That's How It Happened

BGBlitz seems to have overtaken my life. I've been testing out OS X backgammon software for the last few days. Absolute Backgammon and David's Backgammon don't quite hit the mark, but BGBlitz is the most astonishing piece of shareware I've ever downloaded. It does everything you could possibly imagine. It plays at world championship level, thanks to a sophisticated neural net. It hooks you up to online backgammon servers. It stores past games in databases, and can peform "roll out" probabilistic analysis of any postion. It acts as a tutor both for positional play and doubling. It is available for Windows, Mac, and Linux, and on my iBook it plays blisteringly fast. Utterly brilliant, and unexpectedly fantastic value at $23 for the basic shareware license.

Flyer of the year, for the world's longest running electro festival, curated by former guest blogger DJ Charlie Beez.

There's only one gig to be at tonight, and it's the debut gig of Sunset Gun. They're on at The Hope and Anchor, where the Sex Pistols made their debut, at 8.30pm tonight. They've just updated their myspace page with three downloadable tracks. The debut line-up features Alice (ex of The Enemies) singing, and Occy (ex of The Ruffness (pictured)) drumming. I guess you could call them a super-group.

I'd always believed that movies rarely directly inspire violence. But actually, The Deer Hunter popularised Russian Roulette as a appealing form of suicide.

Stay Free, is just a really good pop-cultural groupblog. It may be my second favourite blog based on a magazine, after Things.

How cochlear implants sound. I am dubious about the methodology here, but v cool nonetheless.

The Morning Glory Cloud, an annual Queensland cloud formation that draws gliders from around the world for "cloud-surfing".

NASA's satellite tracking webapps are awesome. From Feb 3rd you can use them to watch the progress of SuitSat, the satellite made from some cosmonauts cast-offs.

A lot of people seem to be hating on jkottke right now, but he's still full of good links; like this blog about giant burgers and the like: SuperSizedMeals.

Paddlefish (via RoboW) may be the new "ethical" sturgeon, but can it hang upside down like a lumpfish?

Have you ever made a list of your ideal dinner party guests? George Monbiot would definitely be on my list, particularly if I limit myself to people who are still alive. Anyhow, last night I got to have dinner with George's dad, Raymond Monbiot, who was a very amusing dinner companion, and also deputy chairman of the Conservative Party. As you might imagine, George and his Dad don't see entirely eye-to-eye on political matters. Top 3 facts revealed about life in the Monbiot family :
1. Raymond doesn't allow the Guardian in his house, but admits that "the new Berliner format fits the cat litter tray nicely."
2. George and his sister have always been argumentative, and if you want to have an argument with George "you have to get your facts straight first." Apparently at times these arguments over the dinner table grow tedious.
3. George welcomes the controversy stirred up by his Guardian columns, and receives a constant stream of abuse as a result. He gets 130,000 emails a year, and responds to 10%. He also gets 500 invitations a year to speak, and accepts about 3.

Overheard somewhere in South London:
"Did you see that man on the telly last night? That black man, you know the netball player. What he said about Madonna...ooh my."

The DraganFlyer V Ti Pro is the coolest looking RC helicopter that ever lived. It also happens to be practically a UAV, and comes with a tiny digicam payload. Too awesome. Now if I could only find $1499 down the back of the sofa.

Wake Me Up At... Little stickers with your tube stop on them, for when you pass out drunk on the last train home.

I'm in the grip of a terrible obsession with the South Park episode: Trapped In The Closet. Watch it all on YouTube and then marvel at the fact that in the episode Tom Cruise says "I'll sue you, I'll sue you in England", and then the real Tom Cruise proceeds to threaten legal action in the UK. So po mo you don't know.

Share My Wifi is a brilliant GMaps implementation that helps people find and share wifi access. It's Warchalking 2.0

Zombie Pinups, so hot, and yet so cold, creepy and undead. (not 100%SFW)(via)

WOTD: caduceus, which I'm surprised I didn't already know.

I want a "Buzzword Compliant" badge for my blog, so I can be as cool as FireAnt, a vLog torrent/RSS client/directory

As an entry in the most niche weblog evs competition, I'd like to propose this japanese blog, which deals only with techniques for painting highly realistic figurines of assorted amphibia.

