In cities around the world, people are feeling the effects of a weak global economy and homeless populations continue to rise. Taking shelter in cardboard boxes or in isolated tents can be dangerous – not only due to inclement weather, but also for the fear of robbery or violence.

The A-Kamp47 project from Malka Architecture gives the homeless a safe place to sleep. Using a blank vertical expanse of wall, they installed 23 small tent pods. The pods are “parasitic” structures, meaning that they rely on another structure to provide them a place to sit.

Each tent provides a private space for the city’s homeless. The grouping of tents embodies the old adage “safety in numbers.” Residents can enter their tents via the scaffolding between the wall and the tend pods.

The project is not without controversy; the wall used by the architects exists in a grey area between private and public space. They hope, however, that their efforts will lead to increased awareness of the homeless problem and encourage people to get involved in the cause.

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Editors’ Note: We are proud to present a guest piece from James Jackson. This is James’ first contribution to The Diss. You can follow him on Twitter here.

***

In the NBA, patience is a beautiful thing; or rather, it can produce beautiful things. One only need to look at teams like the Miami Heat, Indiana Pacers, Oklahoma City Thunder, Golden State Warriors and the San Antonio Spurs to see obvious examples where cohesion, unity and brotherhood are dolled out in nearly wasteful amounts. In all of these teams, we find that sustained success is most closely tied to the development of a certain team culture where consistency becomes second nature. Coaching stability is vital, unselfishness is embraced, and patience becomes a virtue. Indeed, nothing is expected to cohere overnight, especially without enduring seemingly requisite rough patches. But progress will be made; this, of course, is the byproduct of patience and care. And when that progress reaches an apex? Oh, what a reward at the end; when patience is honored and compensated. Indeed, there is an art to creating something beautiful in the NBA, and more than any sport, the finished product is a sight to behold. When everything works out, each pass seems both timely and aesthetically pleasing, each shot seems pre-ordained and just. When the players and coaches are in harmony, the love is tangible, as are the hugs, handshakes and celebrations shared between bonding brothers. On these functional, patient teams responsibilities and niches vary; no one is more or less accountable than the other, and the sacred “process”seems more meaningful than the results.

However, while there is beauty, there is also embarrassing blunder, and this is especially apparent this season. The Eastern Conference has shown itself to be more remedial than respectable; bad enough for a sub-.500 team to possibly win an entire division. While the Heat and Pacers remain their usually dominant selves, everyone else has crafted a product that only a hopeless mother could love. Among these afflicted teams — and much to our collective surprise — are the Brooklyn Nets, living a picture-imperfect reality that none of us could have predicted. Of course, at this point, the story is fairly well known. Despite possessing the NBA’s highest payroll, the Nets have been nothing more than a cheap knockoff of what was supposed to be a championship roster. Their five-year title window has one year remaining, and according to most, it has already closed.

The Nets have no shortage of issues, among which the biggest is a lack of an established culture. Much of this is a result of poor financial design and hasty investments. After two seasons of wheeling and dealing for veterans, there is no salary cap flexibility, instead replaced by financial purgatory familiar to the crosstown-rival Knicks. Among these newcomers, injury, age and attrition have contributed immeasurably to team-wide ineptitude, and the expedited championship path has left cohesion absent; essential fraternalism completely missing in action. Those variables, along with a hyper-competitive but haphazardly-wired owner, a rookie coach devoid of any experience and a top-heavy, expensive roster, provide a tidy summary of the multitude of ailments that have afflicted the Nets. Indeed, in these seemingly stillborn Nets, we are forced to confront the fact that the art to crafting something beautiful is contrasted by the incapacity to stay out of one’s own way. More than even the Knicks, the Nets have been a hindrance to themselves. Their impatience, thus far, has been their undoing.

By the command of their ultra-competitive-but-seemingly-in-over-his-head owner Mikhail Prokhorov, the Nets have built a team meant for championship contention only in theory. From the Deron Williams trade that sparked the rebuilding phase to the Kevin Garnett-Paul Pierce trade intended to conclude it, the Nets have garnered more attention for aiming high than aiming properly. On paper, each trade leading to the Williams-Johnson-Garnett-Pierce nucleus served a unique purpose. Williams was cast as the cornerstone for a new era, Johnson as an important piece to a still-developing puzzle, and Garnett and Pierce as championship-proven cogs renowned for excellent role play and leadership. And while more than enough games remain for the Nets to right this ship, it won’t steer in its intended direction. Conventional wisdom assigns blame to the players – and there is no shortage of that to share – but the onus belongs to Prokhorov, the catalyst behind the Nets’ newest low. Even Before acquiring Deron Williams, Mikhail Prokhorov called dibs on an NBA championship within his first five years of owning the Nets. The declaration hung in the air like a “shotgun” declaration from a quasi-friend bumming a ride; indeed, coveting something doesn’t assign you priority. Common wisdom (and past experience) has displayed that NBA Championships aren’t won because they’re simply coveted. Infinite variables boost or jeopardize title bids, and spending frivolously doesn’t negate that reality.

