linkbunnies.org: interesting web stuff for short attention spans

Marcus: radioarchive.cc is a BitTorrent site specialising in radio programme downloads (mainly from the BBC). Free signup required, but some excellent stuff available - like all the episodes of In Our Time.

Marcus: George W Bush gave up playing golf in 2003 "out of respect for the families of Americans killed in the war in Iraq". That's an amazing, noble and courageous sacrifice.

Laura: Surely the most noble sacrifice would be for him to choke on another pretzel?

Laura: So, yet another hit British TV show gets remade by an American network. Here's the trailer for the US version of Life on Mars. I don't know what to think, the trailer initially screamed 'AWFUL!' at me, but then I saw Colm Meaney was in it and that made me happy. Eugh, conflicted. Oh well, it'll probably get cancelled mid way through, or they'll re-write the ending.

Laura: Tests Damaging to School System, so a report says. As the idiot who organises SATs every year at my place of work, I would have to agree. Or I could just be a lazy sod who doesn't want to have to timetable SATs anymore. For those who don't know what the British SATs are, take a look here.

Dave: The Microsoft Research Worldwide Telescope is online. Apparently so cool that it made blogger Robert Scoble cry!

Dave: Had a quick look this morning. It's pretty cool! Essentially it's a Google Earth of the sky.

tim: or Google Sky but with microsoft

Marcus: PandoraBoy: listen to streaming radio music recommendation service Pandora with this Mac app. Apparently PandoraBrowse does something similar for Windows. (via)

Marcus: New method to operate on appendicitis: pull the appendix out through the mouth. Seriously.

Gareth: The 25 year old BSD bug that was only recently fixed.

Gareth: What if Shakespeare had written Pulp Fiction?

Gareth: Send your name to the moon on NASA's "return" trip.

Marcus: I'd just like to take this moment to apologise for being rubbish at checking the linkbunnies e-mail postbag. Working on that.

Marcus: Oops - forgot to renew the domain registration for linkbunnies.org. If you're reading this, I managed to renew it before we turned into the only search site you'll ever need, or a cheap viagra store, or something like that.

Marcus: Update 10/05/08: Er, that took longer than intended. Mainly because I was trying to wrangle the domain away from super-expensive names.co.uk to GoDaddy.

Marcus: In the end, I've decided to give up and cough up to names.co.uk in the interests of keeping this nearly-four-year-old site (crikey) up and running.

gareth: Thanks Marcus!

Marcus: Can't stop the bunnies.

Laura: Phil Collins announces retirement from the music biz, about f*cking time. The nasty whining little git, as Bill Bailey would say. As a side note I once dated a guy who was dead proud of singing backing vocals for Phil Collins. Needless to say it didn't last long.

Marcus: Ricky Gervais has a stand-up act in GTA IV - which, whilst idly flicking through the in-game TV channels, took me by surprise to say the least. Watch it here.

Marcus: Also: Karl Lagerfeld as an in-game DJ - WTF?!

Marcus: Nine Ways to Start a Fire Without Matches.

Marcus: Yesterday was the 30th birthday of spam e-mails.

Marcus: More on the world's first spam message.

Marcus: Interview with the world's first spammer.

Marcus: Google has a Apple Mac website-specific search. Useful if you're a Mac owner trying to track down some info. (via)

Marcus: Holy f*cking sh*t: Boris Johnson is the new mayor of London. Londoners, hang your heads in shame; you've gone and done a "US voting for Bush".

Laura: I have never been more glad that I live in the north, far far away from this monumental screw up.

Zanna: Happy Birthday to Justin! Here is some crap about Justins birthday.

zanna: For example- His Native American Zodiac sign is Beaver and his plant is Wild Clover. Also Justin shares his birthday with Bing Crosby.

Justin: Under The Hood of GTAIV - interesting CG Society Article

justin: We're trying to take our impression of New York and keep it as that, an impression, not a laboured reproduction. I think that gives it more flavour, more intensity and in an odd way makes it feel more real. I've seen it in other games that set out to rebuild a city street by street, not only do compromises get made that favour realism over fun but a lot of the life is lost and all that's left is a hollow representation of a real place. I'd rather have the right vibe than an accurate roadmap.

Justin: 25 Rejected Ideas From Grand Theft Auto IV

justin: Mission II: 'Picking up the soap' is funny.

Marcus: Web design nerdery: Homer Simpson constructed entirely in CSS. Pretty damn clever. (via)

Marcus: New Incredible Hulk trailer. Quite long. Not a Rickoll, promise (ngh). (via)

Justin: LCD Soundsystem - 'Get Innocuous' - the music from the advert to GTA4

Laura: The top 10 most complained about Ads of 2007. Surely there are better things to do than compain about Quorn adverts...

