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The Cool Tricks and Trinkets Newsletter #201 7/4/02 |
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Welcome to the 201st 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: - Powers
of Ten
<Editor's Note> A1 Discount Hotels is our primary business and source of income. You can support Tricks and Trinkets, by checking us out the next time you're planning a trip. For personal travel needs, write me at info@a1-discount-hotels.com
http://www.a1-discount-hotels.com ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Powers of Ten View the grand and the mundane at Molecular Expressions, where thousands of full color photomicrographs reveal pesticides, birthstones, cocktails, even baptismal water in images shot by super-powered microscopes non-scientists can only dream of using. Until now. Electron and confocal microscopy are usually used to point-and-click heady stuff like proteins and DNA in the lab, but here the shutter bugs take a much wider view. See the Milky Way at 10 million light years from earth or the nucleus and subatomic particles of an ordinary leaf. Besides extraordinary galleries, the site offers a primer to understanding Java microscopy and screen savers and wallpapers if you get hooked. http://micro.magnet.fsu.edu/primer/java/scienceopticsu/powersof10/index.html How Not to Drive A trip to How Not To Drive is like an Italian version of Mr. Toad's Wild Ride. The Dyseducational Road movie is by Bruno Bozzetto, the animator who's been making animation shorts and features since the 50s, including Allegro Non Troppo, known as the Italian Fantasia. Bozetto's belief that animated films can help viewers understand difficult topics leads straight to this site, an experiment with 2D computer animation full of images and music that are pure Italian slapstick. But the message is clear in any language. A series of giant NO and YES symbols preface colorful block-images of how to stop, signal and steer clear of oncoming traffic - and the dire consequences if you goof. http://hellsgate.online.ee/%7Emait/fahrschule.swf An American's Guide to Canada Americans tend to be a bit smug about the Great White North, viewing it as a vast wasteland of hockey players, beer drinkers and people who go "eh?" At An American's Guide to Canada, an American emigrant shares her view of the country as an endearing, civilized and charming place. An entire section is devoted to Really Big Roadside Attractions like great big pineapples, bison and fish you'll see plunked into the middle of otherwise normal towns. How To Tell You're In Canada tells you milk comes in plastic bags and What Every Canadian Knows describes purple Thrill Gum that tastes like soap. Topics like Canadianisms, How To Immigrate, True Facts and Academia round out the lesson plan. SHORT TAKES Celebrate Something Bizarre If Groundhog Day has lost its zing, visit Celebrate Something Bizarre and anticipate the uproarious fun of Ladle Day on June 23rd or the delightful Hatchetfish Day on July 10th. And if you've had it up to here with the hearts and flowers of that other February 14th event, grab the closest reptile and celebrate Horned Lizard Day instead. http://alum.wpi.edu/~wes/holiday.htm <><><><> Chicken Challenge As humiliating as it would be to admit a chicken had beaten you at a simple child's game, you just might win the $10,000 prize at the Chicken Challenge, where it's just you, the poultry and a game of Tic Tac Toe. Visitors to the Tropicana in Las Vegas take the challenge daily, and five of those wily coyotes have actually won against the "specially trained" chicken. http://www.vegas4visitors.com/column/gingerpho.htm <><><><> Lonesome Dove Online Exhibit Taking Larry McMurtry's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel Lonesome Dove to film was a risky venture. But the classic begat a classic, the 1989 mini-series archived at the Lonesome Dove Online Exhibit, where visitors can view production material like call sheets and shooting schedules, photos from the set, the writers' annotated copies of the novel and the script, costume research, story boards and set drawings. http://www.library.swt.edu/swwc/ld/ldexhibit1.html
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to: The Science of Superheroes The thrill of watching Spider Man skitter up a wall might fade when you know our hero is secreting sticky silk onto his feet to move across surfaces, but that's what you get at The Science of Superheroes, where the BBC explains how Spidey, Wonder Woman and others perform their super stunts. The Hulk, for example, is driven by fury and a heavy dose of testosterone, and Wonder Woman's lie-detecting lasso leads to an explanation of how polygraph tests work. Besides the lessons, there are super hero facts, games to play, interviews with super-creator Stan Lee and a chance to vote on your favorite. http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/hottopics/superheroes/index.shtml Who Lives Here? The simple message of Who Lives Here? is that we're all residents in Apartment Earth, so be nice and get to know your neighbor. An ideal world perhaps, but if it can be realized it might start right here. Visitors are invited to send photos of their living spaces and tell a little about themselves, or just meet the other residents. Enter Room 20, for example, and Londoner Nic Tinworth introduces you to his cat and his girlfriend. Step into Room 9 and Falcon shows off the Tokyo flat he shares with his girlfriend. A message board lets residents trade cultures and ideals and, like no apartment manager you've ever known, this one says only, "We always have vacancy for you and your friends." Animal Self-Medication Animals, it seems, are taking healing into their own, uh, hands. We all know dogs who nosh on grass occasionally, but now scientists think they may do so because of zoopharmacognosy -- animal knowledge of drugs. Animal Self-Medication is a mostly scientific site devoted to studies of animals' attempts to heal thyself. Many species appear to use plants, soils, insects and fungi as both preventive and curative "medicines." Animals of all types appear to interact with nature's pharmacy, from geophagy (earth-eating) by gorillas to "anting" by birds who use natural acids from ants in a feathered form of Nix. Dirt as Medicine, Insects as Medicine and Plants as Medicine are explored along with folklore, current research and discoveries. http://www.animalselfmedication.com/
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It's "Art, Bond Art" at The Art of James Bond, where the artwork that has promoted the impeccable 007 image through 50 years and 20 movies is on display. Concept Art shows rare artwork not widely seen since its creation, like the ad campaign for Dr. No that was later adapted into poster art. Fans can also view Playboy Art, including many magazine covers, and Paperback Art, showing the first pictorial image of Bond (based on a photo of Richard Conte). Special tributes to the designers, production artists, and comic book artists who put indelible marks on the Bond image are all given their due, together with the history behind the art, the artists and the famous Bond trademarks. http://www.artofjamesbond.com/ Not Your Mother's Goldfish Leave it to Ringo Starr to plant images of lush seascapes in the mind of a tone deaf prepubescent boy and turn him into Crazyfish, the artist who heard about "an octopus' garden in the shade" and turned to creating whimsical hand-sculptured, hand -painted sea creatures, on display at Not Your Mother's Goldfish. The sculptures are all Crazyfish, made from low-fired white clay from North Carolina that is fired, dried and underglazed before being released to bring "joy and merriment to the world." Wildfish, Snook, Clayfish, Queen Angel and others are on view with careful descriptions of the processes that brought each to life, notes on the artist and ordering information. http://members.aol.com/sculpturedfish/aboutartist.htm
If you're interested in advertising in Cool Tricks and Trinkets, 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 ~NodeBlue.net - Affordable Website Monitoring ~ Distin Savone's weekly weblog - Ten unique links, with brief observations weekly. ~The Hollow Bones Retreat - Empowering men who have completed the New Warrior Training. ~My Search Guru - Connecting Your Site to the Web. \\
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drunk falls from the cart but is not hurt. ~TAO~ oooO--------(
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