My enthusiasm for this probably seals my fate for being pegged as one sick individual.

Fun with science! Your very own home made magnetic linear accelerator from a wooden ruler, tape and four magnets. The plans can be found here.

Nice.
Nice too.

Today's guilty listening pleasure: No Doubt - Rock Steady.

Word from Megan is the Musee Mechanique is closing this fall, which is a tragedy in every sense of the word. A sign in the window says it will be closing September of 2002.

"I overheard the owner telling someone that all the machines will just be stored away, she said that it will never be forgotten, and he insisted that after some time, it will."

Any ideas on how to save it?

Found Magazine is a neat concept: love letters, birthday cards, kids' homework, to-do lists, ticket stubs, poetry on napkins, telephone bills, doodles- anything that gives a glimpse into someone else's life. anything goes...if they find it, they digitize it and post it.

Michael over at Burnlab has penned nice essay on Fischerspooner and the sorry state of pop music in general. As a bonus, you'll enjoy the electropop perfection otherwise known as Emerge as you read. Crank the volume. Consume. Enjoy.

Two potentially worthy books on the horizon: 800*600, a the crew of the Hungarian web mag Inertia attempt to capture the best of the ever changing web in 208 pages, and The Art of Looking Sideways by Phaidon Press, a collection of curious facts and useless information for the design obsessed.

Quality industrial design has finally penetrated (excuse the pun) sex toy industry.

Congratulations to Rob and Kathleen.

Tugboat vs. Draw Bridge - Stranger than fiction.

Robot Query: wisdom/knowledge/advice I am currently seeking:

1) Sandals: I’m desperately seeking a pair of Clone Pool sandals for my upcoming trip to the Caribbean. They’re sublimely designed and molded out of a featherweight single piece of plastic, and come in S, M, L and XL. Stores in San Francisco seem to either be out of stock, or clueless as to when they will get more, and numerous requests to Clone’s customer service department have been useless. If anyone has seen these in his or her area, let me know where.

2) I’ve been appointed the dubious distinction of penning the play list for To-Do-List’s magazine launch party. I’ve got the usual electro-suspects all lined up, but what I need suggestions on are songs that exemplify ‘self-loathing’ (the topic of TDL’s latest issue is – you guessed it, self loathing). Of course, numerous Smiths songs come to mind, but what other self loathing singles do you know?

Burnlab is a fantastic site chock full of music, fashion, photography, art, culture and all things worthy. I highly recommend checking it out.

I realize I'm probably last to this party, but if you haven't already, you must endulge in the pure fun otherwise known as dictionaraoke.

Astronomers at The Johns Hopkins University have produced a unique new insight into the nature of existence: They've determined the color of the universe.

Want to give your G4 a more personalized look? Try appleskinz.

One review of Morimoto Restaurant. Thanks, ace!

Kwazy

With a name like this, no wonder it's ranked dead-last on the Amazon sales list:

Corals and stromatoporoids from the Ordovician and Silurian of Kronprins Christian Land, Northeast Greenland by Colin Thomas Scrutton

From AmazonScan.com

Attention all Philidelphia-area robots: I'm very interested in any photos people have taken of the new Karim Rashid designed Morimoto Restaurant. Near the liberty bell, the restaurant boasts 140 seats and 6 Sushi Chefs along with the rest of the kitchen complement. I'm curious about what it looks like, any interesting little details in design and layout, as well as thoughts on the quality of the food and service, and how the design of the resturant either complimented or distracted from the dining experience. Send me your feedback here.

Ohayo gozaimasu, robots!

Today's Factoid - brought to you live from the Shibuya district in Tokyo:

When speaking Japanese, the future tense is expressed by using the same form as the present tense.

Makes a good argument for the idea that language drives culture.

Credible sources tell me that my favorite band of 2000, Ladytron has completed the soundtrack to the forthcoming Walt Disney remake of Tron, and will be premiering their new soundtrack on February 22nd at the Institute of Contemporary Art in London. All UK robots are encouraged to attend and report back!

Today is my final day in my weekend getaway to Utah. Salt Lake City is aglow with the promise of incumbent stardom brought on by the 2002 Winter Olympics, and Park City denizens are basking in the afterglow of the Sundance film festival.

My only star sighting: Frank Whaley of "Swimming with Sharks” fame. Other movies seen:

- The Jimmy Show
- Birthday Girl
- Teknolust

As a native Californian, and someone who cringes at the prospect of a 50-degree afternoon, I must say, while it’s very, very beautiful here, it’s also way, way, way too cold. Before venturing to this region of the country again, I’ll require that somebody buy me this.

Osama bin Peedon

Courtesy of my biggest fan...
Interesting article with Nick, the perpetrator behind the creepy yet fascinating coincidencedesign.com stalking service. According to Nick, the site is neither a hoax, nor a legitimate business, but a 'self-fulfilling prophecy'. In reality, Nick seems to be desperately hoping that there’s someone desperate, wealthy and foolish enough to pay the $78,000 fee for his nefarious pursuits.

Spooky!

Simply GNUStep seems like a really cool alternate distribution of Linux for those of us too busy to really get down and dirty with other packages. I'd love to hear any positive or negative experiences.

I first saw this in a movie theater last summer. I laughed so hard I thought I was going to cough up my spleen. Now it's online.

The song says, “nobody walks in LA”. A more accurate statement would be, nobody knows how to deal with pedestrians in LA. As I was walking down the sidewalk in Culver City yesterday the occasional passer by seemed miffed anytime I strayed from the far right hand side of the sidewalk – they looked at me as if I was an out of control driver crossing the double yellow line and heading into oncoming traffic. I suppose in LA, even walking down the sidewalk adheres to the ubiquitous driving metaphors.

Anyone own a Beosound 1? Any opinions?