Dear Mum, for Christmas I would like... Poufman

Retro To Go, the excellent Bolton-based guide to general funky stuff, has brought the 'Poufman' to my attention.



Made by Italian company Qayot, it is, fairly obviously, a Pac-Man shaped pouf, complete with an extra square stool for it to 'eat'.

In the ongoing battle with the missus to let me buy a fully-fledged arcade machine to go in the corner of the living room, I think this would be a handy compromise. Unfortunately prices are 'available on request', which suggests they're expensive.

Gardener who sawed off arm saved by sausage rolls

A real headline from none other than the Telegraph, and the latest entry into my own personal 'headline of the year' competition. I might do a vote at Christmas. Something for us all to look forward to.

One-legged transsexual darts ace told to hop it

Giant dog turd wreaks havoc at Swiss museum

Southampton v Norwich - Looking Back to Look Forward

Tonight two recent Premier League sides struggling to reach former glories face off at St Mary's as Southampton host Norwich.

Less than two years ago, the Saints won this fixture 2-1. After falling behind to a Robert Earnshaw goal, a Gareth Bale free kick drew the home side level before Kenwyne Jones scored the winner. The sale of the likes of Bale and Jones obviously hit Southampton hard, but it's crazy the club is so strapped for cash having made millions out of these two and others.

The managers for this game were Peter Grant, who Norwich fans see as a bad joke that went on too long, and George Burley, who had the good fortune to be offered a route out of the sinking south coast club by Scotland. This evening Glenn Roeder faces Jan Poortvliet for the first time.

Dear Mum, For Christmas I would like... Foot Locker Adidas Lenticular

I have beef with Foot Locker. On my trip to the states earlier this year I went into about six branches of the sneaker-selling giant and attempted to purchase a number of different trainers to no avail. On three occasions I had to walk out as I was getting no service. Not once did I get the shoe I'd asked for in the size I'd asked for.



Foot Locker Europe has not similarly wronged me, however, and cannot be held responsible for the arrogant indifference of the vast majority of retail staff in the USA. As if to show how much better they are, they're also now stocking some cracking Adidas original Lenticulars celebrating their 30 years of association with the German sportswear giants.



The range consists of Decade Low, Superstar and ZX Country. On the Foot Locker site there isn't anything as vulgar as a price, but they tend to be pretty reasonable as long as you aren't afraid to brave the staff.

New Newcastle Manager - A Quick Thought

If Nigerian businessmen really are going to take over Newcastle, and are keen to keep hold of Obafemi Martins and bring in a couple of his compatriots, surely they would be better getting a Nigerian manager.

Someone with a big personality. Someone who can deal with pressure. Someone who can deal with the media. Someone with experience of top flight English football. If necessary, because I reckon he'll survive the switch, someone who can work with Dennis Wise.

And who fulfills all these criteria?

John Fashanu, that's who.

And you thought Joe Kinnear was a bad choice. Awooga!

My name is Micheal Essien, and I was born in a cracker

This doesn't count as footballers singing (I'm working on a series of posts called 'Footballers in the charts'), but is worth mentioning for the fact that Didier Drogba and Michael Essien contributed to this worthy anti-racist track. Does Michael Essien, however, claim to have been born in a cracker?

Custom Lego Footballers - Ruud Gullit

More from the wonderful world of customised Lego footballers. A rather random 1988 Ruud Gullit for your delectation. Brilliant. More to come.

Custom Lego Footballers - Aston Villa 2006-2007

You've got to love Lego versions of Juan Pablo Angel and Olaf Mellberg. Watch this space for more of the same, courtesy of someone called VillaAjax on the Villa Talk Forum.

You remind me of the babe...

I've wanted to do this since I saw the beautiful SMS screen on the iPhone 3G.



