Fourth plinth live!
You can watch the antics of those who got their 60 minutes on the 4th plinth in Trafalgar Square at www.oneandother.com.
There are still places available if you want to sign up.
Downsizing derelict cities back to nature.
Interesting article about plans to 'downsize' a city in the US. Instead of letting run-down empty suburbs remain derelict for decades there are plans to bulldoze the districts and turn the remains back into parkland.
"Places like Flint have hit rock bottom. They're at the point where it's better to start knocking a lot of buildings down,"
Flint, sixty miles north of Detroit, was the original home of General Motors. The car giant once employed 79,000 local people but that figure has shrunk to around 8,000.
Unemployment is now approaching 20 per cent and the total population has almost halved to 110,000.
Some Flint dustcarts are collecting just one rubbish bag a week, roads are decaying, police are very understaffed and there were simply too few people to pay for services.
Already, some streets peter out into woods or meadows, no trace remaining of the homes that once stood there."
Full article here.