Here's What's Awesome: Yarnbombing, Songsmith Goes Classic Rock

This is a momentous edition of Here's What's Awesome - not simply because it's the first edition under a new president, not simply because it's the first post-Andrew edition, but because this week's awesome links are reaching a higher level of awesome than even I knew possible! And that's why sharing them with you is going to be awesome too.

A mitten pattern on the underground wall
A new kind of graffiti? It's true - old-school tagging has been replaced by "yarnbombing," which covers walls, signs and other city objects not with paint but with knitting. The Telegraph article on yarnbombing says the phenomenon started in Texas but caught on in the UK; yarnbombers there say it's a way to brighten up the urban landscape and "put smiles on peoples faces." [Telegraph]

The song does not remain the same
Something that put a smile on my face was news about Microsoft's new Songsmith program, which takes a recording of your unaccompanied singing and generates a virtual backing band. As is customary in the world of Web 2.0, some folks have decided to do a little reverse-engineering of the Songsmith concept - they've isolated the vocal tracks from classic rock songs and fed those into the Songsmith engine, creating new songs from familiar singing. Here's Geddy Lee's vocal track from Rush's "Tom Sawyer" as done by Songsmith:

There's more Songsmithery available on YouTube, if you're brave enough: here's "White Wedding" by Billy Idol, "Roxanne" by The Police and, of course, Van Halen's "Runnin With The Devil." [YesButNoButYes]

But what happens when Jeff Goldblum finds it?
Houseflies like humans. Humans don't like houseflies. Humans can trap houseflies by luring them with their favorite scents. Houseflies' favorite scents include rotting meat and extract of rotting meat. Can you spot the problem here? Scientists at the US Department of Agriculture did too, and they're working on a new fly trap that doesn't smell. Actually, the scents involved do smell if you're a fly, but they're benign to human noses. [NewScientist]

Now it's your turn. Share an awesome link in the comments field - we'll even take links to your newest Songsmith creation. Maybe.