For the uninitiated (shame on you), it's from the film Labyrinth, starring Jennifer Connelly and David Bowie. The song is called Magic Dance:

Vitaic from the halfway line

Otelul Galati player Frane Vitaic hit a sensational equaliser from in his own half, a full 60 metres, against Farul Constanta on Saturday. It wasn't one of those Xabi Alonso efforts where the keeper was nowhere to be seen or fell over either, it was a proper good hit. Reports that David Seaman recently came out of retirement to play in goal for Farul Constanta have yet to be confirmed.

The live director missed it, but be patient for the replay. Enjoy.

Heath Ledger's Joker in My Little Pony Form

I've stopped short of demanding one of these for Christmas because I am pretty sure they aren't for sale unless commissioned, but Spippo's Custom My Little Ponies are magnificently original.

The most current would have to be the 'My Little Joker - Second Edition', which is shown below. Spippo obviously likes the cult side of films, covering the original, Jack Nicholson Joker as well as Heath Ledger's update, Batman, Robin and Catwoman as well.



There are also a couple of Star Wars characters in Darth Vader, Princess Leia and a Stormtrooper, as well as My Little Predator, My Little Alien, My Little Pan and, brilliantly, My Little Edward Scissorhands.



I think Catwoman is probably my favourite.

The Independent spoofs Times campaign

The Independent, which this week underwent a full-colour relaunch, was quick off the mark today with a stunt campaign spoofing the Times' viral outdoor activity.



Brand Republic reported this morning that a rapid 24-hour buy of several outdoor placements around London had been launched as a direct riposte to the Times.



The Independent ads, which featured Tracey Emin, the world exploding and a fat kid on a diving board, were branded with the Independent's masthead and the tagline 'Ahead of the Times.



The Indie's savvy approach is in stark contrast to the Telegraph, whose promotion of their rival's activity was mentioned on Times Online today, along with another quote from one of the articles on this very blog.



Related Posts:

Telegraph embarrassed as mysterious London Underground ads revealed as Times campaign

Barack Obama London Underground ads - Update

Barack Obama on the London Underground - What is this?

Telegraph embarrassed as mysterious London Underground ads revealed as Times campaign

Brand Republic today revealed that The Times were behind the mysterious ads that appeared around London featuring Barack Obama, David Cameron and the CERN Hadron Collider,among other images.

This left the Telegraph, who picked up a story on this blog regarding the ads yesterday, facing a rapid exercise in erasing all evidence they had inadvertently aided the promotion of their greatest rival.

The extent of the climbdown can be revealed by the images below. A search for 'Barack Obama, David Cameron, CERN' sees the Telegraph appear top in the rankings:



Clicking on the link, however, produces an error page:



The story, which was picked up from the Telegraph by a number of sites internationally, from Current, Absolute Radio and CMM News to Postively Barack in the USA, ran for a full six hours or so on the Telegraph site in the 'Weird' section of their news site. It was removed at around 6pm yesterday evening.

The full transcript of the Telegraph article, which included my image of the Barack Obama advert and quotes from my good self from one of my original stories, is below:

Barack Obama, David Cameron and CERN adverts baffle commuters

Mystery adverts featuring images of Barack Obama David Cameron and the CERN particle collider have sparked debate among baffled commuters and bloggers.
The adverts, which all have bold black backgrounds, started appearing at London Underground stations and on trains earlier this week, and were published in several national newspapers this morning.

They contain no text, and there are few clues to what they are promoting.

At least six separate designs have been spotted around London: Barack Obama outside No 10 Downing Street, David Cameron walking past a statue of Winston Churchill, an overweight boy in swimming trunks, a golden football, a section of the Large Hadron Collider, and a stretching woman athlete.

The topical nature of the images – which cover British politics, the US election, childhood obesity and the Olympics – has led to speculation in the blogosphere that they are a promotion for a news magazine or television show.

Blogger Rick Lamb was one of the first to notice the posters and post pictures on the internet.

“This is obviously a big outdoor campaign for someone, but they are keeping quiet about it and it is generating a decent amount of buzz around London,” he said.

