Welcome to the 184th issue of the Cool Tricks and Trinkets Newsletter
offering weekly insights into new, cool, useful, fun, unusual and
interesting sites on the Internet.

In this issue:

- The Secret Lives of Numbers
- Deadly Follies of Stick Figure Warning-Man
- Walk The Wall
- Short Takes
- The Date-My-Sister Project
- Monster Squid
- Miserable Melodies
- Comedian Videos by Topic
- Italy on the Grand Tour
- Subscribers' Sites

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The Secret Lives of Numbers

Got a favorite number? We all do, and the folks at New Radio and Performing
Arts believe that info says something interesting about our minds, bodies
and culture. Go figure --- which is just what they did. At The Secret Life
of Numbers, the relative popularity of every integer between 0 and one
million is revealed.

Just type an integer and find its popularity ranking since 1997. Our
fondness for numbers below 10, for example, has dropped considerably in the
past 5 years. The site's visual content is a Java applet, and for best
results you need a 700Mhz PC running IE 5 in Windows 98 or higher. Mac
visitors using Netscape Navigator might have problems but downloads are
there to help.

http://www.turbulence.org/Works/nums/index.html

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Deadly Follies of Stick Figure Warning-Man

It's not easy being Stick Figure Man. Without eyes, ears or a mouth, no
wonder that poor little guy who is all arms and legs gets into so many
scrapes, detailed at the Deadly Follies of Stick Figure Warning-Man, the
online story of his pain.

The guy responsible for warning you to avoid oncoming traffic,
disconnecting plugs and shaking vending machines suffers collisions,
electrical shock and concussions so we don't have to. And it's no fun. Read
his journal as he is smashed by an improperly secured tailgate, torched by
flammable fluids, and jolted by electrified subway tracks - the story of a
real superhero, saving the rest of us from our own stupidity.

http://www.capnwacky.com/warning/

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Walk The Wall

Less magnificent than the real thing but a heck of a lot more accessible,
Walk the Wall lets those who have longed to stroll on the Great Wall of
China do so from their desktops with a point-and-click 360-degree tour of
the 2,000-year old wonder of the world.

Started in the 7th century and not completed until the 10th, the wall
protected agriculture and resisted the Huns. Today it is a Mecca for
travelers, and online visitors can zoom in or out and pan right or left
through images from a section of the wall between Jinshanling and Simatai.
Pause for breath at the Tibetan photo gallery to experience reincarnation
through the consciousness of a cow at Holy Cow Mania.

http://www.walkthewall.com/

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SHORT TAKES

The Miniature Earth

Boil down the earth's entire population into a small group of 100 and world
issues are brought into startling clarity. At The Miniature Earth, a Flash
presentation bares the facts - like that you are among 8% of people
worldwide who owns a computer, and are a whole lot luckier than the one
billion others who can't even read.

http://www.luccaco.com/terra/terra.htm

<><><><><><><><>

50 Best Album Covers

It may not work for books, but you can judge an album by its cover, where
clues are found to the music inside without hearing a single note. At
Rolling Stone's 50 Best Album Covers, memorable and magnificent album art
is remembered as visitors judge just what was and perhaps still is the best
of the best.

http://www.rollingstone.com/features/featuregen_base.asp?pid=505

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Ooglegay Earchsay

Ancay Ouyay .? Pig Latin may be the universal language, at least among
eccentrics, and Google caters to the crowd at Igpay Atlinla, its own search
engine written entirely in Pig Latin. From the button marked " Earchsay" to
"Allway Aboutway Google," visitors can go ugbay-eyed testing their
sophisticated linguistics to their hearts' content.

http://www.google.com/intl/xx-piglatin/

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The Date-My-Sister Project

Brotherly love takes on a whole new meaning at this site, where an
industrious sibling secretly attempts to find his lonely sister a
boyfriend. The project, while unknown to his sister, is a hilarious process
that includes enough espionage to write a spy novel.

