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It’s often the unexpected things you learn which are the most satisfying. You might start learning golf and hear from your instructor about a great new Chinese restaurant near to where you live. Or you might be on your way to an art gallery to catch the latest portrait exhibition and pick up a flyer for a comedy act you never heard about. And so it was, whilst speed-reading Seth Godin’s The Bootstrapper’s Bible, that I learned about Pet Rocks:

From wikipedia: “Pet Rocks were a 1970s fad conceived in Los Gatos, California by an advertising executive, Gary Dahl. The first Pet Rocks were ordinary gray pebbles bought at a builder’s supply store and marketed as if they were live pets. The fad lasted only about six months, ending with the Christmas season in December 1975; but in its short run, the Pet Rock made Dahl a millionaire”

“In 1975, Dahl established “Rock Bottom Productions”, a company that sold the rocks for US$3.95 each. The pebbles, imported from Rosarito Beach in Baja California, Mexico, were swaddled in excelsior and nestled in a small cardboard box, similar to a pet carrier. A “Pet Rock Training Manual”, with instructions on how to properly raise and care for one’s newfound pet (notably lacking instructions for feeding), was included.

The instruction manual contained several commands that could be taught to the new pet. While “sit” and “stay” were fairly easy to accomplish, “roll over” usually required extra effort on the part of the trainer. “Come” was found to be impossible to teach reliably.”

Awesome!

It was probably about a year ago that I first heard about StumbleUpon. It got noted in the “must check it out some time” mental category, one which is hugely over-flowing. And then, like all brilliant applications it just kept getting mentioned; by friends, in news articles, bloggers, everywhere. So I finally bit the bullet and installed it; absolutely superb. How did I ever manage without it? My own internet slave, instantly ready and eager to serve me internet-zen whenever it’s wanted (which is very, very often). How else would I have found this list of the world’s most beautiful libraries?

So thanks to BoredStop.com, StumbleUpon and Flickr user “Curious Expeditions” whose photo it was. I must get round to visiting the Strahov Monestary library some day…

Not only a very cool little video (35 years of skyscraper construction lapsed into 10 seconds) but also a great little soundtrack…

I often discover artists whose work I like via blogs like BoingBoing, books like Cult Fiction, or in newspapers/magazines. One artist whom I found via Cult Fiction (which explores the relationship between comic and cartoon imagery and contemporary art) is Chad McCail, who draws one-scene pictures accompanied by slogan-like captions. I love his work and wish that I was talented enough to replicate it. Here is one such scene, from a collection entitled “Food Shelter Clothing Fuel”. It is named “People Stop Using Things” - what a great title for a picture!

I just found a great blog post by Chris Brogan (I’ll have to check out his site again, I hadn’t heard of it previous to finding it via Digg) entitled “100 blog topics I hope you write”.
It’s a great idea for a post; I like it because it’s a great way to interact with other bloggers/members of the internet community (and his blog’s tagline is “A Conversation with a Community about Digital Relationships”) so it’s a fantastic example of him doing just that.
I also like it because “Number 22 - If I were an Advertiser today” is exactly what I thought about a few nights ago. So Chris, if you’re reading, here goes:

If I were an Advertiser today, I would look to take advantage of the recent explosion (last five years) in satellite-imaging technology and the respective mapping services offered by Google, Yahoo, Microsoft etc.
Why? Because you’ve got tens of millions of pairs of eyes actively seeking out interesting landmarks/geological features/buildings etc from a new perspective - the bird’s eye view.
When these users find something interesting they share the location with other users, and we see the viral effect, usually associated with emails/photos/videos etc. and sometimes these “discoveries” end up in newspapers too (even more eyeballs).

I would take advantage by exploring methods to effectively exploit this new strategy by launching campaigns that could be seen from the sky and captured by satellite imaging:

- Huge logos on flat roofs/in fields/old quarries
- “Joke” campaigns like the recent doughnut-brandishing Homer (to promote the Simpsons film)
- Working with political parties to create politically-based campaigns

It’s not an entirely original idea, just one which I think has plenty of scope for development.

Thanks Chris for a great blog post, it’s got people responding and interacting with you, and each other.

You’ve probably seen the Lego Stephen Hawking, and if you’re an Apple fan probably like the Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak lego playset. There’s a couple of guys (The Little Artists) who make similar artistic pieces, including:

Tracey Emin’s bed

and Damien Hirst’s shark:

Prints of their work are available from their website for hardcore lego fans…

Just got sent this footage of a train which runs directly through the middle of a market in Bangkok (found on Break.com). Although it doesn’t go particularly fast, it smacks of health and safety issues. no mention of which market it is in Bangkok, drop me a line if you know…

Train Runs Through Bangkok Market - Watch more free videos

You need to watch the video to the end (it’s only forty seconds long) to fully appreciate it; the market stall holders immediately re-setting up their stands and resuming trade - brilliant stuff.

I read on Yahoo today that a Chinese guy from the southern boomtown of Guangzhou died after playing internet games for three consecutive days! Wow - playing games for three days solid without sleep, that’s hardcore dedication. No mention of what the game was, it would sure be interesting to know (aswell as knowing which avatar he chose).

Maybe one to add to the wikipedia list of unusual deaths? (which is well worth a read if you’ve never seen it before). It’s an article which made me think about my own death - when will I die? How will I die? How would I want to die?

And then I started thinking about life again - what exactly is it that I want to accomplish before I die? Would I happy with my life if I died tomorrow? Anyway, no internet gaming for me for a while, so it goes.

One of the most exciting aspects of people being able to come together via the internet is choosing an avatar to represent you in an online world (once you’ve managed to choose the online world you wish to inhabit that is, there are over 120 according to wikipedia at the time of writing).

My last article was on body modifications - when the body you’re modifying is made of pixels, well, I guess the modification is going to be a whole lot quicker, easier, cheaper and versatile. I was recently given a great book on this subject - Alter Ego; Avatars and their creators. It explores the identities of a few chosen characters who inhabit such metaverses - who are they, where do they live, what do they do for a living and crucially, why did they choose the online world that they did, and what drew them to their character?

The book shows a photograph of the person on one page, with their avatar on the opposite page, here is my favourite, Jason Rowe from Crosby in Texas:

From the book: “in Star Wars Galaxies I can ride an Imperial speeder bike, fight monsters, or just hang out with friends at a bar”. That’s just so cool - good work Jason (Rurouni Kenshin), maybe I’ll meet you online one day…

Great article over on Deputy Dog a couple of weeks ago - the “Top 10 physically modified people”, including the person who struck me most, Kala Kaiwi:

I think that there is more to the post than merely being freaked-out/laughing at people who look very different. There are two points here for me personally.

The first is around the how - how exactly do these people accomplish some of their mods in the first place? There’s some serious surgery going on for some of these modifications, and some logistical/ergonomic issues surrounding the various spikes/piercings/hoops/tats etc.

The second is of course around the why - why exactly would you spend time (and money!) to achieve this kind of look? (a look that most people find pretty disturbing). Judging from the comments, a lot of people have some very strong (mainly negative) views about such drastic physical bodily modifications.

Personally, I think these people are GREAT. Granted, they may scare kids, and most probably the occasional adult too, but I think it’s fantastic that (a) we have the ability to perform such mods in the first place, and (b) that they’ve got the courage to be at the leading edge of such a practice (the leading edge of anywhere is a pretty exciting place to be dontchathink?).

May there someday be a time when we all look exactly how we want to look…