign to get people to slow down.
the "no one thinks big of you" road safety and speed awareness campaign is targeted at men and the size of the "engine under their hoods" with images of women holding up their little pinky fingers in a display of what they think the speeding motorist is trying to make up for.
you can watch the video here:



here's the question though, why is speeding a predominantly male phenomenon? the material on the Australian RTA site says it wants to make speeding 'socially unacceptable' but what made it acceptable in the first place? and is the first guy in the ad just slightly hot? or is it the button nose and big ears. call me weird.


About a Bridge
while we're talking about size, one of my pleasures - salivating over architecture - got a healthy dollop of visual stimulus this week. those wacky chinese have done it again! the longest sea-bridge in the world was joined up! spanning 22 miles across the hangzhou bay at the mouth of the qiantang river and will eventually connect shanghai to ningbo. i know, it sounds like something out of star wars. but peeps, get used to these names, china is emerging into the global consciousness and as unlikely as that may sound (probably as unlikely as the thought of me ever saying the phrase "china is emerging into the global consciousness") these places will become known as time goes on and sooner rather than later.

the bridge's details are amazing, with a rest stop half way across with facilities and viewing areas as well as a docking port for large ships..

dubai also is roaring into a future that the USA can only manage to think about if it stops worrying about paris hilton (bless) and who will replace jay leno. the skyline of arab countries are creating the visions of the 'future' that we all thought we would get to be a part of, something cool, something modern, something 'tomorrow'. meanwhile americans are still oohing and aahing over front loading combination washing machine/dryers. we are very backward in this country on some things.

what's holding us back from great building projects here? why is our sense of scale so reduced?

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 27, 2007 at 11:10 AM. You can skip to the end and leave a response.