Welcome to

On the same tip as Geoff’s previous post about discovering secret Soviet submarine bases,”A team of thieves that broke into an abandoned missile silo not far from the Russian city of Kostroma in search of nonferrous metals was shocked to find the shaft packed with Soviet money bills”, that apparently blew out all over the country side upon cracking open the good old misile silo lid.
Mosnews
has the story. (via)

Camera Obscura 2005/1-Inf
is a worldwide project in which two holes of a twin-holed pinhole camera are being auctioned simultaneously on Ebay every week. This project is dedicated to the polish artist Roman Opalka and his work 1965/1-∞. The highest bidders in each case receive one after the other a pinhole camera loaded with a piece of unexposed sheet of 5×7 Inch b/w film.

There is a sense of global fraternity and timelessness in this project that’s appealing. Opałka is a great reference to have - he is an artist I have come to appreciate and there is much to learn from him. One of the things is persistence. Another is discipline. Yet another, choosing the right format. If you get your format right, the work works with you, if not for you.
I’m not convinced that the authors, Przemek Zajfert and Burkhard Walther, figured out the format right. Not that it’s bad - it works, and the kaleidoscope of scenes actually starts to develop. The actual photos must be immensely more interesting, with details we can barely figure out or imagine on the net (the quality of the posted pics could be better!). Still, that’s just one part of the picture. Another is the question of, well, infinity. Of time. Or rhythm. Or a key of some sort. In this case, there is none. Time is gone, there is no development, and the pictures represent - whatever someone wants them to, plus the usual pinhole surprize. And that’s a pity. One could easily imagine a slightly more disciplined version, with a “theme”, or some rules that would create a more coherent whole. Otherwise the risk is getting simply too creative.
(Below - images of Opałka’s work.)

click here
and
click here

;

[Image: NASA].

Qibla
is the direction that a Muslim must face when praying – specifically, toward the
Kaaba
, in Mecca. In order to align oneself properly with that religious axis mundi, all kinds of complicated mathematical techniques had to be used or developed. From compasses to azimuths – to spherical trigonometry – determining what angle to take in relation to the horizon became as much a mathematical, or geographic, pursuit as it was religious.
So now, as Malaysia prepares to send three Muslim astronauts into space, the question of qibla has once again been revived: in what direction should an astronaut pray in order to face Mecca? As that last link reminds us, these astronauts “will also visit the International Space Station, which circles the earth 16 times in 24 hours, so another thorny question is how to pray five times a day as required by Islam.”
I’m imagining a bewildering series of gyroscopes, mirrors, magnets and platforms – called the Prayer Chair – with arms covered in quantum clocks, ticking off “days” where there are none, keeping time in space devoid of terrestrial references. Motors will click and whir, aligning the chair constantly, and whole new branches of robotics – RoboQibla™ – gyroPrayer® – will take off. Science academies throughout the Muslim world will start producing new and strange direction sensors, devices of alignment that’d make John Dee proud and Athanasius Kircher whistle. New space stations designed by architecture students in Dubai will show us the future of intercelestial travel: self-unfolding, solar-powered spaceships, ceaselessly rotating in space – whilst maintaining perfect ship-to-Mecca alignment.
The Jesuits respond with floating cathedrals… flying buttresses in space.

(Original article spotted at Off Center. Click the upcoming link for more on culture and astronomy in general; for more on the future of sacred architecture in space see
Hurling Taj Mahals into the Sky
; and for some thoughts on future church construction, see a personal favorite of mine,
Church of Earth, Magmatic
or
Chuches of the void-grinder
).

[Image: From
Fun Mansion
].

From
Fun Mansion
: “Until the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 Balaklava was one of the most secret towns in Russia. 10km south east of Sevastopol on the Black Sea Coast, this small town was the home to a Nuclear Submarine Base.”

[Images: All images from
Fun Mansion
].

“The base remained operational after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 until 1993 when the decommissioning process started and the warheads and low yield torpedos were removed. Then in 1996 the last Russian Submarine left the Base.”
Apparently, there are now guided tours.

[Image: From
Fun Mansion
].

(Via Defense Tech; this post simultaneously published on Bryan Finoki’s Subtopia).