A message from our sponsor

Suck or not suck

I was quite sure this post (in Google Reader) was titled: 8 One Liners That Suck.

As it turned out, at least three of them do. So I wasn't far wrong.

Off on hollybags

Nothing at all since Monday, gosh. And this from someone who just passed 300 posts in only three months. But I meta-digress.

I'm off on holiday tomorrow, Friday, and I have the pleasure and the privilege of going to Zeeland in the Netherlands, yes, the Zeeland to which New Zealand is the New, or Nieuw. Zeeland is distinguished by its complete lack of any tourist attraction likely to bring in so much as one full coach, and while there are rather too many Germans there, drawn by the fact that their own country of some 80 million souls only has about 16km of coastline, all of it on the Brrraltic, there are few or no tourists of other nationalities, present company excepted.

However I feel for the sensitive traveller to other tourist places, which is why this post struck a chord. Anyone who has visited a famous site only to feel fleeced, filleted and fucked-over by the experience will share the sense of outrage.

I'm stunned at how many museums and churches offer absolutely no means for their visitors to understand what they're seeing. Not only are there no labels, there's no brochure, no map, no nothing. At one Palazzo we visited in Rome, only an audioguide was offered. Audioguides are a fine option, but they make it difficult for visitors to decide what's worth learning more about. A printed label is easier to scan, and gives visitors the option of deciding whether to read more. Labeling your collection well is a separate issue, and it's probably something I'll address in its own post.

It's given me an idea, too. That's something I'd be good at: labelling museum collections the world over, in several languages, to suit the average punter and the arsey dilettante alike. Plenty of museums depend on arsey dilettantes, after all. It's not all Uffizi this and Louvre that.

I shall give it two weeks of serious thought. Play nice while I'm gone, or else.

Divine right ... and left

Click to er biggify. The photo, pig

Sunday Afternoon Site

The first of an occasional feature. You may of course use the SAS at any time you like.

Here's a painting I threw together this afternoon, in a break from writing, in a Cubist stylee.

The site appears to be run by a PR firm, which if it's true is a nice idea. Sadly they won't let you copy your art to your own page, something about which I've already complained. Once you've been inspired by mine, you can make one of your own. Alternatively, you may just want to sign blank canvaseses and let your estate take care of the rest.

Somewhat related, here's a montage of Picasso for an ad proposed by these people, and that list of links is enough to while away any afternoon.

Victoriana

From Big Train

Short shameful confession

I left a comment at Lifehack today, in which I referred to them as Lifehacker.

That, O my brothers, is like calling out the wrong name during sex, in a very real sense.

And I put down my address and URL and everything.

Le jour de gloire est arrivé

powered by ODEO



Words below.

Aux armes, citoyens

Allons enfants de la Patrie
Le jour de gloire est arrivé!
Contre nous de la tyrannie
L'étendard sanglant est levé.
Entendez-vous dans les campagnes
Mugir ces féroces soldats?
Ils viennent jusque dans vos bras
Égorger vos fils, vos compagnes!
Aux armes, citoyens!
Formez vos bataillons!
Marchons, marchons!
Qu'un sang impur
Abreuve nos sillons!

Etch-a-Blog

Here's a cool widgetised Etch-a-Sketch you can play with when there's nothing here to read. And when it moves down and then off the page, don't worry: I've put a permanent one way down at the bottom of the page!

What is it with all these people giving up blogging? It's never been so much fun!

Get this widget!

Book news

Nobel laureate Elfriede Jelinek is giving away chapters of her new novel Neid for free on her website as she completes them.

Don't all rush at once.

Top Oz cop goes Mad Max mad

Technology such as cloned part-robot humans used by organised crime gangs pose the greatest future challenge to police, along with online scamming, Australian Federal Police (AFP) Commissioner Mick Keelty says.

"Our environmental scanning tells us that even with some of the cloning of human beings - not necessarily in Australia but in those countries that are going to allow it - you could have potentially a cloned part-person, part-robot," he said.

(from The Age, via Schneier on Security)

On the menu tonight

Chopped cardboard, softened with an industrial chemical and flavored with fatty pork and powdered seasoning, is a main ingredient in batches of steamed buns sold in one Beijing neighborhood, state television said.

(from CNN)

Update: Delicious as that may sound, it probably isn't true. Story of the take-down here. I was on holiday when the correction came, m'lud.

A little tied up right now

Everything you could ever need or want to know about shoelaces.

Love that flipbook idea. That needs to be stolen and put to some other use. Pr0n?

New awesome search powers (NB: use for good)

The new Search this Blog widget to your right is the latest awesome thing from Google our Masters.

Type in anything you like and you get the choice to search in this blog (which you already had) or any site I linked to, or any blog on my links list, or the Web in general. So if you kinda recall me waffling about something, and you can remember one word, this new search will find it.

All hail Google.

UPDATE:

Sorry, forgot to mention:

Go to http://draft.blogger.com and log in if you have to, then customize your blog as usual by Adding Page Elephant Element. Select "Search Thingy", can't remember what it's called now. It's at the top, next to Poll.