203 replies to this topic

[Steve Sensible]

Today I learned most dinosaurs had feathers. Tyrannosaurus therefore probably clucked rather than roared.

Probably.

[Arjan Dirkse]

Yes, but it clucked in a horrifically tyrannical fashion.

[Miqque Loveland]

Today I learned most dinosaurs had feathers. Tyrannosaurus therefore probably clucked rather than roared.

Probably.

Known about that for a while, but, then again, I live in Dig-Up-the-Dinos country. They were also delicious. Imagine, Colonel Sanders™ Original Recipe® Tyrannosaurus Rex, with a side order of bisquits and gravy.

***

Stegosaurus Steaks!
Rack of Raptor!
Allosaurus You Can Eat!

A whole mine of comedy gold here!

[garjones]

The Shard at London Bridge is the tallest building in Europe.

It is only the 59th tallest in the world.

The United Arab Emirates has 18 buildings taller. China (including Hong Kong SAR) has 21 and the USA, no longer the king of the skyscrapers, has 10.

Australia has 1 building taller but Africa and South America have none.

Lots of skyscraper facts!

[Steve Sensible]

The Shard is going to laser-zap the whole of London tonight.

By morning, every Londoner will be its slave.

[Arjan Dirkse]

The Shard looks like a very sharp building. Like everybody who gets in its vicinity will cut themselves. I really don't like skyscrapers, it gives me the heebie jeebies to be near one, I get some weird kind of inverted vertigo standing on the ground and looking up at them.

[Steve Sensible]

I really like the Shard - much moreso than the Gherkin, which is not only quite an ugly building, but not a very well-designed one for the occupants. Much of the view internally is blocked by the stupid latticework. Also, Norman Foster is an arsehole.

The Shard is simple, elegant, iconic, and a miracle of engineering. And Renzo Piano is a nice fella!

[Arjan Dirkse]

Gotta admit, for a skyscraper the Shard isn't bad.

[Ogul]

The Shard at London Bridge is the tallest building in Europe.

If America had classy old structures like Europe did we wouldn't build tall modern buildings much either. In my area both DC and my own town of Frederick have ordinances that prevent buildings taller than various historical landmarks (the Washington Monument and the local church spires, respectively).

[garjones]

If America had classy old structures like Europe did we wouldn't build tall modern buildings much either. In my area both DC and my own town of Frederick have ordinances that prevent buildings taller than various historical landmarks (the Washington Monument and the local church spires, respectively).

Interestingly only 3 places in the US have a taller building. Chicago, New York and Atlanta.

Most European cities have no very tall buildings for the reasons you mention. London is a bit more of a hybrid partly because the luftwaffe demolished quite a few of the classy old buildings.

[Ogul]

Most European cities have no very tall buildings for the reasons you mention. London is a bit more of a hybrid partly because the luftwaffe demolished quite a few of the classy old buildings.

Yeah, which is also likely why central Tokyo is such a massive pile of tall buildings (although few really huge ones), since most of old Tokyo got leveled by us.

To get really tall buildings you need to get both the williness to ruin it for all the other buildings in town, AND the sort of ####-you attitude to make a building that's bigger than the other guy's. Otherwise there's just no point to it.

[garjones]

Yes and for the UAE they just had a desert before

[Sanjay]

They built that city,
They built that city on rock and oil.

[David Meadows]

I learned that the Shard is a hideous blot on the landscape that should never have been allowed.


Also, that you can take a ride to the top but it costs £90 for a family of four

The Shard at London Bridge is the tallest building in Europe.

For about three months, which is when the taller one in Moscow will open.

If America had classy old structures like Europe did we wouldn't build tall modern buildings much either. In my area both DC and my own town of Frederick have ordinances that prevent buildings taller than various historical landmarks (the Washington Monument and the local church spires, respectively).

There is a similar ordinance in London (not regulating height, as such, but protecting sightlines) but the people who wanted the Shard were powerful enough to ignore it.

[Nicholas Taggart]

I think the Shard would look okay in a place with loads of tall buildings but as it is so much bigger than everything else around it it looks ridiculous.

[Arjan Dirkse]

It does look a bit similar to the Ryugyong Hotel in Pyongyang...which is continually touted as one of the world's ugliest buldings.

[Steve Sensible]

It looks nothing like that. It's a slender glass shard. It almost disappears into the sky because it doesn't have tinted glass like that monstrosity.

[David Meadows]

It does look a bit similar to the Ryugyong Hotel in Pyongyang...which is continually touted as one of the world's ugliest buldings.

Ugly? No, I love that! Though i wouldn't want it anywhere near where I live.

It's so out of place, it actually looks like it's been photoshopped into the picture.

[Nicholas Taggart]

The United Arab Emirates have done a good job catching up but I don't see anyone beating China for the greatest number of astoundingly ugly skyscrapers any time soon.

[David Meadows]

It belongs in a Thunderbirds episode (that goes for the Shard, too).