Offmessage

Outsider art and vernacular architecture are both topics that fascinate me… (I know, that makes me sound like a twat, but there you go

This one then is a real doozy – Bishop Castle… The guy’s been building this thing single handedly since 1969 and it is quite simply stunning.

Speaking cynically, the idea that MPs’ email (regardless of their persuasion) may be being monitored is no great surprise… What is interesting is that recently the Government’s use of intelligence gathering has become a matter of public record and inquiry, something that has previously been politely agreed to be beyond investigation. Clearly apparent mistakes like the suspension of the consul for a leak before the leak has leaked don’t help the cause.

A 15-year-old girl has been arrested for taking nude photographs of her self and posting them on the Internet, police said.

Seems really strange that she’s been charged with, among other things, sexual abuse of children… Surely what she actually needs is help, not putting on some sex offenders register?

Engineers at Berkeley have created the world’s smallest Wankel engine – perhaps a future alternative to the battery… I like the reference to “concept cars of tomorrow.” Mmmm.

This time it’s personalised searches. Still beta code, but fascinating results nonetheless.

Really interesting article found at Boing Boing… Research done at the University of North Carolina into the effect music downloads have on music sales. The paper (pdf) itself is rather dry, but worth a spare 10 minutes… The long and the short of it?

Even in the most pessimistic specification, five thousand downloads are needed to displace a single album sale…high selling albums actually benefit from file sharing.

Fantastic!

Thirteen unseen episodes of cult 1970s TV show Monkey have been uncovered and are being dubbed into English by the show’s original voiceover actors.

Took me a while to get the hang of… This game is rather cool.
Found at waxy.org

…RFID chips are *not* the mark of the beast. Which is good to know.

If, like so many, your iPod battery has died MacUser has a really useful article just for you.