Land of the future

Remember when we were kids? And how everyone said there'd definitely be jetpacks and holidays on the moon by the year 2000?

What a pack of lying bastards.

We're still hoping, at the very least, for Willy Wonka's chewing gum with a whole meal in it. But until then, we’ll have to settle for one of the other (less exciting) things we were promised: Electronic paper! Whatever next?

Can your dad beat my dad in a fight? Google says he can

Did you know: Nena's classic anti-war song '99 Luftballons' wasn't directly translated from German to English? Luckily, retro-website In the 80's offers a side-by-side comparison of the two lyrics. Sadly, this is one battle where England loses:

Our version says:
"Hurry, hurry, super-scurry / Call the troops out in a hurry / This is what we've waited for / This is it boys, this is war"

The Germans got the vastly superior:
"There were great fireworks / The neighbors didn't understand anything / And felt immediately felt pissed off"

The Cardigan's Peter Svensson talks about how the band had to split up to recover from the success of Gran Turismo in an interview with the Bangkok Post.

Troubled over what to get your loved one for Christmas? Well, trouble no more, for EMI have dutifully set up a website to advise you - via a short questionnaire - about what to buy.

It's called giftomatic, and it reccomends we furnish mrsdiscopop with a Union Jack T-shirt and Atomic Kitten's Greatest Hits on Christmas Day.

Presumably EMI will cover the legal fees for the resulting divorce?

Whatever you may think of the Xbox 360's games (apparently, guns are quite popular), you've got to admire the design. Which, according to Xbox 360 designer, Jonathon Hayes, was inspired by Picasso and Constantin Brancusi (oooh, fancy!). Sony have responded by remodelling the Playstation 3 to look like the Venus De Milo.

Here's the sculpture the Xbox 360 is based on:

Justin Hawkins reveals the secret to writing a hit single:

"[One Way Ticket To Hell and Back] is piano-led and the piano you listen to is the same one that was played on Bohemian Rhapsody by Freddie. I play all the synthesisers and it's got my favourite guitar solo. And it's got a really good knob joke in the first verse!".

The Darkness limped into this week's charts at number nine.

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