January 2006 Archives

As you can probably see, I've added a little slide show to the the top of the main page of the site. I love it! At the moment it contains a lot of the pictures already on the site, those contained in various entries. As the site develops, and gets bigger, I'll continue to add to it as a pictorial history of the place. Why the hell not...

One little thing I really like is that is adapts to its background - the transparent section as its base is different depending where it is. Compare the one below to the one above...

The only new photo is that of Richard Whiteley. At the time of writing about his death I didn't know how to add pictures using this software, I've since mastered it and decided I should add something in for him to represent the post about his passing.

Thanks to Jorge from okgo.net for using one on their tour blog and inspiring me and Slide.com for actually making the thing in the first place.

The BBC has published a list of 100 things we didn't know this time last year... what an exciting year for new discoveries 2005 was!

Among my personal favourites are

• Number 6: WD-40 dissolves cocaine - it has been used by a pub landlord to prevent drug-taking in his pub's toilets;
• Number 18: If all the Smarties eaten in one year were laid end to end it would equal almost 63,380 miles, more than two-and-a-half times around the Earth's equator;
• Number 29: When faced with danger, the octopus can wrap six of its legs around its head to disguise itself as a fallen coconut shell and escape by walking backwards on the other two legs, scientists discovered
• Numbers 76 and 77: The day when most suicides occurred in the UK between 1993 and 2002 was 1 January, 2000. The only day in that time when no-one killed themselves was 16 March, 2001, the day Comic Relief viewers saw Jack Dee win Celebrity Big Brother.

I already knew number 19...

And the fact that Tim Henman has a tennis court at his new home in Oxfordshire which he has never used explains a lot... you're supposed to practice mate.

[Via BBC News]

This is one of the best things I've seen in a long time. It's a PacMan Robot which you can play through a PacMan Remote Control with ghost robots. Apparently Bandai and Namco are behind this project. Even if it never makes the shops, it'd be a great thing to have in some kind of amusment arcade.

There is a video (11.51MB) of the game in action - see it here. (Right click and "save as" or watch it streamed... either's good)

[Via Akihabara News]