Newsmap is a very pretty tool for presenting a semi-graphical summary of what Google News thinks the day’s big news stories are.

It’s a shame it scales so horribly when there are lots of stories on view: some of those headlines are far too small to read. I know you can see a pop-up if you move your mouse over an entry, but I’d prefer not to have to move my mouse across a dozen ’smaller’ stories just to see if they happen to interest me.

Still, Newsmap leaves you in little doubt as to what the newspapers are talking about, and it’s good to see that you can pick a localised edition, replacing headlines about baseball and basketball with ones about football and cricket.

[Via The Copydesk]

GromBlog poses the question: does this picture make you feel drunk too?

To which I have two responses:

1. Yes, it does.
2. The people in that harbour are in for a nasty shock in about thirty seconds’ time if someone doesn’t pull up NOW!

James Gleick wrote an informative article on “namespaces.” (NB: New York Times article – registration required.) It’s primarily about internet domain names, but Gleick also draws comparisons with some other namespaces which require regulation, such as drug names and the Dewey Decimal Classification system.

Not that confusion over the rights to internet domain names is precisely a new issue, but Gleick’s article is a decent overview of the topic. Not to mention informative: I hadn’t heard of the case of BODACIOUS-TATAS.COM before reading Gleick’s article.

[Via MISCmedia - see entry for 22 March 2004]

Over at defective yeti, it’s time to get the new baby off to sleep:

I know the melodies to most of the classics, but I can usually only remember the first verse of words; after that I have to resort to improv. I figure it doesn’t matter what I say, as long as I sing it softly and keep the beat. Unfortunately, this philosophies results in calamities like the Brahms Lullaby sung as:

Lullaby
And goodnight
La la blah blah
Blah something
I think this song
Is in German
Eins zwei drei vier funf
Bratwurst
[...]

The great thing about this strategy is that you can tailor your lyrics for the situation.

[Fifteen minutes and six made-up "Brahms Lullaby" verses later:]

No, for real
Go to sleep
Or we’ll sell you
On E-bay …

[...]

Astronauts on board the International Space Station took this unusual view of the Tibetan Plateau. Somehow a shot from that perspective emphasises the sheer height of Everest in a way that pictures taken from satellites (which are typically much higher up than the ISS) or from the ground don’t.

Excel as a database. It’s funny because it’s true. All too true… *sob*

[Via Infovore infobrief]

R Todd King has posted some amazing photographs of the Harbin Snow and Ice Festival.

The night-time shots are more spectacular, but the daylight pictures show off the detail work much better.

[Via MetaFilter]

Drop testing should only be undertaken by fully trained professionals.

Neil Gaiman for President! Vote early and vote often.

In truth, either presidential candidate would be fine. The deathmatch for Vice-President is much more interesting. Lord Vetinari would probably be best at the job, as long as he was a Dick Cheney-style power-behind-the-throne, but I can certainly see Eowyn in the job. Or Eddie Izzard.

[Via Neil Gaiman]

I’m indebted to pixeldiva for rescuing this wonderfully gruesome Armando Ianucci story from the depths of the Wayback Machine.

You’ve Got Wombles, Mate

Monday June 1

Woke up at 3am to interminable scuttling sound coming from my loft. Rang Council Pest Control Offices in the morning, and they sent a man round with equipment and small cages. He took one look upstairs, then came down and said “I’m terribly sorry, but you’ve got Wombles.” I said that couldn’t possibly be true, and he said: “Yes it is. Haven’t you noticed your house has been that little bit neater recently?” I thought about this for a minute, and realised I was dealing with something greater than all of us. I asked the man to leave his traps and show me how to work them.

[...]

Trust me, it gets much stranger from there on in.

Over at shutterbug there’s a really lovely set of photographs from a visit to a chinese garden.

I especially like the shot of the insect flying above the leaf; something about the combination of colours just appeals to me.

This copy of a post to alt.tv.twin-peaks includes all sorts of interesting information about what had to be cut from Fire Walks With Me to bring it down to an acceptable length for a cinema release. I had no idea that the original script included a couple of scenes which showed us a little of what happened to Agent Cooper after that horrifying last scene in the TV series. I really wish they’d made it to the cinema release.

I haven’t seen Fire Walk With Me since its initial run in the cinema. At the time I was frustrated at the changes in the cast and found the film way too disjointed, but I think it’s probably due for a reassessment. Perhaps I’ll take another look at the film once Twin Peaks season 2 is released on DVD in September.

[Via Barbelith]

The Trixie Update: one day all geek babies will have sites like this, complete with a Trixie Telemetry section telling the world precisely how long it’s been since the last diaper leakage incident.

About the only trick they’ve missed is that the RSS feed only includes details of their daily posts: there really should be separate RSS feeds for every one of the gauges in the Trixie Telemetry section.

[Via web-goddess]

Time for another adaptation of The Lord of the Rings, this time as an animated GIF.

For what it’s worth, it seems to be an adaptation of Peter Jackson’s films rather than the original novels: once again, the Scouring of the Shire is omitted. Worse yet, Eowyn doesn’t so much as make a token appearance, never mind get to kill the Witch King!

[Via Bifurcated Rivets]