Webworlds

Constructive ideas: Archinect’s features page

Browing pictures of buildings (real, imagined or in between) somehow seems a particularly appropriate use of the internet. Perhaps it’s the resonance between the virtual spaces of architectural vision and those of the web itself.

Whatever the reason, Archinect takes the ball and runs with it. Its stated mission is to inject some inter-disciplinary inspiration into architecture, and this stylish site does just that. Here you can discover the delights of ‘Arbortecture’ (that’s building with living trees, rather than ones cut into small lengths) and the story of those amateur pioneers using ‘leftover space’ in urban environments. An excellent feature is the collection of ‘school blogs’, written by architecture students across the world and including several from the UK.

The news feed is busy, and the editorial line notably passionate. The terminology may occasionally slip into pretentious jargon from time to time: do we need to speak of ‘/Clouds/’? But if that’s the price for providing a showcase for some truly radical ideas, it’s well worth paying.

All Things Considered: the other side of US radio

If your sole impression of US radio is one of reactionary commentators and shock jocks, whose exploits are wild enough to get them attention in Europe, then here’s the antidote.

All Things Considered is the eclectic magazine programme that has been running on America’s National Public Radio (NPR) network for 35 years. Blending news, politics, social analysis and ‘culture’ of all kinds, the show offers something that uninitiated listeners in the UK might have smugly thought existed only on Radio 4. It may also come as a surprise that with 12 million daily listeners it is the third most popular show in the States (behind The Morning Edition and, yes, Rush Limbaugh).

That’s probably reason enough in itself to check out this site, but from an academic point of view the online archive (dating back to 1996) offers rich pickings for humanities research too. There are reviews, interviews and reports on theatre, movies, the visual arts and music, and extensive coverage of current affairs within the US and beyond. All of the content is available to listen to, and where transcripts are not immediately available they can be requested.

If you’re not looking for anything in particular, a good place to start browsing is the current series You Must Read This. This is made up of short features which wave the flag for books that someone wants everyone to know about  – and among the expected names such as George Eliot and Orwell some less well-known writers demand inspection.

All things considered, an intelligent alternative.

Cricinfo

This autumn and winter season is touted as the biggest ever for English cricket, with both the World Cup in the West Indies and England’s defence of the Ashes on Australian turf. What better time to be persuaded of the game’s peculiar charms?

Cricinfo is the online arm of Wisden, the ‘cricketing bible’ that promotes an obsessive (some might suggest unhealthy) level of statistical analysis of the game. But whereas Wisden-the-Almanack is famous for its traditional influence, Wisden-the-Website offers a distinctly modern experience.

The front page is crammed with headlines, commentary and links, and animations jump out from numerous sponsored slots. The main website gives global coverage – excellent if you want to escape the Anglo-centric media storm – selecting a country from the menu on the left-hand side brings up a tailored portal with national news. Neat stuff.

Cricinfo doesn’t much advertise its content for cricket novices, but click through the site map at the bottom of the page and you’ll see an ‘About Cricket’ section. This boasts a rather amusing, if not entirely clear, introduction to the game‘s famously hard-to-explain rules, and a vast glossary that illuminates terms such as ‘googly’, ‘jaffa’ and (my favourite) ‘dibbly-dobbly bowler’.

If Cricinfo looks too much like information overload, start with the BBC’s typically excellent Cricket site, which is equally huge but simpler and possibly less likely to induce a migraine.