Because of this ever-imperative reality, chemistry and stability hold special places in the hearts of the present-day Heat, longtime-contending Spurs, ever-improving-but-certainly-championship-caliber Pacers, still-young-but-plenty-battle-tested Thunder, and infinitely-fun-to-watch-but-nightmare-to-oppose Warriors. But compared to these respective elites, Prokhorov’s Nets have taken the Hasting’s Cuttoff to contention, and their trek appears to be gravely perilous. The Nets under Prokorhov have not shown themselves to be particularly interested in taking the long road to the promised land. Among the eight Nets in the rotation, only one (Brook Lopez) was drafted by the Nets, and only one other Net on the entire roster (Williams) has been there for at least three seasons. And, by and large, this impatient, reflexive decision to roll the dice on trades rather than draft picks has proven disastrous for both the present and the future. We can look at the decline chronologically; a decline that even the most casual fan can recite. Shortly after signing Williams for five years and $98 million, the Nets – ever impatient and self-pressed for contention – added Joe Johnson to the mix.  Of course, with Johnson comes scoring acumen, but it also comes with $89.4 million remaining on an unpopular contract, including the $24.9 million he’s guaranteed in 2015-16.

However, Johnson’s steady decline in production – now entering its third consecutive season — is more damning than his inflated salary. More a score than anything else, Johnson’s been more a shell of the isolation wizard the Nets hoped they were acquiring. More often than not, he’s been a painful example of the Nets’ lack of identity, direction and consistency. The numbers tell a sad tale. In 92 games with Brooklyn, Johnson has more games shooting below 45 percent (54) than he does above 45 percent (38). His penchant for facilitating the offense has been hindered by advancing age and being a step slower, resulting in his assists declining for a fifth consecutive season. And I’m sorry to remind you that this is two years before Johnson is paid $24.9 million, in a year the Nets have no first-round picks. There is not much to like in the Johnson acquisition; diminishing returns and soaring tax bills by the minute.

Yet Johnson isn’t the only big-name the Nets imprudently invested in and from whom they are seeing few tangible returns. Rather than explore other avenues to reduce their salary tax burdens, and more responsibly build towards a more sustainable future, they burdened themselves by swapping three future first-round picks (2014, 2016 and 2018) for one year of Paul Pierce and two years of Kevin Garnett, both combining for $38.5 in remaining salary. Like we, as basketball fans, reluctantly expected, Garnett and Pierce have resembled their declining forms featured on last year’s Celtics, who finished 24^th in team offensive efficiency, per Basketball Reference. neither player has resembled anything close to their Celtics forms. Neither Garnett nor Pierce will tell you they are no longer championship contributors, and they very well still are, but their salaries (Garnett makes $11.5 million this year, Pierce $15.3) push nostalgic perspective aside and bring disappointment to the forefront. Furthermore, injuries and inconsistent play have been compounded by holes in the roster and poor team building. There is no budding big man coveted by Prokorhov and drafted by Billy King for Garnett to split minutes with during the end of first and end of third quarters. Furthermore, Pierce’s injury could hurt less if not for Andrei Kirilenko, 32, bought (for cheap) being hurt himself,. Sadly, despite our attachment to Garnett and Pierce, the games themselves imply that they aren’t championship cogs to the degree the Nets need them to be. Unfortunately for them, the Nets have no other options. Certainly they cannot look to their rookie coach Jason Kidd, who continues to manage his own professional blunders with the poor play of the team he has inherited, championship aspirations and all.

Now, we don’t have to be stern parents about this; banishing our disappointing charges upstairs without supper. Perhaps we can find it in our cruel armchair-bound hearts to be forgiving; to take a deep breath, cast a favorable gaze on this downtrodden team as we sit in front of this fireplace, where a failed Nets season becomes the logs engulfed by a blistering inferno.  After all, this was an attempt to build a culture for a truly unique team; to craft a successful way forward that could be branded as particularly Nets. Following a painful-to-watch seven-game first round loss against the Bulls, the next step forward required thorough contemplation and correct action. With Williams, Johnson and Lopez, as well as the coaching of P.J. Carlisemo, the Nets nearly advanced to the second round. In the minds of Prokorhov and King, making another push for improvement seemed more probable than possible. But the margin of error was small, and pushing the nuclear option button has proven to be the best route to success, at least in these early goings.