Some other combos that = crazy delicious
(For peeps who don't necessarily like Mr Pibb + Red Vines)
Quinoa + Alpaca, Jonze + Eggers, Olive Oil + Vegetables + BBQ, Panda + Cupcakes, Football + Beer, Year-in-review + December Prize Drawing, Google Desktop + Firefox Cache, Blogger + Emacs, Scarlet Johansson + That Pink Dress, Reptiles + Aviation, DFA + Britney Spears, Garmin + OS X, Food Network + Rachel Ray, Snakes + Plane, Arch Enemies + Dark Horse Comics, Liberals + Insider Blog, Kick-Ass Mics + iRiver, Linux + iPod Nano, Galactica + Serenity, Intimidators + Bomb Queen, Pizza + Internet.
Enough already?

The water along the Atlantic coast of South Africa is shockingly cold, due to the Benguela Current. When the prevailing South East wind blows freezing water is drawn up from the Antarctic waters. The air temperature in Cape Town can be in the high 30's, and the water temperature can still be stuck in the low teens. It makes for shocking surf conditions.
Pictured are the Reef (South Africa) Split-toe Surf Boots. I surfed every day during my holidays, and came to love these little rubber shoes. They keep your feet warm as toast, but more importantly the ninja toes help you maintain balance during critical drop ins. Due to legal issues between Reef (South Africa) and Reef (The thong/sandal company) (mildly NSFW), you can't pick these up outside of RZA. You can however get some slightly less cool ones from Rip Curl.

Dope badges from Assault.

Jeff Staple's blog, is jealousy inducing. His entire life seems to consist of snowboarding with Hiroshi Fujiwara, and receiving free sneakers from Nike and his celeb designer friends.

Howto: wrap stuff Japanese style. Now I just need to grow square melons (Powerpoint melon howto).

I lost almost a year of my life training rats, but somehow Fish School, seems like it might be amusing: "Train your pet fish to perform cool tricks! Swim through hoops, jump, limbo, eat from your hand - even play soccer."

Spell your name in trees. Amazing Google Local image.

WOTD is: all of them! The online OED is going open access until Feb 13th for UK users. All my lexicographian dreams have come true at once.

Whale says, "I didn't do it on porpoise".

The myopic may click to enlarge. (Thanks Sam!)

Great Nokia research paper about how illiterate people use telephony. On my recent trip, I was amazed by how many people in South Africa now had mobile phones, despite low levels of literacy.

The Slanket, the world's best blanket?

Rice-planting robot, from Japan of course.

I've ticked off another entry on the Restaurant Magazine Top 50 Restaurants, having now eaten at Le Quartier Francais. Kind of mediocre, to be honest.

Although it's now official eco-friendly to be culling grey squirrels, I'd like to point out that squirrel brains may be a cause of prion disease, so it may not yet be time to cook up some squirrel jambalaya.

Google just increased resolution for their maps of the UK. Dope.

The Luther Burger, apparently invented by by Vandross. Delicious meat patty between two slices of Krispy Kreme donut. Yikes.

Osama B-L's reading list for Americans. Teddy Wayne might just be my favourite McSweeney's regular.

Last Google, perhaps the least uselful google hack ever.

I have never ever printed and folded a papercraft model. This M41-A Pulse Rifle from Aliens is tempting though.

Great little report from Madrid Fusion, the recent molecular gastronomy fest. Incidentally the most heated argument the GF and I have recently endured regards "savoury ices", which Adria so clearly endorses here. Vindication tastes so sweet/savoury.

WOTD is ambergris (short funny story about lucky Aussie whale vomit "windfall"), which at $20/g makes me suspicious that Wally's death may have been due to foul play.

