Pop Art is: Popular (designed for a mass audience), Transient (short term solution), Expendable (easily-forgotten), Low cost, Mass produced, Young, Witty, Sexy, Gimmicky, Glamorous, Big Business…

This is just the beginning…

–Richard Hamilton, 16 January 1957

Pop Art is: Gagosian

– London Sky, Frieze Art fair Preview, 10 October 2007

Imagine a city of 90.000 abitants governed by 4 people, where all the services and the administration is outsourced: here’s Sandy Springs, Georgia, U.S.A.
Debate over incorporation began in the 1970s when the city of Atlanta attempted to use a state law to force annexation of Sandy Springs.
When the Republican Party gained a majority in both houses of the General Assembly in early 2005, the procedural rules previously used to prevent a vote by the full chamber were changed so that the bill was handled as a state bill and not as a local bill. The referendum initiative was approved by the Assembly and signed by Governor Sonny Purdue.

The referendum was held on June 21, 2005, and residents voted 94% to 6% in favor of incorporation. Many residents expressed displeasure with county services, claiming, based upon financial information provided by the county, that the county was redistributing revenues to fund services in less financially-stable areas of the county, ignoring local opposition to rezoning, and allowing excessive development. Many residents of unincorporated and less-developed south Fulton County strongly opposed incorporation, fearing the loss of tax revenues which fund county services. County residents outside Sandy Springs were not allowed to vote on the matter. Efforts such as requesting the U.S. Justice Department to reject the plan were unsuccessful.

Striving to create the most efficient, responsive, and cost-effective city possible, the Governor’s Commission for the City of Sandy Springs opted to outsource all city services except police, fire and 911 (not true as you can see above in the list of services). The Commission issued requests for proposals for two distinct areas: an administrative side to handle duties such as customer service, human resources, accounting, and information technology; and a hands-on side to provide public services such as public works, transportation, parks and recreation, and planning and zoning. Through an intensive proposal and interview process, CH2M HILL OMI was selected unanimously for both in September 2005.

The landmark contract between the new city of Sandy Springs and CH2M HILL OMI is the nation’s most comprehensive and innovative public-private partnership for the delivery of municipal services.

CH2M HILL OMI’s scope of services includes all major functions needed to run a city:

* Administration
* Finance
* Tax and revenue collections
* Personnel and human resources, including benefits and payroll for company and city staff
* Community development, including planning, zoning, and permitting
* Municipal court support services
* Computer systems, information technology, and telecommunications
* Public information and community relations, including newsletter and Web site
* Business licensing and permitting
* Purchasing
* Parks and recreation
* Civil engineering
* Traffic engineering; streets, roads, and right-of-way maintenance
* Customer service, including citizen call center management
* Contract management for water supply, sewage collection and disposal, and garbage collection
* Police and fire support

p.s.
CH2M HILL OMI is one of the main company dealings contract for Iraq reconstruction

All the text is a remix of Wikipedia and The National Council for Public-Private Partnerships

About Beauty: The twelfth ART FORUM BERLIN, international trade fair for contemporary art, will take place at the Berlin Exhibition Grounds from 29 September to 03 October 2007.

Theme: Sigalit Landau
Frame from a video work: Standing on a Watermelon in the Dead sea, 2005
DVD loop of 5:21min
Courtesy Alon Segev, Tel Aviv

Theme: Deborah Ligorio
Ritmi, 2007
Video, 7’
Courtesy Francesca Minini, Milano

Theme: Hans Op de Beeck
The Stewarts: Grandma & Grandpa
Photograph, lambdaprint on dibondback with plexiglass
Courtesy RONMANDOS, Rotterdam

Theme: Wael Shawki
A Digital Translation Of A Biblical Story, 2007
video performance
courtesy Sfeir-Semler, Hamburg/Beirut

Theme: Shashryar Nashat
Modern Body Comedy, 2006
super 8 mm film on DVD, 3 min.
courtesy Praz-Delavallade, Paris
Courtesy Elisabeth Kaufmann, Zürich