“My best guess at the moment is that it's for a news outlet, either a newspaper or TV News, or at a longer shot a new TV show.”

Initial suspicions that the adverts featuring Obama may be part of a Democratic campaign to mobilise American voters living in London have been undermined by the emergence of the other designs.

Advertisers are becoming more sophisticated in their attempts to attract the attention of consumers and generate interest in their products.

The release of low budget horror film Cloverfield earlier this year was preceded by the leaking of viral "teaser trailers" that gave no information about the film.

Barack Obama on the London Underground - What is this?

Barack Obama London Underground ads - Update

Barack Obama London Underground ads - Update

When I posted yesterday about Barack Obama adverts on the London Underground, I wasn't expecting to create quite such a mystery, extending to Democrat Party Forums like Democratic Underground!

I hadn't realised that Daily Kos had already picked it up, and a fairly lengthy (but sadly not particularly helpful) discussion has broken out there. My favourite theory is that the ads are from the future.

Dvorak Uncensored also picked up on it, for the same reason as myself and Daily Kos, having stumbled upon the isolated image of Obama on a London Underground platform. Again, debate has failed to identify a plausible reason for the ads and has again become hung up on the meaning of the Number 10 behind Barack Obama. IT'S NUMBER TEN DOWNING STREET! If you don't believe me, watch the footage of Barack Obama visiting Number Ten Downing Street earlier this year below.



The comments on my own site, and things I have discovered through good old fashioned chatting to people at work, have been marginally more helpful. When I originally saw the images on the Jubilee Line, there was a shot of the CERN Large Hadron Collider nearby. I now believe this is part of the same series.

I'm also told that there is an image of David Cameron, the current leader of the Conservative Party, walking past a picture of Winston Churchill. This has been spotted at Oxford Circus.

This gives us a full list of images as follows:

Barack Obama outside Number Ten Downing Street

A golden football

A young boy in swimming shorts

A woman in a sports vest doing some kind of stretch

The CERN Large Hadron Collider

David Cameron walking past Winston Churchill

This is obviously a big outdoor campaign for someone, but they are keeping quiet about it and it is generating a decent amount of buzz around London. My best guess at the moment is that it's for a news outlet, either a newspaper or TV News, or at a longer shot a new TV show. Television is traditionally a big outdoor advertiser, but it doesn't explain why the focus seems to be on the London Underground network.

I'm slightly concerned this might turn out to be an enormous anti-climax, but it has certainly been an interesting day or so. I expected that name-checking Barack Obama on my blog might generate some more traffic, but didn't have a clue to what extent. At Highbury and Islington, I decided to take a snap of his billboard, directly opposite the image of the lady on the other platform.



UPDATE: There's another discussion here on Not of this ilk, which raises the preposterous, but very funny, idea that the Barack Obama image is part of a series of teasers for the new season of Lost.

Dude - burn this after you get it

DIRTY FOUND, an offshoot of FOUND, is a guilty pleasure I'm going to be indulging as often as possible.



Thanks again to It's Nice That, who also chose the best dirty find for their post.

Justin Timberlake is sooo hott!

This is great. FOUND magazine is genius.



As with most good things in the world, I found out about this from It's Nice That.

Google Maps to show US Polling Stations

According to TechCrunch, Google Maps and the beta-phase Google Vote will hopefully help raise the voter turnout come November when the interminable US Presidential Campaign comes to a climax.

There is a version of the tool, which allows you to find your nearest polling station simply by putting in your address, already available on Google Maps here . Were you the incumbent George Bush, you would be able to find your way to the polling station using the map below. Assuming you can read a map.



This has also been picked up by AfterTheDotNet, who wholeheartedly applaud the initiative. I have to say, Google have done their bit to try to generate debate in this election, while simultaneously finding an outlet for their technological advances.

I have written previously about Google's Speech to text technology, which I think is amazing, while Nick Burcher has written extensively about the various uses that the presidential candidates and those who seek to promote them have found for the internet.

