'Everybody Loves a Lesbian' song - Mongrels - BBC Three

It's a new BBC show. Not bad, pretty funny and well produced, could become something.

(Note: adult themes and crude language.)

Rita Hayworth

I generally prefer modern movies, but I must say, where did this kind of sheer glamour power go?

Here's a photo I found of Rita as a young model:

I selected the text (clicked a letter at a time) with Photoshop CS5's quick selection tool, expanded the selection 2 pixels, and used the content aware fill. Then it was just a minute's repairs with the stamp tool:

Cool Source?

Tweetyhead AmyJane quotes a children's conversation:

"Jonas is talking a lot about god and religion. It's bothering me." 

"It's cool. He's getting that from The Simpsons." 

"That's a relief."

I'm reminded of something Charles Schulz told in an interview: about his Peanuts strip where Sally comes home and motions to Charlie to come hide behind the couch so she can whisper a secret, and the secret is: "we prayed in school today". He said that this strip had been used widely by people on both sides of that controversy to support their point!

I would say that two simple points apply to the problem: one, be respectful of other people's beliefs, even if your own are strong. Even if you could push 'enlightenment' onto another person, you would just have overwhelmed him, and he would have to deal with the conflict of beliefs later.
And two, don't make every little issue a big contention. Maybe you're not upset for the reason you think.

Couple'a vids

Mercedes tunnel car roll. Man, that's gotta be tricky. The speed of reaction and the precision of steering... (Thanks to Kirk.)

Talented and cute actress, but in what might be the most insensitive commercial ever.

Mitchell and Webb's moon landing sketch.  (Thanks to Tommy.)
That Mitchell and Webb Look is a surprisingly funny show, so far it seems only available in the UK. I've watched the first three seasons recently, very nice.

Dolphins and English

It is of interest to note that while some dolphins are reported to have learned English -- up to fifty words used in correct context -- no human being has been reported to have learned dolphinese. -- Carl Sagan

Does anybody know how the dolphins "spoke" English? Via symbols on big buttons, perhaps? I know of an ape which spoke quite adept English this way. For instance, upon seeing his trainer holding an orange, which was unfamiliar to him, he pushed the buttons for [trainer's name] [give] [ape's name] [color orange] [apple].

Tomas Rucker photography

[Thanks to Richard S.]

Tomas Rucker nude art photography.

For me, in Firefox, a filter removes the images, but not in Safari. I guess it's because in Safari, I'm logged in and have agreed to view "adult" content.

How Foursquare Melds Real and Digital Worlds

How Foursquare Melds Real and Digital Worlds, article by Steven Levy.

Levy is always worth reading, and I think the illustration is wonderful. Great idea well executed.

The megapixels wars and dynamic range

The megapixels wars and dynamic range, article.

Lessened dynamic range (how much contrast the camera can handle) is one of the reasons I recommend sticking to 10MP for compact cameras, and 12MP for big cameras.

I too think Canon made a mistake by upping megapixel count so dramatically in the 50D and the 7D models. And Nikon stands at a crossroads with their next flagship model: will it disappoint customers who are used to expecting more megapixels in each new camera, or will it suffer the probable low-light capability degrade which comes with a higher MP count?  (The D3s has outstanding, unique low-light capability.)

Thanks to John M's Apple-related articles for the link.

How to Build an Earthquake-Resistant Bridge

How to Build an Earthquake-Resistant Bridge, Wired article/gallery about the in-progress new span of the San Francisco Bay Bridge.

Mofo! Look at this cable cross-section!! I don't think the Hulk and Superman working together could snap this fokker.

Hey Zeus on Twitter?

If the big J lived today, he ought to be on Twitter. Hmm, except he might get the blues by having fewer followers than Stephen Fry.

(Cartoon is from here. Link thanks to Nicola.)

Car parts art

[Thanks to Carter]

I failed at finding the source for these or a name for the artist. The info which comes with the circulating email is just: "These items below were all fabricated from junk of 1950 and 1960 automobile parts by a collector in Argentina". I think they are excellent sculptures, though, if I had the space I'd love to have one or two.
Update: substs points to James Corbett.

Arrow keys on the pad

Just a little pet peeve I have to get off my chest (and in the faint hope that somebody up there listens):

Why does the screen keyboard on the iPad not have any arrow keys?