Theme: Keren Cytter
Rehearsal, 2007
digital photograph
Courtesy Ellen de Bruijne, Amsterdam – Courtesy Galerie Elisabeth Kaufmann, Zürich

Theme: Jim Isermann
untitled (Chair & Painting) (0687) purple, 1987
oil based enamel/wood, vinyl and foam cushion on chair
courtesy Praz-Delavallade, Paris

Theme: Maja Bajevic
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year (5), 2005
cibachrome print mounted on aluminum
Courtesy Michel Rein, Paris

Theme: Adel Abdessemed
Exil, 1996 et 2007
11 néons jaunes
dimensions variables © Adel Abdessemed Courtesy Adel Abdessemed

Sony Corp is all set to launch a new digital camera that can automatically take photos of smiling faces: The Cyber-shot T Series camera to be intoduced in the market on September 21 can be programmed to automatically pop the shutter open when it detects a smiling face.

Three types of smile — a slight smile, an ordinary smile and a wide smile — can be programmed into the camera and up to six photos can be taken automatically.

OMRON Corporation, a global leader in automation, sensing and control technology, has developed a “smile checker” software that can tell also whether someone looks happy, sad or somewhere in between.

By analysing facial features, such as wrinkles around the mouth and eyes and the space between the lips, the software can spot a smile in less than one tenth of a second and rate it on a scale of zero to 100%. Plus can give “smile ratings” to people working in the service industry.

The term ‘orchid’ derives from the Greek ορχις orchis, meaning “testicle”, from the appearance of subterranean tuberoids of the genus Orchis. The Victorians had a name for orchid obsession: Orchidelirium.
Victorian orchid hunters travelled thousands of miles to find one of the world’s rarest species and to bring it home. In 1917, the lady’s slipper orchid was officially declared extinct.

The mania for orchid-collecting during Victorian times, had simply been too much for it. With only a single specimen surviving in the wild, the lady’s slipper orchid is today Britain’s rarest, and most heavily guarded, flower. Their locations are being kept top secret for fear: English Nature conservationists are aware of would-be thieves touting for business on the internet, by offering to steal the rarest orchids to order. More: Orchidelirium strikes everywhere. Police are on the hunt after more than 600 protected orchids were stolen from a nature reserve in the marshes of the Orlické Mountains region. The theft, discovered June 26, is the first in the area and is believed to be the largest of its kind in Czech history.

There are more then 30,000 different species in the wild, and 300,000 hybrids available. But the favourites species are proper relics from the wild genetic past: SOUTHERN MARSH ORCHID, LADY’S SLIPPER, EAST STAR-OF-BETHLEHEM, DIAPENSIA LAPPONICA, KILLARNEY FERN, SPRING GENTIAN. People have died for them, and still go to jail for them because there will always be thieves with trowels and pots all over the world. And a Black Market, of course…

My Favourite one is Black Orchids Rex Todhunter Stout novel, where the larger-than-life fictional detective Nero Wolfe goes to the flower show and …..

Art 38 Basel (http://www.art.ch) opens today to the public and runs until the 17th june, 2007.
The international art show features about 300 leading art galleries from 30 countries on all continents. Art Basel is the world’s premier modern and contemporary art fair. 20th- and 21st-century art works by over 2′000 artists will be on display. 55′000 art collectors, art dealers, artists, curators and art lovers attend the annual meeting place of the art community.

Andri Sala, Agassi, 2006, 75 x 56 cm, Edition of 6
Courtesy Johnen + Schöttle, Köln, München, Berlin

ART BASEL VIDEOMESSE ; Video credit «Courtesy MCH Swiss Exhibition (Basel/Zurich) AG».

We need to be aware. The problem is not finding a solution, but to be the solutions. Climate change happens, but NEVER as in the last few years.

This book is an introduction to the problem. Today basic information.

Download it!

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