Quoted: Monkey and friends head to Beijing - watch the animation that will form BBC TV's Olympics title sequence

Quoted: The trouble is that the fighting is unlikely to end as long as the Taliban can finance themselves through drugs — and as long as the Kabul government is dependent on opium to sustain its own hold on power.

Quoted: One of the world’s most ambitious building projects, Crystal Island has been granted preliminary planning permission in Moscow. Enclosed within a vast mega structure covering a total floor area of 2.5million square metres – the project’s scale is unprecedented. At 450m the scheme in one of the tallest structures enclosing the largest volume, on the planet.

Metabolism Scketch

Quoted: In 1996, the Van Alen Institute hosted “Public Property,” a competition for Governors Island that called for ideas about how the island could be used if it were to become public property. Now that the land is public, and five teams are competing to design the island’s future, panelists convened town-meeting style to discuss the relevance of open ideas competitions in general, and speculate about how the original competition may have influenced current proposals.

Quoted: Elizabeth tried to adopt and adhere to many of her father's public policies. Unlike some of her predecessors, she preferred to appoint Russians and not foreigners to the highest positions in the country and being a patron of the arts and sciences, she established the Russian Academy of Arts. As well as a conscientious leader, Elizabeth was also a very lively and social personality and organised regular balls, receptions, masquerades and firework displays.

Quoted: Aptekarsky Ostrov is the only one of the islands along the northern banks of the Neva Delta that was never privately owned. This was specifically the intention of Peter the Great, who chose the island as the site of the Apothecary Gardens, which were dedicated to the cultivation of medicinal herbs for the benefit of the city.

Quoted: Tunneling into the fascinating dark underbelly of the City of Lights

Interesting video of a flood in St. Petersburg with links to photos.

Quoted: So far, one of the most striking images there is this one, taken by LJ user aorist at Vasilyevsky Island around 4 PM. Most comments are of ...