• Australia could play a key role in the race to build the world’s first space elevator. News. 

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• Wallace and Gromit are to return in A Matter of Loaf and Death, a 30-minute Christmas special the BBC. Guardian. 

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• Eric Talmadge joins the maiden voyage of the U.S.S George Washington, a floating city with a population of around 5,000, 67 aircraft, two nuclear reactors and 1.8 million kilograms of bombs. IHT. 

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• The discovery of the 138th pyramid creates mixed feelings for Egyptians. IHT. 

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• Jonathon Glancey looks at the affects of previous recessions on architecture and what architects can expet this time.  ‘I didn’t lose any work in the first recession I experienced,” says Zaha Hadid, “because I didn’t have any work.” Guardian. 

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• Vote for your favourite architecture school lecture series poster! 

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• Gehry’s Museum of Tolerance, to be built over a Muslim burial site in Jerusalem, has been approved by an Israeli court. Butterpaper has links to a letter of protest (signed by Charles Jencks and Beatriz Colomina amongst others) and some further background on the project. 

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• Obama to set up an Office of Urban Policy. “Yes, we need to fight crime. Yes, we need to strengthen our cities. But we also need to stop seeing our cities as the problem and start seeing them as the solution. Because strong cities are the building blocks of strong regions, and strong regions are essential for a strong America. That is the new metropolitan reality and we need a new strategy that reflects it” 

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• Alice Rawsthorn looks at how the economic slump could be good for design. IHT. 

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• Nicolai Ouroussoff reviews Gehry’s renovation of the Art Gallery of Ontario. NYT Article. Slideshow. 

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• The Guardian invited 5 architects and designers to redecorate the Oval Office for Obama.  Slideshow. 

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• The Guardian reports that an EU court has ruled that Lego is to lose its patent and with it the exclusive right to manufacture interlocking plastic bricks. Article. Slideshow. 

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• Wired reports that the Pentagon has launched a flying-car project with its Personal Air Vehicle Technology.  Skycar city here we come. 

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• Jonathon Glancey on Times New Roman, the Marmite of typefaces. Guardian. 

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• Spend the night in a Swiss nuclear bunker that has been transformed into a zero star hotel by two artists who insist that the Cold War atmosphere is “damned comfortable.”  Spiegel Online. 

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• Wired showcases their favourite fictional doomsday devices. 

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• The Dutch government has announced a commemorative €5 coin that recognises the prominence of Dutch architects and architecture globally. The designer of the coin, Stani Michiels has more about the process on his blog.  

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• Congratulations to SC buddies Tribe Studio for winning the 2008 AA Prize for Unbuilt Work for their proposal to fill in Sydney’s CBD with ultra thin buildings. Also, to Nobbs Radford for their Pool Rehabilitation. No pics up on the site yet unfortunately. We will post a couple when they become available. 

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• A Googlemap of where events in Cloverfield took place. “this is where things in Cloverfield happen okay” 

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• Photos of Honda’s assisted walking device. Looks as though a malfunctioning device could lead to some real discomfort.  

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• El Croquis is making its issues available for digital download, starting with the recent issues on Siza and SANAA. At about AU$100 cheaper than the hard copy, this is a pretty compelling option. 

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• Big Book Search: A (very fast) search engine for book covers. May prove useful. 

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• Some great advertising by The Economist: Hotels and Pizza Boxes.  

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