The Electric Pitchfork

China Has Highest Ambitions In A World Reaching For The Sky The Shanghai Tower dwarfs the skyscrapers around it There will be more skyscrapers built in 2016 than ever before, driven by demand from largely unheard-of cities in Asia eager to put themselves on the map. Heard of Suzhou, Kunming or Nanning? You might have by the time they’ve finished their megastructures later this year. As many as 135 skyscrapers — defined as buildings over 200m tall — will be completed this year, with 27 of them in the “supertall” category — 300m or higher.  According to the Council on Tall Buildings, much of the demand is coming from China, which gave the world its second-tallest building, the 632m Shanghai Tower, and which has another 300 skyscrapers under construction. Europe, by contrast, managed a mere eight last year. “In many ways, it’s about prestige,” Jason Gabel, of Urban Habitat, a Chicago-based think tank, said. “It’s not a response to market demand...

Riyadh is determined to drive energy rivals out of business whatever the damage to the world    Oil prices since January 2014     Michael Burleigh T raditionally cautious, the Saudi royal family has been sailing close to the wind since King Salman came to the throne a year ago. The British diplomatic establishment, with its love of deference and falconry (and eager arms industry), has preferred to look the other way as the kingdom’s provocative foreign policy and determination to drive down the price of oil threatens a chain reaction that could destabilise much of the world. It took our allies in Germany’s intelligence service to sound the alarm last month at Riyadh’s new “impulsive policy of intervention”. In Syria’s festering civil war, the Saudis back the “Army of Conquest”, an Islamist umbrella group which includes the al-Qaeda affiliate the al-Nusra Front. In Yemen, a Saudi-led coalition is waging war on the insurgent quasi-Shia Hou...

Christian Bale Exits Michael Mann’s ‘Enzo Ferrari,’ Balks At Weight Gain Come On Down Mesut Özil EXCLUSIVE:  Christian Bale is reluctantly getting out of the driver’s seat on Michael Mann ’s long-gestating Enzo Ferrari . The shape-shifting actor is stepping aside after health concerns over the weight gain necessary to play the iconic carmaker. Bale, who has yo-yo’d throughout his career between extreme weight loss and gain – compare his emaciated turn in The Machinist to his button-busting fatso in American Hustle  – appears to have finally bitten off more than even he could chew. The start date of spring this year was simply too soon for the Big Short actor   to get that out of shape again. Mann is moving fast to re-cast the plum role and is currently speaking to some heavyweight actors. While Bale’s exit is a blow, the project remains very much on track, with Paramount distributing in most territories. The c...

Cocaine Could Cause Your Brain To Eat Itself Using high doses of cocaine triggers brain cells to eat themselves, new research has found. According to an experiment carried out by scientists from John Hopkins University School of Medicine in the US , taking large amounts of the drug sparks an out-of-control version of autophagy, which causes cells to digest their insides. The findings were revealed after scientists gave high doses of cocaine to mice. Dr Solomon Snyder, from the university, said autopsies were performed on the animals, which showed that their brain cells died as a result of autophagy. Cell death was also detected in mouse pups whose mothers received cocaine while pregnant. Although  autophagy  is a normal process that cleans cells of  debris , Dr Prasun Guha explained the way it was affected by high doses of cocaine: “A cell is like a household that is constantly generating trash. Autophag...

Mostly Genius All 27 Studio Albums Rated Dan Cairns Published: 17 January 2016   DAVID BOWIE 1967 ★★ Stylistically, this debut had little of what was to come. Lyrically, however, on the transgender-anticipating She’s Got Medals, Bowie served fair warning of future preoccupations. SPACE ODDITY 1969  ★★★★ The moment when the road map seemed discernible for the first time, if still fairly cryptic. Letter to Hermione, the title track: to paraphrase Blackstar’s I Can’t Give Everything Away, these were the messages that he sent. THE MAN WHO SOLD THE WORLD 1970 ★★★★ On his first collaboration with Tony Visconti and Mick Ronson, Bowie beefed up his sound and ramped up the paranoia. Somewhat “lost” compared with those that surround it, this still ranks high in some fans’ lists. HUNKY DORY 1971  ★★★★★ This, though, is where it really starts — “it” being the daring and genius that would characterise Bowie for t...