Gareth: Hans Reiser is guilty of murder. It's a shame, ReiserFS is a great filesystem that will likely be abandoned now.

dave: Maybe it's a shame that he murdered his wife?

Chris: The price of petrol in some parts of California has just gone over $4 a gallon, which is half what it costs in the UK. Nevertheless, some Americans are resorting to prayer in an attempt to bring the prices back down. The organizer explains: "He told us that all we need to do is ask and believe. He can do it, and he will do it, but we have to ask him to do it."

Justin: Some local Bedminster graffiti makes it to Digg! - I gotta say though, of the Flickr comments I got to agree with Mance - the rhetoric is childish.

Marcus: Bedminster, Bristol being the home of linkbunnies HQ. I didn't write this though. And I don't think Justin did either - there isn't a prominent robot motif.

Marcus: YouTube: Prince covers Radiohead's Creep live. (via)

Marcus: Murderously over the top IMO, but I'm sure that many out there will enjoy it. Well, Justin, anyway.

gareth: It's gone already due to violation :(

Marcus: Whoops. Forgot that Prince is a pint-sized legal nut.

Dave: Felicia "Snoop" Pearson from The Wire has written an autobiography.

Justin: A funny short film on the life of a digital artist - so true. Digital Grunt

Marcus: Handcoding HTML is still in vogue. Damn straight it should be: visual-based design is so lame and cumbersome. (via)

Marcus: Far from new, but until just now I'd never seen director David O. Russell going batsh*t crazy angry at Lily Tomlin on the I Heart Huckabees set. Shouty language heavily NSFW. (via)

Laura: Humphrey Lyttleton has died, aged 86. In case you don't know who Humph was, he was an amazing jazz musician (who interestingly enough played trumpet on Radiohead's Amnesiac album), and the Host of possibly one of the funniest radio shows ever, I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue, famous for the ridiculous game Mornington Crescent. Read his obituary here. Very sad news indeed.

Marcus: YouTube: Real-life, actually transformable Transformers costumes. These guys appear to be having a "transform-off". (via)

Marcus: Study: Nearly 80 Percent Of Roommates Got So Drunk Last Night.

Marcus: The Uno is a (more or less) unicycle version of a motorcycle. Damn weird idea. Wouldn't mind trying to ride it all the same.

Dave: Video of a man trapped in a lift for 41 hours.

Justin: Artist Gregor Schneider wants volunteer to die as artwork - so this geezer wants a volunteer to die in an art gallery so people can 'study the way the light falls over someone gasping their last breath'. I can imagine myself there glass of white wine in handy, tilting my head to one side secretly thinking "a child could do that!"

Justin: The Big Question: Why are honey bees disappearing, and what can be done to save them?

tim: yeah we all thought that colony collapse disorder was confined to the US but they've just found a case in scotland - bad times for us beekeepersnull mary celeste

tim: oops, links c*cked up, anyway you get the idea

Zanna: A priest who took off with hundreds of helium-filled party balloons has gone missing off Brazil.

Marcus: Marilyn Manson is now selling his own brand of absinthe called Mansinthe. It's (chortle) 66.6% proof.

zanna: I need to buy that. Now.

Laura: Seeing as Justin has already posted some disturbing paedophilia on YouTube, I figured I should too. Words cannot express how freaked out I am by this video. All of a sudden this clip from American Dad makes perfect sense. Now I must go and scrub my eyeballs with bleach.

Marcus: There are no words.

Gareth: Barbie massacre: this is some pretty twisted stuff.

Marcus: Link fixed - definitely NSFW if you work in a doll's house.

Marcus: Awesomely Cute YouTube: Synchronised Kittens. They appear to be watching the Rathergood ad for Crusha. (via)

Dave: An interview with Jason Beghe an actor who has recently left the Church of Scientology.

Dave: I think these clips are the whole interview.

Justin: This is well disturbing video from YouTube - some eastern European geezer sings a duet with a kid, but then sits him on his knee and starts noncing him up has to be seen to be believed.

Marcus: Reading through the YouTube comments (always a joy) I gather that this is a ten year old clip of a famous Dutch comedian deliberately being disturbing for comedy value. Apparently.

Marcus: Aha. Not quite. In fact, he's pretending to be a little girl. So that's alright then.

Dave: This site gives out free rice through the UN World Food Program in return for you correctly defining words.

Gareth: A man posing as Darth Vader attacked a Star Wars fan, who had founded a Jedi Church.

gareth: If only they had caught it on film, it would have been a definite internet meme.

gareth: if you were curious about that Jedi Church, here you go. They're pretty weird.

Laura: BBC News Through the Ages: A look at the on screen presentation used over the years for BBC New bulletins. Especially loving the bad 80's graphics.

tim: my god- the memories...