:: GussetBLOG ::

:: Saturday, April 03, 2004 ::

Watched The Transporter last night. Not bad for what it was. But I have to say, was the breathing air out of the dead guy under water scene necessary? Did they make the topless oil wrestling scene and when they watched it back someone said, "You know, I don't think this is homoerotic enough"?
On the other hand, if that's what you watched the film for, you might want to look at this. (Probably NSFW)

:: Dan 3.4.04 [Arc]    ::
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Tutorial on Chess Notation

:: Dan 1.4.04 [Arc]    ::
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Holy Contributing to the delinquency of minors, Batman!
Robin's Holy ----, Batman phrases

:: Dan 1.4.04 [Arc]    ::
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Noware
An image search that will show you something that is nothing like what you expected, but makes a fantastic collage of images, minutes of fun (and theft)

Google director of technology Craig Silverstein talks to the Guardian.
Also:
Chatrooms separate the men from the boys
New Nokia's with Python. "Mobile phones with programming languages built in are beginning to appear on the market."

Top 100 April Fool's Day Hoaxes of All Time
The Burger King Left-Handed Whopper is my favourite.

:: Dan 1.4.04 [Arc]    ::
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The UK has the highest self-harm rates in Europe. Another stat that will be appearing on UK Shamed Again soon, I'm sure.
I'm not sure whether or not I'm surprised by this figure, I don’t really remember it being that common when I was in my teens although I do remember some instances of it. Although surely the vast majority of cases go unnoticed by peers?
I watched Secretary recently, which as well as being very funny and incredibly erotic was probably the most insightful study into the psychology of self-harm I've seen on film (non-documentary at least).
The reason this news story really caught my eye was because every time I see something like this it now instantly brings to mind an image I saw when at Glastonbury Festival last year. Sat outside one of the bars, watching people go by as whoever was on stage wasn't particularly interesting, I saw a young girl, around mid teens say, wearing skatery/gothish type clothing walk by displaying scars all over her arms. She had marks that looked as it they were from cuts, all equally sized and spaced evenly, about 2cm apart, all the way up her arms from her writs to hear her armpits, where they disappeared under a stripy top that was like a natural continuation of the scar pattern. It was an arresting image to which I wasn't quite sure how to react. Part of me wanted to leap up and talk to her about it, part of me wanted to take a photo as no one would be likely to believe it if I told them about it, part of me felt I should just look away. I reasoned that such marks, so blatantly and purposefully on show, could only be a cry for attention. But reacting as she probably wanted people to would only encourage her to do this more (if she had any more room for further lacerations!?) I still wish I had captured that moment of film, there was something peculiarly beautiful about it, but I know I feel guilty enough about this response without having indulged it any further. What is the best way to deal with this sort of situation? </waffle>

:: Dan 31.3.04 [Arc]    ::
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The Bent Festival is a weeklong exploration of the art of circuit bending (bet you weren't expecting that!) in New York, with performances, demonstrations, hands on workshops, and gallery installations. If you look at nothing else on the site look at this picture.

Animal, Vegetable, Mineral...
Play 20 questions against a computer. It's tending to take something in the high 20s from my experience, and gives up at 30, but it's still quite impressive. And it's learning all the time so it may be interesting to try the same test every few days... if you're very sad.

:: Dan 31.3.04 [Arc]    ::
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RIAA in shock as research shows that the effect of file sharing on record sales is "statistically indistinguishable from zero" (pdf)

Also, as I'm researching for my online music collaboration project, I found this, the first book released under the Creative Commons license.

:: Dash 30.3.04 [Arc]    ::
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Red card for report of 29-0 match

NASA successfully tests 5,000mph plane:
Nasa jet smashes speed record (with link to video)
Scramjets burn hydrogen but take their oxygen from the air

:: Dan 30.3.04 [Arc]    ::
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Another great new tool from Google Labs:
Google Personalized
I love the cross-fader.

Morrissey to play Reading and Leeds festivals

:: Dan 30.3.04 [Arc]    ::
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PJ Harvey's seventh album 'Uh Huh Her' - the follow up to 2001's Mercury Prize-winning 'Stories From The City, Stories From The Sea' - will be released by Island Records on the 31st May 2004. The album will be preceded by single 'The Letter', out 17th May.

:: Dan 29.3.04 [Arc]    ::
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I've just seen a tiny Etch-a-Sketch key ring, its amazing! The picture on the site doesn’t do it justice. Those measurements (4 1/4 x 3 3/4 x 1/2) are in cm! And it works perfectly. I want one!

On-line Etch-a-Sketch here
How it works here

:: Dan 29.3.04 [Arc]    ::
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Jon Ronson delves into the Kubrick archive in this fascinating and insightful piece in the Guardian and this web chat. There is an exhibition of Kubrick’s archive material in Frankfurt (nice site) which will be touring later in the year and probably taking in London. A draft script of Kubrick’s abandoned Napoleon movie is available here.

:: Dan 29.3.04 [Arc]    ::
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Radio interview:
Gusset will be in the studio of internet radio station Dialect this Thursday (April 1) for an interview and to play a couple of tracks. The show goes out live from 7 – 10 pm (BST) and is then repeated on a three hour loop for a week. Gusset will be answering questions sometime between 8 and 9.

TBC: Parasite may be dropping by to play a DJ set elsewhere in the show.

:: Dan 29.3.04 [Arc]    ::
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