It's a nightmare to go back in text to make corrections, because you can't position the cursor precisely with the touch screen, and it tends to highlight words rather than put the cursor in the middle of them. So you have to delete a whole word to put in a missing letter in it, after you have fumbled enough to get the cursor positioned correctly.

If you haven't tried it, it may sound overstated, but it really is surprisingly difficult to position the cursor precisely in existing text. And the omission of arrow keys seems to me to be a grave error.

I would normally use an external keyboard, but one should not have to pull it out just to fire off a two-line email.
And indeed some people say that they are doing splendidly with the screen keyboard. Good on them, as the British say it, I wish it were me.

Update: Paul said:

Found this on a forum somewhere:
" If you hold your finger down a magnifying glass appears. Then by dragging your finger left and right you can adjust the insertion point much more precisely."

Dang, that's right! Thanks. It takes some time to get used to the idea that this really is a whole new operating system with a whole new interface with many things to learn about it. My gut feeling going in probably was that it was sort of a modified OS X, but it really isn't.

How Low Will E-Reader Prices Go? (updated)

How Low Will E-Reader Prices Go?, article.

A small manufacturer already plans to introduce a $99 device this fall. Copia, a subsidiary of DMC Worldwide, is set to offer a $99, 5-inch color e-reader...

This might be getting interesting. Ebook readers could really take off in the next year or two.

A five-inch screen is an interesting choice. My immediate feeling is that less than the Kindle's six-inch screen is a bad idea, but then this gadget should be a very handy size, and already many people are quite happy reading on their smartphones, for pete's sake, so...

Update:
Microsoft is very keen to compete with the iPad. This is great.
And Steve Ballmer makes a good point when he says "one size does not fit all", and there are space for many specialized tablets. I agree. A six-inch light-weight iPad (or similarly good tablet) would be great. And also a 13-inch model, if it can be made not too heavy.

Correction on comics apps

Comixology has corrected me re the DC Comics app: in settings you can actually change the total amount of maximal space you allow the app to use on your iPad, it's not set at the default 200MB.
That's better. But this is unfamiliar to me. It seems it means that on the 'pad, unlikely other systems I know, each app pre-empts the space it wants to use, so it's not available to other apps, even if the app actually hasn't used it yet. Does anybody know if this is true, and if so why?

Joe Kissell said:
My understanding (for this app and many others that let you adjust storage space used) is that you're only setting a maximum size, to avoid having too much of your iPad's storage used up by just that one app's data. As far as I know, it doesn't mean this amount of space is preallocated, only that it can't grow beyond that amount.
-

Godley & Creme - The Party

This is from the classic G&C album Ismism, which I enjoyed much 30 years ago. This is one of the songs, odd as that may seem (it having so little melody), which I've been singing and having in my head since then. They lyrics rock, I know almost the whole thing by heart.



I sometimes lament that in my upbringing in the sticks of Denmark in the (late sixties and) seventies, I didn't have anybody to introduce me to the Important Artists of the day (Jimmy Hendrix who?). But actually I found many really cool things by the simple expedient of going to the LP lending library and lending based just on the cover. It was surprisingly often true that an interesting (to me) cover had an interesting album.

Plants vs Zombies-Thriller Music video

M. Jackson's estate has protested too much against the dancing zombie in the game Plants vs Zombies, and it will be removed.
I must admit I can see their point. If anybody ever makes me dance after death, I hope my estate will take action too.

One million??

The Kindle post below kept growing and growing. But I think this deserves a post of its own. From Amazon UK's Kindle page:

"A new store designed for the UK is coming on August 27. With the biggest selection of any e-bookstore in the UK, you can shop more than 400,000 books, including bestsellers and new releases. UK and international newspapers, magazines, and blogs, plus more than 1 million free books, will also be available."

One million free books?!! Wow, that is very brave of them. They can't be making much money on the hardware, they have to pay the mobile companies for each connection, and now people can read one million free books before they have to start paying for them? Phew. It may well pay off, but... very brave business tactic.

New Amazon Kindle models (updated several times as the story unfolds)

(See? Toldja.)
Amazon has released two new aggressively priced Kindle models, one with wifi only, and one with wifi plus 3G (mobile phone connection).

They are proud of the improved screen contrast, and the low contrast has been perhaps my biggest issue with the Kindle (neck to neck with the slow interface), so when it comes to the UK, perhaps I'll git one.
... Well, I'll be durned, it's already in the UK, how unusual! (Well, OK, you can order it now, but it ships only in late August.)