Facebook, Twitter, Digg, MySpace and You Tube have all had roles to play as well as Google, and the ability to harness these media effectively will contribute significantly to whetehr Barack Obama or John McCain triumphs in November.

Barack Obama on the London Underground - What is this?

Last night, on the London Underground's Jubilee Line, I was struck by a series of sharp images adorning my carriage.

Alongside each other, left to right, were an image of Barack Obama in front of Number Ten Downing Street, a Golden Football, a young boy in swimming shorts, and a woman in a sports vest stretching.



I've been racking my brains as to what these images, posed against black backgrounds, could represent. On my way into work this morning I saw the boy and the ball on the barriers at Homerton London Overground station, and a billboard of the woman at Highbury and Islington. What are they for?



My intial thought was that it must be something to do with the London 2012 Olympics, particularly as the Jubilee line and the London Overground both terminate at Stratford. Apart from the lack of use of the much-maligned London 2012 Olympic logo, my main concern with this, however, is what does Barack Obama outside Number Ten Downing Street have to do with it, and why would his image be used for a current campaign in this country?

Is it that Barack Obama is more likely to be the leader of his country than our own Gordon Brown a few months, let alone a few years, down the line? Is this nothing at all to do with the Olympics and more to do with our relationship with America? Barack Obama, Golden balls (David Beckham's nickname, of course) - but what of the kid and the woman? Is it outdoor Barack Rolling?

I'm going to keep an eye on this as it has piqued my interest. It isn't the most original marketing in the world to create this kind of buzz, but it seems to be locally targeted and it must have something more to say. Watch this space.

Lipstick Jungle - The Latest Oyster Wallet - With a Mirror!

The Oyster Card wallet is coming into its own of late as an unlikely marketing tool. The latest, being handed out at tube stations to bustling commuters this morning, was for Lipstick Jungle, a show on Living from the author of Sex and the City, Candace Bushnell.

I've been given plenty of branded Oyster card wallets, from the bog-standard Ikea one to my more exciting London 2012 British Airways Oyster Card wallet, distributed at the VISA handover party in vast quantities. I've also seen 'Frankie Say Relax' type wallets which were given out by Oxfam, I believe.



There is a bit of an innovation in the Lipstick Jungle Oyster Card wallet, in that it contains.... a mirror! This is pretty clever in that it is bang on for the target market and does actually add some value for the consumer.

What does surprise me is that we still haven't caught up with the skills of the Japanese. Rarely in Japan do you get a promotional flyer. Instead it's branded packs of tissues in the winter and branded fans in the summer. They're clever, the Japanese.

Of course, not everyone is fully behind the Oyster Card per se.

Dear Mum, For Christmas I would like... Adidas ZX450 Livestock

Whenever I go to Paris, I make sure I go to Colette. It's just the coolest place in the world. I felt fully justified in holding this opinion when I read a couple of years ago that, for Victoria Beckham's birthday, David Beckham put his credit card at the cash desk and told her to go crazy. The lucky bitch.

I discovered the Colette website soon after my first visit to the shop on Rue Saint-Honore, and it's even cooler than the shop. There's a constant soundtrack of funky new tracks from the likes of Roots Manuva, and you can fast forward and rewind using the little widget in the corner.

There's even a set of Blogs, which are as cool as you would expect. I mean, just look at the blogging page!



So, what do I want for Christmas? In short, trainers. Sneakers, if you will. Yes, according to my Seinfeld-quoting friend Marc, I have a Peter Pan complex. Yes, I know that quote is actually made by Kramer about Seinfeld.

Anyway, the reason I was going on about Colette is that I found some great sneaks on their site. I have a particular fetish for Adidas stuff, possibly down to my unbranded childhood attire, and the ZX450 Livestock may not be the most colourful kicks on the market, but they float my boat, and people take the piss when I wear particularly bright footwear.



