That's How It Happened

In conversation today, someone used the Siege of Mafeking, as the archetype of an event that happened at the far limit of human memory. Perhaps a direct quote clarifies that; what was said was, "his flat was such a mess, he had newspapers scattered everywhere, as far back as the Siege of Mafeking." Strangely, the Siege of Mafeking is sometimes cited in that context in our household too, but I had always assumed that was because the pater familias is South African. Mafeking was very much within living memory of my great grandfather, as it happened in 1899-1900. So in the spirit of the excellent Balderdash and Piffle (Victoria Coren, so clearly the thinking man's Nigella Lawson), my questions are (a) Does anyone else use Mafeking in this strange anachronistic sense? and (b) If so, when and how did Mafeking acquire this bizarre connotation, and will it persist when the event itself has faded entirely from the collective memory?

Ch-ch-check it out: what the OED says about Mullets and the Beastie Boys.

Wikipedia entry for mad scientists.

Amazing animated Nike commercial, that to me a least, seems to have ripped off the visual style of Katamari.

Black Widow spiders are dangerous, but never actually kill anyone. Brown Recluse spiders, on the other hand, produce horrific necrotising bites that can eventually cause DIC. Terrifying.

Rockbox is opensource firmware for MP3 players, that is on the verge of being fully ported to iPod. I've always thought iPod software was a buggy bunch of rubbish, so this might nudge me to get a new one.

While we're mac-noodling here's a great list of applications that enhance the functionality of iSight.