With that in mind, it’s hard to be fully forgiving. All the red flags were there, after all.  What else can you expect for a team on its third coach in a year? On a team with an instable roster and baffling, blundering overseers who give away draft picks for rickety hot rods, begging for a final race against clearly superior cars? In these moments, we feel a sense of pity; a sense of, how could you not see this happening? What the Nets have strived for cannot be hastily manufactured or dreamily contrived, especially under the vice-grip of a collective bargaining agreement stressing prudent spending and team management. Unlike the Pacers with their young, talented, and home-grown core of Paul George, Roy Hibbert and Lance Stephenson, or the Warriors with their similarly-developed firing squad of Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson and Harrison Barnes, or the Thunder with Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook and serge Ibaka, the Nets aimed high without a parachute. Assembling great talent means nothing without cohesion, a standard of togetherness or any semblance of stability. As of late, insightful franchises are rewarded for their patience and discernment with a contender, while impatient front offices get only egg on their face for attempting to cheat the system. Unlike the 2004 Lakers and 2011 Heat, the Nets have no transcendent talent to accompany them back to the drawing board. Instead, there’s Deron Williams, Brook Lopez, and core of expensive stars who by and large will remain shells of themselves.

It’s a shame that today’s Nets will be the same tomorrow, the next season and two seasons from now; without draft picks to infuse youth for an aging roster, salary cap space to further-weaponize limited talent, and still paying Jason Kidd to figure things out (or, perhaps if things keep going the way they are, paying him to stay away). And that’s okay, because great triumph means little without preceding struggle. Champions are not born without learning the sting of second-place – or, at the time of writing, 12^th place — and furthermore, there is no shame in pursuing contention. This is, after all, the NBA, and everyone wants an opportunity to prove themselves to be superior. But that isn’t done without time, nuance or a backup plan in case things go unexpectedly, all of which have been absent in the Nets’ plan.

So as the season progresses and the future’s flexibility remains limited, there is no choice but to be patient; to sit and find pleasure in the warmth of a concrete jungle alit with flames. We can all hope that wins could eventually become more common, but none of us expect anything close to what we feverishly expected during the heat of the summer. Yes, by those estimations, this should have been a contender, the ushering of Brooklyn dominance, or at the very least, a threat to the New York basketball crown (though given the Knicks struggles, they still might). Instead, there is only disappointment, nostalgia and persistent questions. And rather than being next in line for supremacy, the Nets have earned, what a wise Brooklyn philosopher might call, a long kiss goodnight.

THE roads are thick with traffic and pavements throng with hawkers selling phonecards, sunglasses and leather sandals. At night, street corners are lit up with a red glow from grills cooking spicy meat. But the bustle of Kano, Nigeria’s second-biggest city and the commercial capital of the north, masks an uncomfortable reality: northern Nigeria is in steep decline.

An increasingly bloody insurgency waged by Boko Haram, an Islamist terrorist group, has sharpened frustration over the disparity between the jobless north and the oil-rich south…

The fear of terrorism continues to cast a long shadow over the city and across the north. Bombings, kidnappings and bloody assaults by Boko Haram, as well as the army’s efforts to keep a lid on the fighting, have deterred investment. Farming, the north’s main source of income, has been hamstrung…

Despite a construction boom across Nigeria, many foreign companies avoid the north…

Unreliable electricity, cheap Chinese imports, smuggling and counterfeit goods have made life hard for local companies… Poor education puts off investors seeking skilled labour. Whereas the literacy rate in Lagos, Nigeria’s commercial capital on the coast, is 92%, in Kano it is 49%. In the north-eastern state of Borno, where Boko Haram got going, it is 15%. Without better education, the region will struggle to attract investment or create jobs…

Northerners habitually complain that politicians have made personal fortunes from the booming oil industry in the south, while failing to share its benefits. Mutterings of a north-south divide have grown louder with the prospect of President Goodluck Jonathan, a southern Christian, running for a second term in 2015. Northerners resent what they see as a violation of an unwritten rule that the presidency should rotate every two terms between the largely Muslim north and the mostly Christian south…

[M]any northerners, struggling to make a living, are deciding to leave Kano in search of better prospects—down south. [T]he owner of a big construction company says, “Visible development gives the impression of stability and progress.” But it will not be enough to close the gulf between Nigeria’s two halves. As a result, northerners are increasingly resentful.

At the end of November, Nigeria’s political landscape experienced a seismic shift as five governors and a number of members of the House of Representatives and Senators renounced their membership of the ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and decamped en masse to the increasingly powerful opposition All Progressives Congress (APC).

Citing disgruntlement with the actions of President Goodluck Jonathan and PDP chair Bamanga Tukur, the defected governors and APC released a joint announcement declaring that they had no choice but join forces “in order to rescue our fledgling democracy and the nation.”

