Surrounded by stories of spimes and RFID tags sprinkled from the sky at the Mediamatic workshop, i'm not following the online buzz.

So thanks to Vuk and Stefan who wrote me to say that the Webby jury gave me an award for best Cultural/Personal blog. Cuteoverload was the favourite of the public. I guess the vote of the jury must have been hard work cuz Treehugger, Rocketboom and boingboing certainly deserved an award as well! I'm just so so happy that a website about art, and in particular new media art, got such a recognition. It will sound silly but this blog wouldn't be much without all the creative hackers, amateurs, artists, researchers who developed the amazing projects i can fuel my blog with.

Images from the International German Beard Championship in Hesel.

Previously: Bearded Germans triumph in Berlin.

Get the lowdown on beards and moustaches with the blog of Phil Olsen, Founder and captain of Beard Team USA. Upcoming Beard Events include: May 16, 2006 -- New York City Beard and Moustache Championships.

An Akihabara maid and her admirers, by Alex Flannery.

Via Metropolis.

People for Ethical Treatment of Animals campaigns against furs wearers, Karl Lagerfeld likes to dress ladies in mink and other animal skins.

The German branch of PETA has thus released these stickers (hi-res images) for urinoirs:

Via Max online.

Each time i have to speak at a conference i silently pray to see people close their laptop while i talk. So i had a good laugh when i read that the Meishan city in southwest China has issued a notice threatening to punish those who make phone calls or sleep through meetings via both an internally circulated criticism and exposure in the media.

However, journalists (who'd have to take pictures of the offenders) say it is quite easy for dozers to avoid detection, attendees can wear sunglasses or send a subordinate to meetings in their place.

Via China broadcast.

Yesterday i felt the urge to balance eTech's overwhelming geekiness with some good girly vacuity. Thanks Jason who introduced me to the worls of Beauty Bar! It's sooooo old news in the US, but new to me as i'm only European. And after this US trip, i'm more European than ever, can't wait to be back to the usual swirl of art bienniale, new media festivals, conferences on bioart, to over-crowded spaces, noisy streets, tiny cars and food that contains less than 24 additives. I felt like a dork all along my stay here, saying "waaa, this is a huge muffin! look at this huge bottle of shampoo! this meal is huge!" and so on.

Back to the Beauty Bar. It's a normal night club, except that you can also go there to have your nails done while enjoying a cocktail (for only $10). DJ was good (for what my opinion is worth), the theme of the evening was Pussy Galore, the ladies were pretty and prissy and i laughed all along (didn't test the dexterity of the nail attendants thought.)

Wonder when we'll get a Beauty Bar in Milan or London. I think it will be huuuge here.

My pictures on flickr are as lame as usual but the bottom pictures are made in Jason.

BB is located at the corner of El Cajon Boulevard and Euclid Avenue (4746 El Cajon Blvd.)