A short history of one of the most recurrent and widely used design motifs of the last 50 years.

Are you paying attention, music business? This is clearly the future of album promotion. I really, really hope someone take him up on one of the more stupidly expensive ones. And that he goes through with it. After all, if something's worth doing, it's worth doing in the most stupidly over-the-top manner possible.

"Or the past and future of practical city magic." Look, just go read it, because it's a clever man talking. It is not mysical, it is futuristical, and I'll give good odds that a lot of what he's talking about will come to pass. And it reminds me that I must dig up and revise something I wrote years ago on digital shamanism.

Well, this is going to make my little auto-printing app a lot simpler. Set up a fistful of RSS feeds, get them delivered as a formatted newspaper thing in PDF form overnight. Aces!

Nice local information service. Must get feed of my local areas.

Absolutely fascinating article on the adoption of new technologies among Amish communities. It doesn't necessarily seem like such a bad way to live, although obviously they'd need to remove God from the business before I'd sign up.

Del linked to this set of lovely photos of various buildings in London. And now I'm doing the same, because she's right, it's ace.

Interesting talk on models for a relationship with creativity. It's a bit hippy dippy in places, but then, her big book is called "Eat, Pray, Love" so what d'you expect? Still, it's worth thinking about for a few interesting lines of argument.

Matt Jones takes a look at some of the issues surrounding running geolocation based services, and the opportunities they offer us for the future. Particularly pertinent: "location is a matter of routine. We're in work, college, at home, at our corner shop, at our favourite pub. These patterns are worn into our personal maps of the city, and usually it's the exceptions to it that we record, or share – a special excursion, or perhaps a unexpected diversion – pleasant or otherwise that we want to broadcast for companionship, or assistance."

Boring to 90% of you, but for those of us who run sites with multiple routes-to-content, this'll help make sure that it's the most human-comprehensible on that is listed in Google's index. Apparently Yahoo and MSN will respect the tag, as well. Good news.

More in link, but in brief, on Monday, the police acquire new powers to stop journalists documenting their behaviour. These powers are a disgusting breach of civil liberties, and give the police unprecdenent powers to be able to prevent their critics from speaking out. There is a protest/media event organised outside New Scotland Yard at 11am on Monday the 16th. I would seriously urge anyone who is free and in London, or can get to London, to get down there with a camera in hand.

With Valenties Day about to heave into view for another year, my friend Del writes about falling in love, and produces one of the finest, most impassioned and general beautiful pieces of writing I've seen in a while. Go and read it.

Jamais Cascio is too clever by half. And he has written a book, for to expand your brains on the subject of climate engineering, and the ways in which we might survive these here end times what are upon us. Read it, unless you want to wind up a slave to the hideous race of lizard overlords that will doubtless come to dominate the planet once the ice caps melt and the atmosphere fills up with noxious fumes.

This is a really nice looking noticeboard. Better than standard cork, anyway. Hmmm…

One of those things that requires a stack of practice, but something I wouldn't mind getting good at. I'm the sort of person that like to be able to see how the trick is done, so this sort thing is catnip to me.