Night trees: (large version, 50kb)
Archive for April, 2005
Tickle my love button (intimate communication)
Tickle my love button: You may remember my recent Tickle branding/idea posting. Now I find that an MIT researcher is working on practical ideas like ‘Intimate Objects’, ‘Communicating Intimacy’, and ‘Minimal Intimate Objects’ – the latter being a ‘love button’ that sits in your system tray.
Tame Games
Tame games: Computer games are descending into a stale pit of genre titles, and the industry could collapse because of it – so says John Dvorak, although he offers very little evidence beyond intuition and grumpy fogeyism. Well – perhaps proving him right – in just three minutes I can think of a few semi-innovative […]
Really stoked
Really stoked: Creative Stoke – now welcoming more than 10,000 unique visitors per month.
Distance earning
Distance earning: A preliminary research paper (PDF, 102kb) on the global sourcing of talent by the European animation industry… “The organization of a meta-national network of animators suggests that there are ways for firms – or in this case artists – who are ‘born in the wrong place’ to overcome the tyranny of distance and […]
Shoppies, Somewhere in China
Shoppies: For those who’d like to sample the total fab-ness of The Shop Assistants at a reasonable price, the track Somewhere in China is on the new 53rd & 3rd AGARR Retro II compilation – and Avalanche Records are currently flogging copies of it on eBay for a mere fiver. Look on Talulah Gosh (Beatnik […]
Annual Hilarious Cat Photo
Annual Hilarious Cat Photo: Any blog has to have a cat photo on it, at least once a year. This is the day, this is the cat.
Green irish Tweed prices
Wake up and smell the… I just priced Creed’s Green Irish Tweed online. On Amazon U.S. it’s $20 an ounce (roughly £12.50) – including shipping to the U.K. On Amazon U.K. it’s £25 an ounce. Ouch.
Morrowind Online beta
It’s beta with two: A working beta of a Morrowind Online mod, albeit with limited features. Meanwhile, the developer techies recently talked at length about the next iteration of the game, Oblivion.
Photography collectors
Prints charming: A fascinating short insight into the world of the photography collector.
24 hour comics marathon
Fast on the draw: The 24-hour comic production marathon. “In Texas, there are people who are willing to show up to an event just to beat France.”
Turn it off
Turn it off: It’s international ‘turn off TV’ week. Go on, give it a try. Then add to the wonderful peace and quiet by blocking tele-sales spam to your phone (and you can now also register your mobile number).
Hat tip
Hat tip: My new Kangol 504 cap morphs. In Birmingham city centre it’s an ironic appropriation of old-style working-class apparel. But as soon as I step down onto the platform at Stoke, it morphs into a standard “Stokie bloke’s flat-cap”.
The Kiss
The Kiss: A vintage ‘association print’ of Doisneau’s The Kiss has sold for £105,000.
Micheal Shanks & archeology
Trench fever: Micheal Shanks is thinking creative new thoughts about archeology.
Uni-born
Uni-born: There’s a new study on why university students succeed or fail. The Observer parses the Psychological Bulletin paper into plain English. Of course, it might also have something to do with turning up to all the classes and handing assignments in on time.
New T. Rex documentary
Unicorn sighting: Lost for 33 years, a new T.Rex documentary. No dinosaurs.
Stoke on Google Maps
Stoke ‘disappeared’, again: Hmm… the new Google Maps UK doesn’t seem to believe Stoke exists – until you almost get within a few hundred yards of it. I have that feeling sometimes, on our numerous new off-road cycle paths. Yet Google makes the small rural town of Leek visible from several hundred miles ‘up’.
Elec-shun
Elec-shun: Still no politicos trying to slip through my letterbox. No canvassers on the doorstep, no loud-speaker car in the streets, no print-tastic flyers slipping onto the doormat. If I hadn’t accidentally tuned in to Friday’s foaming Kilroy Silk interview on BBC Radio 2, I might not know there was an election going on.