In response, the PDP tried to both downplay the merger, with spokesperson Olisa Metuh, remarking that “the defectors have embraced a narrow group of ethnic and religious bigots whose main intention is to unleash a state of anarchy on Nigeria. We remain unperturbed as we are now rid of detractors and distractions."

Nevertheless, there is no doubt that the PDP, which has dominated the political scene ever since Nigeria returned multi-party elections in 1999, is facing by far the strongest challenge to its authority in its history…

As president, Jonathan has had to contend with all manner of well-documented economic, structural and security troubles facing Nigeria, but it has probably been the infighting within his own party that has most frequently kept him up at night…

One of the main cleavages in Nigeria is the division between north and south, and to resolve this, the PDP had an unwritten agreement that the presidency would alternate between a northerner and southerner, each holding office for two four-year terms. In addition, any president from the north would have a deputy from the south, and vice versa.

In 2007, after 8 years under southerner Olusegun Obasanjo, northerner Umaru Musa Yar’Adua was elected president… The PDP’s rotational system seemed to be working until in 2010, Yar’Adua died from complications arising from a protracted illness…

However, disgruntlement within the PDP is not all related to north-south politicking. Jonathan has also been accused of running the party undemocratically to shore up his own authority…

The five governors who joined the APC last month… means that the APC has 16 of Nigeria’s 36 governors, while the PDP has 18… and that if you add up voter populations in the states held by the APC as compared to those held by the PDP, the opposition party’s states account for 52% of the electorate.

Although the tide has been turning for some time, the dramatic events of this past year have carved out a new era of Nigerian politics. What this brave new world will look like remains to be seen. The PDP is still reeling from its high-level defections, while the APC has yet to demonstrate whether its ambitions and visions extend beyond just defeating the PDP.

Nevertheless, political analyst Raymond Eyo believes the shift in Nigeria’s political landscape can only be a good thing for democracy. “The defections will benefit the Nigerian people as it deepens democracy and will lead to the enhancement of a two-party system that is more competitive and can be more productive than the present dominant one-party rule,” he says.

Indeed, after nearly 15 years of PDP rule and dominance in which the real decisions over presidents have been made in the party’s corridors of power rather than at the ballot box, many ordinary Nigerians are thirsty for change. Citizens are tired of scandal after scandal revealing high-level corruption, of crucial bills that could reform faltering sectors stagnating in the Senate and House of Representatives, and of political squabbling overshadowing all else in government. Nigeria’s political scene may be in turmoil, but some will be thinking that that’s exactly what was needed.

Perhaps there’s something special in the Scottish temperament that explains the presence of such an unusual number of stunning castle-like abandoned hospitals. A certain appreciation for history cloaked in moss, ivy, and – inevitably – graffiti, which is a jarring sight on the crumbling stone walls of rural Gothic mansions. Scotland is home to abandoned insane asylums, railway stations, seminaries, luxury residences and more than one isolated island ghost town.

Gartloch Insane Asylum, Glasgow

(images via: skin_ubx)

Situated on the eastern edge of Glasgow, Gartloch Hospital opened in 1896 as an asylum for poor people who were mentally ill (not that the put it that way at the time – the patients were referred to as ‘pauper lunatics.’) By 1904 it had 830 beds, and at the end of World War II, Gartloch was transformed into a medical services hospital, with psychiatric patients transferred elsewhere. The hospital closed for good in 1996 and in 2003, its incredible castle-like ruins were partially prepared for conversion to luxury apartments. Most of it was demolished, with many of the remaining architectural elements turned into private residences, but some buildings, like the dining and recreation hall, are still on Scotland’s list of buildings at risk.

Botanic Gardens Railway Station, Glasgow

(images via: wikimedia commons, gj_thewhite)

Deep beneath Glasgow’s famed Botanic Gardens is a mostly-forgotten railway station with two underground platforms that have spent the last 70 years decaying, becoming overrun by weeds and plastered in graffiti. The station opened in 1896 to much praise as it managed to bring heavy transportation to a well-used location without disturbing the picturesque setting. The red brick Victorian station closed permanently to passengers in 1939, and was destroyed by a fire in 1970. There’s no hint of the subterranean station at ground level other than a few moss-covered ventilation shafts, offering potential urban explorers a tantalizing peek at the abandoned tunnels below. There are currently no plans to redevelop the site.

