If..Else Log

Sunamiya, a paint firm based in Imabari, announced the development of the a teddy bear gun. Yes, a Teddy Bear Gun. The device, which blasts a teddy bear equipped with a parachute into the air was developed after they noticed people were throwing teddy bears into the air instead of bouquets at wedding receptions.

Japanese ingenuity never fails to impress.

What a day of heartache and glory for football fans in London! After leading their rivals for so long, Spurs fans had their heart broken as Arsenal grab the last Champions League spot in style. Henry manages to give Highbury a fitting send-off by rounding off a hat-trick which sealed their place in Europe next season irrespective of what happens in Paris.

As a neutral, it's good to see the last days of this season's Premiership action being fought with earnest with 9 goals being scored between the 2 games but I have to say, poor Tottenham. Whilst they can view the progress that they've made this season with optimism, I'd wager that it'll be hard to find a Spurs fan who would be feeling but disappointment right now. Arsenal, on the other hand, must be estactic; a timely morale boost before their adventures in Paris.

The reports of the death of excitement in the Premiership have been greatly exaggerated.

Stephen J. Dubner and Steven D. Levitt, the authors of Freakonomics, take a look at the Birth-Month Soccer anomaly or why half of the elite teenage soccer players were born in January, February or March, with the other half spread out over the remaining 9 months.

John Shannon has a tutorial which shows you how to paint grass using Photoshop. Beautiful.

Love and hate, amour and haine; Rachel Plefger's T-Shirt design cleverly uses an ambigram to reflect the two sides of our emotions.

Tim Harford's FT article on the value of insurance has the following wonderfully zen passage:

The correct response is to insure yourself only against the big risks, such as your house burning down. As for the dent in the hire car, you will simply have to tell yourself that in the big scheme of things, it’s not that important. That is the closest that economics will ever come to Taoism.

Tim Harford has a fascinating article on poker and the increasing use and ramifications of game theory.

One ironic possibility looms large: eventually, online poker will be dominated by the only poker players able to master John von Neumann's game theory, the computers. Meanwhile, the humans will retreat back to the flesh-and-blood world of the casinos, where a nervous tic can tell more than a thousand calculations…Rather than conquering traditional poker, the biggest legacy of the poker mathematicians may be to make the game more exciting for the rest of us than ever before.

Jeffrey Friedl writes on the day after enjoying a bag of corn-nut garlic snacks.

Relaxing now in my office, I realize that I can still feel it oozing from my pores. And yes, my eyes. My eyes are still oozing garlic.

If anything, his blog post makes me want to buy a pack¹

1. Even if it's only to let others enjoy the experience; I have an evil side to myself:) [back]

John recently wrote about how he was asked for his postcode when making a purchase at a high-street store which reminds me of a similar incident I had a while back whilst purchasing a TV for my brother at Dixons. Having gone through the usual battle that is off-line shopping, we managed to make our way up to the till whereupon the unnecessary question was asked "Can I have your address and postcode?".

Why was this question unnecessary, you may ask? Well, the reason is because we were just buying a portable TV. Therefore, they didn't need my information for delivery as I was taking it away there and then, and I wasn't interested in being ripped offpurchasing their extended warranty. As such, I asked why I needed to hand over my details and wasn't given much of an answer beyond "because we need to". She wouldn't allow us to go on without a postcode and since I wasn't the only one there and didn't want to be a dick, I decided to wimp out and hand over my details. Annoying but at least it was all over or so I'd thought.

Loss of privacy

Now fast-forward a week or so whereupon a letter in a brown envelope arrived at my doorstep addressed to yours truly. What do I find when I open it up? A letter informing me that I needed to pay my TV licence. It turns out that that Dixon's and other TV retailers are obliged to hand over your details to the authorities once a TV purchase was made. So by giving over my details, I get a nice letter demanding payment. Forget fancy detector vans and enforcement officers with magnetic field detection devices. The way they track you down is by getting shops to rat you out.

Now, I don't mind paying the TV license. I think it's good value for what we receive. In addition, the TV license for our place was already paid (though not in my name).

What I'm not a fan of is my details being handed around without my knowledge or permission. If you're going to make use of my details, and if I'm losing a bit of my privacy in doing so, at least give me some respect by informing me what's going on.

The Stig and the Hamster¹ set out to prove that pub talk favourite: If you drive fast enough, you can beat a speed camera. All you need is a TVR Tuscan, 2 miles of clear road and a death wish. [via]

1. Sounds like an 70s pop band [back]

Kind i Like is a collection of things that look like people.

Now, this is my kind of photolog! [via]

The CSS Reboot page is live so head on over there and vote for me¹:)

1. Just kidding; there are loads of great sites there to vote for. I'll probably gather up some of my favourite for a post later today but have fun browsing through all the entries! [back]

I haven't read this book yet but I love the title: "For Every Minute You Are Angry You Lose Sixty Seconds of Happiness".

What a lovely quote.

I'm pretty sure that many of us would be pretty pissed at having a bag stolen but when that bag contains $5000 worth of electronic equipment, stuff that you need for work, you'd probably be distraught. Chris Rhee, fellow 9ruler, was helping out a couple of his friends when a thief made off with all his gear. He's currently holding a fund-raising drive at his site; I've donated a couple of dollars so if you fancy doing a good deed, why not drop by?

Someone posted a comment on the 9rules post asking why you would donate? Fair question, I guess and if it really comes down to wighing up what you'd gain, there probably isn't enough. But life's already a cynical enough place. Sometimes you should do a little good deed, tip the world slightly towards happy, earn some karma. $5 isn't that much to pay for a feeling of warmth and fuzziness now, is it?

If, like myself, you're a fan of pixel art and grew up in the 16-bit era, then you'll love Pirate Baby's Cabana Battle Street Fight by Paul Robertson. Pure, unadulterated pixel-pleasure, even at a stonking 100mb it's well worth the wait. As Ben said, I'd love to see this turned into a game.

Absolute genius!