OK, I'll bite. For me, the 'pad is the heavyweight in ebook readers, but unfortunately that goes for the literal meaning of the word too, so maybe the new Kindle can, well not deliver a knock-out, I don't expect that, but at least go a few rounds. And the price is nice.
And it actually fits in my inside jacket pocket. The old one does that, so I guess the new one will fit in a large trouser back or side pocket.

... I ordered the one with only wireless. But then I realized that like always, the 3G connection does not have a charge, so I might as well throw in a couple tenners more and get that capability too, just for the odd occasion I need it. But it's a great idea to have the cheaper option for those don't need the 3G.

I think it's a bit irritating though that they have "done an Apple", and like with the iMac and so on, don't give names or even numbers to the various generations of Kindle. It's just the "Kindle". How about at least the "Kindle 3" or something? (Or is it 4 now? See, I'm already confused.) Numbering would even spur people on to upgrading, to avoid the social embarrassment of not having the latest generation! (I'm not saying that's sane, but it's business.)

I like the new smaller and slimmer design (same screen size). And that it's dark grey ("graphite" is the popular term), which will help the grey background seem lighter. I always thought the white design was a mistake.
Also, the new four-way switch seems much more finger-friendly than the dumb little stick on the Kindle2.

Ah yes, the video lower on the Amazon page reminded me of one more advantage it (still) has over the iPad: it's way easier to make it read out loud to you. This really needs fixing on the 'pad, where it's a fiddly thing, even if you have acquired the software to do it.  

Here's another interesting tidbit from the video: "access over 9000 blogs on your Kindle"... I wonder if they still charge for that?
... Seems so. Though I've not yet been able to actually find the blogs on the Kindle, a bit odd. But I have signed up to get my blog on it, worked on it for half an hour, only to find out that so far it's only available to people with a US billing address and bank account! Heck, what a pity.  I would have hoped they would at least tell people up front, so as not to waste anybody's time. ... Update: there's more good news: I can't even *read* the blogs on my Kindle since I'm not in the USA. How very, very unfortunate and odd. Blogs are international, the most international thing in the world, why this barrier? Of course Amazon is not alone in having this issue, but it just seems... outdated to put it very mildly, to have national barriers on online content. And I can faintly understand it when it is, say, music where there are already contracts nationally, but blogs? Really?
... OK, this mollifies it somewhat. From the UK kindle page:

"A new store designed for the UK is coming on August 27. With the biggest selection of any e-bookstore in the UK, you can shop more than 400,000 books, including bestsellers and new releases. UK and international newspapers, magazines, and blogs, plus more than 1 million free books, will also be available."

So that might be why the video claims that UK customers can read blogs on the new Kindle, which also only comes in late August.
Here's a survey: who's the most beautiful, the café girl in the US video, or the café girl in the UK video? 

DC Comics app

I am trying out the new DC Comics app for iPad. It is basically the same app as the Marvel Comics app, which again is the same app as the "Comics" app from Comixology. And it's a good app. It has (like Panelfly) automatic transfer from panel to panel, although fortunately you can also view whole pages and zoom in and out as you like.

It has very little content as yet, just a handful of book per most of the most popular titles, like 8 Batman issues, and just one Superman issue (though it has 22 of the Superman/Batman issues, and six of the All Star Superman). And none of the Batman And Robin title from Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely, I was looking forward to that after reading a sample in the SSDC Sampler (or something like that, some convention). I liked Morrison's and Quitely's older works, like Flex Mentallo and All Star Superman, they were exceptionally original.

An odd thing is that the app for some reason has a 500MB storage limit, about 40 books or so, after that you have to start deleting your comics! Whak??! How do they expect this to be an option for serious readers/collectors? I've barely started buying online comics yet, and I've almost used up half my space! And there is no visible option to offload the books to a computer. If this is not a decision forced by the hardware, then it's very strange.

Delaware man caught masturbating in airline seat

Delaware man caught masturbating in airline seat, article.

It's a laugh that people still get arrested for things like this in many countries. What happened to just slapping his face and changing seats? Like the police don't have any serious matters to attend to.

The Veronicas: Hook Me Up

The Veronicas are twin sisters who have lesbian/incestuous overtones in a recent video. This article wonders why.
It may be similar to what Scott Adams said to the question about why he allowed ads on his site and if it were tantamount to selling out: "it's a long and complex discussion, but the upshot is: they give us money, and we like money".
Lesbian twin sisters is a fantasy which is horrid to many, but fascinating to at least as many, so it attracts attention, so it helps the career, simple. Can't blame 'em.