St. Peter’s Seminary, Cardross

(images via: wikimedia commons)

A striking example of Brutalist architecture has become even more noteworthy as it slowly erodes into a skeletal concrete monument hidden in an overgrown forest. St. Peter’s Seminary has been described as one of Europe’s greatest modernist buildings, but since its abandonment by the Catholic church in 1980, it has decayed into “Scotland’s creepiest building.” Architecture students who want to get a look often have trouble even finding it in the 140-acre wood. The structure opened in 1966 but was almost immediately obsolete as the Catholic church had decided in 1966 that priests should be schooled in the urban churches of Europe rather than secluded rural locations, so it was never fully occupied. It briefly became a drug rehabilitation center before closing for good. A new movement to turn it into an arts college and transform the surrounding area into a public space may spell hope for its future.

Hartwood Mental Hospital

(images via: wikimedia commons)

Another properly creepy abandoned hospital was built in a location specifically chosen for how isolated it was, in the small village of Hartwood. Consisting of a number of buildings as well as its own power plant, water reservoir, farm, gardens, cemetery and railway line, the hospital opened in 1895 and quickly gained a reputation as a cutting-edge treatment facility for mental illness where patients underwent then-unheard-of therapies like electric shock treatment and lobotomies. As with many other hospitals in the area, it closed in the 1990s after a new law focusing on community-based therapy and long-term mental health care was enacted. The last two wards weren’t closed until 2010, but the facility already looks as if it’s been abandoned for decades, and several fires have destroyed the ballroom, kitchen block and admin space. It’s still owned by the health board and there’s no word of redevelopment.

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The entire facade of the Ars Electronic Building in Linz, Austria has become the world’s largest playable Rubik’s cube thanks to a color-changing illuminated facade controlled by a 3D-printed device. Anyone who wants to try their hand at the ‘Puzzle Facade‘ manipulates the hand-held interface-cube like they would an ordinary Rubik’s cube, and their movements are translated to the building.

The interactive display, by Spanish artist and designer Javier Lloret, uses bluetooth to connect the cube to a software program that converts the information into color and light. Only being able to see two sides of the building increases the difficulty factor.

Of course, if you think you’re skilled enough to try to crack a Rubik’s cube this big, you’d better be pretty confident, because your handiwork is going to be on citywide display. Watch it in action above.

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Americans would be entirely sensible to ask themselves whether taking on the job of being the biggest power in an ungrateful world is worth the effort. Why should they pay to protect shipping in the Strait of Malacca or punish the dictator of some far-off country when they have their own medical bills and the federal deficit to worry about?

To answer that, you need to look at the rules-based system the victors created after the second world war. It still benefits Americans today in lots of ways. It also benefits many other people, whether they like America or loathe it…

Primacy is to geopolitics what a full card is to a game of bingo. As a prize for scoring in all the other sorts of power, a country may get the chance to set the agenda. Primacy makes a state attractive. Other states want to win its favour and to benefit from its goodwill. Their support is a form of consent which gives the system legitimacy…

America has advantages in the primacy game. First is geography… Europeans warily eyeing nearby Russia, or Asians fearful of China, can ask Americans for help, safe in the knowledge that they have a home to go back to on the other side of the world.

Second is history. America built today’s system out of the rubble of the second world war… [F]or Roosevelt and… Truman… the defeated countries had to be turned into democracies and bound into the peace, not shut out. They accomplished this, outside the communist bloc, through a system of open trade, alliances and collective security in which everyone stood to thrive, with America as its guarantor.

America also benefits from its distinctive political ideology and institutions. Founded on Enlightenment ideals rather than a conqueror’s battle lines or a monarch’s bloodlines…

However disconcerting it is to be on the receiving end, this attitude means that America has neither the desire nor the ability to conquer and administer other people’s countries. The hegemon’s necessarily modest ambitions help the system command widespread consent abroad. Reflecting political traditions at home, America has created an embryonic separation of powers for the world at large as well. Instead of running everything from Washington, it set up institutions such as the UN, the WTO and the IMF to spread power.

This international machinery is a forum for its members, not a world government. It is highly imperfect… But it binds the system together, because it gives other states a voice and offers a ready-made mechanism for collaboration when agreement is possible…

America, too, has enjoyed enduring benefits from primacy. It was spared yet another great-power war in either Europe or, after Korea in 1950-53, in Asia. Germany and Japan became markets for the United States and an important part of the defence against communism…

Indeed, the economic and philosophical liberalism that underpins America’s beliefs has become so familiar that, to many in the West, it hardly seems like an ideology at all. After the Soviet collapse a sort of liberal determinism took hold. The idea was that capitalism raised living standards, which paid for education, leading to gains in productivity and, eventually, popular demand for democracy. The promise of this “democratic convergence” was that the international arena would tend to bring peace and prosperity of its own accord…

Yet if you examine the spread of democracy… a different picture emerges. Democracy flourished under British hegemony and then retreated as fascism took root… In 1941 the world contained only a dozen democracies. As Samuel Huntington, a political scientist, has explained, the system then spread in waves, partly because America used its influence to help democracy take root in countries like Taiwan and Poland, and to protect young democracies in countries like Bolivia, South Korea and the Philippines… the fallacy is to think that the liberal order rests on the triumph of its ideals. “International order is not an evolution,” writes Robert Kagan, an American historian, “it is an imposition.”