Movies I watched over the holiday period:
Moog This is a rather rambling documentary. It explores the late Robert Moog's somewhat mystical views of his and various musicians connection to his famous analog synth. It features lots of hippy nonsense, some great moog performances, including Mixmaster Mike and Money Mark, and the DVD comes with amazing Moog emulation software. 7/10
Proof A prize winning play gets turned into a slightly stilted movie. It cover familiar ground w/r/t the connection between maths and madness, but is delightfully meandering and open-ended. Fantastic performances from Paltrow, Gyllenhaal and Hopkins make it v watchable, but you feel like it might have had more impact on the stage. 6/10
Amores Perros This has been sitting unwatched on my shelf for almost 4 years. It is absolutely kick-*uckin'-ass awesome. It's got dog fighting, car crashes, and gangsters, but it's actually an incredibly delicate, sensitive film about love, lust and dying. It is structurally reminiscent of Pulp Fiction or Crash, but so much more compelling. Brilliant. 10/10
Anglagard AKA House of Angels. This is a cult Swedish film, by a British director, about a small Swedish village. It's well written, well acted, and really different in tone to anything Hollywood would make. It has chick-flick themes, but never becomes sentimental. Possibly the best date-movie ever. 9/10
Lord of War This was recommended to me, thanks to its incredible opening sequence. It has a lot of flashy cinematography and SFX, but is rather vapid. Big themes about third world trade and gun-running, but the slickness of a cheap thriller. It's "Based on real events" which may salvage it ethically, but it still feels exploitative. 5/10
A Good Woman Lady Windemere's Fan dolled up for the big screen. It boasts sparkling Wildean wit, lush Riviera backdrops and Scarlett Johansson made to look almost fetishistically ugly. A must see for the latter. 8/10

So I'm stuck at Heathrow Terminal 1, waiting for a majorly overdue plane. I just paid £7.50 for 3 hours of T-Mobile Hotspot, when I suddenly realised if I'd been here 10 days ago, I could have enjoyed Google Space for free. Anyway despite my sadness at missing out on a little of the google-glamour here's some random nonsense before my departure:

Neologism watch: Las Vague-as, also spotted here.

In a similar vein: This is the golden age of everything, even blogging.

Kaeru kaeru, an old flash puzzle game concept rendered beautifully in frogs.

Howto: make a stove from a Pepsi can, or a Stirling engine.

KicksExchange a new UK sneaker swapping forum.

Interesting article (really) about tax implications of online gaming.

Great flash art(and nice t-shirts) at SSUR.

Recursive fun: How to get to the top of the del.cio.us popular page, (via, of course)

Mr Golden on myspace. Crazy name, crazy music, crazy Cobrasnakesque photos. (Thanx Jo)

I, Samurai a new BBC documentary, looks unmissable. Sadly I'm going to miss it. There are however some great Hattori Hanzo type clips for download.

Flash Mind Reader. Completely brilliant, I spent 10 minutes trying to figure out if my mouse movements were giving me away.

Now that I'm all "monetised", I can afford to blow some bandwidth. Funniest track I've heard all year (5 days and counting): Indie Kids by Yes Bo$$. (4.6Mb MP3)
Like a Northern rather more snarky Goldie Looking Chain, though I suspect they take themselves more seriously than that. You can stream some of their other tracks at the Yes Bo$$ myspace site. (Note to Yes Bo$$: putting ungooglable characters such as "$$" into your name, does not help kick start an Arctic Monkeys style internet fanbase. Yes Boss would have been smarter).

Prompted by the completely unfounded suggestion that ads might make my site look more professional, I've added a few ads. I realise this is a controversial decision, and if everyone complains enough, I'll drop them. I'm going to South Africa for a couple of weeks, and will be updating infrequently. I figured this would be an ideal time to see if Adsense will cover my hosting bills.

One of my (many) New Year's resolutions was to quit caffeine (again). As a result I'm lethargic, grumpy, and suffering a constant low-level headache. Today's links may lack their usual panache:

WOTD x3: evince, evection, exordial, and if you like Words OTD, you might like Ben Schott's Word of the Week (I've yet to receive my first word, so I can't vouch for the quality).

Uber nerd t-shirt: "I used to get invited to all the good betas", and beta of the day: Sphere. (Google search is really starting to fail this blog as the archive stretches ever larger).

Extratasty for alcoholics who love AJAX. A virtual cocktail cabinet stocked with Web2.0 wonders.

I finally managed to have my ibook run across two screens, the way all my PC friends have been doing for years: Screen Spanning Doctor

Interactive map/timeline of Iraq coalition casualties.

Triumvir3 dropped new t-shirts.

My second favourite speed eater gets a lame nickname compared to the rest of the top 25.

Giant pacifier sculpture made from almost 31k cigarette butts. (Complete with awful headline).

Be Your Own Pet may already be old news to some, but I note that definite hottie Jemima Pearl, did not make it onto the Stereogum Indie Hottie of the Year, so I'm "calling "Shotgun!"" on this bandwagon.

Happy New Year. That is all. (My hangover hasn't quite worn off.)