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The Cool Tricks and Trinkets Newsletter #255 7/17/3 |
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Welcome to the 255th 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: - Clandestina ~~~~~ 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, http://www.a1-discount-hotels.com Visit us online or call our operators at 888-511-5743 <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
Clandestina For views of the world by international illustrators, visit Clandestina, an online illustration magazine exhibiting the works of international illustrators, where "artists in conflict" display their work in several series. Clandestina Colors offers five series by five illustrators: Portraits by a Swiss living in Zurich; Tomas Told Me by an American living in Antibes; El Barrio by a Spanish illustrator, Girls 2 by an Argentinean; and Stuff by Block Illustration of Australia. Also browse the magazine's past thirteen issues to view Clandestina Dreams and Clandestina Trips, from Sydney to Trinidad. http://www.clandestina.com/colors/ Bad Design Where did we park the car? Are we on the Dorothy, Toto, or Scarecrow level? Design should be intuitive, not just clever. Bad Designs.com is a scrapbook of illustrated examples of the confusion caused by designs that fail to consider human principles. The site is created by a usability engineer with a doctorate in cognitive psychology who knows poor design when he sees it: things that are hard to handle, like those self-service parking lot devices that require you to fold dollar bills and stuff them into a numbered slot; and things that don't fit the human anatomy, like coffee mug lids designed by someone who's forgotten about the human nose. A section on Display Design shows 17 different problems with controls, and Ambiguous Signs and Labels includes the too-cute parking structure signs based on a Wizard of Oz theme. Simply Scripts Budding screenwriters, playwrights and actors seeking audition material can link to hundreds of movie, radio, TV, stage play and musical scripts of current and classic films, TV and radio shows, anime productions and more at Simply Scripts. Read the 2001 draft script for "Training Day" or the production script for "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington" to see how scripts evolve from concept to shooting to editing to what we finally view on screen. Search by medium, title or author for such gems as a radio script of "Maxwell House Coffee Time Starring George Burns and Gracie Allen," TV scripts from "Ally McBeal" to "All My Children," and anime scripts for "Sailor Moon" and "Gatekeepers," among others. Several unproduced scripts are offered for view, plus reviews of films. SHORT TAKES Road traffic Figure out how traffic works at Microsimulation of Road Traffic, a time-continuous model in six configurations, illustrating the dynamics of lane changes, lane closing, traffic lights, uphill grades, a ring road and an on-ramp. http://vwisb7.vkw.tu-dresden.de/%7Etreiber/MicroApplet/
Flip a virtual coin at random.org, where the outcome is truly random because it is based on true random numbers generated with atmospheric noise, not pseudo random numbers commonly used in other computer programs. Select a coin, from a Colombian 500 pesos to a US quarter, then click Flip to see heads or tails. http://www.random.org/flip.html
A stubby is a small, squat bottle of beer, used by Canadian breweries between 1961 and 1986 as a sturdy and refillable replacement for the long neck beer bottle. At www.stubby.ca, the Stubby beer bottle web site, see photos of stubbys from Molson and Moosehead to Uncle Ben's and O'Keefe, which in 1983 began bottling Miller in a US-style mold bottle later used by other US breweries. Enjoy
the newsletter? Tell your friends to subscribe by sending an email to: Becoming Human Journey through the four million-year story of human evolution in a broadband documentary from the Institute of Human Origins. The documentary requires Macromedia Flash and a high speed connection to view the Evidence of how scientists discover and analyze the fossil record; Anatomy, illustrating our changing physiology; Lineage, tracing the human family tree; and Culture, examining how we understand ourselves, others and our place in the natural world. Hominid profiles describe the diet, range and habitation of the species, from the 4 million-year-old ardipithecus ramidus, a woodlands inhabitant of East Africa, to the 100,000-year-old homo sapien with a worldwide range. News and Features offers book reviews and paleo news. The Learning Center has educational activities and in-depth lesson plans developed by leading science educators, and Resources offers a glossary, media links and web sites. Run the Planet Global domination is not the theme of Run the Planet, a site about literally running the planet, from Antarctica to Zimbabwe, with 2,871 descriptions from locals on where to run and walk in 2,144 cities around the world When runners are far from home, they still must run and can find out where and how at this worldwide running community. Search where to run by clicking on the map or by typing in a city. And if Earth just isn't planet enough, see Run A Planet for descriptions on running in the final frontiers of space. With a city index, photo albums and tips on safe running, the site also offers a bookstore to buy running books and magazines on-line. The Shopping Center offers other merchandise, like free running software. Or turn aimless runs into missions with a purpose by signing up for a Run The Planet Mission, like running in all cities that have hosted the Olympics. Jokes and Science What's the difference between an auto mechanic and a quantum mechanic? The quantum mechanic can get the car inside the garage without opening the door. That's the kind of laugh that knocks 'em dead at Jokes and Science, a collection of short K-12 science jokes and quotes studded with science links, history and biographies. Sections focus on one scientist's life and scientific work, sneaking in lessons with a punch line, like this stand-up routine on Einstein's theory of relativity: "Two hairs in my milk is too much. Two hairs on my head is too less." The stars of the show are Darwin, Einstein, Archimedes, Mendel, Newton, Babbage, Dolly the cloned sheep, space explorers and dinosaurs. The scientific topics are biology, physics, genetics, cloning, math, chemistry, computer sciences, earth sciences and space. The theory: First, get those kids laughing; then get them learning. http://www.juliantrubin.com/sciencejokes.html
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Volunteer with a Friend Everything is more fun with a friend. So mentor a child, help local law enforcement, create a local recycling program or deliver meals to the homebound with a pal. Volunteerism just feels good, and there's strength in numbers. Volunteerfriends.org is looking for 100,000 new volunteers age 55 and over to help make a difference in their local communities. Share your volunteer spirit with your friends and neighbors using the site's online tools to send a friend an e-mail or an e-card or to print a flier to ask others to volunteer with you or find a way to use their own skills and interests for the common good. The site is part of Ask a Friend, a nationwide campaign developed by Senior Corps to tap the talents of volunteers over 55. With profiles of current volunteers, Volunteer Facts like people who volunteer live longer, healthier lives, and Fast Match to link via your zip code to volunteer opportunities nearby. http://www.volunteerfriends.org/ Into the Volcano Pascal Blonde is a computer engineer, a native of the Alsace region near the German/Swiss border, whose hobby is traveling on volcanoes. At Pascal Blonde, he shares photos of himself atop, inside and around volcanoes over the past decade around the world, from Pu'u O'o in Hawaii to Ili Api in Indonesia. With links to other volcano web pages and plenty of photos, Pascal also offers a Volcano Quiz to test your knowledge about volcanoes around the world, a slide show of the Vosges Mountains, pointers to traveling the Alsace region, and links to books and CDs he enjoys and to Dumont d'Urville, the French research station in Antarctic where he spent a year in 1983. http://opdaf1.obspm.fr/~pascal/pblonde_a.html
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 ~MsE's Notes - Homework, Help and Study Guides. ~Coffee Swirls - Your escape from the Daily Grind. ~Switch Brands, Save Lives, Make Money ~Dr. Labush's Links To Learning
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