Americans have many reasons to feel that primacy benefits them. Being able to set the agenda and shape coalitions is an exorbitant privilege…. However, world leadership takes constant maintenance. “Democracy and open markets have spread so widely in part because they have been defended by US aircraft-carriers,” notes Charles Kupchan, an American academic. This is especially true when the balance of power is shifting, as it is today. A number of emerging powers are looking at a system made in Washington to see what is in it for them. Ahead of the pack is China.

This remarkable remodel is full of fun and functional surprises ranging from ceiling-suspended swing sets, hammocks, bookshelves, tables and benches to flip-up, in-floor mirrors and trap-door storage spaces.

Designed by Elii in Madrid, Spain, the compartment-centric project takes maximum advantage of high ceilings to add layers of usefulness above, below and ultimately between each of two levels.

Discrete handles along the walls allow the occupant to deploy each function in piecemeal fashion, calling down an on-demand hammock and fans, for instance, or dining room surface and seating as needed.

Hidden pulleys make it easy to drive each object back up and out of the way when not in use – no laborious reaching, pushing or pulling required.

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I’m trying to figure out why the pitfalls and tragedies of athletes maintain such a magnetism over me—and likely many of you based on the numerous 30 for 30’s about athletes who had it all, only to succumb to some external or internal pressure. Drugs, alcohol, mental illness … or some combination of the three make powerfully attractive stories to me, but not in the can’t-turn-away-from-a-car-wreck-Britney-Spears way, rather in a way where the descent is so obvious and visibly painful and yet inevitable; it doesn’t cease until death or rock bottom. Somewhere on the way down that long elevator ride towards rock bottom or death is the frighteningly long, still-standing figure of the bald Keon Clark: bags under his eyes, dressed in an Illinois Department of Corrections orange jumpsuit that’s too big and baggy for a frame that remains slight despite years of abuse with pants too short for his pencil-thin, abnormally long legs. He stands there, his thoughts impenetrable, a lifetime of substance abuse, crime, wasted opportunity … waste in more ways than one going down down down to the Illinois State Prison system for the next eight years. And that saddens me. Not because Clark was a folk hero nor had elements of subversive cool, but in a sad way like, “Why’d it have to happen?”

For those too young or too foggy to remember the pogo stick that was Keon Clark, I can tell you he was a center/power forward who embodied the basketball description of long. His arms like skinny boa constrictors hung down from broad shoulders, his slender fingers and hands adept at blocking shots with regularity. He spent six years in the league as an effective reserve specializing in blocking shots and occasionally posterizing a would-be defender. Think of him as an on-court precursor to Javale McGee, but where McGee is harmlessly playful, Clark was painfully addicted. Sometime around 2004 things went awry. At the tender age of 28, when most players are stepping into their prime, Clark disappeared from the basketball planet.

A short review of his rap sheet, comprehensively chronicled by Mark Deeks from Shamsports.com, is numbing in the sense that after a while you begin to gloss over the speeding and drinking citations and look for outliers like weapons charges and domestic disputes. Deeks writes that Clark’s arrests number, “somewhere in or near the fifties.” In 2007, Clark claimed in an interview that he “never played a game sober.” Alcohol was his most frequent vice, but looking through his arrests, marijuana, cocaine and eventually weapons kept him plenty of company over the years.

I want to be able to see Clark as a tragic soul, an addict who happened to be able to play basketball and likely had his lifestyle enabled by booming paychecks and the inconsistency of living a life in and out of hotel rooms, on the road in cities that don’t sleep. In a recent interview, a five-month sober Clark said as much himself:

The money, the fame, the fact that I was on TV. People think money will make your life better. Money didn’t dissolve my problems. It increased them. I was already on a destructive path. What happened was people looked at me, and they saw my persona. What they put on me was not me. You can’t live up to something you’re not. … Nobody cares about your problems. Everybody diminished my problems, including myself.

