• BBC News – Crowdsourcing: Turning customers into creative directors
  Interesting. I'm not sure that crowdsourcing can be applied in all areas of design and creation (you can't do it for most aspects of car design, for example, due to technical and legislative requirements), but it could certainly put pressure on a few job titles in the workplace. It isn't a panacea for those areas where it can be applied, either.
  business bbc crowdsourcing ecommerce marketing

• Pallas’s Cat – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
  Meow.
  cats wild nature

• Cost-saving perennial planting system offers help to hard-pressed council teams | Horticulture Week
  It would be good, in my view, for local authorities to use perennials for planting more widely. But I'm not holding my breath for sudden change.
  perennials plants amenity horticulture

• BBC – Viewfinder: Street photography now
  I always feel slightly uncomfortable taking photos of strangers. But you do see some great things that are fleeting, momentary, yet somehow one feels that they should be preserved.
  photography opinion street

• BBC News – Rare bumblebees make comeback in Kent and Sussex
  Hurrah! This spring was a good one for bees too, with plenty of good flying days.
  bees nature conservation Sussex
• BBC News – Hastings Pier engulfed and destroyed by fire
  This is terrible. Hastings has been struggling to pull itself up over recent years – the improvements in the George Street area, the restoration of the West Hill Lift and now the redevelopment of the Stade. But all of these were at the eastern (old) end of town. The western end of the front, the area around the pier, is still shabby. The town had bought the pier and this week calls were put out for designs for restoring the pier to make it the centrepiece of regeneration of the western end of the front. I wonder if it will now be a sad burnt out shell, like Brighton's West Pier, with no chance of restoration, left to slowly rot into the sea.
  Hastings Sussex pier fire news

• Hastings pier on fire | Flickr – Photo Sharing!
  "You Can Save Me", reads the banner. It's going to take quite something to save the pier now.
  Hastings pier fire news photographs

• Birlea Denver 5ft King Size White Bed
  Seems a very good price for this bed. Our existing one is broken. No jokes, thank you.
  furniture bed

• BBC News – Solar bag could solve energy needs of mobile phone users
  Works best on sunny days. In Greece. Not likely to charge up much at all on a wet October morning in England.
  solar energy technology science computer

• Aqui Maastricht – Welcome
  Stunning holiday apartment in Maastricht.
  accommodation apartment Maastricht Netherlands
• winter – vvv maastricht
  Magisch Maastricht – we might try and go this year, although the Winterland website seems to be broken.
  Maastricht Netherlands Christmas

• Holidayhome in Holland, Maastricht
  Apartment in the Wyck area of Maastricht – looks good and fantastic location.
  apartment accomodation Maastricht Netherlands

• British Lung Foundation | Home | Pulmonary embolism
  Gordon Bennett! It's one thing after another in our family at the moment!
  pulmonary_embolism health lung medicine

• BBC – Ever Wondered About Food? – Macaroni Cheese
  The ultimate macaroni cheese recipe. Possibly not compatible with healthy living.
  macaroni cheese food recipe

• Home: Kas Magazine
  Dutch horticultural trade magazine.
  Netherlands horticulture magazine

• Web Hosting Timeline and Milestones for 34SP.com
  34SP.com is ten. When did I start with them? (checks archives – late 2003, it seems) Good to see a small company succeed.
  34SP hosting business website grayblog

• ModelTalker Speech Synthesis System
  Speech synthesis software, for voice banking. Excellent for those (like my Mum) who are likely to lose the power of speech. As featured in recent BBC R4 Word of Mouth programme.
  speech synthesis software voice MND

• Manufacturer of the Lightwriter® – Text To Speech Communication Aids | Toby Churchill
  Text-to-speech hardware. Looks good from initial looking. I'll need to speak to Mum's nurse about this.
  technology hardware MND speech synthesis text-to-speech

• YouTube – Holy Fuck – "Red Lights" (Official Video)
  Cats meet music meet Two Lane Blacktop. What more could you ask for?
  cats music video holy_fuck

• The Birdcage
  Quite the best pub I've been in since, oh, ages. Any pub that serves good beer, has cake on the bar and features a cat called Maraud, must surely be a good pub.
  pub Norwich cat beer cake

• YouTube – The East Grinstead Song
  Respec' to the Felbridge massive.
  East_Grinstead video youtube humour

• Pieminister – home
  Really rather fine pies. Mmmmmm pie.
  pie food pieminister mmmmmm uk

• Belgium divisions deepen further | EurActiv
  EurActiv, as usual, gives a rather more detailed account.
  Belgium politics
• BBC News – Belgium fails to break political deadlock
  Again. I'm not sure that new elections would help. The Belgians that I've spoken to (admittedly, all Flemish) seem to think that the country will eventually break up. It will be interesting to see how the neighbours respond to that – the Dutch will almost certainly absorb Flanders, but the French are less than enthusiastic about taking on Wallonia, which, if it remained independent, would become the poorest member of the EU. Then there is the Brussels issue – I don't think it has been suggested, but it would almost make sense if it become an independent city-state, at least from a political point of view.
  Belgium politics

• Proloquo2Go: Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) for iPhone, iPod touch and iPad
  Hmm. Not sure how mum would get on with an iPod, but this is what the nurse recommends. We can organise a trial for her, so it'll be a case of suck it and see.
  speech technology language software disability communication MND

I’m sorry to say that grayblog has been hit by hackers. They inserted some malicious code on Tuesday afternoon. If you have visited the site between then and now, I suggest you run a scan for malware.

I’ve now blocked FTP, changed the FTP password and removed the malicious code from all the changed pages.

Apologies for any inconvenience caused. Hackers = evil bastards.

• Seesmic
  Social network management. Has it really come to this?
  twitter social tools software

• YouTube – Cat vs Printer – The Translation
  Contains swearing.
  video youtube cats humour technology

• Putting ice on injuries could slow healing – Telegraph
  About five days too late for my mother-in-law's badly bruised cheek.
  injury medicine science news

• BBC News – Putting clocks back damages our health, says expert
  More reasons to be on CET.
  time CET news

• BBC News – A question of time: changing the clocks
  Yet more evidence to change to CET/CEST. When will it happen? Do we have to get a petition going?
  CET time uk news