Delicious LiveJournal Links for 7-10-2008

• Motoring 'cheaper than in 1988' - people incapable of telling.
  The motoring group takes inflation into account and says cars are now cheaper overall and need less money spent on them than they did two decades ago. But 60% of people surveyed thought higher costs were the biggest change in motoring since 1988.
  (tags: environment politics tax travel)
• Nairn Film Festival announced
  Tilda Swinton is founding a new film festival in north-east Scotland. It will have no red carpets, no ranks of paparazzi and no designer evening dresses. Entry will cost you £3 or a tray of home-baked cakes; and the audience will sit on beanbags.
  (tags: movies festivals TildaSwinton)
• Portable Autonomous Sentry demonstration
  I want one!
  (tags: paintball video technology military)
• Things they don't tell you (but should)
  Funny, not always true, but frequently more true than I'd like.
  (tags: comics funny life)
• Leopard kills adult baboon - and then becomes very attached to the baby
  Which just goes to show that loving fluffy little things is cross-species
  (tags: wildlife animals video documentary)
• Chronotopic Anamorphosis
  Or "A really cool special effect" when you ripple changes in video down the screen.
  (tags: cool video software art)
• Speeders to pay for police chases
  Soaring fuel prices have forced one police force in the US to increase fines for offending motorists. From 1 July, motorists caught in Holly Springs, Georgia, will have to pay an extra $12 (£6) to cover the costs of police chasing them down.
  (tags: energy environment funny crime)
• "Powder" Game
  Well, more of a toy than a game. But great fun!
  (tags: animation games physics java)

Meme

The IMDB's top 25 movies by box office.
Bold = seen in cinema
Italics = seen on TV/DVD

1. Titanic (1997) $600,779,824
2. Star Wars (1977) $460,935,665
3. Shrek 2 (2004) $436,471,036
4. E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial (1982) $434,949,459
5. Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999) $431,065,444
6. Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest (2006) $423,032,628
7. Spider-Man (2002) $403,706,375
8. Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith (2005) $380,262,555
9. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003) $377,019,252
10. Spider-Man 2 (2004) $373,377,893
11. The Passion of the Christ (2004) $370,270,943
12. Jurassic Park (1993) $356,784,000
13. The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002) $340,478,898
14. Finding Nemo (2003) $339,714,367
15. Spider-Man 3 (2007) $336,530,303
16. Forrest Gump (1994) $329,691,196
17. The Lion King (1994) $328,423,001
18. Shrek the Third (2007) $320,706,665
19. Transformers (2007) $318,759,914
20. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (2001) $317,557,891
21. The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001) $313,837,577
22. Iron Man (2008) $311,708,133
23. Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones (2002) $310,675,583
24. Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End (2007) $309,404,152
25. Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi (1983) $309,125,40

Which, I guess, doesn't tell you much except that I like going to the cinema, and didn't like Shrek enough to see Shrek 2 at the cinema, or Shrek 2 enough to see Shrek 3 at all...

Music Meme

1. Reply to this post and I'll assign you a letter.
2. List 5 songs you like that start with that letter
3. Post them to your journal with these instructions

Cheat the first - I have 10 songs.
Cheat the second - I'm ignoring prepositions

A Day in the Life - The Beatles. The climax of "Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band", and a fantastic combination of discordance and simple melody. Absolutely blows me away pretty much every time I hear it.
Def.Con.One - Pop Will Eat Itself. Rap and samples mix together in an altogether fun way in this paean to disposable culture.
Descent into Mystery - Danny Elfman. From the original Batman soundtrack. Using voices as a musical instrument like this really works for me.
Desert Search for the Techno-Allah - Mr Bungle. From their incredible "Disco Volante" album. Like listening to jazz performed on things that aren't really instruments. It took me about 15 listens to actually get past that and find the music inside it. Possibly I just like things that make me work.
Disco 2000 - Pulp. Anthemic, bouncy, fun, and completely depressing. Nobody really mixed pop and ennui like Pulp.
Die Laughing - Therapy?. I don't think there's really a bad song on Troublegum, and it's one of the albums that embedded itself in my brain when I was at university, all angst and anger.
Doctorin the TARDIS - The TimeLords. Or The KLF. Or the JAMs. Whatever you'd like to call them. Not _actually_ a good song, but totally infectious. And rather topical nowadays. I was torn between this and Orbital's "Doctor?".
Dragula - Rob Zombie. I've danced to this innumerable times, and it's still infectious enough to drag me instantly onto the floor. I just can't help it!
Driven Like The Snow - Sisters of Mercy. Because _not_ having a Sisters song would be just plain wrong. And this was the semi-ambient background to my life at one point.
Du Hast - Rammstein. Another stompy dancer, and again something I cannot resist. When it comes to shouting along incomprehensibly to lyrics you don't even understand, this is damnably close to perfect.