Re-established contact with Henning in Denmark today - hi Henning !

Cyberloo blast rocks Stoke-on-Trent
The Register reports on "Roof blown off killer roboconvenience" - hysterical punning report... also see links to his earlier reports, confirming his theory of these incidents being the beginning of "humanity's innevitable war with the machines". Lovely stuff.

Guardian Unlimited Football Columnist Richard Williams on why skilful footballers should be allowed to do their tricks:
Here, here - could not agree more ! - do read the whole piece, but here's a nice extract...:

"....in the first leg of a Carling Cup semi-final, Jay Jay Okocha lined up a free-kick outside the left-hand corner of Aston Villa's penalty area. In front of him stood two defenders, covering the near post. As he prepared to run up, at about 45 degrees to the left of the ball, there could have been only one thing in his mind: to curl it with his instep over the wall and towards the far post. Nothing else was possible.
Instead, despite approaching the ball at that wide angle, Bolton's Nigerian midfield genius contrived to strike it with the outside of his right boot, sending it around the left side of the defensive wall and just inside the near post. Goodness knows how he produced such scorching, snaking velocity at such an unexpected trajectory from such a disguised approach. A double-jointed ankle, perhaps. Or maybe just a double-jointed imagination."

Google Guide: Interactive Tutorial Making Search Even Easier

"Why Take The Google Guide Tutorial?
Google is so easy to use, why take this online tutorial? If you're like many people, you use only a fraction of Google's features and services. The more you know about how Google works, its features and capabilities, the better it can serve your needs."

New Film on Johan Cruyff in Barcelona... Reign in Spain

"When the Dutch footballer Johan Cruyff moved to Barcelona, the people thought he was an angel. Geoffrey Macnab reports on a remarkable film portrait of Catalonia "

Football Anorak - as they say themsleves... "Comprehensive UK Football statistics for gamblers and fans alike"

Guitars!
of interet to some of my guitar playing friends... these high tech art-meets-craft guitars www.teuffelguitars.com
Also, for guitar techies, former Bowie Axe-Man (as they say in rock journalism) Reeves Gabrels discusses technique and rigs and equipment and all that to quite astounding depth on his website Q&A Page
...and another of my fave guitarists goes into even more detail about such stuff on his website: 'splattercell.com'

badgerbadgerbadger
I think I'm late to this one, though I've yet to find anyone who already knows it ?
Hampster[sic] Dance for this century ?

The Oracle of Bacon at Virginia
Thanks to Jives for the tip...

If you like the Kevin Bacon game you'll love this game that links any actor/actress to any other!

[Also see earlier item on the Baconizer]

Magnificent Union of Digitally Downloading Artists
Launched by Brian Eno & Peter Gabriel, this very much reflects my point of view regarding distribution and consumption of digital music. It asks and answers the fundamental question... "Who needs the (old school big and greedy) record labels ?"
here are some links...
Wired News: Just Say 'No' to Record Labels
BBC NEWS Gabriel to launch musicians' union
MUDDA Website

The era of sentient footballs

A new technology from Europe: RFIDs inside footballs to gather data and -- most importantly -- confirm the ball's location on the field in real time. The article is auf Deutsch, but reader Christopher has provided an excellent English summary, quoted below.

IKEA WALKTHROUGH v2.3.1
I love this, definately worth a read...:

"IKEA is a fully immersive, 3D environmental adventure that allows you to role-play the character of someone who gives a shit about home furnishings. In traversing IKEA, you will experience a meticulously detailed alternate reality filled with garish colors, clear-lacquered birch veneer, and a host of NON-PLAYER CHARACTERS (NPCs) with the glazed looks of the recently anesthetized."

Amazing London Street Art
Thanks to Mark for the tip.

pya!
Flash game - Thanks to JamesH for the tip.

time-warp Archive of Vintage Technology Through the Decades

The Guardian | Paul Flynn: Why I love going to the cinema alone

eXtreme Segway

lunchclock.com - Covertly Extend Your Lunch Hour!
I love this - very nice thought process involved here...

"Lunchclock uses a trivial and hence unpatented chrono-distortion algorithm to calculate how much to speed up or slow down the clock based on the details of your working day and your desired lunch period extension"

Proper use of the Photoshop trademark
Corporate Madness...

The Photoshop trademark must never be used as a common verb or as a noun. The Photoshop trademark should always be capitalized and should never be used in possessive form, or as a slang term. It should be used as an adjective to describe the product, and should never be used in abbreviated form. The following examples illustrate these rules:
Trademarks are not verbs.
CORRECT: The image was enhanced using Adobe® Photoshop® software.
INCORRECT: The image was photoshopped.

So Melanie , what first attracted you to Billionaire software CEO Larry Ellison ?

Larry Ellison's most important merger / Oracle CEO ties knot with novelist at Woodside estate; Steve Jobs takes wedding photos"Billionaire software CEO Larry Ellison and romance novelist Melanie Craft sealed an eight-year courtship by marrying during the winter holidays, the couple told The Chronicle Tuesday.

The wedding was the first for Craft, 34, and the fourth for Ellison, 59, CEO of Oracle, the world's No. 2 software-maker.

The couple married on Dec. 18 at Ellison's 45-acre Japanese-style compound in Woodside. The ceremony was conducted beside a waterfall by Rep. Tom Lantos, D-San Mateo, a close friend of the couple, and attended by Ellison's best friend, Apple computer co-founder Steve Jobs, and his wife, Laurene. Jobs did double duty as the wedding photographer."