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Tom Coates has a link to an interesting UpMyStreet conversation in Hackney, London. The UpMyStreet conversations are an interesting concept anyway: our communities are now so fragmented that it’s easier to talk to someone in the next street online than in person. In this case, that’s because there’s a crazed gunman besieging the street.

The last time I tried UpMyStreet out for my own area, I found an advert for a flat in the very same block that I live in. Now, we rent our place, but the price of this (identical) flat nearly made me choke on my tea. My landlady must never find out, or she’ll be putting the rent up.

I was convinced that this [via BoingBoing] was a wind up. Can you see yourself wearing the Heartcam? Sure, it might prevent you being the victim of crime, but that would be because potential attackers are paralysed with laughter. Still, it might be amusing for those “Hello, I’m up here” moments (women - you know what I’m talking about).

If you want to relax and chill out this weekend, have a look at Danish Soundscapes [via BoingBoing]. I particularly reccomend “Koeer/Gallop” (Galloping cows) or “Naaleskov” (pine forest).

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I have no idea whether this video [via BoingBoing] is real or not, but if it isn’t it should be. I really, really want to see it. The “beaming down” effects sound like they would be worth the price on their own. Let’s face it, anything would be better than the blandness that is Enterprise.

One question: why is Fidel Castro chatting to Spock in the poster for the video at the top of the page?

This is just fantastic! And completely and utterly true, I suspect. [Via Boing Boing]

What you really need on a Friday night is some Spicy Brains. Don’t be put off by the twee beginnings — trust me, it gets very weird. Hehehehe.

I’m evidently in dire need of brains of some sort. I managed to burn my hand badly on the oven door this evening. Arse. Oven. Hot. Burns.

This site exhibits a plethora of strange found objects (photographs, notes and so on), which give tantalizing or bizzare glimpses into other people’s lives. The photographs are particularly poignant. Strangely addictive.

Some of the photographs reminded me of those we found at my great aunt’s after she died. She was a spinster (what a truly awful word) in her nineties when she died, and to us children was a slightly fierce old lady. But the photographs revealed another side to her entirely - young, happy and having a laugh with her friends. One wonderful sepia print (probably from about the 1920s or 30s) showed my great aunt in a group of male and female friends, drinking cider in a cornfield, laughing and smiling. It was like a scene from “Cider with Rosie”, and almost impossible to reconcile with the old lady we knew.

So I’m not the only one who speculates about the appeal of blue leds (via Boing Boing).

I had no idea that it partially originated with what would be maximally visible to the ageing eyes of middle-aged men, though! Not being rich enough to afford hi-fi classy enough to sport the blue ‘uns, I’ve got a Rega Planet with a rather nice, retro 70’s calculator red display.

This is totally nuts: the sooner house prices return to some kind of sanity, the better. Otherwise, Mr. Butshesagirl and I face a lifetime of renting, with the full horror of other people’s taste in chintzy soft furnishings that this entails.

What really got me was the quote from the local estate agent: “It is a nice little place and at the price you can’t really go wrong.”

Now, just read that quote again slowly to yourself with a cool flannel applied soothingly to your forehead. Nearly 60 grand a reasonable sum for what is basically a shed? Proof, if proof were needed, that estate agents are from a parallel universe in which “compact” means “efficient” and not ” you can’t sit down without cracking your knees on the opposite wall”.

This is more fun than anyone should be allowed to have on a Thursday night. Rearrange Bush’s speeches into something with more clarificationitude. My theory is that this is an actual White House speech writing tool. Thanks to Boing Boing for the link.