Category: Quickhit

[John Bird and John Fortune explain the subprime crisis](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SJ_qK4g6ntM). A useful guide, especially if you imagine financial markets make any sense…

[The Bugatti toaster](http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/branding/if-you-cant-afford-a-bugatti-car-maybe-you-can-afford-their-toaster-299162.php). I’d rather have the [Veryon](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bugatti_Veyron), of course.

[How to play the Swedish beach game *Kubb*](http://www.dyers.org/blog/archives/2007/09/10/make-your-own-kubb-set-for-dirt-cheap/). Bit of DIY involved to get the bits, but it looks like a good fun game to play.

[A New Zealand farmer was ordered to consult a worm psychologist to see if his composting worms were traumatised](http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2007/12/16/2120077.htm). At no possible point during this story could the government official have been thinking clearly.

[What would happen if a watch mated with a scorpion](http://watchismo.blogspot.com/2007/12/buggin-out-more-arthropoidal-watchworks.html). Beautiful stuff (in a certain way), and reasonably priced too…

[And tops the box office](http://www.imdb.com/news/sb/2008-01-21/film/1). This is turning out to be a love it or hate it film so far. But I have to say that (to date) no one whose opinion I respect has seen the film and not liked it *unless* they suffer from motion sickness problems from the shaky-cam.

[A graphical history of the Batman logo](http://www.kottke.org/remainder/07/09/14121.html). (That was the Batman theme, in case you were wondering).

[Two mathematicians explain those traffic jams which seem to happen for no reason](http://www.physorg.com/news117283969.html). A nice bit of analysis, but I kinda thought this one had been solved years ago.

[Ten tips to make eating and drinking easier](http://lifehacker.com/software/lifehacker-top-10/top-10-food-and-drink-hacks-327267.php). I particularly like the coke can cooling trick. I think I’ll try that later today…

[The first 30 pages of Muirhead’s Guide to London, 1928](http://www.boingboing.net/2007/11/18/muirheads-london-gui.html). Interestingly, the guide suggests tipping of 20 per cent, which is quite a bit more than the [current suggestion for London](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tipping_by_region#United_Kingdom). So perhaps the direction of tipping is not all in one direction as it sometimes seems.