An immutable law

The Website at the End of the Universe reveals that Next proves that every even-numbered film base don a Philip K Dick story sucks.

Consider the evidence. Here is a list of PKD movies and their Rotten Tomatoes scores:

1. Blade Runner (1982) Based on "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?"- 92%
2. Screamers (1995) Based on "Second Variety" - 29%
3. Total Recall (1990) Based on "We Can Remember It For You Wholesale" - 79%
4. Impostor (2001) Based on "Impostor." - 15%
5. Minority Report (2002) Based on "The Minority Report." - 92%
6. Paycheck (2003) Based on "Paycheck."- 27%
7. A Scanner Darkly (2006) Based on "A Scanner Darkly" - 66%
8. Next (2007) Based on "The Golden Man" - 26%

Happily therefore, next time a Hollywood studio is trawling through the Dick back catalogue looking at options, they'll strike a slice of fried gold.

This is the universe...big isn't it?

It's corporate, but it's good.

Nikon's Universcale presents the known universe in measured dimensions from 10 to the -14 metres and upwards - so that's all the way from subatomic particles to the width of the entire known universe.

Which is pretty cool.

Nikon | Universcale

Not too sure about the ambient music by numbers soundtrack, but the rest of it is stunning.

Sao Paolo goes no logo

One off of Boing Boing here.

Back in December, 2006, the mayor of the 11-million-person Brazilian city of Sao Paolo banned all outdoor billboard advertising, citing advertisers' unwillingness to comply with the city's rules on what sort of billboards can be placed where. Now the rule is in effect, and Flickr user Tony de Marco has documented the eerie sight of a city stripped bare of commercial visuals.

We can but dream...

The Flikr set is ici

Another Chinese knock-off

An interesting one from BoingBoing: Chinese developers are trying to attract the new breed of Chinese yuppy capitalist into urban developments by modelling them on romanticised versions of old European city centres.

In Nanjing, there are Balinese retreats and Italian villas. In the southeastern city of Hangzhou, there are Venice and Zurich. In downtown Beijing, everything is about Manhattan, with Soho, Central Park and Park Avenue.

Boing Boing: Chinese housing developments like old European cities

Le Corbusier must be spinning about 1000rpm in his grave...

Vonnegut dies

BBC NEWS | World | Americas | Writer Kurt Vonnegut dies at 84

The perils of becoming stuck in time I guess...

Happiness is...

Not sure, but eight tries against Bristol will normally do it...:-)

YouTube - Bath v Bristol 31st March 2007

Undermining reality

A bit genius this: a website called Vote for the Worst is threatening to totally derail American Idol. We say: yay!

Long quote a coming, and the full thing's here:
Guardian Unlimited: Arts blog - TV & radio: American Idol falls victim to bloggers

If, like me, you have watched askance and then aghast as first Pop Idol in the UK and then American Idol in the US turned our charts into a hellish, pap-driven kindergarten, then here's some good news. The whole sorry, cynical edifice may soon come crumbling down around Simon Cowell's ears (along with, I might add, the very lucrative premium phone services that support it).

Once again, TV has become the victim of the internet, this time in the form of some very smart American bloggers who run the site called Vote for the Worst. Like all great and truly subversive ideas, Vote for the Worst is deliciously simple. Using the show's own strength - the public phone vote that has proved so reliable in propelling bland, semi-talented teens into the charts - against it, ju-jitsu style, Vote for the Worst urges you to do exactly that. Those acts who offend even Cowell's limited aesthetic sensibilities are being driven past the judges and toward victory by a carefully marshalled online campaign, the stated aim of which is to improve the viewer experience: lousy singers, after all, make for better, funnier TV. I say stated aim, because the real purpose of the site is permanently to remove Cowell and company from the American airwaves.

Oh but I sense a summer of fun coming...