Reviewing Chinese Democracy is not like reviewing music. It’s more like reviewing a unicorn. Should I primarily be blown away that it exists at all? Am I supposed to compare it to conventional horses? To a rhinoceros? Does its pre-existing mythology impact its actual value, or must it be examined inside a cultural vacuum, as if this creature is no more (or less) special than the remainder of the animal kingdom?

›› Chuck Klosterman reviews Chinese Democracy

Millions of photos from LIFE magazine are now archived on Google Images. And the large-resolution versions are available for purchase as prints, too. I found a slew of Singapore-related images and they are awesome (if you’re a nostalgia/history buff) but I just wish there were more information on the images’ locations and context. Maybe Google and LIFE could extend the Google Image Labeler to this outstanding resource one day and make it even more useful.

Interesting promo site for IKEA — upload your own MP3, play with a keyboard-driven drum kit or shout into your computer’s microphone and see the action. Pretty fun, even funny, and beautifully executed but somehow seems a pointless: I really don’t see how sound will make all the difference if I am buying a cupboard.
But, hey… you know… it’s really nice.

Who would have thought Elvis would look this good on a PEZ dispenser!

Apparently, rearranging the letters of ‘William Shakespeare’ gives us some real gems.

• I am a weakish speller.
• I’ll make a wise phrase.
• Hear me as I will speak.
• Alas! I’m shrew-like ape.
• Wise male: ah, I sparkle!
• I make Lear’s wish pale.
• I shape warlike males.
• A wee phrase? I am skill!
• Lame Swahili speaker.

[Via Anagram Genius]

An absolutely stunning piece of film-making for this Toshiba commercial by Grey London. Honestly, I don’t know how the heck this advert sells Toshiba’s Upscaling technology in particular, but the jaw-dropping technique is just fantastic. You can’t really go wrong with a Crystal Castles track for the music either.

The scale of the production is massive: 200 Toshiba camcorders, 2.5 million individually named frames and 20 terabytes of video.

[Via Heavy Backpack]

The XO Laptop, despite all the criticism, is for a noble cause and is a wonderful product. I bought it last year and I’ve had hours of great fun on it – it’s got great battery life, a superb screen that works great outdoors and it’s (almost as) hard as nuts. I can’t wait for our kid to grow up and bang away on it!

Yes, the violence in the video may be a little disturbing but The Kills are pretty awesome, so it’s OK.

This beautiful coin won a Dutch contest to design a 5 euro commemorative coin. The winning designer, Stani Michiels, (actually, it’s more the winning architect) has a nice detailed process story about the winning design. The stunning thing for me was that the entire process of designing the coin was all done with free software — Python, SPE editor, PIL, pyCairo, Gimp, Inkscape, Phatch — on an Asus Eee PC that ran Ubuntu.

Absolutely stunning work and a glowing tribute to the versatility, quality and cost of Linux in a ‘production’ environment. If only Linux and most other free software were easy enough for more people (like our parents) to access and use on their desktops, the world might be better, freer and less energy-hungry than it is now.

[Via Design Oberserver]

The weird, ridiculous lyrics and John McCrea’s lazy, deadpan delivery are why many people dislike Fashion Nugget, and CAKE’s music in general. The weird, ridiculous lyrics and John McCrea’s lazy, deadpan delivery are exactly why I absolutely love this album, on top of the excellent and wide ranging influences and ability this band has. This album spawned two radio hits (The Distance and the cover of Gloria Gaynor’s I Will Survive) for this alternative rock band from Sacramento and it’s very high on my list of albums I hope to somehow have in my possession if I find myself marooned on a deserted island. (It goes without saying that I must have a CD player on hand if I find myself marooned on the said deserted island, but I digress…)

Match Day Football Programmes is a collection of match day programmes from the golden era of British football (before all the commercialism, professionalism and all that) published by Fuel Design. It features English league (and a few non-league) clubs from 1945 to 1991. At £18 a piece, this pocket sized book is an excellent window into the simpler (albeit amateur) days of the beautiful game.

It seems I am not the only one who Googles my symptoms before heading to the doctor. Google Flu Trends tracks search terms to predict when the flu will hit certain areas within the United States — an epidemic indicator, if you like. While it’s a good idea and could be extended to pseudo-prediction of epidemics and pandemics, this kind of ’searchsourcing’ will only be useful if Google remains insanely popular.

Ink Tape is a font designed by Merci Bernard, an art director from France who has a nice collection of work.