Met Police Crime Maps, via Tomski, via haddock. From the initial, rather scary, map you can drill down into 'Ward-level crime information'. Still haven't anywhere that has a 'low' rating for crime, though / also via h, Coign of Vantage, a simple 3D puzzle game.

Other Simulated Worlds, a wonderful post at Pruned about historic photographs from the American Museum of Natural History / the full set of Steve Schofield's science fiction fan portraits, Land of the Free / top ten cult locations in LA.

The Telegraph creates a nice comparison image to accompany the British Library's new weird and wonderful inventions exhibition. It's not the only media outlet to haul a load of images out of the publicity material and have a ready-made gallery to maximise their page impressions. When you have objects as delightful as the Pathfinder wristwatch it's hard not to resist.

The above image comes from Gumbook, which produces beautiful Korean langage posters, including this one for the four seasons / a stand of unusually similar trees spotted on Google Maps at Photoshop Disasters / a useful iPhone app, a virtual spirit level. We're amazed no-one's come up with an iPhone Zippo emulator so you can hold your phone aloft at soft rock concerts / a useful set of Scrabble tips at ask me-fi / good silly season story: Bin Laden brother unveils 100bn plan for world's longest bridge.

How to brand a whole country (tip, use lots of bright colours, especially if your country is sunny) / a rare (and very partisan) criticism of the Bird's Nest at the fiercely anti-Chinese Epoch Times / some images of Andreu's Egg / enter the RIBApedia. Here it is, 'an Architectural Research Wiki' / Architecture Reviewed, a weblog.

'Long may you run', a review of David Boyd Haycock's Mortal Coil: A Short History of Living Longer, which charts how 'biblical lifespans remained a yardstick for early researchers into longevity, but by the 19th century scientists were looking to more secular examples, like the 17th-century supercentenarian Old Parr'. Today we have things like the Methuselah Foundation, the 'ultimate goal' of which 'is nothing less than the defeat of age-related disease and the indefinite extension of the healthy human lifespan.' The Spectator review. See also this set of photographs taken at the Alcor Life Extension Foundation. Fun times.posted by things at 14:02 / 0 comments