Hexed again, or another idea that got away..

In geometry, a hexagon has six edges, or sides. On a regular hexagon, all of the sides are the same length and the total sum of its internal angles amount to 720 degrees, while its internal angles are individually 120 degrees. A hexagon is easy to visualise. Just think of the waxen honeycomb of the bee; it is made of a myriad of interlocking hexagonal cells. The cells interlock so that they take up the least amount of space, and the hexagon is the only polygon – apart from the triangle - that interlocks.
The bee ‘chooses’ to build her combs in a hexagon rather than a triangle, because the walls of a triangular cell would be longer and more fragile than the sturdier, hexagonal structure. The hexagon occurs elsewhere in nature. Ancient volcanic formations are often made of hexagonal columns of basalt, the most common volcanic rock. The rock is a crystalline solid, or a solid whose atoms and molecules are arranged in a repeating pattern, extending in all three dimensions. Even when solidified into monoliths, the rocks ‘remember’ the hexagonal shape. Before finishing this post, I thought of the most glorious marketing strategy…hexagonal honey jars…now why didn’t I think of that before? It turns out that many people already have...

http://www.modernbeekeeping.co.uk/item/175/8-oz-hexagonal-honey-jars-with-lids---box-of-94

Strategy in Stratford...

Ah, capitalism, the mechanism that promises so much, yet takes away so much more. Even since the west London Westfield shopping mall opened its doors, three years ago, I thought naively that the name ‘Westfield’ had some local significance, that there had once been a house, or street, or even hamlet of that name. But no, it is the name of a company – or group of companies – that has built a ‘Westfield’ in several UK locations.

Yesterday, fortune took me to Stratford. I had been there several years earlier, and in my innocence, expected to see the vistas as of five years ago. But, I had forgotten that Stratford is being ‘redeveloped’ in anticipation of a major sporting event, next year. Only a call of nature drew me into the new Westfield, the conveniences that were on the old plaza seeming to have vanished. It was horrible inside; overheated, with garish decorations and piped ‘seasonal’ music blaring everywhere. But when you’re desperate…ah me, what do I know? Maybe the good citizens of Stratford actually welcome a great banal, plastic mall being dumped strategically between the old train station and the new bus station?

Maybe they found crossing that main road to that older, grainier Stratford Centre just too much and possibly, too dangerous? Maybe the hordes of visitors expected in the town, next year, really do need another Boots, and another Marks and Sparks, and so forth…really, what do I know? But it all smacks of strategic capitalism to me, and I don't like it. Short of joining the woolly-hatted ones in front of St Paul’s, I don’t see what we can do about it. Over to you...