But I’m either making it too complex, or just haven’t yet found my definitive answer. Once an athlete exits the mainstream consciousness and exists as a player-page on basketball-reference or the answer to Aflac trivia questions, what do they become? And what if the athlete who we showered with both praise and boos falls on hard times? Do we wait for the “Where are they now?” stories or seek the validation of a 30 for 30 documentary so we can say, “Oh, he was really fucked up?” I’m not questing after a right or wrong or concrete absolutes, but rather struggling to resolve the dehumanization (or something like it) that feels so prevalent in our third person relationships with pro athletes. We know athletes are treated like replaceable machinery. Just look at the NFL, which spent millions of dollars trying to prove football didn’t cause brain injuries. And even with this knowledge, football players are willing to take the risk to play the game. Basketball players will play through ankle and knee injuries; baseball players through elbow and shoulder injuries. Of course, the “play through the pain” mentality is something drilled into athletes from a young age, but why do we continue to subject ourselves to this abuse?

Culturally, we deify our athletes, and the better you are, the more you get. Popularity, respect, attention, perks, swag, grades, girls, money, clout, connections. Athletes, from a young age, are privileged. An extreme example would be the Steubenville rape case which, over time, has revealed attempts by grown adults, teachers and coaches to cover up evidence of a rape committed by Steubenville football players. It’s not even a question of, “what kind of message are we sending to our kids,” but more like, “What the fuck is wrong with the adults?”

You’re everything … until someone else shows up. Maybe it’s someone who can sell more shoes or generate more ratings. We’re a fickle audience, dependent on narratives that allow us to escape from our daily monotonies. We prefer that the sad stuff is relegated to a footnote. Len Bias is immortal because he would’ve joined forces with the great Larry Bird and it’s easier for us to build a narrative on the shoulders on what could have been. Meanwhile, Eddie Griffin is just a forgotten kid who played hoops well, but is often confused for a short comedian. Michael Ray Richardson is the poster boy for 80s cocaine abuse and has the lifetime ban to prove it, but he also has a documentary narrated by Chris Rock called Whatever Happened to Michael Ray? Keon Clark is just a has-been rotation player who’s been arrested more times than he has years on earth.

This unnatural approach to sports seems to create this comfortable sense of detachment that I’m only able to hazily pinpoint. Pro sports are a bizarre spectacle and God have mercy on you if you’re prone to its temptations. Keon Clark’s first arrest was at 16; he was an obvious candidate to end up in this situation, but how many coaches or teachers let him slide by because he was a talented athlete? How many people enabled his destructive behaviors? You can read Clark’s comments above, “You can’t live up to something you’re not. Nobody cares about your problems. Everybody diminished my problems, including myself,” and interpret them on a broad spectrum that includes self-pity at one end and society’s problem at the other end. The truth likely lies in the middle of that spectrum. Clark has clearly wrestled with demons and most addicts become adept at lying or preying on the sympathy of others in order to protect their precious vices. But did basketball do anything to stop or slow down that inevitable descent to rock bottom? Looking at that arrest record, I’d almost say it only delayed the inevitable.

I’m not calling on fans to adopt retired athletes or for pensions to include substance abuse and mental health support (although that seems like it’d be a good idea). Rather, I’m continuing to try and process where I/we stand on this whole fan/blogger/writer/journalist observing and relating with athletes/former athletes/struggling former athletes. In the meantime, I’ll continue to feel bummed about the lanky tragedy of Keon Clark and see him donning that bright orange prison garb that can’t possibly fit the odd dimensions of his frame. I’ll imagine him laid out on that much-too-small prison cot, confined to a much-too-small cell, and hoping that his eight years, or whatever he ends up serving, are his rock bottom instead of a prelude to a relapsing death.

A collection of unlikely (often discarded) objects coupled with a light source can create amazing city scenes, landscapes, portraits and more in the hands of this artist.

Rashad Alakbarov hails from Azerbaijan and experiments with different materials and setups to turn three-dimensional trash into rich two-dimension displays of all shapes and sizes.

Some of these, including the top installation featured here, were on display last year at the Fly to Baku Contemporary Art Exhibition at the De Pury Gallery in London, UK.

A few pieces contain custom built-to-purpose shapes, like plastic versions of paper airplanes in the top example, while others simply draw on urban junk or everyday objects.

There is something playful and informal about his approach. Alakbarov takes inspiration from items at hand to start crafting skylines or other scenes that unfold partly from his imagination, but also in part from the nature of the materials in each case.

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Russia's President Vladimir Putin has abolished the country's state-owned news agency RIA Novosti.

In a surprise decree published on the Kremlin's website on Monday, Mr Putin announced it would be replaced by a news agency called Russia Today.

Novosti panel

The new agency will be headed by journalist and keen Kremlin supporter Dmitry Kiselev…

Sergey Ivanov, the head of the Kremlin administration, has told journalists in Moscow that the news agency is being restructured in order to make it more economical while increasing its reach, Interfax reports…

For many Kremlin critics in Russia, [this action] suggests this is a sinister move by President Putin, says the BBC's Daniel Sandford in Moscow.

