PopClip

PopClip

PopClip is a faster, easier way to work with text on your Mac. Just select some text with your mouse, and PopClip appears.

Keeping Your Slap Urge In Check

Danny Katz in The Age:

“…in all of human history there has never been a more feral, obnoxious and ill-mannered generation of children than the one we’ve got now”

Today’s Guardian

I came across this at the weekend — Today’s Guardian. An optimised version of today’s Guardian newspaper with keyboard controls (and swipe gestures when viewed on an iPad).

Be sure to read Phil Gyford’s rationale behind the creation of the site.

The Water Jet Pack

The Water Jet Pack:

For only $130,000.00 you can own your very own water thrusting jetpack. The Water Jet Pack can lift you up over 20 feet high and thrust forward at 22 miles per hour.

As seen in the video of people doing crazy stuff.

Product Placement

Speaking of advertising, Nationwide are going to place one of their ATMs in Coronation Street.

Product placement seems like a subtle, more effective way of getting eyeballs onto your brand. Subtler because it’s easier to ignore (or not even see), more effective because we’re not used to it — it’s different.

A collection of people doing crazy stuff

Highlights for me: badminton with lightsabers and the water-powered jetpack.

(via Kottke)

Who gave you permission to do this?

Dear Photoshop,

When I plug in an external hard drive — one with lots of precious data & backups – please do not assume you can just use it for your own purposes. Ask me first.

Cheers.

Fancy Hands

Fancy Hands sounds awesome:

Every day there are things you need to get done, but they’re not necessarily things that you need to do. Just email us and we’ll take care of it.

Wish I’d thought of that.

What does a McDonald’s Happy Meal look like after six months?

Sally Davies bought a McDonald’s Happy Meal in April 2010 and left it on a bookshelf to see how it would decompose over time. She wanted to prove a friend wrong who felt that any burger left out would rot over a period of two or three days.

As of October 2010 the meal looks pretty much as it did in April.

Now, just over six months later, the Happy Meal has yet to even grow mold. She told the Daily Mail that “the food is plastic to the touch and has an acrylic sheen to it.”

Sally has been uploading weekly pictures of the meal to Flickr.

We’re now officially in a recession

It’s official: the UK is in the grip of a recession for the first time since the 1990s.

It’s a formality, of course — we all knew it was coming. But now that UK GDP has shrunk for two consecutive quarters it’s officially allowed to be called ‘recession’.

Sterling is at a 24-year low against the dollar — £1 is now worth $1.355. Last time we visited Chicago (last November) £1 got you around $2.

Keywords abound: grim, weak, depression, severe, deteriorating, decline, slumped, losing confidence, shrink…

Despite the government injecting £37bn into the banks they’re still not lending and still not passing on the massive rate cut to borrowers — the cheapest mortgage rate from Nationwide, for example, is 4.00%.

The BoE base rate is currently 1.5%.

However they are passing it onto savers — a regular day-to-day savings account from Nationwide currently offers around 2.00% interest.