Oh Internet

Chu Chu Rocket done in Flash. I lost a distressing amount of time to this today.
Grow The world’s first drag-and-drop RPG? This is insane, but I don’t know whether in a good or bad way.

The law of ineffectual misdirection - Every highly-detailed, obsessive-compulsive conversation about Big Brother, whether in person or online, must begin with the phrase:
Ok, so, I don’t watch Big Brother, but did you see it when…
Ok, so, I’m not a homicidal maniac, but…

A forehead-slap-inducing article on the BBC about the surge in bicycle purchases/use around London after the recent bombings. Bike shops were seeing huge increases in sales, and the roads were visibly more bike-clogged at rush hour. All that ended today, and bike-use returned to normal levels, as we had the first rainy day since the [...]

Giant mice are eating seabird chicks alive in a seabird colony on Gough Island. They’re estimated to be killing 1 million birds per year. Rumours that they’re attempting to work their way up to humans are so far unconfirmed. (No idea how long that link will last, it’s a video story on the BBC.)
Russia’s most [...]

The new Gorillaz vinyl figures set is incredibly swanky. One of the artists at work just bought the ‘Russel’ figure, and has had people drooling over it all week.
I was having a look at the set in Forbidden Planet, but they were even more expensive in there. I’m tempted, but I’m pretty sure there are [...]

This evening, a bunch of the usual suspects from work went to Godalming (site of the old BBB offices) to relive the halcyon ‘jumpers for goalposts’ days of playing football on a local field. I mention this because it might be the most ‘male’ evening I’ve ever experienced. Let’s see, the night’s activities involved:

Football
Curry
Beer.

Yup, I [...]

Silly Google Moon easter egg. Click on the link and then zoom in as far as you can.
Leaving aside the goofy jokes, I still think the Google Maps / Google Earth systems are really cool. I’m a bit surprised that it seems to use a totally different dataset to NASA’s WorldWind though.

Fable won Gamespot’s ‘Most Light Bloom’ award in 2004, and the award just arrived in the office. It’s the most hilariously tacky “Mr T.”-esque medallion you’ve ever seen. Everyone’s so proud.
Picture swiped from the webcams.

What the Internet was invented for: Maintaining a list of films ranked by the number of uses of the word ‘Fuck’. Current leader is Nil By Mouth with 470, which equates to 3.67 fucks/min.
Real life Mario power up blocks as urban art (or something.)
Planarity. A really neat flash game. Before you tear your hair out [...]

This past week has been absolutely great on the live music front:
R.E.M - Hyde Park: I know it’s not cool to like R.E.M these days, and that if you do confess to it then you’re meant to attach the caveat that you only like their pre-’Green’ albums (or maybe pre-’Document’.) But, I don’t care about [...]

12:00pm: Edinburgh Film Festival booking site goes live.
12:01pm: Edinburgh Film Festival booking site locks up hard.

Aren’t we living in the future yet?

You lucky still-in-Edinburgh types will get a chance to see Serenity, the Firefly movie, a couple of months ahead of the rest of us. The showings are on the 22nd and 24th of August.
What’s really galling is that I’ll actually be in Edinburgh on the 24th, but have tickets for the Dresden Dolls that [...]

Invisible Breed Products:

Are you sick of people looking at your breed of dog in fear because politicians and the media are saying things like;
“We want to breed these dogs out of existence,”
“They are killing machines on a leash.”
“These breeds don’t belong in our community”
Well worry no longer, attachchi will be making disguises for all the [...]

Today’s experiment: How much iced water can one person drink before experiencing renal failure? Results to follow.
I’d like it to be Autumn now please.

And so it begins.
Tube passengers are to have their bodies scanned by machines that see through clothing in an attempt to prevent further terrorist attacks. The millimetre wave imagers will be used to carry out random checks as people enter stations after services resume today.
Simon Stringer, managing director of QinetiQ security division, said: [...]