‘The abolition of religion as the illusory happiness of the people is the demand for their real happiness. To call on them to give up their illusions about their condition is to call on them to give up a condition that requires illusions.”

The parallels with Second Life are plentiful. Sure, at one level, this virtual reality world is harmless fun, no different in principle from any other form of the escapism in which all of us sometimes indulge.

Unlike religion, Second Life isn’t even accompanied a more or less intellectually rigorous belief system with the ability to inspire both the better and the baser human instincts. These days, it looks like even alienation has to be dumbed down for mass consumption. [link]

I can see our house from here

Originally uploaded by bounder

Google Earth for the iPhone is a stunning application - new photos of Birmingham too, as we hadn’t moved into our current house on the previous pics and there’s my car on the drive.

Recently spotted in Italy, I was shocked to discover that Duff Beer is real.

The odd person pretends to hold it in their hand, some hug, but most either hold it up or push it over (an interesting psychological distinction, anyone want to fund a long research paper into it? Last two weeks in July?), much like Jules is doing here:

Of course, they’re only trying to look as if they’re doing it from the angle of their mate taking the photo. Which means the Duomo area is filled with people doing crap tai-chi. It looks like the biggest mine convention in Italy. It looks brilliant. I spent a good couple of hours taking pictures of them from the ‘wrong’ angle, and chuckling manically to myself.

I like it most when they really act like they’re straining:

I also like it when you can catch more one posing in a single snap:

I got back, cropped and uploaded and was about to start a Flickr group; but what do you know? There’s already one. It’s one of those things that gets funnier with repetition, try the slideshow.