Ark Music Factory
If you've been near YouTube recently, chances are you've seen the worst-ever promo video, which just so happens to be for the worst song ever. Yes, Friday by US teen Rebecca Black. How, you may possibly have wondered, did such a thing ever come into existence? The answer is Ark Music Factory, a vanity music label which charges undisclosed sums to American parents in exchange for making their teenage daughter's pop princess dreams a reality. For their cash they get some super-compressed Auto-Tuning, a guest rapper, membership of a "community" and a literal pop video. In the case of Black the formula has worked – although not entirely how they'd hoped – but the other teen pop videos here aren't so bad that they're funny, they're just bad. Is this the future of pop? Let's hope not.
Food Mourn
In magazines and books we're regularly presented with photographs of food that looks too beautiful to eat. Meanwhile, TV shows such as MasterChef have demonstrated the importance of presentation in whetting the appetite. Both though are very distant from the reality of what most of us will sit down to. This site redresses the balance by demonstrating the exact opposite of food porn with a selection of reader-submitted photos of the world's most solemn and un-appetising "grub". A popular offender is the "salad bar fail", one of many examples of a dish falling down due to the simple fact that almost everything on the plate is the same colour – beige. Other delicacies include practically anything on a Ryvita, depressing school dinners, and the misery of an over-microwaved shepherd's pie with a scattering of iceberg lettuce on the side. Yum.
Blog roll: Crafts
The plight of men exploited by their crafting girlfriends into modelling ill-fitting woolly hats.
DIY upscaling, glamorous recycling and the perennial appeal of a felt owl.
A whole load of kitsch from a "Nice Jewish Guys" calendar to Clockwork Orange jumpers.
From knitted benches to crocheted Buddhas, the work of the Japan's finest guerrilla crafter.
DIY projects, how-tos, tech inspiration and craft hacks including the SNES transformed into a guitar.
Celebrating paper toys, including some Angry Birds models to download and make yourself.
What we learned on the web this week
Ambient music and cop radio go well together
Social media is driven by the fear of missing out
Roger Sterling's sexiest one-liners
How they invented the wah-wah pedal
The sexy sax man is above the law
We love the bit in a movie when they say the name of the movie
The average Briton has three mysterious keys
