plasticbag.org

Long standing assumption: In the game of ‘scissors, paper, stone’ unless informed of the tendency of men to choose scissors on their first attempt, most men will tend towards choosing scissors on their first attempt. Scissors having psychological attractions for men, apparently, that are above those of paper and stone – considered perhaps passive or weak materials. Research on paper, scissors, stone: The First International RoShamBo Programming Competition [via Boing Boing]

Weblog Party in the Park head-and-shoulder shots confirm that I am no longer the slimmest, nor the prettiest British weblogger. Sigh. Life is cruel.

It purports to be a film trailer. But the film isn’t on Benecio Del Toro’s entry on IMDB. It has a funky website, but it looks like a car advert. It’s directed by Michael Mann, corporate-hunting director of The Insider, and yet it’s actually a fucking advert for Mercedes Benz [more].

It can’t just be me that thinks this is really immoral, can it? I mean – surely it’s false advertising for a start? There is no product of that name. In fact it’s purely designed to make people believe it’s a movie and fool people into associating the car with it. It’s designed to mislead. Surely that’s appalling? That can’t be right?

PS – is this the kind of thing you associate with cool, decent, well-meaning, non-exploitative, intelligent happy brands – or is it in fact utterly duplicitous and foul?

I feel sick.

Yesterday was a bit overwhelming. I went for dim sum to say goodbye to Luke, met loads of geeeks in Soho Square, went shopping with Cal and a guy called Paul, returned to Luke in the pub where thousands of webloggers and Barbelites mingled, then Cal and I went to see Scooby Doo which we entirely loved, then it was back to the pub again for a few hours, before a trip for Cornish Pasties with Drunken Matt and Darren before returning to the pub again. So I’m quite tired today. I’m still digesting it all. You will never hear me speak of it again. Farewell Luke! And hello to Prol who was with us in spirit.

Another annoying top list of UK weblogging: Which UK weblogs are the most popular Internet destinations?

So it’s Buffy vs Osama Bin Laden – Round one, Ding Ding! Metaquoting from Metafilter: “Any structured intellectual approach to describing this situation ó and planning for it ó is so uncertain that a valid structure can only be developed as an exercise in complexity or “chaos” theory. I, however, would like you to think about the biological threat in more mundane terms. I am going to suggest that you think about biological warfare in terms of a TV show called “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” that you think about the world of biological weapons in terms of the “Buffy Paradigm,” and that you think about many of the problems in the proposed solutions as part of the “Buffy Syndrome.” [via prol’s linkmatic ubermind]

I found a neat little site this evening, with a few elegant little touches – become looks rather unassuming, but contains a full version of Connect 4, Pong, a rather elegant font called Feynman, and my favourite feature – the photo gallery that resizes the window to the size of each photo displayed… And the best thing is that I can’t tell you how I found the site…

I think I’m in love with the Google Link Browser. It’s particularly good fun when you’re playing with weblogs.

It occurs to me that the job at the BBC that I’ve just finished might very well have been the most satisfying working experience of my life to date.