You (we?) need to get out more. [via Metafilter]

The Future Horizons Web site is, quite frankly, a little bizarre. How else to explain away a place where time travel is promoted alongside anti-gravity and ray guns? A definite mix of fact and fiction, this is strictly a place for those with a good sense of discrimination, and a solid appreciation of the absurd.

Now here’s a nice idea. On the 18th April from 3 – 4pm Brandeis University in the US will observe what they call an Hour of Presence to take a campus wide break. The idea is to encourage staff and students to talk some time out and slow down – in effect to stop and smell the flowers. Quote: ‘Our goal is to provide a space, not to “do,” but to “be” — to reflect on the meaning and purpose…

MciRecorder is a little $29.95 software program that lets you record streaming sound coming over the Internet to an MP3 file. I haven’t had a chance to try it yet, but apparently it copes with Real, Windows Media and Quicktime, so that’s the major sources covered. Interestingly it will also record conversations conducted over an Internet telephone chat.

Seems like the folks at Lindows.com (remember? – trying to create a new desktop platform to rival Windows based around Linux?) are a bit in the wars at the moment. This article takes a look at the secrecy surrounding the actual product – or lack thereof – whilst this letter spells out why it pays to play by the rules when you’re dealing with the Open Source community.

Chalk this up as one weird idea. A combination keyboard and mouse – basically a keyboard split in two with the right hand side being movable which acts as a mouse. Yes, well someone thought it was worth developing. The prototype and details are on this site. [via Everythingisnt.com]

The Googlematic plug in lets you search the massive Google database via the AOL or MSN messenger clients. I confess that I’m not exactly sure why you would want to do this, but I’m certain that it’s very cool technology indeed.

According to USA Today, a new generation of electronic smart tags – called ePCs or Electronic Product Codes – are heading our way. These low power electronic chips – also known as Radio Frequency ID tags – have apparently been around for around 30 years, identifying military equipment and the like. Now though, with the massive improvements in miniaturisation and power consumption, we are about to see them embedded in everything from grocery items to..er..the kitchen sink. A veritable rash…

Don’t just sit there and be a passive dummy, get up and do something. Like…er…well I don’t know, build your very own Star Wars Stormtrooper costume from the ground up. You know make a body cast, sculpt the parts and form the plastic. This site will give you all the instruction you need. PS – for the really lazy you can always just buy a ready made version from there, but shhh, don’t tell anyone. [via Madville.com]

The folks at JMTek have done it again. Their new keyring sized USB Drive is now up to a whopping 2GB in size. Yes that’s a whole 2 gigabytes of storage (is that really over 1300 floppy diskettes worth?) which you can cart around in your shirt pocket and plug into any computer USB port without a driver. OK so the one caveat is the price – at $995.95 it sure ain’t cheap.

Wacky Uses is a fab little site which offers up a charming and hilarious selection of weird and wonderful facts and ideas. Find out a legion of useful, bizarre and even legal things you can do with peanut butter, tea bags and Coke. Good fun.

Here’s a nice idea. The Web Photo School gives online lessons in photographic techniques. Whilst this is obviously not going to turn a duffer into David Bailey (who he?), it should give the new generation of digicam users a few valuable pointers as they struggle to master their megapixels. The site contains a free section, which contains a good selection of example tutorials. The main part of the school, though, is based around a fee of $60.00 a year, which…

Advogato is reporting on possible attempts by the media industry to water down the draconian copy protection plans which are currently before Congress in the US. This is not an altruistic move, by the way, as according to the article it may be no more than a clever strategic move to subvert opposition to the proposed, and vilified, legislation.

Behold, the Non-Verbal Dictionary of Gestures, Signs & Body Language Cues. Everything you ever wanted to know about subliminal conversation but were afraid to ask. The nod of a head, the wink of an eye. Stunning site. [via Metafilter]

I don’t think I’m alone when I say that I’m simply fascinated by Japanese culture and custom. I also love sites that celebrate the uniqueness of the country in a non snide way and SyberPunk is one such example. A site outlining the quirky, bizarre and simply hilarious aspects of some of the Japanese culture (like the dog walking machine featured above for instance). Unfortunately it looks as though it is not being updated at the moment, but there is…