Via a mailing list I discovered a stunning series of photograhs of machinery taken at the Hagley Museum, set among beautiful gardens at the original gunpowder mill built by Eleuthère Irénée du Pont in 1803 in Delaware in the US. The museum includes several restored buildings, and offers a romantic, languorous view on America’s industrial past.

Selecting just one example of the photography was hard, because the composition, textures, colours and lighting in all shots are just beautiful — do view the rest of the set — but I particularly like this press:

The photographer, Harold Ross, specialises in techniques such as light painting, used in the Hagley series, and has a great porfolio at the Ross Studios website.

Who said machines are ugly? Who said Charles Dickens wrote all you need to know about the industrial revolution?

As of this week, I will be writing a weekly column on technology and telecommunications for old friends at ITWeb — a top technology news site in South Africa with readership that slightly exceeds that of this blog, albeit by only a few orders of magnitude. The idea is to comment on issues that come up in ITWeb news stories, through my usual political or economic policy lens. It will initially be published on Thursdays. I’ll still write a separate monthly column, “Backbite & Sneerwell”, in Brainstorm magazine (link for subscribers). After all, it dates back to 2001, and is my longest-running effort at commentary. I will also continue to write columns on topics other than technology in Maverick magazine.

Last week I wrote a trial run for the new column, on the monstrously bad idea of having the state establish a local set-top box industry for digital television because “we’re loathe to rely on foreign suppliers”. This week, The Spike proper begins, with a final stab at one of cabinet’s most deserving members, Poison Ivy.