In order to appreciate the true genius of the site, visitors should go step
by step through the different stages of the project. The 'dates' are
accompanied by photos, (with funny captions taken with regular and hidden
cameras), real audio of conversations taken from his sister's telephone and
personal conversations via a Slovenian bugging device, and comical
commentary from the mastermind himself.

Do not miss this one!

http://www.thespark.com/science/sister

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Monster Squid

At 20 yards long and 1,000 pounds, the giant squid is a big, mean killing
machine in the very depths of the submarine animal world. Chasing Giants:
On the Trail of the Giant Squid takes visitors with marine biologists as
they try to find and capture baby squid to learn more about these
mysterious monsters - a feat never before achieved.

The quest begins on the Discovery Channel on March 11, but web site
visitors get a jump on the action, diving 20,000 feet below the ocean's
surface, visiting the Tentacle Gallery to view 200 different squid and
octopus relatives that live in the deep blue, and learning what makes these
fantastic creatures so armed and dangerous.

http://dsc.discovery.com/convergence/giantsquid/giantsquid.html

Miserable Melodies

Good intentions with bad results are celebrated at Miserable Melodies. What
possessed Leonard Nimoy to record "If I Had a Hammer"? Surely, someone
should have spoken up. Visitors select from actors, actresses or singers or
listen to the tunes based on ratings, starting with the very worst of the
worst.

How bad could a nice old classic like the "Blue Danube Waltz" really be?
Wait until you hear what Portsmouth Symphonia does to it. Others are just
weird, like William Shatner's painfully affecting interpretation of "Mr.
Tambourine Man." The warning label: Some material on this site may disturb
household pets.

http://www.miserablemelodies.com/

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Comedian Videos by Topic

With a brick wall as the staging area, like most comedy stores worldwide,
Laff Site is more than just another web site with lots of jokes --- it's
the whole routine in sound and video.

Choose from 40 or so comedians as varied as Chris Rock and Rosie O'Donnell,
or select a particular routine or joke, then click on the screen to see the
schtick performed before an audience. The newest comedians like Carrot Top
are here, but so are older clowns like Pat Paulsen and Weird Al. And if you
have a need to laugh about a specific topic, say Divorce, choose the joke
first and then sit back and wait for the chuckles to start.

http://laffsite.com/

Italy on the Grand Tour

Imagine you're a recent grad who has just wrapped up school and heads off
to hitchhike through Europe. But it's the 18th century and you're a young
nobleman of means - so off you go on the Grand Tour to taste firsthand the
politics, culture and art of revered Italy. At Italy on the Grand Tour, the
Getty Museum recreates this fabled experience.

In the museum and on the web site, the experience is presented in three
exhibitions through paintings, pastels, sculpture, antiquities, books, and
souvenir prints covering Naples from 1764 to 1800, Rome, and the Italian
provinces where the nobility went in search of inspiration, enlightenment,
discovery and adventure.

http://www.getty.edu/art/exhibitions/grand_tour/index.html

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SUBSCRIBERS' SITES - Many of our subscribers have fascinating on-line
projects. This weekly section will introduce you to some of these sites.
Please let me know about your project so that I might mention it in this
section. Write me at info@tricksandtrinkets.com

~PLANETKEV - A more personal web portal.

~The Ultimate Impression - Photography site for serious photographers and
serious lookers.

~FivePoints Metaphysical Shoppe

~Pittypatt's Backcountry Travels

~Top Digital Cameras - best-selling digital cameras guide

~Scorpio Tales - Short stories with a sting in the tail.

~S T A R D U S T E R - To Explore Outer Space and Inner Minds.

~My Tupperware

~The Long Island Sleuth - Serious humor updated weekly

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OOo-(_)-oOOo--------

The drunk falls from the cart but is not hurt.
You throw hesitation aside but look stupid.
To be truly uninhibited is a rare grace.

Tao

oooO--------( )----
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Have a great weekend.

Charles Kessler