Holy Holmenkollen!!!

Every now and then a project comes along that makes you say, "How?" The design is breathtaking, the size is extreme and the appearance, near impossible. Well, the future of the Holmenkollen ski jump in Oslo, Norway is just that kind of project.

The grandiose project was won late last year in a open competition by Danish Architect, Julien De Smedt, and is now commissioned to be built for the 2011 World Ski Championships! What do you think? The new design is simply awe-inspiring.

The International Ski Federation had requested that an iconic structure be built for the competition and as you can see, De Smedt didn't disappoint. Given the rich history of skiing in Oslo --in addition to the 600,000+ tourists that visit the existing jump year after year-- it's easy to see that interest in the location and culture will only grow. The ISF should be quite happy with the future of Nordic sport in Norway.

The jump will be a cantilevered steel structure, eagerly capable of handling the massive weight and power of snow and wind. Near the grounding point of the cantilever, there will a union and restaurant for spectators, tourists and officials. Additionally, there will be a public viewing platform at the crest of the jump, allowing spectators to view the athletes as they launch from into the air. I can only imagine what that view will look like! And with the entire structure lit from within, surrounded in a glass-plate façade, I can imagine the the view from outside the jump will be just as, if not more, breathtaking. To top it off, the peak is cut horizontally to accommodate an additional viewing platform with a 360º panorama view over the Oslo city landscape.

Construction is expected to be completed in 2009.

JDS/Julien De Smedt Architects is a multidisciplinary office, located in Copenhagen, Brussels and Oslo, that focuses on architecture and design, from large scale urban planning to furniture and design.

I'm going to take a nap in the bath...

How do you turn a dilapidated, run-down lot like this...

...in to a palatial, weather manipulated, sliding roofed, floating walled, mini-house in South London -- that is -- in South London for £210,000 (about $435,000 US)?

With a second mortgage from your father to cover construction costs, and around a bazillion friends to put it all together for you.

A steel-framed house is pretty difficult to construct when you can't afford a crane. But somehow, Monty and Claire made magic, constructing this beautiful dream home out of nothing (how much free pizza and beer do you need to offer to do something like this?!?!).

But really, how cool can this house be? It's sammiched TIGHT between two surrounding brick structures. There's just enough room for one bathroom? They're so close to the neighbors that side view windows wouldn't even work. They must be squeezed at the gills, right?

Well, the bed in the master slides to the side to reveal a bathtub underneath. I'd say that kind of space management can be filed under cool.

In actuality, just about everything in this house can be classified as cool, seeing as it all rotates, slides or spins to add more space.

There's the wall on the master:

The window on the upper mezzanine:

The huge, corner-positioned doors on the side of the dance studio. Yes, a dance studio. FYI: The floor is made out of a Sycamore tree that was cut from the site:

The kitchen cabinets that work at a slant to fit into the odd-shaped nooks and crannies:

And yes, once again, the sliding bed/bath:

Want to take a virtual tour?

Take your seat on the internet Routemaster HERE.

Visit the Pekham House's main website HERE.

It's raining manganese...halleluja...

October is fast approaching which means one of two things:

1) I REALLY need to get to work on my Rock Biter costume if I ever want to get it finished in time for Halloween.

2) It's the 35th anniversary of the Clean Water Act!

What do those two things have in common? They're both saturated with imagination and fantasy!

Three and a half decades later and we're still fighting over how much pollution we can pollute with in an already-polluted river that was the inspiration for an anti-pollution legislation. Anybody else feel like we're running in circles here? When you need to have a 30 year old babysitter, you know you have a problem.

So who's causing all this pollution?

Here's a list of your Top 10 water-release polluting companies, 35 years after the fact [the number at the end of each listing is for pounds of water release pollutants. Releases to water include discharges to streams, rivers, lakes, oceans and other bodies of water. This includes releases from both point sources, such as industrial discharge pipes, and nonpoint sources, such as stormwater runoff, but not releases to sewers or other off-site wastewater treatment facilities. It includes releases to surface waters, but not ground water]:

1. AK STEEL CORP. (ROCKPORT WORKS), 6500 N. U.S. 231, ROCKPORT, IN 22,693,591 PWRP
2. BASF CORP., 602 COPPER RD., FREEPORT, TX 15,945,553
3. IBP INC., 1500 S. BRIDGE ST., LEXINGTON, NE 6,000,250
4. SMITHFIELD PACKING CO. INC. TAR HEEL DIV., HWY. 87 2 MILES N. OF TAR HEEL, TAR HEEL, NC 5,448,599
5. EXCEL CORP., 1505 E. BURLINGTON AVE., FORT MORGAN, CO 4,484,820
6. DSM CHEMICALS N.A. INC., #1 COLUMBIA NITROGEN RD., AUGUSTA, GA 4,197,140
7. AK STEEL CORP. COSHOCTON WORKS, 17400 STATE RTE. 16, COSHOCTON, OH 3,905,117
8. TYSON FOODS INC. SEDALIA COMPLEX, 19571 WHITFIELD RD., SEDALIA, MO 3,398,516
9. BP INC., HWY. 92 & I-88 - 28424 38TH AVE. N., HILLSDALE, IL 3,001,250
10. USS GARY WORKS, 1 N. BROADWAY, GARY, IN 2,971,479

To check out the Top 100 or view polluters by state, click here. You can also see who is violating in your area here.

Wanna be really scared? You can search the EnviroMapper website by zip code and look up the polluters the same way you can search for registered sexual predators.

I live by three rapists AND hazardous waste.

Happy day!