The ZX450 Livestock is part of the Adidas Consortium AZX Collaboration Project, celebrating 24 years of the successful ZX line with an alphabet-based series of creatons by celebrated retailers such as Livestock and, of course Colette. There's more information on the project on the Colette site and a couple of videos of the project on Sneakerset here and here.



I've also now fallen in love with the Colette ZX300, pictured below and featured on Hypebeast, but it appears to have sold out. Better grab 100 Euros and get my ZX450 Livestocks...

Metro - Last Week's News Today

When I was at university and Metro Newspaper was a relatively new phenomenon, we used to marvel at how much of the content was re-hashed from the previous day's Sun (and other newspapers when we were feeling intelligent). 'Yesterday's News Today' was the tagline we gave it.

Admittedly it has improved greatly and, as a commuter, I don't know where I would be without it. Not reading The Sun, that's for sure, but you get the picture. As a media owner they are brilliant to deal with and do wonderful things in terms of marketing and entertainment, pushing back boundaries all the time.

As a business model it has been flattered by numerous imitators, from London Lite and thelondonpaper to Shortlist and Sport, and it has now extended its online offering to those frustrated when they miss out on their daily dose with E-Metro.

I'm not going to go on about the E-Metro itself and the merits or pitfalls thereof. Ryan Fitzgibbon covered it last month around its launch, and the only thing I would add is that they may have missed a trick by not having the ads as clickable links.

Today though, Metro has disgraced itself in a journalistic way, ironically given the reasons, by reverting to its former self. Over-reliance on news feeds and press releases can see you way behind the times these days, and Metro this morning ran the story on page 8 that Monster Munch had gone back to its roots by reverting to the old pack designs and making the snacks themselves bigger. Sound familiar? That's because this news appeared on this very site a full week ago.



Also I find the new showbiz guy a bit of a twat. Take off your hat you fool you're in the presence of Pamela Denise Anderson.

Nikization Threat to Tokyo's Miyashita Park

Nike seem to be on the verge of an horrendous own goal in their admittedly creative attempt to buy a run-down park in the middle of Tokyo.



Nike's Japanese subsidiary Nike Japan has arranged with the mayor of Tokyo's Shibuya ward to buy Miyashita Park, a haven for over 30 homeless people in tents and badly neglected for years, to buy the right to rebrand the park as Nike Park and renovate it into a space for sports including skateboarding and football. The deal will cost the sportswear giant a million Euros initially with three times that amount ploughed into the renovation.



The move has become controversial not for the company's plans to change the name - this is commonplace in Japan as it is in the USA - but because of the fact that the homeless people will be moved on, apparently with scant regard for their welfare.


Irregular Rhythm Asylum has posted the images you see here as funky protests against the move, while The Coalition to Protect Miyashita Park from Becoming Nike Park objects to the 'top down' imposition of the project and the lack of comeback for local residents.



The story has been picked up everyone from skating blogs like You Will Soon to Global Voices and The Observers, and I found it on Slamxhype and Hypebeast, ironically framed by a funky fireplace for Nike's Windrunner (see below).



As someone who isn't a resident of Shibuya (although I have been there a number of times) it's impossible for me to comment on the impact to the local community, but I suspect this might be a slightly different story were a smaller company than scary multinational giant Nike involved. Having said that, they should really know better and will do well to turn this round with an elegant solution to the problem of relocating the homeless element.

I would expect this might be the sort of situation to arise, although without the homeless controversy, around the redevelopment of East London ahead of the London 2012 Olympics. There is already a debate about the legacy of 2012 and the costs of maintaining the facilities after the games have gone, and corporate sponsorships would provide a solution that could prove beneficial to organisers, corporations and, most importantly (for I am one) local residents.

Dear Mum, For Christmas I would like... Tokyoflash Negative Watch

I keep stumbling across coll stuff I cannot justify buying for myself at this time of year. I have taken to adding such things to my 'Starred Items' section in Google Reader (if anyone knows how to publish Google Reader Starred Items daily as an automated Blog post, please let me know) and then largely forgetting about them.

