The Japanese banking system has been exceptionally slow to introduce 24-hour ATMs, and still imposes banking charges on anyone using the machines after office hours.

Ogaki Kyoritsu Bank, prefecture west of Tokyo, is introducing fruitmachine-style games of chance which run while the ATM processes transactions.

Get three sevens, and your withdrawal fee is waived; three golds promise a jackpot of 1,000 yen (£5; $9). The purpose of the gimmick, says the bank's Yoshi Enami, is simply "fun".

Via BBC News and The Times.

I thought the most delirious piece of craft I had ever seen was Mark Newport's Hand-Knit Costumes and Embroidered Comic Book Cover (via the crochet-maniac), till I saw the work of Ming-Yi Sung.

She's currently showing some awesome nude figures at the "Not the Knitting You Know" exhibition, at Eleven Eleven Sculpture Space.

Problem is that the gallery is also the lobby of the office tower leased by a law firm which members were offended because of the exposed genitalia.

Sung came up with an alternative: her pieces were covered by crocheted fig leaves -- plus one crocheted codpiece that actually looks like a cod.

Not the Knitting You Know: Sculptural Knitting and Crochet at Eleven Eleven Sculpture Space, 1111 Pennsylvania Ave. NW, through Sept. 10.

Via Extreme Craft.

Ok, this blog is supposed to be about cool techno stuff and high-brow-ish media art installations. By posting so many "vintage" links, I had already lost any credibility anyway.

The Tapir Gallery. Includes a Tapir online game and tapir cookies.

Via One Man Safari.

Vores Øl (Our Beer) is the world's first open source beer. Created by "Vores Øl Group", a group of students at the IT-University in Copenhagen in collaboration with Superflex, the beer is an experiment in applying modern open source ideas and methods on a traditional real-world product.

The beer is based on classic ale brewing traditions but with added guarana for added energy-boost.

The recipe and the whole brand of Our Beer is published under a Creative Commons license, so anyone can use the recipe to brew the beer or to create a derivative of the recipe. You are free to earn money from Our Beer, but you have to publish the recipe under the same license and credit the original work.

Via Neural.

Bruce Lee wannabees.

Via Crazy Japan.

I won't watch yakuza movies with the same eyes again...

Apparently, Tokyo is facing a rapid increase in the number of former yakuza gangsters who've become homeless. They're aggressive, flashing their tattoos, scaring passers-by and lording over other homeless.

Most of them have just got out of prison to discover that the gang they had belonged to before doing time had broken up while they were behind bars and now they are terrorizing other homeless people "living" in the same parks, asking them protection money.

If you don't pay, an old man says, "he'll come around in the middle of the night and harass you, like throwing a bucket full of water over you while you sleep."

Via A.D. 2101.