Apple Fanboys Anonymous

"Hello, my name is Eolake, and I'm an Apple Fanboy." 
"Hello Eolake!"
There is some discussion about whether I post needlessly much about Apple products.

More comments on quotes

One of the first duties of the physician is to educate the masses not to take medicine.

           -- Sir William Osler, Aphorisms from his Bedside Teachings (1961) p. 105

I used to think all medicine was evil, but now I don't. But I certainly think that it should be regarded as a patch at best, and deeper healing (which is always self-healing basically) should be sought too. 

I have learned to use the word 'impossible' with the greatest caution.

           -- Wernher von Braun

Very wise. We know next to nothing. 

A conservative is a man who sits and thinks, mostly sits.

           -- Woodrow Wilson

OK, a bit sardonic, but resistance to change is hardly the greatest of virtues in and off itself.

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder and it may be necessary from time to time to give a stupid or misinformed beholder a black eye.

           -- Miss Piggy 

Hehe, I've often felt that way as an artist. (Rightly or wrongly. You always feel you're right.)

... Oh, I see that Blogger now publishes a post at the point where (when) it is actually published, not when it was first created. That's progress. 

Contemporary writers

It was commented:

"There's no contemporary writer worth reading."

Does everybody agree? It just seems unlikely to me. I could mention my own faves, but I have done so before.

Edison sed it

Just because something doesn't do what you planned it to do doesn't mean it's useless.
  -- Thomas A. Edison

I think this is highly useful advice in a much broader sense too. Many people find that the most amazing developments in their lives had nothing to do with anything they had planned or even could have planned. It's very important to be open to where the stream takes you.

Stewie and Brian

I've just watched what must be one of the best Family Guy episodes ever, I've no doubt it'll be a classic. I'm pretty sure it started as a challenge to the writers from themselves. It was only after it was over that I realized that the whole story had taken place inside a locked bank vault, and with Stewie and Brian as the only characters. That is good writing, that is. The character treatments were the best they have ever done. And it was one of the funniest ever too. Only downside for those of us with less than an iron stomach is that it also contained what was probably their "best" gross-out comedy ever too!       :-)

Apple's new "Magic Trackpad"

Update: some readers feel like I post too much about Apple products, that it feels just like advertising for Apple. I answered:

I'll consider this. Sorry if Apple-related posts feel like "ads".
But like you said you can skip them, and it's not like they are all I write about.

And I feel that they are justified. I write a lot about the iPad for example, (unlike my iMac if you notice), because I feel that the iPad is genuinely the first important product of a new platform which is going to become *exceedingly* important in the next ten years. If another company had done this, I would be writing about that product instead, it has nothing to do with Apple, except in the way that for some reason or other, in some periods of history Apple seem to be the one company which does come out with the most seminal products. That's just a fact, even if some people hate it.

I have written many posts about the Amazon Kindle too, because it is/was also a very seminal product.

---

Original post:

I'm sorry, I can't write "Magic Trackpad" without the quotes. Apple and their big words. Lucky their products are good. And the new trackpad does sound promising. I very much like my current over-sized Kensington trackball, it has the best combo of precision and speed I have tried. But Apple's trackpad has many useful gestures.
I've usually thought of trackpads as a necessary evil on laptops, but they've grown much better, and many people love them, so...

And not surprisingly, it's a supreme example of Apple's current super-minimalistic design style. Heck, it worked for Bang and Olufsen, and I actually think Apple does it a bit better. Of course they have much better production methods available than B&O had back in the day. (I'm mostly thinking of their very square hifi sets of the eighties.)

They also introduced the new 27-inch display.  I might be interested, except vertically I would be going a bit down in resolution, and I'm not crazy about that idea, I work with very large photos every day. Does anybody know if them being "LED" means a big difference? Hard to imagine.

And then there's the new Mac Pro. I'm sure all the specs are slightly better than mine (can't even recall how old it is... 1.5 years?). But the speed of computers have advanced so slowly the last five years that it hardly seems worth it. They just keep putting more and more cores in, and I can see (via special software MenuMeters) that my machine almost never use more than half of the 16 cores (or processors, whatever) it has. (System Profiler tells me it has two processors with four cores each. But MenuMeters show 16 little guages of usage, dunno why.)