I have decided to take action. Between now and Christmas (and possibly beyond, depending on how effective it is - it's my birthday in February after all) I am going to post stuff on here that I want, as a reminder to myself and others. Here is the first:



I'm in the market for a new watch so be aware there might be a few up here. This is the Tokyoflash Negative watch, available from Tokyoflash and brought to my attention by the newly prolific Switched On Set. It retails for a misleadingly hefty 16,900 Yen, which is actually £90. I think I prefer the silver.

One-legged transsexual darts ace told to hop it

Find me a better headline than this. Not including this.

It's at times like these that The Sun online's 'Related Stories' feature really comes into its own. I'm not entirely sure what Bingo has to do with anything though.

BBC's Merlin - Keep The Magic Secret

This weekend sees the BBC air their new Saturday teatime drama in the shape of Merlin, and I've been put onto some more interesting activity from the Beeb by Faris Yakob's Talent Imitates, Genius Steals (I guess this makes me a genius).



I saw the trailer last night, below, and my initial reaction was to laugh at the prosepct of Will Mellor(ellor, ellor, eh, eh etc) starring in any sort of period drama that wasn't the late twentieth/early twenty-first century in the north west.



The ad made it look a suitable substitute for the usual Robin Hood or Doctor Who fare, and it sounds like an interesting take on the Merlin story in the manner of Smallville's take on Superman.

The BBC Merlin site features all the usual trailers and downloads you would expect from a site trying to capitalise on and create buzz. There's a game on there which doesn't quite rival the Dragons' Den game, or the legendary Denise Lewis Heptathlon, but should interest fans.

One thing I did notice to put a black mark against for the BBC and their burgeoning web capabilities is that while they are obviously doing some SEM activity, with the search below showing up for the term 'BBC Merlin' with an ad for the new show at the BBC shop which links through to a pre-order facility for the series DVD, they are missing basic opportunities.



A search for simply 'Merlin' does not bring them up as a sponsored link or even on the first pace of natural search (see below). Tut, tut, the BBC. Shame on you.

Shadows Never Sleep - iPhone Application Poetry in Motion

A few weeks ago, while browsing the iPhone App Store for free stuff (I've yet to find anything useful enough to warrant payment), I happened upon Shadows Never Sleep by Aya Karpinska. I was, and to an extent am still, lost for words.

The thinking behind the project is explained here. I found it particularly engaging as probably the least cynical and most creative use of the iPhone's application capabilities I have seen by a country mile.



John Sparrow, in his Itch Away Blog, has written, more in thought than criticism, about the impracticality of having what is essentially a children's story on something as child unfriendly as an expensive iPhone, but elicited a response from Aya herself about such devices and their constraints on art.

I was more taken with the contradiction between the very traditional, innocent images and the cutting edge technology. Aya styles herself as an 'interactive designer' and to my mind this piece is as important in the early genesis of iPhone apps as the infinitely more commercial Carling iPint. The zooming and moving around the page of the story makes for a truly interactive and involving experience, and I hope Aya Karpinska continues to add such great value to digital experiences (and isn't upset at me for using screengrabs of Shadows Never Sleep!).

The Guardian Wine Guide - Great Promotion Activity

I was loitering in a bar in Shoreditch last week when a young lady came and put a beer mat under my Peroni. Beer mats are an occasional curiosity of mine. My dad still has a shoebox chock full of them from his university days that we've had more than one sift through. I also have a set of Football Manager promotional beer mats given to me by a friend that I cherish (the mats not the friend).

So what was remarkable about this beer mat? Well, it was a promotion for the Guardian and Observer's 14-day Wine Course, which started last weekend and is currently approaching the halfway mark. The guides have attracted some blogging attention, but are largely an example of how even a newspaper property as progressive as The Guardian can keep some initiatives almost completely offline.

