Links for 2009-05-09 [del.icio.us]

• Europe's new pecking order | A new pecking order [The Economist] "The downturn has also confirmed that the continental model has some strengths. France has a comparatively efficient public sector, thanks in part to years of investment in better roads, more high-speed trains, nuclear energy and even the restoration of old cathedrals (see article). Nor is it just a matter of pumping in ever more taxpayers’ cash. By any measure France’s health system delivers better value for money than America’s costlier one. Germany has not just looked after its public finances more prudently than others; its export-driven model has forced its companies to hold down costs, making them competitive not only in Europe but also globally. By design as well as luck, much of continental Europe avoided the debt-fuelled housing bubbles that popped spectacularly in Britain and America (though Spain did not, see article). But will it last?" The poor old Economist can barely bring itself to admit the above.
• News Corp will charge for newspaper websites, says Rupert Murdoch [guardian.co.uk] "Current days of free internet will soon be over, says media mogul"
• First look: Adjaye and others design new Kielder shelters [Architects Journal] "Kielder Water & Forest Park in Northumberland has asked five practices, including Adjaye Associates, to design a series of shelters as part of its arts and architecture programme"
• Obituary: David Mellor [The Guardian] "He was in every sense a modern industrial designer, and technologically adept, but his spiritual roots were in the arts and crafts movement and its belief, not so much in work-life balance as in work-life integration. To him, the profession of design "is concerned not just with making objects ... but just as importantly with making choices, with choosing what we use, choosing how to live". There is a special significance in the environments Mellor made for himself, his colleagues and his family (although boundaries were fluid, since life and art and work were inseparable). In 1960 he commissioned his first building, a low-rise construction in Park Lane, Sheffield, mixing studios with workshops and living accommodation. Behind the plateglass was possibly Sheffield's very first imported Eames chair (a significant status detail for any industrial designer) dramatically lit against a white Venetian blind." RIP David Mellor, bit of a Sheffield legend.
• The amoebic house: Simon Conder returns to Dungeness [Gabion] "This, then, is a strange and wonderful house in a strange and wonderful place. It relates less to the context of the other shacks, and not at all to the colossal scale of the power station, but takes some cues from the curved walls of the highly architectural old lighthouse complex nearby." Very lovely little house at Dungeness.
• How France is surviving the economic crisis | Vive la différence! [The Economist] "As for the state as regulator, it may have protected the French economy from extreme volatility, but that goes for the upside too. A more stable economy in a recession also means a less dynamic, less innovative economy in good times. For all its positive elements, the French model has not yet not incorporated enough flexibility, leaving it with the task of ensuring solidarity, but not the dynamic growth needed to sustain it in the long run." Again, The Economist struggles with The French Model. While listing its admirable features (e.g. healthcare far outperforming US and UK and at a fraction of cost) it seems to think that long-term stability (neither boom nor bust) is inconsequential if it doesn't take advantage of the booms (ignoring that those booms are only really advantageous for a subset in US and UK). Yes there are issues with dynamism in some aspects of the French culture, but overall, the report card scores pretty well in comparison. Try again, Economist.
• Thatcherism for our times | There is no alternative [The Economist] "Britain is not the place it was in 1979: it is more complex, more tolerant and hedonistic, haunted less by imperial decline than by pseudo-imperial overstretch. Its problems are different too. Thirty years ago, taming inflation and making the country governable were Mrs Thatcher’s first priorities. Now one pressing need is to fulfil an aspiration she never realised: a dramatic reduction in the proportion of national wealth consumed by the state. For all the excitable short-term neo-Keynesianism, the basic long-term solution is Thatcherite: stringent economic discipline." Crikey. Rather them than me.
• The Complete Book of Space Travel [Golden Age Comic Book Stories] "The Complete Book of Space Travel by Albro Gaul" Illustrated by Virgil Finlay. Amazing [via Chris Jones]