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The Cool Tricks and Trinkets Newsletter #222 11/28/02 |
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Welcome to the 222nd 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: -
Silent Movies ~~~~~ Cool Tricks and Trinkets is made possible by~~~~~~ A1 Discount Hotels (an affiliate of Hotels.com) offer discount rooms in over 20,000 hotels worldwide with choices from budget to 5 star hotels. Bookmark our site for you next trip. http://www.a1-discount-hotels.com Visit us online or call our operators at 888-511-5743 Group and Corporate Travel Services Available (contact info@a1-discount-hotels.com) <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 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Silent Movies Eighty years from now, will the names Tom Cruise and Julia Roberts still light fires? Check out the vamps, sheiks and rogues who enflamed grandma and grandpa at Silent Movies.com, offering the dramas, comedies and tragedies of the first stars of the silver screen. More than 13,000 photos of some 1,300 stars are posted, from comic actors "Fatty" Arbuckle and Mabel Normand to beauties Louise Brooks and Valentino. Also included are interviews, biographies, memorabilia, QuickTime video clips and trivia -- like that Fatty Arbuckle gave Bob Hope his first show biz break. Links expand the offerings to cover every silent film star imaginable: Charlie Chaplin, William S. Hart, Lillian Gish, Harold Lloyd, Mary Pickford and more. Unusual Kentucky My old Kentucky home isn't just green, green grass and a famous horse race. It's also a place of gargoyles, ghost bridges and abandoned buildings, all carefully documented at Unusual Kentucky.com To preserve the local legends, rumor, hearsay and history of the state's stranger side, photos show oddities like a gravestone marked only with "There's No Place Like Home," and the griffins decorating the home of the "Father of the Ovariotomy." Ancient log cabins, mom 'n pop stores, drive-in movie theaters, even graffiti have all been gathered, described and photographed to prove beyond a doubt that Kentucky ain't what you thought it was. With a chat room, message board and links to other state's bizarre stories. http://www.unusualkentucky.com/ Online Talkers Radio talk jocks have an online home at Talkers.com, the web site of Talkers magazine, serving the talk radio industry with news about top hosts, top developments, top issues and - of course - opinions. Between 1980 and 1998, the number of talk radio shows grew from 75 to more than 1,300. What are all those jocks talking about, who's listening, and who cares? At Talkers.com, find lists of the top 25 radio talk hosts of all time, demographics on the listeners who choose words over music, the results of an ongoing 12-year research project about the issues, people and themes that radio listeners find most captivating and subscription info for the magazine. SHORT
TAKES "Is there a God?" If you need crib notes to decide, check out the Onion's A.V. Club, which asked 40 or so celebs from Rick James to Conan O' Brien - who stammered "Yes. Wait, hold on. No" - to struggle with humankind's most profound, nerve-wracking and age-old question. http://www.theonionavclub.com/avclub3837/avfeature_3837.html <><><><> ARSEiam For a devilishly clever graphic designer, ARSE is a very generous soul. He posts not just his work, but also the source code and explicit tutorials for manipulating and distorting Flash techniques to create the startling images seen at his web site - part art, part lesson - at arseiam.com. <><><><> How Gas Prices Work Now that a twenty dollar bill no longer fills the tank, and we all stand there pumping gas and griping about who's getting rich, how come, and who to blame, head home and log onto How Gas Prices Work by How Stuff Works.com to find out where your money goes, who controls the oil market, and what to do about it. http://www.howstuffworks.com/gas-price.htm Enjoy
the newsletter? Tell your friends to subscribe by sending an email to: Top 100 Albums of the 1980s The decade of the 80s hasn't earned the best reputation for culture, fads and fashion, but the Top 100 Albums of the 1980s by Pitchfork Media generously overlooks Kenny G. and Hall & Oates to uncover music that is at the root of today's hip-hop, alternative and indie rock. From hip-hop's dynamic Public Enemy to hobo-centric Tom Waits, Sonic Youth's "Daydream Nation" to the Smiths, the reviewers of Pitchfork make a pretty good case. Each top album comes with forceful notes justifying its place in rock history. Also find equally crisp and against-the-grain reviews on current hot bands, like The Vines and Strokes - both lacerated for being mostly hype. http://pitchforkmedia.com/top/80s/ 2002 Best Inventions No such thing as a new idea? In the past year, the mother of invention visited home, sports, medicine - every walk of life - to come up with the cool new stuff of 2002 Best Inventions at Time.com. Maybe they aren't cures for cancer or the daily commute, but these are bright ideas all the same. See the Braille glove created by a high school student to translate sign language into text, a vacuum cleaner that whirls dirt at 600 mph, and a jacket that lets music lovers stay warm in arctic temperatures with a digital music player sewn into the fabric, so they can control the music by pressing their arm. With links on the price and where each product can be purchased. http://www.time.com/time/2002/inventions/ New Rome When in Rome … so the saying goes. The problem is, we aren't. Problem solved at Nova Roma.org, where visitors enjoy all the rights and responsibilities of citizenship in Ancient Rome, from religion to culture to politics. Nova Roma is a historical society, a pagan religious organization, a classical studies group and, say site creators, a sovereign nation. In an attempt to recreate the best of classical Rome, the site is now a virtual community with hopes of growing into a living system. Visitors can read the constitution describing the complex social order, then apply for citizenship and begin doing as the Romans do. Why? Because the Gods of Olympus are calling. **********Advertisement************** THE COOLEST COLOR BUSINESS CARDS These cards will make you proud to have a business. Create, personalize, edit, print and order a unique one of a kind business card. http://www.ebusiness-cards.com
Roadside Memorials We've all seen a descanso alongside the road - a cross, a photo, a bouquet marking the spot where a loved one has died in one of the 50,000 traffic fatalities that occur each year. Most of us avert our gaze, but the creator of Roadside Memorial.org took a long look and turned it into art. While photographing homemade shrines, the artist left notes asking to know the story, and family members responded. The 300 shrines he photographed from Ireland to Hawaii are accompanied by heartbreaking poems, notes and tales of loss from the survivors, gathered into a photo-documentary called "Hallowed Ground." Visitors with their own losses to add to the grand memorial can submit descansos and memories. http://www.roadsidememorial.org/ Bad Astronomy An astronomer and science junkie who seeks to right the wrongs of misinformation about the night skies created Bad Astronomy.com, devoted to debunking the myths and exploding the errors about astronomy and related topics that are spread by news, films, books and other media. Big-budget Hollywood movies from Signs to Armageddon get skewered - the latter dissed from the opening sequence - as does L.L. Bean's ad for "waterproof, shockproof binoculars that let you see up to 100 yards away," (much like the average human eye), even Yahoo News. In Bite-size Astronomy, find science info in easily digestible tidbits, plus best astronomy columns and a book store so you can take home recommended reading. 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 ~Spiritlight
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