During Mr Putin's time as Russia's leader, RIA Novosti has tried hard to produce balanced coverage for Russian and international audiences, our correspondent says.

Although state-owned, it has reflected the views of the opposition and covered difficult topics for the Kremlin, our correspondent adds.

Mr Kiselev is known for his ultra-conservative views…

Reporting on its own demise, RIA noted in its news report that "the move is the latest in a series of shifts in Russia's news landscape, which appear to point toward a tightening of state control in the already heavily regulated media sector".

Diss Guy: Masai Ujiri

The Raptors General Manager isn’t a wizard. He isn’t a bamboozler. He isn’t a hoodwinker. No, Masai Ujiri is a guy demonstrating what few seem to understand about the NBA: if ownership is committed to change and a general manager isn’t worried about losing his job, transformation arrives rapidly.

The old truism says, “there’s no untradeable contract in the NBA”, but it should really say, “there’s no amount of bad salary a committed general manager can’t move”. After somehow managing to convince the Knicks to give up three draft picks for Andrea Bargnani and the Kings to trade little long-term money for Rudy Gay, Ujiri is still at it. This time he is playing the flailing Knicks and Nets against each other in an attempt to extract a ransom for the decidedly average point guard Kyle Lowry. When all you’ve got is a sinking ship, even Kyle Lowry looks like a lifeboat.

We’re surprised every time, that a team looking at a future of 39–43 first round playoff exits can get out of contract hell, but the only obstacle to moving big money in the NBA is the desire to do so. Just this offseason the Warriors traded the combined $20 million rotting carcasses of Andris Biedrins and Richard Jefferson to the Utah Jazz. Five years ago, when Knicks fans still had hope, Donnie Walsh was hired with the mandate to sell, sell, sell and make the team a destination for the 2010 free agent class. They struck out on all but Amar’e Stoudemire when they got there—and probably would’ve been better off if they had struck out on him too—but the fact that they were even able to make it to the batter’s box was the important part.

Masai Ujiri is clearly very good at his job, and one of the better general managers in the league. But my advice to owners that wish they had a general manager as good as Ujiri? Empower people within your organization to make sound decisions, and free them from the shackles of a “playoffs or bust” mentality that is dooming general managers in places like New York, Brooklyn and Milwaukee.

Miss Guy: Kyrie Irving

He is destined for stardom, so what did it matter that he got a few things reserved for, you know, actual stars? A national commercial campaign with Pepsi after his rookie season. An All-Star selection over more deserving guards. An #NBARank of 8 going into this year, ahead of all but three (Chris Paul, Russell Westbrook and Stephen Curry) point guards.

This was the year he was to break through. With Anderson Varejao back from injury, Tristan Thompson having finally discovered some of the talent that made him a high lottery selection, the best backup PG in the league to let Irving to showcase some of his offball skills, the number one draft pick and a very big, very talented man in Andrew Bynum waiting in the wings, he finally had a worthy supporting cast. Throw in the comic ineptitude of the Eastern Conference, and the Cavaliers are competing for a first round playoff series with home court advantage, right? At 8–13, not so much.

To be fair, not all of the Cavaliers woes sit on Irving’s shoulders. It’s early, but Anthony Bennett looks like an early candidate to join the Hall of First Pick busts, the first since Kwame Brown. Jarrett Jack is having the worst season of his career. Dion Waiters is, uh, Dion Waiters.

But Irving is the star-in-waiting, the player that is supposed to be good enough to paper over these cracks, the player that is supposed to be good enough to drag the Cavaliers to a playoff spot on his own. Instead he is shooting 40%, and a miserable 32% from three. His rebounds, steals and blocks have all gone down, and his assists haven’t improved. It’s not fair to expect Irving to turn his teammates into offense savants, but it is fair to expect him to shepherd an offense that is better than 28^th in the league, especially when their defense is nearly average and he stands out as one of the worst defenders.

Irving undeniably has the talent to be one of the best players in the league for years to come, and sometimes what he can do is literally breathtaking. But at a time when the league is as star-filled as it has ever been and the point guard position is its deepest position, let’s hold off on the anointment until he actually proves he is deserving.

These images may look like people photoshopped onto a background of sketches, but look again – those scribbles are actual, three-dimensional furniture. Art student Daigo Fukawa of Tokyo University for the Arts created a collection of chairs and benches that seem like they just magically popped up off the paper.

Made for his senior thesis, the series of optical illusion furniture appears to be made from welded metal, and while it’s probably not the most comfortable seating anyone has ever experienced, it’s definitely cool to look at, undoubtedly eliciting plenty of double-takes in person.

See lots more unusual, creative and transforming furniture including convertible designs, flat-pack furniture, recycled pieces and brilliant bookcases.

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