Gaffer tape: as the old sound engineers’ line goes, it has a light side, a dark side, and it holds the universe together. Tokyo train guard Shuetsu Sato has certainly been having some fun with it, so much so that a documentary celebrating work has been filmed.

Check out PingMag for more info.

BLDGBLOG has posted an interview with urban explorer Michael Cook featuring some remarkable photos of Canada’s sewage system.

Fans of sewage and drains could do worse than take a look beneath the streets of Tokyo – the other-worldy view is reminiscent of computer games such as Half Life.

Check out the quirky illustrations by the talented young artist Gaz Barnett. See more at his MySpace page.

Tim’s reconfigured barnet makes him move at great speeds. This, combined this with his enhanced hunter-gatherer instincts, makes him extremely difficult to photograph. This is the best picture I’ve managed…. so far!

VentureBeat reports than CafeMom , the social network for mothers, has raised an additional $5 million in funding. This follows news that Playboy has launched a social network designed to “penetrate” student campuses in USA, Playboy U. If you like your social networking a little saucier, there’s always Zivity, the adult network that’s just secured an additional $1 million from investors.

The ever-increasing investment in social networking websites is staggering, but do they really appeal to users? Just how many sites can a person contribute to without experiencing “social networking fatigue“?

Lou Ferrigno after a hard day’s social networking.

I’ve been playing around the Tafiti beta, which uses Microsoft’s Silverlight technology. The system is little more than a proof of concept at the moment, but I must confess, I’m impressed. It offers easy navigation between web, rss, image, news and book seaches, and boasts an interactive tree view (which is pretty much useless but looks fantastic).

Tahiti is my first Silverlight experience, and from first impressions, it seems identical from Flash from a user experience perspective. It remains to be seen whether it’ll prove to be a serious alternative in the long run.

MeAndJo have some very nice vintage furniture in stock, including this delightful 1950s office machine stand.

This refinished 1960s medical cabinet in striking uber-lumo-banana yellow is a gem.

Twittervision is a fun Twitter / Google Maps mashup that shows a never-ending stream of banal Twitter messages in realtime from across the globe.

Gadgets: ever diminishing, ever evolving. Phones have gone from being 10kg beasts as used by Colonel Decker in the A-Team to waif-like slivers of metal and plastic that are invisible to the naked eye (well…. give it time).

This technological shrinkage is appealing to most people, but American Thomas Martel, frustrated by his oversized thumbs, has resorted to radical surgery to enable him to use his iPhone more effectively. The procedure involved shaving down the bones of each thumb, combined with muscular alteration and fingernail modification. Mr. Martel now has tiny, effeminate thumbs compared to his gorilla hands, but hey, he can write text messages a little quicker!

“We’re turning plastic surgery from something that people use in service of vanity, to a real tool for improving workplace efficiency” reasons Dr. Robert Fox Spars, renowned Frankenstein surgeon and all-round mad man.
Read more at Denver News.

This is a random thumb from Flickr, not Martel’s!

Who am I to ignore valuable life skills delivered by a friendly tiger family?