Elements - warning: do not open this if you have a history of spending too much time playing Magic.

"James my mate fancies u x" - one hell of an anti-texting/driving advert.

ControlPad - windows application that allows you to launch stuff from the numberpad. Quite useful, especially as you can send a number of commands at once.

Creating a being of pure evil - sometimes, I wish scientists had to watch a number of films relating to their area and were asked not to follow the plots in everyday life.

Burning Man and rights - Burning Man have a license for photographers that restricts their rights to their photographs, but it's well reasoned out as to why. Read the link to see how.

Root Bridges in India - how some areas on India have 500 living bridges. Amazing photos.

World Shipping Map - reminded of this by the piracy episode with the Russian ship. Strangely fascinating.

Guardian - Internet at 40 - The Guardian lists a few notable Internet moments, such as the first spam, the first emoticon, etc, etc.

MySociety - Call For Proposals - MySociety are looking for ideas on what their next project should be.

CutThroat Capitalism - Wired have a game where you can see how you'd do as a pirate in the Gulf of Aden.

Jack Of Kent fails the UK Citizenship Test - turns out not many people are passing it, and the questions are... esoteric to say the least.

The UK Citizenship Test - as above, try it for yourself. I got 43%.

Latest on Simon Singh's libel trial - being sued by chiropractors for an article on the basis behind the practice.  More details here, and the article here. One of the great stories of unintended consequence though, given the Trading Standards cases and the like against the profession (see here).

Perseids peak tonight - try and get out to see them if it's clear.

One journalist decides 'off the record' goes both ways - Paul Carr got lied to by two sources in the last week. Paul Carr now says that 'off the record' means the truth, and lying means that you are then on the record.

Fox News - fair, balanced, and absolutely no idea where Egypt is.

Calvin Harris's Humanthesizer - I'm linking this purely for the use of conductive paint in an interesting way.

Glenn Feron - The Art Of Retouching - portfolio of before and after shots from his retouching. Or, as it appears you could call it - make-the-tits-biggering. Via this post at PhotoshopDisasters, which has an amazing example that appears to have vanished from the portfolio.

Phil Schiller's response to Apple's app store criticism at Daring Fireball - apparently Apple did not censor a dictionary over swearwords, Phil Schiller explicitly states that they neither censored the content, nor rejected the app for including 'common swear words'. Apparently it was rejected because it included 'urban slang', and not because it included words like 'shit', 'fuck', and 'cunt'. Shame the app store reviewer sent screenshots of those three with the 'objectionable content' rejection, rather than some of this 'urban slang'. What the hell is 'urban slang' anyway?

Coding Horror - how not to advertise on the internet - a chronological display of Evony's advertising on the internet. Make sure you get all the way to the bottom for the ultimate in "oh dear...". Worth noting that Evony is a game 'inspired' by Civilization, and raises the question 'Has Evony become the most despised game on the web?' in The Guardian.

New York Review of Books - The News About The Internet - a well written piece by Michael Massing exploring the relationship between traditional news organisations and the internet. Talks about how the traditional media may need to adapt in a world where free content has become the standard, and where the 'blogosphere' can excel. My personal opinion is that there needs to be a re-evaluation of people''s relationships with news media - that a subscription payment is a sign that you support that organisation's ability to do detailed investigations and the like, rather than you're paying for access to a re-wording of press releases.

Saving Advice - A burglar's advice on where to hide valuables - an interesting conversation relayed. Made me realise that hiding everything may be a very bad idea.