The Acceleration of Addictiveness

The Acceleration of Addictiveness, article.
How as technology progresses, everything becomes more engaging, and thus more addictive. With some interesting comments on the Internet as addiction. The author, who clearly is a powerful and productive man who has more self-discipline than most, still has to force himself on long walks without any gadgets (update: "force" is overstating it, OK), mainly to get away from the Internet so he can think more freely.

Apple design progression

I've actually wondered about that: will Apple now stick with the current glass and aluminium designs or what? If not, where will they go? There seems no further direct extension of the logic. (The logic being going towards simpler and simpler designs, in more and more classy materials.)

I can't actually really believe it they can make themselves do it, but if it were me, I'd go the other way, and actually put a bit of decoration on the machines again. Just a few simple curves, a couple of subtly different colors, that sort of thing. It would be a breath of fresh air after all this hardcore minimalism in the past five years.

Apple's new "Friend Bar"

I can not believe the production values of this, they created the whole thing like a film production!


New Apple Friend Bar Gives Customers Someone To Talk At About Mac Products

I'm afraid I must say that if it were real and they served coffee and croissants too, I would hang out there six days a week. (I work on Sunday.) (That's a joke, son.)

HexaPose

This is the coolest idea for an iPad stand ever. Makes the iPad look like an iMac. Match your apple machines across your home...

It's not the most compact one for traveling, but for home use I think we've been in want of a stand which lifted the iPad a ways off the table for a better viewing height. In fact I think we could use a double-height one also, if we are to follow the experts' advice on not craning our neck when computing. I think this is relevant for reading as well as video watching, and writing with a keyboard. OK, stability may become an issue, since it's a touch screen and you don't want to knock it over accidentally when hitting a button.

It even looks  pretty good from the back, I think. 
Ah, I just figured out why the name Hexapose: it has three angles of tilt and two angles of orientation, giving six options in all. 

Hurrah!!

Now legal in the U.S.: Jailbreaking your iPhone, ripping a DVD for educational purposes, article. This is a major victory against the draconian DMCA law.

One of the most surprising and pleasing points now legalized is:

"Having an ebook be read aloud (ie for the blind) even if that book has controls built into it to prevent that sort of thing."

This is so great. If it had become illegal or a grey area to have devices read texts loud to you, that would have been a major blow to the public good, seen against an insignificant win for copyright owners.

"The Top Idea in Your Mind"

[Thanks to Jeff C]

The Top Idea in Your Mind, article by Paul Graham. Highly interesting article about a very important concept/area of thinking that I have not heard discussed before. Warmly recommended.

I'm going to buy Graham's essay collection. I have earlier blogged his article about why nerds are unpopular.

I think I will spend quite some time in his Articles Section. 

My sky google

Here's a photo I took a couple years ago, which I feel works very well with the new background image feature on Google. If you like it, feel free to use it. Below are a couple of variations in contrast.

The Complete Oscar Wilde Collection

The Complete Oscar Wilde Collection, Kindle edition. (Oddly only available in the US store.)

I wonder what ol' Oscar would have thunk of his life's work being sold for a dollar and eigteen cents?!!

Alien culture

I was talking to TTL about cultures and what they are good at, and I carelessly mentioned that the Indian film industry ("Bollywood") is one of the most commercially successful cultural industries in the world, and yet the films seem all the same to me, and I don't see the value.

I hate when others are more mature than me, but he corrected me:

I take a slightly different strategy when approaching art and entertainment originating from foreign (i.e. eastern) cultures. Namely, I try to constantly remind myself that it is quite possible that in order to "get it", I may have to shift my view and discover a completely new paradigm.

Example: When I was a teenage self-righteous guitar player, it baffled me how anyone could take Indian music seriously. The musical scale they use is such that to a westerner it sounds like everything is constantly out of tune.

It wasn't until nearly two decades later that I grokked it and discovered that their system is in fact much more sophisticated than ours, and that it is possible to appreciate it if you just listen to it "differently". Switch your brain into a different mode.

So, similarly, I now leave open the possibility that both in Manga and Bollywood there must be things I am simply not seeing at all, and therefore am unable to appreciate as intended.

And it is in particular in instances where something otherwise very successful appears "all the same" to me that I am almost certain that *I* am just not getting it. Whatever it is.

To the uninitiated, Opera sounds "all the same". Yet, nothing could be further from the truth.