I loved the 'Chateau de Second Cheapest Bottle' thing. I've seen so much taking the mick out of the idea that everyone generally does this, and it's such a truism. I love red wine but know nothing about it at all, although I have kept last weekend's Red Wine Guide for myself and the White Wine Guide for the other half. I also owe my parents a tour of Vinopolis on the South Bank, so could become something of a connoissuer at any minute.

Apologies for the slightly blurred photography. My iPhone camera has limitations.

Monster Munch Go Old School - And Bigger!

I couldn't find Monster Munch in Tesco yesterday, then I realised they'd changed the packs back to how they used to be. Then, when I opened the pack, it became clear that something I thought I'd imagined had actually happened - Monster Munch were smaller than they used to be. But not now! Old school! I just about got one on my little finger. Happy days. I'm going to buy myself a multi-pack at the weekend.

Seth McFarlane's Cavalcade of Cartoon Comedy Launches

The much-anticipated (by me anyway, and here) Seth McFarlane's Cavalcade of Cartoon Comedy is up and running on its own site and on Burger King's You Tube channel.

Unsurprisingly, it's pretty much the sort of thing you'd see as an aside in an episode of Family Guy, which is always going to be great value for fans waiting for the next series. I'll be hoping to see it popping up on sites far and wide in the near future. I don't know how often new episodes will come along, but I would suspect there's a good sized stash of material waiting to go.

How to celebrate an offside goal and injure yourself

Well done Fabian Espindola. Eight weeks out for you sir. Still, it's not as if LA Galaxy get much coverage anywhere around the world do they...

CERN Large Hadron Collider Explained in Rap

As with everything these days, it's proving more popular to have science or maths explained in the form of a rap.

The CERN Large Hadron Collider, which is one of the most ubiquitous news events of the year, has cottoned on to this and scored a nearly 2 million-view YouTube hit. Enjoy.

Neutral Area. Don't Get Me Started

You just don't get it, do you?

Adidas 'Britain United' on London's South Bank

At the height of the London 2012 hysteria over the Bank Holiday weekend, I wandered past the Adidas 'Britain United' exhibition close to the Tate Modern on London's South Bank.




It's an exhibition of striking photographs, some of which can be seen here, of a number of the successful members of Team GB from the Beijing Olympics. According to Time Out it will be in the same spot until the 17th of September. I believe it may also be at the O2 Arena, the artist formerly known as the Millennium Dome.

It's definitely worth checking out as a free, open-air exhibit and while the achievements of Team GB are fresh in everyone's minds. There are some really striking images and interesting quotes, as well as replicas of the Adidas equipment used by each athlete (well why else would they be doing it?).

It is also a taste, hopefully, of things to come in the next four years as outdoor media looks set to be at the forefront of a lot of the hype that will build in London around the big fortnight in Hackney.

It's also set against the backdrop of some of London's most iconic landmarks, including the new, the Tate Modern, and the old, St Paul's Cathedral.

Whatever life is left to us should be spent wisely...

I saw this in the toilet in Zigfrid in Hoxton Square. I don't normally take pictures in the gents, but it was a quiet Sunday afternoon and it made me chuckle. Not that swearing is funny.

ASDA's Dunkable Cookies - Thanks to Peter Kay

The good people at ASDA's product development department have evidently been busy watching Peter Kay DVDs as the supermarket has announced a range of dunkable biscuits inspired by the Boltonian's stand-up routine.

Chortle reported on the slightly bizarre news that nine months of time have been spent conceiving and developing and tasting the product which, according to ASDA's press release, are also more ergonomically shaped to fit into your standard cup of tea or coffee.

The cookies, called ASDA's Dunkin' Cookies, are baked in-store and go on sale today, another nail in the coffin of Limp Bizkit. Here's the inspiration, from Bolton, showbiz capital of the world:

Batman vs Superman

From B3ta by the excellent Happy Toast.