COD rage

Lots of research has been undertaken as to whether violent computer games encourage people to behave violently in real life. The scientists should stop wasting their time. Of course it does. Try telling me the fella with the funny accent (Scottish) in this shirty online exchange has never got so angry at his own Call of Duty hopelessness that he put his hand through a patio door. Yeah right.

Newsweek: Diana would have remarried twice and had 10 million Twitter followers

In the run-up to what would have been Princess Diana's 50th birthday this Friday you, like ArchBlog, have doubtless been wondering endlessly about what she would have got up to in the last nine years had she not died.

Thankfully, Newsweek editor Tina Brown has the inside track. She's practically got a red phone to the dead sleb society. For Newsweek's Diana at 50 issue - which tastelessly features a vom-inducing cover shot of Diana photoshopped to look 50 walking alongside Kate Middleton (see above) - Brown has spelled out how it would have panned out for her old mate. Talk about killing her (again) with kindness:

“Still great-looking: that’s a given … Fashionwise, Diana would have gone the J.Crew and Galliano route à la Michelle Obama, always knowing how to mix the casual with the glam. There is no doubt she would have kept her chin taut with strategic Botox shots and her bare arms buff from the gym. Remarriage? At least two, I suspect, on both sides of the Atlantic. Always so professional herself, she would have soon grown exasperated with Dodi Al-Fayed’s hopeless unreliability. After the breakup I see her moving to her favorite city, New York, spending a few cocooned years safely married to a super-rich hedge-fund guy who could provide her with what she called ‘all the toys’: the plane, the private island, the security detail. Gliding sleekly into her 40s, her romantic taste would have moved to men of power over boys of play. She’d have tired of the hedge-fund guy and drifted into undercover trysts with someone more exciting -a high-mindedly horny late-night talk-show host, or a globe-trotting French finance wizard destined for the Élysée Palace … Politically, Diana would have been very much at home with David Cameron and all the old Etonians who now run Britain … In the world disasters of the last few years -9/11, the tsunamis, the Pakistan earthquake, Hurricane Katrina -you know Diana would have been first at the scene in a hard hat with a camera crew (and, by now, 10 million followers on Twitter).”

Read all the reax over at The Periscope Post.

Post Overalls grey bud shorts

I'm pretty much positive these are the nicest shorts I've ever clapped eyes on:

Here's some blurb on Post Overalls:

"POST O’ALLS / POST OVERALLS has been well received by diverse range of customers since their debut in 1993. The idea was to create vintage-inspired but practically new work clothes that can match with our love - superbly detailed and beautifully constructed vintage pieces.

The first collection displayed 1940s styled railroad jacket in Polar Fleece and earlier pullover style work shirt in heavy weight gingham chambray among other obscure yet timeless styles.

Since its inception, POST O’ALLS’ idea has been remain unchanged-Authentic in details and constructions, eclectic in fabrications with some extra ideas and characters built in, and each garment is made in U.S.A.

POST O’ALLS has its primary design idea deeply rooted in vintage work clothes and other functional garments-such as military outfits and outdoor garments-which are all evolved from work wear platform.

Takeshi Ohfuchi, the designer, has huge respect towards anonymous American vintage work clothes designs, especially from 1920~30s which he considers “the very best”- a great marriage of old-world craftsmanship and then emerging Machine Age inspired American industrial design. He believes many of the great American original designs have emerged and flourished in that era.

By wearing and collecting these vintage pieces daily since early 1980s, he became naturally aware of beauty in their patterns and constructions, unmistakable designs and unique fabrications -the elements that make those vintage pieces ultra cool and eternal. Those essences were all thrown into the manufacturing of POST O’ALLS."

Available from The Hideout for a steep £125

Roller Boogie

I've never been much into roller-skating*. Until I saw this:

*I can't roller-skate and have never wanted to learn.

Hot in Japan: Bagel head look

Per the Lovelyish blog, the latest fash fad to hits the streets (and faces) of Tokyo is saline forehead injections. Here's what the hip young things are getting up to when they are not queueing up outside A Bathing Ape:

"Apparently, the newest trend in Tokyo is to inject saline into your forehead in order to achieve 'the bagel head' look. It looks exactly like it sounds—like a huge bagel, or a donut, sticking out of your forehead. The people who do this spend hours dripping saline into their skin while pressing down to keep the center from swelling. Voila! A bagel on your face! After a couple hours the skin goes back to normal, but, still, it seems all too bizarre. I've always appreciated the youth of Tokyo's unique sense of style and ability to try crazy things but this is taking it to a whole new level! What do you think of the 'Bagel Head?' Do you find it scary or bold fashion statement?"

ArchBlog thinks it is a and b - boldly scary.