Blues musicians play exactly the same chord progressions all the time, every time. If you are a classical composer, it is almost impossible to appreciate blues music. Because the songs are not even compositions. To the initiated, however, it is a different world. The chord progression is irrelevant. It's the emotion, authenticity and miniscule rhytmic tensions that make all the difference.

----
I can't argue with that. It's like trying to prove that we are alone in the universe, can't be done.
I would think that it's even plausible that post-adulthood, it has become impossible to shift your mind to really appreciate radically different cultures. The energy grooves in the mind set very firmly.

Jeff Beck - Nadia

Jeff Beck plays on the Indian musical scale.

App store gold rush

It always happens: there's a  new market, some people are very successful in it, and there's a gold rush: thousands of people rush in to find their fortune. But like in a real gold russ and like in acting, the most money are made by a lucky few and by those servicing the "rushers". This article calculates that over half of all paid iPhone apps make less than $700 per year.

Will iTunes replace your local comics store?

Will iTunes replace your local comics store?, article.

Interesting question. If (to cover all bases) you replace "iTunes" with "digital comics", I think it's only a question of "how soon" rather than "if".

iPad goes under the gauntlet at universities

iPad goes under the gauntlet at universities, article.

I feel the iPad has a fantastic potential for education. Although for higher education, it needs better and more specialized software (notes inside documents, networking, etc), and preferably an even higher-resolution screen for diagrams in textbooks. I think version two or three of the iPad may fulfill these wishes.

Oddly, the software may be the biggest hurdle. Higher education is a specialized market, it would need special and very good software, and as we've seen many times, this is very, very far from a trivial task, and the question is if it would be lucrative enough to attract the needed talent and work hours. And collaboration. I think Linux shows that while free software is very powerful, making it user-friendly is not something anybody in that community has sufficient interest in to really make it happen. For those people, "modify it and recompile it" to make it work is good and obvious advice, but not for Jim and Jane.
A friend of mine who is hugely intelligent once tried to install a simple, or what *should be* simple, text-reading app on a Linux machine. It turned out to be absolutely mind-bogglingly complex. He wrote an article about it too, it's quite funny, do read it. I mention this just to show that good higher-education software for the iPad would need to commercial.

How Many Times Can We Burn This Bridge?／Yuka Honda

I looked up Yuka Honda (meaning I bought all her CDs) because she was half of Cibo Matto, which I feel was an oddly powerful musical group, way beyond a "pop duo". Such a pity they did not last.
Yuka alone has not hit me the same way, although I really like this song.

iPhone cases available

Apple has now mailed out about how to get your free iPhone case. You can get it if you have had connection issues, but you're not asked to put your hand on the bible or copy of Dracula about this, so I imagine many people will just like to get the free case. I'm tempted, but I already have a case I like.

Here is a review of one of the offered cases, the Speck Fitted. It looks very nice. (BTW, what does the reviewer mean when he talks about "flash" here?)

today's quotes

All progress is based upon a universal innate desire on the part of every organism to live beyond its income.

           -- Samuel Butler, Notebooks, 1912

I suspect this is actually true.

A man is rich in proportion to the number of things he can afford to let alone.

           -- Henry David Thoreau

A very interesting observation.

Mankind have a great aversion to intellectual labor; but even supposing knowledge to be easily attainable, more people would be content to be ignorant than would take even a little trouble to acquire it.

           -- Samuel Johnson, quoted in Boswell's Life of Johnson

There's something to this. I wonder if stretching the mind is more painful than we suspect?

Lies are like children: they're hard work, but it's worth it because the future depends on them.

           -- Pam Davis, House M.D., It's A Wonderful Lie, 2008

Pretty sardonic, but funny.

Is Peter an icon?

Years ago, when I first saw this poster, it struck me: Peter Pan must be a gay icon.

I don't know why it struck me so clearly, but it did, and I think various things support it:

• "The Lost Boys"
• No girls on the Island
• The never growing up thing
• Peter is traditionally played by a girl (whu?)

Ok, and not exactly evidence, but the biggest Danish gay organization is called "Pan".

Maybe it's really an asexuality thing which Michael Jackson also had, and which gives a sort of confusion which can come off as gay.

Anyway, the outfit looks so gay on guys:
 

And so good on girls: 

(This is Gemma Atkinson. Seems she is not a household name yet, but I hope she's going places.)