Thanks to wifey @ HanPicked (see blogroll) for the tip-off

Chubby-size clothes (for chubbies)

Back in the fifties, ad men cut straight to the chase. No-one dared dream up anything as wacky as gorillas drumming to sell chocolate bars. If the target audience was chubby gals they just went right ahead and marketed directly to 'chubbies':

Image via Prog Porn (see my blogroll)

Ai Weiwei out in time for free sarnie, toys

Via Prog Porn

For those not familiar with Ai Weiwei's work, here's some ancient Chinese pottery re-mixed by the outspoken maverick:

Via Andrew Sullivan's Daily Dish

Armando Iannucci jumps on Steve Coogan's Baby Cow

Great news just in for anyone out there who likes watching good telly and laughing.
Armando 'The Thick of It' Iannucci has joined Steve Coogan's production company Baby Cow. Here's the deets from Steve Clarke, my mate and the UK's number one TV biz reporter:

British satirist Armando Iannucci has been tapped by Steve Coogan's production company Baby Cow as its first creative director.
The move reunites the who pair co-wrote cult 1990s spoof yakker "Knowing Me, Knowing You With Alan Partridge," starring Coogan as the gauche host.

Iannucci will work alongside Coogan and Baby Cow co-owner Henry Normal. He will oversee a slate that includes comedies "Gavin and Stacey," "Nighty Night," "The Shadow Line," "The Trip" and "The Mighty Boosh."

Iannucci said, "I want to make Baby Cow the place the next generation of comedy writers and performers head to first; a place where they know they'll be encouraged and stimulated going forward." Coogan added, "Despite his inherent Scottishness, over the last 20 years I have been inspired by and collaborated with Armando Iannucci. His joining Baby Cow builds on that. Armando has uncynically always created work he believes in. That's what Baby Cow is about."

Iannucci's biggest hit is BBC skein "The Thick of It," a satire based on the Labour Party's spin machine, which is set for a fourth season this year. Spinoff feature "In the Loop" was released in 2009. Iannucci is also working on HBO's political satire "Veep," starring Julia Louis-Dreyfus.

Be nice to African Grey parrots

Because Gawker suggests that they are the species "most likely to conquer and enslave the human race." The grounds? Research revealed in New Scientist reveals (deets below) they have the capacity to reason, something previously thought only only us (humans), chimps and gorillas were able to do.
"Each parrot watched a researcher hide a walnut under one opaque cup and a seed under another. Next the researcher hid the cups behind a screen, removed one of the treats and showed the bird which one had been taken. Finally, the screen was removed to see if the parrot could work out which treat must remain, and under which cup it must be."
One of the parrots chose correctly 23 times out of 30. The rest were dunces. But still. And they can fly. Unlike us, chimps or gorillas.

Photo credit: Badruddeen

The Devil's Double update - poster & trailer

This is the sort of thing Tutankhamen would find a little OTT, a touch blingy:

And here's the official UK trailer:


The film screened yesterday at the Los Angeles Film Fest.Click here for an interview with director Lee Tamahori. Here's what he said about the film's timeliness: "this Arab Spring has just erupted around [the release of] this picture and there's no doubt that by the time it comes out in August that the parallels between the rotten regime in Libya and other rotten regimes right across the Middle East, it's going to have some sort of relevance, even though it's dated by 20 years."

Floating doctors float on

These floating doctors folk are super. The spend their time floating around beautiful islands chillaxing and vaguely looking for people with gross, made-for-TV injuries. Like badly broken arms. When they find 'patients' they make a little online video and then leave to do a few push-ups and work on their tans on the boat.

Via Current

Dumb clever invention: Stuxnet

Something like this is how oh-so-clever humans are going to wipe themselves out. Even the woolly mammoths wouldn't have been stupid enough to dream up a weopon made purely of code which uses 20 'zero days.' I've off to hide under the bed for the rest of Monday.

Stuxnet: Anatomy of a Computer Virus from Patrick Clair on Vimeo.

Di bus can swim!

Having spent a Jamaican holiday rained in @ Jakes, Treasure Beach, due to flooded roads at Black River, I have a particular soft spot for this catchy 'twanging' number:

Via TT's Fezbuk

Heavy metal violinist smashes it

Most busking is pretty lame. Buskers rarely seem to inject much passion or energy into their perfomances. Then there is this ... a heavy metal violinist feeling Depeche Mode. It is not lame. It positively rocks!

Via Milo's killer Kanye East blog

Swimming trunks

Orlebar Brown make awesome (if horrendously over-priced) swimming trunks. Their best short is the bulldog model. They are called a bridge short, which I think means they are suitable to wear on the beach (you'd hope so) but are also smart enough to wear for lunch at the beach bar. If I had £150 to splash (geddit?) on swimmers, I'd go for these Eley Kishimoto flash print bad boys.